Dear Praying Friends,
One of my favorite parts of the ministry is building up the Church to be more effective evangelists!
I LOVE it when local Churches send teams to train with us and go out to put what we’ve learned into practice!
Probably the best way to be trained and gain experience is to spend the week with us on a Mission Trip, but also valuable is a one-day Evangelism Training Day.
We had one of these a few Saturdays ago. A team from a nearby Church spent the day with us.
In the morning, Eric and I taught the team the following:
- learned practical Evangelism and street Apologetics
- how to run an impromptu Kids Bible Club in a neighborhood
- teach a Bible Song to kids
- lead a Bible Verse “hangman puzzle” with kids
- share Christ one-on-one with a kid
- sometimes a Church Member will learn how to paint up and deliver a Bible message to kids with the paint board!!!
This is a win-win for the Kingdom of God. A neighborhood is reached for Christ, and Christians go home to their Church more equipped to be effective ambassadors for Jesus Christ!
The photos really tell the story, so I pray you enjoy these…
We started the day with prayer and TRAINING. In this photo, Eric is demonstrating a Gospel Magic Trick. On the left you can see a simple "Bible Verse Game" on the paint board.
More often kids are not outside, preferring to play on electronics inside their apartments. So we've been having a fun game-time first to get the attention of the kids and make them want to come outside. This parachute game did a great job having the kids come outside to join the free Kid's Bible Club!
Trevor ran the "Hangman Bible Verse Game" and did a great job! The verse was: "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness," (Hebrews 9:22), and that went well with the Bible message.
This is a bit of fun. For the "Bible Verse Games" the kids guess letters, and if they guess a wrong letter, the painting changes for the worse. In this one, I drew the New England Patriots mascot, and every time a kid guesses a wrong letter, we use black paint to "DEFLATE" the football a bit. It plays well in downtown Boston!
Kevin and Kerin taught the kids a Bible Action Song!
The kids did a SUPER JOB paying attention while I taught the Bible message. This is one of my favorites, called 'Heaven,' and it's a great intro message for a new neighborhood.
God has a home named Heaven. If you want to go to my home, I have to let you in. It's the same with God's home. He makes the rules for who gets in. The best part of Heaven isn't the wonderful things there, but that you're with God Himself! To find out why some people won't be there, we went to the beginning. God made the world perfect and amazing, but the best part was that you got to be with God Himself! God gave Adam and Eve only one command. They broke that command and brought 'SIN' & 'DEATH' into the world. Now they're no longer friends with God, but His enemy, and if they're not redeemed, they will get what they deserve, the 'Lake of Fire.' Because of God's LOVE and MERCY, He came to earth, lived a perfect life, and unlike us, never sinned even once. But He died on the cross as a substitute for our sins, and rose from the dead and is alive today! Two thieves died along with Jesus. One taunted Him. The other confessed his sin, and acknowledged Jesus' sinlessness, and looked to Jesus as his Savior. These two thieves represent two types of 'hearts,' one that looks to self for eternity, and one that looks to Jesus. Which one will we be? Great Theology.
One of the most exciting parts is when the teens from the Church Team pairs up with kids afterwards and enforces the message by taking them through a gospel booklet. That's when you ask lots of open-ended questions to see what the child understood. It's awesome!
As you can see, the kids really bond and pay attention to you when you sit with them and share God's truths.
This girl wanted a Bible, so we gave her one, and she was so happy to open it up! Please pray that she reads it everyday like we suggested she should!
Trevor patiently answered this boy's questions and taught him the gospel message.
This is Abraham, a sweet kid who wanted to keep my painting. Praise God!
The second team had a tug-of-war game with the kids. Everyone loves that.
In a different neighborhood, the other half of the Church Team was having their own Bible Club. This is Jay teaching the Bible message. Jay took our training last summer and he does a GREAT job!
This is DJ, an amazing kid I met 7 years ago, and he's still following Jesus! I blogged about him at: http://luke-15.org/2017/06/the-boy-with-the-firemans-helmet-7-years-later/
Thank you for your prayers, notes of encouragement, and financial support. Without all of those, we could not be reaching the lost for Jesus Christ!
Remember to share Jesus with the Lost wherever you are, because the Lost are wherever you are.
Please feel free to share this with others you think would be encouraged by it, and who will pray!
all for Jesus,
Mark
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