Updates for a new year - 01-10-08

Happy New Year to all of our fellow soul-winners and prayer partners,
(01-10-08)

It’s hard to believe that it is already 2008! Time flies so quickly. Our family is truly enjoying working alongside each and every one of you all. We are excited to see what all God showed us last year, and we are excited about the future events, challenges and training He has for us this year too! The new year is always a great time to review last year and the lessons and experiences in preparing for a new year of serving Christ!

A few catch-up points before we tell some of the stories from the last two weeks and a brief update from Scott on a great conversation last week:

We are looking for some schedule ideas on what week in January or February would work well for a ‘Worship Music and Street-preaching’ event. We would actually like a lot of feedback from you all on that idea. Steven and Paul have practiced 4 songs (at least 2 of which are apparently done at Metro). So, as we get those ideas going and feedback, we can work together on planning that event sometime soon. And we plan to start sending out the ideas as the plans become more complete. Also, after we can find a date that works best, we are going to be needing to send out an alert, because we are going to need as much of team that night as possible, because we are expecting God to bless that in ways we probably can’t even imagine!

Next week, we will not be going downtown, since David, Steven and Paul have signed up for the Metro Men’s retreat and we’re really looking forward to that.

Also, there has been some discussion of possible extra ministry event opportunities for spring break, so just to keep some ideas in our minds…

Also, some of you have noticed our friend Bart on our corner lately. He is a traveling missionary. He and his wife minister a lot to Spanish speaking groups in South America and probably some other places. He has such a wonderful heart for God – inspiring! And, by the way, Bart loves meeting you all and getting to know you – it encourages him that there is hope and that he can keep serving Christ! His preaching style is interesting, but what’s even more interesting is to see how God uses Bart. We have seen people just sit near him and just listen and cry and get their lives right with God, so we appreciate and pray for him. He is probably going to be traveling back to South America soon, but he’s expecting to be back with us around March.

Also, we have mentioned them before, but YWAM (Youth With A Mission) is another group that we have been teaming up with and they are an interesting ministry. They are training people from across America and countries all around the globe, through their two schools: DTS (Discipleship Training School) and SoME (School of Ministry and Evangelism). We are thrilled to have them out there and to be working alongside them sharing the gospel. The more we can work as team to share the gospel of Jesus effectively, the more we learn and the more we are able to share our own faith more effectively. So, that’s pretty cool too! The new group of YWAM-ers just got in last Friday, so they are getting ready and we need to keep them in our prayers.

(Steven’s update)
Lately, my dad and I have been listening to Josh McDowell, and (his son) Sean McDowell, and Norman Geisler, among others, and have been trying to learn how to more effectively explain God’s logic as compared to human reasoning. What’s been most interesting though, is that as we have been listening to them, God has been putting us in situations where we have been able to use it along with His Word. The reason I mention that is to encourage you that God wants to continue teaching all of us – He is a God of new horizons, and that’s good! The main thing I keep finding is that whether we can answer using God’s reasoning (aka worldview) or not, we need to remember that God promises that His Word won’t come back empty. “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isa 55:11) This is, of course, what we are called to do, sow God’s Word. God will work on the person, because He is responsible for the increase! I’ve just been reminded of that lately, so I thought I would pass it on…

I’ve been using the flipchart still. It’s doing a couple of things for me – training me for speaking to larger groups, teaching me how to be more effective in my one-2-one conversations, and even challenging me to keep digging deeper in God’s Word. It’s great! My mom and Ristela even have been trying it! It’s pretty simple and then the transition to their condition comes right off of it, just by making one point. Pointing out that the chart shows that our senses can fool us, leads right into asking them if they think they are a good person and then taking them through the 10 Commandments. If any of you are curious to try it and would like tips, you can just ask me.

~ a fellow servant of Christ, Steven : )

(Brief update from Scott Anderson a really cool conversation they had)
So here's the main conversation I was in the other night when we went out evangelizing. We came across a band that had just finished up their set inside one of the clubs down off central and started up conversations with them. I ended up talking to a kid, whose name was Josh, and his girlfriend (Jessie) who couldn't have been more than 18 years old. When he found out that I wanted to discuss the person and work of Jesus Christ, he said that it was really weird that I'd be coming up to him to talk about this, because he had just started reading his Bible again three days ago. So I made sure that he clearly understood the gospel, and things really took off from there. He had so many questions. We discussed the mystery of the trinity, fear of man, the power of the Holy Spirit, and even nominalism. We discussed fear of man from something he had mentioned. He had told me that he felt uneasy reading his Bible at work during his breaks because people were apparently giving him some weird looks. I was able to encourage him to continue on in his Bible reading in spite of the looks he was getting, reminding him that approval from God far surpasses any momentary approval from men. I couldn't believe it when we ended up talking about nominalism. We discussed how the faith must be more than just a name we give ourselves, but it must affect every aspect of our lives, transforming us into the image of Christ through sanctification. I was quite encouraged by this conversation, because throughout our entire conversation, he kept mentioning how he was wondering if what he was beginning to do was worth it, and that our conversation was a clear sign to him that this wasn't something for him to abandon. Praise God for the divine appointments he gives us! Your brother in Christ,Scott Anderson

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