Montreal
In all, over a four-day period of outreach during the week before Christmas, the teams gave out a total of 780 Christmas tracts on the Jewish roots and nature of the incarnation of Messiah. French speakers received around 25 pamphlets on anti-Semitism since the one for Christmas was in English only. Except for one day downtown, we intentionally stayed in relatively anglophone areas of the island, ones with high foot traffic so that we might connect with many of the shoppers. On occasion we encountered someone Jewish, but the vast majority of those we met were Gentile. People usually returned our greeting of “Happy Holidays!” with thanks or wishes of their own.
During the first couple of days, we immediately offered people a gift of the Scriptures, a paperback bible in English or French. We gave out so many – nine English and five French in just 90 minutes – that we decided it was better to reserve them for those truly interested and with whom we had struck up a conversation.
This report comes from the team who went to downtown Montreal:
An Arab man from Morocco listened to us speak about the problem of sin and how Jesus was God who went to the cross to pay the penalty for it. We spoke about growing anti-Semitism and several other subjects. We showed him how to log onto Beth Ariel’s website. He already had a bible at home. An Italian woman enthusiastically accepted a bible from us. Many tracts were given out.
Here are some wonderful encounters we had back at the shopping mall: We met a young man in front of a store who was already engaged in witnessing to an older lady. After one of us joined in for a while, the lady left, and we realized afterwards how God had truly orchestrated the meeting with this man. He was from Alberta, and in Montreal for a month. He had been hoping to find a way to witness to some new religious Jewish tenants living in the house he had just rented to them. He was delighted to learn about the ministry, the congregation, the radio, the internet programming, and our literature. He bought the book Jesus was a Jew, which he hoped the tenants would eventually read. He also took an English-Hebrew set to give to them, as well as all the various free literature we had. He may be moving back to Montreal soon, and if so, we may be seeing him again!
A man from the West Indies told us that the only bible he had at present was a borrowed one. Before moving to Canada, he had given away his personal bible to someone. Tearfully, he told us the large print English bible we gave him was the best Christmas present he had ever received.
In a mall parking lot, we encountered a young Francophone Jewish man with two of his friends. They declined the Christmas pamphlet, but then we mentioned that it spoke of the Jewishness of the holiday, pointing to the menorah on the front and the subject of anti-Semitism on the inside. We gave him a pamphlet on anti-Semitism in French. Intrigued, the 19-year-old listened as we spoke about Isaiah 53 revealing the Messiah. He took a Brit Chadeshah from us, as well as a prophecy bookmark and the Isaiah 53 leaflet. Once at his car, he told his friends that someone “had given him a bible.” We quickly explained that he only had part of it, since with the Tanakh, it comprises one single book. It was so very exciting to have been able to connect with S.
Two bibles were given to Muslims during the week and three to Chinese individuals who had no bible. One of the bibles was given to M., an Iranian woman, who said she was a traditional Moslem. She explained that she was searching for something else, having already visited churches three or four times. We told her how only God through Jesus could give her real peace. She was thrilled to receive the Scriptures in English and she also let us pray for her.
We also met an Argentinian believer whose parents both had Jewish ancestry but had changed their names to hide their identities while in South America. She does not attend church, so we told her about Beth Ariel.
We spoke with a Francophone Berber Muslim who was concerned about anti-Semitism and who took a tract from us. A Turkish Muslim woman initially took a bible, but then gave it back when her friend caught up to her.
We are continuing to give out the Christmas pamphlet this week, so please pray for there to be fruit from the scattering of the seed. We truly appreciate your prayer for the coming weeks as we seek the Lord’s direction for how to continue in the winter months. We sometimes got pretty cold after being out in the elements, but there was fire in our spirit as we held out the Word of Life to those who would listen.
Wishing you a most blessed start to 2022 in His shalom. Shalom to all!