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The Apple of His Eye shirt was wrapped in a Walmart bag right after coming home from the Smithsonian.
I had hoped to transfer it from my purse to Lois’ purse before worship, but she runs fast!

That was not the end of my evangelism.

I knew it was the beginning.

My element is bus stops, Amtrak trains, and airports.

Today I waited for a bus to get home from the library.

A man sat down beside me.  I’m not entirely stupid, but I have a very short memory, and it is very difficult for me to reconstruct all the details of a conversation, after the fact, but this is generally how it went.

(not wearing the Apple shirt, but wearing my shirt of an underwater coral scene with pink glitter) I asked:

What do you think of Jesus?

Let me think about my answer first.  What do you think?

Jesus was Jewish, he abided by all the Jewish laws set forth in the first five books of the Old Testament.

He was celebrating Passover with the Disciples before he was killed.

The man did not know this. He was interested enough to ask some lead questions which I don’t remember exactly, but it led to further dialogue.  There was a discussion in which we agreed that God made everything, His wisdom is infinite and cannot be fully comprehended by man, and also a discussion of what defines a prophet.

I continued:  Judaism and Christianity are very closely linked.  it’s just that some differences arose shortly after Jesus ascended into heaven, and these differences still exist today.  Jesus is God.  All who believe he lived, and is God, and died for us, will go to heaven.  May I ask what faith you practice?

OK, now I will tell you I am Muslim.  We believe Jesus was a prophet.
We do not believe Jesus is God, for a human man cannot be God.  I don’t want to tell you too much, because I don’t want to hurt your feelings.

You cannot hurt my feelings.  I was the one who started the conversation.

(A new man sat down on our bench.)

I greeted him: Hi.  We were discussing Jesus.  Who do you think he is?

He is God!  I was in the Gha-nee-ah Army (could have been Republic of Ghana, or Republic of Guinea, his
pronunciation was very different).  I served as peacekeeping in Lebanon.  When I was granted leave, I
visited Israel.  I saw where the water was turned into wine, I saw where Jesus was born, I saw the tomb of
Lazarus.  (He mentioned many biblical tourist sites, I can’t remember all the ones he spoke of)  Trust me on
this, he said, at ………bibiblical site…….., if your faith is not strong, it will be after you visit it.  Several people in our group had trembling knees at this place.

Our bus arrived.  I shook hands with each man and thanked them for the conversation.  They seemed to have enjoyed it, as well.

Passport DC is an event sponsored by Cultural Tourism DC. During this time many of the foreign embassies in Washington DC open their doors and invite the general public to visit and to learn something about the culture of their country.  There are “passports” provided that people can have stamped at the various embassies that they visit.

We did not have an embassy building to invite people to visit, or ethnic food for them to sample, but  as Ambassadors for Christ we handed out fliers that greeted people in the name of Yshua and His kingdom, and offered citizenship to all who would accept it.

For Dennicine it was her first experience doing outreach of any kind.  She has been attending the video outreach training  online class that Steve Cohen, founder of Apple of His Eye, has been conducting and felt ready to step out in faith.  She is still not certain that this form of outreach is her gift, but after taking the classes and working closely with me this first time, she says she is willing to try it again.  May the Holy Spirit strengthen her and help her again.

There were people who thanked us for being there.  I had a conversation with a Jewish family from New York.  They did not take literature or give me their contact information, but they did listen politely to what I said about Yshua.  They said they are looking for the coming of Messiah (soon and in our time).  I agreed that both of us have that hope, but that believers in Yshua know that it will be His second time here.  First he came as the suffering Servant, and next he will come as the conquering King.

Because  it was the 100th anniversary of the gift of the trees to the United States from Japan in 1912 the Cherry Blossom Festival had been extended to 5 weeks. It was an early spring this year, and by this time the blossoms were long gone.  People commented ‘Oh, is that still going on” or “oh, where can I see the blossoms” when I handed out the Cherry Blossom Festival flier.  .  The flier had some good informative  history of the festival, and the segue to a faith sharing message was “But after the blossoms fall to the ground, then what?”. It was a beautiful day with Street Musicians and a major Scavenger Hunt event that brought out people in crazy costumes.

