Dear Blog Readers/Prayer Warriors,
Today was a very productive day for us. We had our Bible study this morning on 2 Corinthians 4 again, in which we learned that Christ is the true image of God and that Christ shined a light into the world and our hearts, taking away the darkness. It also encourages believers in Christ to lift the veil of the world that keeps so many from Christ and to spread the message of the Gospel. It was very uplifting to us since we are getting tired and didn't have as "fruitful" of a day as Tuesday. Yet, we recognize that God's plan is perfect and there's a design for everything - there's a reason we met with the people we did and had a difficult time speaking to some people. Overall, we found today's lesson very encouraging.
After the Bible study, we walked to King's Cross Baptist Church, where Meredith taught us the story of the wedding feast. In it, a king throws a wedding feast for his only son. He invites select people to the feast but they refuse. In fact, after being invited a second time some of the invited guests even kill the messengers because they're too busy to come and feel bothered by their message. So the king sends out his army to kill those who killed his messengers. Then, the king sends out other messengers to invite everyone to the feast - from all walks of life, rich, poor, etc. Those people come to the feast, and when the king is looking out at all the people who are in attendance, the king sees a man who's not dressed properly for the wedding feast. So the king says to his servants, "Take him out of here into a dark place filled with pain. Because many are called, but few are chosen." That's the story of the wedding feast. This story we found was very convicting and would spark a conversation with both believers and non-believers about God's justice and the need to come properly "dressed" in His presence.
After learning the story, some of us helped serve tea and coffee to students while others went out prayer walking/storying. Danielle stayed out with the students, serving tea/coffee and met many students and had interesting conversations with them. One student's name was Kaltha; she was a Muslim wearing a headscarf so Danielle asked her about wearing it and why she did it. She explained that you have to come properly dressed before God to show respect. So that led right into the Wedding Feast story. Danielle told her the story, and they discussed how they both felt it was their religious duty to come before God with respect, although Kaltha's was more physical dressing up for God and Danielle's was more spiritual. Danielle also had a good conversation with Amma, who was "not religious." He said his parents grew up Hindu and Jewish, but he doesn't have an affiliation and doesn't like to talk about religion. He did explain that he thought we shouldn't impose religion on anyone and he also thought that religion separated people more than it brought them together. Both of the conversations were very fruitful.
Of the groups that went out prayer walking/storying, one group (Mike, Marc and Charles) went into a Islamic bookstore and re-met Ackmad, a Muslim. They told him the wedding feast story to get his take on how the Muslim culture feels about dressing up for special occasions. Ackmad told them he thought that was a thing of the past, except in Morocco, but didn't really explain why he thought that. Mike also talked to another man named Mike who was raised Catholic but didn't want to believe in God because of all the bad stuff he'd been through in his life. Our Mike shared his testimony with him and prayed for the other Mike. Marc talked to Ian from New Castle who immediately lost interest in the conversation once he found out it was about religion. He did think people were more interested in religion in New Castle where he was from than they were in London.
The other group (Gay, Grace, and Funmi) talked to Chris, a student journalist who agreed to talk to them if they would answer his interview questions. They talked about all sorts of religious questions, although he's never been to church in his life (except for once at a wedding). He says that church isn't relevant today. He also said his family didn't go to church so he never went. They shared the gospel with him and he was very receptive. They also prayed for him with him, although he was intimidated by the thought of him praying for himself. They felt it was a very good spiritual conversation.They also invited him to go to church at King's Cross with Grace.
After debriefing and talking about that session of prayer walking, two groups went out again. The first (Gay, Danielle and Mike) walked into a store called the "School of Life." There they met an employee, Mary, who grew up Catholic but had since become agnostic because of the "scandals of the church." The School of Life taught philosophy and principals on how to life without religion. In fact, the owner of the store had written a book called "Religion for Atheists" and was an atheist himself. The store offers "Sunday Sermons" where they have a speaker come talk about a particular life topic and they sing "hymns by pop music artists." Mary said the store was very successful. They have 5 classes a day with 30 people in each class and she said hundreds come to the Sunday Sermons, even though they charge 40 pounds per class and 15 pounds per service. Mary says she thinks there's a need for her store because people are lonely in England and looking for something; she believes putting religion into their teachings would be "imposing." It was very interesting to be in there, and we did share our viewpoints on religion and she did listen. The other place that group went to was Lumen Church. It's not really a church in the sense that we know it. They do have Sunday Services and "Bible Study classes" but they don't have pastors or priests. They have elected leaders who talk on Sundays on a rotating basis every nine weeks. The elected leaders can only serve two years at a time. We met a barista (there's a cafe in the church) named Simon, who Mike had known from previous trips. Simon told us about the structure of the church and how it was run. He said they did preach the Gospel and encourage people to read the Bible. He likened Lumen to the Quakers because they focus on the community. They also allow all faiths to worship in the building; they even have this teepee structure in the middle of the church that's nonsecular to allow all different religions to meet there. Simon says its good because at least they're in a church building. Mike had given Simon a New Testament Bible last year, and Simon says he's been reading it and studying a little more now.
The other group (Charles, Marc, and Meredith) met a group named Shu, a Muslim background and professor. He's an atheist/under a branch of Islam. Charles told him the story about the wedding feast, and he had a lot of interesting feedback on the feast. Shu thought that the man who wasn't dressed right was brought there under social compulsion. He asked what Baptist believe and they shared the story of salvation with him. Shu said we all worship the same God and then left but gave them a hug goodbye. Meanwhile Meredith had a very odd encounter with someone she believes was a dark angel. A man came up and sought her out, walked across the grass in order to talk to her; he approached her. He told her that he was Jewish and that Jews control the world. He also offered that he was part of the free masons, believed power is the root of the world, and "angels are the ones who have power." He also said "As Jews we believe we gave Jesus a chance to prove himself and he didn't." Meredith tried to tell him the wedding feast story, but he cut her off telling her that she was confused, wrong and that the story doesn't apply to today. He ended up getting offended by her really saying nothing and walked off; he walked away saying "sometimes you don't know when you've met an angel." The incident really shook her, because she really felt like she met a dark angel today. Pray for her that she may not lose faith and pray for this demon person who has such darkness in his heart.
Tonight, we are going to Cheshire Cheese restaurant and prayer walking near Buckingham Palace. Tomorrow, we will do much of the same as today - prayer walking, passing out tea/coffee and learning stories. Pray that we conquer in spiritual warfare tomorrow, that we have the strengths to carry on in the Lord's work, and that The Lord brings us people to tell the Gospel to.
In His Love,
The London Team
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