I find it so encouraging how receptive people are to prayer and the love that a complete stranger offers. We talk with people, ask their stories, and ask how we can pray for them. And many times we get a positive response! Prayer is powerful and the Lord is certainly working in big cities as much as the far reaches of the earth. What follows are some stories of people we encountered on the streets of London.
At Walthamstow we got to pray for a lady named Bianca. She shared her story with us. She told us she believed in God, but that she didn't feel like God would accept her because of all of the wrong she had done.We were able to share with her that God loves her regardless, and we were able to help her recommit her life to Him.
At Olympic Park in Stratford some girls saw an Olympian and ran to get a picture with her. They asked her if they could pray for her - and she eagerly accepted. She was from Australia and would be competing in shooting. She was nervous, for obvious reasons. The girls were able to pray for her and she felt peace and thanked them for their prayers.
One group ended up going to an electronics store at the Westfield Mall and prayed for 4 different people in the store! One person they met was from Brazil. The man didn’t speak English, so the student shared the love of God and prayed for him in the limited Spanish that he had learned that year in his high school Spanish class. The man was very grateful.
During a morning prayer walk, one of the young ladies had seen a mother duck and her ducklings in a pond. At one point the mother duck went under the water and disappeared, but soon came back with food for her ducklings. After a frustraing day, she remembered the duck and shared with us that sometimes you cannot see where God is, like when the mother duck disappeared, but He will come up soon with good things. It was encouraging for all of us.
Some things that we have learned from our time in London is that there isn’t just one way to serve God. Our groups have experienced many different ways to share your faith. They were encouraged to see that sharing your faith isn’t for a “foreign, developing nation” mission field, but that you can share even in a Western context. And another thing is that Love does not argue. When we are sharing our faith we do not need to defend or debate. God simply calls us to love, and we can do that by praying for people and listening to their story.