Knock
In the last verse of the book of John, the apostle says, "Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."
For the last several weeks, we have shared stories of our time in northern France, and while I can't say that, were they to be written, they'd take up the entire world, I can say that God did more than we asked or imagined.
Over the course of 3 days, our team knocked on 555 doors. We had 69 spiritual conversations and were invited into 10 homes.
Not only did God do a work in the lives of this community in northern France, He did a work in our own lives. We were stretched in every sense of the word through this experience - spiritually, mentally, and [especially] linguistically.
We know that the Spirit of the Lord is pursuing people; we know that God is preparing people to enter His Kingdom. Our job is not to convince people that Jesus is the Way; our job is to make His story known so that people have the opportunity to decide for themselves that Jesus is the Way.
Our friends and GEM teammates in northern France have been in that city for nearly 3 years with very little fruit. When a man from England arrived, he asked each person: How many spiritual conversations do you have each week? They estimated they have about 10 spiritual conversations each week; not bad!
Then we started knocking on doors.
So now the question is: How do we find God-prepared people in our own cities? Aix-les-Bains is a very different city and culture than the city in northern France. While we knocked on doors of immigrants and lower-income families, Aix is full of wealthy tourists and retired couples. What about your city? How do you find God-prepared people? It's a question that we ourselves are wrestling with at this very moment and would be thrilled to hear your own thoughts and experiences.
This post is the last of a series of posts describing our time in northern France. To read more stories, click here, here, here, here, and here.
To talk more about our experience or to share more of your own stories, feel free to contact us: kate.egli@gmail.com.
For the last several weeks, we have shared stories of our time in northern France, and while I can't say that, were they to be written, they'd take up the entire world, I can say that God did more than we asked or imagined.
Over the course of 3 days, our team knocked on 555 doors. We had 69 spiritual conversations and were invited into 10 homes.
Not only did God do a work in the lives of this community in northern France, He did a work in our own lives. We were stretched in every sense of the word through this experience - spiritually, mentally, and [especially] linguistically.
We know that the Spirit of the Lord is pursuing people; we know that God is preparing people to enter His Kingdom. Our job is not to convince people that Jesus is the Way; our job is to make His story known so that people have the opportunity to decide for themselves that Jesus is the Way.
Our friends and GEM teammates in northern France have been in that city for nearly 3 years with very little fruit. When a man from England arrived, he asked each person: How many spiritual conversations do you have each week? They estimated they have about 10 spiritual conversations each week; not bad!
Then we started knocking on doors.
What if it takes 100 [literal or figurative] knocks before we find someone who is opened to the Gospel? If we only have 10 conversations per week, it will take us 10 weeks before we have 1 Gospel conversation. What if it take 300 knocks? or 555? We must be willing to step out of our comfort zones (Have you tried praying in a different language? That is out of my comfort zone!) if we want to [quickly] find the people God is preparing.
So now the question is: How do we find God-prepared people in our own cities? Aix-les-Bains is a very different city and culture than the city in northern France. While we knocked on doors of immigrants and lower-income families, Aix is full of wealthy tourists and retired couples. What about your city? How do you find God-prepared people? It's a question that we ourselves are wrestling with at this very moment and would be thrilled to hear your own thoughts and experiences.
This post is the last of a series of posts describing our time in northern France. To read more stories, click here, here, here, here, and here.
To talk more about our experience or to share more of your own stories, feel free to contact us: kate.egli@gmail.com.
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