Evangelism Explosion for 4/11/06
Good morning friends/family!
It was yet another wonderful night - with great weather for traveling around the area to go "fishing". As Dot noted, the teams were "scrambled" - that is, the trainees were reassigned to a different trainer that they hadn't worked with before in an attempt to let them see how different trainers handle the various situations that come up, etc.
I was teamed with Donny Lowery and Bob Mabry. Since I've been used mainly as a "floater" this semester, I've gone out with both guys at least once already. Before we left, Donny told me to look at the cards. I told him that the last time I did that, I got a feeling about one of them, the team leader and I nearly got into an argument due to the driving distance, but he finally agreed to make the visit and we wound up leading a young child to Christ that nightl. I picked 2 cards that I kind of had feelings - not super strong like before - about and we were off. Before leaving the church, I prayed for our visits - the people, us, the other teams.
One of the visits was with a man in Brandon - Donny lives in Brandon, but he and Bob were unable to locate the address on one of our maps. So, Bob called the phone number and reached someone - but not the person we were looking for. Looking back, God obviously closed that door! Instead, we set out to try to find Gloria - who lives sort of in Jackson's "inner city" - and had some difficulty finding her, but eventually we were successful.
Once at Gloria's house, I was positioned in front and knocked on the door. She responded with something like "who is it?" and I identified all 3 of us and made sure to tell her that we were from First Baptist Church - Jackson. She opened the door to us and we stood out on the stpes for a couple of minutes talking, then she invited us inside. After we were seated, Donny started with the Gospel presentation and asked her the 2 diagnostic questions - to which she responded with "works" type answers.
Donny plunged ahead and did a fabulous, nearly flawless presentation of the Gospel. Bob and I were sitting back watching the interaction between Donny and Gloria and I know I was praying for both of them. Well - Donny reached the point in the presentation about commitment and he asked Gloria if she would like to accept this free gift of eternal life and claim Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Gloria said yes, so he clarified what that meant; she still said yes when he asked again, giving her "an out" as it were.
About that time, I stepped up to the plate and kind of barged in. The time of commitment is my favorite part of the presentation - when asked, I tell team leaders that if they'll get us to the time of commitment, I'll take it from there. Several times this semester, it has worked out that way too. Well - I asked Donny if he would like for me to lead and he gave it to me to run with. I prayed first for Gloria, then again, with her following me, in a "sinner's prayer", and then I gave it back to Donny to pray for her that she would be strong in her new found faith. We talked with her a while longer and I got some information from her - I wrote it in the notebook I carry with me on EE visits. Before leaving, we prayed with Gloria one more time - as we did, she broke down in tears of joy over the decision she had made as a result of our visit.
When we were in Donny's truck on the way back to church - we only had time for this one visit - we were talking about how it went. I apologized to Donny for barging in on the time of commitment and he said he didn't have a problem with that at all. Bob hadn't said much through the entire visit; he claimed that he was admiring Donny's skillful presentation - I was too for that matter - and I told Bob that at the last, I was trying to draw him into the conversation by asking him questions about Stan and his preaching style and programs for kids.
Some special prayer notes on Gloria:
Her mother, Helen, is coming out of a nursing home on Thursday to live with her.
On Saturday they will be moving to a new residence - she gave us the new address, her phone number will stay the same.
She asked us to pray for her children and grandchildren, some of whom are living with her
Her brother, Sylvester.
Thank you for your faithfulness to pray for our teams. The semester is coming to a close in about 4 weeks. We have 3 more nights of visits and then the final night will be our end of semester "graduation" and banquet.
In Him,
Peggy Alford
Here's Dot's part...
Subject: EE Report: Heaven is rejoicing!!
My Dear EE Friends,
Tonight was fabulous!
Tuesday nights have long been my favorite night of the week because we can so easily see God at work, and we are allowed to be part of it. How great it is, that He commands us to be His witnesses and then turns right around and blesses us tremendously! There is an indescribable joy in sharing the Gospel and seeing someone come to accept Him as Lord and Savior.
Just for tonight, the trainees were assigned to a different trainer for a little variety in looking for lost people. We each have a favorite "fishing spots", and it was fun mixing the teams up a bit.
Heaven rejoiced with us tonight in seeing EIGHT people make professions of faith and thus experience their spiritual birth.
