Evangelism Update March 9, 2010

Evangelism Memory Verse:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.”

Psalm 19:1

Evangelism Quote:

“The damned shall live as long in hell as God Himself shall live in Heaven.”

Thomas Brooks

 Regular, Weekly Outreaches:

1. Truck Stop on I-35 W, north of Fort Worth: Thursdays, from 7-9PM. Truck to truck witnessing. Contact: Ron Martinez (ron@lostcauseministries.com).

2. Day Laborer Camp (Mckinney): Saturdays from 7-8AM. Witnessing to the Hispanic community. Spanish tracts and one-to-ones. Contact: Byron Porter (byron@lostcauseministries.com).

3. Skate Park (Allen): Saturdays from 10-11PM. One-to-ones with skaters. Contact: Byron Porter (byron@lostcauseministries.com).

Special Outreaches:

1.  University of North Texas:  Friday March 12th, 9:30AM-2:30PM.  We will preach on the grassy area facing the entrance of the Student Union closest to the bus stops.   We will pass out tracts, do one-to-ones, and open-air preach.  If you are coming, let us know at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

2.  Fort Worth Stockyards St. Patrick’s Day Parade:  Saturday March 13th,  2:30PM–6PM.  We will hand out tracts, do one-to-ones and open-air preach before the parade begins and when it concludes.  The carpool will leave FBC Justin at 2:30PM.  To get a ride, contact Jon Speed at jon@lostcauseministries.com.

3.  Southlake Town Square:  Friday March 19th, 7PM–10PM.  We’ll pass out tracts, do one-to-ones, and open-air preach.  We’ll meet in the square behind Brio’s Restaurant at 7PM.  The carpool will leave Justin at 6:40PM.  To get a ride, contact Tim Crawford at tim@lostcauseministries.com.

Evangelism Report:

Winter Olympic Games (Vancouver, B.C. Canada):

This report comes from Tim Crawford:

I received a phone call from Bill Adams from Sports Fan Outreach International and was invited to spend the week with them proclaiming the gospel at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC.  I was a little bit tired having just come off the Super Bowl trip to Miami and then a weekend at the NBA ALL Stars but I knew that I shouldn’t ever pass up the opportunity to preach the Gospel, so I was obedient (to my wife Allison and ministry partner Jon Speed) and went.

I flew into Vancouver on 2/21 and got there in the afternoon so we had almost a full day of evangelism right off the bat. I meet up with a great brother in Christ Andy Schmelzer and we immediately got to work. After a quick bite to eat we were headed to the town on the city public transportation and newly built Airbus. As we were leaving the airport and heading to the bus we were able to give the Gospel in tract form (Million Dollar bills) to the CZECH Republic Olympic team!!! What a blessing as well as a great way to start off the trip! I thought to myself wow this is going to be a great trip, but really I had no idea all the things God had in store for me and how amazing this trip was going to be.

We were greeted in Downtown Vancouver by Brother Bill and his team Jason and Chap making the team a total of five. I could not believe how many thousands of people were in this town. I know that the Olympics are a big deal but this event was like the Super Bowl on steroids!  The streets were full of singers, street performers and various types of cultic things like fortune tellers, etc. The crowds were huge and everyone was partying and having a good time. As I surveyed the crowd I noticed all the different nationalities being represented.  Flags and colors everywhere and people cheering and screaming for their teams!  This venue was every evangelist/street preachers “DREAM”!!! I mean people from every tribe, tongue and nation all in one location.   It was like a world mission trip without having to travel the world. We had the opportunity to witness and preach to people from countries I have never even heard of. It was like fishing in a stocked pond with every variety of fish you could imagine (salt water and fresh water) from all walks of life and from various continents all in one location or pond if you will. I have a much better understanding now of the verse found in Luke 10:2 “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest”. We could have used another 1,000 evangelist or laborers to cover the vast amount of people there in Vancouver!

I do not have the time or energy to write to you all of the details of this trip but I can tell you that God gave us many divine appointments. We were able to pass out well over 10,000 gospel tracts and witness, one-to-one and preach to thousands of people over this week-long evangelism trip.

