Resurrection Hope

For over 2 years Proclaim members in Jacksonville have been going out on weekend "fishing trips" to share Christ locally. For the last few months the regular venue has been a park downtown where a lot of homeless or unemployed people spend time. As we have developed relationships we have found believers there who are encouraged and who encourage us, and spiritually needy folks that we are able to share with little by little. Music is usually part of it along with speaking publicly and one on one. Almost every week we see at least one new believer enter the kingdom.

Friends from our church or others join us regularly, and a couple weeks ago it was a special time when our family group came along for the first time. Here is part of the experience of one of the couples, Bernice and Stephen:

Our Family Group met at Hemming Plaza to support the Proclaim Ministry last Sunday.  We felt it was a great way to do evangelism and support missionaries Jim and Kathie Jenkins, who are in our Family Group, and experience what Proclaim does when they travel abroad. Here they are in our back yard doing ministry through music and sharing the word of Christ with the lost in the park.

We arrived a little apprehensive since this was our first visit. But soon we were sharing and praying with individuals, beginning with a young woman and then a young man, each in their early 20s, new to the town and alone. We talked to them and prayed for specific felt needs.

Stephen shared the Million Dollar Question with Kevin, a very interesting man who continued to return to talk about the question. Keven repeated scripture that we shared and seemed to be trying to understand the true meaning. Stephen spoke with him several times and Kevin enjoyed the interaction.

 

We both had other meaningful encounters and prayed with several individuals. The music set the stage to share and visit with people we may have never had the chance to meet any other way. 

This weekend for Easter afternoon we are planning something a little different. Instead of playing, we will set up a projector and screen and show the powerful video of Billy Graham

The Cross - from My Hope America  

We plan to do 2 showings with some selected recorded music and reading of related scripture between the two showings. This might be a good transition to something else we hope to start in the near future -- offering a Bible study to those who are interested. We sense that God is at work in the Plaza!