Update from Ross McGaughran in Ireland
I travelled here to Ireland about six months ago. One Bible passage really stands out as a perfect description of my experience so far: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”.
Here are some examples. I was
away for a weekend with a Viking re- enactment social group and an openly gay man from another social group whispered to one of our members: “Is Ross really a minister? Then why doesn’t he hate me?”
Or when one of the girls from the same group just hours later said: “You are the first Christian I’ve actually met. Why would you pick Christianity instead of anything else?”
Or driving home from a board game night with another friend, who said: “Hang on, did you say you studied theology? We have to chat about that at some point soon.”
Or swimming with another mate: “So what do you actually do at church? Like, what’s the point?”
Chatting with a teen at youth group: “Can you get me a Bible to read?” (This is a huge deal here in Ireland).
Or even sitting at my kitchen table chatting with my roommate/landlord, who asked: “Why do you think that Jesus is the only way to God?”
Now I didn’t want to turn that into a list of cheesy questions from an evangelism textbook, but there you go. I really did have all of those conversations, because the harvest really is plentiful.
There are people all over the place, almost busting, to meet a real Christian in person, to examine how we act, or ask their burning questions, or even just to chat to about their past experiences with church.
So praise God for the plentiful harvest He has prepared. Praise Him for those who are here taking these opportunities, and continue to pray for more Christians to be here so they can be bombarded with evangelistic opportunities.
One such group of Christians recently joined us for a week, and they had the chance to share the gospel with more than 50 children over a four-day outreach kids’ club. At the end of the week we had to ponder whether we could even have that many kids at church. What a fantastic problem to have.
God has been doing an excellent work here in Ireland, and it has been a pleasure to see it firsthand.
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