With a mixture of faith and fear we met in our front room to begin the Ultimate Treasure Hunting adventure. After introducing ourselves to each other we prayed and then waited for God to provide us with clues. We then matched the clues up and broke in to three groups: Toni, John and Fiona were placed together; Paul, Harriet and Catherine joined up; and I linked up with Stan, Neil, Nathan and Anneliese (and little Elliott).
Amongst the clues that came up was a 'kite logo' which turned out to be a health centre with a triangular roof. Toni instantly recognised this as the 'kite logo' and though the treasure has not been found there yet, this is not the end of that search.
Another clue was the word 'swish'. Neil passed a shop that had the word 'swish' in the window, whilst on the way to the South Park (another clue). Neil feels prompted to revisit there in search of the treasure.
Paul, Catherine and Harriet felt led to Pizza Hut and the town clock area and enjoyed the whole experience, and are already thinking about who to ask to bring with them next time. Not sure if 'Pizza Hut' was the voice of God or Paul's wishful thinking again!
I was on the way back home with Stan and had not had a clear treasure matching any clue. I passed a pizza shop and noticed that the two members of staff were both wearing yellow T-shirts. As 'yellow' was on my appearance clue I decided to have one last try. I chatted with the two guys, named Ali and Rob. Both were Muslims. Rob was very keen to talk, but also quite shy. I asked him if he had a bad hand (another clue) to which he replied that he did 'on and off'. Ali at first did not seem so interested but joined in the conversation more and more as it went on. We talked about Jesus (Isa to Muslims), Heaven, salvation etc. A third member of staff, Aziz, joined us towards the end of the conversation. I was conscious that we were in their place of work (they were answering the phone, making pizzas etc). I asked if we could pray for them when we were back at our house and they were very up for that. I told them that I will pray that they get to meet Jesus and know Him as He really is. Seeds were sown then and I may well revisit the shop to see where this might lead.
Anneliese prayed at the end that even our 'Hello' and smiles to people could be very significant to some people. Who knows that if someone was lonely tonight what kind of impact that might have had?
Although it was a quiet night it was great to hear that people thoroughly enjoyed Ultimate Treasure Hunting and are keen to get Night 2 under way. There was a general sense of excitement in stepping out in doing God's work in this way and a growing sense of fellowship amongst the team.
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