Balloon Fest Witnessing.

Praise God, what a great time of sowing seeds of the gospel this year at the Balloon Fest in Colorado Springs. We joined a group from Rocky Mountain Calvary and took their bus to the event. We had a group go out Saturday morning from 5-10am and another one going out that evening from 5-10pm. It was estimated that 30,000 people where there Saturday morning and 75,000 that night.

Our group in the morning handed out most of the tracts and did one to one witnessing before some “official” told us we could not continue to do it. After asking for a copy of the permit forbidding us to hand out tracts, he could not do it. We were leaving anyway, so we decided to move on and change our strategy for the evening session. We did thank God that we were worthy of persecution(Matt 5:12).

The evening session was another beautiful night and masses of people. How many were lost, and needing to hear the gospel? We prayed for God to give us many opportunities, and did He ever! We split into 2 groups and our group immediately started sharing with groups just hanging out waiting for the festivities to begin. Connie and I used the “name 10-get 10” ice breaker (name the 10 commandments to get $10), which was very useful in starting conversations. One girl named 8 commandments very quickly, and we thought we were going to have to pay out, but she got stuck (whew)! But we shared with probably 15-20 groups of over 200 people the message of the gospel, praise the Lord! Many were very convicted, concerned and thankful for the message. One woman, however, was very upset about the gospel, and said “everyone was going to heaven” and did not want to hear it any more. She first said she was catholic, but later said all religions lead to God(must be an Ophra watcher), and rejected the gospel. It was a very sad conversation.

We then moved to the park entrances and handed out hundreds of tracts to people coming to the event. The total of tracts handed out yesterday was 1000-2000.

One group I came upon said that they were Christians and one girl said she as LDS. So after some probing , it became clear that they were all LDS. So we got into a big discussion about LDS and the gospel. They all said that they were Christians, but I explained to them how they were not even close. Some of the points I explained to them was….

• - Salvation is “of the Lord”, so how can you possibly earn your own salvation?
• - Jesus was not a created being, but was God Himself. He said , “I and the Father am One.”
• - Explained the Gospel and how no one is good enough to be saved. Romans 3..RUST..no one Righteous, no one Understands, no one Seeks, everyone has Turned aside. 1 Corinthians 5, He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God. Galatians 2:20, for if righteousness can be gained from the law(being good), then Christ died for nothing. All have sinned, and other verses.
• - It is by grace you are saved, THROUGH FAITH, and THIS IS NOT OF YOURSELF(Eph 2:8-9)

Then I asked if they had problems with the Book of Mormon.

• - All of the huge civilizations supposedly that existed in North and Central America have never been found. No artifacts or ruins or anything. I explained to them how our recent trip to Israel consisted of towns in the bible including Jerusalem, Capernaum, Tiberius, Jericho, etc.
• - Animals described in the BOM(Book of Mormon) did not exist in North America such as oxen and horses.
• - Steel did not exist during this time and the BOM said many weapons were made of it.
• - And, of course, the fact that the American Indians are supposed to be from a lost tribe of Israel. This was scientifically shown not to be true with recent DNA analysis showing the Indians are of Asian descent…probably from around Mongolia.
• - And the fact of Joseph Smith, who used his ability as a “stone seer” to take his “seeing stone” and put it into a hat with special glasses and dictate the BOM.
• - There is no external evidence of any other writings or legends at this time of huge Mormon civilizations in the Americas.
• - Were are the Golden Plates the BOM was written on? It has vanished too, along with the civilizations.

I ended the conversation with the fact that all religions(including Mormons), show you how to be good enough to go to heaven. This includes Islam, Mormons, JW’s, Catholics, etc. Only Christianity says that you can never be good enough, thus the need for a Savior who was good enough.

They thanked me very much for sharing with them and promised they would look into what I discussed with them. None of them knew about the problems with the BOM, and kept asking how I knew this stuff!  Please pray that our LDS friends will reject the cult of Mormonism, repent and believe the gospel and be saved!

This is a picture of some folks from Kansas receiving gospel tracts at the Ballon Fest.  Colorado Springs is a great place to witness as we draw folks from around the world.

Me and Raymond went to the park to witness to the high schoolers and whoever else the Lord was drawing to Himself.  It was Ray’s first time sharing with strangers like this, and he did great!

I took the cross while witnessing, and it certainly was a conversation piece to lead in to the gospel. This is me and Rex(on the bicycle).  To the right is Raymond sharing.

We shared the gospel with many folks.  There was, however, much resistance.  Lots of idol worshippers, kids who were totally apathetic, and Raymond shared with a homosexual guy who was definitely not open to the gospel(Romans 1:21, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened”.

But the Gospel was proclaimed, and may God bless those who heard the truth, that they may be saved. To Him be the glory!

