Dear praying friends,
I love love love LOVE Subway Ministry!
I remember when I first heard that OAC goes into the subways to evangelize, I was thinking, “Eww, it’s gross down there, and dark, and people aren’t friendly.”
After all these years I’ve learned I was wrong – big time!
Well, it is gross down there (thank God for hand sanitizer!), and sometimes dark. And every once in a while someone acts unfriendly.
But for the most part, Subway Evangelism is some of the most effective ministry we do all year!
God always seems to work so amazingly in the subway. And He seems to bring people from around the world to us.
I’ve also been inviting Christian High Schoolers to be part of the ministry in the subways during their school vacation weeks (in February and April) and it’s been super to see the next generation of the Church get an excitement and vision for reaching the Lost!
I trust that, whether on the streets, or underground, at the beach, or in a housing complex, God will work wherever His Gospel is faithfully preached. And for that, I am grateful!
I want to keep you updated on some of the neat things God has down underground over the past few months. Very exciting stuff!
I’ll let the following photos do the explaining of some of what went on recently.
Please pray for us and those we meet!
The whole world comes down to the subways. What a mission field! Reaching the Lost for Christ is very exciting!
God was up to something this day in the subway. It was February 16. People seemed to be particularly attentive (in this photo just about everyone is focused on Eric as he shared the gospel.) When I shared Christ in the subway that day, more people took gospel booklets from me than normal. I ran out - it was crazy! Please praise God with me for the amazing ways He's working in people's lives! Hallelujah!
This is Maura, a homeless and mentally ill woman who I see from time to time down in the subway. When I saw her this day, I was thinking, "Hey, Maura appears fairly lucid today." After about half an hour, Maura began to scream and swear at nobody, like she often does. In this photo, Eric is praying with her. He encouraged Maura to go back to the homeless shelter. We gave her a little money. It breaks my heart to see so many needy people and be so powerless to truly help them. I trust that listening to Maura, hugging her, praying with her, and helping her buy some food makes a small difference for good. Your prayers for Maura, and the many others like her, are much appreciated.
Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year (for evangelism)! People really do stop and listen to a stranger holding up a manger. On this one afternoon when this photo was taken, Jesus gave us over a dozen open-air messages, hundreds of gospel tracts given out, and a number of fruitful one-on-one discussions. Praise God!
This is a GREAT Gospel Booklet to give out! Not only does it have an easy-to read and Biblically accurate message, but the title leads to one-on-one conversations. When we see someone looking at it, we merely approach them and say, 'Where will you spend eternity? That's a pretty important question. What do you think?' And you're off on a fruitful conversation! :)
Using a quick illusion is a great way to get into a conversation with teens! The young lady all the way to the left is Jasmine, a 17-year-old who was quick to call herself an "Atheist." But get this, her friend in the middle was a believer, and every time I made a point to Jasmine, her believing friend would say "that's right," or "Jasmine, listen to this guy," or "this is what I've been telling you." Sometimes when we share the gospel, we're there to water seeds that others have planted before us, and that others will reap after us. Whoever sows, whoever waters, whoever reaps, it's God who gets the increase and the glory! Please be in prayer for Jasmine.
This is Tajon, a young man who calls himself a 'Theistic Satanist.' Tajon believes in the God of the Bible, believes that God created Satan, but openly picks Satan's side and thinks Satan will win in the end. But get this, Chris (who is witnessing to him in this photo) used to be involved in Satanism and was saved out of the occult years ago. What a perfect person for God to send Tajon to. I asked Chris what he said to Tajon, and Chris said, 'I talked a lot about the blood of Jesus.' I ask you to please plead for Tajon in prayer.
A Pakistani woman reading a gospel booklet we gave her in her native language of Urdu.
This is Kinsen, a young man who was very interested in talking with Eric about eternal matters. After Eric brought Kinsen through the Law of God, Kinsen paused and said, 'I'm in a predicament.' What a response! We can't receive grace until we know we need it! Kinsen said, 'I don't have a good reason for why God should let me into Heaven.' Eric shared God's saving message with him, and pointed him to the Bible. It's awesome to see what kind of strangers God sends our way! Please pray for this polite and thoughtful young man.
