Wicked Night, Hallowed Night!

Okay, I have kids, and I liked the INCREDIBLES!

Just wanted to give a brief (LOL) account of tonight's evangelism encounters. This was the 1st year that I have used the Halloween night as an opportunity to evangelize. I know, shame on me!

My wife and kids went with me to our main street where all the trick-r-treaters hit the main businesses, and we set up a table on the corner.




We followed many of Rob-roy's ideas and bought the biggest candy bars we could find. I also loved an idea from Linda Essary which was to give out smaller candy to the little kids and anyone who wanted it... but for the big candy, to have older kids and adults pass a simple test. Yep, you guessed it, no small talk about hell, or life after death, we just plunged into the GP test from the get go, and no one even flinched.

Well, my wife reminds me of one mom who had her own ideas of sin, hell and judgment, and insisted that all kids are innocent. I don't know what planet she lives on, but she was the only one who walked away and refused to listen to the Gospel.

Adrianna

We had several good conversations. One with a young lady named Adrianna who kept looking more and more convicted as the Law and her conscience did their work. She was visibly upset, and concerned, and expressed that she had never heard the Gospel expressed like that before. Her family had already moved on, and she stayed to hear the Good News and I pray that she repents, and trust Jesus tonight.

Paul

Another young man about 15yrs old named Paul, was also moved in conviction. Although he said in answer to the question "when are you going to do something about your situation?", "SOON" I think he saw the seriousness of his sin.

Paramedics

Was also able to go through the whole L&G with 2 paramedics while seated in their ambulence who both claimed to be Christians. Was able to give them HBKS CD's as well.

Overall, had a great night and was able to give the Gospel to probably 10-12 groups of people in a couple hours. I was blessed and excited to go out.

I sense God really pushing me to plead with people and to let them see His love and the urgency of their situation. It is such a privilege to be able to share Christ, isn't it?

Prescott Tomorrow

Heading to Prescott tomorrow for witnessing at the Court House. Excited to have 2 opportunities in 2 days. Lead on O King Eternal!

Praise God

Double Crash Course a Double Blessing

I apologize for not posting sooner. My kids are better at getting their adventures up faster than I am.

I'll make this brief, but I want to tell you about the incredible move of God over this past 2 weeks.

We have held 2 Way of the Master crash courses at our church this last 2 weekends. I was blown away the first weekend when over 30 people showed up for the class and over 20 headed for the streets.

This past weekend was no less a success, we had almost 50 people show up for the class and over 30 head to the streets.

I don't know if you realize it or not, but for a small church in a rural town with scarcely 100 adults in attendance on a Sunday to have 80 plus people show up for an evangelism class and over 50 of them head for the streets is just a little beyond incredible. I am so excited at God's might hand.

Thank you to all the participants and budding evangelists who overcame their fears and stepped out in obedience and faith to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you also to all the leaders who gave of their time and drove... some 80 miles one way to participate.

I am so honored to serve our King with such awesome examples of the love of Christ.

It is my prayer now, that many if not all of these saints will take the next step and make evangelism a life style that can't be denounced or denied, and that the contagious fire that has begun will not be quenched.

I promised better pictures.. and alas, I am going to have to let you down.

I have none.

I must get a team photographer and videographer as I am way to enthralled with sharing my faith to even think of archiving it once I get onto the street.

Please pray for God's continued hand of favor on our "team" and for a regular fishing spot that is closer to home than 60 miles one way.

Crash Course Photo Blog

I promised I'd share some pics with you from last week's Way of the Master Evangelism Crash Course.

These brave souls gave up an entire Saturday to come out and learn biblical principals of how to more effectively share the good news with the people they come into contact with every day.

Praise God for them.


























As you can see, the pictures from Mill Ave. didn't come out very well. The first one is a picture of the street kid, "ghost" who we spent quite a bit of time trying to reason with.

The second picture is my son Isaac heading down the street with the MDB's and a zeal for the lost like I haven't seen in a kid I'm not sure ever.

I'm so blessed to see what God is doing in my kids. Please keep them in your prayers.

Mill Ave. Oct 18th 2008

Two Encounters worthy of mention

I will post some pictures of the people who attended the crash course later today.

