SWAT TEAM Witnessing - Springfield & Branson - 6/16/06

Street Witnessing And Training
Taking Evangelism Across Missouri
Friday Night - 6/16/06 -- Park Central Square –
Downtown Springfield, Missouri

The following is from SWAT TEAM member and GNN Seed Sower, Michael Borich:

(The tracts we use can be found at Gospel Tracts: Living Waters Store.)Always an interesting time in downtown Springfield. Three police squad cars greeted us in the square when we arrived at 8 p.m. JJ, Danika and I prayed and set off to the bus station and then through the downtown area. We passed out DaVinci Code tracts, million dollar bills, some Good Person cartoon tracts and quite a few silver 10 Commandment coins. A lot of people took tracts, but no one seemed to have the time to go through more in-depth sharing.

We did spend about 30 minutes with Ed Brooks, a security guard at a parking lot adjacent to the Woodruff Building. He remembered the "friendly guy from Branson." He told us all about his stroke, heart attacks, his faith in God, his plans to serve God by ministering to immigrants, his venue for gospel music concerts that he's working on -- an interesting guy, and we ended up spending more time listening to him than we had planned. But, Praise God! another good soul to pray for.

When we reached the bus station on our second tour the buses were just leaving but we managed to get a few tracks in through the windows to people.

Back at the square the usual suspects were hanging out. JJ and Danika decided to do one more downtown circuit, so I went the opposite direction, toward the parking lot.

A somewhat weird evening, in our opinion. Maybe the presence of so many police kept things low-key and a little quite. Most of the people were on their way to clubs and restaurants, so conversation was difficult.

But we were faithful, and the Lord will bless the gospel materials that went out -- His word never returns void.

Pray for Ed Brooks.

In His Service,
Michael
Phil. 4:4
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Saturday Afternoon - 6/17/06
Historic Downtown Branson, Missouri

Today was overcast and raining on and off. We determined to go out and witness in Branson, rain or shine. We didn’t stay too long, but we were able to pass out the million dollar bill gospel tracts and the Giant $100 bill gospel tracts.

Since it was raining or sprinkling much of the time, folks didn’t want to stand around and have a conversation. However, we thank God for the people taking gospel tracts and they were reading them, as you can see from the pics below.











In Christ,

Brad St. Clair
www.repentandturn.com
www.gnnlocalleader.com

SWAT TEAM Springfield, MO Witnessing - 6/02/06

Street Witnessing And Training
Taking Evangelism Across Missouri

Friday Night – 6/02/06 -- Park Central Square –Downtown Springfield, Missouri

Tonight was “Art Walk” in downtown Springfield, but it was not as crowded as it used to be. I believe it may have something to do with the college crowd has left for home for the summer.

Michael Borich, GNN Seed Sower, came out tonight to witness with me. We were able to pass out gospel tracts, as well as meet other Christians in the area.

We decided to walk over to the Bus Station and pass out tracts and witness to those sitting and standing around. One of the gentlemen we met, named Harold, is a U.S. veteran. We talked for a while and he said he considered himself to be a good person. We asked him if we could ask him a few questions to see if that was true. He agreed. We took him through the Ten Commandments. He admitted to being a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer-at-heart. However, he didn’t really admit that he was on his way to hell. He didn’t really know what it was to be born-again, so we went through it with him. He didn’t appear to be very interested. However, we told him we would be praying for him. God does the convicting…we just sow the gospel seeds. He shook our hand and we left.

While walking around Park Central Square, a man walked up and offered me a bottled water. We found out that this is Pastor Bill Kolb of West Division Street Baptist Church in Springfield. We have previously met up with members of his congregation out passing out water, gospel tracts and witnessing. It was nice to finally meet him. He is thinking of planning a Christian event in Springfield and asked for our opinions. He gave me his e-mail address and I will follow up with him.

There was a young man named Jeff that was with Pastor Bill. Jeff said he had only been with Pastor for less than 20 minutes. He came out on his own to witness to people and overcome fear, and just met up with Pastor. He said that God has been putting it on his heart to get out and witness. He has been watching the Way of the Master television episodes and now he needed to get some hands on experience. Well, praise God. I know this was the work of God to bring us together. Here Jeff is studying the Way of the Master evangelism training, and on his first night out he runs into us. I told him that Michael is a GNN Seed Sower and that I am the
GNN Local Leader for the Springfield area. (GNN and Way of the Master are sister ministries). We are always looking for Christians to come out to witness with us and Jeff wants someone to go out and witness with. Jeff asked if he could walk around with us…YES!

We began walking around, and this same Jeff, that said he needed to have more boldness, walked directly up to the loudest, filthiest talking man in the square and held out his hand to give him a gospel tract. Praise God for Jeff.


