Into Edinburgh....
It was a fresh, sunny, autumn morning and a great opportunity to do evangelism on the streets in Edinburgh. God blessed me with a great morning of outreach. It began before I could even get into Edinburgh. The bus stop from our village is about a 10 minute walk. I offered a ride to a new neighbour and he actually rode with me a few miles away to a Park and Ride. We had a good discussion on our way there. It was nice to meet him.
Near Waverley Train Station I engaged a 30 year old man in conversation and he was very happy to talk. He believes God's Word is good for society, but said that he does not believe in God. About 15 minutes into our conversation, I said, "I don't want to make you miss your transportation." He said, "I'm waiting on my train but have another 20 minutes." We used all of that time and had a great talk. Please pray for Joshua to visit our church. If that was the only reason I was in Edinburgh this morning, that would have been enough.
I met a 35 year old man from Hong Kong. I invited him to visit our church. He is new to Scotland and I wouldn't be surprised to see him come. He was very grateful for the invite. (I told him he could join our family for a meal if he came on a Sunday morning.)
Another favourite opportunity this morning was with a young muslim girl (16). She is attending college. We had a great conversation about judicial forgiveness. (Islam teaches that if you say sorry, you are forgiven. However, there is no justice as the sin was never paid for by anyone. Jesus death made judicial forgiveness possible.) This young lady asked if it would be ok for her to wear her hijab at our church. I told her that it would be completely fine. She also put my wife's contact details in her phone. Please pray that she will come.
The last opportunity was random. A college age young man refused the tract saying he was Catholic. (He is from California.) I said, "This is just Bible truth" and we started talking. He began with, "There is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church." I responded that there is no salvation outside of Jesus. He was very antagonistic but the Spirit of God gave some great moments in our conversation. Such as the two times he walked away but came back. I said, "Peter was married." He got upset and started to walk away until I said, "Jesus healed his mother in law." I also pointed out that if Peter was in Rome Paul would have greet him in the book of Romans in Chapter 16. If ommitted it would be a surprising ommission indeed. The second time he walked a long ways away was when I said, "Baptism does not save." I had to yell after him, "The thief on the cross." He came back and I said, "He repented and put his faith in Jesus. He was a thief (bad man) and he wasn't baptised." (Please pray that God will awaken the heart of this young man.) The Apostle Paul would have been more fiery than him, but God had a plan for Paul's life.
Thanks for praying for our outreach. God was definitely guiding in the conversations and opportunities - praise His name.