Where Has the Time Gone???
Posted by: Lindsay Phillips in Untagged on Jul 24, 2010
Time for another update. It's been a while so i'll just jump right in.
The past week and a half as been great! I've been holding fast to the routine of prayer with the team in the morning along with book table or handing out gift bags for the traders in the evenings. Recently we have also been able to spend time following up with the people we have met so far. So really, the evenings are filled with either follow up or book table ministry. I have been spending time wandering the market chatting with the traders i have met. I had the chance to meet some very interesting people.
Early this past week, we went in groups to visit traders in the market and i ran into a outspoken atheist. I handed him a flyer for our church and he gradually made it known that he was not a big fan of the Bible or the idea of a God that will order leaders to kill men, women, and children. He took me to numbers 31 an told me he did not want to have any part of God if that's what he commands. So me being stubborn, i stuck around to try and reason with him my thoughts on that subject. I wanted to tell him the dangers of taking one section of the Bible and interpreting it on it's on. If he understood who God was, what he can rightfully demand, and how the potter has the right over the clay… along with the love of God, then that passage would make better sense to him. Conversing with this guy was really good for me and very humbling. God showed me the blindness of people without the Spirit. I still pray for this man. I think i'll go back and say hi to him. I think that building relationships with people (without an agenda) is just as big of a witness to people than talking about Jesus. My hope is that he will see something different in me. And now that he knows I'm a christian i hope the Spirit works there. Having that experience was hard yet encouraging. Afterwards, I was battling two very different emotions and truths in my head. At first, i felt defeated. I felt like a failure and like i wasn't smart enough to do my job in communicating the Gospel to him. However, on the other hand i was reminded of the fact that the Spirit is the one who opens hearts and eyes to seeing and knowing truth. Knowing that truth in my head but feeling the rejection was a very weird place to be. I got really quiet and my mood changed drastically. Ha, but i didn't let it go. I spoke with God for the rest of the day. I asked him to reveal his truth in a way that i could actually feel/experience the truth an not only "understand" it. God definitely showed up and was with me for the rest of the day. Later on that night we went out with a friend from London and it was AMAZING cause we went out for curry! That is my new favorite food by the way. ha
Saturday we painted on cardboard at the canal. Our goal was to have the locals that hang out at the canal come and paint with us. On saturday's lots of the youth hang out there. Dan and Oli have been trying to figure out how to reach them but it's been difficult to bridge that gap. Even though we didn't meet many of the saturday canal locals we did met a few really cool people. There were two girls from Paris that stopped to paint, a hippie, and my friend Eaton stopped by as well. It was so much fun. I loved it! Most of us covered our sheets of cardboard with bright vibrant colors and wrote verses on them. I never got around to adding my verse but i was happy with how the colors turned out.
Last Sunday was my first experience with the Lysan church service at the Yum Chaa tea shop. Two weeks ago they met at Dan's house because the tea shop only lets them meet there 2 times a month. We had a joint service with another local church in the Camden area. Their church attracts more of the goth/ punk locals. Before the service we met up with them to hand out flyers together. I partnered with a girl named Heather. We walked the markets and met a few people together. We talked to a lady named Veronica. She owns a shop that sells photography she and her husband take. I met another guy that worked for the canal system. He takes tourists on canal rides all day and ends each day with a coffee at a local shop in the Market. He claims that it's the best coffee in Camden so my hope is to enjoy a cup with him one night this week or next. He came from Ireland or Scotland one. Ha, i can't remember. As for the service, it was great. We had so many visitors from the people we've met since we have been here. It was so encouraging to see all the different people that we met and how they responded to church. I think most of them really enjoyed it and will hopefully come back.
The Lord is doing amazing things here in Camden. Lots of people are hearing about our church and about the love of Jesus. Many of the interns have had tea or coffee with people they have met and are able to follow up on most of their contacts. I was walking in the market the other day and a random trader asked me if i lived here cause he's seen me around so much. I feel that God's Spirit is moving here. I am in no position to comment on the speed of that movement but i do know that the name of Jesus and Lysan is being spread all through out the locals here. Hopefully in a few years or so, Lysan will be a well known church and people will become curious as to what it's all about.
This past week was very encouraging. I met some more traders in the market, had a really good prayer walk, and have really drawn close to the Lord this week. God has been so good to me here. He has blessed me with such rich and real community, amazing conversations with people of Camden, and a bigger picture of what God is doing in the world and how to apply that to my life. God is speaking so loudly through scripture and i am really experiencing the love of Jesus. To me, actually experiencing God's love is totally different than "understanding" that God loves me. It makes his love more personal.
There is much more to update you all on but i will save that for another day. Keep praying for my perseverance and endurance. I often feel empty when i have fullness in Jesus. It's hard to keep focused on being here when you are looking for things besides Jesus to fill you up. Pray with me that i can understand how much God has done for me and to look else where is pretty much pointless. Pray that i be reminded hourly that i am not lacking and for God to be rich in mercy with blessing me with that understanding.