Jeff and myself


Jeff and Michael

At the same time, I was handing out the “Da Vinci Code” gospel tracts. A young man asked me, is that for or against the Da Vinci Code? I handed him one. His name is Bryant and the young lady with him is named Abby. I explained it was a gospel tract. He said he is a Christian. I asked Bryant if we can do a role play to show him how we witness with others. He said yes and I took him through the law and grace.

Bryant said that he and Abby are with a new ministry/church that is called Tic Toc Ministries that is located directly down from the square. He took us there and we met Gary and Monica Dennington, who leads the ministry. They have started an internet tv ministry from that location as well. They have a lot more going on in their ministry that I haven’t mentioned. They were very nice to us and it was great to meet up with other Christians. We will be keeping in contact with them.

We made one more pass around the area, passing out tracts to folks. We had a good night.

In Christ,

Brad St. Clair
http://www.repentandturn.com/
http://www.gnnlocalleader.com/

SWAT TEAM Springfield, MO Witnessing - 5/05/06

Street Witnessing And Training
Taking Evangelism Across Missouri


Four of us met up tonight in downtown Springfield. Michael Borich, J.J. Lindsey, Danika and myself. Tonight was also “Pub Crawl” in downtown Springfield, there were a good number of folks out, but not as many as we thought would be.

When we arrived, we found out there was a man named Robert, who is from Florida that was down at the square. He said he would be open-air preaching in just a few minutes. I was interested in hearing him, so we hung around the square and passed out gospel tracts until he began.

Robert jumped up on the water fountain wall and began preaching about the mark of the beast, the Passover and against catholicism. Three different times throughout his open-air, he gave out a $20 bill to random people. This made the crowd stay around and listen to him. He did get to use the Law (Ten Commandments) as he was preaching. He mentioned that none of us are good enough by our works to get to heaven, and that it is only through Jesus Christ that we are made righteous. He then led some in the crowd in a “sinner’s prayer”. I do believe there was a few people there that really meant the prayer, and some just said the prayer to get the $20 that he was handing out—hoping Robert would select them.

Our style of open-air preaching is to focus primarily on taking people through God’s Law (the Ten Commandments) so that they find themselves in need of “saving”, then share the good news (the gospel) with them. We don’t believe in going off in various directions, like preaching against the catholic church, etc. in the same message as presenting the gospel.

I was able to speak with Nicole and take her through the Law and gospel. Her boyfriend, John, said that he didn’t believe in this but he didn’t mind if I talked to his girlfriend about it. John listened as well as we were talking. Nicole was convicted, as she admitted that she was a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adultery at heart. She admitted that she would be guilty on Judgment Day and is on her way to hell. I presented the gospel to her and that “we broke God’s Law and Jesus paid our fine”. I gave here a “Are you good enough to go to Heaven” tract and a giant $100 bill gospel tract. John wouldn’t take a giant $100 bill.

However, later when we ran across Nicole and John, he said he didn’t believe like I did, but he respected me for coming out and talking with people. He also asked for one of the giant $100 bill gospel tracts. He said he wasn’t going to read it, but will pin it to his wall for the looks of it. I am praying that that he will get alone and the Holy Spirit will convict his heart and he will read it.

Also, since we received a letter from the General Counsel attorney saying that we had the right to witness and pass out gospel tracts at the bus station, we did so! We walked all around on the property, passed out tracts to just about everyone, waved at the friendly security guard and didn’t have any problems. Praise God!

The following is from Michael Borich:
The young lady (and her friend who was talking on the telephone-- one of them was Monica, I think)) I shared the Good Person test with near the bus station was like so many of the young people we share with -- they are "Christianized" -- having been to church off and on from a young age, maybe even answering an altar call at some point, baptized, but living lives with little outward evidence or understanding of what it really means to be a a follower of Jesus Christ.

From my experience, witnessing to someone with no knowledge is easier than those who think they are Christians but have no interest in growing in their faith.

Especially the downtown-dwellers who are regulars around the square have been around Christians all their lives, can quote scripture, can tell why Jesus died, but here is the problem, in my opinion:

Many people want forgiveness without repentance. They want salvation without change. They want Christ's blessings without His suffering. They want to be Christians without being consecrated. The core message should always be repentance and faith alone in Jesus. But after that, how then should they live?. . .

Save Yourself Some Pain does provide answers, but as in Jesus' day, the most resistant to the good news were those who thought themselves religious.

The other two girls I got to take through the Good Person test -- Mykala and Melissa -- both Glendale students -- I have talked to several times in the past but never at length. They both failed the test, but at the point of, when will you have that serious conversation with God? -- especially after how you shared the tragic story of your cousin (who died in a tragic car accident recently) -- they began to walk away. Nevertheless, some seeds were planted and I am sure we will see them again.
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We thank God for bringing these people into our paths tonight and to continue to convict their hearts.

In Christ,

Brad St. Clair
www.repentandturn.com
www.gnnlocalleader.com