I was blessed to see that the proclamation of the Gospel is the same no matter who you are sharing it with.I think that this cross cultural stuff (let’s be creative and change up the presentation) is a myth and has no effect on the way we present the Gospel. The GOSPEL is the GOSPEL whether you are speaking to a pygmy in Africa or a gang-banger in NYC. The law is written on everyone’s heart and apart from Christ everyone is dead in their trespasses and sins. I noticed on the streets that everyone I spoke with (various ethnicities and different backgrounds) understood the moral law of God. They also understood that they had broken it and deserved judgment. This message of the law preparing the way for the Gospel transcends culture and language barriers and does its perfect work in the heart of all people no matter what their background. I was truly blessed to see it in action as people were confronted with their sin and shown their desperate need for a Savior. I saw the verse in Galatians 3:24 come to life as those who thought they were good people heard the moral law of God (Ten Commandments) and were broken, as the schoolmaster pointed them to their need for Jesus Christ.

Over all it was a great trip I was blessed to see some come to repentance and faith in Christ as well as to see other believers encouraged and to share their faith. One particular guy I meet on the fairy named Ernie spent the day with us preaching the Gospel and he sent me this e-mail when I got home.

Hi Tim.  I praise God for arranging our meeting on the ferry to Vancouver and the way He opened the way to share the gospel with others around us.  Thank you for asking me to join the team.  I was really blessed.  I have been asked to share in my home church the way our Lord worked out this meeting.  Thanks for praying for Chap and I and praying for me when I left.  I have read parts of your webpage and am glad to see Christ in the centre of your statement of faith and your evangelism memory verses and quotes.  I have read CH Spurgeon’s Ten Sermons on Repentance and know he was a great preacher.  I know that I must make some repentolutions myself.  I have been a member of a pin collecting club in Vancouver for several years and have tried to convince myself that I had liberty in pursuing it as a hobby but I have also been convicted by the Lord that I have made them worldly treasures and carried away in conversations with other members about getting an elusive pin to complete my collection.  I have bid for some on ebay and been willing to spend unreasonable amounts to acquire certain ones.  I feel nervous and apprehensive over winning or losing an auction.  I believe that the Lord has been trying to chasten me in His love but I have disobeyed His promptings and put my heart in the world.  I want to follow His command of Matthew 6:20 to “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…..”  Thanks for the pin you gave me that puts the others in perspective and gives me a means to share the gospel.  I am asking God to make me obedient to His call on my life to be a witness for my Saviour.  I will uphold you in my prayers.  God bless you!  Ernie

I hope this report will encourage you to share your faith on a regular basis and please if you are ever interested in hitting the streets come out and join us. We have the privilege of living in a free country where we can preach the Gospel and there are so many events like this where there are thousands of people gathered that need to hear the truth. TLC ministries are out almost every weekend publicly proclaiming the great Gospel of Jesus Christ and we certainly could use some faithful laborers to join us!  Thank you all for your encouragement and prayers and we look forward to serving with you in some way soon. May God bless you all as you serve Him faithfully. Galatians 6:9.

University of North Texas (Denton, TX):

Last Tuesday we were given 35 signed copies of Ray Comfort’s edition of “Origin of Species”, 100 copies of Todd Friel’s DVD, “The Big Question”, and a bunch of tracts (thanks to Trish Ramos for the books and tracts, and thanks to Marv Plementosh for the DVD’s).  We passed all of the books and DVD’s out in short order and did some open-air preaching there.  Our team included Tom Sadowski, Veronica Speed, myself (Jon) and Nick, a UNT student who came to Christ under the preaching of the gospel last semester.  He’s getting discipled and is solidly plugged in at Providence Chapel in Krum.  It was a blessing to see evidence of God’s grace with just one of the students.  We hope he is a first fruits of more to come.

Ambassador’s Academy #13 (Los Angeles, CA):

Last Wednesday, TLC Staff (Tim Crawford and Jon Speed) traveled to Los Angeles for Ambassador’s Academy #13.  We were privileged to be asked to lead two teams out on the streets after a day of training.  As always, the training was excellent with lessons on love in evangelism (Emeal Zwayne), open-air preaching (Stuart Scott), using tracts (Mark Spence), the use of apologetics (Kirk Cameron), perseverance (Tony Miano), and of course, Ray Comfort spoke as well.  Ray previewed episode #2 of the 4th season of Way of the Master for us (Belgium).

