Tomorrow (Sat., 06Feb10) I have the great privilege of marrying Joel and Irene, a young couple from my church. I would like to ask all who pray for us to keep us before the Lord both today and tomorrow because I will be speaking to the people during the ceremony about the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Joel and Irene are faithful members of Eastside church and have both been out on the streets witnessing to people about Jesus Christ (Joel, Irene and Irene again). They have a heart for God and they are committed to following Him in their marriage. So, they’re starting out on the right foot by using their wedding as an opportunity to witness to lost family members and friends.

Please pray today (Friday) for us as we pull together the final preparations. Joel and Irene are busy with all the details of the ceremony and whatnot; I will be finishing up the message I’ll be preaching (using Ephesians 5 to speak of Christ in the context of marriage, and then explaining the gospel beginning with the Law, then explaining the cross and man’s required response of repentance and faith).

The wedding will begin around 9:00am tomorrow. Thank you for praying for us!

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. [Ephesians 6.18-20]

A few of us from church went out to meet with Giovani on Saturday. It’s about an hour west from San José, up and over the mountains (beautiful country). We had a great time of fellowship with Giovani and his wife, Laura. They have a fairly new work (about a year old) and have just moved into a new building in center of their small town (population: 5,000). They have a desire to not only reach their town, but to also be a blessing to the even smaller towns surrounding them — they hope to work with local pastors in evangelism, encouragement, etc.

We are going to be teaming up with Giovani on Friday, February 19th, for an area-wide outreach activity. They have a beautiful, newly renovated public park that we are going to use. The idea is to have some music and other activities to draw in the folks from town, and in then share with them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We’ll be spending the better part of the day going door-to-door inviting people, both in town and in the surrounding area. Then around 6:00 p.m. we’ll get the activity in the park started.

Obviously, we covet your prayers, specifically for the following:

1. That we would be faithful to sow much seed preaching the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16.15).
2. That God would bless us with much fruit through the preaching of the Gospel (1Cor 1.18, 21; Rom 10.17).
3. That pastor Giovani would be open to establishing a biblical discipleship ministry in order to establish his people in the faith (2Tim 2.2; Php 4.9).

Thank you! ~Greg

Four of us from Eastside Church went: Jorge “el pelón,” Andrés (the guy who runs our soccer field), Stephanie (and recent college graduate from the States living here now, and teaching at my kids’ school), and myself. The trip down there and back was long but without incident, thankfully.

JuanCa selected a neighborhood close to the church where we preached open-air last year. He invited folks from his church in Jesús-María and also from the church he started and pastors in Labrador (about 15 west of Jesús-María). We basically had an open-air church service. While folks got the sound system set up, me and mine went door to door inviting the people to the activity (and leaving tracts with them). And then JuanCa started with prayer, singing, testimonies, etc. and I wrapped it up with a message on Christ, the Gospel and salvation. It was a wonderful time! We had well over 50 people present.

There is one testimony I’d like to share with you: When JuanCa announced the outreach event this last Sunday in church, a lady came up to him afterward. She had been in his church most of the past year, and her husband had even started coming with her. They are now regular attenders and members of JuanCa’s church there in Jesús-María. She told JuanCa that she was in church because of that outreach event in that very same barrio last year. She didn’t want to come out of her house (being timid and a little shy and ashamed), but she sat in her house listening to everything — the songs, the prayer, and the Gospel message. She got save that night last year and has been faithfully attending church ever since. He somewhat “problematic” husband eventually came around, too, and is also a faithful member with her. All I have to say about this is what Paul said:

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. . . . For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. [1Cor 1.18-21]

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. [Rom 10.17]

Please pray for us!

We’re using the same strategy that we used last month in Alajuela (which many of you remember). Here are links to the updates I gave on Alajuela, if you’d like to see what we’re planning on doing in Cartago:

• Alajuela: First Day
• Alajuela: Third Day
• Alajuela: Last Day
• Alajuela: The team
• Alajuela: One-on-one witnessing
• Alajueal: Open-air preaching

We have 10,000 “Mission Edition” Revistas boxed up and ready to go — all of them are designated for Cartago. And we have 20 or so of our “pastors packets” to give out to the pastors of the evangelical churches we come across while passing out the Revista.

It looks like God’s given us a great team to work with, too. Here’s a list of the people committed to going and evangelizing in Cartago:

• Simón, Silvia, Cai, Alex Trejos, Alex “Bimbo”, Salem (who headed up the Alajuela project), Johnny, Jorge Céspedes, Gianina, Pablo, Jessy, and Jorge “Pelón.”

Planning and execution on this project is shared: Simón has done all the front-loading with logistics, planning, coordination, etc. and he will likely be working with Alex (Bimbo) out in Cartago to “herd the cats” and see the project finished.

