Every Saturday the big car park in front of the Warehouse here in Kaitaia in the north of New Zealand turns into a busy marketplace and people come from all over the place to sell their merchandise.

According to Acts 1:8 where it says, “…; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem (Kaitaia), and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” I witnessed to somebody in the course of our conversation.

I have seen him since and last time I saw him he called me pilgrim. And I feel like a pilgrim! (Did I not tell that somebody else lately?) I told him so much. I said also, “I actually like to be called pilgrim. I am in fact a pilgrim. I said also to him, “You know quite a bit about what the Bible says. We must talk some more!”

I looked up the word ‘pilgrim’ in the concordance and here are some Bibleverses:

Genesis 47:9

In this verse you find the word pilgrimage twice.

Psalm 119:54

Read this verse in The Amplified Bible and you find the word pilgrimage.

Exodus 6:4

Aliens= pilgrims. I like aliens even better. But are we living as aliens? Or are we considering this our homeland?

Hebrews 11:13

aliens=pilgrims. It says here also that we are strangers! Are you feeling like a stranger on earth?

First Peter 2:11

aliens again=pilgrims. And strangers!

According to the dictionary a pilgrim is “a person who undertakes a journey to a sacred place.”

I told them about the Lord, those two German tourists. Matthew 10:32,33

But now I ask myself: Don’t Germans go to church any  more and don’t they explore the meaning of life any more either?

(Deutschland, das Land der Reformation und das Land der Dichter und Denker!)

But they listened to what I had to say and I encouraged them to think about it.

It was a great joy for me to get in touch with two German tourists today on Commerce Street in the middle of Kaitaia and to tell them about the Lord.

But I got the impression that those two did not have the big questions. They just lived.

I am glad that they listened to what I said.

Pray for them.

Jeremiah 29:11

” ‘For I know the plans I  have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a FUTURE.’ “

One man I talked to today believes the New Age teaching. He said it is similar to Baha’i.

On Commerce Street here in Kaitaia I ran into two German atheists.

At the ASB Bank I met another German. Our meeting was very short. He was in a rush to go to the  hairdresser. But from what he told me I believe that he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and has the FUTURE Jeremiah 29:11 is talking about.

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Please type “Future” into the Search Box and click on GO and find more posts on the FUTURE.

This is how I remember the conversation:

Some more bad news was related to me. I responded with what I had read on a T – shirt some days previously, namely:

“It’s not that I forget, I just don’t care,” and that it seems that most of the people really don’t care. The other person agreed.

I mentioned also what I had read just now in one of the magazines in the waiting room. It said there that a well known personality thinks that are a couple of stars in the sky, that have helped him out in difficult and awful times. I continued to say that I believe rather in the Living God, who made all the stars.

But now I got the impression that our faith is rather a private thing.

A quote I had read recently came to my mind:

“One of the weaknesses of our modern church is how timid we are in expressing our faith. We are so concious of respecting the private beliefs of others that we end up privatising or own. Yet, if we truly believe that Christ is the centre of God’s purposes for all of creation, then our caution is ill founded.”

The Revd Malcolm Falloon

Warden of the Latimer Fellowship

And what are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ to this:

Matthew 10:32,33

“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”

Very solemns Words!

I began talking to them from the time I arrived at that place and there was response. At first we talked about things that did not matter,……. but the Lord reminded me to say the things that were really on my heart and gave me the strength to do so. Praise His name!

The place is really ideal for many things. It is newly built and sort of an open place in spite of having a roof and walls. There are not only seats, but also tables. A real place for fine weather.

Four people were already there before I arrived, and that included a baby.

It is good to hear the stories of people.

The father of the baby used to go to one of the local churches here in town at one time.

In the course of our conversation I mentioned also our involvement with the United Maori Mission and Bible in Schools. The mother of the baby used to go to school at Taipa and Religeous Education was taught there. I was very interested in that because we used to train Bible in School Teachers at Kerikeri for many years. “What impact did that teaching have on your life?” I asked her. But she remembered more the impact the life of her believing grandmother had on her life. The grandmother had a Bible beside her bedside I was told.

I mentioned already that there was one more person in that room with us. A young man , but I cannot really remember him saying anything , but I believe he listened.

This happened yesterday and here is how I remember the conversations:

On the mainstreet here in Kaitaia I am approaching two backpackers I have never met. They are from Germany and we are getting to talk about the spiritual condition in Germany. I find out that the two are not having any connection with the church whatsoever. Also the parents of both are still alive and they are also without any church affiliation.

The two – male and female – are very good to talk to and I really got to like them during that short time very much. I told them what the Lord put in my heart to tell them. The young man told me, that he found a German Bible at one of the places where he stayed and he had decided to read the Bible. I told him to start with the Gospel of John. I explained to him that the Bible, the Word of the Living God, has two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament, and that the Gospel of John is the book number four in the New Testament. In the course of our conversation I mentioned that I did not want to keep them…. But the young man thanked me for the conversation when I left them.

NEUSEELAND,  DAS “LAND DER TRAEUME”.

(For Germans)

A little further on the road I ran into one of our church people and I mentioned what happened with the backpackers from Germany. She told me, that she picked up a hitchhiker late one day and because it was late and his hands were very cold she had him for a night at her place – he was from Canada, I think – and told him about the Lord Jesus Christ.

We finished our meeting something like this: I said, “We can read the Bible and joy comes into our heart, we can pray and joy comes into our heart — but the greatest joy comes into our heart when we tell others about the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Have you experienced that JOY?