After distributing the fliers I sat on a bench to rest my legs for a while.  I had a long conversation with a visiting teacher from Beijing.  She did not speak any English and my Chinese was even weaker than the few polite phrases I had learned last year when I went to Macao to support the Concordia  English Language School there, I think she just appreciated someone taking the time to listen on a beautiful afternoon.  I do not know how the Lord will use that conversation, or the fliers I distributed, but we are assured that when His Word goes out it will not return empty.

One of the “perks” of outreach on the Mall is the proximity of the Smithsonian and I took in the exhibit at the National Art Gallery of “Colourful Realm of Living Beings” , Bird and Flower paintings by Ito Jakuchu (1716 – 1800).  This 30 scroll collection has never been displayed in it’s entirety outside of Japan before. No pictures were allowed inside so unfortunately I can’t share an example of them here.

It was a rainy day.  A March of Remembrance was scheduled for Yom Hashoah (the Holocaust) The web site said the speakers (Paul Argiewicz: liberated from Buhenwald April 1945, Peter Loth: Born in Stutthof Concentration Camp, Avi Mizrachi Executive Director Foundation for Holocaust Education Projects, and Pastor Jobst Bittner, founder of March For Life international) would not be there because of the weather, but the little group under a pavilion tent grew to well over a hundred.

The speakers were there, and after a short prayer service the group marched from the Washington Monument to the North side of the Capital for more prayers in solidarity with Israel and the victims.  The group was a mix of Jewish people, Messianic as well as non-Messianic, and Gentile Christians, Most of the prayers were specifically in the name of Yeshua (Jesus). This was a day to stand with others in Remembrance, with forgiveness and also a resolution to never be silent in the face of such horrors.

It was the day before Earth Day.  Many of the exhibits were open and people were participating.  It was still Cherry Blossom Festival too (and will be through next weekend, but spring came early and the blossoms are gone).  I passed out fliers about the Cherry Blossom Festival and what it can be like when the blossoms are gone in life too.

After handing out 600 fliers with only one conversation while I was distributing I sat down and the Lord brought 3 people to me.  One was from Montana, one from Belgium by way of Brooklyn, and the third from Myanmar. Please pray for them and for the rest who did or did not take fliers that day. I was not the only one offering solutions to life’s problems that day, the Hare Krishna people were also on the mall.  Please pray for them too that they will find that the real answer is Yeshua.

 Pesach Shalom to all!

Passover came early to Bethany Lutheran Church in Alexandria Virginia this year.  I have done Christian Passover demonstrations before to show Yeshua (Jesus) in the Passover, but this was my first full Passover presentation.  There were 90 people who registered for the evening.

I do a lot of Outreach to people who do not know about the Messiah, both Jewish and Gentiles. This is one of things I do that is mostly Inreach to the Church so they can understand the Jewish origins of Christianity and can see the picture of Messiah that God provides in the feasts of Israel.

We followed the form of a traditional Seder while explaining some  Christian insights to some of the mysteries of the Passover.

Oh, and Elijah showed up. In a traditional Seder a special place is set for Elijah and the children go to the door near the end of the service to call for him.  The hope he will return to announce the soon appearance of the Messiah.  Yeshua said that John the Baptist was Elijah. At the beginning of Jesus ministry John had been baptizing people and calling for repentance from sins to prepare the way for Messiah’s appearance.  When he saw Jesus he said “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world”. Many Jewish people are still looking for two Messiahs.  One to come as a suffering servant (Messiah Ben Joseph) and the other to be a conquering King (Messiah Ben David). Christians recognize that Jesus fills both roles.  He has already fulfilled His role as Messiah Ben Joseph, and Christians are waiting for His return as Messiah Ben David. Today it is the job of the Church to be Elijah to the world and to prepare the way for Messiah’s return by sharing the Gospel of Redemption with everyone, with Jewish people and with Gentile people.