Ronnie Falvey and Bob Waller visited with a mother and her four children ages 8-13. The dad was not home. The man and his wife were former members of our church sometime ago. Ronnie shared the Gospel with the children and they all prayed to receive Christ!!! They live in Pearl, and they indicated that they might very likely come to our church this coming Sunday and walk the aisle. What a memorable Easter this will be for that family!
Eric James, Hank Holman and Linda Deddens made contact with a lady who signed up at our church booth at the state fair last fall. She was 30 years old and lost. After hearing the Gospel presentation she prayed to receive Christ. She has a 9 year old son and she too is a potential church member. She says her son needs Sunday School, AWANA, and would enjoy Upward basketball too.
Ken Blackstock, Mary Burkett, and Rick Olson also made a visit with a lady in her 30's who had registered at our state fair booth last fall. Latasha also prayed to receive Christ as her Lord and Savior.
Bob Mabry, Donny Lowery, and Peggy Alford visited with Gloria, a 44 yr. old lady who uses our CLC. After hearing them share the Gospel, she accepted Christ as her Savior and Lord.
She is interested in the single adult ministry of our church.
My team for tonight was Chris and Karen Ball. We knocked on apartment doors. The first door opened to us and was a lady named Heidi, about 60 years old, of German decent. She attends Pinelake, but did not have a much understanding of the tremendous price Christ paid for us on the cross. Karen shared the Gospel so beautifully and gently with her and then Heidi prayed for Jesus to come into her heart.
We then knocked on a second door which also opened to us. Chris shared this time with a 35 year old man named Casey, and Casey received assurance of his salvation. Chris too did a great job with the presentation.
All in all, we had the eight spiritual births, and nine others who received assurance of their salvation. It was our joy tonight to help those nine better understand what Easter is all about. So, there are 17 people who are very happy tonight that they opened their doors to our EE teams and then opened their hearts to Jesus.
Several of the other teams made great visits of encouragement in and around the hospitals... sharing the love of Jesus with families and praying with them. The people were so thankful for the visits. Many of them had no one with them from a church. Having received a touch from our Lord, they had smiles on their faces as our teams left them.
I hope these emails can somehow convey to you the blessings we receive from our faithfulness to share His Message. His Word is so very important...
Jesus declared
" I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless his is born again." John 3:3
May God bless you too for being our faithful prayer support.
Love,
Dot
It was yet another wonderful night - with great weather for traveling around the area to go "fishing". As Dot noted, the teams were "scrambled" - that is, the trainees were reassigned to a different trainer that they hadn't worked with before in an attempt to let them see how different trainers handle the various situations that come up, etc.
I was teamed with Donny Lowery and Bob Mabry. Since I've been used mainly as a "floater" this semester, I've gone out with both guys at least once already. Before we left, Donny told me to look at the cards. I told him that the last time I did that, I got a feeling about one of them, the team leader and I nearly got into an argument due to the driving distance, but he finally agreed to make the visit and we wound up leading a young child to Christ that nightl. I picked 2 cards that I kind of had feelings - not super strong like before - about and we were off. Before leaving the church, I prayed for our visits - the people, us, the other teams.
One of the visits was with a man in Brandon - Donny lives in Brandon, but he and Bob were unable to locate the address on one of our maps. So, Bob called the phone number and reached someone - but not the person we were looking for. Looking back, God obviously closed that door! Instead, we set out to try to find Gloria - who lives sort of in Jackson's "inner city" - and had some difficulty finding her, but eventually we were successful.
Once at Gloria's house, I was positioned in front and knocked on the door. She responded with something like "who is it?" and I identified all 3 of us and made sure to tell her that we were from First Baptist Church - Jackson. She opened the door to us and we stood out on the stpes for a couple of minutes talking, then she invited us inside. After we were seated, Donny started with the Gospel presentation and asked her the 2 diagnostic questions - to which she responded with "works" type answers.
Donny plunged ahead and did a fabulous, nearly flawless presentation of the Gospel. Bob and I were sitting back watching the interaction between Donny and Gloria and I know I was praying for both of them. Well - Donny reached the point in the presentation about commitment and he asked Gloria if she would like to accept this free gift of eternal life and claim Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Gloria said yes, so he clarified what that meant; she still said yes when he asked again, giving her "an out" as it were.
