Montreal October 3
One team went out on this cool and damp Sunday, with the lingering atmosphere of the Jewish holidays still in the air, although the biblical celebrations were over. In all, we gave out 18 Book of Life pamphlets as we wished people “Chag Sameach – a little late!”
We began in a park, where we immediately noticed a great decrease in the number of cars in the parking lot. The baseball season appears to be over. We encountered only a few individuals as we covered all the paths encircling and dividing the area.
Hearing a couple of ladies speaking in Russian, we offered them a Tanakh in that language. One of them said she already had one, so we continued on. We have started carrying a set with us since we meet more Russian speakers there.
We conversed a good length of time with a young man taking a walk who accepted our pamphlet. He had a Hebrew name, was wearing a kippah, but didn’t seem to be Jewish in his way of speaking. He said he had messianic friends and believed in Yeshua, although it didn’t seem to be a personal faith. He acknowledged a belief in re-incarnation and didn’t seem to hold to any single religion. He said he’d look us up on the internet. We made sure he knew he was welcome to visit Beth Ariel as he pocketed our pamphlet.
After covering the park and seeing more people were not coming in, we went to a nearby shopping area where we gave out most of our literature. Nearly half the men we saw were religious and wearing kippot, many also wearing fringes, accompanied by women in long dresses and wigs. A middle-aged woman immediately asked if we were messianic when we said we attended Beth Ariel. She said she was not and that we shouldn’t be giving out our literature there. Another woman summed up their attitude very well saying, “I don’t need anything you have.” Indeed, this is sadly what they believe. Knowing they usually refuse anything we offer, we extended our arms with pamphlets to those Jewish people who were less religious. Around half of them held out their hand to receive what we were offering, which was encouraging. Quite a few smiled and said, “It’s not so late. Chag Sameach!”
We saw a Hispanic woman enter the parking lot with her beautiful toddler daughter. We struck up a conversation and learned the little girl’s name was Hannah. It was easy to point out that it was a biblical name meaning “grace” and we asked if she knew the story or would like to read it. She was excited by the opportunity, so we took an all-English paperback Bible out of our bag and offered it to her as a gift. Wanting to mark the story for her, we opened the Bible and its pages fell directly on 1 Samuel 1 with the story of Hannah! She was quite happy to receive it, and we pray she is drawn to read more of the book.
A man who was begging at the entrance to the store received a gospel of John and said he would ask someone to read it to him since he didn’t read well. He seemed very sincere and was happy to have it.
Both in the park and at the store, different ones told us they already had seen our brochure and walked past us. One person commented that he had seen us in a different park before. It appears more people are cognizant of messianic believers than we have met in previous years.
Thank you so much for your continuing prayer for this outreach as we get into the autumn season. It is the Spirit who must open hearts and prepare those we meet, so our petitions really do make a difference.