followers of Christ ~ Welcome!

Evangelizing days before the new year ~ : )

2009-01-14T18:15:00.000-08:00

Hey fellow labors and our dear prayer partners, 12-28-2008

We hope you have had a blessed Christmas celebration worshiping the King of Kings! And we pray that you have a blessed New Year. We are planning to spend News Year's Eve with some friends and fellowship and pray in the new year! ~ : )

Well, we are quite a bit out of the routine of telling you our seed-planting adventures and we are working on sharing them more frequently! : )

Alright, well I can't think of any special announcements, except that we plan to go out the Citrus Bowl to share about Jesus on January 1^st. So, onto some stories from the last 2 weeks.

A brief thought from Paul about an interesting article from an atheist:

I read this article by atheist Matthew Parris at The Times a few days ago admitting the effect of Christianity in his homeland of Malawi, and I just had to share it with my friends! You will really, really enjoy reading this article and seeing his admissions in it!! He shows the difference between the influence of people coming to faith in God and bringing change where they are in Africa compared to the effect of the NGO's (non-governmental organizations) and other organizations trying to provide aid in the region. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece

Steven's update:

Last week, we went to Sean Walsh's surprise birthday at a restaurant – all of which was secretly planned by his new wife, Bethany (and they have a baby on the way) ~ : ) It was so much fun fellowshipping, sharing stories and experiences and encouraging one another! But, we also had an opportunity to witness there. The lady who waited on our table's name was Lacey. She was very kind and visited our table quite a few times, and I'm sure she overheard some of our conversations etc and likely found them interesting. All of us at the table had friendly interaction with her. I especially try to go out of my way to be friendly to people like waiters, waitresses, mailmen, UPS guys, security guards, etc ~ people the world doesn't notice nor care about, and I'm regularly looking for ways to encourage them and challenge them to think about eternity. So, at the end of our dinner, Lacey was clearing our table and I asked if she got one of these – and handed her a Million Dollar Bill tract (from Living Waters) and she read it right there and so I waited for her response. After reading for just a few seconds, she handed it back and said that she wasn't interested in religion. I tried to mention that this wasn't about religion, but about eternity, and she still wasn't interested. So, I was kind of disappointed by her reaction. It seemed to me that she had been hurt by at least a religious hypocrite, and so I was still looking for an open door to say just a few more words to her... and then I realized I could apologize to her for how others have treated her and hopefully mention in that brief conversation that I too had left religion, and instead that I had a relationship with Jesus. Well, so as I was still working it through in my mind of how to say it, I watched her complain to a friendly manager about the tract, etc. She even pointed at me, and the look on his face told me that it was a pleasant comment. So, I was stumped. But, I kept looking for an opportunity to share that last thought with her. Then several minutes later, I had the opportunity. I went over to her when she came back around and told her that I wanted to apologize. The look on her face was so shocked, that I repeated myself in case she hadn't heard me right. So, then I apologized to her that I didn't know how other religious people had treated her, but that I wasn't trying to do that. I then mentioned to her that I too had gotten sick of religion and how I was now a follower of Jesus, and then mentioned that that was another subject, and then wrapped up the conversation. I could tell that those words meant something to her, but I didn't know how much until later when I talked with my brother, who saw my last conversation with her and told me that when I apologized, her whole attitude changed, and she really appreciated that someone genuinely cared about her. Her face is one that I will probably remember for quite a while. More so, I hope and pray that God brings her to her knees at the foot of the cross, making her a new creation in Christ.

So after some goodbyes, then we went downtown. When we got there, we found several street-preaching teams out there ~ : ) That was cool. It is neat to us to see God building a team with and around us that is hungry to understand Jesus message and to tell everyone they know! That is so encouraging to us!

Paul spent most of that night praying for those that passed by, and I talked with a downtown Orlando greeter, named Ivan, and reminded him of God's Words, including John 14:6 ~ “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by Me.” Ivan apparently is still stuck in a false gospel like Catholicism or maybe Oprah ~ from the thinking that all roads lead to Heaven. Ivan knew what Jesus said, but didn't want to exclude those 'innocent' people who 'never hear about Jesus' from Heaven. I pointed out to Him that we all have 3 things inside of us from the time we are born ~ 1) knowledge of God's commands, 2) a conscience, that reminds us of God's commands, and 3) the knowledge that God is our Creator and Judge. I also pointed out to Him that if anyone wants to turn from their rebellion against God and seek repentance, God will bring Him someone who can tell Him about Jesus, or even send Him a vision that will lead that person to Christ. It was a good conversation, and at the end, Ivan thanked me and mentioned that he had learned some things from our conversation.

So, now to this past weekend ~ : )

Friday evening, Paul and I got to preach along with Bart, and Jason, and Kevin. It was a crazy night with all the college football crowd, but we had some great conversations with some atheists and a number of people passing by. One of their big problems with hypocrisy, and we agreed with them about the hypocrisy and they respected that. I told them that we are frustrated with the hypocrisy from the top of the government down and the hypocrisy in many religious circles too, and then I reminded them that right now, God is writing down every detail and on Judgment Day, God will not miss one detail. They appreciated that note, though it also brought conviction on them of their accountability to the Judge of the Universe. At the end of our conversations, a couple of the atheists mentioned that they liked how we were reasonable, but that even though they didn't agree, they appreciated the conversation ~ so that was a blessing too.

Then Saturday afternoon, Paul and I were able to join Jason, Robert and Dave at the Citrus Bowl for some street-preaching and conversations with those who came for the game. That was pretty cool. We had some interesting conversations with several college kids. We trusts that God used us to plant seeds of His truth and His Word.

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So, as far as this week's events, New Year's Eve, we are planning to join some friends for some Christian fellowship and to pray in the New Year. Then on New Year's Day, we are planning to go to the Citrus Bowl and talk to people at that game, and then Friday, we will probably be on the streets of downtown again, challenging all who will listen to surrender their lives to Christ and learn what it means to be His followers, servants.

Thank you to all of you who have prayed for us this year! We look forward to what all God has for us this coming year and we pray that He will keep you all busy in His work and growing too!

Thank you!
Fellow laborers,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul

'Fishing' for Jewish people

2008-09-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

Dear friends and fellow prayer partners,

Lately, God has been opening doors for talking with Jewish people and we wanted to mention some stories and pass on some information to you all that might help you to be able to share the message of Jesus with them more effectively, or at least be able to pray for them more effectively. : )

(Steven's update)
Through the centuries, Satan has had many clever and cruel variety of strategies against the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob [renamed Israel]. Even though the Jewish people are looked down upon by many, we have found that many of them are very nice and some of them have been willing to talk with us, as we show them that we care about them. Their nice attitudes are commendable, especially in light of the fact that they are consistently slandered all around the world, even by the 'mainstream media'. Over the centuries, cruel, power-hungry tyrants that wanted to control the world have falsely blamed the Jewish people to accomplish their purposes. In today's culture, one of the main groups that falsely blame the Jewish people to accomplish their purposes are those who follow Islam. Jesus clearly nailed that hateful religion when He said: "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10) Having said that, not everyone who calls themselves a Muslim practices Islam, just like how many who claim they are a Christian, don't follow Christ themselves. The Jewish people have also been hunted down and killed by those who claimed to be Christians, but were power-hungry tyrants, concerned for their own greed and power.

With that said, naturally, there are quite a few barriers in communicating with a Jewish person. But, we continue to find that when we show how much we care about them as a people, they gravitate to that.

Recently, my dad and I had the wonderful opportunity to work for a nice Jewish businessman. When we found out he was Jewish, we gave him a discount. He said he had seen a lot of responses from people when they found out he was Jewish. Even someone who burned a cross in his yard. But, he had never had someone give him a discount for being Jewish. Our show of kindness opened up a small door for conversation, and he watched and appreciated our testimony too.

In the last few months, I have been building a online friendship with a lady in Canada that calls herself a Messianic Jew. There is a slight problem though, she believes in Yeshua (the Hebrew name from which we get 'Jesus'), and she believes in Him as her Messiah. But, doesn't believe that He is and was God in human flesh. So, needless to say, we have had some interesting discussions and I look forward to seeing where God takes it from here. : ) (Please pray for wisdom. I don't want to push her away. I just want to learn how to ask good questions that will make her think.)
A few verses I already showed her were:
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)

And a couple of other verses that we didn't get to talk about yet, but I hope and pray that we get to soon:

Colossians 1:15-18
“15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.16For by Him all things were created that are in Heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”
> Editor's note: The term firstborn has been twisted by several cults across the country to suit their purposes. But when Jesus is described as the firstborn, God is not saying that He was created. Pastor John MacArthur explains it this way: 'The Greek word for “firstborn” can refer to one who was born first chronologically, but most often refers to preeminence in position, or rank. (c.f. Romans 8:19) In both Greek and Jewish culture, the firstborn was the ranking son who had received the right of inheritance from his father, whether he was born first or not... 4) it is impossible for Christ to be both created and the Creator of everything (vs. 16) Thus Jesus is the firstborn in the sense that He has the preeminence (vs 18) and possesses the right of inheritance “over all creation” (c.f. Hebrews 1:2; Rev. 5:1-7,13). He existed before the creation and is exalted in rank above it...' (By the way, if you don't have a John MacArthur study Bible, we highly recommend it as a useful tool for accurately understanding God's Living Word. You can find them at most Christian bookstores or at http://www.gty.org.

Revelation 1:8, 11
“I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty…Saying, ‘I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,’ and, ‘What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.’ ”

Revelation 22:16
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I AM the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”

In addition to those stories, 2 Saturdays ago, at the mall, we had the wonderful opportunity of talking with 2 Jewish people: Sean and Ia. Deanna started the conversation with them, and I walked over and joined. Paul was able to join us later in the conversation. We had a great conversation! They were from Israel and when I came over and Deanna introduced me, they asked if we had been to Israel. Deanna and I smiled really big and said we'd love to go there someday. They chuckled about our excitement and encouraged us that we would love it. (We heartily agreed!) We then continued to take them through the 10 Commandments. They knew they had broken the 10 Commandments, but they were holding onto their hope that God would just forgive them, if they could just do enough good things. We tried to show them that this belief won't save them, and it gave them new food for thought. We also reminded them of the lamb sacrifice as an example of Jesus. We pointed out that the blood of a lamb couldn't save us, but that it was a symbol of the Messiah, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. They thought about it, and will likely be thinking about it more, but they weren't sure. I tried to show them a couple prophecies out of Isaiah, but they kept asking if that was the New Testament. (Jewish people don't believe in a New Testament with the words of Jesus, etc.) I smiled and explained this was one of their prophets. It took them a couple of times to understand what I was saying (since English is not their first language). When they understood, they weren't sure about it because, apparently, they trust their rabbis (whom they quoted from time to time), but have never studied God's Word themselves. Sean also asked something about the 'Da Vinci Code' and was surprised to hear that it proven to be lies in court, based on the confessions of the author. Needless to say, it was sad to see the veil over their eyes that kept them from seeing and embracing their Messiah. The rest of the conversation was just giving them new food for thought. As we left, they thanked us for talking with them and we both agreed that we looked forward to seeing each other one day. They also mentioned that they would love to see us in Israel one day. We agreed. : ) I do look forward to talking more with them, and I intend to pray for them as often as I remember them.

My conversations with Jewish people drives home a main thought in my mind, we as a body of followers of Christ need to be more active about sharing the good news of Yeshua, the Messiah – to the Jews first and also to the Gentiles. (non-Jewish people).
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek [the common way of referring to non-Jews back in Paul's day].”- Romans 1:16

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It sounds like God is blessing us with a group of street-preachers and we are planning to go to downtown Orlando Friday evening. Would sure appreciate the prayers! There are so many more stories, and we hope to catch you all up on more of them soon!! God has been teaching us a lot, including some ideas of how to communicate Jesus' call for repentance and obedience more effectively!

Thank you so much for your prayers and for being a fellow laborer in His harvest!

Your friends, and servants of Jesus,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul

New Song - 'Wanting the Real' (full lyrics)

2008-08-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

Dear friends and prayer partners,

I believe God has given me the full song now... now I just have to work it out on guitar. I thought you might appreciate it. If you think someone else would appreciate it's message, please feel free to send it to others. It's not my song, it's a song God is giving me to use to encourage those He brings across my path...

Some of you already got the partial, this is the full version.

Btw, I'm still working on the Galatians 6:7-9 study - an amazing study. I hope to send it out when I'm finished, but at the moment, I'm still digging into it ~ : )

Well, I'd appreciate your prayers for the music for this song and that God will use it to bless/challenge people according to His purpose.
But, even more, that I will keep learning to love His Living Word more and more and that I will keep learning how to teach His Word more and more clearly.

Thank you.
your friend and prayer partner,
a servant/life-slave of Jesus,
Steven
Luke 14:33
Isaiah 53:2-6
John 14:21

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Wanting the Real - 08/03/2008

This song was inspired by some of my life-verses, and from the testimonies and stories of those I've met...

Luke 9:23 says:
"Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."

1st Verse:
She sits in a room full of silence
But her mind's full of noise
So many questions, so few answers

She puts on her make-up
But inside, she's tired of hiding
She puts down her fantasy,
Puts down her headphones
And lets out this cry

1st Chorus:
She's wanting the real.
She is tired of her ways of hiding.
She's wanting the real.
She surrendered control of her heart.
She's wanting the real.
She's so tired of the fake,
Tired of running and she wanting to be free,
She's wanting the real.

2nd Verse:
He chats with his friends,
But inside he knows
That they don't really know him

His mind's full of contradictions
He's tried to drown it out with games
He sets it all down and just listens
Jesus calls him to give Him everything
Yet, he's been running, until now

He's tired of living a lie,
Ready to love the truth
He sees that the only way forward
Is to pick up where he left off

2nd Chorus:
He's wanting the real.
He is tired of walking in darkness.
He's wanting the real.
He surrendered control of her heart.
He's wanting the real.
He's so tired of the fake,
Tired of running and wanted to be free,
He's wanting the real.

Bridge:
You and I are in the same situation
We're surrounded by lies and deception
Jesus stands in contrast to this world

He calls us to follow and offers us life...

The question stands before us
What is our answer?
(says: I don't know about you, but...)

Ending Chorus:
I want the real.
I don't want to hold anything back.
I want the real.
I surrender control of my heart.
I want the real.
Jesus calls me to follow.
I'm tired of running; want to walk in freedom
I want the real.

I surrender my life to You, Jesus,
I want the real.

Tag: (?)
I hear Your beautiful voice
Calling me back,
Calling me to give all to You, Jesus
You can have all of me
I want you to lead my life
I want to be free to follow,

Luke 14:33 says:
"So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple."

Hey - a fishing update! : )

2008-08-17T19:17:00.001-07:00

Greetings to our fellow laborers and prayer partners in the harvest, in the name of our Master and Savior Jesus Christ. 08-08-08

These past 2 weeks have been very busy! God keeps training us how to talk more about Him and helping us study His Living Word and He keeps opening up new doors. It's exciting!

The past 2 weeks we have witnessed at malls, and we had some good conversations. A number of people thanked us for giving them gospel tracts, apparently they just appreciated that someone would take the time to talk to them about eternity. Death is scary to those who don't know where they are headed, unless they are so distracted by their sin right now too much to think about it. In those cases, we try to remind them in one way or another - how many breaths do they have left?

By the way, 'One Heartbeat Away' tracts are very popular with most people! It talks about the one main thing on un-saved people's brains, even if they never talk about it. : )

(Steven's update)
One story that stands out to me was when I saw this group of youth (8 or so) and at the mall. I went over to them and asked them if they got one of these ('101 Funniest One-liners'). They hadn't gotten one and were curious what it was. I told them it was a gospel tract and then I quickly followed up by asking if they knew what was on the other side of death - when we 'check out'. They didn't really know, but they sort of did (probably hadn't thought much about it). After I shared the gospel with them, several of them were still hungry to know more. They were thinking that you just add Jesus to your life and then you can go on doing whatever you want to. I had the opportunity to point out that Jesus went through excruciating pain and suffering, taking God's wrath that we deserve - He gave everything to offer us salvation, and He requires everything in return. We talked some more about it. They seemed to really appreciate the conversation. I ended it by challenging them to study the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, for themselves, to see what Jesus really said. I also mentioned that my favorite book is Matthew because it shows how Jesus is so to-the-point on who He is, where we are, and how to change directions to become His followers. One of those guys' names was Matthew - so he really appreciated the challenge/encouragement. : ) I plan pray for them as often as I remember them. It is interesting to see how the more you talk with people about God and His Word, the more people God brings back to mind to pray for. And I know we appreciate people praying for us that we will continue to grow in our hunger/passion for Jesus and His Living Word, so that's how I pray for them too.

This past week, the spiritual warfare was pretty interesting. We had a couple mall security stop us from sharing the gospel at the mall, so we went to other areas. In our brain-storming session afterward, we came to the conclusion that some places are better for just one-2-one conversations. Conversations are fine, but apparently some people don't want us to hand out gospel tracts. But if they ask for one - that is completely different ~ : )

I've been studying Galatians 6:7-9, and working my way through Exodus - 2 exciting studies! And, I've been getting a better understanding of what sin really is, and how offensive it is to God, and even better: how to explain it clearly. I hope this little explanation will help you to be able to explain it more clearly to others.

Sin is obviously more than a list of 'do nots'. Sin is, at the core, a willful rebellion. Even though we know, in some form, what is right, we, humans, all too often willfully choose to do it our own way - rebelling against God. That's the simple of it. We know that the 10 Commandments are more than a guideline for living. They are God's standard: if we are perfect, we can get into Heaven; if we aren't, then we are in big trouble. Obviously we have all lied, stolen things, coveted (wanting something that doesn't belong to us), dis-honored and dis-obeyed our dad and mom, etc. The 10 Commandments are very useful, like that, to show their sin and to help them see how they need to repent, learn to run from their rebellion and embrace ";;;the love of the truth";;;. After we are saved, we won't just be wanting to keep the 10 Commandments. No, what God is asking of those who choose to follow Him, is that we learn a whole new perspective. To not just 'not want the ";;;bad";;; ', but also, for us to be learning to love and embrace the truth, righteousness and obedience. Here are a couple verses that I've been mentally 'chewing on'. "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good." (Romans 12:9) "Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." (1st Thessalonians 5:21-22) "Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." (James 4:17) "... who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." (Romans 1:25) "... because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2nd Thessalonians 2:10) "... and did not choose the fear of the LORD." (Proverbs 1:29)

I have found sharing this simple truth challenges those I talk with to make sure they become a genuine follower of Christ. ";;;But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!";;; (Matthew 13:8-9) Also, I have found that pointing out how we naturally choose to do the rebellion, and that we don't go out of our way to do what's right - emphasizes how, until we become followers of Christ, we are walking in willful rebellion, and therefore it is clear how we need to take a complete u-turn and learn to embrace the ";;;love of the truth";;;. Or as the apostle John puts it: ";;;... we walk in the light, as He is in the light.";;; (1st John 1:7)

Thank you again to each of you who prays for us. God continues to open His Word to us, teaching us more and more how to serve and follow Him with all of our hearts!

your fellow laborers in His harvest,
and fellow prayer partners,
David, Barbara, Steven, and Paul

sales on tracts, and trying out new fishing spots

2008-07-11T08:58:00.001-07:00

Dear friends, prayer partners and fellow soul-winners,

Greetings in the Name of our Lord! Our lives stay so busy with work and a wide variety of experiences. I (Steven) got a new computer and it has taken a couple of weeks to get it set up like my last computer, including the email addresses. : )

Thank you so much to our prayer partners, we have prayed for God’s blessing on you several times again recently, because we are so grateful. We know we have valuable prayer partners and we especially notice your support when we are doing ministry. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Last weekend we went on a mini retreat as a small Bible study group, for Bible studies and prayers for our country. Our concern was for so many Americans focused on their pride and freedom to pursue their fleshly interests and forgetting to honor God first and to please Him. We as a nation have forgotten the meaning of humility, and Him who gave our Constitution with the freedom to worship Him and serve Him with all of our heart. We felt so close to God while praying for our brethren and our nation and studying His Word – it was a refreshing, blessed time! And Lord-willing, we expect it to be a new annual tradition worth keeping. And we are planning to do that many more times this year! ~: )

Some ministry news, and then some soul-winning stories ~ : ).
In case you hadn’t heard, Living Waters (Way of the Master’s publishing company) has discounted some of their tracts. So, if you’re looking for some good ideas on sale, check out: http://www.livingwaters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=tractsDISCT. (It is our assumption that they are working on some new lines of tracts to come out soon, but we don’t know that for sure…) Way of the Master also has a very interesting announcement/teaser note on Living Waters… something to be announced on July 16th… should be interesting! : )

Also, Living Waters has a very good deal on their intermediate course on evangelism – a package bundle for just $39, and you can find that at: http://www.livingwaters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=720&Category_Code=WOTM-BTC.

Custom Tracts is also having a sale - on their dollar bill tracts. (I wouldn’t personally use the creepy cash or the Santa one because I believe both of them can lean someone toward distraction, I just put that out there as food for thought.) Just to clarify, our family considers it such a blessing to have the variety of tract suppliers! And www.customtractsource.com is one of our 3 favorite tract suppliers. If you didn’t already know – Custom Tract Source will also help you design and print your own tracts too, for a reasonable price. : ) Here’s the link to their sale on the variety of dollar bill tracts: https://customtractsource.3dcartstores.com/Money-Tracts_c_32.html.

Also, while doing a quick search, I came across another tract site that my family has appreciated for years: Chick tracts - http://www.chick.com/catalog/tractlist.asp. They have colorful, helpful little gospel booklets on quite a range of issues and religions. People enjoy getting these because it’s like a little story. Hope those ideas are a blessing to you all.

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(Steven’s update)
Well, now for a brief catch-up! : ) The downtown Orlando crowd continues to be interesting! Three weeks ago, I had the opportunity of starting to learn how to preach more effectively to a quick-moving audience. I preached one sermon and got some good thoughtful reactions. It was a good start on something new for me. Then two weeks ago, I had the opportunity of giving 4 different street-sermons! That was pretty cool, but pretty exhausting! Ray Comfort says that street-preaching uses the energy of several regular hours of manual labor in like 5- 15 minutes ~ : ). I think he is right… : ) The interesting thing was that I was nervous up until I started, then God gave me the strength and boldness to preach to and plead with the people passing by to think about who they were following: themselves or Christ. I preached from Matthew 7 & 13 – (broad way/narrow way – rebellious soil/fruitful soil); John 3:16-21 – (God sent Jesus, the Light came, men loved darkness); John 10/Luke 14:26-33 – (2 families, 2 shepherds; those who want to follow Him must forsake all and follow Him), and Matthew 19:16-26 – (Jesus’ very interesting conversation with the rich, young ruler).

What was also interesting is how that this had seemed to be so hard to me for weeks, but after I preached Jesus’ message as best as I could, one-on-one conversations were easier for me again. It was a new and exciting experience for me and I believe God used these to start me learning more about Him in a new category. I look forward to seeing where all that road goes ~ : )!

