God is at Work!!
Praise the Lord brothers and sisters! In these last three weeks we have seen 3 new souls come to the Lord.
The first person was a lady who made a decision to follow Jesus about 10 days ago in Captain Tilly park. Mursheda was on her way to her car after wrapping up a long day. But when she saw an elderly lady close by on a park bench, she felt prompted to approach her. Her name was Jahanara. After hearing the Gospel story for the first time in her life, Jahanara made a decision to commit her life to Jesus. She prayed together with Mursheda and seemed to be immediately filled with the Holy Spirit. Praise the Lord!!
The second was a young man that I met in the same park on Friday. He had been out jogging with his dog and had sat down for a rest. I struck up a conversation with him and learned that his name was Zubair (though most people here call him “Zee”) and he was from Pakistan. It seems like a missions team that has been doing work here in Queens had already shared the Gospel with him earlier this summer. (And Jordan, I know you guys are receiving this, so yes, this is the same Zee. :-). Since he had spoken to Jordan and his team earlier he was already familiar with the Gospel Story. Although he hadn’t made the decisions to follow Jesus at the time they initially shared with him, since then God has been working on his heart. After much thought and careful consideration, when the opportunity presented itself, Zee finally made the decision to commit his life to Jesus. So right there in the park, Mursheda and I prayed with him as we led him through the sinners prayer. We were able to get the Bible downloaded onto his phone and he went home a changed man!
We were so blessed to see a young man that had been prepared by the Holy Spirit previously, come into the fold of Christ. As Paul said in 1Corinthians 3:6-9a, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are all God’s fellow workers…” Praise the Lord for the ripening of the harvest! It’s been a tremendous summer so far.
Lastly, just today, Mursheda woke up and, though she had been planning on going to visit one of our main supporting churches in Queens, suddenly she felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to stick with the church she had been attending in Astoria, Queens, with several people she had brought to Christ. They were having an evangelism outreach this afternoon which she really wanted to attend. So after accompanying this team into the streets of Astoria she ran into a man named Ahmed, from Yemen. In the next few minutes she shared the Gospel with him and he indicated that he was ready to commit his life to follow Jesus. So right then and there, Mursheda prayed with him and led him through the sinners prayer. Ahmed is the third person that we were able to lead to Christ in these past 2 weeks. Isn’t God so so good?!!
So, please join with us in rejoicing over these new souls that the Lord has brought into His Kingdom. The house churches here in Queens are continuing to grow, as well as those in Bangladesh. Please continue to keep us in prayer and thank you all so much for being an essential part of Center to the Unreached.
Be blessed!
David Westmeier