Returning home

Please be reminded that we are returning home tomorrow on Porter Flight #940.  It is scheduled to arrive at Billy Bishop Aiport at 1:00 (this is a change from the letter that was sent home).

Please meet your child at the ferry terminal.  We will take the ferry across and meet you there.

Today

It is almost 6pm as this post is being written.  We are about to sit down for dinner.  All the students are safe, happy and healthy.  The teachers are keeping abreast of the developments in the city.

Tomorrow was originally set aside for site seeing in Boston.  We will not proceed with those plans.  We are looking at visiting Plymouth Rock in New England instead.  We will not go into Boston tomorrow.

We continue to thank God for your prayers and support.

Today's plans

A quick note to let you know that we are aware of what's currently happening in Boston and our plans for the day are changing in accordance with these events.

All the students are happy and healthy.

Street Evangelism and Kids Club

This will be a shorter post because it is getting late.  The students were involved in a healthy season of street evangelism this morning before returning the Chelsea for kids club.  Over 40 children showed up.

All the students are well and working exceptionally hard to the glory of God.

3 Clubs... one day

We continued our study in the book of Acts this morning by reading the end of Acts 10 and all of Acts 11.  We observed at least three truths:

1.  Baptism follows conversion, not vice versa.  At the end of Acts 10, we see that the new Christian converts are filled with the Holy Spirit and only then are they baptized.  But when they are baptized, it is immediately after their conversion.  This record corrects two faulty ideas about baptism.  First, baptism does not convert anyone nor does it contribute to anyone's conversion.  It is a sign of what the Holy Spirit has done.

Second, we notice that the new converts are baptized immediately after conversion.  They do not linger over this act.  They are baptized upon conversion.

2.  We noticed that in Acts 11, Barnabas was filled with gladness about the conversion of Gentiles.  Luke indicates that the reason he was so glad about their conversion is because he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.  Therefore, one sign of being filled with the Holy Spirit is a genuine gladness upon reports of another's conversion.

3.  Finally, we noticed that it was in Antioch in Acts 11 that disciples of Jesus were first called "Christians."  This is an important observation because there are popular voices who insist that "Christianity" was invented in the 300s under the emperor Constantine.  This is simply false and the fact that Acts 11 records the adoption of the name "Christian" by the church in Antioch indicates that there was a strong, cohesive and organized movement in existence as early as 50AD.

Our day was surprisingly busy.  We went to the Open Air Campaigner offices in Dorchester where we learned about the history and techniques involved in Open Air preaching.  We then headed to the neighborhood of Chelsea where through the day we hosted 3 separate kids gatherings in three separate parks.  In total, we had the opportunity, today, to present Christ to around 100 children. Today, we got to see the uniqueness, simplicity and effectiveness of OAC ministries. We would arrive at these parks with some kids in the playground but in about 10 minutes, we would have a whole bunch of children sitting on the mat, ready to hear our presentation and stories.

The children remained so captivated, that they didn't even flinch when the ice cream truck came around.

Working on their lesson handouts.

All the students are well and are working diligently to the glory of God.

Dorchester and Chelsea

Our day began with a study of Acts 10 and a reminder that God's grace is wide and expansive including those who were once enemies of God (like Saul in the previous chapter) and those who were once outsiders (like the Gentiles represented by Cornelius in Acts 10) and still that wide and expansive grace of God can only be accessed through the person and in the name of Jesus Christ.

Our original plans involved street evangelism in downtown Boston.  However, because of the events of yesterday, we decided to visit a neighboring borough of Boston called Dorchester.

We arrived in the neighborhood to find the streets empty of children.  Nevertheless, we gathered together to pray and ask that God would bring at least 30 children from the surrounding homes and apartments to hear the gospel.  We set up our paint board and began to circulate through the park.  By God's grace, we had the opportunity to present a gospel presentation to about 20 children.  After the presentation, children who wanted to learn more about God were invited to meet one-on-one with the PCA students.  For about 20 minutes individual children were taught of their sinfulness, their need for a Saviour and how Jesus Christ took the punishment for their sins on himself at the cross.

After our time in Dorchester, we traveled to Chelsea where we were yesterday.  We continued where we left off yesterday with our second day of kids club for the children of this neighborhood.  We we were able to teach them the story of Tower of Babel and through that to point them to God's desire for all peoples of the world to turn from their sin and find forgiveness of sins in his son, Jesus Christ. We were so encouraged to see kids return from yesterday and many new kids came today. The park was full of people, which added to the overall excitement.

All students are well.  We are largely unaware of the developments with the incidents of yesterday because we are avoiding too much media.  However, we continually lift up the victims in our prayers.

We began the day with some training in evangelism, in the second oldest church in Boston (built  in 1802) - we shared our testimonies with each other and then got an overview of how to run the children's outreach program.  Eric reminded us that love is greater than fear and went on to challenge us to love the lost more than we are afraid of them or afraid of circumstances.

After lunch we headed to a borough of Boston where we visited the local parks to invite children to the kids club we are running.  Our students led a one hour club, teaching Bible stories, memory verse and Bible songs to the roughly 30 kids who showed up. It was exciting for the kids, but probably even more exciting for our students as they finally got to share the stories and activities that they had been preparing so long for.

Today's story was about Noah and the flood. Our team did a great job engaging the kids and making them feel welcome. We look forward to seeing the kids again tomorrow.

Just a quick message to let you know that we are all safe. Many of you now know that there was an incident at the marathon.  We didn't know anything had happened in Boston until we were told by one of the staff members we were working with. 

We are now back at the Briscoe's for the rest of the evening, which is 40 minutes outside of Boston. 

We had a meaningful day of training and ministry. We will post another update tonight with more details.

Today, we were blessed with the opportunity to go to Eric Briscoe's (OAC Director) church.  The students attended a Sunday School class for Seniors (that's what they call High School students in Grade 12) and then we joined the rest of the church for their worship service.

After lunch back at the Briscoe's, the students began preparing for our week of ministry. Storytellers began painting their storyboards and rehearsing their stories, while others prepared lyrics for songs we intend to teach the kids.

Schools are out this week for their spring break and we will be helping a church run a children's outreach program from Monday to Friday.  PCA students will run games, lead songs and tell stories (using the sketch boards), with the intention of sharing the gospel with the children. Each day, we will also be ministering to adults in different locations throughout the Boston area. What's neat is that the famous Boston Marathon will be run tomorrow, which means that people from all over the world will possibly be in Boston for the week and we may therefore have an opportunity to meet them on the streets to share with them as well.

Tonight, we used Colossians 2:2-4 to guide us in our prayers for the week ahead.  Please join with us in praying that
- God may open to us a door for the word
- we may declare the mystery of Christ and that it will be made clear

Thank you for your continued support and partnership in the gospel.

What is Open Air Campaigners?

Open Air Campaigners is a ministry that seeks to make the name and work of Jesus Christ known as widely as possible.

The ministry began in Australia over 100 years ago.  The founder of our school, Dr. Paul B. Smith invited Open Air Campaigners to North America and the rest, as they say is history.
Open Air Campaigners: Then & Now

Hello,

We have arrived safely in Boston.  We have been warmly received by Eric and Diane Briscoe.  They live in a beautiful home just outside of Boston.  We are the recipients of their love and hospitality.

Josh Duraisami and Ms Kang about to board our Porter Airplane 

A beautiful gift prepared for us by the students of PCA