Greetings from Europe! We hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful Spring weather. The Father has been blessing us with some great days filled with sunshine. He has also been blessing us with some wonderful opportunities. I got to attend a workshop recently on how to train and d*sciple new bel*evers. The workshop was led by a man who had worked for years in East Asian and who had seen an unbelievable amount of fruit. It was a wonderful time of being reminded of the Father’s love for the lost. At the center of his m*nistry was the importance of making d*sciples. His approach for making d*sciples was focusing on training that was obedience based. This obedience based training led to action which led to an unbelievable amount of reproduction. These reports are especially incredible when one considers the hostile environment that this movement took place in. I plan on implementing many of the principles that I learned from this training in our work here in our city.
There was a university student that came over from the States this past month to help our team out. He is finishing up his degree at school which requires some overseas cultural exposure. He chose to meet this requirement for his degree by coming to our city and working among the South Asian peoples here. Although he had received training on how to talk to people about the f@ith, I was able to train him in a specific approach on talking to people of various religi0us backgrounds that has been practiced successfully and fruitfully in a number of hostile environments around the world. I was greatly encouraged by how easily he picked up the training and how successfully he implemented it in our community. He got into a number of great conversations with several young M*slim men. I am going to be training a small group of men in this exact ev@ngelistic approach at the beginning of next month. If my friend’s success with this approach is any indication of how well others will respond to it then I am extremely optimistic about next month’s training.
Our team’s house fellowships continue to show promise. We continue to have unbel*evers and new people attend. There has been an Asian M*slim couple who has attended our meeting on several occasions. We had a S*kh brother and sister attend. Everyone seems to really be enjoying our time in the W0rd, in w0rship, and in pr@yer. Every week the Father is blessing our meetings. We also saw one H*ndu man (Sanjay-pseudonym) make a profession of f@ith recently. One of my m*nistry partners here has been sharing the g0spel with Sanjay for over ten years. A few weeks ago, Sanjay was having a very bad day. My partner was able to help him work through his issues and lead him to the Father. We are hoping to get Sanjay plugged into our weekly meetings.
We threw an E@ster Party at our local community center on E@ster Sunday. We had over 50 people attend from the local community. Most of those who attended were from an Isl@mic background. During the party we played games, socialized, sang pr@ise songs, pr@yed, and ate a meal. There was also a g0spel message delivered. I have to admit I was shocked that so many people showed up for this party. Many of these attend because of our team’s children’s m*nstry. Once a month our team organizes a “Fun Day” for the kids in our community. We organize games and activities and then invite everyone to come participate. Many are familiar with us because of our presence in the community. People then attend our special events because they respect what we do throughout the year. We praise our Father who is able to do above and beyond what we might expect.
We also led and facilitated several successful Christi@n/M*slim dialogues. Twice a month we invite the people of our community to meet together for a discussion about the Father. A speaker selects a topic and then presents it to the group. The past two subjects have been “Sh@ria Law in Europe” and “G0d’s Unchanging W0rd.” Both topics provided for fierce discussion. These meetings can get intense. So much so that I have a difficult time sleeping at night after these meetings. I was the presenter during our last meeting. I pointed out that both the B*ble and the Qur@n teach that G0d’s W0rd cannot be changed. This truth is problematic for the M*slim because their book teaches that the teachings of J*sus are G0d’s W0rd. However, they do not believe in J*sus‘ W0rds in the B*bile because they claim that His W0rd has been changed by Christi@ns. I proposed that they cannot hold to this position because their book teaches that the W0rd cannot be changed. If the W0rd cannot be changed then J*sus‘ W0rds cannot be changed either because they are considered to be G0d’s W0rds. Therefore, the B*ble must contain the actual W0rds of J*sus. Those in attendance were given the opportunity to ask me questions and challenge my view after my presentation. The M*slims in our city can be very intellectual. They can ask some very difficult questions. They like to make bel*evers appear to be foolish. When I was studying b*bilical criticism in semin@ry I did not think that I was going to have to deal with it very often. To my surprise, I find myself constantly answering objections to our f@ith that have been borne out of b*blical criticism here working with M*slims. The Father gave me a sharp mind and a quick tongue that evening. I felt like the Father gave me the ability to answer all of their objections in a loving and accurate fashion.
On a personal note, everyone in the Brown household is doing well. The boys are keeping Jennifer extremely busy. Silas and Simeon are happy and healthy.
Pr@yer Requests:
1. For the ev@ngelism training that I will be leading next month. Pr@y that those who participate will pick up the training and get excited about sharing their f@ith.
2. For those who have heard and for those who will hear the g0spel through our team’s efforts. Pr@y that the Father would use His W0rd and Spirit to transform those who hear.
3. For Sanjay. Pr@y that he would walk with the Father.
4. For our house fellowships. Pr@y that we would see the Father establish some powerful fellowships in the midst of our community.
