June 2009
Dearly Beloved of Our Lord:
Greetings in the mighty and wonderful name of our Lord, our Savior, and our King – Jesus Christ. We have been blessed with dry and warm weather which has made for a very busy month @the Square. The buses have returned so the Square has mass transit on three sides which has brought many more people to our area. A movie company was shooting on the Square and along the MAX line so this brought people into our area which normally would not be there. It seems that our Lord has put us right in the “hub” of the greater Portland area where thousands of people walk by every day. We are very thankful to have this “assignment” from our King.
Street Stories
Karen’s Testimony ~ A woman came up to me and asked for a tract. I asked her if she would like prayer. She said she would like prayer for her health and the ability to be in Virginia for the birth of her granddaughter. She said she did not understand all the evil men around her. I talked to her about forgiveness. She said that her mother worked in a Laundromat and she would run around it as a child. She said she got raped when she was four and eight years old by customers at the Laundromat. I asked if she was healed of those experiences. I shared testimonies and scriptures with her and prayed for her. She wept, thanked me, and rushed off to catch the MAX train. While we were praying a younger woman was sitting on the bricks next to her listening.
A few minutes later another woman came by and talked to me. She was from Australia. She had been working in the Healing Rooms in Australia. She is a mother of six. She was sharing her experiences and testimonies and I shared a few with her. As she was leaving the young woman was still sitting on the bricks listening.
After the woman from Australia left, the young woman sitting and listening thanked me for being out there. She said she was impressed at what I was doing and encouraged me to continue. She later got up and boarded the MAX train.
Two young men came up to me. One was a believer and he wanted one of each of my tracts. The other was carrying a book on the teachings of Buddha. I told him I was raised a Buddhist and even taught Sunday school in the temple and that now I was a follower of Jesus. I told him about the problems with what I was taught in Buddhism and pointed to the wisdom in the Bible. He talked about reincarnation. I talked to him about the contradictions of reincarnation which we had come across in Hinduism at the Krishna temple in Berkeley where we lived in the sixties. We talked about karma and the concept of believing everything that goes wrong is because we did something wrong in our past. He admitted that he was abused and abandoned by his father when he was a child and ended up in a boy’s home. I talked to him about Jesus and what He did on the cross to bring forgiveness, healing and restoration to our souls.
Ron’s Testimony ~ One day a young man named Eric came walking by the corner as I handed out calendar cards sharing, “Jesus is our hope and He is eternal life.” Eric had an iPod earphone in his ear and several piercings through his ears. He also had great big holes in his ears with silver rings inside the holes. As he walked by I told him that Jesus could fix his ears and this got his attention. He immediately was defensive about his appearance and wanted to know what I meant as he made various biblical references concerning tattoos and piercings. During this time he said he was a Christian who read the Bible and went to church meetings “when he felt like it” and that God was pleased with him.
Our conversation quickly became an opportunity for discipleship concerning the word about Jesus fixing his ears so that he could hear the Holy Spirit and be a laborer in the harvest of his own generation. He had a good deal of biblical understanding but had not been applying it to his own walk with God. He was basically “coasting” hoping to make the rapture and feared being on the earth after the rapture, i.e. “being left behind.” I could almost see the Holy Spirit at work in his heart as we shared the basics of Ephesians chapter two and parts of John where Jesus taught about the work of the Holy Spirit. The word about “Jesus fixing his ears” began with his outward appearance and moved to the realm of the Holy Spirit and his spirit where his spiritual ears would be unencumbered to hear the Lord speaking, “This is the way, walk in it.”
About an hour later John, a young tall African man from Tanzania, came up to me with light in his eyes, a smile on his face, and proclaimed that he believes in Jesus. He said he was born again in Africa. He received Jesus when he prayed with someone at a church meeting in Tanzania and he was visiting the U.S. for about a month. He shook my hand several times as he smiled and then gave me a hug farewell. John and Eric were both about the same age, but what a contrast. Such experiences show the great need to reach this generation here in the U.S.A.
Thank You for Your Prayers!
We thank you for your prayers and support during these challenging and difficult times. As we have shared through our email newsletter, many people are dealing with grief and mourning and are often greatly distressed. Many are hurting emotionally, mentally, physically, and some are broken-hearted or spiritually oppressed. Jesus sends us as laborers into His harvest to bring the presence of His Kingdom and this includes healing not just of the body but especially of the heart – the soul and the spirit. He comes to “bind up the broken-hearted” and “restore the soul” as he heals the soul of a man or woman. He also sets prisoners free “setting at liberty those who are bound” bringing deliverance to both soul and spirit. (See Isaiah 61 & Psalm 23)
It is a great honor and a special privilege to walk with Jesus in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in such a place as Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland’s Living Room. It takes time, energy, and physical endurance to be there day after day listening to people’s hearts and reaching out to those in need of His love. We are thankful for Paul’s letter to the Corinthians where he writes that Love never fails. He writes that we are to pursue love and desire the gifts especially that we may prophesy. For when we prophesy we speak words which are “spirit and life” to edify, comfort, or exhort. This is the work of the Holy Spirit and we are both blessed and humbled to be used by Him. (Note 1 Corinthians 13 & 14; John 6:63)
We send you our prayers, love and thanksgiving for your love and kind support and encouragement. We are especially thankful for your notes and your emails which bring joy to our hearts. Please continue to remember us as we remember you as we send you our letter.
~ Ron & Karen
E-mail: awakening1s@comcast.net
Home Page: awakening1s.net
church @ 24/7
Ron & Karen Rohman
PO Box 14292
PORTLAND OR 97293