Here are some verses we’re praying for Cartago this week:

Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. [Col 4.2-4]

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel. [Eph 6.18-19]

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. [1Cor 3.6-7]

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee. [Titus 1.5]

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. [1Cor 10.31]

Thank you for praying with us this week! ~Greg

Afterward, we took a break, had lunch, and then headed over to the central park where we planned to open-air preach as Mass let out. We found out that the church had been damaged in the last earthquake, and wasn’t open until later on… so no preaching in front of the Catholic church this time around. There were lots of people in the park, though (it was a beautiful evening), so we finished up by passing out more tracts and witnessing to more people.

We had a great week and we want to thank all of you who were praying for us! We are in so much need of revival here in Costa Rica (and Latin America) — we need a revival in evangelism (a revival among lost souls, and a revival of biblical evangelism) and we need a revival among God’s people (especially the pastors and leaders of local churches: May they hunger and thirst for righteousness!).

I shot about an hour of video Saturday. Below are the links to an eight-minute summary of the day. I’ll be posting the rest of video in ten-minute segments later this week and next.

Here are the links to the quick, summary video (it’s the same video, just different formats):

• Flash video out on Blip.tv (you can click the image above to get here, too).
• High Resolution mpeg4 (best quality)
• Low Resolution mpeg4
• Ogg Video (for Penguin people)

Please continue to ask the Lord for revival in Alajuela and Costa Rica — revival among the lost (that they might be soundly saved) and revival in the church (a revival of sound doctrine; a revival among the pastors that would lead them to a profound desire to read and study Scripture, and feed their sheep with sound, biblical exposition of the Word of God)

Here are the links to the video (it’s the same video, just different formats):

• Flash video out on Blip.tv (you can click the image above to get here, too).
• High Resolution mpeg4 (best quality)
• Low Resolution mpeg4
• Ogg Video (for all you Linux Geeks)

Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine… Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. [1Tim 4.13-16]

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. [Hos 4.6]

It was a lot of walking, so by the end of the video you can see the loooooong faces. But, God was good and opened a lot of doors for us. We actually bumped into several pastors on the streets (two of which pastor two of the most popular non-catholic churches in Alajuela).

Here are the links to the video (it’s the same video, just different formats):

• Flash video out on Blip.tv (you can click the image above to get here, too).
• High Resolution mpeg4
• Low Resolution mpeg4
• Ogg Video for all you Linux Geeks

The event: Intentional evangelism and pastoral outreach. From Monday, February 16th, through Saturday, February 21st, several of us will be in the city of Alajuela all day, everyday. We put together a “missions edition” of our Revista newsletter; it’s designed to be a complete and biblical presentation of the Gospel, and also a tool to offer help and resources to church leaders and pastors (e.g. our Biblical Discipleship program, seminars, workshops, etc.).

We printed up 10,000 of the Revista to take to Alajuela along with about 20 of our “pastor packages” (a small gift for pastors in the area that includes my book How to Study the Bible, Mark Cahill’s book One Think You Can’t Do in Heaven, some key discipleship material, and examples of our Gospel tracts — my son, Kevin, is holding one of the packs in the picture).

• We will be going door-to-door with the Revista, passing it out on the streets, and giving it away after open-air preaching.
• Saturday the 21st we will be evangelizing at the Farmers Market in the morning (preaching, witnessing, passing out the Revista and tracts), and then in the evening we are planning on doing some open-air preaching in the central park after Mass lets out.

The area: Alajuela. The city of Alajuela (population: 50,000; about 10 miles northwest of San José) is the capital city of the Province of Alajuela (population: 700,000). A province in Costa Rica is like a state in the USA — we have seven, as you can see in the map (click to enlarge).

• Obviously, with only 10,000 Revistas and 20 “pastor packages,” we will not even make a small dent in the reaching Alajuela with the Gospel and sound doctrine. But, we are committed to do what we can with the resources God has give us. So, we’re asking for your prayers — that you would ask God to get the literature into the hands of those who need it, and that He would use it save the lost and bring the saved to a sound knowledge of the truth of Scripture.

The need in Costa Rica. I’ll have more to say about this later on, during the course of the year, but let me just say this for now…

• The glaring need in Costa Rica (and, frankly, in all of Latin America) is sound doctrine — biblical theology (a sound and biblical understanding of Who God is and what He is like). Many church leaders here are men with a heart for God and a zeal for the work of the Lord, but not having had the opportunity to receive good theological training, it’s been difficult to effectively carry out the mission of “making disciples” both here and abroad.
• The failure in the Latin America Church to establish an “orthodoxy” (correct doctrine) has led to an even more serious failure in “orthopraxy” (correct practice). For example, in the area of evangelism, the great majority of churches and ministries are preaching a false Gospel because they do not understand Who God is and what He is like. In the area of basic “church life,” ministries are rife with non-biblical activities and practices while the sheep are starving — not being “nourished” in sound doctrine. Bad practice follows bad doctrine. But the reverse is true also: Sound practice follows sound doctrine (both in evangelism and church life).
• With the Revista and the “pastor packages” we aim to try to meet this need head-on. The Revista is an evangelistic tool that has a biblical presentation of the true Gospel. It also has information and links to resources on our web site that will be of interest and help to leaders and pastors. Of course, our intention with the “pastor packages” is to get sound teaching materials into the hands of the men who are feeding God’s people and training them in the mission of making disciples.

