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Post by supergirl79 on Nov 26, 2006 3:35:53 GMT -5
Friday night we went out to University to pass out tracts and witness to people. At first we were going to be 3 people (Alan, Eileen and myself), but once we got there, the crowd had grown to 11 people, including seed sowers from Tucson and Sierra Vista (Tara, Rosanna, Josh, Joe, Bernie, Jon, Yvonne and her daughter). There weren’t very many people out on University and the Sierra Vista crowd was there to get a little familiar with the city to make plans with the seed sowers in Phoenix to have a day to come to do some open air preaching, witnessing and passing out tracts. We decided to go check out 4th Ave to see what was going on over there and we took the trolley over there. We ended up passing out tracts to the conductor and the passengers even asked us for some of our tracts. We even had some good conversations on the very short ride to 4th Ave. Once we got there, we found pretty quickly that this crowd was very different from the crowd on University. We passed out a lot of tracts and the Sierra Vista seed sowers wanted me to show them where the Door does their Open Air preaching on Saturday nights. Once we got there, a guy took a tract from us and apparently did not know what it was at first…once he realized that it was a Gospel tracts he wasn’t too happy and cussed us out…of course he then apologized the young girl that was with us, but not to the rest of us…I let him know that I was also offended by his language, but I think he was too drugged out to hear me. We walked up 4th Ave a little way and had to stop here and there, as somebody would start a conversation with people and witness to them. I witnessed to a guy named Aaron, who I had given an IQ test tract to. He asked if I went to the University and I let him know that I had a degree in Psychology. He wondered if I was doing a study out here, so I said “Kind of!” and asked him what he thought would happen to him when he dies. He didn’t know, but I was able to get something out of him about heaven and hell. I asked him “Who goes to heaven and who goes to hell?” he gave the textbook answer “Good people go to heaven…” So, I asked, “Do you think that you are good enough to go to heaven?” He wasn’t sure, so I told him he took take a quick test to find out. I asked if he had ever lied…He had….Ever stolen….Nope….Have you ever downloaded music on the internet without paying for it....Oh, you are good, yes….Ever used God’s name in vain….Yes….Ever looked with lust…yes. So, by your own admission, you are a liar, a thief, a blasphemer and an adulterer at heart and if you have to face God on judgment day, would you be innocent or guilty? Guilty! He wasn’t so sure that the Bible was true and that he would be going to hell, but I asked him if he knew what Jesus did so he didn’t have to go to hell. He knew about the cross, but didn’t know how to partake in His gift of salvation. So I gave him the Gospel and told him he should think about the things I told him, as he is not guaranteed another day on this earth and it is really important for him to be right about this stuff. I shook his hand and he went on his way. Then we made our way back to the trolley and talked for a few minutes and then we had to go home…
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Post by wwjd on Nov 26, 2006 21:16:28 GMT -5
do you try to lead them to repentance or do you let them leave after telling them theres no promise of tomorrow
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Post by supergirl79 on Nov 26, 2006 23:06:13 GMT -5
I did try to lead him to repentance, but I added in the no promise of tomorrow to promote a sense of urgentcy...
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Post by supergirl79 on Nov 26, 2006 23:41:21 GMT -5
Here are some pictures... Alan and Eileen on University Joe and Jon talking on University Rosanna, Bernie and Josh on University Yvonne, her daughter and Tara Bernie and Joe with lots of money on the trolley Rosanna, Josh and Jon on the trolley Yvonne and Tara on the Tolley And, as usual there are no pictures of me, since I am always the one taking them!
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Post by supergirl79 on Dec 11, 2006 23:23:32 GMT -5
On Saturday (12-9-2006) Rosanna, Josh and I went to the 4th Ave Street Fair. There were so many people there! Definitely thousands!! I had only brought about 800 tracts and Josh and Rosanna brought about 2000. We just started passing them out all over the place! We walked through the whole Street Fair and most people took the tracts...a few here and there didn't want one....and some even followed us for a while to get one or wanted more to give to other people. Rosanna and Josh got into some conversations, I didn't have that opportunity, but I passed out all of the tracts that I had brought and I even had to get some more from Rosanna and Josh! I was a tract passing out fool! We were there for about 4 hours or so, I was beat when we were done! Here are some pictures: Look at all the people!! Josh passing out tracts: Rosanna handing out tracts: Josh and Rosanna handing out tracts: Posing for the camera: Rosanna got into a conversation: Here is an interesting character: Rosanna had taken some pictures of me too....but I don't have them yet...I'll add them later, but for now here is a picture of me the night before on University:
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Post by supergirl79 on Dec 16, 2006 1:40:21 GMT -5
Friday (12-15-2006) we went out to University as usual, but there really weren't many people out. I had some Christmas Cash tracts that I thought I'd try out and they went well! People liked them. Here is a picture of me with them: Some good lines were: -Did you get your Christmas Cash yet? -Are you ready for Chrsitmas? If they ask what it is: -It is something to get you ready for Christmas! -It helps you see if you are on the naughty or nice list! Josh and Joe talked a little: And here is a picture of Joe passing out a tract. He got to talk to this guy only briefly, as he was busy on his cell phone. I also got to talk to a guy...Rosanna got a picture of that. I asked him if he'd be on Santa's naughty or nice list and he said "Nice". So I asked him a few questions to see if that was true. He had lied, stolen, blasphemed, and looked with lust and he knew he was guilty. Then I asked if he'd go to Heaven or Hell and he said "Heaven". "Why?" "Because Jesus is my Savior!" OK, so that really tripped me up! I simply shared the Gospel with him and made sure he knew about repentance and faith and he went on his way, but he still took a tract. There were a lot of people from the Door asking about a cafe where they were having a meeting. We thought about crashing it, but then decided to get something to eat instead, once we kept seeing the same people over again that already had our tracts and weren't willing to get into a conversation. I also figured out how to set the timer to automatically take a picture, so I was able to get a picture of all four of us!
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Post by supergirl79 on Dec 23, 2006 4:26:21 GMT -5
Winterhaven 12-22-2006 We decided to give Winterhaven a try, since there weren't very many people hanging out at University the last couple of weeks and Winterhaven is a community that puts up Christmas lights and displays each year which draws in the crowds. They even have hayrides that go through the community so you can see all the lights. The streets were blocked off, so there were a lot of people walking around. We ended up passing out a little over 500 tracts and most people were very willing to take our Christmas Cash, a few people said "No!" and one lady even remarked "I'm not into that stuff! That isn't really a gift!" Yikes! But overall, many people, especially those with kids, were happy to take our tracts (I even had people surrounding me a few times that wanted to get their Christmas Cash!) and here and there we even met some Christians that encouraged us to keep passing them out. The Door was there singing some carols and they even did some open air preaching. It was truly a great night and I think an event we should plan on tracting in the future! I really liked this Nativity scene: Here is Sean and Misty in front of a house with a huge guy on it that is about the throw a car on them! Here I am in front of a Nativity scene: Joe in front of a lighted car showing off his Millions...which, by the way, he thought were better than my Christmas Cash...yet surprisingly enough, when his Millions ran out, he humbled himself and took some of my Christmas Cash to hand out! And now here he is passing out some tracts: Misty was in front of a huge lighted tree... Sean and Joe with some hot chocolate! There is a story...we found a house that had hot chocolate for $1 a cup. Then a few houses later, we found a house selling hot chocolate for $0.50 a cup and they even added marshmallows AND they even had a fire to warm up at! That was pretty cool! They definitely got some Christmas Cash! Then we found a house with a photo opportunity and for a few seconds, Sean, Misty and I got to be skaters!
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Post by evanschaible on Dec 24, 2006 4:55:52 GMT -5
Why didnt you preach on the trolley? ;D
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Post by dale on Dec 24, 2006 14:27:46 GMT -5
Oh man, why don;t you just leave the people on the trolley alone and stop bothering them!!!!! Evan, didn;t you elarn your lesson about Tucson already.........
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Post by supergirl79 on Dec 24, 2006 17:50:56 GMT -5
Why didnt you preach on the trolley? ;D It was too expensive...I was told $50 for 2 people!! I didn't have that kind of cash! Besides that, I feel like I'd need to be better prepared if I am going to open air preach.
