God is Faithful!

Good morning!

    I am just coming off a wonderful weekend in the Lord’s house and how full of blessings it was! I had a three day weekend this week how refreshing that always is. On Friday, I took the opportunity to drive myself and my brother, Steven, up to Fort Wayne. We got lunch, had coffee, and spent some time walking around the mall. It was a much needed day off. On Saturday, we had bus meeting and went soul-winning and visiting in the morning. I have gone out soul-winning every weekend since I moved here, and while I have had some people seem interested in riding the bus or attending services, I have never had a response like I did this Saturday. 

    I’ll be quite transparent in saying that lately, I have been somewhat discouraged from lack of results when ‘cold’ door knocking. I have seen results from meeting families of bus riders or friends of theirs, but I have always struggled knocking on stranger’s doors and seeing someone respond to the gospel. I was even praying this week, that the Lord would help me meet a family member of someone who came, since I had never really seen anyone new be willing to listen. Near the end of our door-knocking, I had a young lady come to the door, at first I wasn’t sure she would want to listen to me, but as I talked to her about our services, different ministries, and upcoming Spring Program, I noticed she was listening with interest. Then she started to ask me questions about the church. She asked about what we believed, and then asked if we had an addictions program. We do! I quickly gave her the information that I had, and she was so excited. She and her husband had been looking for a Christian church with an addictions program. They had gone to church in the past but were not satisfied with how they were welcomed. Right before I turned to go, I stopped, not sure if it would be worth trying to witness now or if I should come back. I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to go for it, but the doubt that they would listen crept up anyway. I decided to try. As soon as I asked her, she invited me in, turned off the tv, turned down their music, and sat her husband down to listen to what I had to say. NEVER in my years of soul-winning have I had an opportunity like this, nor have I been with someone and seen this happen. Sure, I’ve heard stories from the past where this has happened, but how encouraging to see it happen for me! I took my New Testament, walked them through the verses-every verse and new idea, brought a barrage of questions from either this lady or her husband. They were listening and thinking! I went through, not only the plan of salvation, but also some other verses to answer other questions about different things they were struggling with. I sat on their couch for about an hour, just going through Scripture and answering questions with both of them. We did get through the plan of salvation, but I did not pray with them. Though I truly believe that they understood what I was saying, and I think that had I pushed them to do so, they would have prayed, they had so many other questions that needed answers and I just could not answer them all. Once I had answered as many of their questions with the Bible as I could, I gave them our church information again; They promised me they would be attending the Thursday evening service and the Friday night addictions program. I am so excited to see God work in this young couples lives. God is so good to use us, even when we have doubts and are not worthy of it. God is so amazing! I am so grateful for this lesson He has taught me, removing my doubts, and using me in spite of them. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Thank you all for your prayers and support,

Beca Pape