On Friday, we toured the Living Waters headquarters in Bellflower and practiced stoplight preaching in their parking lot.  From there, we traveled to Hollywood Boulevard where the town was abuzz with excitement about the upcoming Academy Awards.  Large Oscar statuettes (idols) adorned the red carpet area in front of Kodak Theater, a block was shut down for the grandstand area, and the streets were crammed with idol worshipers.  There was even a girl who was being interviewed by many media outlets because she had a sign that asked Brad Pitt for a date to the awards.

We open-air preached at the stoplight on Hollywood and Highland for about an hour and a half and most of the team open-aired there several times.  We even had a heckler who kept challenging, “Where’s the love?”  When John 3:16 was quoted to her and she was commanded to repent and believe the gospel, she responded with profanities.  She didn’t seem to get the irony when the same comment (Where’s the love?) was turned around on her.  I had a chance to witness to a group of Mexican college aged kids at the stop lights.

We moved to the front of the new wax museum and were not appreciated since the management brought out a big sound system blaring pop music trying to drown us out.  We adapted by moving our station closer to Graumann’s Chinese Theatre where the sound could be better heard.  We moved part of the team directly across from Graumann’s, without an amp, and were able to preach into their courtyard and bounce the sound off of the back wall.  We were able to share with Catwoman and one of the Darth Vader character performers here, which a local news crew filmed.

We finished across from the subway station where several open-aired and did one-to-ones.  After this we got on the bus and drove to Glendale, where we spent the night witnessing and preaching.  Nathan Frost ended up getting a good heckler here and the crowd grew accordingly.  Tony Miano did a great job finishing up with the heckler and preaching the gospel.  In all of this Christ was glorified and His gospel proclaimed as it deserves to be: with boldness, passion and compassion.

Saturday morning, we traveled to Huntington Beach.  Our team did a couple of open-airs on the pier after lunch and a few more below the pier.  Most had some good one-to-ones.  I had one with a lady (didn’t write her name down) who has been having family problems and was checking in to a Christian camp that day.  We were able to give her a Bible, pray with her, and share the gospel.

In the afternoon, we were joined by Paul Adams of Open Air Campaigners who demonstrated the OAC method of open-air.  I suspect many will engage in their training.  Afterwards, Ray Comfort came out and also did some open-air.  This was very encouraging for the teams and instructive.   Tim Crawford had a good conversation with some goth teenagers who were hanging out while Ray Comfort witnessed to one of their friends.

All in all, it was an excellent time.  The attendees were encouraged to become students of the Word, sound doctrine, and Biblical evangelism.  TLC and One Million Tracts were blessed with the opportunity to give each attendee a copy of Evangelism in the New Testament, which we hope will be helpful in building biblical evangelism teams in communities around the country and the world (there were attendees from Canada and France).

Evangelism Resources:

1.  Christianaudio is offering a great FREE downloadable audio book this month.  John Piper’s “Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die”.  This is an excellent resource to give to an unsaved friend, or to study yourself as you prepare to open-air preach over the Easter season.  Simply go to www.christianaudio.com, place Piper’s book in your cart, and enter the following code when you check out:  MAR2010B.  

2.  This is a very sobering video that’s been making the rounds on the internet.  It’s graphic footage of Christians being beaten and martyred near Orissa, India.  Please be careful that children do not see this footage.  At the same time, let it motivate you to pray for our brothers and sisters in India and to live a life that is godly that we might suffer persecution.

3.  Here is a great tract for Easter.  The Who is Jesus? tract is available from One Million Tracts for only $3.00 per pack of 100!  It’s not only a great tract, it’s a great ice breaker.  Hand them out and ask, “Who is Jesus?” as you do.

4.  Here is an excellent sermon from Pastor Randall Easter on the issue of persecution as taught in 1 Peter 3:13-17.  This one is a life-changer.

Easter Week Meetings:

FBC Briar is hosting their special Easter Week Meetings again this year.  Guest speakers include Dr. Mudliar (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), Pastor Brett Beasley, and Pastor Jeff Noblitt (Grace Life Church of Muscle Shoals, AL\Anchored in Truth Ministries).  The dates are March 29-April 2 at 7:00PM.  Meals will be available at 5:30PM for a donation.

Last year several connected with TLC Ministries attended and were greatly blessed.  Please mark your calendars now and plan on attending.  This will be food for our souls.

Psalm 119 Conference: