Glory Stories...downtown evangelism...

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

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

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...

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

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!

Hello to our prayer partners and fellow evangelists! : )

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"This is a time for seeing and singing!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Below is the e-vite from the Eisenbergs:


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

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

[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

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 : )

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

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!

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

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(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

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

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.