Every year in our town, usually the Thursday about a week before Christmas, the street is closed off late in the afternoon and a street party/ carnival takes place, during which the shops hope to sell more products than they would otherwise.
Last year, for the first time, we took a table and some products from our Christian Bookshop and also our nativity figures and were just there as a low-key witness to the real meaning of Christmas amidst the worldliness and commercialism of it all.
This year we repeated the process and we asked Troy to sing some God-songs- just a couple of brackets using an ordinary guitar amp and microphone.
It wasn't a big deal and was meant to just say "Christ is here."
Interestingly, shortly after Troy started singing, the rev-heads started up the engine on a boat they had parked in the middle of the street nearly opposite where we were. It was a horrible noise, and when they revved it up, the sound level was horrendous. People were covering their ears, babies crying. They kept that up for some time. Somebody must have called the police, because they came by and had a little chat to the lads. Next time, they only ran it for 15 seconds and didn't rev it at all. This wasn't about people trying to be smart- it was a spiritual attack.
Again we had plenty of chances to talk to people, some of whom we have now known for years. You can see that some of them are coming close to the kingdom. We don't preach at people, but we do let them know that we are consistent in what we do and believe and that we care about them. Sometimes we even get to talk about Jesus.
We had several people come to us and say "It is so good that you are here reminding people of the real meaning of Christmas."
The other interesting observation is to see people literally crossing the road to avoid out little stall. The spirit of fear is so strong in them that they just cannot come near to anything smelling faintly of God.
We took over $800 worth of stock with us tonight and came home having sold-- wait for it! $2 worth!!
That's all right because there's plenty of people needing to make a profit from consumers. There aren't too many wanting to take time to share God's love.
It was a good night and I feel that God was pleased by our humble efforts.
No comments:
Post a Comment