Equipping Families to be Strong in the Lord
We are doing our first “evangelism training conference” in Saint Paul, Minnesota, three weeks from now.
We’ve had a desire to run some kind of witnessing conference for a couple years now, and when a pastor in Minnesota invited us to come to his church, it pushed us to actually make plans and put it on the calendar. We are excited to see what the Lord has in store!
All are welcome!
Click here for flyer, or for bulletin inserts, click here.
To register, click here.
We just returned home from a trip to Texas to the Arlington book fair. It was a great trip, but not without difficulty!
I think my favorite part was getting home last night and sitting around for a couple hours telling Stephen all of the stories from the trip … which seem funny now, though they weren’t all funny at the time!
One of the things that was especially difficult without Stephen was setting up the computers! One of them fell over and died. The other took what seemed like a couple hours to set up … with many phone calls to Stephen!
After our day of set up, we went over to Lalo and Dara’s house (from Institute for Creation Research) for a very nice time of good food and fellowship. They have been a big blessing to our family whenever we are in the area.
I don’t know how we could have done the conference without Haley and Natalie, good friends / local Bright Lights leaders who helped to run our booth.
Moriah, in pink, explained how she leads a Bible study with friends and is interested in using the Bright Lights material with her group. She’s 12, so I introduced her to Haley, who also started a Bright Lights group at 12. Many underestimate what a 12-year-old is capable to do, but the Lord obviously doesn’t! It’s super encouraging to see Him raising up young ladies in this generation with a heart for discipleship – even at twelve.
One new addition we have at our booth this year is the Scripture Talk DVD for children produced by our friends Kate and Christa Bridges. We are excited about this new resource to help children memorize Scripture!
The fellowship with the other speakers and vendors is always a fun part of homes school conferences. Here are our friends Michael Hanson and Lalo Gunther at the ICR booth.
Fellowship over dinner
We have one day at home and tomorrow we head to the Michigan home school conference. We are grateful that Stephen was able to quickly fix our computer that “died.” We’d appreciate prayer for our sessions, many of which we are adjusting since Stephen won’t be with us.
…was 45 years ago, TODAY! It was May 3rd, 1969.
They had a pretty rocky relationship. Almost every time they talk about their past they insert comments like, “We were so immature.” “I wish someone would have taught me …” and, “We made a lot of mistakes.”
After my mom rejected my dad for about a year, she finally agreed to go with him to a Youth For Christ Rally where they were doing Bible Quizzing. (My dad was a coach.) She thought Dad was “just okay.” [smile]
She didn’t fall in love with him till a while later when she saw him in some ministry leadership roles. (As a side note, my dad continued leading Bible Quizzing and it was a huge part of our family activities growing up. It’s difficult to express how grateful we are for this now because of all the Scripture it caused us to memorize. If you’re interested, see here. )
They think this was the first picture they ever took together.
My mom at the the first Youth For Christ staff retreat they went to together, talking to her girlfriends … probably about “Harold.”
Mom and dad kept breaking up and getting back together. One time my mom even transferred to a different college, hoping separation would help the relationship!
At first, my mom wouldn’t even talk to my dad. But then, once she fell in love with him, my dad couldn’t decide if he should marry my mom! He called off the wedding after it was all planned, and my mom moved to Florida as a school teacher. All I can say is praise the Lord they actually got married!!!
My parents are quick to share about their past mistakes and all the lessons the Lord has taught them. The hard times they went through has given them wisdom, compassion, and understanding.
Email from Dad to Mom today:
Our first date was 45 years ago TODAY! Saturday, May 3, 1969Reply from Mom to Dad:
Wow….that is amazing! Well, after going through A LOT in the last 45 years I can truthfully say that “we are crazy about each other!”
One of the (MANY) things I really respect about my parents is their humility with us kids, with each other, and with others.
I am so grateful to the Lord for them. Of course, I could go on and on about my amazing parents [smile] … but I think I will stop there for now. They are leaving for a date now and I need to get them to proofread this before they go [smile].
I’ll conclude with one picture that will sum it all up [HA HA HA, I’m so glad Mom and Dad are letting me post this one!]:
And here they are walking out the door for their date tonight, which they seem pretty excited about. 🙂
Why did Jesus tell Mary Magdalene to not cling to Him (or to “stop clinging to Him”) in John 20?
