This week a group from a church in New Jersey came to the OAC Boston office for evangelism training and experience. It was a superb group! Since I’m not full-time yet, I was only able to be there for two days, but it was a fantastic two days!

We trained the group in evangelism, in running an evangelistic children’s program, and in sharing your faith in the streets. They did wonderfully! Some of them even ran the Bible verse Hangman puzzle, performed the gospel illusions, and preached in the open air with the paint board! I praise Jesus for their faith and boldness!!!

Before I get into the main photos, I just have to share this one!!! (Richard Burley snapped this and it’s precious!)

I love this photo. I got to chat with Mason, Treyvon, and Treshawn after Wednesday’s meeting. I walked them through a gospel booklet that we use with children, asking them questions on every page. I believe, from their answers, that they understood the message. What an honor to share Christ!!!

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Here are more photos from the last two days. Please click on them to enlarge.

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Here are some people I’d like you to please keep in your prayers. They are people that stood out to me when I was engaging with them.

• Mason, Treyvon, and Treshawn: These are three young boys I was able to walk through a gospel message with after a children’s meeting. To call them “sweet” would be an understatement! Please pray that God would water the gospel seed and that it was planted in good soil.

• Carla, a Jehovah’s Witness, and her “disciple”: When we arrived at the neighborhood for our first kids’ meeting, I saw two well-dressed women at the door speaking with a woman who lived there. I suspected they were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and I approached them to ask them if they were. The leader, Carla, said she was and asked if she could answer any of my questions. I asked her about who she thought Jesus was, and what one must do to have their sins forgiven. She tried to tell me that the name “Jehovah” is found in Hebrew in the New Testament, which 10 minutes of study would show to be ridiculous. There is no Hebrew in the New Testament, and the name “Jehovah” is not found anywhere in the original language of the New Testament. But I’m not interested in winning arguments as much as I am interested in seeing God win souls. Please pray that my short witness to them will yield fruit.

• Tim: Tim is an African-American man that I’d estimate to be in his 40’s. He was wandering around our area when we were evangelizing in Downtown Boston. He spoke with a few from our team, including me. He told me that his dad and sister are both Pastors, and he grew up hearing about God and Christ and the Bible. Tim appeared to be drunk or even stoned. I asked him about his own relationship with Christ and he merely said, “I’m just hanging out and I’ll be living long after you die.” I believe he heard the gospel message and pray he’ll respond with repentance and faith!

• Kuma: Kuma was one of the strangest men I have ever spoken to.

  I got into a conversation with him because I offered him a gospel tract, and he responded with “I’m not interested in Mythology.”

  I answered, “Neither am I, and that’s why I follow Jesus Christ. He’s not mythology.”

  Kuma sighed, and asked me, “Do you really want me to get into this with you?”

  I told him I’m interested in talking with everybody.

  He presented himself as very knowledgeable of all world religions, and rattled off a number of obscure ones. He pointed out that they’re all false. I agreed with him. Then he said, “So there it is,” expecting me to understand.

  I asked him, “So because there are a number of false religions, that means all religions are false?”

  “Exactly!” he said.

  I pointed out to him the illogical nature of his statement. If I said that John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Barak Obama are all President of the United States, I’d have two false statements, and one true statement. It doesn’t follow that because some statements about who the President is are false, that all statements are false.

  Just because many religions are false, doesn’t automatically and logically mean that all religions are false.

  Then he changed the subject and in the next 20 minutes told me that Jesus was African, that he and I are a different species, and that life came about by Aliens from another world, and they’re the “gods.”

  All I can do is point out logical fallacies, which I believe I did, and clearly communicate the true gospel, which I believe I did. Please pray for Kuma, because like all of us, only God can change his heart.

• Moshe and his family: I noticed a man dressed in the traditional apparel for an Orthodox Jewish man to wear, so I approached him and said, “Excuse me, are you Jewish?” He said he was. I told him I was as well. I asked his name and he said it was Moshe. I got excited and told him that Moshe is my Hebrew name, and also my son’s. I gave him a copy of my testimony, called A Jew and His God, and he said he’d read it. He was with his wife and son, and they continued their shopping. I love the neat opportunities God provides! There’s a photo of me and Moshe above.

• George: George is a soft-spoken man from Kenya. He listened to me preach in the open air, and then took a gospel tract from me afterwards. We had a little trouble communicating, but he said he had never considered the gospel message before and promised to read the tract.

• Richard: Richard is a street singer who was trying to sell his CD’s. When he ran into our group, he claimed to be a Christian and told us “God bless you for what you’re doing.” He was a really nice guy, and stayed around to listen to a few open-air messages.

The following is an open-air message that I preached for the very first time. In fact, I wrote it on Sunday after listening to my Pastor preach the Resurrection Sunday sermon. Shelby helped me with the artwork! I hope it is a blessing to you.

One of the things that I really love about OAC is that we love working with church groups! It’s fantastic because not only does God use us and the group to reach people for Christ, but the people from the church group grow in their knowledge, ability, and confidence to share Christ as a lifestyle when they return home.

As you can tell, it was a BUSY two days! Thank you for your prayers, encouraging notes, and financial support.

all for Jesus,

Mark