RFCers on the street

Over the past few weeks three RFCers, Lozi, Sam and Edd, have been going out with people from two other churches and have been using the 'Treasure Hunt' framework of evangelism which entails asking God for clues and words which are then written down under headings such as Name, Appearance, Location, Unusual and Ailment/What they need prayer for.


This Sunday Lozi and Edd came and shared some stories with me.  This is a fairly long post but stick with it because the stories are worth it and should help build our faith:


The 8 of us got clues such as 'black railings', 'statue', 'questions', 'Christine', 'museum', 'clock', 'brick floor', 'left ankle', 'black longs and a top with blue & white', the colour 'green' and 'garden'. Based on these and other clues we got, we decided to head for the area around the museum and Forbury Gardens.

 - On the high street we spotted a lady collecting for a charity and saw she had 'black longs with a blue & white top', so we went up to her. We asked if she wanted to prayer for anything and she said to pray for her charity. We asked how her ankle was, and she said that her right ankle was in pain. We asked if we could pray for her and she said yes. We asked if we could pray for her right there and then and she said yes! So, asking if we could lay hands on her foot (she said yes), we knelt down in the street and prayed for her foot. After prayer she said it felt "comfortable". We told her that God loves her and we left her to her charity-collecting.

-Soon afterwards Matthew, Kathy from Vineyard and myself went to Forbury Gardens to see if we could find anyone else. Entering the Gardens we saw the big lion statue, the green grass, the brick floor...location-wise we hitting alot of our clues basically! Kathy felt that the Holy Spirit wanted us to go and talk to a woman who was sat on a bench wrapping presents. So we did. She was a lovely, friendly woman from New Zealand who we soon got into conversation with and was so friendly. (It turns out her mum is called Christine.) We felt the presence of God around her and really saw that God loves her heart for the "down and outs". She had a lot of questions about the bible and stuff, and we got the opportunity to read Psalm 139 to her, shared the testimonies of how we came to know Jesus and how he changed us, told her a bit about his grace and how much he loves her and how she's fearfully and wonderfully made. She let us pray for her as well, and she said that she felt heat. We shared how people react in different ways to God; some cry, some fall over, some don't feel anything but see the later effects, some feel heat and tingles. Her eyes kind of widened when we said about the tingles. She got those too. She also said that she was looking for a fun church, so we gave her a flyer of the 3 churches we were from with our contact details on and invited her along to Reading Family Church. It was so clear that were meant to meet her and it was such a priviledge as well.

-On the way back to the church offices Kathy and I stopped to speak to a homeless guy called Paul to see how was doing and if he needed anything. We didn't have any information on us about shelters or places to eat so we asked God to provide, and within 30 seconds after praying, 2 ladies came up beside us with a piece of paper on with contacts for shelters and places to eat & practical advice. God is good.


These guys are doing a great job of attempting to live out the Gospel and see people introduced to Jesus.  I am planning to go out with them sometime to experience the thrill of hearing from God and then seeing it through.  maybe you too would like to join them.  If so then just comment and I will give you more details.


God is good and He is working in our town through His church.

Cards out... at Verizon!

Over the past few weeks I have had the privilege of going to Verizon at junction 11 to spend time with a small group of people. They are warm, welcoming and  find the time to fit me in amongst the business of a working day.  They come from different departments and indeed companies within the same building, but they all have one thing in common: they are asking questions about Jesus.  We are talking around subjects like suffering, the cross and heaven and hell.

We spend just an hour asking questions, discovering answers together and focussing on Jesus.  Today I was able to give away four venue cards!!!  I am hoping that we will see each of these people who took one at some point in the future, but I hope more than anything that they become followers of Jesus for His glory and His fame.

If you took venue cards away with you on Sunday, have you managed to get one out yet?  If you need some cards then please let us know at the office.

Will Reading get the nod?

Have just read that Gordon Brown gives the thumbs up to Reading becoming a city in 2012.  The full article is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/8544690.stm

I do hope that our town is at last recognised.  I love Reading with it's eclectic mix of people, it's odd mixture of brand new architecture and the contrasting ancient; it's vibrant night life and quiet walks.  A stones through from countryside, yet a growing economic town with constant expansion taking place.  

I came to this town in 1993 and never looked back.  I do hope that we will be celebrating city status, just as those in Wolverhampton and Preston have done!!!