We are limited, but God is not. We have limited resources, but we are thankful for those we have and are confident that God will supply all our need (Php 4.19). Offerings from our people here and income from our soccer field business are funding this entire operation. Our desire is to first cover the capital cities of each of the seven provinces in the country and then we will select strategic areas within each province to do the same: Outreach through literature distribution, witnessing on the streets, open-air preaching, and “pastoral help.”

We need prayer. Please pray for us as we strive to preach the Gospel to those who have never heard (most have heard the modern Gospel of “accept Jesus in your heart and you’ll feel better”) and to teach sound doctrine to those who desire to hear.

If you want to see a 9-minute video, I tried to put something together that would give you a good idea of what went on. You can see them here:

• Standard mpg4 | Small mpg4 | Ogg Video
• It’s also out on Blip.tv if you’d like to watch it there.

“That just doesn’t work in the States.”

Well, I beg to differ. I think it “doesn’t work in the States” because many Christians simply don’t witness — they don’t evangelize, they don’t pass out tracts, and they don’t preach open-air. And the reason given is this:

“That just doesn’t work in the States.”

Yes it does. It “works” in any culture, any society, at any time, and with any people group. It “works” because God said it does:

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God… For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.  [1Cor 1.18-21]

Here are some examples that, yes, it does “work” in the States — biblical evangelism (purposeful, intentional witnessing to people we do not know) “works” in the United States of America.

Trish Ramos took advantage of a TV program filming a segment near her hometown and passed out tracts. Click the image of Trish (using the “Curved Illusion” tract); right around the 2:30 to the 3:00 minute mark you can see her passing out million dollar bill tracts and the people receive them just like they do here (with a smile and an outstretched hand!).

Here’s Ray Comfort passing out a ton of the “Giant Money” tracts in record time at a convention (who couldn’t do this?!):

Darrell Rundus makes it look easy (because it is! …once you get over your fear and intimidation):

How about open-air preaching in the USA? Here are some pics and links to guys that preach open-air on a regular basis. Check out the crowds they have, and if you watch the videos you can see that they crowds stay, they listen, and they interact.

Here’s Ray Comfort at Huntington Beach (hang with it if you watch the video… it’s a great example of how to use a heckler to preach the Gospel to those who are listening):

Here’s Tony Miano in Glendale:

Here are four of Leon Brown (he’s very good at interacting with the crowd — very articulate and interesting):

So, why would anyone say that biblical evangelism doesn’t work in the States? I still say the main reason is fear — people fear because they have not been trained. Here’s a quote from a great tool for getting trained up (Todd Friel’s “Terrified“):

Nobody expects a soldier to go into battle without training and proper equipment. Yet we are frequently encouraged to witness and share our faith without training and without weapons.

So get trained up! And get some good “weapons”! Ray has a great DVD on how to open-air preach (and not just “street holler”). I think a lot of us don’t like to give out tracts because the tracts we’ve seen make us ashamed of the Gospel when we give them out. Get good tracts! Get tracts you like so you will like to give them out. Spurgeon said that!

When preaching and private talk are not available, you have a tract ready, and this is often an effectual method. Some tracts would not convert a beetle: there is not enough in them to interest a fly. Get good striking tracts, or none at all. But a telling, touching gospel tract may often be the seed of eternal life; therefore, do not go out without your tracts.

You know… even if it didn’t “work in the States,” we should do it because God told us to. But, if you just take a look at the videos above, you’ll see it does work. Folks, the needs is great, the message is urgent, and there’s so few that labor in the harvest. Let’s be different.

I was reminded again today of the absolute love affair of modern Christianity with pragmatism. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the same question when people go with me out onto the streets to evangelize: “Does it work?” They ask me about the fruit… about the number of people in my church as a result of witnessing out on the streets… about how many have “made a decision” because of the tracts we’ve passed out… That’s pragmatism!

One of the great evils of the time is that of deliberating about a plain command of Christ, and asking, “What will be the result of it?”  What have you to do with results? “But if I follow Christ in all things, I may lose my position.” What you have to do with that?  When a soldier is bidden to go up to the cannon’s mouth, he is very likely to lose his “position,” and something else; but he is bound to do it.  “Oh but I might lose my opportunity for usefulness!” What do you mean? That you are going to do evil that good may come? That is what it comes to. ~C.H. Spurgeon

God has called us all to go and preach the Gospel to every creature. He has told us to find where the sinners are, and verbally communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them (Rom 10.13-17; Mar 16.15). We do not have the liberty to change the message… We do not have the liberty to change the method either! God said: Go and preach!