I’ve heard many explanations, but I liked the one I recently read in my Choice Gleanings Devotional Calendar (April 17, George Ferrier), which says, “…the Lord responded that the time to cling to Him was after His ascension. No longer seeing Him physically she would then depend upon Him through spiritual eyes…”
Clinging to the Lord is a repeated Biblical instruction (Deut. 10:20, 13:4, Joshua 23:8, Psalm 63:8, Jeremiah 13:11). The Lord wasn’t changing the instruction here; but He was telling Mary (and all of us) that we have something much greater than His physical presence to cling to. 1 Corinthians 6:17 tells us we who are joined to the Lord are one spirit with Him!
Paul clung to the Lord in His weakness (2 Cor. 12:9-10). James said, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). Peter says, “though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory…” (1 Peter 1:8) Paul wrote, ”… all deserted me … but the Lord stood with me and strengthened me … (2 Tim. 2:16-17).”
Moses wrote, “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms (Deut. 33:27).” Psalm 125:2 says that He surrounds us!
Although Jesus is not with us physically right now, He is with us! And we can cling to Him–as the apostles did after His ascension. He gives abundant comfort, companionship, counsel, and strength. Because of His near presence (Phil 4:5), we can be anxious for nothing (Phil 4:6). May we be clinging tightly when He returns!
“And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming (1 John 2:28).”
Yesterday we went witnessing at the University of Iowa. Here’s our group meeting up afterward to discuss how the conversations went.
Luke witnessing
One guy asked Luke, “Are you the one who gave me the million dollar bill?” He said he remembered talking with him before. We told him it wasn’t an accident that we bumped into him again! (Note: there are 30,000 students at the University of Iowa, so it’s not that likely to run into the same ones again!)
I met two girls from Malaysia. They thought it was neat that I had been to their country four times, and we instantly became “friends.” After I shared about the significance of this weekend (celebrating the resurrection), I asked them, “So what do you guys think is the way to have peace with God?”
“By reading the Book,” they replied.
“The Quran?” I asked.
“Yeah and the Book, your Book, the Bible—the Quran tells us to read that.”
“So have you read the Bible?” I asked.
“Yes, some,” they replied.
“With Christians or Muslims?” I asked.
“Both—we’ve gotten together with Christians to read the Bible and talk about it.”
“Wow, that’s great!” I told them, “Maybe you could come to my house!”
They were warm towards that idea; hopefully the Lord will work it out.
On the way home, I told this story to those in the van. This caused us to begin discussing various international friends that we have been trying to arrange to have over for dinner. I mentioned the name of a student who was a friend of my dad’s who we’ve been wanting to have over. When our friend Eric heard me mention that name, he exclaimed, “He’s the guy I’ve been witnessing to that I was telling you about!”
After comparing a couple details, we became confident that we were talking about the same guy. Eric, who attends the same university, explained about the good conversations he had with this guy! He has even had him over for dinner. We told Eric how my dad had become friends with this student as well and has met with him for coffee and brought him to our church. Neither knew the other one was witnessing to him, but both Eric and my dad were very encouraged to learn this. Praise the Lord!
Often we forget that we are usually just “one link” in a chain of people that God is using to bring someone to Christ. But *sometimes* the Lord lets us see another link in the chain. [smile] It’s so encouraging to be reminded that He is powerfully carrying out His plans–and He is intimately involved in all the little details.
Here’s another recent example: About a month ago, an out-of-state friend shared with me some video footage and pictures from an evangelistic outreach at a university in his area. One of the video clips was of him witnessing to a student from a country closed to the gospel. As I was watching the video and heard the student say what country he was from, I realized, I think I might know that guy!!
You see, last summer when we were traveling in that state, my dad and I were able to witness to a guy from that country who told us where he was going to school (the same university where my friend was doing the evangelistic outreach). We established a friendship with him and even got a picture together. We pulled up the picture, and to us he looks the same as the guy in the video our friend sent us. Same guy? We think so. If not, at least they know each other because they are from the same country studying at the same university.
This was a reminder to us to pray. The odds of our friend witnessing to the same guy we had witnessed to (in another state!) are not high. And the odds of us finding out about it are definitely not high! This was the first time we’d received a video from our friend of a witnessing conversation, and who was he witnessing to? Someone we think we already know?! Only God can write stories like these. 🙂
“Come and see the works of God, who is awesome in His deeds toward the sons of men… He rules by His might forever; His eyes keep watch on the nations … Bless our God, O peoples, And sound His praise abroad” (Psalm 66:5-8).
There was sure a lot for the believers in Jerusalem to be talking about 2,000 years ago after Jesus rose from the dead! I love the way the Lord caused the resurrection story to play out with all its interesting elements, aspects, and angles!
I enjoyed Tim Chaffey’s article and chart on evidence for the resurrection in the most recent Answers Magazine. If you don’t get Answers you can read it here.
