Montreal, Sunday August 15
Two teams went out to the parks. Here is the report from the first team:
Not many people were out today, but praise the Lord we were able to have some great conversations!
A Jewish man was leaving the park as we were arriving. He gladly accepted an anti-Semitism pamphlet. We couldn’t really converse with him since he had to leave quickly.
A Sephardic Jewish man was speaking with his dad on the phone who was back in Israel. He accepted our anti-Semitism pamphlet and asked us to come speak with him after his call. After he hung up, we conversed with him for an hour. To our astonishment he was interested in the topic of the Jewish Messiah. We shared many messianic prophecies with him, so much so that we even apologized, but he insisted on us continuing because he was enjoying it and wanted to hear all we had to say! We couldn’t believe our ears. When we left, we gave him our phone number so we could meet again. He accepted a set of Scriptures and all the literature we gave him. Please pray for S. and that he would call us soon, as we are leaving next month to go back to Calgary, Alberta.
After lunch we decided to head out to another park. On our way over there, we noticed an outdoor gathering at a Jewish community building. We parked the car and were treated to an afternoon of beautiful Jewish singing and music. Afterwards we spoke with a Jewish lady who asked about where our interest of Jewish music came from. A team member knew some of the songs like the one from Psalm 121. When the woman heard our team member had attended Beth Ariel Congregation for over 20 years, she asked her if she was a convert to Judaism. She said no but that she believed Yeshua was the Jewish Messiah! Mrs. C. mentioned that when she was young, she attended a protestant high school where she had to recite the Lord’s prayer! We asked if she had a Tanakh. She took it but declined the Brit Chadashah.
We also met with some of those taking part in the concert.
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A second team went out early in the afternoon. Here is their report:
We approached three Jewish ladies in a parking lot and let them know about our support for Israel and our concern for rising anti-Semitism. They thanked us, but when we offered the Bible set they said they didn’t believe in the Scriptures, nor were they interested in knowing anything about them.
We met a young man in his mid 20’s and asked if he knew about the Messiah Yeshua and His payment for our sins. He said he’d heard about Him but didn’t think about sin because he is living in a society where no one worries about that. We asked him if he had any concerns about his afterlife, but he said that he did not want to think about it, because there were so many questions in this world that he was just not interested in finding the answers. When we offered him the Isaiah 53 leaflet and the Book of Life literature, he accepted them and said he would read them.
We also met a Filipino lady with whom we spoke about the forgiveness of sins and other themes about salvation. We asked her if she knew where she would spend eternity, but her response was that she was a good person, so she was okay. We told her that those things are very important for living harmoniously in society, but that the soul is eternal and if her sins are not forgiven, she would not be going to heaven. She replied that she did not believe any of that. We ended our conversation, wishing her well.
We met a Jewish couple who were watching their kids playing. We told them we were there to show our support for Israel and shared our concerns about rising anti-Semitism. They were grateful but when we asked if they would recognize the Messiah when He comes, they said probably not. Then we gave them the Isaiah 53 leaflet and asked them to read it, saying that in there, they would see more about Him. They also received the anti-Semitism pamphlet.
We met two young ladies in their 20s. The Jewish one accepted the anti-Semitism pamphlet and the Filipino one accepted the Book of Life pamphlet. They promised to read them.
We started a conversation with a Jewish lady, letting her know our support for Israel. She was very thankful for that. When we offered her the Isaiah 53 and the anti-Semitism literature, she looked at them but gave them back right away. Only a few seconds later, another Jewish lady came over to see the literature we were offering. When our team member told her that it was about the rise of anti-Semitism, she said, “Yes! Yes! I want it!” Her son was pushing her to leave, so we were only able to speak with her for a short time.
After the park outreach, we stopped at a pharmacy to pick up an item. While waiting in line at the cash register, we began to speak with a Turkish man behind us. The father of one of the team members is from Morocco, so we spoke about current events. After exiting, we felt led to offer him literature, so we waited outside for him to leave, too. He agreed that anti-Semitism was a worsening problem and took our pamphlet about it. He also accepted a Bible from us and to our surprise, told us that he and especially his wife listened to our daily radio show, Shalom Ariel! He readily acknowledged seeing the Lord’s hand at work in how he met up with us. We made sure he knew they were always welcome to visit us at Beth Ariel.
Others we met today were not interested, but we praise our Lord and Savior Yeshua Ha Mashiach because of those who received His precious Word!
Overall, we gave out 6 leaflets and one set of Hebrew Scriptures in French, as well as the Bible to the man from Turkey.