(no subject)
I cried in church today.
First, the speaker today was a superintendnet of missions in Europe. He shared three stories.
The first story was about a church in Norway I think. The pastor was praying and God comes to him and says that He wants to have revival. The pastor wrestles with the work and the change that revival will bring. Couple weeks later, he comes to he Lord and says that he does want a revival. He prayes, preaches his message.
Nothing.
Next week, he prays, preaches his message.
Nothing.
His son walks by a refugee camp where Muslims are; it's a halfway point between where they came from and where they're going (lost the details). The son goes in and sees how things are and asks his dad if they can open the church one night and feed the refugees a good hot meal. Dad says no problem.
300 refugees comes, and the pastor invites them to the service on sunday.
All 300 come. The pastor preaches, and offers an altar call.
150 hands go up. He repeats, just to make sure.
150 hands go up.
This has gone on and repeated itself for thousands of people.
Second story:
An American in an Albanian speaking country was standing in line a grocery store. A man behind him was surprised to hear an American speaking Albanian
if you speak three languages, you're tri-lingual if you speak two languages you're bi-lingual if you speak one language you're AMERICAN
So anyway, the man behind the american was a DJ of a radio station in this country. The speaker had told us that there were less than 100 believes in this country (I want to say it was Kosovo, but my geography is as bad as any other American).
The DJ asked the American on his show, because it's not often an American speaks Albanian. When the American was on, another guy who knew him called in, and asked him if Jesus is the only mediator between God and Man. The American on the radio talk show proceeded to go down Roman's Road for the entire listening area of the radio station, which was 60% of the country's population.
Third story.
A man in france made a website with the gospel message on it, and they click a button when they pray the salvation prayer.
When they do so, it logs their IP address, and while the service was going on, they had the website up. The website was running google earth and everytime someone clicked that they had prayed the prayer, it zoomed to their location.
At least ten people, probably more, accepted the Lord during the time the web server was up there.
The speaker also told us that the pastor who made this site partnered with another organization to follow up and try correspond with each and every one of these people so they can be discipled.
Seeing everything up there like that was really moving, far more so than just a speech, because I could see it. I could see the world moving and turning, and I just kept thinking, our God is so much bigger than just our tiny little earth. He's everywhere at once, with me and with them.
Written today
Afterward, I was on my way out, when this man came up and introduced himself. His name was Paul DaSilver. He was from Brazil, and he took me around the church and introduced me. About five times he said, I would really love to have you over to my house for lunch sometime. He even gave me his phone number.
After I asked him if he spoke spanish, he took me into an upper room in the church and introduced me to many people who speak spanish. Once a week on Thursdays they meet and talk about the bible in spanish. They are really excited to have me come with them on Thursdays.
After twenty minutes of meeting people, I finally had to take my leave and head off to work. Paul brought out a pastry type thing for me and for another guy, but the other guy said no, so Paul sent me with two.
The reason why this is significant is because I have been going to this church for my entire time at Trinity, three years. I've met people and shook hands every week, but I usually would never see the same person again.
Up until this point, I let myself get suckered into just going for the sermon and leaving. I had put on a form at the beginning of the year that I was interested in their worship team and getting intoa small group, but no one responded. I can only assume for the benefit of the church that they couldn't read my writing.
The reason why I am taking time to write this is because I never realized how singled out I felt in the church, and how much I was missing out on fellowship in the church until it was given to me today.
I definitely plan on going tomorrow. I've thought about it and looked forward to it all week.
First, the speaker today was a superintendnet of missions in Europe. He shared three stories.
The first story was about a church in Norway I think. The pastor was praying and God comes to him and says that He wants to have revival. The pastor wrestles with the work and the change that revival will bring. Couple weeks later, he comes to he Lord and says that he does want a revival. He prayes, preaches his message.
Nothing.
Next week, he prays, preaches his message.
Nothing.
His son walks by a refugee camp where Muslims are; it's a halfway point between where they came from and where they're going (lost the details). The son goes in and sees how things are and asks his dad if they can open the church one night and feed the refugees a good hot meal. Dad says no problem.
300 refugees comes, and the pastor invites them to the service on sunday.
All 300 come. The pastor preaches, and offers an altar call.
150 hands go up. He repeats, just to make sure.
150 hands go up.
This has gone on and repeated itself for thousands of people.
Second story:
An American in an Albanian speaking country was standing in line a grocery store. A man behind him was surprised to hear an American speaking Albanian
if you speak three languages, you're tri-lingual if you speak two languages you're bi-lingual if you speak one language you're AMERICAN
So anyway, the man behind the american was a DJ of a radio station in this country. The speaker had told us that there were less than 100 believes in this country (I want to say it was Kosovo, but my geography is as bad as any other American).
The DJ asked the American on his show, because it's not often an American speaks Albanian. When the American was on, another guy who knew him called in, and asked him if Jesus is the only mediator between God and Man. The American on the radio talk show proceeded to go down Roman's Road for the entire listening area of the radio station, which was 60% of the country's population.
Third story.
A man in france made a website with the gospel message on it, and they click a button when they pray the salvation prayer.
When they do so, it logs their IP address, and while the service was going on, they had the website up. The website was running google earth and everytime someone clicked that they had prayed the prayer, it zoomed to their location.
At least ten people, probably more, accepted the Lord during the time the web server was up there.
The speaker also told us that the pastor who made this site partnered with another organization to follow up and try correspond with each and every one of these people so they can be discipled.
Seeing everything up there like that was really moving, far more so than just a speech, because I could see it. I could see the world moving and turning, and I just kept thinking, our God is so much bigger than just our tiny little earth. He's everywhere at once, with me and with them.
Written today
Afterward, I was on my way out, when this man came up and introduced himself. His name was Paul DaSilver. He was from Brazil, and he took me around the church and introduced me. About five times he said, I would really love to have you over to my house for lunch sometime. He even gave me his phone number.
After I asked him if he spoke spanish, he took me into an upper room in the church and introduced me to many people who speak spanish. Once a week on Thursdays they meet and talk about the bible in spanish. They are really excited to have me come with them on Thursdays.
After twenty minutes of meeting people, I finally had to take my leave and head off to work. Paul brought out a pastry type thing for me and for another guy, but the other guy said no, so Paul sent me with two.
The reason why this is significant is because I have been going to this church for my entire time at Trinity, three years. I've met people and shook hands every week, but I usually would never see the same person again.
Up until this point, I let myself get suckered into just going for the sermon and leaving. I had put on a form at the beginning of the year that I was interested in their worship team and getting intoa small group, but no one responded. I can only assume for the benefit of the church that they couldn't read my writing.
The reason why I am taking time to write this is because I never realized how singled out I felt in the church, and how much I was missing out on fellowship in the church until it was given to me today.
I definitely plan on going tomorrow. I've thought about it and looked forward to it all week.