I unfortunately didn't get any good pictures from Mill Ave. (my bad) but I will try and do that next week.

My family and I (my wife Martha, my daughter Kiah, and my son Isaac) all went out together to hand out tracts and see if we could strike up conversations with people.

We spent a long while talking with a very polite and intellegent street kid who went by the street name "ghost". While he had some pretty all inclusive beliefs, and didn't see the bible as authoritative, we were still able to take him through the Law and the Gospel and to warn him of his impending doom, should he choose to stay in rebellion against God.

We then had a great conversation with a woman named Deidra, and her friend Lexis. Deidra was a professing believer, but Lexis in her words, "needed some work". We were able to give the truth of God's Word to Lexis also, and the conviction on his face was evident. He was honest, and admitted that he was headed for hell, and didn't see anything stopping him from repenting and getting right with God that night. Praise God for his mercy toward us and opening of the eyes of our heart to see our real plight.

Many of the 19 other new people that we had brought to Mill Ave. were engaged in one on one witnessing, and handing out tracts. My friend Larry even shared with us that he enjoyed every minute of arguing with the athiests!

Way of the Master Multiplication

Saturday Crash course Success

We held our first Way of the Master Crash Course Evangelism training yesterday. God blessed us with over 30 participants, and more than 20 of us including leaders who went to Mill Ave. last night to put into practice the principals we studied in the course.

Too many blessings to enumerate at this time, but suffice it to say that all who attended and went to Mill were jazzed beyond belief and want to go again.

I believe that we have the start of a new evangelism team.

Next weekend, we will hold the 2nd crash course and head to Mill again to see what God will do.

I'll try and compile some of the on the street encounters and post this week so you can be encouraged.

Till then,

Keep on FISHIN'

Two Fearful Servants

Our hearts were pounding!

Donna and Lorie wanted to spend some time together. Instead of going for a manicure or meeting for lunch, they decided to go witnessing at the local park last night! The following is the short story of God's blessing on their obedience to follow the great commission Mark 16:15.

God is so good! Well here we go. Our hearts are pounding, but here we go. We started to approach 3 teenage girls which quickly turns to 5 teenagers, which soon turns into a crowd of maybe 12-15 teens. We show them a million dollar bill and offer it to them as a gift. They were so thrilled to have it and some wanted to know if they could spend it. Ha!

The Law

So, we went through the law of the ten commandments with them, and many if not all raised there hands to say yes I have lied, stolen things, and taken the Lords name in vain. As the reality set in that they were not a good person as they thought they were before we started, many were listening to every word. When we asked them if it was judgment day and they were being judged on these commandments that they broke would they be guilty or innocent. They knew they were guilty and would go to hell.

One girl said, "But I don't want to go to hell". We were then able to share about God's gift of salvation, and what He did on the cross so they wouldn't have to go to hell. Explaining that salvation is a gift like the million dollar bill. They had a choice to receive or reject our gift, and that Jesus will not force us to receive Him either.

What if I don't believe?

One person asked "what if I'm not sure if I believe in God cause He has never done anything to help me"? We explained that even if you don't believe, that doesn't change the truth and the reality of Jesus Christ. Just like jumping out of a 2 story building; even if you don't believe in gravity the truth is you will go splat.

Some teens were wandering in & out, but many were still very focused on all that was being discussed. We asked if any wanted to pray and receive Christ into their hearts. I heard one say "I want to pray", there may have been more, God knows. So we prayed with them.

They were glad that we stopped to share with them, and we were so glad ourselves that we got to share Christ with them.

You won't know unless you go!

I think I stole that from Ivan Vansomebody from a Christian Surfing TV show.

Anyway, I am encouraging all you wanna be evangelists out there, that if Donna and Lorie can get out and share Christ with lost teenagers, then you can get out in your world, where ever that may be and open your mouth. Just pray for God to fill it and give you words of knowledge and or truth salted with compassion for the lost and dying souls you will be speaking to.

Jesus said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20 NASB

Feeling Stale Led to Visit to Local Bar (Javelina Crossing)

Feeling a little Stale

I decided to be rebellious on the way home tonight.

I had only handed out 2 tracts this morning at the post office and was feeling a little stale.So, I stopped at the Javalina Crossing, which is the only bar in town. It is Friday night, so the tiny parking lot was packed. That is about 7 cars or so.

