Dear Family & Friends,
First off, I wanted to thank you all profusely for praying for me and my team as we continue our ministry to the francophone world here in Montreal. There is no doubt in my mind that your prayers have been and are effective as even in my times of greatest trial and weakness. In those times it is as if I am surrounded and upheld, secure and guarded without a fear.
Once again, to help you navigate my novel-like email update it is sectioned out for you.
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A Little of What I'm Learning
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I am really enjoying getting a feel for francophone ministry, trials and successes and groundwork, it is certainly not easy, but it is not too difficult because I am secure in having been called on this project and there is no other place I feel I could be more useful to the Lord than here. He is also growing me personally in areas I felt I had covered, and that is humbling and really a great stretching experience. Specifically, I have been challenged to become a more direct communicator and even more so to get over my fear of man, or man pleasing tendencies to simply focus on the Lord's vision of things.
I have been contemplating about how the Lord brought me on this project and what the bigger picture of life looks like in terms of being a servant of the Lord. From this consideration I have become ever more aware that as much as future planning is super helpful, every moment here counts. Each minute is a choice to serve the Lord in so many ways on this project and if I am focusing on what is next too much I will miss what He is doing, and what He is doing is tremendous!!
So, you might ask, what is He doing? Well, simply put, He is changing hearts one by one and lifting the scales off peoples eyes and pulling the plugs from their ears that they might see and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. All this by the way is happening despite our anglophone french accents!
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Prayer Requests
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1) Very Important: We have a film festival at University of Montreal on Thursday at 7pm and at University of Quebec at Montreal at 7pm Friday evening. This event is what we have been promoting since Wednesday last week and we will be showing short films which have themes from the teachings of Jesus, for example: The Prodigal Son. We will be showing these films and then having a snack and discussing them with the attendees. We will then also present the gospel. The people that will be there for the most part are those we have had personal contact with and know that we will discussing spiritual topics regarding Christianity, so they are already quite open. Please pray for this event, for good planning and execution, for many to come out, for many seeds to be planted and for those in attendance to hear the message of Christ and accept Him as their savior.
2) Team unity, specifically for myself and my roommate as we work to establish effective communication and a genuine loving friendship
3) Preparedness for the second part of the project in Paris. We leave Montreal for Paris June 5th.
4) That I would balance working with the Lord in ministry alongside getting to know Him in a deeper way
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A Story About What God is Doing Here
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Last week I was privileged for the 3rd time to personally share my faith and the gospel with a Quebecois Chemical Engineering student and see him make a decision to follow Jesus.
The story goes that last Thursday was a really hard day. I had been put in charge of organizing the team of 5 students that have been doing evangelism at the University of Montreal and since then there have been some harder moments with the only other guy student on the team as he gets used to me directing things, not to mention we live in the same room, he is an Engineer and I am Communication Studies ha ha! To add to this, we introduced using portable DVD players into our evangelism time to promote our Film Festival outreach event for this week. With the DVD players, the transition between the short film and a spiritual conversation had been quite a stretch for us and we were a little discouraged that day. We took a time to really pray for these things and then we all set off to our specific tasks. I went out with Spiritual Interest Questionnaires but was really just feeling the pressure of the battle, so I started to pray and really cry out to God for help and direction and a true heart for the campus and the lost there.
As I was walking I got lost and found myself at the top of the campus, which is on a hill, right next to the border where the campus ends and thee cemetery begins. We pass the cemetery each day as we take the bus to campus and always remark how huge it is and how long it goes on for. The cemetery is on the famous Mont Royal hill and it truly is gigantic (I like to say it's the dead centre of Montreal). As I stood there and prayed for vision, the Lord asked me to look at the cemetery and see that His heart for the campus would be that University of Montreal would be a stark contrast of a bright shining light on the hill compared to the cemetery that borders it. That it would be an example of the vibrant life in Jesus as opposed to the death and darkness without Him. As I was praying this I walked and ended up in the polytechnic building where I was able to present the gospel to an atheist science student who had never even heard of Jesus before. He was unsure of what he wanted to do, but he took a film festival invitation.