This past week, while on our mini-retreat, we also got to share the gospel at 2 new locations for us: a flea market and a mall. God blessed us with some great conversations at both places! We passed out quite a few tracts at the flea market and almost everyone was glad to get one and friendly – it was pretty cool. Dad and mom talked with a guy at the flea market who was really thinking about how he needed to get his life right with God and get back with his wife. This guy was also wanting to find some training material so he could share the gospel with his co-worker – it was a pretty cool conversation! At the mall, we talked with quite a variety of walks of life: from 2 ladies who seemed to be in an odd relationship together, to a retired police officer, to several young people who were just hanging around at the mall, and more. The best spot we found for talking with people and sharing the good news of Jesus was the food court! But, the best part was afterward going to all the cars in the mall parking lot putting gospel tracts on the window of the vehicles, right above the door handles. It must have looked pretty funny the 5 of us swarming the mall parking lot! ~ : ) We live in such a crazy world where very few people even know what Jesus said, His truth and His message, but the neat thing we keep seeing is that there is still quite a hunger for the truth.

Again, to our prayer partners thank you! And to those of you who share the gospel of Jesus with everyone you can – thank you! We pray for God’s blessing on you.

Our team is planning to do something a little different this week. We are planning to share the gospel at Flea World in Sanford on Saturday morning around 10 AM and then planning to go soul-winning again Saturday evening. Should be busy and interesting ~ : )! The last time we were at this Flea Market, we had great brief conversations and we are looking forward to going back ~ : ).

Your fellow prayer partners and laborers in the harvest,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul
~ The Henry Family ~
(407) 924-1327
(407) 529-7593
_________________
Friends of Israel,
servants of Christ,
The Henry Family ~ David, Barbara, Steven and Paul

Did you get one? ~ : ) (new and improved)

2008-06-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

Dear friends and fellow laborers, 06/19/2008

Wow! What an incredible year this has been, and we know God has even more neat things still to come for those who seek Him first and follow Him with all of their hearts!

ANNOUNCEMENT ~ : )
Living Waters has updated their $1,000,000 with some new colors and features : )

This tract has the Gospel message written on back of the bill.
The million-dollar question: Will you go to Heaven when you die? Here's a quick test. Have you ever told a lie, stolen anything, or used God's name in vain? Jesus said, "Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Have you looked with lust? Will you be guilty on Judgment Day? If you have done those things, God sees you as a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer at heart. The Bible warns that if you are guilty you will end up in Hell. That's not God's will. He sent His Son to suffer and die on the cross for you. You broke God's Law, but Jesus paid your fine. That means He can legally dismiss your case. He can commute your death sentence: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Then He rose from the dead and defeated death. Please, repent (turn from sin) today and trust in Jesus alone, and God will grant you the gift of everlasting life. Then read your Bible daily and obey it.

And you can find it at: http://www.livingwaters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=298

Also, just because it caught our attention, I wanted to mention the $7 bill gospel tract, with Dwight L. Moody on the front - J.

Here it is:

In 2005, it was reported that more people visited casinos than attended Broadway shows or major league baseball games. Why? Because money is such a hot commodity! If you don’t have it, you want it; if you have it, you want more. But is that all there is to life? Most would say “no,” yet we spend the majority of our lives trying to make more. Listen to what the Bible says about money. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Is God pleased with who you serve? Here’s a quick test. Have you ever lied, stolen or coveted anything? If so, you’ve sinned against God and broken His laws, the Ten Commandments, and you have to stand before Him on Judgment Day. Will you be innocent or guilty? Heaven or hell? Listen to your conscience. You know you’ll be guilty and end up in hell. But God doesn’t want that. The Bible says, “God demonstrated His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” You broke the law and Christ paid the penalty by dying on the cross. He then rose from the dead and defeated death. If you will repent (turn from your sin) and trust in Jesus Christ, He will forgive your sin and grant you the gift of everlasting life. Then read your Bible daily and obey what you read. (See John 14:21).

http://evangelismteam.com/store/p113/Seven-Dollar-Bill/product_info.html

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(Steven’s update)
Mom, Deanna and I had a number of interesting conversations – it was another interesting night downtown. I guess the summer rowdiness brings out strange things sometimes. Like Deanna mentions below, there were quite a few of the people downtown that were sort of mocking death. A lot of them were bent on sin and didn’t really want to talk, so I prayed for a lot of them as they passed by. Mom and I had a really neat conversation with 2 ladies. The one lady has been noticing that she has been drifting from the Lord, and realizing that she needs to give all of her life to Jesus Christ. Mom and I encouraged her to do so and reminded her of some Bible verses that would help her. Then her and her friend went on to party, but I hope and pray that those seeds that were planted grow and that she does surrender all of her life to Jesus Christ. Also talked with a number of guys there. Talked with Giovanni – a security guard briefly, and met one of the regular hotdog venders. Please continue to join us in praying that God makes all who we talk with restless, and that God uses that conviction to bring them to a new life in Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayers! :)

(Deanna’s update)
Zombie madness
Not sure why it seems every week there is a different theme circulating around downtown Orlando amongst the Lost but it never fails. This week was everyone dress like a dead person week. So of course I would approach them saying "Wow you look dead.... what do you think happens when you really die?" As I have heard from Mark Cahill before Satan brings them together so we can witness to them and this week he provided me with a great open liner as well. As I looked at my fellow laborers this week I could almost see the light shining off them in this dark place. Recently I saw a gentleman with a belt that I thought described most of the scene here appropriately. It read "Don't follow me I'm lost". If only he knew the true significance of that one statement. Praise God for opportunities that so easily present themselves. I spoke with a number of people this week who all seemed to be listening. Maybe in their heads there were thinking about the yummy hotdog stand that was sending delicious aromas our way but I like to think they were listening. I spoke with mainly men b/c frankly for some reason women intimidate me slightly. Plus as my friend pointed out the other day they seem to be captivated by my beauty. hee hee In other words to them I'm just a pretty face but while they’re googling I start my conversation. Now let me just say I do think I'm pretty but I'm not saying this to be conceited but it is a point to be spoken for. Men do give me the time of day cause they think there going to get a hook up or something. Now I do believe as long as I have two legs I have a sure bet but my friend suggests this is a tool I should use. Hey whatever makes them bite. As long as I dress modestly and am not flirtatious I will use there second glance as a way to start a conversation. Anyways I talked to a guy named Kevin. To start with he confessed as we were talking he had sinned as I saw him googling over a girl behind me. I always thank them for their honesty and move on. It seems there are always lots of distractions out here so I don't like to humor their obvious lack of concentration. He listened politely and engaged in conversation curtly. We talked for a grand total of about five mins which is really all I like to give people to leave room to talk to others since time is restricted. Unless someone is asking a lot of questions I might make an exception. I'm not intending to control the conversation but I do feel some people can be time robbers. I love how God directs the conversations and sometimes they surprise me. I talked with one girl who had been an athiest since four she says. Sounded as though she had alot of hurt in her past and I only got as far as the building parable before she took off. Those are always tough and I find myself yelling after them as they leave as a final warning. Just something to make them think. Like "WHAT IF YOUR WRONG" or one that I learned from Ray Comfort which seems harsh but true. " If my eyes meet yours on Judgment Day and your still in your sins I'm free from your blood" That I say rarely but if some one has proved to be very self-righteous I may slip it in. Please keep Mr. Ireland in prayer who wanted to go drink beer more than he wanted to talk about God. Peace to all! God Bless you in your work!

Your friends and fellow servants of Jesus,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul

a long list of exciting ministry opportunities ~ : )

2008-06-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

Hey friends and fellow prayer partners, 06/12/2008

Thank you so much for your prayers last week!

Looking for good ‘fishing’ spots/ideas? :)
Our local team is gearing up for summer events like the 3rd and 4th of July, and some other outreach events. Please pray for wisdom and guidance as we plan.

This week, some of the YWAM team has been talking with us, working on ministry opportunities/ideas for a few youth groups that are coming to FL from other states. So, that sounds pretty cool ~ :). We’re hoping to join them for some of those events! But, as we were praying and asking for ideas, we have been realizing - it’s amazing how many areas we have around us for sharing the truth of the gospel! Cranes Roost is a fun one. And then there is also Lake Eola. Then, there are also different places, like soup-kitchens, and even the Flee Market! The Flea Market is a great ‘fishing spot’ – lots of people and they love taking tracts and some of them talked with us briefly too!! Anywhere there are people – there’s a great fishing spot! As Mark Cahill puts it: ‘Let Satan gather them and we can share the gospel with them.’ – With summer just setting in on our country, the opportunities are endless! And ‘if they are breathing, they need Jesus.’

But more essential for us, with all the distractions and busyness around us, with summer and distracting activities and entertainment – we need to remember the most important thing > our focus, our goal, our source of spiritual strength: spending quality time in His presence, and especially in these perilous times. None of us can be effective at sharing His truth with those around us without making sure we are spending time in God’s presence – seeking His face, and getting more of His Living Word in us! It’s not us who plant or water – but of Him who does the increase – the growth. Please, if you are finding yourself distracted this summer, ask God to forgive you and to help you to get back to focusing on pleasing Him as the top-priority, and looking for ways to fill your time serving Him! Even though this is summer, we must not get distracted. We continue to hear clues that there are hard times headed for this country and we need to be having more and more prayer times across this country.

My family loves finding more and more people who have a passion for God and His Word and are passionate about taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone they can! Please be praying for all of our fellow soul-winning teams as they travel for mission trips and/or vacations.

Scott and Patte (from FL) are in New York – preaching the gospel. They said that it is hot up there, and they would definitely appreciate your prayers!

Please also pray for our dear friend Bart, as he is likely street-preaching in Guatemala or another Spanish-speaking country. Also, please pray for Pastor Duncan and his team of pastors in Malawi, Africa. They are hungry for good teaching of God’s Word and they are linked up with a couple of evangelists. I especially encourage you to pray for them, because we know Islam wants to over-run Africa.

There are bunches of stories to catch up on ~ :). But first a couple more gospel tracts we have found recently ~ :)

Are you absolutely sure that you will escape the wrath of God on Judgment Day? Your eternal destiny is the most important thing in the world. Jesus said, "For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37). Jesus warned, "Unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3, 5). The only way to escape the wrath of God is by genuine repentance. What then is true repentance?

THE FOUNDATION OF TRUE REPENTANCE
Face your wickedness. Your sin has separated you from God. "But your iniquities have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2). "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you" (Luke 15:18). You personally have broken the laws of God intentionally, repeatedly and without remorse. You have lied. You have stolen. You have been sexually immoral in your heart. You have used his name as a curse word. You have dishonored your parents; you have murdered people in your heart with your hatred. Do you admit this?
Fear the fury of God. Do you understand that God is furious with you for your sin? "God is angry with the wicked every day" (Psalms 7:11). "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Romans 1:18). If you die in your sin you will face the undiluted fury and fierceness of Almighty God. For "he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever" (Revelation 14:10-11). Flee from the wrath to come (cf. Luke 3:7)!
Fall before God's only solution. God, in his love, provides the only solution to your sin problem. Jesus Christ died in your place to pay for your sin. Good works cannot save you. They are tainted with sin. The good works you may have done are an offense to God. "But we are like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). Christ died in your place to pay your penalty, "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, ...the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:4-6).

THE DEFINITION OF TRUE REPENTANCE?
Repentance is essential before we can escape the wrath of God, so what exactly is repentance?

Turning from Sin to Serve. "You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven" (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10). Turn from sin to faith in Christ. True repentance is a total turning of the total person from all sin, to submission to God. "Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 3:19).
Turning in One's Mind. "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you" (Luke 15:18). True repentance agrees with God that sin is sin and that God is the true God. The more one learns about God and sin the more that person can genuinely repent. A person has not repented who merely quits a sin because it is unhealthy, while not confessing that thing as sin (1 John 1:9). "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7).
A Turning of Emotion. "Blessed are you who mourn [weep and grieve over sin]" (Matthew 5:4). Unsaved people enjoy their "guilty pleasures" - sin. Repentant people are grieved by sin. We hate it and are repulsed by it; "put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done" (Ezekiel. 9:4). True, in our sinful nature we are still tempted by the deceitful pleasure of sin but the new man is grieved over any hint of attraction to sin. We hate the fact that we still desire sin! The Spirit of God brings powerful conviction (great blame and shame) upon the Christian who falls into sin (John 16:8). We are ashamed of sin (Isaiah 44:9), and we love God (1 John 4:19; 5:3).
A Turning of the Will. True repentance wants to stop sinning and start serving God. A criminal may be forced to stop certain crimes like theft but does not want to stop. The reality of a jail cell forces him to stop. A truly repentant person cries out to God for deliverance and victory over sin, and fully intends upon turning from sin to serve God (Romans 7:18,21).
A Turning of Actions. "They should repent, turn to God, and prove their repentance by their deeds" (Acts 26:20). True repentance is proven by a radically changed life. "Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance" (Matthew 3:8). If there is no change, there has been no repentance. "Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matthew 3:10). Zacchaeus the tax collector said to Jesus, "'Look Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.' And Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house'" (Luke 19:8-9).
A Turning in Faith. Repentance is a turning away from sin to saving faith in Christ, "testifying...repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). Those who are trusting their good works for salvation have not yet truly repented.

Repentance turns away from reliance upon works to reliance upon Christ alone who died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Christ died as our substitute in our place! He died for our sin and rose again. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Christ died to pay the penalty of death for our sin. "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world" (Acts 17:30).

A Suggested Prayer
"God, be merciful to me a sinner! Lord Jesus, I repent! I believe you died for me and rose again. I believe you are God the Son, the Savior. I now turn from my sin to trust you alone for salvation. Save me please, by your grace. I commit to obey You, be baptized and join a Bible teaching church. In Jesus, name I pray. Amen."

"To you first, God, having raised up His servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you away from your iniquities" (Acts 3:26).

"Unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3,5)
http://www.cornerstoneorlando.org/id35.html

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‘The dictionary defines a placebo as "a substance containing no medication and given merely to humor or please the patient." Placebos have a legitimate purpose in today's medical world. They are used in clinical research to test the potential of real drugs to provide real cures for diseases. But what if you were seriously ill and your doctor prescribed you a placebo instead of the medicine that would cure you? What would you think of your doctor? Today, millions of people are prescribed a placebo and led to believe they are getting well, when in fact; they are terminally ill and drawing closer to death every minute. This placebo, however, is not prescribed by doctors. It is prescribed by some pastors and professing Christians. The placebo comes in the form of an easy-to-swallow message. There are many spiritual placebos being distributed these days. Here's an example: "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. He longs to have a relationship with you, just the way you are. You're a good person, but you have a God-shaped hole in your heart that only He can fill. Just pray a simple prayer and Jesus will come into your heart. Then, He will fix your relationships, heal your diseases, get you out of debt, and help you make the most of your life." If you have heard a message like this, then you've been given a placebo—a message intended to please you, but will do nothing to heal your disease. The disease is called sin and, without a cure, it is fatal. Examine yourself and see if you have any of the symptoms. Have you ever lied? Have you ever stolen anything? Have you ever taken God's name in vain? Then by your own admission, you are a lying, thieving, blasphemer at heart. When you die from this disease (sin) and stand before God, He will find you guilty of breaking His commandments and sentence you to eternity in hell. But there is good news. There is a real cure, and there is only one. God doesn't want to send you to hell. So, He sent His sinless Son, Jesus Christ—God in the flesh. He took upon himself the punishment you deserve for your sins against God when He shed His innocent blood and died on the cross. Three days later, He defeated death when He rose from the grave. So, what must you do to be saved? You must confess your sins against God, repent (turn away from your sins), and put your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. Receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, right now. Stop taking the placebo. It cannot save you. Repent and believe the gospel. It is the only cure and your only hope. Please carefully read Matthew 7:21-23 and Mark 1:15.’

http://evangelismteam.com/store/Other/c23/p135/Placebos/product_info.html

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Steven’s update:
As I said above, there are bunches of stories to catch up on ~ :). God keeps bringing more and more soul-winners along and the fellowship is really cool! And very encouraging! We are also finding that every preacher of righteousness and soul-winner around us are feeling the spiritual pressure and warfare. If you are feeling the warfare too, we encourage you to pray for and bless Israel, and that God will tear down the efforts of the Bush team of trying to force Israel to give up Judea, Samaria, and part of Jerusalem. Giving away land that God gave Israel by unconditional covenant is of very big importance to God. Thank you for praying. We know that our country is already in a lot of trouble with God because of all the rebellion and abominations in our country. Please pray that “the fear of the Lord” comes across this country and that people clearly see that we as a nation need to turn back to Him with all of our hearts. Thank you. :)

Stories! :)
Last Friday evening, I talked with a group called ‘Anonymous’. Kind of an odd group – almost looked like a drama group of some sort… Anyway, they were handing out info flyers and brochures warning about the false religion: Scientology. (‘Scientology’ is a ‘newer’ version of the demonic, witchcraft “I’m a god” type thinking of the new age false gospel and teaching.) These people weren’t Christians and weren’t coming from the Bible’s perspective, but they were going after the hypocrisy and violence of the leaders of ‘Scientology’. Kind of odd, but we do appreciate them exposing a false religion. And, we did have the privilege of talking with some of their team about the gospel of Jesus Christ. They showed some signs of conviction, and we need to pray for them.

We also met a traveling preacher named Kevin. He apparently travels all over the United States preaching repentance. He is hoping to see us a few more times while he is in the area. We were also delighted to see our fellow evangelist friend, Robert and his friend Shawn. It was great catching up with them. Robert isn’t able to join us much because he has a wife and a couple of kids, but he travels around whenever he can, sharing the gospel at various events. It’s nice to have the opportunity to get to know some of our fellow laborers in the harvest. As often as you think of us and pray for us – which we greatly appreciate, please also pray for our fellow laborers!

A couple of weeks ago, we ordered Mark Cahill’s ‘One Heartbeat Away’ tracts. Those are very popular on the streets of downtown Orlando! Also, we just recently found more tracts at http://www.evangelismteam.com/ and we encourage you to check their selection out when you get a chance… Thought-provoking ~ :).

Please also pray for Paul and I, as we prepare to share the truth of the gospel at a wedding this weekend ~ :). Two of our soul-winning friends are getting married and they wanted us to share some verses about Jesus and the gospel there. Very exciting, and we need God’s wisdom to communicate His truth effectively and graciously.

Barbara’s update:
Hello everyone,

Bart the missionary has been praying for everyone that comes downtown and passes out tracts or witnesses to whomever will listen. He has been praying that God would raise up more street preachers that will get on the microphone and share their testimony or read a scripture or even sing a song to bring people to stop and listen to the gospel message. So Bart says to me Barbara would you sing a couple of the songs God gave you and share some of your testimony with the group, Please? I said Yes>>>

I told the crowd that the reason we are down here is because we want so much for each of you to realize that one day we all will face God. Either we stand in front of Him and He will judge us for our sins and we will be eternally separated from Him in Hell or we will stand in front of Him as one who chose to repent and turn from our sins and chose to believe Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. And we want so much for each one of you to be in Heaven with God forever for all eternity, so that is why we are here talking to anyone who will listen. And when We face God nothing else will matter, it won’t matter what house we’ve had or what job only that we repent and turn to Jesus to pay for our sins. So then I sang:

“It ain’t gonna matter”
(God gave me this song at a time when I was stressed with trying to keep up with earthly chores, and as I was cleaning house and thinking about things and God gave me this song showing me what really matters. October 11, 2004 Barbara Henry.)

You see it ain’t gonna matter
The houses that we’ve owned.
It ain’t gonna matter
The riches that we’ve grown.
No, it ain’t gonna matter
The knowledge that we knew
It ain’t gonna matter
When we get home.

You see Jesus sees the boy
Who has no home
Jesus looks at those
Who are broken and torn.
Jesus looks at those
Who need Him the most
Those are the things
That really matter.

You see it ain’t gonna matter
The jobs that we’ve had
It ain’t gonna matter
What a happy time we’ve had
No it ain’t gonna matter
The famous people that we’ve known
It ain’t gonna matter
When we get home.

You see Jesus wants us to…
Help those who need.
Jesus wants us to….
Be planting His seed.
Jesus wants us to..
Teach others of Him
So one day they’ll be with….
Him in Heaven

No it ain’t gonna matter
The Stuff that we’ve stored away
It ain’t gonna matter
That we had lots of time to play.
No it ain’t gonna matter
The popular things in life.
Knowing Jesus Christ
is what really matters.

Then Bart asked me to sing it again about 15 minutes later because he said this is a new crowd they haven’t heard it. So I did.

As I was finishing 3 ladies stopped real close to get a picture with me and wanted to talk. One was raised Catholic and one said she was an atheist and homosexual and said God can’t ever forgive me. I said well Jesus died on the cross for anyone who will admit that they have sinned and turn from that sin and accept Him as Lord and savior. And there is an interesting static that 10 out of 10 people die, so all of us will die and face God, and we can choose Him any time before that, but we don’t know our time and if we will get a chance if we wait till later, so recommend that you talk to God as soon as you can.

Then our group went over to talk to Dina and she said “I heard you singing over there and also you spoke and sang a song last Friday, can you sing it to me?” So I sang “Purify my Heart Lord” the other song I sang that night and last Friday. She said wow! I told her that each one of us is either getting closer to God or farther away and we have to choose each day to have God keep cleansing our lives or say I don’t need God I’ve got my own life to live. She told us that she went to church last week and has been reading the Bible with her daughter almost every day. Please pray for Dina, we talk to her often but she can’t see how she can support her children as a single mom without this bar job (pass out tickets). (We have talked about this too, but she needs to repent and turn from her sins and turn to God totally.) She looks forward to seeing someone from our group each week, we encourage her. Thanks to all of you that speak to her and whomever will talk to you, each time you do that you are making them think about where they are at with God and that’s what really matters.

Helen our 87 year old prayer warrior was asking about you all and she is so excited to hear the different stories of us witnessing to people downtown. She prays for anyone we give her names of whom we’ve talked to and she prays for all of us each Friday night. Please pray for Helen she is getting up there in years and her body aches a lot. She really wants to go be with the Lord but I told her apparently He still has work for her here.

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance that race that is set before us.”

David’s update:
Two weeks ago, I sent a very brief note about some false teaching of a local church leader. We just finished transcribing his message from that morning and included verses and notes pointing out verses that he took out of context and other places where he was trying to manipulate the crowd into agreeing with him rather than proving his points clearly from Scripture. In brief, he said important words like repentance, but he totally ignored the point. Instead, he was saying we should loosen up and let a spirit speak through us and seek more feelings, signs and wonders. It was a smooth approach to endorse the attitude of laughing at the Holy Spirit, instead of true repentance. If you have any curiosity to see this transcripts and the notes and verses, please email us – we would be glad to send it to you! We are also sending it to several local leaders with this local church, but we don’t expect to hear back from them. Please pray that God tears down the deception and false teaching and that God helps these people break free from it and embrace the love of the truth.

We have been invited by several evangelists across the country to go challenge the fake revival in Lakeland. One of the notable features there in Lakeland is laughing at the Holy Spirit and feeling drunk in the Spirit. If hearing about that type of fake religion stirs you to stand up against that evil, please help us plan a day that works with your schedule.

Thank you again to our fellow prayer partners. Thank you for being part of the prayer team for the revival of this country and a repentance in the churches: to flee idols and learn to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

Your friends and fellow laborers in Christ,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul Henry :)

new tracts and stories ~ : )

2008-05-29T20:54:00.001-07:00

Hey fellow ambassadors and prayer partners ~ : )

It has been a crazy several weeks! Very busy and full of ministry opportunities! ~ : ) Some stories below, but first we wanted to let you know about some unique tracts that we just found out about!

We just received a shipment of Mark Cahill’s tracts today and the ‘True Repentance’ tracts, and we have already ordered the ‘One Million Ameros’ tracts.

