Vegetarians and the Gospel

I was having coffee today with Pastor Habib Sakr of Grace Chapel. He told me about an agnostic man who visited church this past Sunday. Habib had an opportunity to dialogue with him after the service. As a vegetarian, the young man was very interested in the state of mankind before the fall: mankind as vegetarians! What a way to begin a conversation about God, the Bible and his original design (no death! no meat!). Who knows, such a conversation could lead to a conversation about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in which death was defeated once and for all. Some may think this idea is corny, but I imagine that most vegetarians would find this interesting. Just an idea.

Grace Chapel’s Childrens Outreach: Week #2

The Gospel was proclaimed again! Thursday evening was another beautiful night at the park area of Lincoln Alexander School in Markham! I was delighted to co-labour with many of the saints from Grace Chapel. This evening was very different than week #1, for we had more kids to minister to (which was great!), but not nearly as many adults to interact with afterwards.

We started the evening program with a boys versus girls game (and the caterpillar competed as well!). The kids solved a word puzzle, which read, “God’s Power Points to Christ.” God’s Power is the second P that points to Christ in our summer series in Exodus: Exploring Egypt to Sinai: 4 P’s that Point You to Christ! Here is a picture of the word puzzle by the end of the game (which the boys won this time!):

Thereafter, Daniel S. taught a truth using a trick. He taught that God has power over all things in the universe. He is the one who holds all things together. Here is a picture of the climax of his trick (how is he holding up the pole?!!):

 

Mary K. led us in a really fun and dramatic song again! Afterwards, I preached the Gospel using the sketchboard. Here is a picture of me preaching Christ from the Passover:

In our first week, we had around 6 to 8 kids (or so). By the grace of God, this time we had around 15! Here is a picture of what the final sketch looked like (the title was supposed to say “God is Powerful to Save!”):

In the first square (top left), I taught about God’s power displayed in the the first 9 plagues in Egypt. I explained how each of the plagues represented that God was more powerful than the Egyptian false gods. We talked about the fact that we too have false gods. In the second box (top right) I explained how we are like Pharaoh in that we have sinful and hard hearts like him (with a host of our own false gods). I taught that “we want to be the kings and bosses of our lives,” but that such sin is the reason why we die. Just like Pharaoh deserves death, we deserve death.

In the third box (bottom left), I described the plague of the death of the firstborn. We looked at the Passover and how the firstborn sons of Israelites were saved by the blood of the lamb.

Thereafter, in the last box, I preached on God’s power displayed in the parting of the Read Sea. This was a great way to talk about how God can save us from our sins. Thus, I went back to the third box and painted the Cross, preaching the Gospel and emphasizing how God’s power points to Christ and how Christ is powerful to save us from our sins.

Though we were not able to have many conversations with adults afterwards, Pastor Habib was able to give a NT to a Hindu man who allowed his two children to enjoy our entire kids club because “it is good for them to learn more about Jesus.” This man listened to the entire message himself! Praise the Lord for his glorious Gospel – may it spread throughout all of Markham.

Week #3 (of our 4 week series) is this Thursday night at 7:30!

Getting Ready to Help Grace Chapel

I was greatly encouraged to have enjoyed sweet fellowship with my brothers Habib and Raphi yesterday. We met to plan how I can best serve Grace Chapel (in Markham). Though not all the details are set, one thing we have planned is very exciting! We are going to do an open air preaching outreach for children, which is a one hour kids program.  I will preach from a large sketch board and use bright paints to help illustrate (visually) the message that I will be preaching (orally). The location is the playground (park) just north of Alexander Public School in Markham. The time is every Thursday night in July from 7-9 PM! Please come . . . and please bring some children. 

If you are in the Markham area, please join us on any (or all) of these Thursday nights! Or, if you know of anyone in the area, please let them know. Or if you are interested in learning more about how to do evangelistic outreach to kids in your neighbourhood, please come and check it out. Maybe it could be a source of encouragement for you and your church. We will do a four week series called “Exploring Egypt to Sinai: 4 P’s to Point You to Christ!” May Christ be glorified as He is preached from Exodus, and may he draw many to himself. In addition, we hope to use this outreach to help inform people of the summer Bible camp for kids that Grace Chapel is running July 6-31. The camp will take place at Chinese Baptist Church in Markham.