Calling all the troops!

Hello to our prayer partners and fellow evangelists! : )

We hope that you all had a blessed Christmas celebrating the King of Kings! We trust God has continued to bless you, as we all celebrate God’s amazingly humble visit!

This is a big weekend for all who are available. We love having the opportunity to go downtown and share the gospel, including this Friday evening and we expect to meet around 9:30PM for some street-witnessing, to speak with those God sends our way. In addition to that, this is the also the weekend for the big Orange Bowl Parade! We have close to a dozen of us who are planning to come so far, but this is expected to be a really big and fun parade and we would be grateful for additional help! They are expecting more than 75,000 excited and curious observers. That is a lot of people, so we are letting everyone know and asking them if they can come, to bring a friend or two. And we ask that whether you are able to join us or plan to pray for us during that time, if you can, please email your friends so they can plan to join us or pray too! This is typically a great opportunity to pass out lots of gospel tracts at a time when people are so receptive. If you have not worked a parade yet, then you are in for a blessing, because they crowds that we have been seeing are unusually open to getting something for free. If you have not met Sean and Marji Kelsey yet, they are the ones who printed up thousands of gospel tracts for the occasion. The plan is to meet at the southwest corner of Orange and Robinson at 10AM Saturday morning. The plan is to interact with the people running the floats and the parade is scheduled to start at 11:00AM. If you are running late, it’s okay, we are glad for your help!
Contact info:
GNNO@cnonline.net

(Steven’s Update)
A brief catch-up because it was pretty interesting! ~ Two Fridays ago, the four of us hung out at the corner of Orange and Central and talked to a lot of people and had some very interesting conversations. I (Steven) worked the flip chart (using the portable sound system) and several times a crowd gathered around, just curious what we were talking about. It was a lot of fun, though very high energy! Also some of the YWAM team (Youth With a Mission) joined us and hung out at our corner – which made it more fun! One story specifically stands out. There were 2 guys who walked up and were curious what the flipchart was, so I took them through the ‘Intelligence Test’ and we had some fun with that. Then I asked them if they knew why I had this flipchart out here and they didn’t know, so I explained that it’s because we can look at something and think we know what we see, but our senses can fool us. Then I pointed out that we can fool us ourselves into thinking we are good people just because we are better than so and so. But are we really good? I then took them through a few of the 10 Commandments and they stopped me and started asking questions. One of them wanted to know if Jesus truly was tempted like we are or if He really was perfect and couldn’t sin. And, I did my best to answer him, reminding him that Jesus was both – Hebrews 4:15 – “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” He asked a few more questions, but I knew the real issue was that he wanted to go and get drunk and he wanted to blame God somehow. (I also knew there was something else in going on in his head, but couldn’t figure out what…) I was trying to find an effective way to answer him, when someone to my left said, ‘Hey can I answer that?’ I looked over puzzled and saw our good friend Bobby (a leader of YWAM Orlando team). I was much relieved and Bobby reminded this guy that God gave each of us a choice and we are choosing right now, what that choice is, despite the fact that God already knows what choice we will make, we still have to choose whether we will do what’s right or choose to rebel. (Later, Bobby had a chance to talk to this guy more and found out that this guy’s grandma had just died recently and he was struggling with understanding why… That’s painful and explains why he was asking these questions.) My prayer is that God will not let either him or his friend rest until they give all of their heart and life to Jesus Christ.

