Last year God added to our church, 12 men, who new to the faith, were baptised and are now regularly being discipled, and such a blessing they have been to us. But it all began with simply listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
We had one young man from Iran, coming regularly to church, faithfully attending even though he spoke hardly any English. Having already for several years, translated our sermons through various means into Cantonese, for those who attend who come from Hong Kong, I felt the quiet nudge from the Holy Spirit, that we should put some of our scripture verses into Farsi. The first time I did this sadly he wasn’t there, but I persisted.
Whilst on holiday in June, The Holy spirit spoke to me about being a traditional church pastor, I knew exactly what he meant by that, for me to stand at the gate of the church and talk to people as they walked past. One of our leaders grabbed hold of this idea, and that Sunday, we trialled it. Another young man from Iran was walking past and was ushered into the church by this leader. He happened to see the couple of scriptures in Farsi and was encouraged to see that we may be a welcoming church to those from his nation, the next week he returned with a friend and the week after with another. We began to meet with them in the week to hear their stories and to share the gospel because 2 out of 3 of them were not yet saved. Amazingly the young man that had been walking by had a degree in translation and we knew this was Gods provision, to help us to talk to all who were joining us. In a local coffee shop through this young man acting as translator, I shared the gospel, and both the translator and the other young man with us, received Jesus. The following Sunday the numbers multiplied as our now new beliver and translator spoke to all he could and brought more people, and suddenly there were 9 men from the same nation in the congregation. When prompted by a brother in the Lord to share the gospel, I did just that, with the translator who had only prayed the prayer of salvation himself the week before, translating. I shared the gospel, directly speaking to these young men, asking the rest of the congregation to pray. When it came to their response, they all chose to stand, and boldly repeated the prayer of accepting Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Truly the most amazing and Holy moment. The following week man arrived and came to the Lord as well. It has been an amazing time watching these men, learning about Jesus, through weekly discipleship and baptism classes and seeing them all baptised.
Due to their refugee or asylum seeker status, many will just be passing through, but I feel strongly that we are called The Gate for a reason, we have been The Gate for these young men who have come into this country , the Gate which they have passed through to find Jesus, aligned perfectly in God’s plan, which I believe is that that they find Jesus before they are released in to the country or are sent elsewhere. And indeed, we have sadly had to let some go that have had to move on through no choice of their own, though they do not leave Jesus behind. Being obedient to the Holy Spirit and listening to his leading has led us to receive the wonderful blessing of knowing them but most importantly the blessing of knowing we are walking in Gods will and being like Jesus, in our actions.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you invited me in,
Matthew 25:35
I am so grateful to have known each of these men who have been nothing but kind, humble, and teachable, and for all that have helped with loving them and helping them with discipleship classes, English lessons, and loving them at connect groups.
But most of all I am grateful for that moment of hearing from the Holy spirit and following what he said, and what He has done as a result, and all the lives that have been affected positively for Him, all glory to Him.
How much more could be achieved, and what amazing adventures could we all go on if we would only listen to His voice every day, and follow him.