I was able to hit every patron and the bar maid with a MDB, about 12 people in all. Had to go the back room to hand out the last 6 or so as they had a serious poker game going. It was weird, everyone was so thankful. I didn't really plan on witnessing, but just wanted to see the reaction, and to get tracts into the hands of people that probably won't be coming through the doors of our church any time soon.

More than a tract adventure

As I was turning to leave, there was a man coming out of the bathroom, and I handed him a MDB as well. He looked a little familiar, and said that I had already given him one. Sure enough he had come to the church a week or two ago for a food box, and I gave him one then. I asked him if he had read it and he said not really.He was glazed but not drunk so I figured, why not? I shared the Law and Gospel with him at the end of the bar.

He knew he was going to hell, but didn't really seem concerned. When he insisted that dogs were people too and would be in heaven, I wrapped it up and left him with his conscience. He also had a problem with Jesus being God, which isn't surprising. Trying to reason scripture with a buzzed guy in a bar probably isn't the smartest thing I've done today, but it was a challenge, and they're people too.

Pray for Bob if you think of me. I'll probably run into him again, as we live in a pretty small town.

Three Tract Per Day Challenge (update)

I think that I posted about this a week or two ago, hence the (update), but if I didn't it is all the same I'll explain the challenge.

We Christians are a strange breed. We claim to believe something that is earth shattering, and we walk around most days like we are biding our time waiting to die like the rest of the lost world.

What on earth is wrong with us? I say this to my own shame.

The Challenge

Well, here is the challenge to make your life count. Is this the only way? Of course not. But, I have been so excited since trying to make sharing the Gospel a lifestyle, and challenging myself daily.

I challenge you to hand out 3 Gospel tracts per day.... everyday.

You might be thinking... oh that sounds easy. Let me tell you that it is not.

Now if you're like my brother in Florida, (Craig) and you work in a huge office building where you rub shoulders with many many people every day, and many of them you've never met before, you may find it easy. However, most of us have to go out of our way to hand out tracts or talk to people about the Lord, and it is a challenge in more ways than one.

I have had some great encounters in the last weeks since taking the challenge, and I hope that you will too.

Post a comment here if you are up for the challenge. Let me know how you are doing. Remember even when all we do is hand someone a tract, the Gospel is going out and we should always be praying for God's result and that the seed planted will grow and produce fruit.

Who's with me?

A Call to Repentance

The following video is one that I have been anxiously trying to get edited and uploaded for you ever since my return from the Ambassador's Academy this past July.

This video was filmed at our home church Calvary Black Canyon City, on Sunday morning August 3rd a week after my return. It is the telling of a changed life so immensely impacted by God's Word and obedience to it that I cannot describe to you, but only ask that you watch it and see for yourself.

I realize that a video of over an hour's length is not going to be watched by too many in it's entirety, and that is okay. It is my hope that anyone who needs to hear the message and call to repentance that is communicated in this post will be led by God to do so.

I can only say to my Savior how grateful I am for the wake up call, and his enduring forbearance with me an unworthy sinner.

As always, please leave a comment and let me know what you think, good or bad.

Nick & Buds in the Breezeway

What Was I Thinking?

I naively thought that the last place on earth I would be handing out tracts would be in our own church breezeway. I don't know why that thought had never occurred to me before, but today it did.

Pardise on Earth

A gal from our church who lives in a nearby town has teenage boys. This nearby town is man's plan of paradase. This is a planned community, targeted at families with all the amenities that a modern unit of individuals living under the same roof could ask for. (You do realize that the FAMILY is the next creation of God that our nation has embraced since it's inception that will be redefined after our courts get done with the institution of marriage.) Among these amenities are a state of the art community center with a huge water park, basketball court, rock climbing wall, all the latest exercise equipment, children's play area with safe jungle gyms (do the even use that word anymore) that reach to the sky with more slides, stairs, ropes, bridges, etc than an adolescent could dream of, and even their own train.

The problem with any paradise on earth is the same problem that all communities on earth currently share. They are plagued with sinful human beings.

That brings me to Nick and his friends who came to our church today.

