God has led me to the bible study group of First Baptist Church in Pearland's Mission/Evangelism Pastor, Pastor Don Schwarz. And just last Saturday, October 31, 2009, we attended a class on evangelism with Alan & Lynn Bond from a group called Jews for Jesus. It somewhat hyped me up because, allow me to let you in on a little secret, I am 6.25% Jew! (For real!) Hahaha... My great-grandfather stowed away from Italy years ago and came to the Philippines to start a new life there. It had always been a fact in our family that he was Jewish. I grew up being told that my great-grandfather was a "Hudeo" (as we call it in Filipino) or a Jew. I was never brought up with the Jewish culture, though, if that's what you wanted to know. And we never really knew if my great-grandfather's family ever lived their lives following Jewish practices. My family was already mostly Catholic in their practice. Unfortunately, we never got the chance to reconnect with my great-granfather's side of the family anymore as we know very little of it. But it's exciting to know that 6.25% of me is Jewish by blood. (Praise my Y'shua!--- I learned that this is how Jews say "Jesus".)
Amazingly, God has led me to join an outreach we had for Jews for Jesus. It was the very first time I ever did something like that. It honestly gave me another push to really "Go!" for Jesus. This time, following the right route as Paul laid it out to us:
"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." (Romans 1:16) NIV
It was around 2:30 in the afternoon when Pastor Don gathered us in church. We were scheduled to do some door-to-door evangelism and "bannering" that afternoon to reach out to any Jew in the community of Pearland, TX. I was imagining myself with the door-to-door group until Pastor Don popped my bubble! (haha... just kidding. It was God, if you could ever read this, Pastor Don.) I was included in the group that would hold the banners along a busy street and wave at people. My flesh initially cringed at the idea! (hehehe) I was thinking, Whoa! me? hold a banner and wave at people in their cars? Uhm... let me think (twice) about what I've gotten myself into... The result?
(Work it, girls! In Y'shua's name!)
There's my BIG smile & wave; with Ms. Berta, Ms. Shirley & little Hope.)
Boy, you would never really know what hit 'ya when the Holy Spirit starts working! I had so much fun that afternoon waving and smiling at all the people that drove past us. It was such a blessing to have seen them wave & smile back. Some even gave their approving honks! (God was so gracious to us first timers to have protected us from negative responses at that time.) I was so hyper that afternoon that an entire hour standing there seemed like 5 mins. (I guess that was how Paul talked on and on for hours until midnight in the book of Acts!) God really didn't give us a spirit of timidity but of BOLDNESS! Praise Him forever!
The activity led me to realize that when we christians truly follow what Jesus had commanded us to do, to "Go and make disciples of ALL nations..." it should stir in us an urgency to go out of our comfort zones and reach out to the lost in this world. We are, after all, living in the end times and there are still so many of our family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, neighbors, and people in our community that needed the gospel!
I praise the Lord for allowing me to be a part of the Jews for Jesus evangelistic outreach this first week of November. Jesus is the promised Messiah for the Jews. Jesus is also the Savior of the Gentiles. May we, as the body of Christ, be emboldened by the Holy Spirit to reach out to the lost. It is, after all, the only work we were called to do on this earth. The rest of the picture of our lives on earth becomes incorporated in it and not the other way around.
(Bro. Paul & Bro. Roy holding their banner a few meters from where we were.)
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