One point that I hadn’t thought of before was that Mary Magdalene — being both a woman and a previous demoniac — would have been practically the last person the Jews would have trusted as a witness for Christ’s resurrection. If someone was making up this whole thing, they certainly wouldn’t have formed a story that had Mary Magdalene as the first person Jesus appeared to! Women’s testimonies were not highly valued in those days, and a woman who recently had seven demons makes her much less trustworthy! To read Tim Chaffey’s fuller explanation of this, you can also click here and scroll down to “Principle of Embarrasement.”
Also, in regards to using this week for witnessing, here is a link to our Resurrection questionnaire and tract.
And if you’d really like to read more about evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, I’d recommend reading Tim Chaffey’s whole series of articles from last year. [smile]
Our friend Annie (in pink on right) hosted a Bible study weekend recently for girls ages 15 and up on Galatians and sent me this picture. She said the girls came prepared to share about what they learned from studying beforehand and that it was encouraging to hear the girls’ thoughts and insights. They also did this last October on the book of Ephesians.
Last time we ran one of these Bible study weekends in our area (our 1 Peter weekend), we were extremely blessed. If any of you would like to run a girls Bible study weekend in your area, I’d highly recommend it! Just pick a book of the Bible, have everyone study it beforehand, and be prepared to be blessed by the deeper fellowship you will enjoy as you dig into God’s Word together. Can you think of a better way to spend the weekend with friends?! [smile]
“I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.” Psalm 119:63
Yesterday at the park a young mom told me her spiritual beliefs. Her friend laughed as she described her “religion.” Her “belief” was a blasphemous reaction to creation to mock Christianity.
This is going to be an interesting conversation, I thought to myself.
I hadn’t even said anything yet about what I believe, yet right from the start she had clearly stated her rejection of my views.
I knew she probably wouldn’t respond well to questions about sin or Jesus, so instead I asked, “What do you think is the biggest problem in the world?” (I don’t normally ask this question, but I had just written a new questionnaire about an hour earlier. I saw the Lord’s provision in that!)
She and her friend liked the question and basically answered that the biggest problem in the world was selfishness. This led into a conversation about Hitler, morals, and truth, and the need for a standard of right and wrong (which they agreed to).
“I guess it comes down to ‘be a good person and that’s all that matters,’” Jackie said.
“Well, here’s my thinking on that,” I told her, “I know that I am not a good person in comparison to God’s holiness and perfection. It’s all in what you compare to.”
Though she didn’t agree with me, she couldn’t exactly disagree either.
Throughout the next half hour or so, I did a lot of listening and a lot of asking questions. A few times I squeezed in some truths, such as: how Christianity is different from the religions, God’s “rescue plan,” the difference between operational and historical science, etc.
I told them, “I disagree with all of the religions.”
This statement seemed to surprise them.
I explained, “All of the religions are about attaining favor with God. But the Bible says that doesn’t work; we could never attain God’s favor. Christianity is about God reaching down to us.”
When I left they thanked me warmly. They stated how nice it was to have clearly opposing views yet still have an enjoyable conversation.
When I came back and recounted the story to my dad, he reminded me of the power of questions. In a situation like this one–when you are talking with someone who has firmly and blatantly rejected Creation and Christianity–questions are a powerful tool. Sometimes, if we ask the right questions, people talk themselves into a corner. Often, it makes a more powerful impact to let them come to the conclusion that they don’t have good answers, rather than simply stating “you’re wrong and here’s why.” I think this is part of what Jesus meant when he told us to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16).
They probably won’t admit that they don’t have good answers at the time, but the Lord can bring the conversation back to their mind and use what we said.
We are so excited by how we saw the Lord working this past weekend!!! We just returned home from a Friday-Sunday trip to the Creation Museum. We had 16 in our group, including friends from Iran, Singapore, Malaysia, and China, as well as several young people from our town.
Watching Evolution Vs. God on my laptop in the van on the way there. (They really enjoyed it, as you can see!)
Here’s our group along with the Ramsek family who hosted some of us.
Discussing some of the encouraging conversations of the day.
My dad spent most of his time with a new friend from Iran who came along. They had a wonderful time together. My Dad said it’s the longest conversation he has ever had — a three day discussion! They talked for the entire 10 hour drive to Kentucky, all through the museum, and the 10 hours back! One time dad even missed his exit because of the interesting conversational topics they were discussing. [smile]
Concluding the day on Saturday with a great lasagna dinner at the Ramsek’s home!
This gave us the opportunity to have a time of sharing as a group — a special conclusion to the day at the museum.
The Dewald family for hosted half of the group of girls.
