Since the Feast of Hanukkah starts next week, followed by the Christmas holidays, tonight was our last sortie of the year 2015! The bottom line is that this year was a very good year, spiritually speaking. We obviously decided to continue in the same apartment building as before, but tonight, the door opened right away! A person arrived and opened the door right when we arrived at the site, so we were able to go inside the building right away! Praise the Lord. So, the door opened fast and we can say in the same spirit that so did many people who received the Scriptures tonight! Actually, a total of 8 sets were given out. We are eternally grateful to God to be able to share these precious moments of His love for His People! Although a lot of people were not home, those who were there were very open! It’s true that in December and at the end of spring, a lot of people are not home.
Danielle and I did 3 floors in the building. It went very fast because nobody was there! So many people weren’t home that we didn’t even experience a single refusal! However, at two places, men accepted a set from us. Although they seemed to be in a hurry, they demonstrated joy at receiving the Scriptures and that was a great blessing. So Danielle and I met only 2 people, but both of them took a set and we surely thank God once again for that!
For Catherine and Tina, it was a little bit busier. First of all, a woman in her late 70?s opened the door. Since she was on the phone, the group presented her with the Scriptures and she accepted them with joy! Then, the woman showed them some Jewish religious books about Passover and Hanukah, adding that she had just bought them. The team encouraged her by saying, “Read the Scriptures too! After all, it is the Word of life!” Then the lady replied by saying, “I have to buy new glasses because I cannot read with these.” The team warmly encouraged her to go buy new glasses as soon as possible so she could start to read and enjoy the Scriptures.
The second door they knocked on was half open. Since the man was about to leave, they offered him a set. He was very happy to receive it! Should we praise the Lord again? Absolutely!
At another place, a woman didn’t want to open her door, but through the door, she asked them what they wanted. They introduced themselves, and said they had a gift for her: the Hebrew Scriptures. She responded by saying that she couldn’t open the door. They asked her if they could leave the Scriptures at the door, and she accepted! Halleluiah!
Later on in the evening, the team had a wonderful encounter. A man in his 60?s was wearing a kippah and a football T-shirt. He listened to the team speak about the Scriptures, but kept interrupting, urging them to go on and on and be brief, saying, “Yeah, so…so …so? When they showed him the Old Testament, he said, “This I have.”, and kept asking them short questions like them how they got into the building, who the Bible was from, etc… Finally, when it came to the New Testament, he took it, opened it, and when he saw the Hebrew and English writing, he suddenly stopped asking questions and took it right away! Both surprised and happy, the team wished him a happy Hanukah and also said to enjoy the football game! To that, the man responded by saying that the football game was not important, but that the Word of God was precious. From the way he was talking, Catherine and Tina said they could see that he really treasured the Word and so they responded “amen” when leaving. How their hearts were quietly rejoicing!
Later on, a man in his 60’s looked at a set, flipped the pages, and took it. They explained that there was a bookmark with some of the prophecies regarding the Messiah and that if he read the New Testament, he would see the fulfillment of those prophecies.
After that, a woman who saw the New Testament replied: “It is not for us.” and refused to take it.
At another place, a man opened the door, and when they offered him the set, he asked them to wait a minute. Then his wife came and asked where the group was from. When she saw the New Testament, she said, “That is not for us!” Catherine and Tina told her that it was a Jewish book and that she would see the fulfillment of the Messiah regarding his First Coming in the New Testament. They also encouraged her to read Isaiah 53! She hesitated, and then decided to take it. Praise God!!!
At the end, another interesting discussion took place. A man opened his door while on the phone. He said he already had the Scriptures and went to synagogue. The group warned him not to mistake the Word of God with the word of men. In response to that, he asked the team if they were Jewish. When Catherine answered that she was, he asked Tina what she believed and she responded that she believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. During the conversation, Tina and Catherine suggested he read Isaiah 53. He started to read part of it right away and do you know what his conclusion was? He said, “This is Jesus!” The team explained to him that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and reminded him that he was reading from the Old Testament! They added that many Jewish people believed at the time of Jesus but then, wrong religious thinking arose here and there and the Jewish people were cast away. The man refused to take the set but the group felt led to tell him that God had said: My people are perishing because of lack of knowledge. The man asked them why they were doing all of this so they told him how they have been so blessed and how much they love God and Yeshua! They added, ”We are doing this for God and for the Kingdom of God!” Then, the man blessed them as they left.
We must ask you again for your precious prayers for all these people, as well as for us and for Valerie and her outreach team in Calgary. May the Lord use you all for the salvation and the sanctification of as many people as possible. We also pray that you can enjoy some rest during the Christmas vacation. We’ll be back on the streets in the middle of January 2016, by the grace of God!