November 15, 2005

Dear Friends,

In Acts 16:30, Paul and Silas’ jailer comes up to their cell after a supernatural earthquake and says, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  If you are like me, the idea of someone actually asking this kind of question sounds truly far-fetched.  Or it did, until a few weeks ago. 

I mentioned last month that I was going to begin sitting at Hard Times Café with a sign saying, “I will pray for you.  Just ask.”  I have had my sign out for a few weeks now, and I am finally beginning to feel less conspicuous and embarrassed.  I have gotten a few scoffing remarks, a lot of strange looks and whispers, and a few people who think it’s “cool.”  I have had only a few requests for prayer, but the following experience alone has made it worth it.

One day, I was talking with a guy I know from this area, and I noticed a man nearby eyeing my sign out of the corner of his eye.  When my friend got up and left, this person looked at me, gestured at the sign, and nodded in a way as if to ask if he could come sit down.  I motioned to the chair, so he sat down and began to talk.  He said, “I just wonder if you could tell me…  I come from an Orthodox family in Ethiopia, but I have never really understood some things.  Would you tell me, please, what you believe about God?  I really want eternal life… to be saved.”  I still feel astonished that someone actually said this to me.  This man told me that he believes very strongly in a Judgment and wants to live a life that will not condemn him on that Day.  He seemed almost distraught, so I began to tell him that God is a Father who is eager to forgive.  He looked at me with immense relief in his eyes and began to share more of his story.  He said that he desperately wanted to live a righteous life, because he knew that nothing else had anything to offer.  However, earlier that day, he had run into a group of old friends who were drinking and smoking, and he had joined in.  After leaving them, he felt full of guilt and remorse.  Let me tell the rest of the story from his perspective.  “So I was walking, and I came by here [Hard Times].  I used to come here, but not for a long time, so I thought I would maybe get something to drink.  Then I came in, and I saw your sign.”  He needed to hear that God was just waiting to forgive him, and so his heavenly Father brought him to this crazy girl sitting at a punk café with a sign offering prayer. 

This man insisted he was going to follow God from that day forward without ever going back but wanted help knowing how to live a holy life; so we proceeded to talk more about practical things—prayer, reading the Word, community, fellowship, accountability.  He is eager to join a church, perhaps ours, and pursue this new life.  He even told me of his own volition that he was going to stay away from his old friends in order to avoid temptation.  I was amazed.

I have been praying recently for God to bring more Christians out of the woodwork on the West Bank.  The more people I meet there, the more I encounter believers who just have not been living out their faith for some time.  I feel like God wants to set these people on fire and use them to transform the West Bank from the inside out.  Please pray that I would continue to meet Christians who have been lying dormant, if you will, and that they will surrender and seek God wholeheartedly.  In the next week or so, I am going to begin organizing a shuttle from Hard Times to the Salvage Yard so that people there can easily come to church.  My hope is that many of these hidden Christians will get plugged in, fired up, made whole, and sent out in God’s name.

Thank you all so much for your support and love.  I truly believe that your prayers have sustained me in times of struggle and fatigue.  I am desperate to see God’s Kingdom come on the West Bank, and you are playing a significant role in making that a reality.  I would appreciate it if you would take the time to look at some very important prayer requests on the reverse.  Thank you again for pouring your life into mine.  God bless you, and Happy Thanksgiving!