Book Table Ministry!

All right guys!! IMM BACK. (It’s Natalie) So today was the day of book tables. (Though we will also be doing the tables on Thursday).  We started by getting some basic training for how to talk   More nervous for how well I was going to be able to talk with others. I know, right? Natalie not comfortable with talking?? Just kidding, I’m sure you all know this is a little different then normal. On the bus ride down some of us had a conversation about how much we really needed to have faith that the conversations we had, or didn’t have, were all in God’s hands. It was what he wanted to happen. I forgot to mention that during the training, Barry talked about the Lord’s prayer and the ways in which we should apply it to what we are doing. How followers of Jesus should use those words in our life. “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven” Going into it, I really had to keep that in mind.
with people. Barry taught us some stuff and we all sat in a stuffy little store (New Life Masih Ghar’s thrift store) and prayed together. I’m not going to lie, I was definitely slightly nervous about what I would encounter while we were out there.

All right guys!! IMM MICAH. (It’s Micah) I wanted to talk about my book table experience.  I was rather nervous because I’m not the most comfortable with strangers, but the experience was very eye-opening.  I started by handing out pamphlets that gave basic information about Christ. (That He became man to die and suffer for our sins) There was another man there with a seemingly Russian accent (Don’t hold me to that because nearly everyone has different dialects here) handing out booklets with Bible verses on them. It was so neat to see.

          

  I got a lot of little kids taking pamphlets from me. One little girl came up to me after her parents had passed and asked for one, and a kid walking all alone took one from me and started reading it. Another neat thing that happened was that an Iranian man came out of the church we were standing in front of.  We had a good talk about Christianity together. Later I switched roles and stood at the table with all of the books on it.  Finally a British person came along and walked straight up to the table. He was very open to everything we had to say. He said he’d been trying different religions and forms of meditation and that he knew about Jesus. I’ve never seen anything like that before. He was really nice to us, although he accused us of hating homosexual people. There is a stereotype that Christians hate homosexuals, but not all do. That mindset is completely against what Christians stand for.  We should share our love with homosexuals because God loves them.  This is how we responded to this point. Talking to these people about God was a great experience. It’s cool to see what God is doing around the world. Thanks for reading. Drive safe.

I handed a Sikh a pamphlet and I watched him walk away looking at the paper.  All of a sudden, he stopped walking and I thought he was going to turn around to come talk to me about it, but instead he sat down on a bench and pulled out his glasses. He read the paper, nodding his head as he was reading it, and when he finished, he looked up at me, smiled, gave me a thumbs up, and said “I agree.” 

–Allayna  (He is pictured in the lower left hand corner of the picture to the right)

Today while handing out literature at the book table we met a gentleman that accepted our invitation to church tonight and the dinner that followed.  True to his agreement he was at church tonight and shared a table with Barry for the dinner afterwards.

Today I also met a guitar-playing musician.  The second time he walked by my table I noticed he was humming and I commented to him that he seemed to have a song on his heart.  We proceeded to have a discussion on the music in the Psalms as well as the movement from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant as he began discussing the chaos of today's world.  I reminded him of the need for laws and rules in the Old Testament and how through Christ's death on the cross we are free.

Mark L.

Today while I was handing out pamphlets with the Lord's Prayer written on them I got into a long conversation with three Jehovah's Witnesses. I went to hand them my literature as she was handing me theirs.  The three women tried to show me verses from their bible to prove their way. I responded by stating what I believe, that you can only get to heaven through faith in Christ. I called over Brett to end the conversation because it was just moving in a circle. 

--Andy M.