Mark Cahill’s One Heartbeat Away tract:

Custom Tracts’ note about this tract:
‘Recently, Mark Cahill contacted us (Custom Tracts) about making a Gospel tract to direct people to a new website of his which allows lost people to request a FREE copy of Mark's book One Heartbeat Away. Working together, this tract is what we came up with! This is slightly bigger than our mini-post card tract, but slightly smaller than our standard post card tract. The size is a pocket-friendly 3.5"x5". These should be *very* easy to hand out!’

Words on back:
‘Beep...beep...beep... The sound of a heart monitor somewhere in the distance comes into focus as you slowly return to consciousness. Your sides hurt tremendously and you can’t feel your legs. As you wonder where you are, you hear muffled voices that sound like doctors. Beep...beep...beep... The heart monitor continues beeping, letting the doctors know that you’re alive... at least for the moment. You vaguely recall what happened—you were driving around a curve when out of nowhere came the flash of headlights headed directly toward you. You remember screaming, and the piercing crunch of metal, and then... nothing. You can’t remember a thing since then. Now you’re wondering if you’ll ever make it out. The heart monitor suddenly speeds up—Beep! Beep! Beep! You hear the doctors rushing around barking orders. You feel frightened and wonder what’s happening. You try to open your eyes to look around, but it’s no use. You’re paralyzed there in your hospital bed and can’t do anything about it. You start to think that this may be IT. You start to panic. You begin to wonder what’s next: Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Have you done enough good to get to heaven? Your life flashes before your eyes. What about all those lies you’ve told? If there’s a God, will He just forget about them? And what about those items you’ve stolen? They weren’t big things, but it still makes you a thief, right? What if God even knows your thought life? What about all those times you’ve looked with lust, and used His name as a curse word? Will God hold you accountable? Your heart is beating faster. Beep-beep-beep. Where will you end up? What can you say before God? Your lungs begin to hurt. It’s getting hard to breathe. You know this is it. Beep-beep-beeeeeeeeep....... One last beat. Little did you know you were One Heartbeat Away from passing into eternity... Every second, two people die. What if this is YOUR second? What should you do? Find out what’s in eternity—get a FREE copy of the book One Heartbeat Away at (http://www.oneheartbeataway.org/)’

You can order these at: http://www.customtractsource.com/One-Heartbeat-Away-Tract_p_0-211.html & http://www.customtractsource.com/

The NAU ~ $1,000,000 bill:
Ø With Titus 2:11-14 concealed on the front – very interesting verses!
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.”

Words on back:
‘One Million Ameros?! What’s an Amero?! It is the proposed currency for the new “North American Union” between Mexico, Canada and the United States of America. The Amero has been designed to replace the Mexican Peso, the American Dollar and the Canadian Dollar. Just like Europe now has the Euro, North America is bound to have the Amero eventually. In fact, the Mexico to Canada Highway which slices like a dagger through the middle of America is already being constructed. Looks like “One Nation Under God” will be no more. Speaking of God, did you know that the Bible says that we will ALL have to stand before Him to be judged for every thought, word and deed? How will you do on Judgment Day? To find out, all you have to do is take a look at the Ten Commandments. They are like a mirror. A mirror shows us the truth whether we like it or not. The Ten Commandments are the same way. #9 says, “Thou shalt not lie.” Have you ever lied before? #8 says, “Thou shalt not steal.” Have you ever stolen before (size and value are irrelevant)? #3 says, “Thou shalt not take my name in vain.” Have you ever taken God’s name in vain before? #7 says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” BUT, Jesus said that looking at someone with lustful thoughts is the same as adultery in God’s eyes (Matthew 5:28). Have you ever looked with lust before? If you have broken just these four of the Ten Commandments, you are a liar, a thief, a blasphemer and an adulterer. Because you have broken God’s Law, you deserve to be punished. That punishment is Hell, should you stay in your sins. The Good News is that Jesus died on the cross for you and then rose from the grave. And because of what He did, you can be Pardoned of your sins, Reconciled to God so you can have a relationship with Him, Empowered to live a Holy Life and be Granted Eternal Life in the end. You must Repent of your sins (confess and forsake them) and put your Faith in Jesus Christ. Friend, you WILL die someday and that day could be today! Won’t you consider your eternity? http://www.onemillionameros.com/’

Link: http://www.gospeltract.org/amero.html & http://www.pinpointevangelism.com/

>…>…>…>…>…>…>…>…>…>…>…>…>…>

Now for some updates!:

(Steven’s update)
Two of the past several weeks, we had the opportunities to go soul-winning with a couple of different teams, so we took advantage of that, but it meant we got home too late to keep you all up to date on the soul-winning stories, though we hope and pray that God has been using you all too!

Two Thursday evenings ago, we got to lead a group of newer soul-winners and share the gospel together and encourage one another ~ that was a blast! My friend and I got to talk to a quasi-atheist and then a Jewish girl (Sarah) and her 4 lesbian friends… very interesting conversations… got to plant seeds and pray for them.

Two Friday evenings ago, the Florida Music Festival was downtown Orlando, and that allowed for some very interesting conversations! We realized later that the majority of the people down there were already focused on God (or at least some version of spirituality) and so that made things easier in that they were already on the subject of eternity ~ : ). Brittany and I had a number of good conversations. We talked with a few artists at the festival and gave them some gospel tracts. They seemed to be somewhat interested in the conversation, but they were more interested in doing what they wanted to do, but we got to plant some spiritual seeds ~ : ). Then there was the very interesting conversation with a girl outside another bar. She is 22 and she has a life-threatening disease that will likely kill her before she turns 30, and she was in effect wanting to know why? Why the pain? Why diseases? She was also very interested in hearing our thoughts and our understanding of God’s Living Word. She would have probably talked longer, but her dad got her out of our conversation. We did get to show her that God still cares about her and challenge her that she needs to surrender her life to Jesus Christ. We can only pray for her and trust that God is working in her heart.

Last Friday evening was unusual too, but it was very good! It lightly sprinkled the whole evening, but Deanna had an umbrella and the rest of us had jackets, so that worked well. But the conversations were really neat! Deanna and I (Steven) talked with one guy and he wanted to blame God for His decisions, but at the end of the conversation seemed to be convicted and thinking, which is great. We’re praying for Him. Those are just a few of the stories.

Again – to everyone who prays for us: THANK YOU! Only in Heaven will we find out how God used our prayers and obedience to Him!

(Paul’s update)
I've got several great stories I wish I could share with you, but I've got to tell you about what happened today at work! I was sent on a service call this afternoon to wire up a microwave. So I arrived and got to work, and it wasn't until the end of the project that I found out why I was really there! :) The customer was a single middle-age woman, who is dealing with a number of health challenges and incompetent doctors and also a number of problems in her house - power failure (which Progress Energy was fixing while I was there) and water damage in the kitchen and general disorder of things in her house, etc. So at the end of my time there as I was getting ready to leave, she gave me some really nice compliments on my work and my manner and my family (Henry Electric). So I told her what I normally say when people compliment my work - that we are a Christian family and that we do our work to honor God. She told me that she already could tell that! I already knew she was a Christian as well from her conversation on the phone with a friend earlier, so I was just waiting for this conversation to happen!

So we talked a little about her situation, and in the next few minutes of conversation, God gave me three things from His Word to share with her that really encouraged her. 1) Trust God and allow him to teach you through the difficult trials; 2) Perfect love casts out all fear, so as you pursue the love of God more deeply, it will drive out your fears; 3) She goes to a church that really focuses on emotion and asking for the Holy Spirit as the solution to problems, so I pointed out that you don't get more or less of the Holy Spirit by asking for it, but the more you get rid of barriers in communication with God and ask God in faith for what you need, you receive answers to that. These things made really, really good sense to her, and she really appreciated them. I really wanted to also warn her that her TV was a hindrance to her because it clearly was, but I couldn't figure out how to say it, so I pray that the Holy Spirit will convict her of her sin. But I was thrilled at how encouraged she was! She gave me a hug and told me how God had sent me and one other person in the last couple of days to encourage her on those things, so she would be able to keep going! As I walked out the door, she said that God had blessed her through me today, so I was glad for that!

Thank you again for your prayers. We are praying that God keeps using and training each of you!

Your friends, fellow prayer partners and laborers in the harvest,
David and Barbara, Steven and Paul ~ The Henry Family

The Holy Spirit is holy, bringing true repentance and sometimes other blessings

2008-05-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow laborers and prayer partners,

This morning, I, David, was reading in the book of Acts where God was saving so many souls. It was a time of real repentance, and the church was so in harmony with their Holy, Holy, Holy Creator and the truth was so refreshing in contrast to the fake religion of these last days. I was so moved in a godly way that I want to share a brief portion of Acts 5:1-16.

Acts 5:1-16
"(1)But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. (2)And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. (3)But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? (4)While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.' (5)Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. (6)And the young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him. (7)Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.(8)And Peter answered her, 'Tell me whether you sold the land for so much?' She said, 'Yes, for so much.' (9)Then Peter said to her, 'How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.' (10)Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. (11)So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. (12)And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's Porch. (13)Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. (14)And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, (15)so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. (16)Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed."

Last Sunday, I patiently listened to a prayer and healing time that was trying to get people healed without a brokenness over their sin. Most of those dear friends who wanted help from God are probably in much the same condition still and might not understand why.

We are soul winners and you and I can tell stories of people we meet that are in some dimension of false religion where they believe in some god that doesn't exist. They usually quote a few brief Bible verses or a partial verse and express what they believe.

The One and only God never changes and God's Word describes Him. We all have this lifetime to get to know Him or seek something else. We live in the last days where there are many more false teachers than truth teachers in this country. When you find someone that is distorting the truth, you have to make a decision to go with them anyway or keep growing closer to God. We are not robots. Every day, we are making decisions to keep growing closer to God or find a more comfortable fantasy. Last Sunday, we heard Todd describe his fantasy deity, and he even used half of the verses he read. However, he kept overlooking the righteousness and holiness part of God's amazing character. He was also talking about healings, and signs and wonders, but never mentioned Biblical repentance or the “fear of the Lord”.

One of the windows into the personality of the Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is found in Isaiah 11:2-3 ~ "2The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. 3His delight is in the fear of the Lord..."

When Bible teachers are teaching in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, these elements will show in their teaching. We are in the last days, we need to be alert, and watching! And we need to keep learning to discern between God’s truth and lies and deception.

2nd Timothy 4:1-2, puts it this way:
“1Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…”

2nd Timothy 3:5
“5having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”

Your friends and servants of Jesus Christ,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul Henry

trips, adventures and stories ~ : )

2008-05-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow laborers and prayer partners! ~ 05/01/2008

Greetings from the traveling Henry family! Well the last two weeks have been quite exciting! We were in St. Louis, MO April 19-20th and in St. Pete, FL April 25th - 27th. And we got to see the movie ‘Expelled’ ~ great movie. (Free movie review below ~ :))

(Steven’s update)
Our trip to St. Louis was pretty uneventful (except for the odd construction throughout Georgia. The other event was when we found out that we had a bad battery at a gas station in a small town, also in Georgia. :) God arranged it where we met a nice guy, named Jim Goodman. He was pumping gas next to us when he saw our car wouldn’t start. So, he borrowed some jumper cables to jump-start our car and then led us to the nearest auto parts store in that little farm town. We gave him a million dollar bill tract and had some great conversation with him. We enjoyed the fellowship, but we didn’t stay very long because we were trying to get to First Baptist Arnold in time for the conference. The drive to St. Louis was like 18+ hours, which was pretty cool, because we were listening to some Bible teachers, including Ken Ham on the way up. If you get a chance to hear Ken Ham or Kent Hovind, we encourage you to do so – they point out how true science and the evidence all around us strengthens our faith and proves the accuracy of the Bible.

Ø You can find Ken Ham’s ministry ‘Answers in Genesis’ info and resources at: http://www.answersingenesis.org/.
Ø And you can find Kent Hovind’s info and resources at: http://www.drdino.com/.Eric Hovind is scheduled to speak at Eastland Bible Church at 6PM this Sunday evening and we are planning to go to that and looking forward to it!

So (back to our trip ~ :)), we got to the ‘Transformed’ conference safely and really enjoyed it! We also got to meet some more soul-winners and had great fellowship with the ‘Way of the Master’ team. It was a blessed time. We also got to meet and fellowship with a friend I met online, named Janet ~ :). That was really fun too! She got adopted into our family! :) Then we drove home, which was mostly uneventful, except for another event – a flat tire. :) So, we got to share some of the gospel with the guy who came. And it was also in Georgia. :) Fun in Georgia. It’s pretty amazing how God arranges our schedule when we make ourselves available! :) Then we drove home and life was normal for a few days and then we went on another trip - :). Oh, and I forgot to mention that on the way home, we stopped at a gas station that had a sign challenging people to bless Israel. One side said: ‘GOD’S WORD SAYS HE WILL BLESS THOSE THAT BLESS ISRAEL & CURSE THOSE WHO CURSE HER.’ The pizza sign right next to it said: ‘POLITICALLY CORRECT IS OF THE DEVIL.’ The other side of the sign said: ‘PRAY FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM’ PSALM 122:6. It was pretty cool, very thought-provoking! And the best part is we got pictures of it! I hope to post them sometime soon!

On our second trip – last weekend, we had a 5th soul-winner - Deanna was able to join us. We left Friday evening, got delayed by rush-hour traffic, but we made it in time to hear most Darrel Rundus’ teaching. Then we found a hotel for the night. Darrel covered several different fears that would stop us from obeying Jesus Christ and they were though-provoking.

The next morning, we went to the meeting, sang some worship songs and then got to hear Mark Cahill. That was pretty cool! One main thing Mark communicate in a few different ways is that he could teach us all day, but the best way is to go out and do it, and ask God to teach us how to be more effective at reaching into people’s lives. Here are a few other things that stood out to me and I hope to put into practice:

Mark’s motto: ‘If you do not engage the culture, that culture is going to engage you.’ (He knows something about that – he used to be a part of the party scene and played basketball with Charles Barkley, so he knows this first-hand.)

Mark told a story of a friend that didn’t want to go a relationship with God for himself, but he said that he was going to drop his kids off at church so that they could. Mark told us that he pointed out that this plan wouldn’t work. The guy asked why and Mark told him that his kids will know instantly that it’s not important to him, so they will quickly conclude it’s not important for them or their life either. That got the guy thinking.

Mark pointed out that sharing our faith – our relationship with Jesus, is a conversation not a presentation. If it is real to us, then we aren’t presenting something, we are inviting them to turn around and start a relationship with Someone, and wanting to reach their heart. What makes that point even more clearly is how Mark talks with his audience the same way: conversation style, asking questions, getting responses. It was fun, challenging and engaging! And it emphasized that point that this passionate caring about others really works!

Mark told a story about a kid who said he used to attend youth group, but now he’s an atheist. Mark asked why he became an atheist, and the guy explained that his youth leader was rude to him, among other things, so he left, looked up some stuff on the internet and became an atheist. Was he really an atheist? No, just wounded. So, Mark reached out to him. Mark also pointed out to us that hypocrites are not a problem for those who share the real Jesus Christ, because the real Jesus isn’t hypocritical. That was a pretty thought-provoking point! It was encouraging to realize that he is right – hypocrites are only a problem to those who are not following Jesus Christ, and daily learning to build an active relationship with Him. That challenges all of us to keep learning so we can be the salt of the earth – tasty seasoning in a tasteless, cold, selfish world.

Mark mentioned how some of the people he talks with say they are just sitting on the fence – not ready to accept or reject Jesus. But Mark pointed out that sitting on the fence is making a choice. And he also mentioned how a friend once said to him: ‘If someone says they are sitting on the fence, remind them that Satan owns the fence.’ Interesting point.

Then we got to go to 2 different session groups and then we got to go out soul-winning! That was a blast! I hung out with those who stayed in the downtown section of St. Pete. It was a bit different from Orlando, but of course the people were similar, just different attitudes. Jason and I got to talk with a guy and challenge him to run from his lifestyle and surrender all of his life to Jesus Christ. He left thinking. Then I go to talk with a few people who were just hanging around waiting for their friend who was talking with one of our fellow soul-winners. I think they left thinking, but I couldn’t tell for sure – all I can do is pray for them, though I do wish I could remember their names. :) Then I got to talk to John and his wife Carrie. John was going to go through seminary, but didn’t - he didn’t tell me why, but he did tell me that he has traveled the world and thinks that all religions are the same. He didn’t know what was after death, or rather he wanted to escape the topic, but we had a fun conversation. I did get to remind him that we are all rebels and the first time we knowingly rebelled against God and broke His law we lost everything. I also got to point out that we could get into Heaven 2 ways: 1) if we are 100% perfect or 2) if we are 100% forgiven. He thanked me for the ‘debate’ as he left. (Debate was his word. :))

I also got to talk to a girl (named ‘Q’) and her mom. They seemed to understand salvation, but they didn’t understand that we could be sure that we are saved, and that after we are saved, sin affects our relationship. They appreciated talking and I gave ‘Q’ a copy of the John 10 study God gave me.

The last couple of conversations were the best! When we were all headed back to the small buses, we stopped by what they call ‘the rock’ – a huge bolder that you can climb on. Apparently, one of the other soul-winners made someone mad (or they were convicted) but that allowed Paul and I to talk with a number of them and show them the love of God. They seemed to be a group of broken-home kids and it was wonderful to be able to allow them to insult us, and then to keep showing them the love of God and even to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with a girl named Danielle and her friend Dina. A few others came and listened in on our conversation, here and there. A few of their faces will probably stay etched in my mind for quite a while. My heart goes out to them and I’ve been praying for them.

Then we (evangelists) gathered together, talked shared stories, took pictures and then prayed and headed back to the church. Mark shared some more at the morning services – good, refreshing teaching, including the reminder that we live in a dying, broken world where people are being snatched into eternity everyday.

On the way home, we got to talk about some stuff we learned and our conversations with fellow evangelists – fun stuff!

And last, but not least ~ :) ~ the free ‘Expelled’ review. It was great! Ben Stein talks to several people who were fired and excluded because they even considered the question that there was a Creator. Talk about a crazy world! It’s hard to know all the damage they are doing to all the students who go through their ‘public’ school system – or more correctly: re-education system. Ben also included some background on the Holocaust and it’s ties to the Darwinism and some computer animation of what all goes on inside the very complex human body! Amazing! We truly are “fearfully and wonderfully made…” (Psalm 139:14)

Thank you all for your prayers. We have heard that there are more conferences and exciting events to come, so we’ll try to keep you posted!

Your friends, prayer partners, and fellow laborers in this vast harvest,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul ~ the Henry family

a change in direction ~ : )

2008-04-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends and fellow soul-winners and prayer partners, 04-10-08

This past weekend was amazing! We went downtown Orlando Friday evening and then to Daytona for Saturday afternoon/evening to talk to those who came to ‘Black College Reunion’ and Spring Break ~ WOW! What a joy it is to continue to learn how to join what our Master is already doing! There are so many stories and experiences that we couldn’t possibly get them on paper!

Below are some of the stories of how God is reaching into people’s live and challenging them to give their lives to Jesus Christ, and how He allowed us to be a part of that.

(Steven’s Update)
One main conversation that stands out in my head was the one we had with a guy named DJ. This guy was pretty interesting. Apparently, Paul, Deanna, Kayla, and Damaris talked with him. I didn’t really get to hear how that conversation went because we were talking with someone else right nearby. But, about 15 minutes or so later, he came back by and Kayla mentioned that he had apparently been hanging around ~ apparently curious, thinking… The second time I got to talk with him and challenge him a little. Then we all headed back to base and we had thought that DJ had left us and went somewhere. So, when we were all back on base sharing stories and experiences, suddenly DJ walks over and comes over to listen to our conversation. So, we got a chance to get in his head a little more. He apparently was a youth leader for a number of years, even though his dad and mom are apparently not interested in Jesus, but then his life started going downhill when he was mugged on 9-11 – he didn’t finish the explanation. Several of us got to encourage him and challenge him to go back to the words of Jesus and take them seriously, and also reminded him that there is nothing he can do that cannot be forgiven, as long as he is alive. Towards the end of the conversation, he mentioned that what he saw in us peaked his curiosity ~ and he implied that he wanted that too, or at least some of it. After he left, deep in thought, several of us prayed for him. His face and story will probably stick in my head for a long time, because it is similar to others I have heard.

Saturday afternoon/evening in Daytona was a WOW too! We talked to people on a walkway using million dollar bill tracts (which was great fun), chatted with people in a several story mini mall area, and also chatted with people on the streets. There were so many conversations. Here are just a few names. Matt and Taylor ~ two graduates from Lake Brantley, Kayla and Rochelle ~ 2 of the spring break promotion team, Matt and JC, Lawrence and Mai ~ hip-hop artist and his promo guy, the leaders of a hip-hop magazine, Linda ~ a friendly, talkative security guard who was just curious what we were doing, Desiree ~ who practices witchcraft, said no thank-you to a million dollar bill tract, but appreciated a friendly face, Donnie, Jonathan and gang ~ 4 guys just hanging around who really appreciated talking, another Matt, and a guy named Derek ~ who was unwilling to surrender his life to Jesus Christ right now. We also got to meet and talk to 3 people with the ‘Impact Movement’ ~ they were handing out New Testaments to anyone in the crowd who would take one ~ it was great! The ‘Impact Movement’ is part of Campus Crusade for Christ.

(Paul’s Update)
Hey all here's a story from Friday about challenging Christians to test themselves. One of the best conversations Friday was with two church guys in fact one of them goes to the same church as Deanna. The team I joined Friday was Kayla, Damaris, Deanna, and me. So it was Deanna and I talking with these two guys Scott and Darren. Scott seemed interested enough, but Darren really didn’t want to let Deanna go through all of her questions and explanations. He kept saying he knew all of that already, and he probably very well does. Then at the end we asked a bit of a different question. I read Romans 8:5-8 which says, "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Then I asked them both very directly, "What do you set your mind on?" Darren hesitated to answer, so then I looked at Scott who said, "I’m carnally minded." Wow, that reality hit like a ton of bricks. I couldn’t really tell what he was thinking after that and we didn’t get a chance to carry that any further before they left. When I looked back to Darren his response was, "Well, I’m trying to lay up my treasure in Heaven." That was an interesting response as well, but he didn’t want to talk any more about all of that, so that was where the conversation ended after Deanna and he talked about something at church. If you all have any favorite verses to further test the obedience of someone who claims to be a Christian to wake them up that would be very interesting to me!

Saturday was my first time to the Black College Reunion! I expected a really wild nasty party and very little conversation (I've heard about it). It was exactly the opposite on the streets that night! The light chill and then late night rain put a damper on the party, and the conversations were so incredible. I spent a lot of time with Sean Kelsey, and we talked to a lot of people. And there were many good conversations where people heard the truth and had to think about it a little bit. And then there were the conversations where after hearing some truth, they didn’t know what to do! It was like God stopped them in their plans and all of a sudden they just had to rethink things. The first one of those was with Zack. After a couple minutes of conversation, he was just standing there with his hands in his pockets and his head down and thinking. He didn’t leave for a while even though we gave him several gaps in conversation. He just stood there and let us explain everything that we could think of and even still he was hesitant to leave. And then Sean and my last conversation of the night was with Leonard who at the end of the conversation told us he had to leave right away, that he didn’t belong there and he needed to get right with God! Sean got his email address earlier in the conversation and then we took shelter when it started raining. And we just looked at a bunch of God’s Word together! It was great! Even just telling these stories reminds me to pray for them again!

