Testimonies from the Streets

 

 

What is this video doing here?
Look for yourself from minute 9:50 on, or read the text below. ;-)

Or click on this link here since the video does not seem to work on a mobile device: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5MRoX_USWc

"Go! See, I am sending you like lambs among wolves!"
Luke 10: 3

I felt like a lamb among wolves when we made our first tentative attempts in Doberlug-Kirchhain in spring and then in summer here in Croatia to talk to people on the street about Jesus and to pray for them. I (Harry) in particular felt very uncomfortable because so far I have only limited linguistic options here.

Nevertheless, the Lord gave me two experiences in September where I could ask about illnesses/ pain in Croatian and pray in German. The back pain of a woman was immediately better and a man by the name of Josip, who only has one arm and regularly begs in front of Kaufland, was relieved of protracted foot pain. The Lord was gracious enough to give these little miracles and it encouraged us.

Relying on the guidance of the Holy Spirit

For four weeks now I have been out on the streets twice a week for about two hours. Once with our young brother Juraj and once with Juraj and Kristijan, the leaders of our house church.

The first time Juraj and I approached 50 people without anyone really being open. A little frustrated, but also with the feeling that God had something else in mind, we then stood on a square between Kaufland and the market hall. Juraj spontaneously began to proclaim Jesus as king and pray for Karlovac. I supported in German and in tongues. After about 10 minutes an African from Senegal came around the corner who wanted to sell his wooden art. We quickly found out that he had had problems in his shin for a long time, which of course was very cumbersome in his work. I prayed for him and he was healed! He called us later that day and we sat down for tea and tried to explain the gospel to him in English before he went back to Zagreb. As a Muslim, however, he was not really open to the news that Jesus was more than a prophet, namely the risen Lord. We ended up praying that Jesus would reveal himself to him.

From this experience we learned about the power of empowered prayer and proclamation in the spiritual world! We could have spoken to people for a long time without anything happening if Juraj hadn't boldly and publicly proclaimed! Things in the physical world are a result of events in the spiritual world.

A few days later we met Kristijan first for prayer and for a short, quiet listening prayer to receive impressions from the Holy Spirit. Luna was sitting with us too, and Juraj, she and I all saw, in different ways, the railway station in the city with its curved roof. It was a cold and wet day and I would have preferred to go to a shopping centre (where it is of course not easy to talk to people because of the mask requirement). Days before, Kristijan had a dream of a woman in a red coat and a child, but wasn't sure if it was the dream for that day.

So we went to the train station and spoke to a few people on the way. When we arrived there, we found no one at all. The next train wasn't coming for another 40 minutes, so we thought about coming back then. As we walked down the stairs to the street and then the underpass, we saw a woman in a red coat approaching behind us. We asked her about any illness / pain and her reaction was: "I don't need prayer for that, but my daughter does!" This encounter resulted in a half-hour conversation. The woman has four children and has been on a spiritual quest for a long time, has had spiritual experiences with God, so she sometimes reads the Bible! Her eldest daughter has mental and physical problems. Usually she hardly ever goes out in the rain and doesn't meet up with strangers like that either, but on this day she decided, against her usual habit, to go out! Since that day she has met twice with brothers and sisters and wants to get to know us further, even though she had negative experiences with Christian communities and is afraid to be drawn into a rigid religious system. But every time she meets one of us, she hears the gospel of Jesus, so He can grow faith in her heart! New birth is a process, just like a normal birth.

That day I learned something about listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit instead of just "getting started" myself!

And now for the YouTube video :-)

A week later the four of us were out. Again we had prayed before and our brother Mateo, who was visiting the city, had seen pictures of stairs, a bush and a basketball court. Kristijan saw a painted squirrel and Juraj saw Kristijan lay hands on someone in front of a McDonalds sign in prayer. I didn't get a clear impression that day.

We went to McDonalds first, but the only woman in pain we found was more afraid of us than wanting any prayer. We went on walking, praying and chatting, and after half an hour we came to the exact places Mateo had seen earlier in prayer (he had never been to Karlovac before). But nobody seemed to catch our eye, so we moved on. When we stood in front of a wall with a painted squirrel, we noticed that there was an advertising pillar with McDonalds advertising in the middle of the square! Now we began to pray and proclaim God's Kingdom over the city out loud again, especially Juraj - and he was promptly noticed by two of his old friends. They were the "Brace Zakona" (brothers of the law/awesomeness, this word has a double meaning in Croatian), YouTubers with over 450,000 followers (that's about 1/8 of all of Croatias population of 4 Million people!). They questioned us a little in front of the camera and Juraj was given the opportunity to explain the gospel. He came to sin and human forlornness, when he was interrupted by the Youtuber stating that "the main point is repentance" (like wow!) Kristijan had a good Bible verse on hand when they then asked us about Corona, explaining that Satan is still allowed to rule here on earth until a certain time when Jesus would come back to fully establish His kingdom and rule. Then he found out that one of them had back pain. After praying three times in the name of Jesus, the pain was gone. The boys were surprised and said goodbye - and we stood there with a mixture of amazement and enthusiasm. We didn't know what they would do with the video footage. They could make fun of us or cut everything up so that not much of Jesus is left. When we saw the result on YouTube the next day, I was amazed: They really took over almost the whole encounter without comment and the video already had thousands of clicks! No matter how hard we tried, we could hardly have reached a dozen people with the same message that afternoon - but when we trusted in God and went off in faith (and also with some doubts), He made sure that small seeds are multiplied in a YouTube way! Who knows when he will send us someone from the people who saw this video! Or whether he is perhaps still working in the hearts of the "brothers of the law" so that they convert, experience the grace of God and tell their followers about Jesus!

However, just because someone was relieved of pain or watched a YouTube video, their heart hasn't changed. Faith and repentance, water and Holy Spirit baptism, these are the real and eternal miracles for which we pray. I meet Josip every now and then and pray that he will read the Bible with me (Luke 15, The Prodigal Son) and that faith will grow in his heart. We also had some other conversations and prayed for these people. Most of all, we pray that the Holy Spirit will show us whom to pray for and lead us to a house of peace (Luke 10: 5-8).

Go out into the streets or into the houses?

In fact, all of the new disciples and most of the people who are currently interested did not come to us through street work, but through personal contacts at work, among friends or through online opportunities. Juraj had contacted Kristijan through the "The Last Reformation" world map. Just last week a devout South African woman was in our community for the first time and contacted us through a kind of Facebook ad from a Christian ministry. She is married to a Croat who is part of a New Age sect. Both are models and travel a lot. Amazingly, Kristijan had a dream more than two years ago in which the leader of the sect appeared without him knowing who he was at the time - he just made a note of his name from the dream! Now we pray for these trapped people and are excited to see what God will do. :-)
Luna then participated to help to free our new sister from evil spirits who held her under bondage for such a long time, for which she was very grateful. It is an incredible privilege to be trained in this way by God and our brothers and sisters here to do what Jesus did! Every time he gives a little miracle or a step forward we notice: he has already prepared everything, and as long as we bravely go the way he shows us, we can "do nothing wrong":

"We are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them."
Ephesians 2:10

Dear people, the harvest out there is truly ripe and plenty! God bless you and give you the grace to take the next steps in the discipleship that you need right now!

Your Muellers from Karlovac!