Yesterday I said “until next time” to an incredible team from the Rock Church located in Salt Lake City, Utah. A team of 12, 7 adults and 5 children ranging from the ages of 6 to 12, labored effortlessly serving the neighborhood through prayer, coffee table, and park outreach. They loved loud! We had the vision of creating opportunities to live life on mission as family and thankful for how God lead us through the activities. Here are a few testimonies from the team…
I have been challenged so much this week to share the existence of God. During the coffee table sessions, there have been many opportunities to direct conversations to eternal matters. It’s been convicting to think about how I live my daily life without attempting to share more about God.
There was a conversation yesterday afternoon with a man who had lived under Sadam Hessian and escaped with his life. He had doubts that a God could even exist. It was challenging but rewarding to share God, defend his existence, and talk about the evidence of His presence in the world. These experiences only help to confirm and strengthen my faith as I share Jesus and his love. – T.F.
We started our day with breakfast, worship, and team time, during which Sarah taught us a conversational tool for sharing the gospel using a Bible story about Jesus. She asked us to fold a sheet of paper in fourths and told us the story from Luke 7:36-50, broken into four parts. Simon the Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner at his home, where a sinful woman entered, weeping and washing Jesus’ feet with her tears. Jesus challenges Simon to think about forgiveness in the story he tells Simon about the canceled debt of two men. Jesus says to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” Finally, Jesus tells the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
We created a simple illustration as Sarah told us each part of the story. After we had our four-part story illustrated, we practiced with another person using the illustrations we drew to retell the story. We all prayed for an opportunity to use storytelling to share something about Jesus with someone we met during our time out in the community today. After our team time, we prayer walked, ending at a Persian restaurant for lunch. We returned to Sarah’s house to make coffee for the coffee table outreach and cookies for the park outreach time.
While at the park, I met a mother of two small children. She was so kind and open to conversation and had excellent English. She mentioned to me that she appreciated how kind and friendly our group of Americans were (something we specifically prayed to be seen as to the community), which led me to share that we are all Christians who love Jesus, and God has given us a love for all people. She told me that she was a Muslim and believes that Jesus is a good prophet. The Lord gave me a perfect opportunity to say, “Can I tell you a story about Jesus from God’s Word?” I shared with her the story we illustrated this morning of the sinful woman, the canceled debt, and the forgiveness Jesus extends to the woman. I asked her who forgives sin, and she replied, “God.” Then I asked if Jesus forgave her sin and who this story says Jesus is, and after thinking about it, she replied, “God.” After asking her if there was anywhere else in the world where we could find forgiveness like this, we both agreed that Jesus is the only place to find true forgiveness. My prayer for her is that she continues to think on this truth of who the Bible says that Jesus is. Please pray for her and her family that this seed will take root in her heart. – J.K.
It was a great gift to get to live life with this team and be out in the harvest together. Besides the labor they willingly engaged in the neighborhood, they served me generously. They replaced a broken handle and put new, working, locks on the bathroom doors. What a gift! They also supplied me with great craft supplies as I continue to see how God will launch a middle school youth group for this neighborhood. Thank you Rock Church for engaging globally!
What’s next, you ask? Today I have arrived in Cologne, Germany to get some staff time before launching EuroLinc 2024 kicking off this Saturday. With a staff team of 6 and a total of 8 participants, we are excited to see what God will do in and through us over the next month. The first two weeks serving refugees and immigrants in Cologne and the last two weeks back in Stockholm. Here are some of the key objectives of this summer project. Please pray for us. Actually, this week we even have prayer calendar set up [Pray Link] with a separate page with how to pray. If you, your family or home group can sign up for a slot we are excited to see this project covered in prayer. Otherwise, check out the Prayer Guide tab at the bottom and pray when you can!
- Establishing the disciple (Spiritual Transformation): EuroLinc provides a schedule for developing habits to strengthen one’s walk with the Lord by engaging in spiritual disciplines. These include prayer, meditation(scripture memorization), the Word, accountability, and solitude. Staff follow up with individual participants for individualized coaching.
- Equipping the disciple (Training): Daily team times include specific training strengthening tools for discipleship and church planting. The training goals are geared so that each disciple can return home confident and competent to train others.
- Expanding the work (Working towards Movement): The goal of about 20 to 25 hours in the harvest weekly allows for concentrated labor alongside a local team committed to following up on all new contacts. The project will include a vision of working among least reached people groups.
Following and Fishing 
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