Thursday, January 30

In the morning, we had coordination at the campus house as usual. We took time to pray over each appointment today and for the students that were personally contacted to come to the seminar tonight. Throughout the day, we had another time of tabling in the student union, and there were also a number of second appointments with students. At the seminar, a brother who graduated from the University of Minneapolis came to speak about his experiences of the Lord as the antidote for anxiety in college and after college. He shared that the easiest way to live a life free from anxiety is to call on the name of the Lord, just like the prophet Jeremiah’s experience in Lamentations 3:55-56. There were five new students that came to the seminar; they all seemed to be positive and lingered to talk more with us at the end of the event.

One of the highlights earlier today was when a trainee went out to preach the gospel with a core student in the campus club. They met a girl who said she was not religious. The sisters told her that they were not either and that they just wanted to introduce her to a living Person, the Lord Jesus. They led this student to call on the name of the Lord.

Statistics (from the last two days):

• Flyers: 313
• Tracts: 283
• Contacts: 14
• Prayed: 1
• Bibles and Basic Elements of the Christian Life: 4
• Second appointments: 4

Friday, January 31

Today, we gathered together for a time of coordination, singing, and prayer. We have really been enjoying the hymn, “What will turn our sorrows to joy? Abounding thanks, unceasing praise!”. Mentioning the ones that came to the seminar, we prayed that the Lord would open their hearts and cause them to seek Him. One encouraging story was that one student opened up about God feeling far away from him even though he grew up in a Christian home. He wanted to start talking to God and reading the Bible more. He actually had wandered into the seminar thinking it was a different group and ended up staying for the entire time.

After coordination, we headed to campus to have lunch with students. The sisters split into two groups and met with two existing students. It was good to spend some time with them, getting to know one another. The brothers also had appointments, one with a student that came to the seminar and another with a trainee’s friend that is open to us. After some rest in the afternoon, we split into several groups for Friday night meetings across Minneapolis/Brooklyn Park. One group stayed at the campus house for the Christians on Campus’s board game night with students, one group went to the young people’s meeting, and another group joined their hospitality’s home meeting. At the young people’s meeting, four trainees shared their testimonies about how they got to the Full-time Training and had a Q&A session.

Prayer Burdens:

• Pray for the ones that came to the Thursday seminar, that the Lord would stir up their hunger to know Him and His Word
• Pray for the community outreach time this Saturday as trainees and community saints go door-knocking in Minneapolis
• Pray for the Lord to cover the health of the trainees and the saints in Minneapolis/Brooklyn Park

For the past few days the London team has labored with the following three burdens in view:

1. Appointments on campus with established contacts
2. The Bibles for Canada seminar
3. Shepherding the young people at the young people’s meeting

Every team has had their hands full with appointments with established contacts on Western University and some teams have even met with the same contacts on multiple occasions. The Lord has really caused a hunger for the word on this campus, and in many appointments the contacts themselves came with questions for the team concerning the Bible and concerning God. One contact in particular was so impressed with the footnotes of the Recovery Version that the very next day they invited their housemates to come for an appointment to see what it was all about.

This evening the team hosted two Bibles for Canada seminar - one on King’s college and another at the meeting hall in London. At the Bibles for Canada seminar, 29 attendees showed up with three new ones and all three were saved and called on the Lord!

Lastly, the trainees had the opportunity Thursday night to share their testimony to the young people.

Prayer Burdens:

• Pray for all of the appointments and key contacts the team met with this week. Pray that they would all continue on with their relationship with the Lord, their reading of the bible, and that they would be further connected to some in the church life here.
• Pray for the three that received the Lord at the Bibles for Canada seminar this evening that they would grow in the Lord
• Pray for the young people in London and their going on together.

We are continuing to enter into the homes and the campus labor in Cincinnatti. Every night, the trainees have split into twos and threes to attend home meetings at the homes of different families. A number of newer students have been joining these times. It is encouraging to see these ones enter into the homes, as the homes are key to the growth in life of the students contacted here. Please pray for the continued strengthening of the homes in Cincinnatti.

Some trainees also had the opportunity to present a brief message at the weekly on-campus Bible study. There were a few new students who came because of our GTCA flyers! This was a valuable opportunity for us to see how the saints here have adapted the style of the Bible studies to best care for the wide variety of students in attendance. A critical challenge facing the saints here is how to best labor given their very limited resources. Adapting the Bible study to suit the needs and conditions of the students has been a key strategy in addressing this issue. Please pray for the Lord’s continued leading in how to most prudently labor on this campus and that He would bring in more saints and a full-time team according to His timing.

Friday (1/31/20)

The trainees joined some community saints at the meeting hall to personally contact the students we met this week. We had nearly 300 contacts from the week! We also wrote detailed notes for each contact for the church in Orlando to use for future follow up.

Six new ones came to the home meeting that night. We enjoyed singing for nearly an hour and read the “Lost and Found” tract. One student shared, with tears in her eyes, that she’s felt lonely in Orlando and is happy to have a family in the church now. Another new one shared that he had been praying to meet believers outside of religion who love the Lord and is happy to find the church! Praise the Lord!

Prayer Burdens:

• The Lord would bless the upcoming follow up of the very open students and that the church would gain some remaining fruit

Greetings from the Charlotte, NC team. On Tuesday, January 28, half the team and local saints went to Uptown, the central business district of Charlotte to distribute Bibles, while the rest of the team continued tabling at UNC Charlotte.

It was the very first time in the history of the Church in Charlotte that the saints had gone to the financial district to preach the gospel. The church is burdened to reach the hungry seekers in the business industry. Within 45 minutes, we gave out 30 Bibles. By the end of our time there, 365 gospel tracts were handed out. On the next day, January 29, five local saints, two full-timers and two brothers on the team continued the labor there and distributed 100 gospel tracts.

Meanwhile, the labor at UNC Charlotte also gained positive responses. On Tuesday, January 28, we presented the Recovery Version to 36 students and 34 of them signed for further contact. Forty-six Bibles and 90 tracts were given out by the end of the day. On Wednesday, January 29, we distributed 54 Bibles and 107 tracts, and received contact information from 27 students who expressed interest in having appointments and Bible studies on campus. A senior college student, after discovering eye-opening insight into God’s Word through the footnotes on Romans 8:28, said, “I always knew I had been merely scratching the surface in my Bible study. There must be something deeper and more profound! This study Bible is amazing!”

In addition to the gospel activities, the team continued to blend with the local saints in Charlotte. On the morning of Wednesday, January 29, four sisters on the team had lunch fellowship with four college sisters from both Central Piedmont Community College and UNC Charlotte. The brothers enjoyed spending time with the local saints as well.

Statistics:

January 28

• Bibles: 76
• tracts: 455
• contact information collected: 34

January 29

• Bibles: 54
• tracts: 207
• contact information collected: 27

Prayer Burdens:

• The Lord would release the contacts to attend the gospel meeting at UNC Charlotte on Thursday evening, January 30.
• The Christian students on campus at UNC Charlotte would gain many core students this semester.
• More local saints would be burdened to join the door knocking in four different neighborhoods on Lord’s Day afternoon, February 2.