This past Friday, we were delighted to have a group from Metro join us as they usually do! I set up the flipchart as we typically do, but the winds were blowing hard enough to knock it over, so we moved it out of the wind (and the pathway). So, then I prayed for our fellow evangelism teams and for wisdom and started talking with anyone I could. I talked to a homeless man named Tony and we had a good conversation about some things I thing he needed to remember and think about. I also had a chance to talk with an old friend from a church we used to go to. I felt the Holy Spirit pressing me to challenge him that he had no business being downtown because he was coming looking for trouble, so we had a heart to heart talk. I’m praying that God keeps working on him and showing him that he needs to give Jesus control of all of his life. I also got to briefly talk with a Muslim guy that Scott, Brittany, Kayla, and Rebecca had been talking with. And from the other conversations I heard about, it was a very interesting night! There are so many people downtown and many more like them who think they can believe in Jesus and live the way the want. My fear for them is that I don’t want them to hear “I never knew you, depart from Me you who practice lawlessness [rebellion]…” ~ (Matthew 7:23)

In the last couple of weeks, I had a chance to watch a couple ‘Way of the Master’ online messages and to watch a Mark Cahill message and I realized one thing I have been missing. So, I tried it this past Friday, and noticed more effective conversations. The idea/thought to it is that if we don’t engage them enough in the conversation (i.e. asking good questions to make them think and analyze themselves) then they don’t think deeply enough to take their eternity as seriously as would be helpful for them. But when we (and Ray, Kirk and Mark) asked them questions that made them identify themselves, they take it more seriously. One example was a guy I talked to, took him through the ‘Intelligence Test’ and then explained that our senses can fool us. Then I asked him if he thought he was a good person. He said he was, so then I took him through the 10 Commandments and it really hit him when he realized that he had broken God’s commandments and deserves to be punished. And then I asked him if that concerned him that based on his confession that he had broken God’s commandments and that he knew that God had to punish him and that meant he deserved to spend forever in Hell – did that concern him? I just talked to him for a minute or two and just let him think about the gravity of that question. It was interesting to see his conscience, his will to live, and the truth of God’s Word and his understanding of God’s justice work on his heart. After he thought about it, he said that it did bother him. I then explained what Jesus did for him if he accepts it and challenged him to read God’s Word, take it seriously and obey what he reads and he left our conversation thinking. I’m praying for him. I wish I could remember his name, but I’m praying for him. It was neat to see God’s Word work on a tender heart to draw that man to Himself.

Thank you to our dear prayer partners! Your prayers are more appreciated than you know! We are praying that God will keep using each and every one of you where ever He has you to be sprinkling His Word in conversations and of course, continuing to ask God to raise up more laborers in His harvest!

Your friends and fellow laborers in the harvest,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul
‘Come let us worship the King of Kings!'

"This is a time for seeing and singing!"

Greetings and Merry Christmas to our prayer partners and fellow evangelists! : )

Our family had a wonderful time caroling with our friends from Metro Life ~ thank you all!

It was a great Friday night! There were about 40 people sent in two groups. We had a guitar, a trumpet, a violin, and a flute to start us on key and accompany us! : ) We sent the little ones with a goody bag to greet the people, and we all sang. As we were singing, we had quite a few times where the next-door neighbors would come out to hear us too! It was very special to our family because we got to go Christmas caroling with a group of Christians that we know love God and they only sang songs that would glorify God!

Steven and Katie Eisenberg are planning a caroling event in their neighborhood next Friday – December 21st ~ and we are really looking forward to joining them! So, here is your invite to join us for a time of worshipping our Savior ~ we posted the link to the e-vite at the end of this update. There are 28 of their friends so far, who have said that they are planning to come. Should be fun!

(David’s update)
There is so much to celebrate! Yes the Majestic visitation of our Savior and also how He uses all of us to be His messengers, caroling, sharing thousands of tracts at Christmas Parades, praying for and sharing the gospel with the downtown crowd.

Does prayer change things? Yes! And it is always encouraging to see answers to our prayers! I (David) don't normally read the local paper, but I saw an interesting front page article in last Saturday's paper ‘Drop In Murders Perplexes Police' about the surprising drop in the murder rate for Orlando and Orange County for October and November. The police have made almost 6000 arrests. We know that prayer is a part of the picture. We know some of the ministries praying for and evangelizing Orlando, including YWAM, Operation 180, Bible Baptist and we have even heard of a group of Churches recently that had a 40 days prayer emphasis. What an incredible privilege to work as a team serving Christ!

