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.