A celebration of the Good News

At the end of May this year, I had the opportunity to join a tour with
600 Christians to celebrate the Pentecost Festival in Jerusalem.
Apart from being an amazing site-seeing tour of Israel, it was also a
deeply spiritual pilgrimage, visiting places where Jesus had been,
including Nazareth, the sermon mount, the Upper Room and Via de la
Rosa - the route He walked to the cross.

We also visited the Holocaust Museum. Seeing the evidence of how the
Jewish people suffered during the persecutions, because they stood up
for their Jewish identity - God's chosen people - it made me weep.
And also seeing how faithfully they worship God today in the way they
live - keeping the Sabbath, praying and reading the Scripture at the
Western Wall - I realised why God chose them.

He chose them for their faithfulness and long suffering to preserve
the Scripture so that we can have God's Word today for our salvation.
God is also fulfilling His promise in recent history that He is
gathering His people in the land of milk and honey He promised for
them and that "Israel will bud and blossom". These are the facts that
should be voiced to the world - that God is working in history today -
His prophecies in the Bible are being fulfilled in Israel today - the
Bible is the Truth and Word of God!

Before I went on the tour I knew very little about Israel. I though
it was just a dusty and deserty country. After the tour, having seen
the rich land, greenery, people's faithfulness and God's promise being
fulfilled, I fell in love with Israel and its people.

During the tour, we also had a joint prayer service on two boats in
the middle of Sea of Galilee, a communion service in the Garden Tomb
and a Pentecost service on the southern steps of the Temple Mount. We
prayed and sang with joy to God the songs of praise in spirit and
truth. Just before we took communion in the Garden Tomb, 3 people
around me, including a professed non-Christian, simultaneously raise
their hands and gave their hearts to the Lord - it was such a
wonderful and joyful experience. Can you imagine 600 people at the
steps of the Temple Mount singing songs of praise with joy over the
city of Jerusalem? Residents nearby heard our message of Jesus and
saw our witness. The work of the Spirit of God was evident all
around us.

I just felt that it is an experience that everyone should have in his
lifetime. On the flight home, I thought why couldn't we have open-air
worship like this in our country? Where we could step out in faith
and witness for the Lord in public and sing praises of truth and
Gospel for the world to hear. This is when I started to formulate the
plan for the Garden Praise event - where we will gather in the Princes
Street Gardens in Edinburgh and sing praises to the Lord and hand out
songbooks with the Gospel message for the nearby crowds to join in.

As you know, every year in August, hundreds of thousands of visitors
from all over the world come to the famous Edinburgh Festival. Many
visitors especially from the East may never have had the chance to
hear the Gospel message. This is an excellent opportunity for us to
tell them about Jesus and help them take the Good News back to their
home countries.

We have been having a fantastic response from friends and churches all
around the country for Garden Praise. We have now raised enough funds
to produce 20,000 songbooks with the Gospel message to give out. Many
people are enthused and looking forward to this great opportunity
during the Festival to glorify God and to tell the Gospel message to
people from around the world.

It is truly amazing to see how the members of the body of Christ from
all denominations working together in unity. People who can give gave
generously, people who can sing are coming forward to sing and people
who desire to serve are coming to handout songbooks. It will be a
fantastic show of faith, strength and unity in the body of Christ -
such a witness for the Lord.

God's hand has been on this project since its inception. I proposed
the plan to the Scottish Bible Society in June and it was accepted
without hesitation. Reverend Fergus MacDonald was planning a project
at the time to use songs from the Psalms for Gospel outreach. When he
heard about Garden Praise, he agreed without hesitation to write the
Gospel content for the songbook and help select the songs.

The songbooks are now being printed and you can download a preview
copy from the website www.GardenPraise.org. Many people have already
started to write their entries for the song competition for Carol
Praise, Christmas 2004 - when Christians in every village, town and
city can hold their local Carol Praise events whether indoors or
outdoors, giving out Carol Praise Songbooks with the Gospel message.
Imagine the fire of faith spreading throughout our country - in every
village hall, on every high street, faithful servants of God singing
carols of hope and joy and telling the true message of Jesus.

Could this be the revival we have been hoping for our country? Let us
pray to God that it shall come in our lifetime. A revival requires
work from the body of Christ. It is the work that the Lord gave us
to. Let us pray that He gives us the strength and zeal to carry out
this work.

I am writing to appeal to you to come to at least one date of the
Garden Praise. As a member of the body, you will give motivation and
encouragement for other Christians to come forward, worship and
witness together for His glory.

Please forward this message to all your Christian friends and invite
them to come along.

Please also send me an email to let me know whether you are coming to
sing or to hand out songbooks.

Even if you cannot come, please also forward this message to your
friends - and please pray for us. Please pray for a great show of
witness at Garden Praise and that many people will feel the love of
God and accept Christ into their hearts.

It will be a fantastic celebration of the Good News of Jesus.

Yours faithfully in Christ,


Richard Lo

richard.lo@...

www.GardenPraise.org

"...when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and
will tell people about me everywhere - in Jerusalem, throughout Judea,
in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
(Acts 1: 8, New Living Translation)