This is the first year that we have ever passed out tracts at parades and WOW is that a blessing! We have seen the wide range of expressions including respect and appreciation as the recipients recognize it as a gospel tract and quickly agree that we are an important reminder for them. It is a little surprising and encouraging to hear people requesting a tract and to hear words of appreciation later on after they had a chance to look at it. Please pray for those tracts because God answers our prayers! We would appreciate a few more players for the big Orlando parade this Saturday and either way we would treasure your prayers, because it is real spiritual warfare.

After caroling, we went downtown, and had some interesting conversations, including meeting Joseph Cephas – a native Sioux Indian that has been saved for 7 years and was struggling with his walk. Please pray for him.

(Paul’s update)
I have one story to share with you all that shows the influence of the Holy Spirit through us even on people who would normally try to ignore us. There were two ladies coming through our corner, and I handed them a couple of tracts and told them it asked a simple question and has a simple answer. The tract is the one with the little man on the front that says ‘Are you a good person'. They seemed like they were going to keep walking but they stopped there and talked to each other about something else, I couldn't tell what. But I knew one thing - that meant they were still there for me to talk to, so I went back over to them. I can't remember all of the things that I told them, but they listened. I asked them questions, and they would answer me with the shortest answers possible. After going through the Ten Commandments, I did find out that they really didn't think they had done anything particularly wrong, and they had very little understanding of why Jesus came to the earth to live among us and then to die and rise again. It had very little meaning to them before I explained it. And I told them that if you haven't done anything particularly wrong, then God is not very intelligent to send His own Son to the earth to die, when it wasn't really needed. They were still taking it a bit casually and lightheartedly, so I explained God's perfect character more thoroughly. And I warned them to really repent and turn away from all of their sin. God isn't wanting to save us from lying so frequently, He wants to save us from lying at all. And He doesn't want save to us from just some of our sexual immorality, He wants to save us from all of it. And not just some of our false ideas of gods, but all of them. And not just some of our discontentment and covetousness, but all of it. And not just some of our irreverence to God, but all of it, and so on. I noticed that they didn't really want to say much lest they incriminate themselves, so that gave me a chance to describe a lot of things for them. I must have given them like five opportunities to leave the conversation, but they kept giving short responses and then just standing there waiting for whatever was next. I eventually ran out of things to say, and so I just very plainly warned them not to ignore God, so they don't end up finding themselves to be an enemy of God. And I warned them to repent of all of their sin and give their life entirely to follow Christ. And I pointed out that until I explained all of that, they really weren't taking it very seriously and weren't very appreciative of Christ's sacrifice for us, and actually really didn't even understand the point of it. And they agreed! And that was all the response I got to it, so I wished them a nice evening. I believe that was just the beginning of what God is trying to say to them, but it seems like they might have heard God's Word for the first time in a while. I pray and trust that they will decide to listen and stop ignoring Him.

(Steven’s update)
We are just a few weeks away from one of our favorite celebrations of the year ~ celebrating the wonderful, amazing story of how God put on human flesh, lived among us, suffered, was crucified by His own creation – died to pay for our sins, and then rose again so we can have an actively daily relationship with Him and the wonderful privilege of being able to walk in His victory!

The four of us had the opportunity to go downtown and interact with some of the downtown crowd sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. I (Steven) had a very interesting conversation with a sort-of traveling entertainer, named Forest but who goes by the nickname of Woody, and as I asked God for wisdom on what to say, God used me to remind him of verses that challenged him to think on things in Heaven and His eternity, and the spiritual condition of the hearts of the people he entertains. He agreed to read the book of John and to work on his relationship with Christ, and I’m praying for him.

Thank you for your part in this team and for your prayers!

Your friends and fellow laborers in the harvest,
David, Barbara, Steven, and Paul

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Below is the e-vite from the Eisenbergs:


You are invited to Christmas Caroling by Steven and Katie Eisenberg...