(Deanna’s Update)
After arriving I was teamed with Paul and two other girls that I met for the first time that night. We headed out fairly quickly and my first witnessing encounter for the night is always special. I ran into a couple who were around 21 and stopped them to give them a track and quickly headed into conversation. The guy who's name has slipped my mind shared he felt he was not a good person so I laid my focus on Stephanie. She said she tried to be and I went through the law with her. I have been trying not to kick it into high gear right away but I do get carried away. hee hee. After seeming convicted I shared the gospel with her and half way through someone behind me ( I guess one of her friends) distracted her and pulled her away. So I shifted my attention back to the guy. He seemed to have more knowledge and didn't disagree with me but seemed to think "to each is own". I hear alot that people all believe different things and we sholdn't push our beliefs on others. I used the burning building scenerio but he stuck to his guns. It ended shortly thereafter and I thanked them for their time.

I spoke with about 15 folks altogether that night and they were all very interesting but I won't give you a play by play for each. I did have one gentleman who first I stereotyped as the thug type but I learn everytme I shouldn't do that. He had certain things well rehearsed and seemed to be pretty intelluctual so I needed help. Luckily Paul came to the rescue and helped pick up some crucial points. This man believed and studied many religions but the muslim faith came up quite a bit. He would quote the bible but did not believe in the diety of Jesus. I'll admit he stumped me a time or two and that's why I was glad to have my partner in truth near by. Downtown definately can be more challenging so it wets my appetite for future encounters, I like to find verses later that I can use next time. Ray Comfort always says use Scripture as much as possible so I'm trying to memorize more but that's not one of my strong points. I won't let that stop me though that's for sure. I took lots of pics that I will be sharing with you all and I ask for prayer when we go out. It makes such a difference and I can tell when were being prayed for.

Last night was the biggest group I have been able to go out with yet and I learn something new each time. There were alot of divine apointments for us last night. A few others I want to ask for prayer for are Tony, Scott, Lorraine, and another cute spanish couple (God knows) and the so called athiests. Thank You God for New friendships and Soul-winners. May we all be Bold as lions! Amen!

(Bryan’s update)
We prayed and broke into teams. I was teamed with Rich and one of his daughters Becky. We headed down the street and I was immediately separated from them as they crossed the street by a deaf homeless man asking for money. I had none. I did offer him a million dollar bill but he looked upset and disappointed at the same time. I tried to tell him it was better than real money but he didn't agree. I caught up with them on the other side and they were talking to a man they'd talked to on previous trips down here. His name is Omar, he's Muslim and very well versed in the Qu'ran and quoted it in the native tongue. Which wasn't shocking since that how they believe is the only way to truly study it. He's very intelligent and it was sad to see such an intelligent guy pouring his life and heart into something that will take him to hell if he doesn't repent and put his faith in Jesus. His arguments were contradictory and weak and it appeared he was relying on his ability to quote the Qu'ran in the original tongue to impress us or dissuade us. It didn't. It ended on good terms but he was still convinced of the Qu'ran. Please pray for him.

Then we found Sergio (I remembered names! I'm totally getting better at this). This was an encounter I really wanted to see happen in person. When the person is clearly not interested in talking or being bothered but you push through anyway and have a great conversation. He's a very confused kid. I'd guess early to mid 20's. There was a bit of a language barrier but it didn't hinder his understanding of what we were saying or vica versa. He kept wanting to quote things he'd heard but couldn't remember them. I really enjoyed talking to him. He understood the courtroom scenario and the debt he can't pay. He'd been trying to "do better" with sin for 2 years. We talked to him about how we can't do it on our own and God has been preparing him for us to come talk to him etc...

Rich mentioned after we left that it was like talking to a wall. He'd seem to grasp what we were saying then say that he was going to do better. It was frustrating to see him so utterly lost in the world and we have THE answer and he's unable to get it. Please pray for Sergio. He needs to be convicted and convinced of what we were saying badly.

After that it was already time to start packing up. We actually fellowshipped on the corner and grabbed random passersby as we talked and got to know each other. Since I'm a new guy I had a lot of friends to make and stories to share. It was a fantastic time and I can't wait to do it again.

Thank you Lord for the privilege and honor to do Your work among those who need it most.

Bryan

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Your friends, fellow prayer partners, and co-laborers,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul

Great fellowship and 'fishing' w/ fellow AiC members

2008-04-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

Hey fellow servants of Christ and prayer partners, 03-13-2008

What a joy it is to walk in the light of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! These past two weeks have been busy, and have included new ministry experiences, which is really good. :)

We are planning to join everyone at the Graham's house ~ we're looking forward to it! :) And then hitting the streets!

Several announcements before some interesting 'fishing stories':

What: 'Way of the Master' ~ 'Transformed Conference'
When: April 19th 2008
Where: near St. Louis, MO
First Baptist Church of Arnold
2012 Missouri State Rd.
Arnold, MO 63010
What time: (2 sessions)
8:30 AM to 12:00 PM
1:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Cost: FREE
To sign up, click here: http://www.wayofthemasterradio.com/transformed_signup_stlouis.shtml

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What: 'Evangelism Conference'
~ with Gabe Graham, Mark, Cahill, and Darrel Rundus
When: April 25th and 26th 2008
Where: St. Pete, FL
Calvary Chapel
8900 US HWY 19 N.
Pinellas Park, FL
General plan: Friday evening - 6:30-9:30PM
> ~ prayer, praise, and some food for thought
Saturday conference ~ 8:30 AM - 2:30 PM
> ~ worship, evangelism training, lunch, more training, then 'fishing'! ~ :)
Cost: FREE

For more info, check out: http://www.team-hope.org or you can contact Gabe @ ~ neosurf(@)hotmail.com

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Expelled the movie is scheduled to come out April 18th. It comes from a secular point of view, but apparently asks good questions and has some very interesting interviews. Ray Comfort (of 'Way of the Master') highly recommends it. You can find Ray's review of the movie here: http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/2008/03/expelled-review.html. Our family is really looking forward to it!

Also, to all those who pray for us, we would like you to pray for us this Saturday afternoon/evening as we are planning to go to Daytona Beach for 'Black College Reunion'. We've never done this before, but we are definitely looking forward to it!

Now, we had the wonderful opportunity of meeting two fellow evangelists (and our new friends) ~ Deanna and Bryan, and their stories are below.

(Steven's update)
This past week was very cool. Meeting two new friends, talking with an 'apathetic question guy' as Bryan called him, and then getting to talk to 2 friends - one was Hindu and the other Muslim. Those were some very fun conversations, and I'll let Bryan tell you those. Two weeks ago, I joined Rich, Jackie and Tramicqua as they talked with a Muslim man named Omar. It was quite an interesting conversation and I think God used us to plant some good seeds. Omar had some painful memories from his past, and he was also trying to rationalize his sin and how it really wasn't that important. We got to encourage him some about his past and apologize and show him that we care. Rich got him thinking about eternity and how important it was, and I was able to remind him that according to the Bible, we are rebels, going our own way - making ourselves enemies of God, but that even though we rebelled, God died for us - while we were still His enemies. And that He then rose again and was seen by 500 witnesses. And we did our best to remind him of Jesus' words in John 14:6 ~ "I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, but by Me." At the end of the conversation, Omar was back-peddling, and it was clear that God was working on his conscience. Please join me in praying for him that He will realize that he needs to give complete control of his life to Jesus and accept Him as his Savior - no matter the cost. (Very often, when someone with a Muslim background turns from Islam to Jesus, they are disowned, lose everything they have, and sometimes are hunted down and murdered for their faith in Jesus. ~ Please pray for Omar.)

(Paul's update)Friday night, we had two new friends from http://www.adventuresinchristianity.com/ (an evangelism connection), Deanna (from Deltona) and Bryan (from Apopka), join us on the streets of Downtown Orlando! It was funny that they both decided to come the same night. It was an amazing night of fellowship and fishing! I think we were all hugely looking forward to Friday night all day long! Our fellowship was so sweet! I think we all had way too much fun Friday night, but we also really strengthened each other in the work of building God's kingdom! There is just nothing in this world like meeting a fellow brother and sister in the Lord who have the fear of the Lord in them and have God's love for all of the people and are not tied down to the love of this world, so we can all fellowship in the pure grace of God and the wonderful work that he's doing in our hearts and our lives and the lives of those we love and of those he leads us to meet and minister to! It is so out of this world. We also really challenged each other to remember that we are pilgrims passing through this world, and we must have all of our focus and attention on declaring and praying for and looking for the glory of God to be revealed in this wicked world we live in until he returns! Now to the stories! Three stories that stand out - a conversation with Alex who listens to way too many voices, and that about summarizes that one! Then there was Jay - while my mom and Deanna were into a great conversation at one point, I decided to stop and pray. So I'm just standing there, kind of with my head down and eyes open just talking to God not really paying attention to what was going on around me. All of a sudden Jay walks up. We talked only a few minutes - long enough to find out that he knows all of the truth he needs, and he didn't say it but he seemed to really be doing some rethinking and knows he needs to change something in a big way. About twenty minutes later, he walked into 'Club Tabu', but then five minutes later I saw him just standing all the way across the street, just watching us talking with people! I really think he's looking for new life, I hope! Then there was Mike. We talked for about five minutes and really encouraged him to read God's Word more to really be clearer on things, but he definitely seemed to be a disciple. He really talked like God is building in him a new life, and he seemed like a new man! Now it's time to pray that he really takes it seriously to enter that narrow gate and stay on that path and never look back again!
This last week at Orlando Children's Church was so good that I had to tell you all about it. Orlando Children's Church, for those who aren't familiar with it, sends out eight school buses Saturday mornings across Central Florida and picks up about 300 children from five years old up through high school and even a few out of high school. They bring them to FBC Maitland where they get breakfast donated by McDonalds every week and play some games and hang out and talk and then we do a lot of Bible study. Steven and I work with the middle school/high school, and I lead the sixth grade small group and Steven has seventh and eighth grade. The large group session this week was about Moses life. The main point was not accurate, but their point was that Moses tried to use his own wisdom at first (killing an Egyptian), but later in his life when God was the One guiding the situation it worked out to release the Israelites and God used Moses as a wise and strong leader.So in my small group, I carried the point about not making your own decisions but letting God be in control of your life and your decisions. I told them that was one of the greatest truths that I have ever heard in my life, and described what happened when I repented and gave complete control of my life over to God and about why God must be God in our life instead of us. They were more attentive for those ten minutes than I've seen eleven sixth grade guys in a while. Even Justin who wasn't supposed to be in my small group and is often causing trouble but he sat right in front of me and listened to every word. Then they had a lot of questions. Then I had three specific conversations after our group that were just out of this world great! Noah had a very serious question, so we talked about that! Then Alex wanted to talk about how there are so many confusing things in the world! (One of my points was about all the lies they're getting at school that are going to be so complicating for them to sort through.) And then I went and talked to Edwin and his friend (I forget his name) came over to join the conversation and another friend was listening in. Edwin's friend commented also about how many confusing questions there are and concluded out loud that we've got to just toughen up and just do the best we can. So, I took Edwin's friend through the intelligence test: 1> How many of each animal did Moses take on the ark? 2> What is the name of the raised print that deaf people use 3> Is it possible to end a sentence with the word 'the'? 4> Spell shop out loud... then what do you do when you come to a green light? 5> Spell silk out loud... what do cows drink? As he was getting them wrong, he slowly felt more dumb, then when he got them all wrong he was like, "Wow, I must be really dumb." My response was no, but you can see how easily we can be tricked. The point is not to rely on our own wisdom for all of the confusing questions in life, but to look to God for the truth! He got that! There was so much more; you can ask me if you want to hear the rest!
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(Bryan's update)
http://www.adventuresinchristianity.com/?L=blogs.blog&article=2861
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(Deanna's update)
http://www.adventuresinchristianity.com/?L=blogs.blog&article=2858
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Your friends and co-laborers,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul

fishing in Ft. Myers

2008-03-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hey fellow sowers and prayer support (:)), 03-20-2008

Greetings from Sunny Orlando again! (or at least the suburbs ~ :)) It feels like we have been traveling more lately! From the family camping trip, to talking with partiers at the Bike Week/Spring break gathering in Daytona, to this past week of getting to meet several of the Way of the Master team, not to mention quite a few soul-winners, and seeing quite a few old friends from various places, and even some soul-winners that we only knew by email ~ :). This year continues to be full of opportunities!

For those you who didn’t hear yet, Paul got sick right before we left, so that rearranged the schedule for us and those who went with the Grahams. And sadly, we didn’t get a good chance to really catch up and compare notes much, so we’ll have to do that not too long from now…

(Steven’s update)
For me, this past weekend was a blast! (Now getting the flu right before the work week was less exciting... :)) It was so neat to get a chance to meet the ‘Way of the Master’ team as well as others! And I really appreciated the reminders of things I had learned from ‘Out of the Comfort Zone’ (Ray’s autobiography) and the ‘Way of the Master’ videos, messages, and the online school. (for more info on those, check out www.wayofthemaster.com and www.livingwaters.com). One main thing I appreciate about their ministry is they point out what sin is. It’s so sad to see the common clichés everywhere: ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life’ and ‘Ask Jesus to come into your heart’ and – ‘If you want to be saved, just say this simple prayer’… I too used to use those phrases, but I’ve been learning more and more to use Jesus’ own words, since God has been using fellow evangelists in my life, like the ‘Way of the Master’ team, and from my own studying of Jesus very own words describing what the costs are to be one of His disciples. Jesus is very specific, once we are saved, once we are a disciple – we can’t lose it. But we must consider the costs (so as not to be a false convert that walks away from following Jesus).

Here are a small sampling of Jesus’ call and the cost to follow Him:
Ø We are signing ourselves up to be a ‘doulos’ – slave of Jesus Christ – Mt. 6:24
Ø We are challenged to enter the narrow gate – meaning we aren’t going to be able to take some things with us – Mt. 7:13-14
Ø As followers of Christ, we might just not have a permanent home here, since we are citizens of another Kingdom! ~ Mt. 8:19-20
Ø As we follow Jesus Christ, as was His case too, our unsaved family could become hostile to us, but of course, we must continue to reach out to them, praying and pleading for them to repent too – Mt. 10:34
Ø We will be like true wheat among similar-looking weeds, but we must not let it discourage us or distract us from following Him – Mt. 13:24-43
Ø We will have to learn to take sin seriously like He does – Mt. 18:8-9
Ø He will be the single focus and passion of our lives, not just Him as the top of a list of 10, 20, etc… - Mt. 22:37-40
Ø That to even quality to be one of His followers, we must – deny ourselves – 1) our passions, wants, our habit of calling the shots in our life, 2)take up the tasks He gives us and 3) follow Him with all of our heart – daily. - Luke 9:23 (That’s quite a call, huh? Yeah, it is for me too. The best part is He isn’t looking for perfection in it, just a heart that honestly seeks Him and treasures Him as the invaluable riches and won’t run to any distraction, because they have Him!)
Ø Jesus also said that if that He who loves Him keeps His commandments and He shows His presence to them. That’s pretty cool! ~ John 14:15, 21, 23

That is just a very small sampling I have found as I just finished a study on what Jesus actually said about how to become one of His followers, how we can tell if we are His followers, and the cost… (If anyone is interested in me sending you that study, I’d be glad to, just email me. I went through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Rev. 2 & 3 – what a very interesting study! It challenged my heart! And then I also heard some of those same verses at the conference, which was so much fun!

Soul-winning after the conference:
But, the icing on the ‘cake’ :), was we got to go out soul-winning with our friends and fellow soul-winners from St. Pete! That was fun going out with Gabe, Joshua and team. And amazingly God gave us so many good conversations with people! One of my first conversations was with like 6 college students in front of a small restaurant. The main lady I talked who was responding didn’t seem to be affected much – she said that she was raised Orthodox (which I believe was referring to Eastern Orthodoxy – rituals and such, similar to the Catholicism). But after our conversation (and before the group wandered off), I asked them if what I had just explained made sense (the law, and what Jesus did for us) and 4 or 5 of them said yes, so I can only hope and pray that seeds were planted. My favorite conversation was with 3 teenage guys (9th grade or so) not far from where there was a free concert going on. At first these guys were happy go-lucky and all, like nothing really mattered and they were fine, even making some crude jokes amongst themselves. So, I handed each of them million dollar bills and we goofed about that briefly. Then I asked them what they believed was ‘out there’ when we checked out of life. The first guy said definitely a Heaven, second guy said it was a private matter, but then sort of confessed that he didn’t really know, and the third guy agreed (he didn’t really know either. :)) So, we talked and they did believe there was a Heaven and so then I pointed out that if God is just then He can’t let rapist, murders and liars get away with their sin and He can’t just ‘wink’ at it and let them into Heaven, right? They agreed. So, I pointed out if God can’t ignore it then He must punish these law-breakers, and especially if God is good, He must punish them, otherwise He becomes unjust, right? They agreed and said that made sense. So then I took them through God’s law and they all agreed that we had lied, used God’s name carelessly, coveted, and committed adultery in our hearts, and only two of them said they knew they had stolen something, the other thought he was innocent on that. I told them I had broken those too and mentioned that we aren’t doing so well, huh? And they agreed. Then I briefly referenced a few more of the commandments and they agreed they had broken those. So, then I asked them if God were to judge us by the 10 Commandments (His Law) would we be innocent or guilty? They agreed we’d be guilt and I agreed. So I asked would He have to reward us or punish us? They agreed He would have to punish us and even before I could finish, the guy who thought he hadn’t stolen anything said he was going to hell and the other guys quickly thought it through and realized it too. So, I asked if that concerned them – and they said yes. Then I asked them if they could promise me that they would wake up in the morning? They said no and it was apparent that it was making sense. So, then I asked if they knew what God had done for us. They didn’t know so I told them about how Jesus died on the cross not for His sins but for ours and that if we take ourselves off the throne of our life and stop calling the shots and make Him our King and let Him call the shots and we obey, and we accept that He paid not His fine, but ours, then we will be saved. One guy said some casual comment implying giving some of the control of his life was alright, and I reminded him that Jesus calls for all or nothing – He either wants to have complete control and allegiance from us or according to Him, we don’t have Him. He nodded in agreement and they agreed, but there was a little part of them that was holding out, so I challenged them again that if they couldn’t promise me that they would wake up in the morning, then they shouldn’t put their head on that pillow tonight before they get right with God. And the response of two of the surprised me – they said they would do it and they would see me in Heaven. I thanked them, and gave some tracts to some of their siblings that had wandered up and heard parts of the conversation, we exchanged handshakes, then headed off. I appreciated their enthusiasm! And I trust that a seed was planted and it is my hope and prayer that they do give Jesus all of their life. There were more stories, but I couldn’t possibly right them done, for one things because the flu I got Sunday afternoon erased some of them ~ just kidding! If Ft. Myers weren’t so far away, my family and I already talked about how we would love to go back, because the people there were pleasant to talk to. Ah, but maybe that is just to remind us to pray for the new soul-winners who are newly trained and will have the opportunities of talking with those in their surrounding communities.

Well, we look forward to seeing at least some of you at the Graham’s house and possibly even more of you downtown. For those who are our prayer partners ~ thank you! We trust that God is also showing you who He is bringing across your paths that He wants you to share the amazing good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with!

Your friends and fellow servants of Christ,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul

millionaires and Transformed this weekend! ~ : )

2008-03-13T20:57:00.000-07:00

Hey fellow servants of Christ, 03-13-2008

Wow, Bike week and Spring Break in Daytona – what an incredible weekend! Below, I want to tell about the conversations Daniel and I had as we teamed up and talked with a number of people, but first on to this weekend. But, first for a little info-mercial! :)

Last call for Ft. Myers! :) We do hope many of you will join us, but if you can’t that’s okay, though you’ll be missed. And, you can always ask us later about the stories and experiences! :) If any of you are wanting to join us last minute here, we are expecting to leave (from the Graham’s residence) at 6:45AM. Sounds early? Well, we are wanting to get down there early enough to go to a nursing home, sing, and for Rich to preach on Jesus’ resurrection [:)], and then head to the conference, which isn’t far away. And we are welcoming all last minute traveling companions! We (the Henry Family) plan to stay overnight, so we can hear Ray preach the next morning, but the Grahams (and team) are planning to head back Saturday evening, after some soul-winning! We now know of 3+ teams (from other parts of FL – Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm, St. Pete), that are planning to join up and go out soul-winning somewhere nearby ~ and we are excited! If you aren’t able to join us ~ (we’re sorry you’re going to miss out : ( ~ ) (and) we would appreciate your prayers!

(Steven’s Update)
Wow. It would take more fingers and toes than I have to tell you all the stories we have from this past weekend! From talking with and challenging those who came to party – to consider how important eternity will be after they die, to sharing some of God’s Word and pleading with/challenging all who would listen to repent and follow Christ, to encouraging and working beside fellow soul-winners ~ WOW! It took some effort, but it was really cool! I hope that becomes at least an annual event, if not more often.

Daniel Morman (a guy we got to know while homeschooling) and I hung around a bunch on Friday evening, and we got to talk with a group of teens, Justin, Shannon, Taniqua and her co-worker at ‘Quiznos’, Lukas, David, and more people that I only know some of their names. Daniel and I talked with Nick and Mark – two guys who were selling tickets for a parking lot. Nick started with an evolution perspective, but after I explained Mark Cahill’s ‘order, creation, design, art’ analogy, he agreed that made sense and we had a great conversation. I can only hope and pray that God keeps working on them. They were from Panama. Then there was the conversation with a guy who went by the nickname ‘itchy’. He had ‘tear-drop’ tattoos down both sides of his face. In some cases, ‘tear-drop’ tattoos are the sign of having killed someone, and the more ‘tear-drops’ the more people they killed. It can be a prideful/bad memory type of thing… When I handed ‘Itchy’ and his friend a million dollar bill, he said no thanks, but something told me by his drawn out response that he did want to talk, but didn’t think he could – like maybe there wasn’t hope for him. So, when I noticed the ‘tear-drops’ I asked him: ‘Do you think you have done something God can’t forgive?’ He responded like he wasn’t sure. So, I walked with him and reminded him of a few Bible verses, including John 3:16, 17, but then his friend chased me off, but ‘Itchy’ seemed to have appreciated the conversation. Then there was Fetin (I know I’m misspelling her name… L). She is a Muslim, but after some interesting conversation, she took one of our ‘101 Funniest One-liner tracts’ and even a gospel of John and said that she would read them! Now that was pretty cool! One of my highlights of the weekend, though, was passing out ‘Million dollar bill’ tracts down Main street – where the bikes were parked to show them off. I had so many people who wanted them (about half of all the people I offered them to) and I even had several people who chased me down to get more! One lady even grabbed from my hand – that was interesting. I did my best (with what little time I had with each person) to let them know that the best news was on the back. Several people talked with me more and I had the chance to remind them of Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:21-23, and Luke 6:46 ~ “But why do you call me Lord, Lord and [do] not do the things I say?”

Also, among the fellow soul-winners we saw down there were the Bible Baptist team, some Christian bikers, Larry and Ben, and some others that I didn’t get their names. It was great fellowshipping with them and working alongside them and we look forward to doing more of that!

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

God's Word shared with the roar of Bike Week in the background!

2008-03-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

Dear fellow prayer partners and evangelists, 03-12-2008

Wow that was quite a weekend! Thank you for your prayers!

