Evangelism Table in NYC Last Sun.

From Heidi, who is a blessed addition to our outreach team in NYC:

Hello, Dwayna, Shalom and blessings to you!!!

I wanted to provide a brief synopsis of our experience [Sunday] with the Witnessing and Outreach Table Ministry.

As you know, I believe the Lord is working all the time and in different ways and in different people, and His ways are above our ways and His thoughts above ours. Since the time you and I spoke, I have followed your ministry occasionally and have always had a place in my heart for what you are doing, and your burden for the lost and your interest in apologetics and discernment. As you may recall, I was an avid disciple of the Way of the Master ministry and the methodology they employ in presenting the Gospel using the 10 Commandments as a self-test on morality, in essence, a groundbase for all people, to serve both as a tutor as well as a mirror where no man is innocent of breaking God's law. I also appreciated how they explain how to engage people in discussion of spiritual things by first engaging them in physical things. While these are just two ways for one to open up conversation with people in different periods of their life, of course, it is ultimately the Holy Spirit who draws people to the Lord and Who leads them into all truth, and it is He who puts the words in our mouths to speak what needs to be heard.

As such, having this knowledge and experience and then adding onto it all of our (Christine, Suzi and I) concern regarding the apostasy and lack of discernment not only in the world, but in the church at large, we set off in conquest of the world with the preaching of the Gospel in the Great Commission.

Christine and I first attended services at my church, Heritage Baptist Church, Pastor Matthew Recker presiding, where we were blessed to hear a very good sermon on the need for prayer and praying in the right spirit. The need for confession of sins. The need to pray for the church and for God to have His way. The healing of our country and its people and for more people to be saved, among many other things he discussed. We were studying from the book of Exodus and the Israelites' situation at the Marah waters, the bitterness they experienced and God's deliverance and how sometimes our walks can experience Marah moments. With that we were encouraged and Christine and I set off to meet up with Suzy at First Baptist to relocate all the witnessing materials to my Pastor's church offices down on 36th Street and 8th Ave. It seemed that some adversarial forces were trying to prevent Christine and I from getting to the Church sooner than we had hoped, yet arrive we did.

Once there, Pastor Matt and his assistant helped us move the materials out of the church and I was told by Suzi that they had provided a whole slew of tracts. How gracious of them...

Pastor Matt and his assistant hailed a taxi for us after a while of trying, as [Sunday] the city was not great for commuting purposes because of the NYC Marathon. I kept thinking of Paul and his epistle describing our walk as a race that we must run with endurance and finish to perhaps receive a crown. Just as I thought we may not get a cab, I called my Pastor but he didn't answer his cell phone. Right after I hung up, voila, the cab became available.

We loaded our gear into the trunk and back seat of the cab and off we went to the church offices, deciding whether to drop some stuff off and decide on a location to set up. Our driver was a foreigner who, at first, I suspect, Suzi may have thought was Muslim, but when I looked at his name, I told her I thought he may be Indian Hindu. So she started to pesent the Gospel to him and mentioned Caryl Matrisciana to him and her experience coming out of Eastern Religion and yoga, and Suzi managed to give him a small booklet which I believe was the Gospel of John. She then prayed for him and his family's salvation and also prayed for us and our ministry.

We arrived at the church offices and then decided to just take all our stuff down to Penn Station a few blocks away. Once at Penn Station, we tried to set up, but were told by a cleaning guy that it was Penn Sta. property, so then we moved across the street in front of the big post office and set up there. We prayed for the Lord to direct us. We then definitively set up on the sidewalk in front of the Post Office and were there from about 2ish until almost 430 p.m. At first, the weather appeared ominous, but then the sun finally came out, and while it was chilly, it was bearable and the day turned out to be just right.

We handed out alot of materials, Bibles, cds, tracts, teaching cds, apologetics books, and Suzi engaged a few passers-by with the gospel - some were rabbit trailers - and Suzi and I sang a few songs.... A few people whom Suzi and Christine knew managed to walk by, and we were encouraged by them, including a Catholic who took one of the tracts regarding Scripture vs. Tradition (Catholicism).

I was able to speak Spanish and some French to some who came to the table curiously and didn't understand what was going on.... and, using these languages I managed to explain to them that the materials on the table were free and that they talked about God, Jesus and other topics and questions people have regarding life and death and God.

It was a good time, we were blessed, the Lord kept us safe and with no interruptions, and we were free to speak and sing....

Afterwards, we closed up and took all the materials back to the church offices and gave thanks to the Lord for a good day and that He would bless all the seeds we tried to plant.

Thanks again for allowing me to be able to be a help for the girls and we look forward to many more opportunities to go out and preach the Gospel to all creatures.

God Bless and Shalom Aleichem!!!

Heidi