One of the top days of ministry happened a couple day ago. My team and the other team we've been working with this month grabbed some tea, cookies, treats and a guitar and headed to the park.
We just wanted to invite people to service and talk with them and pray for anything they needed prayer for.
One of our translators, Raivita, and I went for a little walk to rally some people to come to the park and just talk and hang out with us. When we were back to the park at the other end we met a guy named John. He was intoxicated and continued to say, "I'm sorry." and "Thank you very much." He was stumbling and kept stopping to tell me he was an alcoholic, but we eventually made it over to where the others had gathered. He didn't want to come up and have tea and treats at first because he kept saying (in Latvian) how ashamed he was. I told him we just wanted to talk to him and give him some warm tea and cookies.
He sat down on the bench as my teammates and squadmates were singing songs of worship. I gave him some time to drink his tea before I went over to talk to him.
When we started talking he was thanking me and telling me how much of a good person I am for doing this. I was able to tell him how much I have struggled in my past and that the only reason I was standing there with him was by God's grace and love that He showed me, which radically changed my life.
As I was talking tears started streaming down his face and I shared with him how much God loves him and still loves him no matter what he has done. After a few minutes one of my squadmates, our translator and myself prayed for John and I could tell he was deeply moved and God was working in his heart.
I went over and started singing with the others and John kept sitting there and had another cup of tea.
The next time I looked over my teammate Austin was talking to him and they seemed to be having a really good conversation. Austin told me later that John had accepted Jesus as his Savior and they talked about getting help with his addiction.
The next day when it came time for service, all the people we had talked to including John did not show up. There was a moment of sadness, but I know that the Lord touched hearts while we were in the park. The area we are serving in is ripe for harvest, and I know that I may not see it but God is going to radically transform that area of town.
An older Russian man and woman came up for tea and treats as well and we had fun talking and sharing with them. They also shared some with us as well and I wanted you to see a little bit of the fun we had while in the park.