(David’s update)
Can God soften cold hard sinful hearts? Can God alter their well planned parties? Yes! For a start, God provided a hard cold rain to thin out the rebels Friday afternoon. That allowed us to warm up Friday with smaller crowds. I have to admit that it was hard to find conversations about the Lord in Daytona Beach for Bike Week, but God allowed each of us to have several conversations.

Praise the Lord for Sean Kelsey and Bart, the Missionary, they are such bold preachers. Saturday was cold and windy and we walked along street, witnessing to those we met. Then we set up on the corner of Atlantic and Main with the speaker loud enough to reach all four corners. And again we got into interesting conversations with these who wanted to share their thought about the preaching. Steven and Paul also shared some Bible verses with those passing by. Around sunset a group came by with a sign about Aliens. They translate that God’s name Elohim refers to space aliens. At the same time, the Bible Baptist group came around holding up valuable signs explaining the gospel and Bart was pointing to their signs and reading them out loud. That was fun! That gave me a chance to hang around with one of their leaders, Stephen, and learn a few fishing techniques from them and passing out tracts.

The best part was later, when Sean and Bart carried the speaker down Main Street. The crowds are just sheep; they didn’t have anything important to do. Some were taking pictures of motorcycles, while most people were just standing around or eating and drinking. God used our team to give them something interesting to think about. When Sean preached he asked people to raise their hand if they ever told a lie or stole anything…and I was surprised to see how many responses he got, we had a large audience. One clever listener across the street picked up a traffic cone several times as a megaphone and offered a brief and humorous confession. Each time Sean closed his message with an invitation to talk with one of these pastors and several people did come over for a brief conversation. A few times during the message, several motorcycles realized we were preaching and their response was to rev up their engines, and that drew a few laughs and applause.

In our travels down Main Street we came across more blessed street preachers. Some of them were carrying big signs with the gospel message and others had a speaker system. We had great fellowship as we shared experiences.

This has already been a fun and blessed year and we thank each of you, our brethren, for your part.

(Paul’s update)
I drove over to Daytona with Bart and Sean in Sean's convertible. We arrived around 2:30 PM.

The funniest opportunity to preach was right after Sean, Bart, and I arrived in Daytona and parked on the fourth level of the parking garage. When we went over to the side wall of the fourth level we found ourselves overlooking the Daytona Lagoon, a water theme park, that had been turned into "The Rat's Hole", a hangout spot for bikers and loud music. We set our amplifier on the wall overlooking "The Rat's Hole", and Sean gave a brief greeting to the crowd to see if they could hear us. The funny thing was that after Sean gave his greeting, they turned down the music a bunch for us, not knowing who was trying to speak. A minute later, Sean greeted the crowd a second time and introduced ourselves. Then they turned off the music completely, and Bart preached to them for a few minutes. I was surprised that our amplifier was able to carry such volume, and the people down below were really surprised and it took them a few minutes to figure out where the preaching was coming from. Sean and I were kind of hiding back and laughing. It was a little unusual, I must agree, but it was quite funny and it appeared to be very effective! We went from there down to the boardwalk along the beach.

The most outstanding conversation of the day was with Brandon, who was probably in his mid-thirties. He told Bart and I that he grew up in Church of Christ, and that his brothers and uncle and dad and grandpa were pastors and evangelists and deacons. So he kept telling us that he already knew everything that we were telling him. He pretty much left with that thought after a few minutes. But then he came back a few minutes later and said that he did appreciate what we were doing, which gave us another chance to talk to him. This time we really challenged him on why he is playing with his life this way, when he knows he is away from God. We could tell that he was feeling convicted but still wasn't deciding to do anything about it. So to end the conversation, I read him I John 1:5-9, which he tried to interrupt saying he had already heard, but I insisted on it, so he allowed me to read it to him. With that we left him to do some thinking, and I trust that God can get his attention.

After that we talked with four bikers for probably ten minutes and got to share a lot of truths with them that seemed to be causing them to think. They were just about to get on their bikes and leave, so one guy already had a strange mask on that covered his face and small goggles. He took them off after a couple of minutes so we could talk to him. One of them went to church regularly and apparently had been trying to get his friends to come. They took into great consideration our warnings to repent and draw near to God, and they were all listening intently and responding positively to our message. I trust that they will not just give head-service, but that they will carry on to do something about what they heard.

After we tried a few more conversations, Bart was ready to go to the streets and preach. So we went to the corner of Main Street and Atlantic Avenue and set up our amplifier. Then while Bart started preaching, Sean and I traveled slowly around the four corners of that intersection to see if they could hear us above the roar of motorcycles and to see the reaction of the crowd. It was audible above the motorcycles, and there were a lot of people listening in to hear him preach. Someone commented that they were surprised that they could hear Bart above all of the noise. When we got back over to Bart's corner, another man came over to tell me to let Bart know that the people were hearing us. For the next little while, I just stood near Bart and listened intently to the preaching to set an example for the crowd to follow, which many of them did! I also interacted with a number of people when they had something to say. It was very interesting! After about an hour and a half, I went across Main Street to join James and Carrie from the Bible Baptist team that we know from Downtown Orlando on Saturday nights! I spent a while talking with James and then began handing out my "What if... I'm pretending" tracts. They were well received; probably about two-thirds of the people that I offered them to accepted them.

The most unique story from my night was with three young ladies on my corner who were sarcastically criticizing Bart's preaching. I went beside them and handed them the "What if... I'm pretending" tracts, which they accepted. And then this was one of their reactions, which I could overhear as I continued handing them out nearby: "O great, as if we weren't feeling convicted enough by the preaching, then some guy comes up to us and hands us some thing that says 'what if I'm pretending'. It's like, do you think God might be trying to tell us something." I didn't feel comfortable trying to start up a conversation with them, since I didn't have anyone who would join me, but I figured God would keep communicating His message to them somehow. I spent the rest of the night shivering from the cold (apparently it got into the forties or low fifties and the wind was piercing) and watching the crowd mostly. I also spent a bunch of time with our friends from Bible Baptist before they left and one other group of believers who were down there later that night preaching and talking with people. We got home around 2AM that night with a lot of stories, a lot of seeds planted, a lot of hearts convicted of sin, and very likely a few souls won into the kingdom of God after the Holy Spirit spends some time working that seed into their hearts! It was an outstanding night in preaching the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven!

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

Henry Family March Evangelism Schedule ~ It looks like much fun! ~ : ) and stories!

2008-03-06T18:53:00.000-08:00

Hey team,

It’s already the first week of March and this month is looking pretty exciting! Just a brief recap for those who haven’t heard and for our prayer partners:

March 8th ~ (this Friday) part of our team is planning to go to Eustis to talk to people at a folk concert festival, and some others are planning to go to Daytona Beach to talk with spring-break students and bikers (Bike Week). This weekend is the crossover week for spring breakers from local colleges.
March 9th ~ (this Saturday) some of the team are planning to head back out to Daytona Beach to talk with more bikers and spring breakers! Please pray for God to give all of us wisdom and to help us as we are still getting details together with other teams. Thank you!
March 14th ~ as of right now, we aren’t planning to hit the streets of Orlando, because we are planning to be ready to leave early in the morning the next day ~ Saturday, the 15th.
March 15th ~ Planning to leave Rich’s place before 6:45 AM and head toward Ft. Myers, stop on the way to sing some hymns at a nursing home, and then head to the 'Transformed Conference, and then we’re planning to find some good ‘fishing spots’ and evangelize into the evening! : ) Doesn’t that sound fun?! Some of our team is planning to head back Saturday evening and some are planning to stay for the Sunday morning services with Ray Comfort.
March 22nd ~ Planning to go to the Grahams house and then hit the streets of Orlando again! : ) Same time, same place. : )
March 29th ~ Planning to be in Downtown Orlando again. : )
~ and ~
April 4th - 6th is ‘Black College Reunion’ week and some the local teams are planning to head down there for some interesting conversations!

Last week, we forgot to send out Scott’s update from his team’s adventures at Cranes Roost (a newer ‘fishing spot’ for some of us ~ J), so we pasted his adventures below for those who didn’t get to hear those stories! J Seeds were planted and we look forward to seeing how God opens more doors on that front!

We would really like to hear about your experiences too! It really means a lot to everyone to hear how God is using each of you and us! So, even though it takes a little work, we are hoping more of you will be sending out your stories! : )

Well, this past week, our family went camping with David’s side of the family and it was a lot of fun! I (Steven) also got to talk to some of the campers and hand out some gospel tracts ~ some great conversations, which was pretty cool too! Paul got to talk to several college guys in the early hours of the morning…

(Paul’s update)
This last weekend was our Henry family camping trip to Fort Desoto Park to entertain all the raccoons. (The raccoons are really quite entertaining themselves!) There were thirteen of us there Saturday and Sunday morning. I had thought beforehand that since it was a family gathering and camping and all that I wouldn't really get to talk with anyone. But then it seemed like God told me that he would give me a conversation with someone and that some of my family would get to see it. God has a strange way of planning some things. So I'm asleep Saturday night after a tiring day of playing chess and a lot of soccer and just hanging out with family. And then all of a sudden, I'm wide awake at 2:30AM Sunday morning! And I'm thinking, "This is strange". I hear a couple of college guys talking at the camping site behind us, sitting around the campfire like they were when I went to sleep. And God gave me an idea of how to join their conversation, so I got out of the tent and went over through the woods to where they were. And they invited me to come grab a seat and join them. They were a bit drunk and just talking about nothing in particular. Anyway, so I talked to especially Daniel and Steve for about an hour and a half until the fire was going out and they were going to bed. I've never gotten drunk before, so I'm not sure how much their brain was able to take in when they were like that, but we talked about a lot of foundational concepts about God and things from God's Word. I trust that somehow the Holy Spirit can hold some of those truths in there somewhere that can be of use to bring them to their Lord! They were very friendly later that morning when I went back over to say goodbye. So that's my story!

Thank you to our prayer partners! We are praying and expecting God to surprise you with special opportunities to serve Him too!

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

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(Scott’s Update)
Greetings, I just wanted to let you know what God did last night while we were proclaiming the gospel in Crane's Roost. To those who prayed for us, thank you so much. I hope this encourages you and builds your faith as you pray. God did many things that evening. So here's my story:
First off, I was quite blessed to have six people join me in proclaiming the gospel. After some time in prayer, we split off into groups. Hannah and I went walking along the docks, and we began a conversation with Ali, Muslim gentlemen. We began talking about the fundamental difference between our two religions. It became evident that he didn’t know whether he actually believed what he said he did, specifically when he said that he was a Muslim because he was born into a Muslim family and because his friends growing up were Muslims. He had the same argument to explain why we were Christians. He began contradicting himself in many of his statements, but was unwilling to recognize it. After thirty minutes or so, we moved on and ran into Taylor, Julia, and Jenn. We walked over to the fountain to see if people would be there for the little fountain show that was being put on shortly from that time. As the ladies watched the show, Taylor and I began talking with a young man and his girlfriend. This young man’s name was Jordan. He knew the gospel, but seemed to be resisting having any discussion about it. When the fountain show began, he began resisting even more, and offered to talk after the show. So Taylor and I waited and watched the show with him, and after it was over, he clearly seemed disappointed to see that we had not left. I left him with a challenge to re-evaluate the way he lives his life; to look at it closely and see if he was bearing fruit for the kingdom of God (Matthew 10:43). A look of conviction came over his face after hearing what was said, and then he left us. After roaming around and getting into short conversations for the next little while, I suggested that we go to the food court to find some more people. Taylor was apparently telling me that the mall security guards frown upon evangelism within the building, but I was oblivious to his warnings. So the four of us went on in and started looking for people to talk to. I had a ten minute conversation with a young man, Kyle, in the food court where we walked through the gospel. He was very receptive to everything that I had to say. I gave him the good person test and the gospel of John as I left him, and saw him begin reading the gospel of John immediately. I then proceeded to catch up to Taylor, Julia, and Brittany, only to find that they were already deep into a conversation with a homeless gentleman, Sean. We talked to him for a little while, and were able to present the gospel in light of the things he told us he had been through. Sean was very receptive, and itching to talk to us. That’s when the security guard came up to us. This man was very rude to us. He told us that he knew what we were doing, and that we should get out of his mall. When I asked for more clarification on what we were doing that was wrong, he told us that we were trying to sell Sean something. He said that solicitation was trying to sell anything, whether it be a product, idea, religion, whatever. When Sean came to our defense (I was surprised to hear him speak up on our behalf) saying that we were just having a conversation, and were not soliciting, the security guard began to talk down to Sean. He started yelling, asking Sean if he studied law in school (the tone of his voice very extremely condescending, which had me fighting against anger). I told the security guard to be respectful to Sean, for he had no idea of what Sean had done or been through. The guard acted as if I hadn’t said a thing and told us to get out of his mall. I apologized for the inconvenience we caused him, and put my hand out to shake hands with him. He looked right at me and said that he wouldn’t shake hands with me. He said that he was the only person in Florida without the flu, and then started describing us to someone on his walkie-talkie. That abruptly ended our conversation with Sean, and by that time, it was getting late, so we went and met up with Alex and Rachel, prayed, and then dispersed. All in all, God was very kind to us this evening. He set up divine appointments and gave us the words to say in our hour to proclaim the gospel.

Scott Anderson

making eternal friends and a time of pray with the teams

2008-02-28T22:36:00.000-08:00

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 ~ : )

Free ~ 30 booklets of the Gospel of John

2008-02-24T20:25:00.001-08:00

Hello, my name is Steven Henry and in case you didn't already know about it, the site below allows you to sign up for free and get 30 booklets of the Book of John for free. They are great for handing out to people. I just present that for your consideration.

your friend and a servant of Christ, Steven : )

Glory Stories...downtown evangelism...

2008-02-04T17:29:00.002-08:00

Stories..Stories..Stories!

The Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to be able to share and go downtown 2 Fridays in a row..because of schedules our group went this week and the last. And to top it off more and more labors are being added to the harvest field..which is wonderful! (But makes it difficult to share stories- what a wonderful blessing technology is!) So to catch up..I will share alittle of the people the Lord gave me an opportunity to meet and then I want to hear from YOU! So definitely if you went downtown (or if you didn't) and the Lord led you to a person, or your prayed for a person (or 2 or 3 or 4...:) or got in a conversation or gave someone a trac or the Lord did something amazing then I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT the work the Lord is doing!

To start off with..last week was a very interesting night. It had almost been a month since the previous evangelism excursion that I had gone on. Rich sent out an email stating to read over and mediate on Psalm 126. His main question was "what makes you weep?" Are we really weeping for and having compassion for the lost? Are our hearts groaning for the saved? Do we even wish for ourselves to be "cut off" from Christ to bring others to him? It was a very really sense of grief that seemed to accompany me that night- a grief of seeing these people and their futures in Hell. The thoughts of the reality of death seemed to be weighing on me that week and when Psalm 126 came to view I couldn't help but to see the unsaved cascading themselves in the pits of hell. What a sorrowful and grieving thought! This weighed heavily on me, even while we were downtown. After we broke up into teams Ben, Alex and I began to walk near the Lake (Lake Eola) and walked and walked and walked. We walked for about 45 minutes trying to start conversations here or there but they didn't get anywhere. We realized that we had skipped the most important aspect- talking to God our Savior to lead and guide us..we had sought God at the grahams but once we were on the streets didn't bother to ask him to lead and guide us- and yet we were His work! After 45 minutes we stopped to pray...asking God to move and guide us. There was a sense we were going to only be talking to one (possibly 2 ) person and perhaps they would be sitting down. We continued to walk around the lake and soon caught up with Daniel, Becka and Taylor. Daniel was engaged in a conversation so we just talked with Becka. Alex and Taylor continued to walk on, and Ben Becak and I stood there and passed out a few tracks.
Just then a gentlemen came down some steps that led to the pathway around the lake. It was his getup that caught my attention. He was a tall thin gentlemen with a "cowboy outfit" and a black cowboy hat. His hair was tied back, he had a bluetooth in his ear and was sipping a starbucks coffee. I looked over at becka and said "tell him how much you like his hat..." she said "No, you tell him how much you like his hat"- "Okay" I looked over at the gentlemen who was by this time sitting on a park bench directly facing him and said "I like your hat!" After that point we were able to get into a conversation with him. Soon we were to find out that his name was Marshall and that he was a Cherokee Jew and had some very interesting takes on who God was, who man was and who "white eagle" (Jesus) was. A lot of what he believe about God came because of his past where he would say "Well my Cherokee side believes this" or "My Jewish side believes this" or "a friend of mine says this.." To which we would reply "But what do YOU think?" He also thought that perhaps we were all apart of "God's Imagination" in which we replied "So you mean, were not real?" Daniel also joined into the conversation. We challenged Marshall on who Christ was, - "Is Christ who he says he is?- He only leaves us 3 options..he's either a liar and we don't take him for face value, he's a lunatic and should be locked away or HE IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS: THE SON OF GOD...and if your're right in saying he's a liar and a lunatic then we've wasted our life's but if you're wrong..you've not only lost heaven, but youre now going to spend eternity in Hell..that's a huge risk to take...so what's YOUR DECISION?" We thanked him for talking with us and left with that question hanging over his head. That was the person God had prepared for us to talk to.

The next week (this past Friday) we discussed Matthew 28:1-10. This time we were challenged to read over the scripture and to think of our own questions such as "Why did the woman go to the tomb first and not the men?" "What did the angel look like and why was he so frightening?" "Why did the woman not become like dead men like the soldiers?" " Why did the angel send the woman to go tell the men when Jesus was going to show up anyway in Galilee?" "Why Galilee?"

Then downtown, Jordan, Trameka and I were in a group. We walked only a little ways down the street and then began to talk with a homeless lady name Chrissy. We noticed her standing on the side of the rode with her head in her hands, looking like she was crying or just not feeling well. We stopped to ask her if she was okay and she said she was fine but was trying to get some money for some beer. As we tried to converse with her, we could defiantly tell she did not want to talk about the gospel..she wanted to stay in her life of sin and continue drinking and smoking. She didn't want a life of anything else. We asked if there was anything we could pray with her for and prayed to God just thanking him for allowing us to be able to speak with her. Then we left.

While we were praying for Chrissy, 4-5 guys were standing off on a corner smoking pot. They were yelling loudly "You guys are bringing that religious stuff" or something to that effect. They were very high on drugs, but after we were down praying for Chrissy we moved down the street alittle and prayed for them, that God would break the bonds of slavery to pot and it would not longer become desirous for them anymore.

After that we began to talk with another homeless lady named Wendy. She was definitely under the influence of alcohol but was sober enough to talk with us sensibly. She wanted to know if we were catholic, or if we were apart of a college..both answers we no. We talked with her alittle while and she told us that she was not feeling well, had been having the flu and was suffering for breast cancer. When we offered to pray with her she said, "No I'm going to pray for you" and wanted all of us to hold hands in a circle while she prayed for us. . She told she loved God and asked him everyday to help her and we gave her the gospel of John. "Oh I love John" she said and then kissed the trac. She said she loved the Lord and wanted to do what he wanted everyday. Then we prayed for her and thanked her, as we could not get gospel with her..she was very distracted by the amounts of people going passed us with Mardi Gras beads ..she would stop looking at us, look at the people and shout "Hey Jingles Bells..Hey YOU..where did you get all the jingle bells" - it was God's providence that most of the people ignored her, because then she would turn her attention to us. After we started to walk away she noticed the million dollar tracs in Jordan's hand. She said.."Does that have a prayer on it?" Jordan said "No..it has the million dollar question...are you good enough to get to Heaven?" " Well..I'm not sure. I don't think you can be sure you can get to heaven.." "Wait a minute" said Jordan "I thought you said you believe in God and were a Christian?" " Yes but I don't think I can know for sure that you can get to heaven,,,I hope so" "well wouldn't you like to know for sure?" " I don't think you can..." After that point we converse with her for a while about how we can never ever be good enough to be sent to heaven. Wendy mentioned many remarkable and kind things she had done for other homeless people downtown, but we explained even our best acts are like filthy rags. Only Jesus can remove our guilt and pardon our sin and set us right before the father. We cannot make up for all of our sins by doing good works. We could tell this hit a cord but she did not want to believe it. We went on the explain that only God can give us a regenerate heart and our lives are changed then. She was looking at us and seemed like she was listening but then went up to all three of us in the group and started giving us "prophetic words" that we very interesting... we sensed she might have been some sort of psychic. After that we thanked her and walked way. Continue to pray that Wendy's heart and eyes will be open up to the gospel and she may experience God's wonderful and redeeming grace.

Then later our group ran into Chris, rebeka and cynthia. Awe were all standing on the street corner sharing stories when a man named William walked up. He was a christian that was on the streets. He had worked for a company that had issued him a forged check and he cashed it, then left the florida. They put a warrant out for him for trying to cash a forged check so he had come back to Florida and turned himself in. In doing so he didn't have anything on him. He had been on the streets for a day and a half and was afraid to fall asleep on the streets that he had stayed up the entire time. He had been trying to get work but people were turning him down and the shelters were turning them down. He had eaten anything and didn't have any money on him. We prayed that God would provide for him, not just money but a means to make money and a place to sleep.. Chris bought him a hotdog and we gave him the info for the church. Please continue to pray for William. It broke our hearts to see william and many others on the streets- pray God would open up means and give us wisdom on how to continue to help those in need downtown. Meeting these people challenges my faith, challenges me and convicts me of taking advantage of the blessings I have received from the Lord. How I want the Lord to work in this area in my life...how do we help the poor? Not only bringing the gospel - but also helping them financially/materially? In James it says that faith without works is dead...What can I do, Oh Lord? Am I willing to give it all?

Thank you for continuing to pray for us as the Lord has called us to continue to minister to those in downtown Orlando. There is So MUCH NEED! Not only for walls of resistence to be broken down, but chains of sin to be released, families and relationship put back together, broken hearts mended, the poor to be taken care of, purity to sweep among the streets and ultimately the Gospel's mighty power to ring true! We have faith the Lord can and will do above and beyond all of these things!! He is so very very good..is he not?

In Christ,

Kayla

What God Did Last Night-Feb 1st

2008-02-04T17:29:00.001-08:00

Hello Everyone,

Here is the latest update on what God did when the group from Metro went out to evangelize last night.

Last night the Graham house was overflowing with people who came to evangelize! It was a wonderful thing; we could not even fit all the people in the room! When we got to downtown, I was grouped with Julia Knowles and Alex Corbett. It was Julia’s first time out and God used her in many ways!

Each time we go out it is different. One week it can be so simple to get in conversations, the next time more difficult. This time we found it a bit more difficult and it seems some of the other groups did as well. Rich reminded us before we left if we found things hard, to stop and pray. That is what our group did soon after we began. Right after we prayed, God answered our prayer!

We stopped and prayed asking God to bring people into our path, to help us with fear, to guide and direct us. What happened next is the story I want to tell you about this time, the story of Ebony. It was the shortest encounter we had, but to me the most stunning one of the night. After praying, we walked down the street and there was Ebony. We handed her a tract, a large one hundred dollar bill. She said she had seen one of these before. When asked what it was Ebony said either something from a law office or a bible verse. We explained it was a Bible verse. Immediately Ebony exclaimed, I am sinning, I am going to hell! The three of us were stunned and knew not what to do. She began to cry and said again, I am serious I am going to hell as she grabbed on to her friend. At first I thought she might be joking, but when I saw the tears running down her face, I knew it was real. She did say she was a Christian. We asked why she thought she was so affected by this? Why did she think God was affecting her in this way? Ebony said she did not know, she just knew she was sinning and going to hell. The whole time Ebony continued to cry. She asked for a way to contact us, which we gave her and then she said she had to go, her friends were there. She said she would be in touch. Her friend did mention Ebony was not normally emotional like that, which lead us to believe it was God affecting her. She left the three of us there, stunned. We were awed by what God had done, and what He could do.

