Linda McKerrell is one of our long-term mission partners – serving with OMF in Taiwan. She is currently in Australia on home assignment, and will spend the next 2-3 weeks with us at Living Church.
Linda will be giving us a quick update at Creek Road Campus this Sunday, but she is also keen to catch up with people while she is here. If you would like to have a coffee, meal, or just a catch up, please contact Linda via email Linda.McKerrell@omfmail.com.
‘A typical Friday morning’
Today I plan to meet with Jin Jin and Susan at the Cornerstone Coffee Shop to read the Bible .8:50am – message from Susan ‘不好意思. 今天我有事情’ – Susan is busy today taking her mother to an Oldies community centre and can’t come. 9:00am – I arrive at the coffee shop, say a quick hello, pop out to the market to see if there is anything interesting for sale today and return. After ‘chit chat’ with the boss and his wife, Jin Jin, while she makes coffee (discussing the English words ‘cappuccino’ and ‘Please take a seat’), I notice there’s a new lady enjoying her coffee and listening to our conversation.
She points to a picture of the last supper on the wall and asks Jin Jin ‘Are you a Christian?’. ‘Yes’. ‘What church do you go to…’. Turns out she’s a Christian too. Her name is Mrs Lin (no relation to the dumpling Mr Lin, that I know of). She asks Jin Jin‘Do you have meetings here?’ ‘Yes, often. We read the Bible together and pray here in the coffee shop. Would you like to join us?’ More chit chat, more coffee, customers move in and out.
Eventually Mrs Lin, Jin Jin and I open our Bibles and pray. Jin Jin begins ‘We have been reading Acts…’ and gives a run down of where we are to. We read, begin to discuss but then Jin Jin has to serve a customer so Mrs Lin and I continue to chat. ‘It’s so hard to share the Gospel with people in my village. People don’t want to listen. They reject me’ says Mrs Lin. ‘I tell them about Jesus dying on the cross for their sin but they don’t believe it and walk away’. ‘Have you ever seen this picture before?’ I ask her while pointing a diagram – ‘Links in the Chain’. ‘This has given me courage to share the Gospel in smaller bits with friends…’
12noon – After a great chat with Jin Jin and Mrs Lin, I’m exhausted. It’s time for lunch and an afternoon siesta before some Admin and our House Church meeting tonight.
Prayer
Please pray God would keep working in the Cornerstone Coffeeshop community while Linda is away. Also for a refreshing and energising year for Linda while she is in Australia.
Linda is part of a Church planting team reaching out to people who work in shops, the market, restaurants and others in her town. She really values our Partnership and is visiting with us for 2 weeks (until Sunday 20th Sept). Why not invite her to share at your Growth Group, over for meal or a coffee to hear more of her ministry and encourage her.