We always offer more thorough gospel booklets at the end of our short open-air messages. You can see Eric offering them to anyone who wants them. You can see there were quite a few people looking at him and paying attention. What I think is cool is when people who have not been looking at you during the message sometimes come up and take one of the booklets from your hand, and that tells me that they were paying attention! Praise God!
This is John, a nice man I struck up a conversation with. He told me he believed in the Bible. He told me he believed in Jesus. But he wouldn't tell me that he was a Mormon until I specifically asked him because I had a hunch. Mormons are extremely secretive about what they believe and often redefine words to confuse you. The good news: John took a gospel booklet from me. The bad news: he took off as soon as he realized that I knew Mormon teachings. The great news: Jesus is in charge and can reach John. If you want to know what Mormons believe, but probably won't tell you, please download for free an article I wrote called, 'Letter to a Mormon.' You can download it for free at http://luke-15.org/Mormon_letter.pdf
Chris is our newest Open Air Campaigners Missionary, and God has really given him gifts for the ministry. He does a great job communicating truth, love, care, and urgency.
This is Monica, a sweet woman from the Bahamas who we met in the subway today. She claimed to be a Christian heading to Heaven, but when Eric asked a few simple questions, like, "can you tell me who Jesus is?" she didn't know. Eric sat with her for about half an hour and opened the Scriptures with her. She was very open and polite. Praise God for encounters like this!
When one of the other trains down the hall pulls in, it sends a flood of people down our way. So many of them take gospel booklets. It's tremendous!
This is Matthew, and it's funny how Chris got into a conversation with him. Matthew was wearing a t-shirt that said "Delivered" on it, so Chris approached him and said, "Is that a Christian t-shirt? What have you been delivered from?" Matthew laughed and explained that he works for a delivery company, and the t-shirt is from there. Whoops! They both laughed over it, but it turned into a very fruitful gospel conversation. Chris learned that Matthew grew up in a Catholic family and thinks we could possibly go to Heaven if he is good enough. He was very open to listening to Chris gently correct his understanding and explain the gospel of grace. Praise God! All this from a misunderstanding from a t-shirt!!!
This is Ali, a Muslim from Libya who approached Eric while we were giving out gospel tracts today. Ali said, 'Allah will let me into Heaven because I've kept his laws.' Eric patiently took Ali through some of God's laws: Have you ever lied? Have you ever coveted? Have you ever looked with lust? And Eric witnessed to Ali the same way you would with anyone. Ali took gospel literature from Eric. Please pray that God saves this young man.
This photo is fantastic. Just about everyone is looking right at Chris and listening to the gospel message. Hallelujah!
You never know who God is working on with this type of ministry. Here's a photo where it appears that not too many people are paying attention, but I believe God will reward faithfulness in lovingly, compassionately, truthfully, and urgently sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
On High School vacation weeks (in February and April) I like to bring High Schoolers down in the subway with me. They do a super job! And I want them to learn at a young age that Evangelism is part of our calling and should be something we do and not be afraid. You can see Christian handing out gospel booklets.
Riley might be a High Schooler, but God gave her the boldness of a lion when this gentleman asked her what the gospel booklet was about. I'm so proud of these kids!!!
This is Patty, a sweet woman who told Ellie that she'll go to Heaven because she thinks she's good enough. We hear that A LOT. Ellie did a superb job taking Patty through the commandments to show her that none of us are good and we all need Jesus, the Savior!
It amazes me that strangers really do stop and listen to our open-air messages. And they really do talk to us afterward. Praise God!
This is Harold, a polite young man in his 30's. Me offering him a gospel tract lead to a lengthy and fruitful one-on-one chat. The fascinating thing about Harold is that he knew the Bible very very well. He said he had been studying it. When I asked him if he knew Jesus as his Savior, Harold, had a nervous smile and said, "No, I'm not a Christian. I'm not born again." But he knew so much Scripture, so I asked him why he hasn't obeyed Christ's command to repent and believe on the Son of God? Harold said that he didn't know. Something was holding him back, he said. We talked for about 20 minutes or so. I was able to give him an evangelistic DVD which he promised to watch. And he said he was eager to read the booklet I gave him. God does amazing things in peoples' lives down in the subway! Please keep Harold in your prayers.
This is Smith, a polite gentleman who came right up to me and asked for one of my "Trillion Dollar Bill" gospel tracts. This easily lead into whether he was good enough to go to Heaven. Smith said he wasn't sure if Heaven existed. I've found that a good way to avoid an hour-long discussion on that is to say, "If Heaven exists, are you good enough?" That kept the conversation going. He wasn't sure. I liked Smith a lot. He was kind, thoughtful, and polite. I left him with the knowledge that God revealed Himself through the Scriptures so we could know. I hope he internalized that message. (And I hope the eavesdroppers did too!)
The craziest things happen when God is at work! Usually once per season, my team and I visited all our normal subway evangelism locations to pray and have a short devotional at each one. We do this discretely, not making a spectacle of ourselves, and not drawing attention to us. This is Eliana, a sweet Christian from Brazil who speaks Portuguese and some broken English. She was literally in tears when she saw us praying and asked us to pray for her son and daughter-in-law who are separated and not walking with Jesus. So humbling to see the tears of a heart-broken Mom. We hugged, prayed, and encouraged her. She gave us her contact info.
One of the hardest things about evangelism is knowing when to cut off a conversation and move on. I tend to "error" on the "spend more time" side. This is Paul, and we talked for about half an hour (but I think he would have talked for hours.) He claimed to believe in the Bible, but rejected simple Scriptures, like, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9), and "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:12). He said you get to Heaven by "keeping God's commandments." I asked him if he kept God's commandments and told me it's not that simple. On the one hand he said he merited Heaven because of how good he is, but on the other hand he scolded me for bringing up God's commands. He was very interested in obscure sections of the book of Revelation, while contradicting simple Scriptures like the ones above. Paul seemed to me to be like the person described in 2 Timothy 3:7, "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth." After 30+ minutes, he made anti-Semitic comments. Finally I said gently, but firmly, "Paul, you refuse to humble yourself and admit you're a sinner, even though the Word of God says, 'all have sinned,' and you believe you're good enough to impress God, and now you have insulted God's covenant people. I fear for you." And I walked away. I don't like walking away from people. Would you please pray that the Holy Spirit convicts, humbles, and saves Paul? And please pray that God will use the words I shared with Paul, even if I mistakenly cut off the conversation prematurely. Thank you so much and God bless you.
This is Anderson. He attends a Bible-believing Haitian Church. He was so excited to see us out evangelizing that he asked if he could have a "selfie" with me.
This was kinda funny. As Eric was showing a copy of the Ten Commandment tablets, this young woman walked right up in the middle of everyone and took a photograph of the tablets. She got on the train when it came so I wasn't able to ask her about her interest. That's the first time I've seen anybody do that! I pray that God will use the photo to prompt her later to think about the message.
In addition to the people in the photos, some other people who stood out are:
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Miranda: Miranda was a young woman in her 30’s. She opened her heart to me and told me so much about herself. She asked me why God doesn’t give her more money. Not in a greedy way. She clearly had a need. She told me about her young son, and that her own Mother told her to be a Prostitute in order to make money. I listened to her, gave her a hug, and gave her a little money. But I also told Miranda that she needs salvation more than money. We need our sins forgiven. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36). She asked me to pray for her.
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Hymen: Eric met and spoke with Hymen a man fighting to recover from heroin addiction. Hymen did testify that he believes that Christ died for his sins.
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Marique: Marique is a Muslim young man from the Sudan. After talking with Eric about the gospel, he took a pamphlet from a Biblically solid Arabic-speaking Evangelical Church! Praise God!
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Francisco: Francisco is a young man who identified as an “Atheist.” He told me that he thinks about Eternity every day, but still doesn’t believe in God. I shared some simple Apologetics (proof for God’s existence), and he said he’d think about that because it made sense.
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Bruce: Sometimes people come right up to us and start the conversation. That’s what happened when Bruce came up to Chris and asked what he was giving out. That lead to a gospel conversation. Bruce told Chris that he thinks he’s good enough to go to Heaven on his own. Chris took him through the commandments to demonstrate that none of us are good enough by God’s perfect standard.
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Charlie: Charlie is an older Jewish man. He asked me, “You really believe this stuff about Jesus?” and then said, “Why?” What an opportunity! I opened to Isaiah, chapter 53, and had him read it and tell me who he thought it was about. I told him this is about Jesus, and it was written 700 years before Jesus came to earth! And I told him that I’m a Jewish believer in Jesus. I gave him a paper copy of my testimony, entitled, A Jew and His God.
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Willet: We were praying as a team when Willet approached us, but it was obvious quickly that he wasn’t saved despite thinking he was. He was open to us sharing the gospel of grace and assurance with him, and he took literature from us.
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Renee: Renee is another example of someone who approached us. She came up to us and admitted that she was a “backslider,” and told us outright that she knew she was in rebellion to Jesus. We pleaded with her to follow Jesus and know Him. We told her, “If you truly know this amazing man, how could you or anyone ever walk away from Him? Could it be that you didn’t know him?” We shared a gospel booklet with her.
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Korean Family: I don’t know the names of the members of a family from Korea, but God does! Eric tried to talk to them, but it became apparent that they didn’t speak English. But they were soooo happy to receive gospel booklets in Korean, and communicated with their enthusiastic smiles that they appreciated us giving them to them!
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Grabta: Eric was using a real rat trap in the open air to demonstrate faith. He asks for a volunteer to see if anyone is willing to set off the trap with their own finger. Usually nobody volunteers! But Grabta said he was willing. Eric asked him why he’d trust him, since they’re strangers, and Grabta said, “You have a Bible. I can F*&!@ing trust you.” It made or a remember-able open-air message, for us, and for the crowd too!
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Anthony: Anthony spoke with Eric for quite some time. Anthony had some Bible knowledge, but it was polluted with other philosophies and religions. When Eric asked him how long it’s been since he read his Bible, Anthony told him, “3 months.” Eric implored him to be in The Word daily.
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Tom: When I asked Tom what he thought of Eternity, he said he wasn’t sure if there was an afterlife. He said he “hopes so.” He told me that he had already undergone an experimental medical transplant that only one surgeon in the world does. This was because of Cancer. And he recently had open-heart surgery. I told Tom that I was so happy that he’s survived those, but one day we all die. I told him God has been patient with him, keeping him alive through those diseases. He promised me he’d think about the gospel message I shared, and would read the booklet I gave him.
We love you and thank Jesus for you!
Thank you so much for your prayers, financial support, and notes of encouragement, without which we would not be able to reach the Lost for Jesus Christ!
Please contact us anytime and let us know how we can pray for you!
And please feel free to forward this to anyone you think would be blessed by it!
For Christ and His gospel,
Mark, Shelby, Vivienne, Juliana, Caleb, and Gabriella
I praise God for your faithfulness. Love reading your updates and seeing how God is using you and your team to reach the lost. Thank you! Excited for your new outreach to NH! Bless you!
Sandy, you’re so sweet and encouraging. I thank Jesus for you and your family, and I appreciate your prayers and friendship. God bless you!
Awesome update Mark. Thanks so much for taking the time to share how God is using you and your family for His Kingdom.
Thank you so much for the encouragement, Andrew. I’m blessed to be a part of an awesome team. God bless you, brother.
Thanks for being a faithful ambassador for the King! Praying for much fruit now and in the future.
Alice, you’re so encouraging! I thank Jesus for you and your beautiful family.