Friday, May 29, 2009

Team Newcastle West
When Aomen lost his job today, Jewel Hobbs met him with warm word and a Christian magazine. She was with the team in Limerick this afternoon. She told him about the article on the economic downturn and it led to an opportunity to share the entire gospel. His eyes shaded by sunglasses, he was wiping his eyes before she finished.

“It was God’s perfect timing,” said Jewel, who had six solid conversations this afternoon in the city’s shopping plaza where the team set up a paint board to preach the gospel and hand out tracts and magazines.

One man, working as the mime in the square, told her his mother handed out tracts about Jesus too, but he didn’t believe. Two young boys wanted nothing to do with God, though they were raised by Baptist parents who encouraged them to walk in the way. But they and several others listened to her share the gospel.

Near the end of the day, Jewel was picking up discarded tracts when she came across Dave. He asked her many questions, such as “How do I know that this is the Bible I can believe?” She presented the gospel to him. At the end of their conversation he said to her, “so what you’re saying is God sent his Son to die for our sins and if we place our trust in the work of Jesus Christ then we can be forgiven for doing anything?” She ended up handing him all the literature she had just collected from the ground. He said he would read it tonight. “I said, it’s a lot of literature I’ve given you, but he said, no I’m going to read it all.”

Our hearts are cheered as we near the end of our time in Newcastle West. We leave on Monday. Amy Deligdisch, who leads our kids clubs, noticed a change in the answers of one young girl named Erica who came every day. Amy asked how we can know we will go to heaven. On the first day, Erica said, “sacraments and prayer.” On the last day, she said “believe in Jesus.

Tomorrow is our day off. We will head to a beach and enjoy some sun and rest.