making eternal friends and a time of pray with the teams

Hello fellow soul-winners and prayer partners, 02-29-08

'Transformed Conference' is only 2 weeks away! If you haven't already signed up and would like to join us for this free conference with Ray Comfort and team, here is the link to register ~ follow this link: http://www.wayofthemasterradio.com/transformed_signup_ftmyers.shtml

We look forward to seeing those who can join us at Rich's place and/or downtown tonight! And thank you to our prayer partners. Only in Heaven, when we hear all of the stories will we all find out how much God used your prayers to help us and other soul-winners!

This past weekend was pretty amazing! And there are too many stories to tell? but here are a few of them. (By the way, we love hearing the stories of who all God used each of you to talk with, on the weekends and even during the weeks! By the way, there was a team that went out soul-winning at Crane's Roost Thursday night.)

(David's update)
We have so much to be thankful for! We are glad to find a church that cares for lost souls and these last few months have been so filled with signs of spiritual life. Last week, God brought 8 different conversations that seemed to bring conviction to these guy's hearts and they allowed me to pray for them. Every week is so different and so blessed! Last Friday, God allowed me to have spiritual conversations with eight different men who came under conviction. Each of them thought they were saved and as we reviewed the 'Parable of the Soils', they started to fell conviction and understood there was a spiritual problem with their lifestyle. We can't say 'Thank you!' enough to our prayer partners. Of course we prefer times when you are able to walk the streets with us, and we always appreciate your prayers.

(Steven's update)
I got to talk with a number of people both on Friday and Saturday evenings. I got to talk with a couple of people who said they were agnostic, but they still talked for a couple of minutes. I'm praying God grows those seeds. We got to talk with Dina (the friendly club worker) and asked her for directions - directions to Heaven, that is? :) and then had a great several minute conversation, ending with telling her that we are glad to have her as a friend down here, but what we really want is for her to be our friend forever! That really meant something to her. We can do is keep praying for her, planting seeds, and watch what God does with them? One of my main conversations on Friday evening was with a security guard who has tons of questions, but his main problem is that he doesn't want to submit to Jesus Christ yet. He and I talked for about an hour ~ pretty good conversation. Then on Saturday, when we joined the Op180 team, I had the chance to give this security guard 'One Heartbeat Away' (Mark Cahill ~ www.markcahill.org) and he seemed to really appreciate it, even saying that he planned to start reading it right away! Praise God! We just keep praying?
Also, Saturday evening, I got to hang out a lot with Bart, the street preacher/missionary as he preached on our corner and talked with those who came up for conversations. And (with his coaching and God's guidance) I preached to the passing crowds 3 times, like 5-10 minutes each. The last sermon was my fifth out on the streets of Orlando, and I'm expecting God to keep teaching me how to do it more effectively! Mainly, I just read a passage of God's Living Word, explained a little and then pointed out its application, and encouraged people to think about eternity, because eternity is longer than this life and since we can't change our answer there, we had better make sure that we have the right answer here, while we still have time. I did my best to reason with all who were walking by and plead with them to give their lives to Christ and accept that He paid their fine for them, and it was pretty cool to see how God caught the attention of quite a few who were walking by, who stopped and gave me their attention for a few minutes. I think the neatest thing to me was seeing some of their faces light up as I was explaining and reasoning with them from God's Word ~ it was like a light went on and they had something new to think about. I trust many seeds were planted and I look forward to seeing and hearing the results and stories one day!

(Paul's update)
This last Friday night was outstanding. I walked the streets with my friend Daniel who we just connected with again after about twelve years or so. We were homeschooled together in the same group way back when. Anyway, we had one interesting conversation with a guy who was Rostifarian. And then our second conversation occupied the rest of the night, because the young man was so intently listening and was allowing us to share everything we could think of to persuade him to surrender control of his life and repent of sin and learn to love God and to think like God thinks. For instance, a while into the conversation, he said very thoughtfully, 'So you're telling me I have to give up my sin and stop being in control of my life?' Amen!!! And he really, really valued Daniel's prayer for him after that! And then we still talked for another twenty min. or so. It was great. We are praying for Tommy, that this truth will resound through the power of the Holy Spirit until it drives him to his knees to surrender his life to God!

Then Saturday, we had planned a huge surprise for Operation 180. YWAM and us had planned to show up somewhat unannounced and join up with their team for the night. Basically from the time Bobby (YWAM) got there until the end of the night at around 2AM, we really challenged and strengthened each other in the Lord and in the work that God has called us to do together in Orlando. And we verified truths with each other and observations about the condition of the people downtown. Then we spent about an hour in intense intercession in front of the Wachovia bank for the city and for the people that walk the streets of downtown and for the church, the body of Christ, in Orlando! It was a powerful time for God to speak and reveal His heart to us! We were so amazed at the resolve that God was giving us to be diligent and preach boldly and to tear down the strongholds downtown! We were all greatly refreshed!

Two more stories from Saturday night that happened before Bobby came and joined us and Op 180. Two men who claim the name of Christ with two different situations. One was a cab driver with an accurate gospel and a desire to see souls saved. We strengthened and challenged him to be more frequent and more bold in talking with his passengers about the truths of the gospel. He was very convicted and said he felt lazy, and that he intended to do something about what we said. The other man, Reggie, goes to a so-called church that I was familiar with that has rejected the fear of the Lord. So I said to him, 'It's comfortable there isn't it?' He agreed. So I asked him again. Again he agreed but he said, 'I'm not sure I know what you're saying'. I told him that I was familiar with them and how they do not teach the truth, but that they teach what is comfortable to hear. He had to agree. Sean and I together shared many verses from God's Word with him, to scare him away from complacency and sin that he is comfortable with at the moment. After a while of talking, he got the interruption he wanted in a phone call, so we let him go. He did however admit that everything that we said was true and accurate and that he agreed that he needed to hear it and that he would think about it. Unfortunately, it was not as sincere as I would wish. But God has ways of getting it to become more sincere, and I trust that He will for Reggie's sake!

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