Wednesday, May 20, 2009

By now, we’ve all more or less adjusted to the fact that you don’t leave the building without an umbrella or at least a rain jacket. But having the sea on our doorstep more than makes up for the fickle weather.

We’ve yet to get right down to any active evangelism and are still learning the ropes, so-to-speak. One of the organizers and teachers here, Jim Van Dine, gave us some guidelines this morning on effective ways to witness. Steering us to the gospel of John, he suggested using the approach of that particular book in presenting the gospel on the doors. The word “believe” occurs in John 98 times. It clearly presents who Jesus Christ is and the gift of salvation He freely gives to those who receive it. “Jesus offers eternal life as a gift … Lead off with that,” he said, suggesting that even if someone cuts you off before you can finish, you still leave them with the most important idea.

He suggested steering away at least initially from anything the person has to do, and focusing on what Christ has done.

He also talked about avoiding what can be misleading or confusing terminology, such as “inviting Christ into your heart.”

In the afternoon, we had a group picture taken by Ron Hampton’s photographer son-in-law Jeremy, who is here visiting with his wife Meagan. We also continued with some labeling we started yesterday. There are 25,000 gospel magazines in all that need contact information labels on them. They will be used for distribution in counties Dublin, Waterford, Kilkenny and Limerick.

Three of our team members, Child Evangelism Fellowship veterans, ran through the Five-Day Club program from the CEF. The TnT team will be involved in child evangelism as part of this trip. We were taught the general format – memory verse, songs, Bible lesson etc. – and how to make it engaging for children.

Frank and Grace Carolan, who are native Irish and local missionaries in the Republic of Ireland, joined us for dinner and shared their testimonies. Grace shared how dire it was for her to leave her family’s Catholic faith around 20 years ago when she became a believer. Her father said he disowned her as his daughter.

Tomorrow, we go door-to-door.