About that time, I stepped up to the plate and kind of barged in. The time of commitment is my favorite part of the presentation - when asked, I tell team leaders that if they'll get us to the time of commitment, I'll take it from there. Several times this semester, it has worked out that way too. Well - I asked Donny if he would like for me to lead and he gave it to me to run with. I prayed first for Gloria, then again, with her following me, in a "sinner's prayer", and then I gave it back to Donny to pray for her that she would be strong in her new found faith. We talked with her a while longer and I got some information from her - I wrote it in the notebook I carry with me on EE visits. Before leaving, we prayed with Gloria one more time - as we did, she broke down in tears of joy over the decision she had made as a result of our visit.
When we were in Donny's truck on the way back to church - we only had time for this one visit - we were talking about how it went. I apologized to Donny for barging in on the time of commitment and he said he didn't have a problem with that at all. Bob hadn't said much through the entire visit; he claimed that he was admiring Donny's skillful presentation - I was too for that matter - and I told Bob that at the last, I was trying to draw him into the conversation by asking him questions about Stan and his preaching style and programs for kids.
Some special prayer notes on Gloria:
Her mother, Helen, is coming out of a nursing home on Thursday to live with her.
On Saturday they will be moving to a new residence - she gave us the new address, her phone number will stay the same.
She asked us to pray for her children and grandchildren, some of whom are living with her
Her brother, Sylvester.
Thank you for your faithfulness to pray for our teams. The semester is coming to a close in about 4 weeks. We have 3 more nights of visits and then the final night will be our end of semester "graduation" and banquet.
In Him,
Peggy Alford
Here's Dot's part...
Subject: EE Report: Heaven is rejoicing!!
My Dear EE Friends,
Tonight was fabulous!
Tuesday nights have long been my favorite night of the week because we can so easily see God at work, and we are allowed to be part of it. How great it is, that He commands us to be His witnesses and then turns right around and blesses us tremendously! There is an indescribable joy in sharing the Gospel and seeing someone come to accept Him as Lord and Savior.
Just for tonight, the trainees were assigned to a different trainer for a little variety in looking for lost people. We each have a favorite "fishing spots", and it was fun mixing the teams up a bit.
Heaven rejoiced with us tonight in seeing EIGHT people make professions of faith and thus experience their spiritual birth.
Ronnie Falvey and Bob Waller visited with a mother and her four children ages 8-13. The dad was not home. The man and his wife were former members of our church sometime ago. Ronnie shared the Gospel with the children and they all prayed to receive Christ!!! They live in Pearl, and they indicated that they might very likely come to our church this coming Sunday and walk the aisle. What a memorable Easter this will be for that family!
Eric James, Hank Holman and Linda Deddens made contact with a lady who signed up at our church booth at the state fair last fall. She was 30 years old and lost. After hearing the Gospel presentation she prayed to receive Christ. She has a 9 year old son and she too is a potential church member. She says her son needs Sunday School, AWANA, and would enjoy Upward basketball too.
Ken Blackstock, Mary Burkett, and Rick Olson also made a visit with a lady in her 30's who had registered at our state fair booth last fall. Latasha also prayed to receive Christ as her Lord and Savior.
Bob Mabry, Donny Lowery, and Peggy Alford visited with Gloria, a 44 yr. old lady who uses our CLC. After hearing them share the Gospel, she accepted Christ as her Savior and Lord.
She is interested in the single adult ministry of our church.
My team for tonight was Chris and Karen Ball. We knocked on apartment doors. The first door opened to us and was a lady named Heidi, about 60 years old, of German decent. She attends Pinelake, but did not have a much understanding of the tremendous price Christ paid for us on the cross. Karen shared the Gospel so beautifully and gently with her and then Heidi prayed for Jesus to come into her heart.
We then knocked on a second door which also opened to us. Chris shared this time with a 35 year old man named Casey, and Casey received assurance of his salvation. Chris too did a great job with the presentation.
All in all, we had the eight spiritual births, and nine others who received assurance of their salvation. It was our joy tonight to help those nine better understand what Easter is all about. So, there are 17 people who are very happy tonight that they opened their doors to our EE teams and then opened their hearts to Jesus.
Several of the other teams made great visits of encouragement in and around the hospitals... sharing the love of Jesus with families and praying with them. The people were so thankful for the visits. Many of them had no one with them from a church. Having received a touch from our Lord, they had smiles on their faces as our teams left them.
I hope these emails can somehow convey to you the blessings we receive from our faithfulness to share His Message. His Word is so very important...
Jesus declared
" I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless his is born again." John 3:3
May God bless you too for being our faithful prayer support.
Love,
Dot
posted by Peggy (PJ) Alford @ 10:35 AM
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