In the great day, when the muster-roll shall be read, of all those who are converted through fine music, and church decoration, and religious exhibitions and entertainments, they will amount to the tenth part of nothing; but it will always please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Keep to your preaching; and if you do anything beside, do not let it throw your preaching into the background. In the first place preach, and in the second place preach, and in the third place preach. ~C.H. Spurgeon

Believe in preaching the love of Christ, believe in preaching the atoning sacrifice, believe in preaching the new birth, believe in preaching the whole counsel of God. The old hammer of the gospel will still break the rock in pieces; the ancient fire of Pentecost will still burn among the multitude. Try nothing new, but go on with preaching, and if we all preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, the results of preaching will astound us. ~C.H. Spurgeon

But, what if nobody is listening…? What if nobody cares…? HEY, CHRISTIAN! God is listening! And you can rest assured that God cares! Set your eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith — Jesus, He who suffered and died for you! Jesus is our Lord, and we are but His servants. He tells us what to do, when to do it, with whom to do it, and HOW TO DO IT. We have no right to change the mission… the message… the method… just because we want to see “results.”

Pastor Steve Sanchez had a very good post on his blog today — that’s him in the photo at the top of this post. He ends with a quote from Spurgeon:

God never clothes men until He has first stripped them, nor does He quicken them by the gospel till first they are slain by the Law. When you meet with persons in whom there is no trace of conviction of sin, you may be quite sure that they have not been wrought upon by the Holy Spirit; for “when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

Amen. Keep it up, Steve! And may God raise up more labourers to go forth out into His harvest and preach the cross of Christ: God’s Law, God’s Grace, and man’s ultimate decision (repent and trust Christ, or perish).

Today (Saturday) we had a “personal evangelism” workshop in the church, and over 40 people attended! What a great group and what a great time we had together!

Many people are very intimidated by “street evangelism” but they want to know how to share their faith with friends, family, and co-workers. So, I scaled back our “intense” one-day evangelism seminar and taught the biblical principles of evangelism in the context of “normal life” conversations.

The turn-out was just one of those blessings from God that really encourage you. Most of the 40 people were from other churches, too. That’s interesting! But, it’s obvious that’s God’s at work in Christians’ hearts to evangelize. We want to! The problem is that most haven’t been taught and trained how to. So, we tried to give them some teaching in training in personal evangelism this morning. And God blessed greatly.

The Christian music group called “Hillsong” was in Costa Rica for two concerts this last Thursday, October 30th. We couldn’t pass up a great opportunity to pass out our new “What if… I’m pretending?” tract (in Spanish, of course).

We showed up outside the “concert hall” around 10:00 am in order to catch the people standing in line for the 2:00 pm show. There weren’t many, and it was raining and cold. But, we did get to talk to several people and we passed out several hundred of the tracts. We tried to avoid “pointing fingers” and “accusing” people of being false converts (the tract could easily be taken that way) by saying, “Hey, we’re all Christians and we have a common mission: Evangelize. Take this tract, read it through, and then give it to someone who needs it — a lost family member or friend.” It went over really well.

The evening concert was crazy! Thousands of people showed up and stood in line for hours. And the line wrapped around the entire block. We passed out tracts individually, and then just before they opened the gates, we started at the front of the line and “preached” our way to the back. I’d stand up on my Coke crate, get the folks’ attention, and then motive them to witness, evangelize, and reach the lost. After my “sermon” we’d ask them if they wanted more tracts and then we’d give them as many as they wanted so they could read it and then pass it on to lost friends and family. After one sermon, we’d move down about 20 meters and do it all again until we finished the line.

It was a great time! Very well received by the people! We probably passed out around 5,000 of the “Pretending” tracts. If you’d like to see what it looked it, here’s a video one of the guys put together:

And just a side note: Steve is a neat guy and very committed to intentional and constant evangelism. If you have time, check out his blog, especially the first posts (made years ago!). He started out slow, and then God kindled a real fire in heart for evangelism.

After you read Torrey’s essay, you might want to listen to this brief testimony:

• George Street

And, of course, make sure (like Spurgeon said) you get “good, striking tracts” that you like to hand out.

• Living Waters
• Custom Tract Source
• Chick Publications

Here’s a brief outline of the Torrey article you can find out on Steve’s blog:

THE USE OF TRACTS

By R. A. Torrey (1856-1928)

Comparatively few Christians realize the importance of tract work. I had been a Christian a good many years, and a minister of the Gospel several years, before it ever entered my head that tracts were of much value in Christian work. I had somehow grown up with the notion that tracts were all rubbish, and therefore I did not take the trouble to read them, and far less did I take the trouble to circulate them, but I found out that I was entirely wrong. Tract work has some great advantages over other forms of Christian work.

I. Importance and advantages.

1. Any person can do it.
2. A tract always sticks to the point.
3. A tract never loses its temper.
4. Oftentimes people who are too proud to be talked with, will read a tract when no one is looking.
5. A tract stays by one.
6. Tracts lead many to accept Christ.