God is so good.  We have now completely wiped out all our tracts even after getting tons of them earlier this year. This parade was another great time of seed sowing as hundreds of tracts were given out and we had some good witness encounters too.

This guy has REALLY BIG HORNS

Peter and Connie witnessing

A great day of witnessing.  May God be praised and glorified!

We had a team of seed sowers handing out tracts and sharing the gospel with thousands of bikers last weekend. The Tejon Street Biker Fest was going on and there were thousands of people and motorcycles downtown. We handed out over 1000 tracts and share the gospel with at least 20 people. May God be glorified.

This video shows how persecution is coming in the U.S. for those who witness to the Christian faith.  We even had an incident like this here in Colorado Springs.  After preaching at a DMV in town, the police came and told us that we could not do it.  Even at City Hall, when we preached, a police officer told us we could not do it unless we were across the street.

Many open air preachers nowadays(in the U.S.!) are always videotaping themselves to be able to defend themselves when the police come to stop them or arrest them.

GOOD TRACTS. We had a great day of witnessing at Territory Days here in Colorado Springs.  While there we passed out over 2000 gospel tracts and shared the gospel a few times.  Actually sharing the gospel verbally is tough in a setting like this, however, as it is busy and NOISY.  Oh well, the gospel was proclaimed anyway, even in written form in a tract.

BAD TRACTS.  Now while down there, someone gave me a bad “gospel tract”.  A picture of part of it is below.  Now, the title of the tract shows how bogus it is.  NO ONE knows the hour or time of Christ return (Matthew 24:36)

There is some truth in these tracts, but just a little poison in something like this is enough to kill..

This is the reason some reject giving out tracts, but don’t let that stop you.  God will use your faithfulness to save those who believe.

BTW..check out the radio station in Pueblo, CO.. K FRY.

Turn or burn baby…not good.

Just got an order of gospel tracts for Memorial Day.

Robert, one of our local seed sowers, spent last January in Jamaica preaching the gospel and witnessing to the lost.  I noticed a journal of this on a website, and thought I would share one entry they had.  For the entire journal, go to THIS LINK.  I am praying about joining Mike and Robert there next year, if they decide to go again. 

Monday, January 18, 2010:  An email from our brothers in Jamaica… please keep praying for them!!! Here is what they wrote: “We are doing very well. We think we’ve distributed nearly 9000 tracts. We claimed a place downtown Montego Bay called Sam Sharp Square as holy ground and we give tracts and do various readings from the Bible in the open air during the mornings. Sam Sharpe is a national hero who spent most of his time travelling to different estates in the area educating the slaves about Christianity and freedom. He became a Baptist preacher. We preach in the evenings and give more tracts and bibles. We are down to about 500 tracts which we hope will get us through next week. Someone told us people wouldn’t listen to us yet we know they are because people take bibles and tracts, some are broken and others ask us to pray for them for various things going on in their lives. Everyday the question of the day we get is,” what must i do to be saved?” Yesterday someone asked after his friends mouthes were stopped by the Law, “what must i do to get under the Blood?” We met a great Irish family, a pastor, his wife and three sons, Pastor Paul, Pamela and their sons Luke, John and Jason. Miss Pamela heard us preaching in the square one morning and since then they have invited us to their prayer meetings, out for dinner and for fellowship. We’ve been praying for the growth of their ministry and the people of Jamaica. We are in awe of Pastor Paul preaching and his prayers! Everyday we see the hand of God working! We serve an awesome God!  Thanks to everyone praying! Don’t quit.”

 

 

 

Connie and I attended a booth at Territory Days here in Colorado Springs a few years ago.  We handed out water, gospel tracts and shared the gospel with hundreds of festival people.  One of the guys Connie shared with REALLY appreciated her sharing with him. Of course, they guy might have had a few beers or something, but he still was into it.

The point that I am trying to make is that you can share the gospel and not be a jerk.  Now, some people will not like it, but most of the folks we talk to shake our hands, or give us a hug(maybe not quite a big hug as this though).

I have also heard lately from some folks how you cannot share the gospel with someone until you have a long lasting trusting relationship with them.  WHY?  You can have a relationship with someone in 5 minutes enough to share the gospel.  This is what Jesus did with the Woman at the Well.  The story you are telling is His story, not yours.

This picture is also getting me fired up for the upcoming holiday parades and festivals.  Should be a great year to be “fishers of men(and women)”.

There is an optical illusion gospel tract we use that looks like this.  Obviously, it is smaller, but this will get peoples’s attention maybe from across the road or park or something.

The real tract is so nice to give out at parades especially when everyone is just hanging out waiting for it to start.  The kids get a kick out of it and we give them the tracts and they show their folks.

Once the tracts get into their hands, the gospel is preached……even by a child.

The link to this tract is HERE. Order some and hand them out.  They are fun and effective!