Tuesday was the opening of the Cherry Blossom Festival.  I didn’t see many of the trees myself, except from the metro riding in and the Sculpture Garden of the Hershhorn museum from across the Mall.  It was the first day of the expanded (5 weeks instead of 3) Cherry Blossom Festival celebrating the 100th anniversary of the gift of the trees by Japan to the United States.  The local media was buzzing about the crowds that were expected on the opening day.  I had not planned to be there before the weekend, but all seemed to be falling in place for our full Seder at Bethany on the 31st so there was no reason not to go, so I did at the last minute.

The crowds on that (Tuesday) weekday were not big as the hype predicted, it was more like a normal weekend day without any special event going on, but larger than a normal weekday.  Still I did pass out 500 fliers.

When I was standing next to the Smithsonian subway exit I had a good conversation with S, a lady of Chinese extract who had been in the country for 18 years.  She was advertising the Shen Yun festival at the Kennedy Center. Later I moved to the Natural History Museum.  Several people shook my hand to thank me for being there.  One lady read the flier as she was walking away and gave me a spin around thumbs up.  There were 3 other people passing out Gospel tracts that day.  I was glad to get to talk to them also.  While the details of their message might not have been the same as mine, they were working for the same Kingdom.  I met an engineering professor from my University who was in town for a meeting. For a slow day it was an interesting one.  Only one person threw a flier away in my sight.

I will go to Shen Yun tonight and see if I can connect with  S and her husband (a cultural, but not religious Jewish person).  Keep us all in your prayers.

I had actually planned to be on the Mall this weekend, but the weather forecast calls for rain so that might not happen. Pray that the jetstream shifts and we get good mall outreach weather.  I have two people who have said they might join me if we go out this weekend.

Last Sunday evening I was invited to participate in a program put on by St. Johns Lutheran Church in Alexandria called “Holy Land Experience”.  It was basically an evening of slides from some of the St. Johns families that had been to the Holy Land to encourage others to go and visit.  My contribution was not more slides, but I brought a display that showed some of the learning opportunities Apple of His Eye is providing for people to learn more about outreach to everyone, including to Jewish people along with opportunities to participate in that outreach.  I also included a few pictures of a trip to Israel that members of AOHE made in 1999 (before I joined them) where they did street evangelism in Tel Aviv (yes, you can do outreach in Israel).

There was a good pot luck dinner with many Israeli dishes along with other food for the American diet.

I had a really good conversation with Abraham Soliman who is an Egyptian mission developer providing Christian services at St. Johns and outreach to the Arabic language speaking community.  Please pray for him and for his mission.  He runs an Arabic language prayer line every night starting at 9.00 pm by free conference call on 1-605-475-4700 then access code 1083526# .  He has also asked us to pray for Rebecca, a young lady who is also doing outreach in the local Arabic speaking community.

Purim is one of those “They tried to kill us, we’re still here, so let’s celebrate” holidays.  It is unique because, while  the whole scroll (the whole megilla) is read, not once is God specifically mentioned.  Even though God is not specifically mentioned his strong arm is evident in all of the “chance” things that happen to preserve his people.  The unlikeliness of all of these chances falling into place by the rolling of the dice (that’s what Purim means, rolling the dice) shows that God is once again behind the preservation of His people.

Purim is not a festival established by the Almighty, but keeping it is done at the suggestion of the other hero of the story, Mordecai.

I got an invitation to attend a Purim party out of the blue from one of the conservative Jewish groups in the local area.  After checking their website and seeing that Purim is a festival for everyone I decided to attend.  The food was great, the people at my table and the Rabbi were all welcoming.  This was not an occasion for controversy, but it was an occasion to stand (or sit) in solidarity with the Jewish people and to thank God that He continues to preserve them, even in the face of forces throughout history and today that would seek to wipe them out or to drive them into the sea.

During the slide show that accompanied the reading of the megilla one slide showed the Temple appearing in the sky and descending to earth to be re-established.  The accompanying text expressed hope for the soon coming of the Messiah to defeat those who would harm His people and to establish His kingdom on earth.   We can join them in looking forward to that day described in Zachariah 14.  They are waiting for the first appearance of the Messiah, We believe He has already appeared as a Suffering Servant, and all  of us wait for Him to appear as the Conquering King.