II. Purposes for which to use a tract.

1. For the conversion of the unsaved.
2. To lead Christians into a deeper and more earnest Christian life.
3. To correct error.
4. To set Christians to work.

III. Who should use tracts.

1. Ministers of the Gospel should use them.
2. Sunday School teachers.
3. Traveling men.
4. Business men.
5. School teachers.6. Housekeepers.

IV. How to use tracts.

1. To begin a conversation.
2. Use a tract to close a conversation.
3. Use tracts where a conversation is impossible.
4. Use tracts to send to people at a distance.

V. Suggestions as to the use of tracts.

1. Always read the tracts yourself before giving them to others.
2. Suit your tract to the person to whom you give it.
3. Carry a selection of tracts with you.
4. Seek the guidance of God.
5. Seek God’s blessing upon the tract after you have given it out.
6. Oftentimes give a man a tract with words and sentences underscored.
7. Never be ashamed of distributing tracts.

I’ve found Mark Cahill’s advice to be gold when I’m just talking one-on-one. Just ask the person, “Could I ask you an interesting question? What do you think about God… eternity… what happens after we die?” Most people are more than willing to talk about what they believe, and then we can share what the Bible says.

Another proven tactic to break the ice and get into a spiritual conversation with people is to stand on a Coke crate in the middle of Central Avenue and start offering money for questions. :-) We finally got some new questions, thanks to Darrel Rundus of the Great News Network, and we street-tested them today. It went great!

If you want to see a short video of some of the preaching, just click here.

Several of us from church and my friend Oscar met downtown and had a great time preaching, passing out tracts (the Revista went over great!), and witnessing to folks. Here are some pics:

• Getting started (some days it’s easier than others… this wasn’t one of them… nervous!)
• Gathering a crowd with my new questions! (What is the most popular cartoon of all time? It’s worth a dollar on the streets of San José!)
• More questions, more people.
• The Good Test (using the Law to bring about a knowledge of sin and then revealing the sacrifice of Christ, and His resurrection, as the solution)
• Afterward we got to pass out tracts, talk, and continue to witness.
• Here are a couple young ladies that participated and talked a bit after.
• Here’s a “panoramic” shot. (Four pics pasted together. It’s not perfect, but it’s an interesting view.)

Oh my friends, we are loaded down with countless church activities, while the real work of the Church, that of evangelizing and winning the lost, is almost entirely neglected. ~Oswald J. Smith

I went door-to-door, leaving the Revista for folks to read and passing them out to people I saw on the sidewalks. I tried to greet everyone I could and see if God would open a door for me witness to them.

I eventually made my way down to the park in the center of town (in front of the catholic church; the picture above is the park from the NE corner). There are always several taxis lined up, waiting for customers, along with people sitting on the benches talking or reading the newspaper.

• On my way into the park I gave a Revista to a elderly gentleman selling newspapers and then I slipped him a Million Dollar Bill tract. He liked that!
• I didn’t have much time in the park because it started to rain. But, I was able to witness to two taxi drivers and talk with two more (though we touched on the Gospel, they didn’t have much time or interest in talking about it).
• I had one guy give me my Million Dollar Bill tract back, angry as an old wet hen. He got all bent out of shape about me “selling religion” or something like that, and just wouldn’t listen or stick around to talk. So, I let him blow his stack and then he left. Can’t win ‘em all…
• Since it was raining by then, I left the park and hid under an overhang beside my new friend, Alvaro (the newspaper guy to whom I gave a Million tract). He had a customer that was doing the same thing as I was — trying to stay dry. Alvaro wanted him to have a Million, too, so I gave him one and got to witness to the both of them for a good while.

I only had an hour, but God opened up quite a few doors and allowed me to witness to six or seven people. And I was able to pass out about 500 copies of the Revista. Now it’s time to get to studying (Sunday message, and I have a conference coming up in El Salvador next week).

Oh my friends, we are loaded down with countless church activities, while the real work of the Church, that of evangelizing and winning the lost, is almost entirely neglected. ~Oswald J. Smith

Since it rains here just about every afternoon, if we want to get out and evangelize, we have to try to take advantage of the morning hours. Even when we go downtown to open-air preach, we run the risk of getting drenched. So, today Andrés and I met at 9:00 am and spent about two hours on the streets and door-to-door, passing out our new “Revista” publication and using the Million Dollar Bill tract to strike up conversations with people and witness to them.

If you haven’t seen our new “Revista,” it’s basically a four-page newsletter that uses apologetics (like evolution, the veracity of the Bible, the existence of God, etc.) to catch people’s eye and later walk them through a presentation of the Gospel. I also included an article or two for Christians, knowing that many are still struggling with finding a good church (and maybe they’ll come check us out). We’d like to be able to print up a new issue of the Revista each month.

