I'm Not Dead!

As stated in the title "I'm Not Dead!" to clarify let me add "I wasn't hit by a truck." Now obviously all of you who are reading this can make the same statement. :-) However I am extra thankful to be making this statement because yesterday I almost was. I think it is highly important that we pray for each other, for our safety and salvation. And, I'm very grateful to all the people who have been praying for me!!!!!

Yesterday Rebecca and I were walking to the place where we were meeting our ride and by coincidence they pulled up to the lights just as I arrived at the cross signal, I tossed a brief glance to the right, there were no cars coming so I went to run over to them, just as a huge truck whizzed past my nose from the left. (Note to Self: In America look left before crossing the road!) If I'd been half a second earlier or the truck half a second later I would now be a flat and greasy spot on the road. Praise God for His protections.

Now this is where it gets interesting, when we had safely climbed into the car Dallena told us that as they were driving to meet us she had a sudden impression of me lying dead on the road. She took that to mean that Rebecca and I were in danger and she prayed a quick prayer for our protection. By the time she had said this they were slowing to a stop at the lights, and could see Rebecca and I walking on the footpath and the truck coming from the opposite direction. So she and Wing got to see the whole almost squashing incident in semi-slow motion. When we climbed into the car they both looked a bit pale and big eyed.

I am exceedingly thankful for my Guardian Angel today!!! And I suggest that we seriously take the time to pray for each other everyday. Also make sure your right with God because you never know when your time is over and then it is too late. I want to see all my lovely friends in heaven (I also intend to see you many more times before I get to heaven too!) so I'll be praying for you.

Sloppy Joes

Today we had Sloppy Joes for potluck at church. Turns out that Sloppy Joes are another one of those American things that leave me bewildered...




Let me explain;
First, a Sloppy Joes is a sweet tomato sauce (that actually bears little resemblance to a tomato in flavour - kind of chutney flavoured I thought) that has mince, or a fake mince equivalent, mixed into it in a ratio that distinctly favours the sauce - hence the description of sloppy. (I have no idea where Joe comes from!)

Second, they then slop a big spoonful of this mixture onto the bottom half of a burger bun, place the rest of the bun on top and you are then expected to eat the messy thing with all the innards falling sloppily onto your plate, chin, shirt, the floor, etc ...

... but, I didn't eat it in the proscribed way, I openned the bun back up, scrapped half the mixture onto the top of the bun and then ate in the manner of a tidy open sandwich.

To be honest if there had been any other option I would have eaten that instead, well maybe not oatmeal, but anything else except oatmeal would have been a pleasant alternative!

An Awesome Afternoon

I have been meaning to put up my thoughts on American doors, houses and things American in general for a long time, especially since we have been out knocking on doors quite a lot recently, looking for people who would like to have Bible Studies. Today however is not the day I am going to expose those thoughts. Instead I am going to tell you about my afternoon.

We (Rebecca – my outreach partner, and I) had an awesome day today, we went out knocking on doors and inviting people to come to a series of Bible Prophecy meetings that is starting on Friday night. At first it was really slow, lots of people not home or not interested, but we had prayed for quick rejections so that we didn’t waste time on people who weren't interested. It was also harder than previous because we had decided not to leave the advertising cards on the doors – unless we felt impressed to - because we had found out in the first house we went to that the cards had arrived in the mail that day and we wanted to conserve the cards so that we had enough left for Thursday. So we weren't feeling as if we were achieving anything when we knocked on house after house with nobody in them. But we kept on, praying between the houses and refusing to be discouraged.

The block we were on turned out to be the block where a man we had met earlier (he had ordered one of the free Cosmic Conflict DVD's) lived. He wasn’t home so we left a card on his door – we have decided to pray that he is convicted that he needs to be witnessing for God and that he comes to AFCOE. At the house right next door to him we met Maria, she wants to come to the meetings and filled in an advance registration card, we need to pray for her health as she has a cold starting.

Around the corner and on the other side of the road we met Nick, we didn’t even get to start our spiel he saw the card in my hand and said “Oh I got that in the mail, it’s the only bit of mail I didn’t throw away.” He also filled in the advance registration card and is totally planning on coming. Rebecca and I decided to also pray that he comes to AFCOE next year.

Then we went to revisit some people we had met previously to invite them to the meetings. The first three people we visited weren’t home then as we were about to head to the next house Rebecca said “we should visit the Man-Who-Goes-To-The-Rocklin-Church-Because-He-Likes-The-Music” (We found out today that his name is David.) We had a great chat, he is totally planning on coming to the meetings. 

After David we briefly visited Jan, who I met with Tammy. She was on the phone so we were very very brief, just gave her the card and invited her. We are praying that she will come to the meetings.

  

Then we went down to visit the ‘Mormon-Girl-Who-Is-Not-Living-Like-A-Mormon’ she also said she would come to the meetings. When we walked onto her street it reminded me that we had had a really good conversation with a lady who lived a few houses down the road so we figured out which was her house and knocked on her door and invited her, she was excited and took enough cards to give one to everybody in her Bible study group! She is planning on coming to the meetings!

Then we went to visit Michelle one of our people we are doing Bible Studies with, she was in the middle of a Halloween Party so we made it quick, but she seemed interested. From her we went to her next door neighbour the ‘Talkative-Lady-Who-Is-Interested-In-Health’, we invited her to the meetings and I had brought a book on natural remedies for children with me which I had planned to give to one of the people who wasn't home, so we gave it to this lady instead. (I am trying to get rid of stuff so I don’t have so much stuff to ship home.) She just about cried and we had a great conversation and she hugged us both when we left and she is totally planning on coming to the meetings too.

I have been feeling that we should be more pushy about trying to get people to sign up for Bible Studies but I just can’t do it. Today it showed me that the way we have been working was ok, everybody we went back to visit was very happy to see us and happy to have a second chat, and almost all of them said they will come to the meetings.

Now we just have to keep praying that nothing stops them from coming to the meetings, and that I recognise them all when I see them.

You may have noticed the interesting names we give people, it's because we don't always remember or find out their real name - plus the descriptions help me remember their stories.