Report from Sarah DeRidder
Written May 4th, 2009
The part of the Gospel that people always seem to object to is the part that concerns Jesus. Nobody objects to the idea of a God of love, but start to talk about how He paid for all our sins with his own blood, and you will get a reaction.
Today in Ujung Teran we were taken aside on the stage FIVE TIMES, while the children’s festival was in progress, and told there was no need to use Jesus’ name. That we could continue on with the festival as long as we didn’t tell the ‘Christian story’. Finally, just as I was finishing an example of Jesus taking our place, the head of the village stopped me on stage and told me if we didn’t stop talking about Jesus we had to leave.
PRAISE GOD for His loving kindness and mercy towards us! I continued to ask the children, ‘Now you know that someone has paid for your sins. If you knew someone who took your punishment, wouldn’t you want to be that person’s friend?’ A moment later they all prayed to receive Jesus. Praise God!
It was clear by the number of kids who came that many were not present being warned off by the Muslim leaders. In spite of this I spotted several hands raised in Muslim fashion as we were praying together. I learned afterwards that the school-teachers had threatened to kick the kids out of school for 2 weeks if they attended the children’s festival.
Such a strong reaction is a sign that we are on the right track! Someone once told me that the worst reaction we can get is no reaction at all. If you read the book of Acts it was very extreme; either people got saved, or you got kicked out, or worse. There are no in-betweens. Instead of being discouraged I am burning with the desire to reach out more and more!
I want to thank you for praying for me. While my heart breaks over those who rejected the gospel today, I rejoice for those that heard it and received it! It is not possible that God’s word could return void. ‘For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God’ 1 Cor 1:18.
This will be my last update for a while since I am now preparing to go back to Canada on May 14th. I plan to return on missions in September. Thank you again for praying! Thank you for giving! I could never say that enough.
God Bless!
- Sarah
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