We first went door-to-door just putting the Revista where people could find it — in their front gates, mailboxes, or under the wipers on their cars. Then after a bit we decided to go to a couple parks to see if we could strike up some conversations with people and witness.

• First got to talk to two municipal workers. I handed them a Million Dollar Bill and waited for the reaction (“Wow! I’m rich! Ha!”). Then I asked them, “Could I ask you the Million Dollar Question?” They said sure, so I asked them if they thought they were good enough to go to heaven. That got us talking about the Law (God’s standard of moral perfection), God’s grace in Jesus and the work on the cross, and the personal decision of the sinner (repentance and faith).
• Next we ran into some construction workers doing some remodelling on a church. I handed one a Revista; the title says: “GOD DOESN’T EXIST.” Well, that got a good conversation going and we had a good, five-minute talk about God and salvation.
• After that Andrés witnessed to a security guard and then we headed to another area of the neighborhood where there are always a number of taxi drivers just hanging out shootin’ the breeze. Again, we used the Million Dollar Bill and got into a conversation to witness.
• Next were a couple of skateboarders — 19 and 21 years old. Not interested at all! One of them says to me, “I don’t want to think about death because I just want to live life to the fullest now.” And that was that. Adios…
• There were a couple more opportunities to witness after that (as we continued to pass out the Revista to people on the sidewalks and at the houses we passed), and then as we were heading back to the car we bumped into one of the municipality workers we witnessed to at first. He was showing his Million Dollar Bill to another couple of workers (cutting grass, cleaning up, etc.). We he saw me, he motioned me over and I got to witness to his two friends — one was pretty interested, the other just kinda figured he was living out his hell right now, here on earth. I assured him he wasn’t and then after we talked for a bit, I left them with several tracts, a copy of the Revista, and an invitation to our church.

Next Monday the universities go back to classes after mid-year break (we’re on a calendar year). We’re making plans to take the Revista to the three largest state universities — the UCR (next Monday!), the “Tech,” and the National University up north in Heredia. Please pray that God would open doors of opportunity to speak the Gospel and that He would grant us the boldness to speak as we ought. Thank you! ~Greg

Oh my friends, we are loaded down with countless church activities, while the real work of the Church, that of evangelizing and winning the lost, is almost entirely neglected. ~ Oswald J. Smith

I taught our “Evangelism Workshop” yesterday morning and we had people from four different churches attend. A new friend of mine, David, opened the doors of his restaurant and allowed us to meet there (he also made us lunch!). The workshop is a combination of teaching and application. The teaching is a very “condensed” version of our discipleship material on evangelism (the very “essential” that one needs to witnessing biblically, using the Law, etc), and the application is basically “grab some tracts and go witness!”

Here are some pics:

• Another shot of the group
• Teaching: one | two | three | four
• The “stuff table” (tracts and books)
• Getting the tracts ready
• Orietta, armed for the street!
• Rigo witnessing (Rigo is the guy on the right, grey shirt and blue jeans, looking up at the guy he’s witnessing to; Rigo came with his 13 year old daughter, Raquel, and they both went out witnessing together)

We used Living Waters’ million dollar bill tract and I gave everyone specific instructions on how to use the tract to witness verbally to a lost person. Each and every person involved witnessed to at least one person! They did great! They paid very close attention during the morning hours as I instructed them in biblical evangelism. We had lunch together. And then, in spite of their fears and intimidation, they hit streets. After an hour and a half we met back at the restaurant and everyone had a story to tell about their witness encounters!

I challenged everyone before they left to set a specific time each week when they will go out and intentionally witness to the lost. At Eastside Church we have set aside Friday nights. One of the churches represented yesterday will be going to the park in Cartago on Saturday mornings. Amen! We will never fulfill the Great Commission if we do not intentionally and aggressively seek out the lost where they are, and witness to them biblically.

We covet your prayers, that God would open many hearts to the Gospel as we obey His command to “go and make disciples” (and we make disciples evangelizing!). Thank you! ~Greg

In the picture (just click it to enlarge it) you have, from left to right: Mario (from Esparza), Manrique (from Esparza), me, Johnny (what a geek… giving me bunny ears…), Alex (from Eastside), and Andrés (from Eastside). Stephanie took the picture, so if you want to see who Stephanie is, just click here — she asking for tracts out on the street.

We all had lunch together and goofed around for a while, then when it was getting toward evening we headed down to Puntarenas, a key city down on the Pacific coast about 20 minutes from Esparza. They were having some sort of “Community Days” so it was a great opportunity for some open-aire evangelism. We passed out a lot of tracts, got to witness to folks one-on-one, and even did some open-air preaching. Here are some pictures and videos:

• Video: Having lunch with the group in Esparza
• Video: Open-air preching in Puntarena
• Pictures: Lunch, Johnny, Puntarenas, Preaching

We had a great time of fellowship together, especially on the street witnessing to people. I’m very thankful for Johnny and his group. God’s doing a great work down there and it’s very encouraging and motivating. Please pray for Johnny, Mario, Manrique, Javier, Elizabeth, and the rest of the group from Esparza. Thanks!