I then made my way up to the top floor which was a nice fluorescent green (my favourite colour) on the walls and tables and chairs. I approached a guy named Richard who was open to doing the questionnaire with me in French and was patient with my mixed Italian-anglophone accent. As we went through the questionnaire I discovered he was far from having a faith, at least in my human eyes. His parents were catholic and he sometimes went to church but he didn't believe in life after death, he was unsure if there was a God because of science but said he couldn't deny him. He said the meaning of life was to do your part and he thought that Jesus had come to show humans that they were responsible to look after themselves by trying to be good. I was able to ask him what the cross and resurrection meant to him and he didn't know what the message was. The Lord helped me bring him back to his roots of doing communion as a kid and certain truths he had learned from the Catholic church. As we touched on these things and I led him through the gospel he realized that he remembered some of that stuff but that he had not really taken it to heart and decided to follow it. As I put it before him in terms of my own life he realized the power and the freedom of Jesus in full control of a life and he was totally game to have that. So, we prayed and during the prayer he said "Merci Seigneur" which means 'thank you Lord' and then when we finished praying he took my hand with both of his, his eyes bright and new and said "Merci". I went away praising the Lord and praying for Richard. We are to have a follow up meeting this week to build on his decision.
----------------------
Final Greetings
----------------------
People here are so open, most everyone wants to talk at length and we have been able to do so many gospel presentations. When we share our faith with people a common response is "wow, you actually believe that, I've never heard that before". It is amazing. Just a couple days ago I got to share my faith with a Muslim girl who told me 'I have to think about that message and this grace, it seems too good to be true".
Our team in general has meshed super well together and despite normal discrepancies, love is abounding and therefore our ministry is going very very well.
Thank you for being a part of this journey with me as I learn to share my faith in french, live in community, know God better and gain a deeper vision and heart for Francophones.
Additionally, I thank those of you who have written me to encourage me and to send me prayer requests, I have been praying for you and I am grateful for your faithful prayers and communications. I have minimal Internet access so I have not been able to write many of you back, but know that I am so touched by your love for me and will do my best to reply in a timely way.
May the Lord continue to show Himself to all of you powerfully and may you rejoice in the richness of the gospel we have received that we now live in with abundance. How blessed we are to know the message of Jesus and to have our lives changed daily by it!
Grace and peace in Him.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Brower
I have been contemplating about how the Lord brought me on this project and what the bigger picture of life looks like in terms of being a servant of the Lord. From this consideration I have become ever more aware that as much as future planning is super helpful, every moment here counts. Each minute is a choice to serve the Lord in so many ways on this project and if I am focusing on what is next too much I will miss what He is doing, and what He is doing is tremendous!!
So, you might ask, what is He doing? Well, simply put, He is changing hearts one by one and lifting the scales off peoples eyes and pulling the plugs from their ears that they might see and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. All this by the way is happening despite our anglophone french accents!
------------------------
Prayer Requests
------------------------
1) Very Important: We have a film festival at University of Montreal on Thursday at 7pm and at University of Quebec at Montreal at 7pm Friday evening. This event is what we have been promoting since Wednesday last week and we will be showing short films which have themes from the teachings of Jesus, for example: The Prodigal Son. We will be showing these films and then having a snack and discussing them with the attendees. We will then also present the gospel. The people that will be there for the most part are those we have had personal contact with and know that we will discussing spiritual topics regarding Christianity, so they are already quite open. Please pray for this event, for good planning and execution, for many to come out, for many seeds to be planted and for those in attendance to hear the message of Christ and accept Him as their savior.
2) Team unity, specifically for myself and my roommate as we work to establish effective communication and a genuine loving friendship
3) Preparedness for the second part of the project in Paris. We leave Montreal for Paris June 5th.
4) That I would balance working with the Lord in ministry alongside getting to know Him in a deeper way
------------------------------
A Story About What God is Doing Here
------------------------------
Last week I was privileged for the 3rd time to personally share my faith and the gospel with a Quebecois Chemical Engineering student and see him make a decision to follow Jesus.