God was able to reach Ebony without a word from us. In an instant He fell on her in the middle of the streets of downtown! He convicted her of her sin with just a tract in her hand, not a word of the Gospel was spoken to her. I have not witnessed anything like that before, such immediate conviction of sin. She was truly undone. God answered our prayer and put her right in our path.

After Ebony we presented the Gospel to two other gentleman named Josh and Patrick. At the end of the night God brought us into what I hope was a very fruitful conversation with a young guy named Dre.

There are no words I know to describe how small I feel today as I reflect His Greatness in what He did last night through all of us. In the difficulties many of us had in the beginning, and the encounter with Ebony I see how very much I need Him and how little He needs me. But oh what a privilege it is to be a part of His work! Thank you all for your prayers, I am so grateful.

The group led by Rich goes out again on Feb 15th. The Henry Family, which attend Metro, are dowtown every weekend witnessing to the lost. Your continued prayers are appreciated!

With much gratitude,
Jackie

stories from the harvest fields

2008-02-04T17:23:00.000-08:00

Hey prayer partners and fellow laborers, 01-31-2008

(Barbara’s update)
This Friday was so encouraging to see all the believers talking and praying for the lost and seeing them talk with them and plead with them about their eternal destiny. What a privilege it is to be ambassadors of Christ reconciling people to God. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God." 2nd Corinthians 5:20

As we talked about where our hearts are at in the Bible study and how much are we really concerned for those who are lost and going to hell, it reminded me that we need to also compel whomever God puts in our path to be concerned with their eternal destiny hopefully Heaven not Hell. We need to not only tell them about their sin, and how they fall short of God's glory as a Holy Righteous Judge, but plead with them that they need to turn from (repent) their sin and turn to God. Michelle and Jackie and Jordan talked with Kenny (a homeless guy) and he's heard the gospel at the shelters many a time, but we weren't sure if he is really taking the truths for himself. We found ourselves pleading with him to take another look at his relationship with God and how he is in bondage of sin and that is keeping him from God. Kenny almost died a couple times this week of seizures because of alcohol taking a toll on his liver. We challenged him that if he had died during those seizures, would he be with God in Heaven for eternity or in Hell. Also only God knows whether Kenny has repented and turned his life to God, would he be found to be a faithful servant or just entering Heaven so as by fire (the thief on the cross just made it into Heaven not having time to be a servant).

Talking with people for their souls reminds me that we have to first care about them and then to show them that they need to care too, even plead with them that they need to care about their souls also. Ristela and I also talked with another homeless guy who has AIDS, and he really enjoyed listening and talking about scripture. He said, " I could be going off and getting another drink, but this is really fun to me."

God compels us to encourage one another daily as we see the day approaching. Plead with the non-believer to accept and follow Christ with all their life and Plead and challenge the believer - are they serving and telling others about Christ? Are they taking anyone with them to Heaven or are they keeping it to themselves?

Please take extra tracts with you as you leave for the night on Friday, so you can share with someone at the store or wherever you go. And pray for those people God allowed you to talk with or give a tract.

I love this song below it reminds me that God loved me and forgave me and He gave me truly an abundant life. Let's share that with others

I Will Serve Thee
(Bill and Gloria Gaither)

I will serve Thee because I love Thee
You have given life to me
I was nothing before You found me
You have given life to me

Heartaches, broken pieces
Ruined lives are why You died on Calvary
Your touch was what I longed for
You have given life to me

May God greatly bless each of you and give you a real LIFE as you tell others and pray for the lost and wayward believers.

With love, a servant of Christ,
Barbara Henry

(Steven’s update)
I can hardly believe it ~ January is already gone! Where does the time go? J As some of you know, I have been reading at Mark Cahill’s book, ‘One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven’ Wow! It’s really good! Well, I should say it’s really good and I enjoyed it! I finished it this week! (and started reading ‘One Heartbeat Away’. ~ : ) ) Wow… Here are a few more highlights.

Ø Mark explained a simple answer we can give to show that there is a Creator. He based it off of Romans 1:19, and I'm quoting from the book ~ “Every time you see a shirt [name an item around you], you know it has a creator. Every time you see a watch, you know it has a designer. Every time you see art [point to something around you], you know it had an artist. Every time you see order, like 20 Coke cups in a row, you now there is an orderer. When you look around the universe, what do you see? You see creation, design, art, and order. If every other thing has a creator, a designer, an artist, and an orderer behind it, why would we not think there is a Creator, Designer, Artist, and an Orderer behind this universe….” ~ I liked that! It was simple and to the point!

Ø Mark points out always try to use the 10 commandments when witnessing, because it is only when people understand the law and that we have broken it and deserve punishment, that they realize they are in trouble and need forgiveness ~ which makes grace amazing (as Kirk Cameron says). And

Ø Mark points out that we need to make sure that we aren’t too timid to talk about Hell and how it is a very real place Jesus described 30 (something) different times in the gospels! Luke 16:19-31 is a vivid literal story about someone who went to Hell and his conversation with Abraham.

Ø Mark also mentions one (among many) illustration that helps him keep a passion for talking with the lost and keeps his eyes open to the opportunities around him. As the prophet Ezekiel, we too have an important message to communicate. When we communicate the message, the responsibility is on them of how they will respond. But if we don’t communicate the gospel, then we carry some responsibility because we didn’t speak up. We need to ask God to help us share the good news of the gospel more!

Ø Mark also mentions what he calls the 4 deadly questions that when used properly, can not only be effective, but create an atmosphere for a deeper, more effective conversation.
o What do you mean by that?
o How do you know that to be true?
o Where do you get your information?
o What if you are wrong?
These are general ideas not necessarily a set format. I’m hoping and praying for opportunities to use them soon! J There were so many more very interesting stories, examples, points, and illustrations ~ that’s a teaser! I hope and pray that you will read it for yourself or keep challenging and educating yourself more and more how to share the blessed, most-amazing-news of all!

From what we heard, there were plenty of stories to go around! It was a pretty cool evening! Brittany, Cynthia and I walked around and prayed a lot for the teams and other soul-winners and for the lost, confused people all over downtown. And we also had some interesting conversations. One of them was a brief conversation with a guy named Arnie, who is really mad at God, but appreciates that we care. Another was a conversation with several people who said they are saved, but appear to really be running from God. Another conversation was with a guy named Flavio, a hot-dog vender, and we were able to give him some ideas on where to start in studying God’s Word and how to get more. And our last conversation was with Dina, the newest club-worker on the corner. She is new here and appreciates us because we are friendly and she seems to be thinking a lot about spiritual things ~ which is really good!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Thank you to our prayer partners ~ we appreciate your prayers very much! And we look forward to seeing what opportunities God will bring across our paths this week, and next week, and… ~ : )

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

Men's retreat and one thing you can't do...

2008-02-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

Hey fellow laborers and prayer partners! (01-17-08)

As most of you already know, we aren’t expecting to be downtown tomorrow evening, because we are expecting to be at the men’s retreat at Metro Life. But, we are expecting to be downtown next week as usual. We are going to miss not being down there this week!

(Steven’s update)
Well, another week has gone by. I (Steven) have been reading at Mark Cahill’s book, ‘One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven’ Wow! It’s really good… Mark has been sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ through conversations several years. Mark grew up playing basketball, including being on Charles Barclay’s team. Mark has been good friends with Charles and keeps challenging Charles to give his whole life to Christ and to follow Him with all his heart, but Charles is apparently reluctant… But anyway, God finally got Mark’s attention several years ago, and Mark gave his life to Christ – completely sold out to be a bold, effective servant of Jesus Christ. If you ever get to hear Mark speak, I encourage you to do your best to get there – incredible teaching of God’s Word and his testimonies. You can find some of Mark’s audio messages online – youtube has some. We got some full-length messages from www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com, but that’s a paid-subscription thing that is well worth it I might add! Back to ‘One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven’ ~ In 3 days, I’ve read to page 80 in my ‘spare time’ – it’s a good book! A couple highlights from it, though there are many good points:

Ø As Christians, we have a unique opportunity. We not only care about people, but those who follow Christ are also learning to care about where a person will spend eternity and how it will go for them. That is unique. Those who think from the world’s carnal-selfish perspective will likely ask the people they care about, how their finances are doing, if their families are in good health, etc. Only a Christian will care about the person’s soul and their soul’s future. The surprising part here is – that means a whole lot to people when they know you not only care about them as a person, but you even care where they will spend eternity. Mark points out (as do others) that people constantly (consciously or sub-consciously) think about death and either think about where they will spend eternity or they avoid it because the unknown scares them. Mark points out that we as Christians obviously aren’t scared because we have the Creator’s handbook and living Letter – the Bible. God’s Word tells us about the two places people go after death and how to make sure we go to Heaven. Those are answers people will appreciate hearing about when they realize that you care about their eternity.

Ø Mark also points out that if we can’t do anything else in a conversation, there is one thing we ought to do – mention to the person(s) we are talking to about how death is un-escapable and remind them that eternity is much longer than this life, so we ought to get ready here and now. If that leads to conversation – great! If not, then pray that God won’t let them forget that thought and that He will use others to tell them more.

Ø Mark also tells that when he gets up in the morning, he will pray that God will arrange who He wants him to talk to, and then Mark says that he will engage with those in his path as though they are a new-found friend he hasn’t met. Kind of an interesting perspective. I plan to put that more into practice!...

There are more things, but those were some highlights and I wish I had time to tell you some of the stories! Really good stuff….

(You can buy ‘One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven’ and Mark’s newest book, ‘One Heartbeat Away’ online. We got ‘One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven’ from www.livingwaters.com, but we had to buy ‘One Heartbeat Away’ from www.amazon.com for 10 each, plus change – we chose the free shipping option because we bought more than $25…)

This week, God blessed us with a lot of good conversations! It was so much fun, but always challenging of course.

Some of the YWAM team joined us this past week and we got to meet some of the new team that is here for training for a couple of months. Our friend, Bart, was there and he brought his friend Blake, who also preached some. Sean Kelsey joined dad and they apparently had some really good conversations!

I talked to a group of teens that turned out to be a gang… interesting conversation. They all gathered around me to take the ‘Smart Card’ test and then most of them stood around and listened while I talked with two of them. I had the opportunity to give each of them a tract and take them through the 10 Commandments before they wandered off. I know their doing some thinking. Please join me in praying that God will convict their hearts and show them how they need to commit their lives to Him.

Mom and I also got to talk with 4 guys who listened and interacted, and seemed to be taking it more seriously that if they died, they would spend eternity in Hell. I’m praying God keeps bringing that thought to their minds until they repent and follow Christ with all their hearts.

We also had the opportunity to meet one of the local YWAM leaders – Rob. It was good to talk to him and get to know him a little. Also, Rob got to use the flipchart for the first time. A couple of guys walked up and asked about the flipchart, so they went through it and apparently had a great conversation!

(note from Paul)
Paul wishes he had time to add to this update, since he had some really good stories from last Friday. He’s taking an electrical class, which is occupying his evenings. Homework – such fun! ~ : )

As always, we so much appreciate your prayers! God has been showing us more and more opportunities to share the gospel and God’s truth throughout the weeks, so we wanted to say thank you to our prayer partners for your part! We are praying that God uses each of you where He has you to talk to those He brings across your path!

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

Updates for a new year - 01-10-08

2008-02-04T17:04:00.000-08:00

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 ~ : )

Calling all the troops!

2008-01-01T14:08:00.001-08:00

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!"

2008-01-01T14:05:00.000-08:00

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...

FW: Creative Christmas flyers ~ Come let us worship the King of Kings! : )

2007-12-10T05:41:00.001-08:00

[Click on the picture for a closer look – : )]

For more free (printable) cheerful ideas, we encourage you to check out:
http://His-servants.blogspot.com/

your friends and servants of Christ,
The Henry Family

Fw: Caroling

2007-12-10T05:39:00.000-08:00

Below is the email from Daniel, and I've attached the song sheets for you to print up. At this moment, they are not planning to come downtown afterward, but we plan to be on the streets around 9:30.
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Hello all,
Clear you calendar and your voices! We're takin' to the streets ... the neighborhood streets that is. Rather than going downtown to evangelize on the 7th we are going to go door to door and evangelize/carol ... that is, we will mainly carol and pass out "goody-bags" to the neighbors. We will meet at Rebekah and Jesse Phillips house (see address below) at 6:30 to pray and set up so we can begin around 7:00. Below are the song sheets with the designated songs (I have included the lyrics as an attachment).

Song List:
1. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
2. O Come All Ye Faithful
3. We Three Kings

1. Hark The Herald Angels Sing
2. What Child is This?
3. Go Tell it On The Mountain

Let us know if you are interested. Let us know if you would like to play an instrument.
Daniel Howell

Sing a song, ride a float, and : )

2007-12-10T05:37:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Merry Christmas to all!

We discovered something exciting last Saturday. One of our bold companions, Sean Kelsey invited us to help him pass out tracts for Christmas Parades, and it is so much fun! It is one hour of adrenaline and very interesting. Better yet, almost everyone along the parade wants a tract. This is your invitation to join us this Saturday in Apopka at 9:30 AM. Here is Sean's information on that parade:

APOPKA -
The Apopka Christmas Parade begins at 10am on Saturday December 1st but please try to be there about 9:30. We are closer to the front of this parade and want the opportunity to give out tracts to the other floats before the parade starts. Our float will be staged on 2nd street between Park and Forest Ave. We are assigned to space 325 but sometimes due to float traffic congestion it gets out of order. None the less the float is a big birthday cake which says "Merry Birthday Jesus" on the side. You cant miss it.

Saturday night we are planning to be a part of the Kissimmee parade. We are planning to meet at 5:15PM, since it is an unfamiliar parade and we'll need to figure out where we're supposed to be. Sean says this one is huge fun. There are tons of people and a lot of things going on. From 12PM to 8:30 there is some festival, and then there's the parade at 6PM, and then there's fireworks afterward at the lake. So there'll be plenty to do. We don't know where we're meeting, so keep in touch by cell phone. Sean's cell number is 407 810-4110. And David's cell number is 407 924-1327. Please feel free to call Sean or call us for more information.
We have been invited to go Christmas Caroling this Friday evening, December 7th with Metro Life, so we plan to join them and then leave about 9:00, which means we should arrive on the streets around 9:25-9:30. So we're passing on the invite to you all to come and join us to go caroling. After I send this, I plan to forward the email from Daniel, which has the time and place and the songs that we're singing. Also this is a great opportunity to bring as many of your fellow believers and soul-winners as possible. This should be a very comfortable setting for someone who's new to the team, and they can enjoy getting to know the evangelism team better this way.

(Paul's update)
I've got to tell you what happened Tuesday and Wednesday last week! I went to my electrical supply in Altamonte Springs on Tuesday afternoon. I greeted several of the guys like I usually do and then talked with Orlando a little bit while he put my order together and put it in the computer. I noticed an opportunity at a certain point to shift over to a spiritual topic, which is something I've been becoming more familiar with being alert to. The topic was that life is short and that God hasn't given us this life for us to use it up for our plans and entertainment, but for us to have time to make a choice about eternity. We had only gotten a few sentences into the conversation, and suddenly Dave the store manager, Fred and another guy came over to the counter to listen in and then began firing questions at me. And Kevin also joined the conversation a little later on. It was quite a challenge to know how to answer their questions in a way that would also make the points that I was trying to make, but God gave me a lot of wisdom in that conversation. They seemed to appreciate my answers and pretty much had to agree with my conclusions although they were a little reluctant on one or two points. At one point, Fred was trying to say that he didn't really have to worry about it because he's pretty much perfect. I already new that wasn't quite accurate. So I asked him if he would mind me asking him a few questions to see if that was true. He failed really badly although he didn't really like to have to admit that. I have known Dave, Kevin, and Fred for probably three years and have been planting seeds during that time, so this was a great opportunity to really get to the subject. It was amazing! We talked for probably forty-five minutes! Then another electrician came in who I have met before and who knows the crew there. He really showed the ugly side of sin with his thoughts about life. By the end of the conversation, they were all just running around in circles trying not to admit that they are all in need of repentance. And Dave noted to me that the last part of the conversation was proving my points even further. It was great! I am praying for them a bunch, and hopefully Tim and Mike, my Christian co-workers, will be able to help me further in this effort! Mike is the guy who works with me who is in the process of submitting his life to the Lord. And Tim is new to our company; he is a believer and he shares his faith with others. So pray for all of this when you think of it, if you would!

So then the next day, I went to the Winter Park branch of City Electric and when Francisco called Altamonte, Fred told Francisco to ask me about how I prove that there is a God. So I used the ideas that I just read out of Mark Cahill's book "One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven" to show him that there is One God. Mark Cahill describes that when we see something that has been made like a building (he says like a shirt), we know there must be a Maker. And when we see something that requires design like a watch, we know there must be a Designer. And when we something with artistry and creativity like a painting, we know there must be an Artist. And when we something that has order, like the structure of an eye (he says like twenty coke cups in a row), we know there must be an orderer. Francisco agreed and then he told me how he proves there is a God based on things that we see on the earth that prove the Bible to be true and that prove that things are not accidental! So then we talked about God's perspective on a lot of things on the earth and about how far away from God we have gotten! Francisco believes all of the same things that I believe and he seemed to be saying that we are walking the same path toward God. I certainly hope he really is seeking after God like that, I couldn't find a way to ask it that directly, since I would have had to kind of question if he was telling me the truth. Then Jose jumped into the conversation a bit, and found it very interesting. His main question to me was whether or not I believe there is a hell, so that gave me a perfect chance to share the truth with him. It was a very valuable conversation. By the way, Luke 16 which is the story of the rich man and Lazarus is very useful for explaining about hell after you've described the reasonableness of such punishment for having broken the law of God.

We are deepening in our connections with the community of believers who are doing ministry downtown - Operation 180, Bible Baptist, and YWAM. We had a lot of great fellowship among our teams while we were all engaging the crowd on Saturday night two weeks ago! And we were all having many great conversations and connections with the crowd! I spent the night teamed up with Paul (Operation 180), and John and Ristella. And Steven spent the night with Sean Walsh (Operation 180) and Matthew and Marie who are new to Operation 180. It was an exciting night, we had many great stories from that night! And then last Friday night, we had a great time catching up with several groups from YWAM after they just got back from a three-week retreat. And they introduced us to an evangelist from Australia who joined them on the streets that night. They are really encouraged to see our team doing ministry down there with them and with Operation 180.

We look forward to everything going on this weekend, and we look forward to seeing you all and serving the Lord with you - see you then!

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

cool weather and family gatherings

2007-11-29T21:32:00.001-08:00

Hey GNN downtown team and prayer partners, 11/22/07

Have you noticed the fresh air of some cool fronts? We are glad to see it! But it would also be a good reminder to dress warmer, and bring an extra coat just in case it’s windy.

We can’t say it enough how much of an encouragement each and all of you to us. We pray God’s blessings on each of you!

We believe that the singing and street-preaching idea has potential. We are discovering that it is hard to add anything else to December’s schedule, so we are setting the idea aside until January or February next year.

(Barbara’s update)
Last week was Thanksgiving, and I was thinking Friday night as we were downtown how thankful I am that God lets us share the gospel with whomever we are willing to talk to and share our hearts and lives with. We saw Jamie a homeless lady and Steven shared some valuable truths with her and we shared a bite to eat with her. We see Jamie pretty regularly, and it's neat to see her change as we have built this friendship with her. She smiles and in her own way says thanks for being my friend. We have only a moment with some people down there or at the store or wherever God allows us to be His witness, but what a joy it is to be His messenger to encourage and exhort.

David was talking with Mike at the hot dog stand and he seemed so far from seeing the truth, but he asks so many questions. His beliefs are really strange but he asks the type of questions that are pleading with someone to prove to him what is really true. He was raised as an orphan in a Catholic orphanage so he has some Catholic beliefs, and a lot of other beliefs from reading fictional books.

This time of the year really causes so many people to care about others, thinking of family and all. I pray that it will cause each of us to care about every person God puts in our path. And how important it is for us to not only say hello and wish people "Happy Thanksgiving", but to show them that the God who created this world and each and every one of us wants to have a relationship with them too. Share your lives and your testimony and heart with whomever God sets before you and see the joy only God can give a lost world. You see we are not of this world if we are a follower of Christ, but we are looking forward to a home with Our Holy Heavenly Father one day, and who are we taking with us?

God gave me a song when I was praying one day to Him after my dad died and I said Lord I miss my dad so much and God said Barbara He's with me, his work is done, but go tell others about Me. And this is a prayer in a song that God gave me, maybe sometime I can sing it to you all. I included the words of the song at the end. ‘Jesus, Help Me to Disciple’ (see verses at the bottom)

As Children of the Lord Jesus Christ; God calls us to be His ambassadors.
2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God."
I pray God will teach each of us to be His disciples each and every day until we see Jesus.
Love, Barbara

(Steven’s update)
One unique conversation, I (Steven) had was with three ladies, I briefly took the ‘Smart Card’ test with them and had a brief conversation with them. We were kind of walking quickly because of the cold, but they appreciated the conversation, so that was good! Every so often, some of our family is able to join the downtown Saturday evening soul-winning team (Operation 180), and Paul and I were able to do that last Saturday. We had quite a few very interesting conversations! It was pretty cool! But the highlight of the evening, for Sean, Matt, Marie and I was talking with a Muslim man! Wow, what an incredible conversation! He actually challenged us to be even more bold about not only following Christ, but challenging more people to join us!... but I’m getting ahead of myself… It started when we saw this family (dad, mom, 3 kids – elementary age) all by themselves. It was obvious that they were homeless and they looked kind of sad, so we went over and talked to them. We talked with the guy, named Steve, most of them time and found out that he was raised a Christian and then decided that 4+ years ago, that he wanted to be a Muslim. He mostly blamed it on the hypocrites in the church, but it was also obvious that he wanted something other than the gospel Jesus taught. So, he asked us a few questions and we showed him several verses, but he was still trying to hold onto his view. Then toward the end of the conversation, he went on and on for maybe 5-10 minutes about the hypocrites in the church (though he tried to say that all of us are hypocrites, and we nicely reminded him that we aren’t). We heartily agreed with his assessment of the so many people who say they follow Christ and are really looking out for their own greed, but we also contrasted that by pointing out that those people he was pointing at aren’t Christ, and that He is perfect and He doesn’t mistreat people like that… anyway, interesting conversation… Then at the end of the conversation, he also encouraged us and challenged us to keep looking for people who are willing to stand with all they have on God’s truth. TALK ABOUT INSPIRING! Wow!... needless to say, all four of us were fired up even more to follow Christ better! What an incredible opportunity to hear from someone who calls himself a Muslim challenging us to follow Christ with all we have!... kind of strange, but this guy clearly saw and admitted that what we had is genuine. And he’s right. What God has given each of us who follow Him as best as we can, is the real thing! It is more valuable than anything else people are looking for! And we also know, that as we are following Christ as best as we can, God’s clear testimony is challenging the hearts of those around us that they too need to get serious about their relationship with Christ. What an honor – what a privilege it is to have this wonderful, amazing opportunity of a relationship with the Creator of this Universe – perfect God, desiring a relationship with us, sinners saved by grace – WOW!

