Tuesday July 13th, Wednesday July 14th, and Thursday July 15th
When you come to Western Europe people’s hearts are so often hardened to the Gospel, that you hope to have one spiritual conversion per person per week. If you get to mention how good it is to seek out Jesus as the answer to the troubles in life or to explain the plan of Salvation, then that is pretty unusual. In the last two days here in the Swansea suburb-village of Warnaurloydd, our team has gotten to talk to many people about Jesus. How many people? By a conservative estimate, in the last three days we have shared the Gospel to at least 300 people. And probably more.
It started Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and evening, when we hosted a Children’s Program and a Youth Program each night. Tuesday, our team had only 40 minutes to prepare for the Children’s program. The Crafts group, led by Lyn and Chloe, put together art projects which focused upon Zaccheus, the wee little man, including little art trees for the children to decorate. Without having time to consult the Crafts Group, the Story/Song group also put together a focal point – which just happened to be Zaccheus! Who needs actual human coordination when we have the Holy Spirit to cover a multitude of incoherence?
The two programs with the Children featured songs, a story, crafts, games, and snacks. The songs were amazing. Karri positively gleamed with the Holy Spirit and with the spiritual gift of teaching (are “acting” and “delighting children” considered spiritual gifts?) every time she led a song. Nikki pretended to be too sophisticated and jaded to really relate to children, but Program Commander Craig saw right through that façade and assigned her to serve Children. She also gleamed in leading a children’s song or two of her own, and in connecting with a little red-headed girl with whom she had a long talk about Jesus and Biblical prophecy. Lyn and Chloe somehow make visual, tactile, art projects out of no time or resources at all (except the ones Deedee bought, with great foresight, last week) -- things the children will see and connect with reminding them of Jesus for many days to come in their own homes. Derek and Davida (the head Deacon of Seion Chapel) expected for about 5-6 children to show up. The first night a stunning 14 showed up! The second night, the total was 21, many of whom were first-timers! It seemed to be the social event of the season for the local Welsh children.
The two programs with the Youth featured crazy, loud, and chaotic good times – and a short, proper sermon from Derek on Wednesday evening. Jason and Jennifer worked together leading these programs, with Jason often doing a majority of the planning and Jennifer often serving as the megaphone to actually martial the unruly teenagers. The organizing principle of the youth seemed to be the “featherball.” Allen had bought eight of these gadgets for this mission and had Craig bring them over the sea. The rules are simple – a group standing in a circle must work together to keep the ball in the air, counting the number of times they hit is as a group. It is not as easy to do as it seems, so the game is addictive, fun, and conducive to uniting random people into a team. It is not competitive, so everyone comes away a winner. It is flexible, so that people can step in or out of the game as needed, and it is conducive to conversation. When you finish playing for a few minutes, you feel like you have been introduced to each personality standing around the circle. Once the disparate teens formed into specific groups by the process of feather ball, then they often eventually did other things, sometimes including more feather ball. Jennifer led a large group of girls (and one boy) in playing “Mafia.”
Allen and Jason hit the streets recruiting older teenage boys who had never darkened the door of a church to come have pizza. Eventually they got a small group to come – they worked very hard to stay outside the church building, standing in the alley in the drizzling rain kicking a beach ball with Allen, Jason, and Doug. They only went inside for brief pizza or soda runs. Doug was particularly instrumental in keeping the boys from fleeing at the first (when the pizza was an hour and a half late – after being called in an hour early!) by talking to them of American sports and showing them pics on his Iphone. But then the boys phoned friends to come join them (“of all places at a church!” one was heard to say). One of the boys (Alexander) brought his mum to the pub on Thursday and they both stated that they had never seen anyone ever be so caring and generous to the youth of Swansea, for no particular reason other than to love them and maybe to tell them a little about Jesus. She said that our visit had made a powerful impression upon Alexander. Alexander and Allen traded e-mail addresses – they both hope Alexander (and maybe his mum, Sarah) can visit Oklahoma and stay with the Rices. Derek had expected perhaps 5-6 youths might show up the first night. Twenty One showed up the first night! None of the older teenage boys (perhaps eight in all) could come the second night because it was Prom Night. So the second night other teenagers came – about 20in all!
