Well!! Finally I have an afternoon to devote to the internet! So I am going to do another string of posts about various things... and these ones will include pictures!!
First post for today, will be to fill you in on the festival. Last you've read, we were very very excited to be postering the town! So here's what happened after that post....
Steve and I went that night to go do posters again. Suddenly, as we were getting ready to go out with the team... conflict arose!
It turns out, that the postering team didn't feel like we (white people) were safe going out with them that late at night. If anything happened to us they would feel responsible (and I would hope, somewhat sad)...and SOOOO Steve and I were taken off of night postering and given the more important (as I like to call it) job of handing out handbills during the day. (Jokes on them anyways, the city got angry about all the posters and a lot of them had to be scraped off eventually).
So ok. We are handbill handerouters. And we totally rock at it! But then.... conflict arose!
It turns out, that the handbilling team (they are led by the same people as the postering team) didn't feel like we (white people) were safe going out with handbills in broad daylight. (You may think they were being.... purposefully difficult....that is a possibility, but just maybe, there is some sort of reverse vampire species here). Anyways, if anything happened to us they would feel, of course, responsible (and I would hope, but strongly doubt-- somewhat sad)...and SOOOO Steve and I were taken off of broaddaylight handbilling and given the infinitely more important (as I like to call it) job of folding posters to put in newspapers. In our hotel room. (Jokes on them anyways, the city got angry about all the handbills and they weren't allowed to finish distributing them).
During the nights of the actual festival though (Sept 29-Oct 2) we ran cameras and taped the event.
The festival itself (put on, if you'll recall, by Peter Youngren/World Impact Ministries), was a great success! Thousands (literally) came every night. Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and others, all came to hear about God's undiscriminating love for all people everywhere.
And there were healings! Blind people that could suddenly see, deaf people that could suddenly hear.... and lame people who could suddenly walk! That's the power of the Gospel! God's unearned, undeserved and completely unmerited favour. My favourite healing story was this woman, Aminah. A team went and interviewed her the next day for her story, and here it is (paraphrased): For quite a long time, she has suffered with pain all over her body, and it has really been affecting her mobility, and of course, day to day living. Well, she is Muslim, and didn't really get all the Jesus talk that was going on, but she raised her hands when PY instructed people to, and she was just going along with the crowd, and then all of the sudden, she felt someone lifting her up! But there was no one that was actually helping her. She was really confused, because she thought you had to go up on stage to be healed, so she wasn't even expecting anything from where she was sitting, but, as she summed it up the next day, "I think it must have been that Jesus". Her pain is gone and she can move around again unhindered!!It was great to see people come to the realization that God's love isn't only for Christians, God's love is for everyone who will receive it!!
First post for today, will be to fill you in on the festival. Last you've read, we were very very excited to be postering the town! So here's what happened after that post....
Steve and I went that night to go do posters again. Suddenly, as we were getting ready to go out with the team... conflict arose!
It turns out, that the postering team didn't feel like we (white people) were safe going out with them that late at night. If anything happened to us they would feel responsible (and I would hope, somewhat sad)...and SOOOO Steve and I were taken off of night postering and given the more important (as I like to call it) job of handing out handbills during the day. (Jokes on them anyways, the city got angry about all the posters and a lot of them had to be scraped off eventually).
So ok. We are handbill handerouters. And we totally rock at it! But then.... conflict arose!
It turns out, that the handbilling team (they are led by the same people as the postering team) didn't feel like we (white people) were safe going out with handbills in broad daylight. (You may think they were being.... purposefully difficult....that is a possibility, but just maybe, there is some sort of reverse vampire species here). Anyways, if anything happened to us they would feel, of course, responsible (and I would hope, but strongly doubt-- somewhat sad)...and SOOOO Steve and I were taken off of broaddaylight handbilling and given the infinitely more important (as I like to call it) job of folding posters to put in newspapers. In our hotel room. (Jokes on them anyways, the city got angry about all the handbills and they weren't allowed to finish distributing them).
During the nights of the actual festival though (Sept 29-Oct 2) we ran cameras and taped the event.
The festival itself (put on, if you'll recall, by Peter Youngren/World Impact Ministries), was a great success! Thousands (literally) came every night. Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and others, all came to hear about God's undiscriminating love for all people everywhere.
And there were healings! Blind people that could suddenly see, deaf people that could suddenly hear.... and lame people who could suddenly walk! That's the power of the Gospel! God's unearned, undeserved and completely unmerited favour. My favourite healing story was this woman, Aminah. A team went and interviewed her the next day for her story, and here it is (paraphrased): For quite a long time, she has suffered with pain all over her body, and it has really been affecting her mobility, and of course, day to day living. Well, she is Muslim, and didn't really get all the Jesus talk that was going on, but she raised her hands when PY instructed people to, and she was just going along with the crowd, and then all of the sudden, she felt someone lifting her up! But there was no one that was actually helping her. She was really confused, because she thought you had to go up on stage to be healed, so she wasn't even expecting anything from where she was sitting, but, as she summed it up the next day, "I think it must have been that Jesus". Her pain is gone and she can move around again unhindered!!It was great to see people come to the realization that God's love isn't only for Christians, God's love is for everyone who will receive it!!
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