One other thought (Steven). I have been finding God opening more little opportunities to talk with people in a variety of places lately, and I’m grateful. We are praying that God would be doing that with each of you too, and we trust that He is! Everything done for Him will be rewarded! Thank you again to each of you for your part in this team. We are a team of believers/followers of Christ. J

Your friends and fellow laborers,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul

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Jesus, Help Me to Disciple

Jesus, help me to disciple.
And live for you each day.
Jesus help me to love you more..
And learn to walk Your way.

Verse
Jesus life here is hard.
But you said, You'd guide us through.
Jesus help me to encourage those.
Who will and do belong to you.

Verse
Life here on earth is so short.
But in Heaven, We'll be forever with You
So keep from getting busy
On things that don't glorify
You.

Jesus help me to disciple
And live for You each day.
Jesus help me to read Your Word
And learn to love Your way

Verse
You said one day we'd be in Heaven.
And earthly things won't matter anymore.
You said one day we'd be with You
And that's what life worth living for.

Jesus, help me to disciple..
And live for you each day.

Jesus help me too
Do Your work.
So I'll be found faithful.
When I see You.

It's an exciting adventure!

2007-11-12T17:20:00.000-08:00

Hello GNN team and fellow soul-winners, 11-02-07

Wow! Last Friday evening was really exciting! There were a lot of interesting conversations and the little we did hear from the other groups was really encouraging too!

This week, we were joined by Joann and John and Ristela and our friends from the Metro, and Kayla tells more about that in her update later on in this email…

(David’s brief note)
Last Friday I saw a group of 5 or 6 guys walking down the street and I walked alongside them and started a survey with anyone who had spiritual beliefs. One guy, Alex, said he was Bahia. I think he saw his spiritual theory fell apart the more he said. Then I found out that he went to a Christian school as a kid. From there, we shifted to the Ten Commandments, and the more we reviewed God’s Law, the faster he walked. His religion went into a backslide with a guilty conscience.

My sister-in-law recently gave us some of Pastor Chuck Missler’s CDs and WOW! He explains the mathematical structure of God’s Word. We have 3- CD set that we intend to make available to the team sometime soon. Steven’s CD burner had a disk shatter inside his burner and we hope to get that up and running again sometime this coming week.

(Barbara’s update)
Joanne and I (Barbara) dropped in at the Subway shop near our corner of Central and Orange and we met Bradley, who works there. He just moved down here and is staying with his dad while he goes to college. I gave him one of the “101 One Liner” tracts and asked if he had any spiritual beliefs. He said oh yes, he believed in Jesus, but hasn’t found a church down here to go to. I recommended Metro Life. I told him I cared for him like a mom and I wanted to warn him that he working at a place right in the middle of sin and party world. And I’ve found when people stay too long around such things they become numb to it and even start checking it out. He said He didn’t want to go to any of the bars, but would think about what I said. I told him there are even many down here that believe they are saved and now they can do what ever they want, they’re sins are taken care of. But Jesus said many will come to me and say, Lord, Lord, did I not do this and that for you…… and Jesus will say, Depart from me you worker of iniquity I never knew you. If someone really is a child of God then they have repented of their sins, that means turned from them and turned toward God. Because if we aren’t getting closer to God we are getting farther away from Him and we may not even realize it. So I suggested to Bradley that he strive to learn more about God and get involved in a church where he would have accountability and get into God’s Word daily.

He said he really enjoyed talking to us and would love to chat some more. I told him there are lots of us down here for the soul purpose of handing out tracts with hopes of chatting and leading or encouraging people to get closer to God.

(Steven’s update)
Chris K. and I (Steven) hung around home base (where our flipchart and tracts are) and we had some interesting interactions with different people. Brian and Allura were able to bring the portable PA system, so that was our first chance to try that out. It was actually quite interesting to see the people curious as we would lead people through the ‘Intelligence Test’. Chris and I had a teamwork going where after we took them through the ‘Intelligence Test’ and interacted with them, he would hand them a ‘101 funniest one-liners’ tract and thanked them for stopping and talking with us… I think the funniest part to me was the group of people that would stop by and listen briefly while we were going through the intelligence test! Anyway, it was a start and I have been working on ideas on how to use it more effectively, like transitioning from the flipchart to then pointing out how we can’t trust our senses because they can fool us, and then go to the good person test… working on thoughts and I look forward to continuing to learn how to use this tool effectively too!

One other really cool conversation Chris K. and I (Steven) had was with like 4 teenagers who were downtown, apparently for the bands… Anyway, we got into a pretty cool conversation with these 4 guys. I started by handing them each of them the smart card tracts, and a couple of them took the test, and I took it with them… it was pretty fun! Then I briefly took them through the 10 commandments, but they kept interrupting me and reminding me that Jesus has forgiven us, and so I asked them some questions, and they explained the gospel pretty well – which was pretty cool coming from some youths! Then I took them through some of Jesus’ words that remind us that there are going to be many who will one day call Jesus, Lord, Lord, and will be turned away because their life showed they didn’t follow Jesus. We talked about that some more and also about how no hypocrite will get into Heaven – not those who sin and confess it, but those who say they are following Christ but deny Him in their actions and put a majority of their focus and energy in something other than their relationship with Him. So, we had a great conversation and I encouraged them to check out the website on the back of the smart card and www.wayofthemaster.com. They really appreciated that, and they probably would have talked longer, but they had to get back to their car and the parking meter! J I’m praying that God continues to challenge them to follow Him with more passion ~ how exciting!

(Paul’s update)
There is so much to say about this last Friday! It was probably one of the most encouraging and emboldening nights we've had as a team. It was our first time joining the group at the Graham's house, which is where the Metro Life Church group meets for Bible study and prayer and worship before they come down and join us on the streets. Our topic was mainly about the fear of the Lord, which is one of our favorite topics, because it is such an essential truth for having a relationship with our heavenly Father, and yet the churches seem to have mostly replaced this truth for a more comfortable and relaxed approach to fellowship with God. We had a great discussion that I'm sure caused all of us to be more aware of how much our Holy God is angry toward sin and rebellion, and I believe it challenged some of us to be more bold in rescuing lost souls from all of the lies they are told about God.

I personally tend to be a little reluctant sometimes to inform people of God's wrath on them because of their rebellion. But during that Bible study I realized that sinners are aware of God's anger toward sin in the back of their mind; so when we dodge the subject, they know that something is missing. Sinners know that they are only pretending when they assume that they must be getting away with their sin. Also, God's anger at sin is a proof that God loves us, otherwise He would have to not care what happens to us.

All right, now I have to share one story with you all. I teamed up with Brittany and Daniel and Caleb. There was a different feeling downtown that night, because there were a lot of young people like high-school and young college age, which is not typical. So my three friends told me that they were relying on me to start up conversations, so I immediately started working on ideas. There were a couple of bands playing down there somewhere, which is apparently what attracted the young crowd. One of the main ideas I used for starting conversation was to ask if there was a concert going on somewhere. That started a couple of brief and very strange conversations. At one point, after we had a few strange conversations, the four of us were left standing there trying to figure out where to go next. So Daniel suggested that we go find Rich (Brittany’s dad), since he would be able to help us get conversations going. So we paused right there, and we asked ourselves why we would we need Rich, since we have the same Holy Spirit with us. So we agreed that God can help us to do the same thing and that God wants to build our faith so that He can use us in great ways too!

Shortly after that, we had the best conversation of the night when we walked up to a group of six to eight people and handed a few of them some '101 Funniest One-liners'. Their first comments were about skydiving because of the picture on the front, and then they started wondering if it was something religious. And then the conversation totally changed when one of the ladies noticed my shirt. The shirt I was wearing says, 'body piercing saved my life' and it has two hands on the back with nail holes in them. So she asked me what that meant and off we went into a conversation about God and sin and how to get to heaven. Then her friend, Diane comes over and interrupts me, wanting to know what I'm pushing on her friend. So I talked with Diane while Daniel and Brittany talked to the first woman. Diane so appreciated our conversation that she kept hugging me. I challenged her views with God's Word and encouraged her to keep going toward God. At the end another young friend of theirs came over and said he really respected what we were doing and really appreciated that we cared so much, but he had some objection. I forget what it was, but he really appreciated my response to his objection and he thanked me for talking with them and he gave me a hug and shook my hand as they left. It was interesting, that was for sure. Oh, by the way, all of that took place directly in front of an entrance to one of the clubs with several workers from that club standing right there watching the whole thing. I could tell afterward that they found it to be very interesting!

I wish I had time to share more, we also had a really good conversation with John who is a hotel owner down there that we've talked to before! We had a great night! We were all greatly encouraged!

…………………….

One little note: the four of us are trying to do a new strategy: if you are driving us at home base and you’re all by yourself to go look for a parking spot, please stop by our corner long enough to get one of our attention, so one of us can hop in your car and join you as an escort. We have seen a couple of times where some of our team like extra security. We have not heard of any stories from our team that had any security problems, but caution is a good idea.

> Special announcement and looking for volunteers:
Barbara, Steven, and Paul are working on doing some worship music and street-preaching the Friday after Thanksgiving Day, but we need volunteers to sing with us! So, we would like to have some people join us to sing like 4 songs, and we would like to hear back from you as soon as possible so we can plan a brief practice time with those of you who can join us. We are also looking for 2+ volunteers to street-preach right after the music. If you’re curious, just email us and we can explain it in a little more detail.

Below is an encouraging update from Kayla from last Friday [written the next morning I think… : )]

Also, does anyone have any suggestions for how to reach Hindus? Allura (Metro friend) has someone she is trying to witness to and is looking for an effective strategy. We did find the ‘Way of the Master’ Evidence Bible link on Hinduism: http://www.livingwaters.com/witnessingtool/hinduism.shtml... Thank you in advance for your help and prayers for Rima.

We look forward to seeing what God will do this week! We plan to be on the 7th floor of $5 parking garage from around 8:30 until around 9:10ish, and then we plan to be on the streets.

Thank you to each of you who are able to join us and to those who pray and even have others pray for this ministry ~ thank you!

Your friends and fellow laborers,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul

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(Kayla’s brief note)
It's 9:25 am saturday morning. And as my body is aching from a long night, my mind is fully awake, mullying over and over the wonderful things that occured only just a few short hours ago. Being so fresh on my mind (now that I'm more fully awake) I invite you to ..circle around and come and listen to what our Great King has done.

As any good story starts, we must begin with the obvious- the beginning. It began at 8 pm at the grahams house. One by one people trickled in, to enjoy the fellowship and ready to listen to God's word and worship. This week we were joined by GNN's very own Henry's, which we were so very delighted to see! Rich led us in 2 Corinthians 5: 11-21 and we began to discuss the questions he had prepared- we were able only though talk about the first one-1) What motivated Paul to preach the gospel ? The fear of the Lord became our discussion. How do we fear the Lord, and how we are taught to fear GOD and not man, for God is the one who has the power to send our bodies into hell, man can only kill us. Fear was something so prevelavent in the mind of our culture since we are on the tailend of Halloween. How man has made such a mess of fear!

Rich had a good quote saying "If we fear anything in the universe other than GOD, we are deceived." We also began to talk about how the Love of Christ compels us to preach and share. Sometimes we are motivated by pure obediance to the great commission but how we long for sharing because we are so sparked and enamored by the LOVE of Christ, we cannot help but to preach. May God continue to awaken in our hearts this desire.

With that on our minds, Scott lead us in the song "In the presence of a Holy God" (by mark altrogge)..
In the presence of a Holy God
There's new meaning now to Grace
You took all my sins upon yourself
I can only stand amazed

In the presence of your infinite might
Im so small and frail and weak
When I see your power and wisdom Lord
I have no words left to speak
In the presence of your glory
All my crowns lie in the dust
You are righteous in your judgements Lord
You are faithful true and just

Chorus
And I cry Holy Holy Holy God
How awesome in your name
Holy Holy Holy God
How majestic is your reign
And I am changed
In the presence of a Holy God

The night waned later, and the call to embark on our mission was more prevelant, so we said a closing prayer and then drove into the night.

Prayer was the first step of our journey we we close the doors of the van. Right under the omnious ceiling and echo of the parking garage we prayed, that God would open up the doors and to prepare the way so with our pockets laden with tracts we walked together down the steps into the chill of the night, and continued till we found the "base station"- the corner of orange and centeral. We then split into groups and walking with rich, scott, becky, and michelle really began the adventure. We veered off the "beaten path" to a street I was unfamilar with, and we began to pass out tracks and to talk. One of the first gentlemen who spoke with us was named Joshua-who was quite a character (we will probably never foget him!). He was eager to talk about loving God but resistant to knowing Jesus as the only way to heaven and making that committment. Joshua was energetic and well...friendly. In a sense our conversation (which seemed to draw ALL of us into it) at pointed turned a little heated but he was so well ..jolly..to talk to us all that smiles insued at the end. He was a skater who had been around alot of different places and wanted to teach kids how to skate, and to love God- we will pray for Joshua that his vibrant passion he has for the things he wants to do will be arrested by the love of Jesus- And OH what a man he will be in Christ!

It seemed however our group of people were blocking a store front, which we were rather given a hard time by the lady who worked there. Even though it was clear her heart was resistant to what was going on, God is good and allowing the conversations to take place at her store front, planting seeds.

Joe was a man, scott stared discussioning with (who was watching the conversation between joshua and us) and really began to hungrily open up to scott. As well as another man who was listening who joined in.

Then michelle stated to talk with patrick (also known as demonta) by giving him a million dollar bill tract (which he often commented on that he thought it was counterfeit money) while rich and scott talked with a magician. Patick demonta was so willing to talk with us (as well as his friend Marion). He really trusted Michelle when she was able to share her testimony..he told us he really respected that. However he alluded the question "will you know where you are going when you die..are you prepared to die" - at one point we theoretically asked him "what if a car came up right now and hit us while we are standing on this curb...would you be prepared to die?" At this point he started freaking out, thinking we were apart of the cult. Scott asked him told him we weren't apart of the cult we were just trying to prepare him for inevitbale and patrick said "Man you are young..don't be focusing on dying..be focused on living man..go to school and live life..ya'll to young to be thinking about dying man.." We just had to smile..Patrick was quite a joy to talk to, and we were able to meet one of his friends that we came to know her as "the little christian lady" who was also trying to talk to partrick (praise the Lord for her!!!). We also met Patrick's fiance Chi-Chi who was soooo open to the gospel and willing to hear, and take in what we were saying..she took the piper books that patrick had initially taken but had given back to us. She was convicted of sin through and our discussion and felt unworthy that that could be apart of a church for some of the sins she had committed in the past. She also confided in her us that she had signed a card when she was young and involved in church saying she was saved- but showing her what God says that not every one who says "lord lord" will be saved. What a great testimony we were able to share of how God uses the church, not that we are saved by going to church but it is God's tool to help Christians grow and learn about himself with other believers. She at one point looked over at patrick and said "honey I'm thinking about going to church" and he had this look of absolute horror:) Oh pray that Chi- Chi would come!! What a divine appointment we had with her, and we even told her that God had sent us to talk to her, (although she didn't quite believe us)- pray God continues to soften her heart as we can see the work he has already prepared in her!!!

We pray that God continues to finish what he has begun, because only by his power has he lead us, and guide us and moved on their hearts and he will continue what he has begun! By his grace and grace alone we stand.

And so my story ends, of God's mercy and hand. The story of our great king is advancing on the street of orlando, and he is building his church. And for just split seconds in time he allows us to be used in the advancement of his work..how undeserving we are. But what a great God we serve!

Kayla

As a child of God, the spirit's a fire in your bones. The Lord Jesus calls a compeling force, a mighty stregnth within you, yelling, pushing, fighting, as a raging animal to be let out of it's cage, a great dynamic fire of mercy to be released from the chains of the body. The yearnings of the gospel calls us to speak, to be released never stopping it's pursuit until every ear, every heart has been pierced with it's saving sword. Indeed this is the heart of our Savior, that everyone should hear the sweet music of his name. The word is indeed a consuming fire, eating away at the very depths of our souls ,if we hold it in. Opening our mouths allows a cascading of mercy and love like a rushing waterfall to befall on sinners's ears. We must indeed open our mouths to speak, as our Savior commands or the sharpened sword within will soon become a dead weed in our lethagic hearts.

Seeker Friendly Church Leader Admits They Have Done It All Wrong

2007-11-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

Seeker Friendly Church Leader Admits They Have Done It All Wrong
http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/2657/Bob_Burney
Bob Burney
WC: 1,061

If you are older than 40 the name Benjamin Spock is more than familiar. It was Spock that told an entire generation of parents to take it easy, don’t discipline your children and allow them to express themselves. Discipline, he told us, would warp a child’s fragile ego. Millions followed the guru of child development and he remained unchallenged among child rearing professionals. However, before his death Dr. Spock made an amazing discovery: he was wrong. In fact, he said:

We have reared a generation of brats. Parents aren't firm enough with their children for fear of losing their love or incurring their resentment. This is a cruel deprivation that we professionals have imposed on mothers and fathers. Of course, we did it with the best of intentions. We didn't realize until it was too late how our know-it-all attitude was undermining the self assurance of parents.

Oops.

Something just as momentous, in my opinion, just happened in the evangelical community. For most of a generation evangelicals have been romanced by the “seeker sensitive” movement spawned by Willow Creek Church in Chicago. The guru of this movement is Bill Hybels. Hybels and others have been telling us for decades to throw out everything we have previously thought and been taught about church growth and replace it with a new paradigm, a new way to do ministry.

Perhaps inadvertently, with this “new wave” of ministry came a de-emphasis on taking personal responsibility for Bible study combined with an emphasis on felt-needs based “programs” and slick marketing.

The size of the crowd rather than the depth of the heart determined success. If the crowd was large then surely God was blessing the ministry. Churches were built by demographic studies, professional strategists, marketing research, “felt needs” and sermons consistent with these techniques. We were told that preaching was out, relevance was in. Doctrine didn’t matter nearly as much as innovation. If it wasn’t “cutting edge” and consumer friendly it was doomed. The mention of sin, salvation and sanctification were taboo and replaced by Starbucks, strategy and sensationalism.

Thousands of pastors hung on every word that emanated from the lips of the church growth experts. Satellite seminars were packed with hungry church leaders learning the latest way to “do church.” The promise was clear: thousands of people and millions of dollars couldn’t be wrong. Forget what people need, give them what they want. How can you argue with the numbers? If you dared to challenge the “experts” you were immediately labeled as a “traditionalist,” a throwback to the 50’s, a stubborn dinosaur unwilling to change with the times.
All that changed recently. Willow Creek has released the results of a multi-year study on the effectiveness of their programs and philosophy of ministry. The study’s findings are in a new book titled Reveal: Where Are You?, co-authored by Cally Parkinson and Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. Hybels himself called the findings “earth shaking,” “ground breaking,” and “mind blowing.” And no wonder: it seems that the “experts” were wrong.

The report reveals that most of what they have been doing for these many years and what they have taught millions of others to do is not producing solid disciples of Jesus Christ. Numbers yes, but not disciples. It gets worse. Hybels laments:

Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.

If you simply want a crowd, the “seeker sensitive” model produces results. If you want solid, sincere, mature followers of Christ, it’s a bust. In a shocking confession, Hybels states:

We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

Incredibly, the guru of church growth now tells us that people need to be reading their bibles and taking responsibility for their spiritual growth.

Just as Spock’s “mistake” was no minor error, so the error of the seeker sensitive movement is monumental in its scope. The foundation of thousands of American churches is now discovered to be mere sand. The one individual who has had perhaps the greatest influence on the American church in our generation has now admitted his philosophy of ministry, in large part, was a “mistake.” The extent of this error defies measurement.

Perhaps the most shocking thing of all in this revelation coming out of Willow Creek is in a summary statement by Greg Hawkins:

Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet.

Isn’t that what we were told when this whole seeker-sensitive thing started? The church growth gurus again want to throw away their old assumptions and “take out a clean sheet of paper” and, presumably, come up with a new paradigm for ministry.
Should this be encouraging?

Please note that “rooted in Scripture” still follows “rethink,” “new insights” and “informed research.” Someone still doesn’t get it. Unless there is a return to simple biblical (and relevant) principles, a new faulty scheme will replace the existing one and another generation will follow along as the latest piper plays.

What we should find encouraging, at least, in this “confession” coming from the highest ranks of the Willow Creek Association is that they are coming to realize that their existing “model” does not help people grow into mature followers of Jesus Christ. Given the massive influence this organization has on the American church today, let us pray that God would be pleased to put structures in place at Willow Creek that foster not mere numeric growth, but growth in grace.

Jesus said we are lights to a dark world

2007-11-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow laborers and prayer partners, 11/02/07

All of you are so dear to us! Thank you for loving and serving the Lord. This week was a very busy week and last night was the longest. This man needed electric work done so we worked to 2AM, and it’s another busy day today ~ : )!

We are planning to do something new and exciting tonight. Rich is inviting everyone to their house for song and Bible study, fellowship and prayer before we take the gospel to the streets of downtown. Below is Rich’s email.

A brief on last week, we did a lot of praying last Friday evening and through ‘halloween’ because of the lawless weekend and the 31st ‘halloween’ observances. Last Friday, we had the opportunity to talk to a man whose son just died a couple of months ago and he and his family got evicted the same day. God allowed us to encourage him and pray with him for him and for his wife and that God would be drawing them closer to Himself. We also had the opportunity to talk to a homeless guy named Donald and challenge him to take God seriously, and that was cool too. We have also heard good praise reports from our fellow soul-winners from their Saturday evening experiences! Also, for those of you who didn’t receive it, Kayla sent us the encouraging update from a couple of weeks ago, and so we posted that below Rich’s note. Sorry we weren’t able to tell you all more reports of God’s handiwork this week.

We look forward to seeing what God will do this week! It is so neat to see God tearing down darkness, and breaking people free from being slaves of sin and making them children of God! Also, we have heard clues that we might see our GNN local leaders, Scott and Patte, downtown sometime soon for a special visit – that will be a blessing for all!

Your friends and fellow-laborers,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul

--------------------------------------------------------------------
(note from Rich)
We’re planning to go out evangelizing again this Friday. Our plan is to go out the 1st and 3rd Fridays of every month.

We’ll be discussing 2 Cor. 5:11-21 at my house at 8pm, so please… 1) prayerfully read this passage; 2) jot down any thoughts the Lord gives you; and 3) come ready to share. A couple questions to ponder:

• What motivated Paul to share his faith?

• What should being an ambassador for Christ look like in your life?

• Have you ever implored (made a passionate plea) someone to be reconciled to Christ? If so, how did it go? If not, why not?

Looking forward to seeing you Friday night. If you can’t make it at 8pm, we’ll be meeting downtown at 9:30pm at the corner of Orange and Central. Whether coming or not, please pray for an outpouring of God’s Spirit upon our time together.
Rich

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(Kayla’s encouraging note)
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders, make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversations be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. - Colossians 4: 2-6

Dear Henry family,
Please excuse my tardiness in sending out a report from Friday night. The carnival went very well.
We spent some time at Rich's house before hand meditating on Colossians 4:2-6, as Daniel led. We spoke of prayer and the power of prayer in evangelizing. (for more resource see John Piper's message on Colossians 4: 2-6 at http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1988/641_Walk_in_Wisdom_Toward_Those_Outside/ )

and how to walk in wisdom with outsiders. Then afterwards we loaded up and headed to the carnival that was only a few minutes away from the Graham's house.

