Easter Report

That was a tiring evening – but the Lord really blessed! We had a lot of repeats, but both services were full. We were somewhere in the high 50s, I think. It is absolutely ridiculous to me that we have to have two services just to fit that many people, but that’s our reality. The second service had more than 40 people, and that was definitely pushing our comfort level. As for the preaching, those guys really did awesome! S. taught the first service, and he was more engaging as a speaker than I’d ever heard him! T. did the second, and besides going over on his time and a rabbit trail or two, his message had some very strong places. That second service was tough, though. A lot of tired people, crowded conditions, etc. I recorded all of S.’s message, but my tape/battery ran out on T.’s. They’d both changed their messages in huge ways in the past 24 hours, but I think for the better.  

Lots of first time visitors last night. I talked to one before the service who wanted to know what Easter was about, and how I as a representative of Western religion expected to be received in an Eastern culture (she asked that in a nice way, if you can imagine). I told her that fortunately true Christianity was neither Western nor religious. Her big question, which she worked her way up to quickly, was about death and the afterlife. She wanted to know if Christianity had some kind of definite answer about it. She had some background knowledge about the Buddhist system, so it was fortunate that I had read that book about Buddhism this week. I gave her a Bible and asked her to read the life of Jesus for herself and make her own decision. Which out of all the things I say when I witness to people here, that seems to make the biggest difference. People just don’t expect “religious” people to tell them investigate for themselves and make their own decision. That’s the good thing about serving a resurrected Lord – we can leave the beating people up to Him. 

An adult came to our service last night – yeah, I know, but it’s an event to us! We gave her the “oldest-person-ever-to-come-to-Omega” award (okay, not really). She brought her six-or-so-year-old daughter, whose greatest desire is to become a pastor. This lady lives on the campus nearest our building, where I hear she has opened a Christian bookstore! Don’t know how she pulled that off, but if she comes on a less-crazy night, I’ll find out.