Thanks again! Lindsay
The past week and a half as been great! I've been holding fast to the routine of prayer with the team in the morning along with book table or handing out gift bags for the traders in the evenings. Recently we have also been able to spend time following up with the people we have met so far. So really, the evenings are filled with either follow up or book table ministry. I have been spending time wandering the market chatting with the traders i have met. I had the chance to meet some very interesting people.
Early this past week, we went in groups to visit traders in the market and i ran into a outspoken atheist. I handed him a flyer for our church and he gradually made it known that he was not a big fan of the Bible or the idea of a God that will order leaders to kill men, women, and children. He took me to numbers 31 an told me he did not want to have any part of God if that's what he commands. So me being stubborn, i stuck around to try and reason with him my thoughts on that subject. I wanted to tell him the dangers of taking one section of the Bible and interpreting it on it's on. If he understood who God was, what he can rightfully demand, and how the potter has the right over the clay… along with the love of God, then that passage would make better sense to him. Conversing with this guy was really good for me and very humbling. God showed me the blindness of people without the Spirit. I still pray for this man. I think i'll go back and say hi to him. I think that building relationships with people (without an agenda) is just as big of a witness to people than talking about Jesus. My hope is that he will see something different in me. And now that he knows I'm a christian i hope the Spirit works there. Having that experience was hard yet encouraging. Afterwards, I was battling two very different emotions and truths in my head. At first, i felt defeated. I felt like a failure and like i wasn't smart enough to do my job in communicating the Gospel to him. However, on the other hand i was reminded of the fact that the Spirit is the one who opens hearts and eyes to seeing and knowing truth. Knowing that truth in my head but feeling the rejection was a very weird place to be. I got really quiet and my mood changed drastically. Ha, but i didn't let it go. I spoke with God for the rest of the day. I asked him to reveal his truth in a way that i could actually feel/experience the truth an not only "understand" it. God definitely showed up and was with me for the rest of the day. Later on that night we went out with a friend from London and it was AMAZING cause we went out for curry! That is my new favorite food by the way. ha
Saturday we painted on cardboard at the canal. Our goal was to have the locals that hang out at the canal come and paint with us. On saturday's lots of the youth hang out there. Dan and Oli have been trying to figure out how to reach them but it's been difficult to bridge that gap. Even though we didn't meet many of the saturday canal locals we did met a few really cool people. There were two girls from Paris that stopped to paint, a hippie, and my friend Eaton stopped by as well. It was so much fun. I loved it! Most of us covered our sheets of cardboard with bright vibrant colors and wrote verses on them. I never got around to adding my verse but i was happy with how the colors turned out.
Last Sunday was my first experience with the Lysan church service at the Yum Chaa tea shop. Two weeks ago they met at Dan's house because the tea shop only lets them meet there 2 times a month. We had a joint service with another local church in the Camden area. Their church attracts more of the goth/ punk locals. Before the service we met up with them to hand out flyers together. I partnered with a girl named Heather. We walked the markets and met a few people together. We talked to a lady named Veronica. She owns a shop that sells photography she and her husband take. I met another guy that worked for the canal system. He takes tourists on canal rides all day and ends each day with a coffee at a local shop in the Market. He claims that it's the best coffee in Camden so my hope is to enjoy a cup with him one night this week or next. He came from Ireland or Scotland one. Ha, i can't remember. As for the service, it was great. We had so many visitors from the people we've met since we have been here. It was so encouraging to see all the different people that we met and how they responded to church. I think most of them really enjoyed it and will hopefully come back.
The Lord is doing amazing things here in Camden. Lots of people are hearing about our church and about the love of Jesus. Many of the interns have had tea or coffee with people they have met and are able to follow up on most of their contacts. I was walking in the market the other day and a random trader asked me if i lived here cause he's seen me around so much. I feel that God's Spirit is moving here. I am in no position to comment on the speed of that movement but i do know that the name of Jesus and Lysan is being spread all through out the locals here. Hopefully in a few years or so, Lysan will be a well known church and people will become curious as to what it's all about.
This past week was very encouraging. I met some more traders in the market, had a really good prayer walk, and have really drawn close to the Lord this week. God has been so good to me here. He has blessed me with such rich and real community, amazing conversations with people of Camden, and a bigger picture of what God is doing in the world and how to apply that to my life. God is speaking so loudly through scripture and i am really experiencing the love of Jesus. To me, actually experiencing God's love is totally different than "understanding" that God loves me. It makes his love more personal.
There is much more to update you all on but i will save that for another day. Keep praying for my perseverance and endurance. I often feel empty when i have fullness in Jesus. It's hard to keep focused on being here when you are looking for things besides Jesus to fill you up. Pray with me that i can understand how much God has done for me and to look else where is pretty much pointless. Pray that i be reminded hourly that i am not lacking and for God to be rich in mercy with blessing me with that understanding.
Thanks again! Lindsay
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