Satan's Plan (Run Baby Run)

Our high school group was scheduled to be in the main sanctuary with the adults today, and I went to the high school room to notify the students of this. Soon after giving out this news however, 5 of the same students were hoofing it down the street away from the church.

Anyway, not to drag this story out into oblivion, after I rounded up the kids and got them into service, God kept urging me during the sermon regarding the plight of these unsaved teens. Every point in the sermon, although not probably intended that way, kept my attention on the students and their obvious rebellion towards their parental authority and their lost state. I had to do something. You might be thinking and rightly so, "weren't they going to get the Gospel in the service?". The answer would be yes, however it was obvious by their closed eyes and elbow to knee stature during most of the service, that they were not listening intently, and were probably even completely asleep.

I determined not to miss an opportunity to share the Law and the Gospel with this group that I knew may never darken the door of a church again, and I was determined to do so before they made it off the property.

Hurting High School Kids from AZ hear the Gospel

So, as soon as the church service ended, I bolted for the door, as I knew they would be doing and caught them in the breezeway and gave three un-churched kids a million dollar bill tract from Living Waters Publications.

Nick was the talkative one, he is 16 and apparently has lived a really tough life. He told me that he has lived and provided for himself (by stealing before he was old enough to work) since as far back as he could remember.

Chris was a tall troubled looking young man, quiet, but pensive. You could tell he was really taking everything in, although he said nothing. The girl in the group was Haley, and she seemed somewhat engaged, but my focus really was on Nick.

As I shared with them, they all 3 admitted to failing the good person test, although were not visibly concerned with the idea of standing before God in their sins. Nick just kept saying that he didn't believe in God, and there was nothing I was going to do to convince him otherwise.

I Dare You!

I spoke to them the things of eternity for 20-25 minutes as church people milled around until I basically ran out of analogies and scripture to try and make the Gospel make sense to them. I ended the conversation with a dare from me to Nick to passionately pursue the truth. I invited him to come back for in depth conversations on evolution and other subjects that I touched on briefly in the discourse, but I really was trying to get him to commit to at least investigating the truth of the claims of the Bible to a greater extent than he had up to that point, which he admitted wasn't all that much.

At one point I did ask Chris if he was at the same place in his mind as Nick, of total unbelief, and he said that he was not. Praise God!

Although it would be easy to be discouraged at this witnessing encounter, I really am not. Nick and Chris and Bailey are in God's hands, and I did my very best to passionately explain the Gospel. I will be praying that God will soften their hearts and lead them to other encounters with Christians, even that they would show up back on our property where I will be obedient to share with them again. I hope that you will pray with me for their salvation.

Please Pray

Please leave me your comments on this post. I cherish your prayers and appreciate you reading this long post.

Post Office - Becoming Favorite Fishing Spot

My local Post Office is the one place I usually go every morning to check the PO boxes for the church and for our personal mail. Therefore, anyone who is at our small post office while I am there usually gets a tract at very least, and at best, a God ordained one 2 one Gospel presentation.

This morning was no exception, but was exceptional.

A man named Martin was the one who God had in store for me to meet this morning. Martin is originally from Ecuador where his father had moved from Chili before his birth. Martin is probably in his late 50's early 60's and someone you would probably enjoy talking to. He is outgoing and smiles a lot, and was very interested in his eternal destiny.

Martin thought of himself as a good person and was hoping that his good deeds would earn him a place in heaven, but also told me he has been involved in the LDS Church for a long time.

I hadn't really planned on taking much time this morning, as I was headed for work, but when I asked Martin what he thought happened after he died, I spent the next hour trying to convince him and let the Holy Spirit do His work in convicting his conscience that he was really headed for hell.

He listened intently, told me some sad stories of his life, and we shared some things we have in common, like the fact that we are both pilots.

Although Martin did not repent and turn to the Saviour on the spot, he did promise me that he would seriously consider the things we had talked about, and in addition to giving me his business card, he insisted on having my phone number and said that I shouldn't be surprised if I get a call with some other biblical questions.

I felt a little like Paul with King Agrippa in the book of Acts, where the King told Paul that he was almost convinced to become a Christian.

Please pray for Martin that his eyes will be opened to the truth and he will see his true sinful state before a Holy and Righteous Judge, God our Saviour.