The story goes that last Thursday was a really hard day. I had been put in charge of organizing the team of 5 students that have been doing evangelism at the University of Montreal and since then there have been some harder moments with the only other guy student on the team as he gets used to me directing things, not to mention we live in the same room, he is an Engineer and I am Communication Studies ha ha! To add to this, we introduced using portable DVD players into our evangelism time to promote our Film Festival outreach event for this week. With the DVD players, the transition between the short film and a spiritual conversation had been quite a stretch for us and we were a little discouraged that day. We took a time to really pray for these things and then we all set off to our specific tasks. I went out with Spiritual Interest Questionnaires but was really just feeling the pressure of the battle, so I started to pray and really cry out to God for help and direction and a true heart for the campus and the lost there.
As I was walking I got lost and found myself at the top of the campus, which is on a hill, right next to the border where the campus ends and thee cemetery begins. We pass the cemetery each day as we take the bus to campus and always remark how huge it is and how long it goes on for. The cemetery is on the famous Mont Royal hill and it truly is gigantic (I like to say it's the dead centre of Montreal). As I stood there and prayed for vision, the Lord asked me to look at the cemetery and see that His heart for the campus would be that University of Montreal would be a stark contrast of a bright shining light on the hill compared to the cemetery that borders it. That it would be an example of the vibrant life in Jesus as opposed to the death and darkness without Him. As I was praying this I walked and ended up in the polytechnic building where I was able to present the gospel to an atheist science student who had never even heard of Jesus before. He was unsure of what he wanted to do, but he took a film festival invitation.
I then made my way up to the top floor which was a nice fluorescent green (my favourite colour) on the walls and tables and chairs. I approached a guy named Richard who was open to doing the questionnaire with me in French and was patient with my mixed Italian-anglophone accent. As we went through the questionnaire I discovered he was far from having a faith, at least in my human eyes. His parents were catholic and he sometimes went to church but he didn't believe in life after death, he was unsure if there was a God because of science but said he couldn't deny him. He said the meaning of life was to do your part and he thought that Jesus had come to show humans that they were responsible to look after themselves by trying to be good. I was able to ask him what the cross and resurrection meant to him and he didn't know what the message was. The Lord helped me bring him back to his roots of doing communion as a kid and certain truths he had learned from the Catholic church. As we touched on these things and I led him through the gospel he realized that he remembered some of that stuff but that he had not really taken it to heart and decided to follow it. As I put it before him in terms of my own life he realized the power and the freedom of Jesus in full control of a life and he was totally game to have that. So, we prayed and during the prayer he said "Merci Seigneur" which means 'thank you Lord' and then when we finished praying he took my hand with both of his, his eyes bright and new and said "Merci". I went away praising the Lord and praying for Richard. We are to have a follow up meeting this week to build on his decision.
----------------------
Final Greetings
----------------------
People here are so open, most everyone wants to talk at length and we have been able to do so many gospel presentations. When we share our faith with people a common response is "wow, you actually believe that, I've never heard that before". It is amazing. Just a couple days ago I got to share my faith with a Muslim girl who told me 'I have to think about that message and this grace, it seems too good to be true".
Our team in general has meshed super well together and despite normal discrepancies, love is abounding and therefore our ministry is going very very well.
Thank you for being a part of this journey with me as I learn to share my faith in french, live in community, know God better and gain a deeper vision and heart for Francophones.
Additionally, I thank those of you who have written me to encourage me and to send me prayer requests, I have been praying for you and I am grateful for your faithful prayers and communications. I have minimal Internet access so I have not been able to write many of you back, but know that I am so touched by your love for me and will do my best to reply in a timely way.
May the Lord continue to show Himself to all of you powerfully and may you rejoice in the richness of the gospel we have received that we now live in with abundance. How blessed we are to know the message of Jesus and to have our lives changed daily by it!
Grace and peace in Him.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Brower
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