Where we are for now...

Soooooooooo, here we are again. The traveler party ended up going really really well. The weather was absolutely atrocious all that week, so naturally one of our main prayer requests all week was for the weather to break since it was to be an outdoor party. Come the day of, the sun broke through for the first time in probably ten days so that was a victory in and of itself. There ended up being a pretty fair sized gathering of travelers from two different camps. We had food, and music, and gave away some prizes through raffles. One of the ladies that ended up with one of the prizes from a raffle told a friend of ours that it was the first time in her life she had actually won anything, and that we didn't understand how much that meant to her. Just one testimony like that is enough for me to feel like it was a great success. It really was a lot of fun though, and all the people that came thanked us and genuinely seemed to enjoy it. So much stuff that these people ( the travelers aka gypsies) have had to live with their entire lives is astonishing and is honestly very similar to what the African Americans had to go through with the civil rights movement. They have been refused service in public areas, run out of certain towns, and lied to and used by any and all forms of government including even paramilitaries. Our heart is to continue building relationships with them and earning their trust. We want to bless them with the gospel, but we also want to find areas to bless them in practical ways, one thing we are currently trying to work on is a basic reading and writing class for them, as most of the grown ups in the camp have never been taught how, and that dramatically hurts their chances for employment, above and beyond the social prejudices already at work against them in the biased minds of most of society here.
Homeless outreach is really one of my favorite times, I think we will possibly start blogging briefly each week just to tell the testimonies from this night alone. One quick story, a couple of Tuesdays ago, one of our groups just happened to run into this homeless guy and as they told him about the love of Jesus he just broke down and started crying. They brought him back to the rest of the group and after spending several hours ministering to him and just loving on him, Alan and I ended up putting him up in our house for the evening, so that he would not have to sleep on the streets. He was an alcoholic and struggling with homosexuality for a long time, he genuinely wanted to give the Lord a chance though. Some lady had been trying to take him to her church to do rehab for a while but he would always refuse. That night though something broke through and when she just happened to call later on, he said he would go with her the next day!!! After going to the Vineyard church she had been wanting him to go to for a long time, he was telling them about what had happened to him the previous day (keep in mind this church is about 45 minutes away from Belfast and we have never met these people) as he tells them that the two guys he stayed with are originally from Alaska, one of the ladies tells a guy who is on staff there about us because she knows he is from Alaska originally also. Turns out he is from our same hometown in the AK and I even knew him and his whole family!!! How awesome is God?!?! Just so you know, the man is still going through rehab and doing well!!! Praise God!!!
I will try to wrap this up quickly, we are still working on starting a house of prayer and currently have weekly prayer meetings. We are going to be starting a “Spirit and Word” night on Saturdays soon, just a chance for all of our Christians friends that we have here to get together and have a safe environment to step out in their giftings. We will rotate who leads worship, who teaches, who preaches, who gives a word etc. each week according to what each person feels called to or just wants a chance to step out in. It should be a great way to encourage our brothers and sisters, and all move forward together. We are also in the middle of a semi-corporate 40 day fast, which is going really well for the most part, though your prayers are very much desired. We are at a point here in the ministry where we really need breakthrough in a couple areas to continue on. So yeah short but sweet huh? haha Thanks for your patience and we really are trying to find a way to blog every other week so that they won't be so long.

be blessed,

Evan