I quickly typed up our treasure hunt before I'm off to Bedford this afternoon and forget about it. It was a struggle at first, but we were very encouraged by the ending of our hunt!
Dale, Kate, Emma and I went up to Victoria Gardens first to the playground and bandstand. Dale and Kate approached a boy with a yellow t-shirt and red hair. They chatted with him and two girls for a few minutes, but they said they were alright and didn’t need prayer. We then went over to an elderly man who sat on the bench. Although he didn’t match any of the clues we just started talking to him. I noticed the bandages on his legs and he told us he had a skin problem. He let us pray for him but we don’t know whether God healed him or not. When we finished praying we say that two girls and a boy were hanging around at the bandstand. So we went over to them and I asked them whether the names we had written down meant anything to them. But they didn’t recognise any name so we moved on to Chatham high street.
We went along the music shop, I looked quickly inside but didn’t see any obvious clues, so we walked further. In the second music shop we approached a customer who had a check shirt. I explained to him what we were doing, but he said he was an atheist. However, he was willing to run through some of the clues with us, and then he told us that the owner of the first music shop had the same NAME that we had on our list. “That is as far as I can help you” he said; I found it quite encouraging that an atheist was willing to help us to find the clues given to us by God! ;-)
We went further down the high street but didn’t really see anyone that matched our clues. At the McDonalds, a man was sitting outside begging, with a striped shirt and coins in front of him. I often see him there on Saturdays, and buy him a burger and have a chat with him. So we approached him. He said he prayed himself every day, but I could see he was really touched when we prayed for him.
We went back, looking for our clues. We approached a women with a pink shirt, but she didn’t want to know anything about God or religion. Immediately after, a mother and her daughter came towards us with pink skirts as well. We stopped them, again explained what we were doing. They recognised some of the names as friends, but couldn’t think of anything we could pray for. I asked the mother if she believed in God. She said she believed in something, and perhaps one could call that something God, but she didn’t go to church or anything. We moved on as we had to go back (and now I realise I should have told her about the Alpha course - stupid me). A guy walked passed us, with his elbow in bandage and a sling. So we quickly stopped him, his name matched with one of the names we had, but he didn’t want prayer. He said his arm was nearly healed and the bandage would come off next week.
We had our last stop at the first music shop. There were no customers, but one guy was standing in the doorway smoking, with spiky hair.
That’s NAME I thought, and so he was. I started explaining to him what we were doing and he was very interested. Then he told us he was a Christian and that he and his mate were looking for a church.
Just this week his mate had said that he had heard that there was a good church on Jasper Avenue, and maybe they should to there one day! Hey, that is us!
We chatted with him for a bit longer about the church and gave him the details. He was really amazed and knew this was a sign of God.
He said he would tell his friend about our encounter, and hopefully his friend will come to church. Isn’t God good!?!
By the way, the other encouraging thing was that, as we shared afterwards, I realised that quite a few of the clues we had but couldn’t find, matched with clues of other groups who did find their treasures based on those clues!
Another amazing treasure hunt – I’m looking forward to the next one!
Helena
Medway Family Church