Upon arriving we split in 2 groups-Daniel, Brittany G, Trameka, Jackie in one, Rich G, Becky G, Lourdes and I in the other. Our group prayed and then strolled around the carnival awhile to scope it out. Our goal was to try and strike up conversations w/o handing out tracks at first since we were on private property. We were able to strike up a couple of conversations with a few people, one lady was there and her grandma went to that church. She was catholic, as we were able to draw her out a little on the beliefs of Catholisicm and what the plan of salvation was, but for only a few minutes as she had to leave. People were very open to talking about the church. However our conversations in the beginning never quite turned to were we were able to share the entire gospel expect once with a lady becky talked with at the beginning. Walking around and talking to people gave us a feel of what we were facing. Many had come to the carnival because they were apart of the catholic church, or knew someone there, and were willing to talk about the church. We spoke to a 31 year Italian man and his wife (girlfriend?) and got o talking about how he had run the Italian sausage both with his dad since he was a little boy, but this year he was enjoying the carnival. We prayed for him and his wife afterwards, even though we didn't know his name, it was great praying for the "31 year old Italian". Even though we were at first trying to not use tracks since being at a carnival it gave great opportunities to hand out "tickets to heaven'' and quite a few people were able to get those.

Then toward the end of the night, Rich suggested that we go out with a bang and started just passing out tracks like we normally would, and if we got kicked out we would just hand them out on the sidewalk. It sounded like a plan, so we went to work. :) God used the last 10 minutes in spectacular ways. Rich was able to talk with 2 boys and their mom, (using the magically illusion tracks) and Becky, Lourdes and I talked with two boys (Matt- 13 and Jonathan), using the tickets to heaven. We had approached the boys when they were in a group and they all wanted turns trying to rip the tracks, and beat each other doing it. As we started going through the 10 commandments to two of the boys (matt and jonathan) they fell quiet and listened, but their buddies in the group walked away leaving Matt and Jonathan alone with us. They seemed very concerned that because they had broken God's commands they were in danger of hell. Becky asked Matt, " Does that concern you?" and I won't forget the look of fear on his face. She then asked him if he knew that God had done something to fix it and he knew that Jesus had come to save him. Becky asked if she could pray with him afterwards, and she prayed that Christ would come alive in his heart, and that what he knew about Christ, God would illuminate in his soul. We handed him a Gospel of John and encouraged him to read it when he got home.
It was amazing to see God at work on Friday. It seems that everytime we go out God works wonders, and every Friday I seem amazed, and sometimes and amazed that the very things we prayed for 2 hours before, God allows to happen..why am I shocked that God performs miracles and wonders after he has proven himself time and time again? He is so faithful to move on hearts of people we've never met..Hallejiuah! Even in times like Friday, which was some what discouraging at the beginning, God moved to show his power in the last 10 minutes, so that we could all stand back and marvel:) Isn't God good?

"Therefore since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather we have renounced secret and shameful ways, we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourself to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, " Let light shine out of darkness, " made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. " - 2 Corinthians 4 : 1- 6

May God's light break the veil of all who are perishing.

Grace be with you,
Kayla

As a child of God, the spirit's a fire in your bones. The Lord Jesus calls a compelling force, a mighty strength within you, yelling, pushing, fighting, as a raging animal to be let out of it's cage, a great dynamic fire of mercy to be released from the chains of the body. The yearnings of the gospel calls us to speak, to be released never stopping it's pursuit until every ear, every heart has been pierced with it's saving sword. Indeed this is the heart of our Savior, that everyone should hear the sweet music of his name. The word is indeed a consuming fire, eating away at the very depths of our souls ,if we hold it in. Opening our mouths allows a cascading of mercy and love like a rushing waterfall to befall on sinners’ ears. We must indeed open our mouths to speak, as our Savior commands or the sharpened sword within will soon become a dead weed in our lethargic hearts.

Celebrating Reformation Day ~ October 31st, 1517: 490th Celebration

2007-10-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

Celebrating 'Reformation Day' ~ October 31st, 1517

490th Celebration!

You have our permission to make as many copies of this flyer as you want!

servants of Christ,

the Henry Family

You can find the '95 Theses' @:

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/ninetyfive.html

'Halloween' Cartoon

2007-10-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

You have our permission to make as many copies as you want.

servants of Christ,
The Henry Family

"Greater is He that is in thee..." ~ GNN update 10-25-07

2007-10-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

Hey GNN team and fellow soul-winners and prayer partners, 10-25-07

We didn’t get to hear the praise reports from last weekend’s carnival yet, but we want to hear them! : )

There are just way too many blessings from these past two weekends to pass them all on; it has been absolutely incredible! So I (Paul) decided to pick one highlight from each weekend.

(Paul’s update from 10-12)
On Friday, Sean with Operation 180 joined us downtown for the first time! After setting up on our corner, Sean and I went to go meet up with the YWAM team up on another parking garage. By the way, we have heard that the YWAM group is learning the ‘Way of the Master’ training. We joined them for a time of worship and brief preparation. Then we went down to the streets with them. Sean and I walked around with three of the guys from YWAM for a few minutes, but Sean and I were both itching to get into a conversation. So it wasn’t long before the two of us jumped in.

One of the best conversations of the night was with Will. Will was trying to pretend that he wasn’t really doing anything, and that he is okay with God. Will was on Church Street watching the club scene from across the street. We’re not really sure what he was doing, but it became pretty clear that he wasn’t in the right place (physically or spiritually). After the first little bit of conversation, he was very insistent that we should not be judging him and he tried to convince us that he is doing great. This has always been a great obstacle for me until this conversation with Will. After Will carried that theme for a few minutes, I asked him if I could ask him a question. He said sure, so I told him that we have seen so many people down here who are destroying their lives and have turned their back on God, and that we hurt for these people downtown, because we have seen the truth and know where that way of life leads. I should have also pointed out that they are usually not being honest with themselves about what they’re doing. Anyway, then I asked him if there was anything wrong with us wanting to help rescue as many people as we possibly could even if we have to be a little persistent. He had to admit that our hearts are in the right place and that there was nothing wrong with what we were doing. That opened a really nice door into communication with him, and I think he heard some valuable truths that night. Unfortunately, he remained mostly tight-lipped about himself, although he did admit that he’s struggling with sin down there.

On another subject, we are hearing more good news about ‘Operation 180’. It sounds like they are going to start adding every other Friday night to their every Saturday night schedule on the streets downtown! Also ‘Operation 180’ has warned us that last year’s Halloween observance was really, really bad. Sean says we need to really be sober-minded and prayed up. He says that the evil spirits and oppression were particularly thick at that event, and we’ll really need God’s wisdom in how to appropriately handle the setting on that night. We’re not sure if that’s going to take place this Friday before Wednesday October 31, or next Friday. But we ought to be really prepared for both nights.

Now to the family reunion this last weekend! It was the annual Henry/Lamoureux/Williams family reunion in Jacksonville. It was amazing to hear what all God was doing through our family when we were able to put all of our stories together! Friday night and Saturday night, we played some worship music for the family. And then we had a lot of great conversations with family about spiritual things. But there is one particular group of the family that really has been making a move closer to God. In just the last year, El and Sandy Lamoureux and their family have better understood the gospel that Jesus preached and have discovered that a lot of what is being taught and seen in the ‘churches’ these days does not agree with Jesus teaching. Their youngest son Stephen is an evangelist, and he’s going through school and about to get married. He has been listening to Paul Washer in the last year, and it has really changed his life and his thoughts about things. He has such a strong desire for purity in the church and for the truth of the gospel to be boldly preached. I didn’t get to see him this year, but I talked to him on the phone briefly. But we had such great fellowship with El and Sandy, talking about the truths of God’s Word, false teachers, new believers, ministry, and trials and struggles. It was a very blessed weekend! There are so many more great stories if we get time to share them.

(Steven’s update from 10-12)
Hey GNN team and fellow soul-winners and prayer partners, 10-12-07

This past Friday, I (Steven) had the great privilege of getting to street-witness on my birthday, which was really neat for me! And God saw fit to put me in some interesting situations and I learned some things and had some new experiences. My first unique experience was when I joined a group of 8-12 people who looked like they might have been with YWAM, but later I found out that they were just out there looking for ‘some fun’, and trouble I might add. But I joined them thinking they were out there trying to share the gospel. So I asked if I could hang out with them and they said that would be great. I hung out and talk with some of the guys and ladies, and I noticed that they were talking about going into the one of the bars, which I heard but didn’t understand – I was still thinking that somehow these people were looking for ways of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then when they got to one of the bars nearby, one group really wanted to go to another bar, and some of them apparently thought I was interesting enough to talk with me. As I was listening to this conversation, it finally dawned on me that these people weren’t out here to talk about Jesus. So, in passing conversation, I had the opportunity to hand out some gospel tracts and get into some more basic conversation with some of them while they waited. One guy challenged me to think about what Jesus would do: hang out with them or abandon them to talk to other people. As I was starting to nicely explain that I knew talking with people about Jesus and eternity was the main purpose I was down there, one of the girls named Wendy (who was pretty drunk) told him that I was being nice, but I didn’t want to go in the bar. It was an interesting way to get out of that problem, and I took it. I had the opportunity to challenge a couple more of them to seriously consider a relationship with Christ. I then tried to make sure they all got gospel tracts and then said goodbye. Talk about awkward! Apparently, some of the conversations had such an impact on them though, that as some of them were passing through later in the evening, they made sure to say hey to me, which encouraged me that God was probably working in their hearts. Sometimes sharing the gospel is like that: finding ourselves in awkward situations, praying constantly, and allowing God to use us in conversation as much as He can! It was amazing to see God use me in that group and then give me a nice way to leave. I’m praying that God would help that group read the tract and asking God to press them to consider their eternity much more seriously. The situation and conversations reminded me of the verse in James 4:14 ~ “… whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” My heart goes out to those people who are trusting in something other than accepting Jesus as their Savior and Leader to save them.

After I left that conversation, I met a homeless man who was deaf. So, we communicated back and forth on a napkin. I must say that is a first, but my heart went out to this man named Archie. I don’t know what choices he has made that have gotten him where he is, but I was able to spend several minutes sharing the love of Christ with Him and some gospel tracts. Archie asked if I could give him any money and I told him that all I had were million dollar bill tracts. I don’t take money downtown, because we have seen that being lazy and homeless is a business for quite a few of those downtown, and not taking money allows me to honestly say that I don’t have any money and be able to minister to their eternal needs. My mom carries a little money for those who honestly have a serious need. A lot of the homeless people we have talked to know where the Salvation Army is, which is a just a few blocks away from Orange and Central. And yet quite a few of them choose to continue their way of life rather than get good care at the homeless shelter. Sometimes all I know to do with them is just talk with them as much as I can, and pray with and for them that God would be making Himself more real in their life and that He would be teaching them how they can have a relationship with Christ. We know God answers prayers, so I know that this too is an effective way to reach them for eternity. I pray that God prepare their hearts and that He would arrange whatever necessary to drive them to the foot of the cross.

Throughout the evening I had the opportunity of talking with some who would walk by and praying for a lot of the people. There were a number of people that I could have talked to, but couldn’t think of what to say fast enough. So, I prayed for them, that God would be breaking their hearts over their sin and preparing their hearts, and that in His timing, He would send the right people along the way to challenge them to accept Jesus as their Savior and Leader. Because we know God answers prayers we do know if that is all we’re able to do for them is pray for them and the person who talks to them in future, that this too is an effective way to reach them for eternity.

To our dear prayer partners who were not able to join us for some reason, but prayed for us – thank you so much! May God continue to use you, and show how He is using you and can use you more in the circles of influence He has given you!

Your friend and fellow laborer,
Steven : )

Hey to all our friends and the GNN Friday night team - 10-03-07

2007-10-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

Hey to all our friends and the GNN Friday night team, 10-03-07

Here are the flipchart lines:

(Page 1)
Give me Ambiguity,
or give me something.

“There are 3 kinds of people:
Those who can count and those who can’t”

Gravity
It’s not just a good idea – it’s REAL!

“I intend to live forever…
(~so far so good.)”

“On the other hand,
you have different fingers.”

“Consciousness:
That annoying time between naps.”

God made mankind.
Sin made him selfish.

(Page 2)
“If Barbie is so popular,
why do you have to buy her friends?”

“Always remember that you are unique;
Just like everyone else.”

“Borrow money from a pessimist
- they don’t expect it back.”

“If at first you don’t succeed
Don’t try skydiving!”

“Why is abbreviation such
a long word?”

“The Big Bang:
GOD said it and BANG! It happened.”

“We are all part of the ultimate statistic:
Ten out of Ten die.”

(Page 3)
“The early bird gets the worm
but the second mouse gets the cheese.”

“If everything is coming your way,
then you’re in the wrong lane.”

“Time is what keeps everything
from happening all at once.”

“NOTHNG IS FOOL-PROOF
to a sufficiently talented ‘fool’.”

“I wonder how much deeper the oceans would be
without sponges.”

“A clear conscience is usually
the sign of a bad memory.”

(Page 4)
“You can’t have everything
Where would you put it?”

“Honk
if you like peace and quiet.”

“We have enough youth.
How about a Fountain of Smart!”

“Change is inevitable,
Except from a vending machine.”

“If ignorance is bliss
then tourists are in a state of constant euphoria.”

“What happens if you get
scared half to death twice?”

“Despite the cost of living,
have you noticed how it remains so popular?”

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We hope you enjoyed those as much as we did. On the flipchart, we did some creative design to help emphasize the points of the lines – it should be unique and we think it can be a great conversation starter. We tried to see if we could email the actual sheets, but they were too big to send out. We are sending these to you so you could have the opportunity to see them and get familiar with them, and that way you would have the opportunity to think of how you could use them as conversation starters. We hope they help. We hope those who are able to come to downtown and check these out will read them out loud (at conversational level), because we are expecting that will stir the curiosity of the people who wander by. We are expecting this to be fun and interesting, if it doesn’t rain! J

Thank you again to each of you who join us and are learning along with us how to effectively share the gospel. And a special thank you to all of you who pray for us! Even though you can’t see us and aren’t able to join us, God is using you to help us communicate the gospel effectively – Thank you!

Our order of tracts came in, so we have more tracts for whoever needs them. We just got the 200 of the ‘101 Funniest One~Liners’ (Way of the Master) and we still have 200+ of the new additions – the Heaven/Hell Ticket tracts from Custom tracts (Ticket to Heaven on one side/Ticket to Hell on the other) – www.customtractsource.com. We encourage you all to take at least one and check them out. We have found it to be very helpful to read a variety of tracts because it gives us ideas on how to present the gospel more effectively.

Also, this week, we have two updates from 2 people who joined us this past Friday. So, we are forwarding their emails and we plan to send out a brief update soon.

Your friends and co-laborers,
David, Barbara, Steven, and Paul Henry

2007-10-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends and GNN Friday night team, 08-24-07

As a note of apology: All week long, we run, run, run with work that’s necessary and a variety of ministry activities that we believe glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Then, we typically go out soul-winning Friday nights and Saturday nights – going to bed late, then getting to church for the morning service, and hopefully a nap and hopefully an evening service. And so far, we haven’t gotten our praise reports out as soon as we would like to. We are working on sending our praise reports out sooner. Thank you to our prayer partners and soul-winning partners. God bless you!

Last Friday night was so encouraging. We tried some new ideas and really had great success. It was raining during the prayer and fellowship time, but we made use of the covered area in front of the elevator. Then the rain basically stopped when we got down to the streets. David and Paul had a bunch of beneficial conversations using the WOTM Ten Commandment coins; the biggest blessing for us was the conversation with a 24 year old guy named Ben. Upon request from Scott and Patty, here is a bit of a description of how that went. David started off the conversation with the coin and told him it was a water proof gospel tract. Then as he lingered for a second David asked him if he had any spiritual beliefs. He replied sadly that he doesn’t but he used to believe in Jesus. But he also said that he had really been doing some thinking on that subject recently.

So we shared with him and he agreed that our sin really is a big offense to a holy God and that we are all very much sinners and far from God. We jokingly explained the evolution of a concrete building, which we had a good laugh at and he admitted that he knows very clearly that there must be a God. He told us a little bit of science that he knew that confirmed how complicated and intricately God has designed us and that was clear proof that there must be a God. Then he told us that he has a life-threatening illness and he was so glad to hear someone explain those things to him. From this point on he was softly crying a bunch as we kept talking with him. We talked for another maybe twenty minutes or so. We shared with him the parable of the soils in Matthew 13 because he thought he had accepted Christ as his Savior but he knew that his life didn’t match up with that, so he was very concerned. He knew he was trapped in some sins. A few days before he had gone surfing and just sat down at the beach and was asking God if He was real and why things were this way and if God could help him. He said that he seemed to fit more in the third kind of soil where he received the Word, but he cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches had overrun his life and he hadn’t really accepted Jesus as Savior and as His Lord.

We also shared some analogies him with about being diligent to seek God. That if he left his Bible collecting dust, he would be robbing himself of really knowing God and knowing how to understand life and be obedient to God’s point of view. And if he continues that way we told him we were not sure that he is saved, and he agreed that he is thinks he probably isn’t but he seems really close to committing his life to Christ. He was going to meet some friends, so we invited him to come back and talk with us again. Before he left, we gave him one of each of the tracts and a gospel of John and things to go read that would reaffirm with even more Scripture those things that we were talking about, and we gave him ‘Hell’s Best Kept Secret’ and ‘True and False Conversion’. As he left he seemed to feel like he had his pockets full of gold.

Your friends and co-laborers,
David and Barbara, Steven, and Paul

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Also, a few thoughts/ideas from Steven:
The past few times I have gone street-witnessing, I have tried something new, something different. Last Saturday, I used a mic to do this, this week, I just used ‘Let Freedom Ring’ gospel tracts and a notepad. (A special thanks to Chris Owens for getting this idea started!)

I mingled with the crowd and handed out the tracts and said ‘Let Freedom Ring. Did you get one?’ If they took it, I said, ‘Hey we’re also taking a survey – What is freedom?’ It was surprising to me that a lot of people wanted to give their opinions. Depending on the reactions, I would interact with them and then ask them ‘What is Ultimate Freedom?’ I would let them answer and work with them, and then mention the latest statistic, 10 out of 10 people die. So, then I pointed out that because we are going to die, then the freedoms we enjoy here aren’t going to last forever, and that as I see it, spending eternity with God is the ultimate freedom, because He is perfect, loving, beautiful! Then, I asked them how someone gets to Heaven. I would let them respond and then lead them toward the point where I could take them through the 10 Commandments, pointing out that the 10 Commandments is God’s standard of perfection and that if we keep those, then we can get to Heaven, if not, then we have a problem… A lot of people that I talked to thought that apologizing or confessing sin saves us, I pointed out to them that if a criminal is standing before a judge, and he apologizes, the judge still has to issue judgment, there are still consequences for the crime, and if he is a good judge he will still issue the judgment. I would take them through the 10 Commandments and then use the illustration of a criminal in a civil court who owes $20,000 that he can’t pay, and that as he’s being led of to prison, someone he doesn’t even know, goes up to the judge and pays his fine for Him. Then, I pointed out that the man wasn’t freed because he was sorry, but because his fine was paid. If they had further questions about it, explain about how we are going to have to jump out of a plane at 20,000’. If we are going to have to jump, are we going to just hold onto the parachute or put it on? We are going to put it on! It’s the same thing with us and God, we broke His Law and He paid our fine, if we receive it. Then on several occasions, I read John 8:31-32 to them : “If you abide in My Word [obey Jesus’ teaching], you are truly My disciples [followers] and you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” – pointing out that knowing God’s truth sets us free, and salvation is more than just believing in Jesus. Right before Jesus explained that we shall know the truth and the truth will set us free, Jesus pointed out that we have to follow Him – following Jesus is part of getting eternal life. On a few different occasions, I mentioned how 2nd Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.” Then I pointed out that if we truly repented and accepted what Jesus has done for us, then God will be building something new in us – a hunger for Him and His Word. If that’s not there, then we need to check to see if our prayer was genuine. I then talked with them more and/or gave them more information if they were interested and thanked them for talking with us and wished them a nice evening.

It was amazing to me to see how many people were willing to talk to me and many people loved giving their opinions! It was also very encouraging to see the ‘RCCR principle’ (Relate Create Convict Reveal - Relate: relate to the person in with natural things, Create: an opportunity to present the gospel, Create: remind them that we have all broken the 10 Commandments (God's Law) and that we all deserve justice-punishment, Reveal: tell them the good news that Jesus paid our fine-debt if we just receive it) work in this too…

a servant of Christ, Steven

'See You At The Pole' ~ 2007

2007-08-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." ~ John 17:20-23

It's tough being a Christian student today. We're forced to make a lot of choices about who we are, and who we're not. We're supposed to be deciding on our future, when the present is hard enough to deal with.

We have a lot of dividing lines drawn for us. They're invisible, but we see them clearly every day. The grade we're in, the kind of grades we make, overachievers, underachievers, geniuses, slackers. The groups we hang with--jocks, preps, goths, sk8rs, gamers, or geeks. As a Christian, the church we attend, how we pray, the way we worship, and how we interpret the Bible. And yeah, even in 2007 race can still divide. Many of us are asking, "Where do I belong? Who cares about me? Why don't I fit in?"

See You at the Pole™ isn't about groups, grades, clothes, or churches. It's about praying. It's about all of us coming together and laying aside all the labels for one day, simply to call out to God, just as Jesus did in John 17 and say, "Lord, may we be one in you--whether jocks, preps, geeks, Pentecostals, Baptists, Catholics, freshmen, or seniors--may the world believe that You are real and have sent us to touch other through you, regardless of the dividing lines drawn by a broken world!"

So are you in? Are you ready whatever group you're in, to join us in the circle? Join your generation of faith on Wednesday, September 26, at 7 a.m., GATHER at your school flagpole, UNITE in the name of the One Who died to save you, and PRAY for your school, friends, and families. COME TOGETHER, just as Jesus prayed we would.

SEE YOU AT THE POLE!
http://www.syatp.com/home/index.html

Have you heard? : )

2007-08-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hey, a curious question ~ Have you heard of 'Way of the Master'? Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron (leaders of this ministry) have committed their lives to training people how they can effectively share the gospel with those around them - friends, family, strangers... anybody. They have for years been studying how Jesus talked to people and they have worked on a general method of how we can follow in the footsteps of the Jesus, our Master. They have a very inspiring audio message entitled 'Hell's Best Kept Secret' - http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/Ray_Comfort/. If and/or when you listen to it, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on it!ttyl, your friend anda servant of Christ, Steven : )

2007-08-02T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Steven Henry,

I live just north of Orlando, FL. I play acoustic guitar...

My main emphasis in life (as well as my family's) is to talk to everyone around us and tell them about Jesus and how they can have an active, daily relationship with Him!

Curious, have you heard of 'Way of the Master'? Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron (leaders of this ministry) have committed their lives to training people how they can effectively share the gospel with those around them - friends, family, strangers... anybody. They have for years been studying how Jesus talked to people and they have worked on a general method of how we can follow in the footsteps of the Jesus, our Master. They have a very inspiring audio message entitled 'Hell's Best Kept Secret' - http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/Ray_Comfort/...

If and/or when you listen to it, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on it!

~your friend, and
a servant of Christ, Steven : )