It's not the end, but a new beginning

This past week the members of the 2011 TNT Team began to head home. It was sad for all of us, and many didn’t want to go. We were all amazed at how quickly 3 weeks went. We know that God brought us all together to accomplish something that no other group of people could do. We learned from each other and grew together. Even though we were together for a short time, we became a family. On our last night together, the team shared with the Shankill Assembly about our experiences in Ireland and how the Lord worked through our short time here. Trinity, Noelle, and Heidi are staying longer to continue serving the Lord and the Shankill Assembly. Trinity and Noelle will be leaving at the end of June and Heidi will remain in Ireland until the end of August. Pray that the Lord will use them in the next few weeks and months to continue His work. They will continue to do door to door work and will be going out into the community to meet others from around the area. We hope to talk to teens and kids in particular as we are hoping to expand the youth group that meets on Monday nights. During her stay, Heidi wants to focus on meeting and talking with youth, as she is hoping to build relationships with them. Pray for Heidi and for the Lord to lead her to people so she can build relationships and hopefully lead them to Christ. Please pray for the girls as they do door to door ministry as well.

Team members talk to passers by and distribute 4YOU magazines.

On North Earl St, Dublin

Team member Elisa is the music teacher at Emmaus Bible College and put together a singing group that was used to encourage Christians and reach out to people on the street across Ireland.

Last Day

Yesterday, Regina and I knocked on doors for about two hours in a nearby neighbourhood. We had a few interesting conversations, but the most encouraging one was with a young woman named Katrina. We asked her if she had a Bible, and she said that she did not, but she has been reading some online. She’s searching for answers, because she is not satisfied with just hearing what people in the Catholic church say. We gave her a New Testament and briefly shared the Gospel with her. I John 5:13 was helpful to let her know that she can have assurance of salvation. We encouraged her to read the book of John, and she may be open to someone coming back at a later date to talk with her more.

Please pray for Katrina and also Megan, a girl I talked to today in downtown Dublin during our outreach on the streets. Megan listened pretty attentively, and she said she might try reading the Bible for herself. I was also excited to meet two Christians on the street. One guy was handing out tracts himself, and we were able to encourage each other.

Elisa

Today as we went out to do some street ministry in downtown Dublin I met a man named Owen who is an atheist. It was an interesting conversation. I enjoyed talking to him and being challenged to go and study the bible further. He wanted a lot of evidence and he asked me to prove that God exists and to explain a ‘real’ reason as to why I believe what I believe. But I couldn’t convince him with anything I said. I just pray that God works in his heart and takes some things that we talked about and really ponders some things. We talked for about 30-40 minutes until he left in a hurry. About 10 minutes later he came back. That was really a great sign because it meant that our earlier conversation was effective in some way. At that time, it didn’t seem like he was thinking with a new mindset, but God truly is amazing and nothing is impossible with Him. I really believe that He’ll use our conversation to lead him to Himself. Just keep him in your prayers too please. Thanks!

Trinity

Encouraging Stories

During our last day of door to door work in Waterford, Heidi and I paired up, and the Lord led us to two doors in particular. After about five doors we came to the home of a man named Patrick. We told him that we had distributed magazines a few days earlier and asked if he had received it and had a chance to look at it. He looked at us intently, smiled and said “Yes, it was brilliant!” His response was such a contrast to many of the responses we had heard earlier that day.

He then asked us if we would like to come in. Upon entering his home Heidi and I quickly learned that Patrick was a widower and had lost his wife to cancer nearly 4 years ago. He then shared with us that after reading the magazine he was inspired to go through some of his wife’s clothes and donate them to charity. He was really struggling with his decision and kept asking us if we thought he’d made the right decision.

He then continued to share about his wife and how hard it had been the last few years without her. We could see how broken this man was and Heidi and I really wanted to present him with a message of hope. We were able to share the Gospel with Patrick. He asked us questions, and we sat and talked with him for nearly an hour. He was really open to what we had to say, and we could tell that he really enjoyed the company. We left Patrick with words of hope, as well as the New Testament. Upon leaving he gave each of us a hug.

Please continue to pray for Patrick and his salvation. He is such a sweet man who has been struggling for nearly four years after the passing of his wife.

Shortly after our encounter with Patrick the Lord brought us to the home of a young man named Ronnie. He is a student preparing to take his leaving exams. We asked him some questions, and he was really open to talking with us. He shared with us that he didn’t really know where he stood when it came to religion or a relationship with Christ. He had heard the Gospel a few different times in various stages of his life. He also shared with us that he and his friends had been talking about Jesus and had watched the Passion of the Christ just a few weeks previously. He was a very polite, intelligent man. He listened to what we had to say and kept asking us some really hard questions. For nearly two hours we stood there talking to him, we were able to answer his questions with answers straight from the Bible. You could tell the longer we talked with him the more open he was becoming to what we were saying. We could just see that God was working on his heart.

We left Ronnie with a copy of the New Testament, and hopefully some answers. Pray for Ronnie and his salvation. You can see that he is genuinely interested in finding truth.

TIME FLIES!

Back in Dublin!
And what a wonderful feeling it is. No more bed bugs or shower issues.
The team trip is quickly coming to an end unfortunately. Team leader Tim, or, in Jordan's case "papa Tim" has already headed home on Friday morning. We all miss him dearly.

Already we've continued delivering magaizines from when we first began the trip in the beginning of May. Lots of walking. The weather here has been spectacular. Apparently it's unusual that it gets this warm at this time of the year. Compared to our weather in both Newcastle West and Tramor, it's been really nice here.

The church is having a retreat this weekend for the long weekend. Many of the church members are here enjoying the fellowship and warm weather. We've (as in the team) have been helping out with setup for meals and cleanup and such. Helping out in any way we can. Our meetings or "sessions" have been grand. Ron has been leading the meetings in a devotion type setting about the book of Acts. By devotion, I mean that everyone is listening but can feel free to speak thoughts on certain things. It's a really great way to get involved and all bounce off each others' thoughts.

So far it feels like this trip has been going way too fast. But I guess that's why they say "time flies when you're having fun"

Trin and Stef.