Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims

The official trip we are on is called LEAP, which stands for London Evangelism And Prayer. As a part of the trip, and to help us pray for the people of southeast Asian decent with whom we have been speaking, we have received quite an education in the beliefs of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims.

Monday we went to a Hindu temple, the biggest one outside of India (I think I wrote more about it in a previous post). Today we went to a Muslim Mosque and a Sikh Temple. Before our visit, we also watched two short videos on the beliefs and customs of the two religious groups and heard from two men who had found Christ through the team here. One used to be Sikh and one Muslim. I realized how uneducated I was. For instance, did you know that Muslims believe Jesus was perfect, is in heaven now and will return one day? Unfortunately, they don't believe that he is God's Son or that he actually died on the cross, therefore, they don't accept his death to cover sin and give everlasting life. They have taken out the most important and most beautiful part of the story and replaced it with a works based system of doing good and evil and hoping your good outweighs your evil so that you can go to heaven.

We observed a prayer time and funeral at the Mosque and were toured around the Sikh temple. The men were very kind, answered all of our questions and explained more of their beliefs. We were not there to debate theology, but to be observers in their way of thinking to be able to be better equipped in evangelism.

Tonight we had our first time of door to door evangelism. It was a bit frightening, but they sent us out in groups and gave us a survey sheet to give us a reason to talk to the people and engage them in conversation. Our experience was very positive! A number of people weren't home or were not interested in talking, but we spoke to five people who shared about themselves and had a positive encounter with someone representing the New Life Masik Ghar (probably spelled wrong) Church in their neighborhood. Our goal was to engage them in conversation, ask questions and find out if they are interested in any follow-up from a team member or have any needs that can be met by the church. We have two more evenings of door to door evangelism and two afternoons of working the book table (a form of street evangelism/relationship building with the community). We will report back with more specific stories after those days.

Praise God I had a much better day physically today. Thank you for praying!!! God is answering. Several people here have been very sweet when they found out I had morning sickness. One lady told me she prayed for me during dinner that it would settle well with my stomach (we had greesy pizza). It touched me that she thought of me during her meal even though we weren't sitting together.

Well, I'm off to bed. Thank you for all the wonderful birthday wishes.