It was very encouraging to me to see the Lord truly ANSWER PRAYER this weekend. We were very blessed by three families who hosted us: the Dewalds, Ramseks, and Philips. We praise God for how all the logistical details fell into place and for how much our friends enjoyed the trip. Each of the international friends expressed strongly that they were glad they came and want to remain in touch. Our friend from China exclaimed with a bright smile, “This was the best three days of my life!”
We think the 9 hour drive was a blessing in disguise because of all the good van conversations on the way there and back. If you have a weekend you can get away, I recommend that you take some friends to the Creation Museum and see how the Lord works. [smile]
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning and Your faithfulness by night” (Psalm 92:1)
We are praising the Lord for the wonderful time witnessing at the parade yesterday! There is such a thrill in sharing the gospel and seeing the Lord’s little miracles along the way. NOTHING else compares!
“Those conversations are so fun,” my dad commented to me as we were walking back to the van afterward.
It’s grieving to think of all the times we fail to take opportunities to share the gospel. We miss out on *so much* when we aren’t out there witnessing.
Praying before we started.
Luke (the guy without the hat) sharing the gospel with this group. Luke comes witnessing with us frequently, but he does it much more on his own! It’s always exciting to hear his “latest story.”
Nickie and Bekah went to a different street to passing out tracts and have conversations with people.
My dad had a great conversation with some Hispanic college students and two students wanted to pray and trust Christ to save them! Apparently, they had some previous Bible knowledge and yesterday “it all came together” for them. Praise the Lord!
I used a St Patrick Questionnaire which made it easier to start conversations quickly. I think the questionnaire makes people feel more comfortable and willing to talk.
My favorite conversation was one with Josh and Ciarra, a brother and sister who looked about 18 and 20. They just soaked up what I was telling them about salvation. No hesitation, no resistance, just pure openness and excitement about the good news of the gospel.
Ciarra had thought one could get to Heaven because “God forgives.” I told her she was partially right, but that there was more to it.
“If a criminal stood before the judge and said, ‘Will you just forgive me?’ the judge couldn’t just do that; he wouldn’t be a good judge.”
Ciarra and Josh really agreed with that.
When I explained that God provided JESUS to be our substitute and take our “death penalty” so that we could walk out of God’s courtroom free — yet God still be just — it seemed to click with them. As Romans 3:26 says, “So that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
“Actually, two guys talked to me about this in the mall last week,” Josh told me.
“Really? How did they start the conversation?” I asked, wondering if I would know who they were.
“Well, I was wearing a t-shirt that said ‘God is the only one who can judge me,’” and they complimented it.
“Ah, neat!” I replied. “What did they say?”
“About the same thing you said,” Josh replied.
“Well, I think that means that God is reaching out to you!” I told him. “I think it really shows His care! I mean, since that just happened last week, and now here I am talking to you – out of all the people here at the parade!”
Josh agreed enthusiastically, and seemed very surprised by all this himself. I had already given him a Bible a few minutes earlier as I sensed his eagerness. (I had given Josh a Begin, which has some of Genesis as well as John and Romans). He and Ciarra said they’d be interested in meeting up with us to study the Bible.
As I was recounting this story afterward, my friend Luke said, “Oh yeah, I talked to him at the mall Friday night.”
“Oh, that was you, Luke?!” I said.
“Yeah, I’ve been praying for him and we’ve been e-mailing,” Luke replied.
“That’s neat you’ve been praying for him!” Sarah said, “That’s probably why God caused Grace to talk to him today.”
Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and there were 10,000+ people at the parade. The odds of me having a conversation with Josh are not high! Sarah reminded us that just a few days ago, we saw the Lord arrange another one of these “miraculous connections.” What an undeserved privledge that we are God’s “fellow workers” and get to watch Him work (1 Corinthians 3:9). It’s not surprising that we should especially see His hand in matters of reaching the lost.
I walked up as my dad was talking to these guys. After my dad laid out the gospel, one of the boys said, “Wow, that just blew my brain.” He was pretty excited about what he was learning.
There were also two girls sitting on a bench listening. After a few minutes they joined in and all four asked question after question … making the conversation go on and on. The girls were resistant initially, but really began to warm up as their questions were answered. [smile]
As we left, the guys thanked my dad warmly. “Thank you SO much,” they told him.
These teens had a lot of real questions. They were acting silly and argumentative, but only on the surface. They were laughing and having fun, just as we were. But they were also learning a lot. That is something they didn’t expect, but appreciated!
If Christians don’t get into talks with unbelievers, how will our world ever hear Biblical answers? They apparently don’t hear them anywhere else, and so they think there aren’t any answers.
What a privilege to be involved in their lives.