• In front of a mechanic’s garage.
• At a bus stop.

As we were walking through the neighborhood of Vargas Araya, we ran across a bunch of men in front of a car mechanic’s shop, and they were just “shooting the bull,” so we gave them tracts and witnessed to them. The guy leaning on the top of the truck cab in the picture ask me, “Didn’t I see you on the news last night?” :-) Yep! In the last post (yesterday) I mentioned that a reporter filmed our open-air preaching, and I guess it made the news last night. What a riot… But, it was a good ice-breaker and we got to speak to these men for a good while about sin, righteousness, judgment to come, and what God has done for them in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The other picture is of a couple guys we bumped into at a bus stop. We got to witness to them, too, and a bus driver and a young lady who got on the bus before we snapped the pic.

When it was all said and done, we had hung about 400 “What if…?” tracts in Vargas Araya and talked to several people about the Lord. We also had a great time talking about “life, love, and happiness” in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s not every Thursday I can do stuff like this because I’m usually teaching a Bible study in the evening, and I have to prepare. Tonight is our monthly study of “Personal Relationships” (dating, marriage, family, etc.), so since it’s already written, it doesn’t take me as long to prepare and I can to extra stuff like this. What a blessing! :-)

~Greg

These kinds of outtings with my guys gives me the opportunity to just hang out with them and be a “regular guy,” while at the same time “discipling” them in the Mission of evangelizing the lost. We get to talk, laugh, and witness to the lost together. I love it! It’s like the icing on the cake in the ministry for me. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Andŕes on the Coke crate very soon.

I know the audios are in Spanish, but you can at least hear a little of what it’s like out on the streets of San José open-air preaching. The other links are to some pics we took; they’re in English… :-)

First time, around 11:00 am

• Audio, about 30 minutes
• Getting things ready
• Drawing a crowd
• Preaching the Gospel
• Explaining things
• Giving out tracts after

Second time, around 12:15 pm

• Audio, about 45 minutes
• Getting ready (I look so ALONE…!!!) :-)
• Starting to draw a crowd
• Getting serious about drawing a crowd
• Preaching
• The local news station showed up and videoed almost the whole message: cameraman_01 | cameraman_02 | cameraman_03
• Preaching and explaining
• The crowd, from above
• The crowd, from the street
• Giving out tracts afterward: tracts_01 | tracts_02 | tracts_03
• The reporter from the news station interviewed the guy I nabbed for my “Good Test.” His name was Leslie, and he spoke positively of the message: reporter_01 | reporter_02
• After preaching for a good while, I had the opportunity to use the curves to get it all going again.
• Here are a couple pics of the people with tracts: after_01 | after_02

I would also like to take advantage of this post and let you all know that I made a mistake in my most recent update (the one that went out in PDF, also). In the context of these door hangers I mentioned that the soccer field (donated by Tom Gang and Rory Wineka’s church, First Baptist of Jackson, OH) generated the funds to pay for this project. I need to apologize, set the record straight, and explain myself a little bit…

Decatur Baptist Church (pastor: Doug Ripley) donated the money for these tracts — right down to the last penny. I forgot all about it, and I apologize! They decided to help us out with the door hangers months ago, and it just slipped my mind when I was writing the last update. Because of the way we handle our financial support, we didn’t get the money until last week. And since our support was quite low this month, there was no “red flag” of an additional special offering. When I remembered about the donation, we checked our records and sure enough there it was! Thank you, Decatur Baptist Church!

I am still very grateful for the help Tom, Rory, and First Baptist of Jackson have given us over the years, especially with the soccer field. We take a “tithe” (10%) of all the money that comes in from the rental of the soccer field, and we put that in a special account along with a tithe from all our church offerings. That’s our missions and special projects fund. With that money we pay for tracts and books that we print, special outreach events, and anything else that has to do with the mission of reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s why I said in my update letter that the soccer field paid for the door hanger. It basically pays for everything else! But, I had forgotten about the generous offering from Decatur.

But, do you know what all this means? This means we have more money in our special project account for more special projects! God’s good, isn’t He?

Thank you everyone for supporting us with your prayer, friendship, and finances. If it weren’t for you, we couldn’t be here in the service of the Lord. Please pray God would use these 11,000 tracts to lead people to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

~Greg

We got downtown around 11:00 am and had time to preach twice — I went first and then Will had to hurry through the Gospel because it had already started to rain. Regardless, we had a great time and we were able to witness to many.

I know the videos are in Spanish, but if you’d like to see them, here are the links:

• Greg, by the Plaza de la Cultura
• Will, Central Avenue

Yesterday a group of about six or eight of us spent the afternoon at the Saprisa soccer stadium where there were literally thousands of people standing in line to get in and see Iron Maiden live in concert. There were people here from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and the U.S. Some had been camping out in line since last week!

