Recap of this weekend's events
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your ongoing prayers. We concluded our last summer meeting in Fletcher Park this past weekend and held our first outreach booktable in Smiley's market. The weekend was full of teaching, fellowship and great opportunities for sharing the Good News of the Gospel.
The Friday Meeting
John taught the final part of our series in Gospel of Mark on an introduction to Christianity. The focus of his teaching was on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is one of the three pillars of the Christian faith. John explained how the death of Jesus on the cross and his atoning work was not some "plan B" of God, but was the only means by which the world could come to God. This is the Gospel - Jesus, the God-man who alone lived a perfect and sinless life was the only one who could pay the price for all our sins. It's only by believing in Him, that we can be saved from our sins. The vivid picture in the Bible is that Jesus himself was the sheath for God's sword of wrath against sin. It's a powerful and humbling picture for us. Jesus' death was real and effective. He died so that we might live. Like Jesus, all of us will die and be resurrected. The difference is, some will be resurrected to life eternal with Him and many will be resurrected to eternal separation from Him in hell. That's the stark reality.
We were thankful for the encouragement the Wade family provided as they traveled up to worship together with us. It was a bit of a chilly evening and the sun set quickly, but with their help we were able to set down the canopies and pack up the cars in a record 10 minutes! With Fletcher Park everyone has to be out of the park by sundown as the police clear the park, so it was a bit of a race.
Friday Evening to Saturday
After we left the park we went back to the Hostetler home to enjoy a campfire and some amazing brownies cooked up by Lisa. The Wades initially were going to go home but got a little lost on the way and ended up joining us. We had some sweet fellowship around the campfire and John and I got to hear something of Patrick's testimony which was a real encouragement to us.
John and I stayed over at the Hostetler's that evening and of course the conversations went late into the night and early morning. It was great fellowship over spiritual issues and there was lots of joy, encouragement and blessing.
Saturday
When I originally posted the huge arial picture of Smiley's market, I thought it was probably a bit exaggerated.
But having "experienced it" I now believe their claim that between 10-17,000 people come through Smiley's any given weekend. What a tremendous place for ministry! We weren't the only ones who recognized this, obviously, as we also saw Mormon missionaries visiting the tables as well. They didn't come to ours, but we did manage to speak to some of the folks that they spoke to as well. If you are interested in resources on Mormonism, John Divito (former Mormon) has links to several ministries on his blog. We met people from all walks of life and had opportunities to speak of God and to pray with hurting individuals.
Greg, John and I arrived around 8:45 AM and started to setup our table. While we found out that most people actually start outside (the tables outside cost $10 and our table cost $12), we had a great time talking with some of the other vendors and sharing literature with them as well.
The Future
As this was our last meeting of the summer, we laid plans for the future of the Bible Study in the next 8 month. As it is now school time for John and I (not to mention all the Hostetlers) we are moving the study to a monthly schedule at least until Christmas and possibly beyond. We have asked Patrick Shealy to join our regular rotation of teaching and we have been greatly encouraged by his willingness and participation. So starting in October we will meet monthly. We're still trying to work out a date, so please check back here soon and we hope to have that for you. We will start meeting in the Hostetler home, but may also meet in other locations as well. We hope to do some more outreach ministry and especially at the Flea market where there are so many opportunities to meet people and to talk to them about what really matters.
Please continue to keep the Asheville Bible Study in your prayers. We love to have visitors, even if you've never been to Bible Study before. If you have any questions or concerns, if there's anything we can pray for for you, please contact us. Our email contact information is on the sidebar to your right. Also feel free to call me, Chris, at home 864-335-9567.
posted by Chris @ 11:22 AM
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