Ministry Update October 4, 2105
This last week was a busy week. In fact, I was so busy at work on Monday that I didn’t get to join Aaron and several others from his church at Missouri State University. They joined some other Christians that day and they handed out around 40 to 50 pizzas to students, sang hymns, preached the Gospel and handed out tracts. Praise God!
Then on Tuesday, Erica realized that Planned Parenthood was doing some kind of false health care promotion day and they even stole pink from breast cancer awareness. There was supposed to be nationwide support, but from what we can tell there wasn’t any here in Springfield. Erica made the great sign pictured above and stood in front of that awful place. I only joined her for about 30 minutes but we did give out a Bible to a young man riding by on a bicycle.
On Wednesday Aaron and I witnessed at MSU during the lunch hour. We preached a little and handed out tracts. One student yelled hail Satan as she walked into Strong Hall and a few minutes later a guy took a tract from me and told me that he believed in Satan. I watched as he walked into the building and I expected him to throw the tract in the trash, but he didn’t. Hoping and praying that he will read it and that God will convict him.
When we were finishing up a young man rode up on a skateboard. He asked if we were preachers and Aaron told him that he was a preacher. The student wanted to know why we preach. Aaron told him that we love God and love people and we are sharing the Gospel. I asked him where he goes to church and he said “I’m Catholic.” He took tracts from us and Aaron gently asked him if there had ever been a time in his life where he had received Christ as his Lord and Savior. The young man thought for a second and said “I’ve been baptized.” Again Aaron very gently pointed out that baptism and church membership don’t save us. That we must be born again; that we must have personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The young man looked at him and said “I’ll stick with Catholic” and rode off. Aaron told him that we love him.
Friday night was Art Walk and Slut Walk. But unbeknownst to me, it was also the sixth annual Jazz Festival. Aaron and Erica remembered it because this was the second anniversary from when they along with Anthony Maes were arrested for street preaching. It was a busy night, but Slut Walk wasn’t quite what we expected it to be. Most of the people were downtown for the Jazz Festival and Slut Walk didn’t have a whole lot of participants. But we handed out tracts, had a few one to ones, preached the Gospel and sang hymns. We had a few hecklers and a few encouragers throughout the night.
When we were finishing up, we were singing hymns and I was holding a Gideon New Testament in the air. A homeless man named Thomas came running across the street and walked up to me and gave me a big hug. He asked me to pray for him. So I took him over to the side and I could smell the alcohol on him. I asked him what he wanted prayer for and that’s when he told me that he was homeless. Evidently he moved out of where he was staying because of drug use going on in the house.
I tried to witness to him about wine being a mocker and strong drink is raging and he stepped back, doubled up his fist and acted like he was going to punch me. He said something like he wasn’t there for preaching, just for prayer and he started to walk away. So I told him that I would pray for him. I prayed that God would draw Thomas to Himself and that Jesus would set him free from captivity. I do pray that God will save him and take away the desire for alcohol.
On Saturday Aaron and several people from his church went door knocking Saturday night. Earlier that day, six of us from Crossway Baptist Church witnessed before the MSU football game. Greg and I were blessed to have Jerry, Doug, Rocky and Vinton join us this week. We handed out over 1,000 tracts and got into some good conversations.
Early while we were there, Rocky and I invited a young lady from Tulsa to visit Crossway and we ended the outreach by inviting a Catholic student to come to our church too.
In between these times we mainly handed out tracts and Rocky was a tracting machine. Sadly, I talked to two false converts (like I used to be). They both said that they were Christians but they weren’t living for the Lord. One young man’s name was Hunter and even sadder was that he told me that he sins every day (not a humble sinner, but more bragging that we are all sinners) and then he shocked me by telling me that he leads a discipleship group. Even though I kept talking to him about repentance, he never did get it.
Then I witnessed to Ryan who also is a false convert. He was standing with a friend and they both had beers so I asked Ryan to name 10 beers. I think they named about 8 then I asked him if he could name the 10 Commandments (Greg did this at the last outreach and I thought it was good idea). He named quite a few, and then I asked him if God judged him by the 10 Commandments on Judgment Day, would God find him innocent or guilty. He thought innocent sin God forgives and Ryan prays to God every day. I talked to him about Matthew 7:21-23 and that Jesus preached repentance, that we are a new creature in Christ when Jesus saves us. Again, we ended the conversation with him claiming he’s saved, but he’s not living his life like a saved person. I encouraged him and Hunter both to read their Bibles.
Greg and Vinton talked to a group of students and they said Sam was listening the whole time (she was beside the group) and it appeared that she really understood the Gospel message. May God save her. Jerry and Doug witnessed in the parking lot where people were tailgating. They prayed with one group and Jerry said that they had a good conversation with a dad and his son. When they started talking about spiritual matters, the dad kind of motioned toward his son and Jerry shared the Law with him and our need for a Savior. But unfortunately, about the time he was getting to the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, the dad piped up that they had to go and off they went. May God save this young man.
There were a couple of real blessings today. One, I handed a tract to Professor Mitchell and he asked me for 19 more. He wanted them so he could use them in his class. I think this is the first time that I’ve ever had a professor ask for tracts, especially to use in their class.
Before we even really started we were handing out tracts at Kings and Grand, waiting to see if anyone else was coming to the outreach. We tried to hand tracts to a couple and they said that they were out doing the same thing. I asked them where they go to church and they said Crossway Baptist. They go to the same church the six of us belong to. Our pastor, Eddie Bumpers preaches from the pulpit that we need to hand out tracts and share our faith with others and it was so encouraging seeing this couple out on their own being obedient to our Lord who said go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. It was a real blessing to meet Joe and Darlene and may they never lose their heart for the lost.
Our hope and prayer is that God will send others to water the seeds that were planted this week. We pray that God will give the increase. We pray that God will draw lost souls to Himself. Yes it was a busy week, but it’s always a blessing to share the wonderful words of life with lost souls. Christian, are you sharing the Gospel with others? Are you telling your unsaved family members and friends about our blessed Savior? Oh life is short, now is the accepted time. Please, share your faith in Jesus Christ with others while you still can.