Sunday morning we were planning on going to church before taking the train to Brussels, Belgium. We visited God's Embassy International church, held in the YWAM building, with a Rene, a guy we had met at Shelter City who had just been baptized a couple days before. It was a charismatic and very lively church with people worshipping by waving colorful flags and streamers, dancing throughout the building, and clapping joyfully to the music. We sang this fun song, "God is not dead, no, God is not dead... I feel him all over me. I feel him in my hands, feet, etc... Raise Jesus higher... Stomp Satan lower." While we were singing these lines, there were certain actions that went along with the lines, like raising your arms when you were raising Jesus up, and marching low to the ground when you were stomping Satan lower. Man, that church service was definitely a workout. The sermon was encouraging as well, with the pastor speaking on Romans 7 and 8 about how there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
After the service, we walked briskly to the train station and caught a train to Brussels. Once we arrived at the Brussels Midi train station, we hiked clear across the city with out packs and in the bristeling humidity to our hostel. To our chagrin, we found out that although it was listed as a hostel online, it was in essence a cheap hotel, so we had our own room and bathroom. We were all disappointed, wondering how we were going to meet people if it was just a hotel, but we trusted God that he had us there for a reason. Having very little money for food, we went off in search of something to eat and found a little take away [European for to go] restuarant where we got soup and bread. On our way back to our hotel, we ran into two Canadian brothers, Jonathan and Aaron, and hung out with them for the night. It was fun to hang out with them, and we ended up spending the rest of the night together, having theological and philosophical discussions, learning about why we were all traveling, and getting to know each other. Basically, God just plopped them right into our laps. We went to their hostel that night, and for a while I left the group for a bit and went over to talk to these quirky, fun guys from Tampa I had spoken to earlier. Our conversation eventually went from our plans in Brussels to politics to the gay marriage law that was just passed in CA to Christianity. They knew I was a Christian, or religious at least, when in our introductions they said, "Grace... so are your parents religious or something?" They started peppering me with questions about religion, faith, and God, not really having a complete grasp on the idea of religion or why a young, intelligent person in their right mind would be so devoted to God. Then they asked... "Ok, so what exactly is the Holy Ghost?" Oh no. NOT THE TRINITIY!!!!! EVEN I DON'T QUITE UNDERSTAND THE TRINITY!!! God gave me the words, though, and I ended up explaining God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit in the story of the Gospel. Wow. By my own way I could never have come up with that.
The next day we hung out with Aaron and Jonathan all day, visiting palaces, parks and fun little streets with shops and restaurants. That day was filled with references to our own faith, yet it wasn't forced or pushy. We were basically sharing ourselves with them, while they shared with us. We loved the entire day, chatting away like no other. The highlight of the day was sitting in the shade on some lovely grass for about an hour and a half, relaxing after long walking and the heat. Later that night, the last time we hung out, we gave them Mere Christianity and Blue Like Jazz, books that just seemed to fit perfectly with their personalities and ways of thinking.
Please pray for Aaron and Jonathan, that God will touch their hearts and that they may find truth through those books. Also pray for those guys who I talked to, Graham, Alan and Joe (?) who have very little concept of faith and the work of God. For ourselves, please pray for our team, so that love and patience may abound, and that we may reach an unconditional understanding. Prayer for cheap, yet comfortable hostels, so that we have more money for food (we have very very little right now) is also needed.
Thank you all so much for your prayers and love. We are not in this alone, for you are all partners in this endeavor.
Love you all.
1 comment:
what a WILD church service! sounds like a BLAST! i pray that God will continue to provide both your daily bread and also 'fish' with whom you will wisely and boldly share the Gospel.
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