With that many people in one location, just standing in line… what a great opportunity to witness and pass out tracts! We ended up giving away over 3,000 tracts including 600 “10 Commandment Pennies” (with a card explaining the Gospel), a couple thousand “Million Dollar Bills,” and several other kinds of cards and pamphlets.

I apologize for the quality of the video. My camera isn’t the best, and so we had to use an external microphone hooked up to a digital voice recorder, and then try to mix it afterwards. All of the footage after my quick intro was lost because of some continuous error the camera gives me. I tried to mix in some still photos so you could at least get an idea of what the afternoon was like.

Only a few tracts were refused, and even fewer were thrown down. About 95% of the folks gladly received the information, and we were able to politely talk with many. God is good and the power to save is in the seed sown! We’re praying that the Lord would use those tracts to convict many of sin, righteousness, and judgment so that He might also lead them to the cross.

Will preached first, and God gave him a big crowd. Then I was able to preach, too, a little farther down Central Avenue. Hundreds of people heard the message of the cross (Law, Grace, and personal decision) and we were able to pass out well over 500 Gospel tracts.

If you have a few minutes, please watch the videos. I know we preach in Spanish, but I put in some English commentaries so you could follow along.

1. A brief introduction to the outing
2. Will preaching by the Plaza de la Cultura
3. Me preaching at the intersection of Central Avenue and Central Street

You may notice that I’ve changed the host I’m using for videos. YouTube is full of smut and vulgarity, so after a bit of looking around I found VideoPile. For now, I’m liking it a lot. If you have any problems or comments about the videos or where I host them, please let me know. I can always use the help!

And thank you all for praying for us! Boldness and “intentional evangelism” comes only from the Lord.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. [Eph 6.18-20]

Video on YouTube

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of the aspects of our outreach ministry here is “strategic evangelism” where we try to reach each person in our geographic area with the Gospel. The easiest way to do this is through door-to-door literature distribution and this month we are placing 12,000 brochures in houses all over the east side of San José. You can see the brochure in detail clicking the images below.

Next month we’re planning on passing out those “tract packs” we put together a couple weeks ago. I’ve also been in contact with Custom Tract Source and they are going to be doing their door-hanger for me in Spanish (maybe for March or April… if I can get the money together). Same houses, same families, different “literature.” I’d love to get something different into each house every month.

I think I’ve settled on three different types of evangelism that should form part of our outreach as a church body. Not everyone is going to open-air preach, but we should all be intentional about evangelizing the lost. How can we do that? How about the following…?

1. Constant Evangelism

• Every Christian should always be prepared to witness, either verbally or through some sort of literature (tracts, invitations to your church—where hopefully the Gospel is preached! or something of that sort).

• At Eastside Church we just printed up 12,000 full-color brochures that give an overview of our ministry, an invitation to our Sunday services, and a presentation of the Gospel. We also have several “business card” sized invitations that people can carry around for those conversations where you have the opportunity to say, “Well, if you’d like, you can check out my church… either Sunday or on the web.”

2. Strategic Evangelism

• Every Bible-believing, Christian church should have some specific, focused, methodical plan to get the Gospel to all of the people in their geographic location.

• This year (if the Lord permits) we’re planning on going door-to-door each month with various types of literature (like the brochure). As a matter of fact, we just had a meeting today after church to coordinate the distribution of the brochure by our people throughout the entire east side of San José.

• I have a couple more ideas that I’ll be sharing with you later (one of which should go up today, after this post).

3. Aggressive Evangelism

• You gotta have aggressive evangelism! You just gotta! What would the Christian Church be without spiritual bellicosity?! (Sorry… got carried away there…)

• If you have the desire (and I understand that not everyone does), you should do this. If you don’t do this, be sure to do the other two types of evangelism.

• Aggressive evangelism is direct confrontation with the lost where they gather and live. It takes various forms: Passing out tracts (at concerts, malls, sporting events, bar districts, etc.), one-on-one “cold contact” witnessing on the street, and open-air preaching.

The purpose of God in giving us His Holy Spirit was to give us the power (power that manifests in boldness; Acts 4.31) to be witnesses.

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. [Acts 1.8]

So, let’s draw close to God in the Word and prayer… and be intentional about evangelism!

I wanted to show you all a couple of the tracts that have caught my eye lately. They are both in Spanish, but on Custom Tract Source site you’ll see they have many more English tracts than Spanish. It’s very (!) hard to find good quality, biblical tracts in Spanish. So, I wanted to put these two up to show you.

You can give tracts to people personally. You can leave them where folks will find them. You can put them on cars or leave them on doorsteps. With good tracts, it’s easy to give them out because you like them and want people to have one (you’re not ashamed of handing out something “weird” and “religious”).

Check out Custom Tract Source. Get some good tracts. Witness.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God… For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. [1Cor 1.18-21]