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Post by supergirl79 on Dec 30, 2006 3:11:58 GMT -5
Tonight (12-29-2006) Josh, Joe and me (Rosanna was sick ) decided to try the Tucson Mall, since there was hardly anyone out on University Blvd, our usual spot. We parked ourselves in front of one of the entrances and started passing out tracts and we got into a lot of good conversations. One guy I spoke to was a Messianic Jew. I tried to get him to tell me what he believed and he just said: "The same thing that you believe." I asked about Jesus being his Messiah and he of course confirmed that. It was really hard to start up a conversation with this guy, but it seemed like he wanted to talk. So, I asked him: "I have a knife in my back and 3 minutes to live; how do I get to Heaven?" He couldn't tell me. He said he was confused on some things and that he was new to this. I took him through the good person test. He admitted to being a liar, stealer, blasphemer, and adulterer at heart. He wasn't sure what to say about where he would go when he died though, so I just stepped in and explained that we are all deserving of Hell and I shared that Jesus paid our fine, and now we must repent and put our trust in Him. It was getting cold and he had to go, so I told him to read the tract, that the information I had given him was on there, too. I really felt like I did horrible there! It just didn't flow very well and the guy was smoking a cigarette as he was talking to me, so I feel like I should have told him about growing in holiness. The next guy I talked to was named Frankie. I gave him a Million dollar bill and when he asked what it was, I let him know that it was a Gospel tract and asked if he had a Christian background. He had not. "What do you think happens when you die?" "You either go to Heaven or to Hell." "Who goes to Hell?" "The people that have sinned." "Have you sinned?" "Uhhh..." "Let's take a look at the 10 Commandments." He was a liar, thief, blasphemer and adulterer at heart and he knew that he was guilty and on his way to Hell. And it even concerned him. So I gave him the Gospel and him and his friend listened to me. I asked what he thought about what I had said and he said it was something to think about someday. I told him we don't know how much longer we will be around, if we have another 5 minutes or another 50 years. I urged him to think about this before his head hits the pillow tonight and to read his Bible starting with the book of John. Then I thanked him for listening to me. There were also a few professing Christians that either came up to us to see what we were doing and praised us for passing out tracts (we of course gave them a copy of Hell's Best Kept Secret) or that I asked how they would tell someone how to get to Heaven, and ended up having to explain the Gospel message to them. One girl didn't know what sin was! The encounter that I felt really sad about was a man with a bunch of kids. I gave them all million dollar bills and the man stopped and asked what it was. I told him it was a Gospel tract and asked if he had a Christian background. He said: "No, I am Catholic!". Then proceeded to tell me how good of a person that he is, that if there were more people in this world like him, the world would be a better place. He gives thousands of dollars to charity and God thinks that he is basically a good person...he said all this as he was walking away. I tried to start explaining that if he has broken God's laws, his good works will not help him. But he didn't want to hear it and he gave the tract back to me. At least his kids still kept them!! Then, after we had been there at that mall entrance for almost 2 hours and had passed out at least 300 or more tracts between the 3 of us, the mall security came up to us and told us we can't hand out literature there at the mall, but they still wanted to know what we were passing out. Joe did an awesome job of giving a very clear and concise message of what the tracts were all about. He basically said that the stuff we were handing out appealed to the conscience and that it goes through the laws we have broken against God, what we deserve and what God did so we could be made right. So that ended our night, but I thought it was a great night! I talked to more people than I usually get to talk to on University...it is so sad that we can't go to the mall, people were open to hearing the Gospel there. Here are some pictures: Josh and Joe in front of the mall: Me next to the Red Robin:
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Post by supergirl79 on Jan 12, 2007 0:39:24 GMT -5
We ended up going out on Saturday (1-6-2007) to witness on University, because everyone (except Joe and I) was sick. It was really cold and there weren't very many people out. Joe got into a few conversations that were really good. His longest one was with the guy in the picture with the dog. His name was Jeremy and they talked for quite a while. I got to say a thing or two here and there and heard most of it. He was pretty open, but still had a few strange ideas about the Bible and he might have been smoking some wacky tobacky as well...
I mostly just passed out some tracts and I got into a conversation with one guy. He was a bit difficult for me to handle, because he said right off that he didn't believe in the Bible and he didn't really care about the Law. He thought that you get to Heaven if you just believe in God, but I told him that even the demons believe and tremble, so there has to be something more than just believing. I took him though the Law and shared the Gospel with him, but had to cut it short, because he had to go. He actually kept the tract that I had given him and I closed by telling him he should make sure that he is right about what he believes and think about what I had shared with him. I know I am still not very good at transitioning from giving the tract to the person and then starting the conversation, so I will have to work on that a little...I already got some tips though that I will have to try out, like asking if they can name 5 beers or sports teams or TV shows or music bands and then also if they can name 5 of the 10 Commandments. If you have any other ideas, feel free to share them! Thanks!
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Post by supergirl79 on Jan 13, 2007 16:33:18 GMT -5
Last night (1-12-2007) it was Josh, Rosanna, Joe and me again out on University Blvd. I forgot my camera, so no pictures today. There really isn't much to report, it was cold again and there weren't very many people out. I only got to pass out a few tracts, very few, probably close to 20 or so. Joe had a few conversations though, he even talked to some people that were from a Christian organization and they let him ask the questions to see how he shared the Gospel. They hadn't heard it using the Law and they thought it was a neat way to do it. So that was it really....Not very exciting. But next week, I will be going to Las Vegas for the City Invasion, so I should have a ton of stories to share from that adventure!
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Post by victorialewis on Jan 19, 2007 19:29:41 GMT -5
Stephanie, I know that you're probably in Vegas right now, but I'm back on the board after being away for a time (Miles is back on the road, so I'm back on the board and I just wanted to thank you for these great reports. To hear other glory stories is very encouraging. Thanks! Victoria
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Post by supergirl79 on Jan 24, 2007 14:43:29 GMT -5
Cool! Thanks! Glad you are encouraged by them!
I just like to write them up every week kind, of like a jounal so when I get discouraged, I can always go back and see the stories.
I still have to put together how it went in Las Vegas!
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