Wednesday morning seemed especially sweet. The whole team (except for Jennifer who crashed at the hotel – sleeping for 12 hours in a row) went to a little Welsh school behind Seion Chapel and performed at the school assembly. About 220 children showed up (not counting 20 or so in the nursery) to hear Allen narrate the tall tale about Pecos Bill, relating it to Jesus calming the storm in the Gospels. Jason played out the role of Pecos Bill, pratfalling, lassoing Allen’s arm with a lasso, and to the delight of the children, riding a cardboard tornado like a bucking broncho. Then Karri led the children in a delightful and somehow comical version of “My God is so Big!” complete with hand motions and silly voices. It all sounds ludicrous (which it was), but it was a howling success. The children returned the favor by giving us a harp concert beforehand, by singing “My God is so Big” back to us in Welsh, and by reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Welsh. This event was especially meaningful to Allen who was at a children’s school assembly in Glastonbury when he got the call to come back to Britain as a missionary. That he got to speak to the children at a British school seemed to complete the circle he had been working to draw for two years. After the assembly, the Headmistress was so gracious to us that she gave us a tour of every classroom in the school, so that we got to say hello to every child. Then she gave us all tea and biscuits. Even better, she told us that she would love to have us do school assemblies in the future – a great ministry opportunity for Derek and Ruth starting in September.
Thursday Night, Craig split the team into two groups – one group going to the Mason Arms Pub (one-half block from Seion Chapel in Warnaurloydd) for an “American Night” and one group going to Pontiliw to Derek’s mentor’s (Vince’s) church where our team last week had painted the wrought iron fence. The group at the pub danced American line dances (led by Lauren, as usual, exploding in all her Mary Poppins glory) and street dances. The street dances were led by two Swansea youths – a brother and a sister who were the children of Steve, our team’s taxi driver on two occasions. Allen had gotten to share the gospel with Steve and invited him to the barbecue – no one expected him to show up and bring his whole family, including his wife, two daughters and son. Ruth acted as Supreme Hostess, Allen mingled among all the groups, Euros helped out with the dancing and Jason escorted people through the rain to the grill in the back and played on the monkey bars with the youths. Nikki hosted the Welsh/Okie quiz which was a great success, while Chloe, Lyn, Kelly, and Sara hosted the senior ladies from Seion Chapel at a table of their own (on Wednesday, our whole team had hosted these ladies at a tea party in Seion Chapel). All in all, perhaps sixty people crowded into the small room at the back of the pub in a come and go free-for-all that was one of the most spirited and communal social occasions one can imagine.
The group at Pontiliw (Craig, Derek, Karri, Paula, Doug, and Jennifer) had a “Family Night” that turned into a theological question and answer mainly addressed by Craig. A precocious eight year old girl had a list of twenty questions which Craig (and at times others, such as Paula) heroically answered in a way that was both true and intelligible to an eight year old. One example of her questions was “What is the Holy Spirit and what does He look like?” This was a wonderful opportunity for Craig to explain the nature of the Trinity and the purpose of Christ for the salvation of all Christians. Craig took the sheet from the little girl and promised to hang it on his office wall. He plans to e-mail some answers they did not get to cover and to take a picture of the paper on the wall to show her what an impression her questions have made upon him. That girl will get a Ph.D. someday.
Thursday night we all met at Capel Gomer, ate pizza, sang Abba songs, danced disco, and laughed uproariously. It is amazing how this group of 18 or so (counting the Welsh) have bonded so quickly. How can there be so many inside jokes when we have only known each other since Monday? How can we be having this much fun and still call it a Mission?
And yet sharing the Gospel with 300 people in three days isn’t bad for fertile ground like Mexico or Nicaragua, let alone Western Europe. Whoever said sowing couldn’t be fun?
Sounds wonderful!!
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