Sunday, September 19
A total of ten of us went to a park in Montreal on a picture-perfect day with clear blue skies. Three stayed at a picnic table to play and sing messianic music. Three teams of two or three members began distributing our Book of Life pamphlets. Here is the report from the first team:
We began by distributing three Book of Life tracts in the park. We offered one to a Jewish man who reacted by calling us blasphemous Christians and said we should leave the park. He then spoke to a security guard who was just entering the park in his car. So, we sat at a park bench and after a while discretely called another team on the phone. Then we proceeded on to a nearby grocery store. By His grace, no other teams were bothered by the authorities.
We distributed about 40 tracts and five sets of Scriptures there. The only opposition was a man who after accepting and reading the tract, then ripped it up in front of us and threw it to the ground. We picked up all the pieces.
Toward the end of our time there, we encountered M., a young Jewish man wearing tzitzit (fringes) and his wife. He asked us which God our tract was talking about before accepting it. We responded, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” We went on to explain that our tract quoted the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings – the Tanakh. We asked him if he had one, which he didn’t. So, we offered him a full set. He then asked us for more sets for his friends. We asked if he was really serious about the Scriptures, since our gifts were precious. Immediately his wife exclaimed that he was genuinely interested and loved studying. So, we gave them another two sets in English and one in French.
We met a young Portuguese speaking couple, M. and D., who gladly accepted our tract. They too did not have a Tanakh so we offered them a full English Set. We gave them a bookmark explaining that these specific prophecies pointed to the Jewish Messiah. We said that Leviticus 17:11 spoke of the necessity of blood atonement and that Isaiah 53 mentioned that God’s Suffering Servant could cover our sins by His stripes and make us righteous before God. We ourselves could not do that because of our sin nature.
We also encountered a computer science professor who thought that all religions were okay and objected that we were forcing our beliefs on him. We totally agreed with him, saying we were sharing the love of God as found in the Hebrew Scriptures. Each individual needs to decide for themself. We eventually stated that it was simple to find out what was true and what was false. We said we would reject the writings of those like Joseph Smith or Mohammed who were not Jewish and chose instead the Jewish writers of the Brit Chadeshah. We left him with a tract, since he had to move on with his groceries.
Here is the report from the second team:
We gave out four pamphlets, a leaflet on Isaiah 53, a bookmark, a Brit Chadashah in Hebrew only, and a full English set.
We had a long conversation with two Jewish women from Russia, L. and R. who explained how they were hindered from practicing Judaism when they lived there. Still, one of them knew some conversational Hebrew and accepted an all-Hebrew New Testament. At first, we didn’t have full sets with us, so we went to get another team member who did. Before we were interrupted, we were able to go over the first seven verses of Isaiah 53, which caused them to ask who the “arm of the Lord” was. Comparing it to the way Israel was redeemed from Egypt, by God’s “outstretched arm”, we said it was God in action, offering salvation. We said they need to decide for themselves the identity of the rejected One who took their iniquities upon Himself. One of the women accepted a full set in English.
Then the husband of one of the ladies called to say he was there to pick them up. We left them with the address of Beth Ariel because they were open to the idea of a Messianic congregation, and glad to know they could hear the message with a simultaneous Russian translation during the service. Not wanting to give us a place and time when we could meet them to give them full sets in Russian, they told us to come back to the park to look for them there. May the Lord cause that divine appointment to happen!
We also spoke to two Jewish men who said God wasn’t real. We said one of the ways we know God exists is because of fulfilled prophecies. For instance, as prophesied, Israel became a nation again. It happened on May 14, 1948, which was the exact same day one of the men was born!
They thought they were living good enough lives to be considered honorable citizens and had no concerns about ever meeting a non-existent God one day. They didn’t believe in sin. We warned them that there would be a one-world government and spoke of the anti-Christ and the false prophet. We said that if they live long enough to see this happening, they should remember having met us and what we said.
Here is the report from the third team, in which two of the members were out for the first time, with one staying slightly behind to observe and pray.
We met two older Jewish ladies who were having lunch together for the first-time since the onset of COVID. One of them asked if we were Messianic, to which we said we were. They received the Book of Life tracts and did not push back upon hearing what we represented. We chatted for a little while before they reminded us that their time together was short and precious. When we parted, one of them even said, “God bless you!”
We chatted with a couple of friendly Jewish ladies who were walking their dog and received the Book of Life tracts. In all, we gave out seven pamphlets, needing to be discreet because of the authorities present in the park.
We thank you for your prayers for these precious seeds which were sown as we go out into the harvest during Sukkot, the festival of the fall harvest, the feast of Tabernacles! Chag Sameach!