We hope and pray you and your families are all doing well. With all the changes happening around the world, things may seem unsettling, but one thing is sure, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is our anchor and as long as our trust is in Him we will not get lost in all the turmoil.
We thank you for your help and partnership in establishing the kingdom of God in the hearts of those we meet here.
With love and appreciation,
Philip and Rita
THE NEWSLETTER CONTENTS:
1.A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT
2.BIBLE STUDIES
3.OUTREACH MEETING
4.OUTREACH
5.STOP FOOD WASTE
6.THE VINEYARD
7.PRAYER REQUESTS
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness… (Colossians 3:12) * * * In the last few years, there have been no shortages of global crises. On the one hand, the illness, conflict, and suffering we see on the news can breed fear and paint a negative view of the world, but there is a brighter side: they can also spark amazing generosity and empathy. God created men and women to, among other things, reflect His love and care for one another, and these generous and empathetic traits tend to shine especially bright in times of challenge and grief. The Bible tells us that kindness is one of God’s attributes—“God our Savior showed us how good and kind he is. He saved us because of his mercy, and not because of any good things we have done.” (Titus 3:4–5) The Bible also lists kindness as one of the fruits of the Spirit that believers should strive to cultivate in their lives. Helping others is good for our own mental health and well-being. It makes us feel part of a wider community and connected with those around us. Not only that, kindness also breeds kindness. When we hear about or see the generosity and kind deeds of others, it inspires us to be kind too. And I think we can all agree that kindness is needed now more than ever. (Ronan Keane) * * * A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. (Saint Basil)
STOP FOOD WASTE:
We work as volunteer at “Stop Food Waste” every week where we serve approximate 50 families weekly. They are from places such as Ukraine, Kurdistan, Somalia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, J, etc. There are also some homeless people from Denmark that come which has surprised us.
We started out working as volunteers every Tuesday. However we have been called upon several times to please come on Fridays as well. The last several times the main lady in charge was not able to be there for various reasons, and has indicated that she hopes we will be able to run it on our own more frequently.
BIBLE STUDIES:
We are very excited about the growing interest we see in our Bible students. They are awakening to the wonderful truths of the Word of God. One of the evidences of this is that they are very concerned about not missing any of the lessons. Here Philip is running an eight lesson course on healing. The course brings out that healing is as much a part of the atonement as salvation, and that God wants us well! That it is always His will. This is not realized by many Christians.
OUTREACH MEETING:
Because of our regular street ministry and consequent experience, we were asked by our church to prepare material to share at an outreach meeting where representative of 4 different churches in our city were available. We prepared a 4 point lesson covering: 1. Evangelization and the Scriptural background 2. Methods — Different possible ways of presenting the Gospel. 3. Common Questions that people ask, and some suggested Scripture based answers. And questions you might ask them to help you get to know them and to start a spiritual conversation. 4. References to on-line resources and books that can help you gain valuable insight in how to answer wisely and be better prepared and equipped for ministering to the un-reached.
OUTREACH:
This month we distributed around 200 tracts. We often go to the city center but try to be ready to reach out whenever we are out and about. We aim to use the tracts as a conversation starter rather than just for mass distribution. However people are not always ready or interested in stopping to talk so we are thankful to hopefully having placed something thought provoking in their hands i.e. “Born Again. Are You? When we actually get in a conversation with people and ask them if they know what that means, most don’t and others have very vague answers. This then is a nice conversation starter as it gives us an opportunity to explain and get on to the right subject.
One day we were left with just one tract. We really didn’t want to take it home, but no one seemed interested in taking it. When we arrived at the bus stop we found a gentleman there. He readily received the tract and we ended up having a deep and very meaningful conversation. The Lord seemingly kept the tract for this precious soul!
* When waiting for a bus we ended up on a bench next to a couple of young girls. We gave them the tract we wrote called, “Born again. Are You?” and asked if they knew what that meant. They didn’t! So, we took them from Nicodemus (John 3) where Jesus told him about the need to be born again, to Adam and Eve and explained how they died spiritually, etc. and then finally we led them to salvation as they both readily accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Praise the Lord!
* One Sunday I noticed a new visitor in the church, C. He turned out to be a young student from Columbia studying in a nearby city. As we began talking it was clear that he had no idea about “being born again” i. e. what it meant. Thankfully he ended up praying to receive the Lord and get filled with the Holy Spirit.
* When witnessing to four young people we got into talking about a lot of foundational, yet to many unknown truths, of the Word. We talked about how Jesus did not come to deal with the individual sins, but rather the sin nature, and why we need to be born again, etc. They were all very interested and seemed to be drinking it all in . We later realized that one of them was Muslim. We left them all with a tract.
* We met V. at the tram stop and handed him a tract. He was immediately very interested. He also signed up for our daily devotionals and after receiving the first message asked if he could come visit. We have invited him to our next Bible study and look forward to including him and ministering to him further.
THE VINEYARD:
This month the pastor of the church and his wife, who had been on a 3 months leave after 12 years of active service, returned to carry on their responsibilities at the church. The couple that had carried on in their absence (seen in the center) were shown appreciation and were prayed over.
At the end of every service lunch is served for a minimal fee. This gives us a wonderful opportunity to sit and eat with and get to know each other better. It usually leads to some very interesting conversations. And it paves the way for building community as we have already formed a more intimate connection by spending this time together.
We are now also serving more actively in the church. I help on the translation team, and from time to time step in to cover an extra slot when someone is not available.
As mentioned previously Philip was asked to be the “producer” which basically means that he helps make the needed practical preparations for the service ahead of time. On these days we get in earlier, set up the hall , prepare the communion, organize the light and heating, etc. and make sure the staff gets together for prayer and that everything is ready in time.
Here Philip and a precious helper have just been serving communion. Philip also often serves behind the bar where he sells soft drinks, receives payment for the meals, and at the end of the day helps clean up after everyone.
Here I am helping to set up the table where we serve the tea and coffee for all the visitors.
THE SPARK:
Once a month the church has an evening meeting called “The Spark”, or as said in Danish “The Gnist”. It’s a prayer meeting where we get together to pray for the city, our church church, the salvation of souls, outreach, etc.
IRANIAN NEW YEAR:
We were invited to celebrate the Iranian New Year with some precious friends. We had some very interesting conversations and ended up making new friends as well. The Iranian community here seems very open to the Gospel.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
VEHICLE:
We would like to ask you to please join us in prayer for the Lord’s supernatural provision of a good vehicle for us. Having a vehicle would enable us to do more for the ministry, and to move about more freely. Thank you!
THE MINISTRY:
Please keep the fruitfulness of our ministry here and for us to be able to make disciples of all nations as Jesus told us to do. (Matthew 28:18-20)
Please also pray for more open doors for teaching the Word . There are many young people searching without realizing that the answer is Jesus!
