After that we came back to our house and once again went to the streets to tell people about Jesus and pray around the city. Each team had several encounters to tell of, and the pattern was very similar to the previous day. We had some who gave us at least a thumbs-up to the "Who is Jesus to You?" question, others who wouldn't make eye contact, and still others who became visibly and verbally agitated simply at the mention of that name. There is something about that name...
I prayer walked with Steve who is another one of the community pastors at Everett Family Church. We prayed as we walked and eventually stopped at the Library, which is a big hangout for homeless during the day. Within minutes of arrival, a young guy showed up who had a black shirt on with an upside down cross and a tatoo of a punk rocker on his calf. We initiated conversation with him but he was quite agitated by our presence and by that "Jesus" name and he eventually left. I was quite struck by the contrast of his shirt to ours.
We also encountered some other people who are "spiritual" and who believe there are many paths to God, and another who told us that Jesus is a myth. This stimulated some conversation among Steve and I as we walked home. What if our church were to make this sort of thing a regular practice? What if we became so visible on the street that we began to recognize, know, and regularly have conversation with the guys on the street? If this happens, we are no longer just a random face out there who is engaging them in conversation. It is possible that over time we might be a...friend. We will be praying about this.
A separate team came back with the great report that they had talked to a man only blocks from our house who said that, had they even talked to him 2 weeks ago, he would have shunned them. However he told them that he was ready to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior right then and there, and they prayed with him as he received salvation.
So that goes back to the earlier question: what if we are more visible here? What if this is done regularly? There are plenty of people just like that who, if they hear the message a few times and see love in action by God's people will likely respond the right way. What might the Lord do in this city through a ministry like that?
Part of the mission team from HAFBC with some of our own, serving hot dogs to families.
The Family Tree barbecue at 1:00 went on as planned. We have found that we don't need to shout from the rooftops that we are there. The smoke from the grill does the talking! We saw many people that we hadn't seen the previous day and had the opportunity to invite them to participate in what we are doing.
The kids reenacted the story of Zachaeus the tax collector and his encounter with Jesus. Of course my very own Zachary got to be Zachaeus.
Kid's Club in the evening went extremely well. This time we had 2 vanloads of kids from Family Tree and our numbers swelled to 24 in spite of having 4 regular attenders who couldn't come last night. God is so good.
We are so thankful that God sent this mission team from Texas to be with us. I told them sincerely last night that their work has already rocketed us forward by probably an entire year. With the people we have currently who will contribute to the ministry, it would take at least a year to accomplish all of the community connections and evangelism that have been done in 2.5 days. That is simply amazing.
I don't want to take away from the fact that the Lord is moving in Everett, Washington. While we are all human beings who are participating in activities, I think anyone on the team would agree that what is happening is the Lord is moving and we are simply joining Him. Our prayer each day is that we'd just stay out of His way! What a God we serve, that He would go out on different streets, different blocks, and different parts of the city all at the same time, working through ordinary people. What a privilege it is to serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ!
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