Missionary Gamer Ministry Presentation

Kootenai Church

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And then next, we have a presentation today, a missionary presentation. Most of you know who Peter Hammond is.

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If you don't know who he is, then you will know him as soon as he steps up here. And Peter, I've been watching him do an evangelistic ministry for the last couple of years, and now he is at the point where he is raising funds as a missionary for his ministry.

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It is a very unique ministry. I refer to it as virtual street preaching, going out into the virtual world and preaching and sharing the gospel.

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It is unique. I don't know anybody else who does what he is doing in the virtual world. And it is the desire of us as elders to commend him to you for your prayer and financial support.

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So Peter's gonna have a couple of minutes to do that. You're gonna see part of the video presentation of what he does. And he has been doing evangelistic training here for people who have been interested in that ministry in the past.

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And of course, he does this as a matter of his life is given to evangelism. So Peter, with that, will you please come up and share with us?

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Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here. My name is Peter Hammond, and I am a

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Christian evangelist and missionary. And I'm very excited to be here this morning to be able to share with you a ministry we've been building for a number of years now that is rather unique.

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And it's a global impact, yet we're here locally. However, my family is my first and most important ministry.

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And this is my wife, Amanda, Rachel, Caleb, and James. The testimonies of my wife and I are tied very closely together, as we've known each other for more than two decades.

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We met in the Air Force, and then we created some tech businesses together, working with the likes of Microsoft and Dell.

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And through that all, we were the most wretched of people. We were wasting our gifts and our life chasing the pleasures of the world, the lust of the flesh.

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And through very providential events, we were taken out of Seattle, we left everything we knew, and we moved to Trout Creek, Montana, where we heard the gospel at Cabinet Mountain Bible Church.

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And through the grace and mercy of our Lord, he saved us through just a wonderful opportunity to come to know him, through wonderful people who shared the gospel with us.

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And we repented and followed him more than 10 years ago. We now live in Sandpoint, Idaho, and we are members and serve at Kootenai Community Church.

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Four years ago, we decided to use the gifts that God has given us to be for his glory, following the commandment of Mark 16, 15.

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And he said to them, go into the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. So who comes to mind when you imagine sending out missionaries to unreach people around the world?

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Would people who are committing the worst of human behavior, from theft to sorcery to murder, every single day, welcome you into their home to share the gospel with them?

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And if they did, would you go? Well, that's exactly what's happening today.

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However, it's not a tribe in the Amazon. It's the kids you love, your neighbors next door, your grandkids, the people you might be sitting next to.

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There are three billion people playing online games, many of which glorify the worst of human behavior, from sorcery to murder to theft.

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These online games and virtual worlds, they're doing this every single day. They are inviting strangers into their homes virtually.

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And like those very real missionaries, we are traveling through the internet to distant lands to these unreached people.

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And even more shocking, 30 % of them are children that are just fixated on these same very violent lifestyles.

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Over the years, we have reached people for the gospel of Jesus Christ all around the world. In just the past month, we've been blessed with sharing the gospel with people in Canada, Serbia, and Austria.

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I'd like to show you this ministry in action and introduce some people who are very precious to me, starting with Chris Green, who

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I met when I first started this ministry back in 2018. What you're about to see is the first time

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I met Chris in a virtual world. He knew who Jesus was, he died on a cross, but he didn't know what that meant.

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While I'm sharing the gospel with him, you're gonna see that I'm gonna be interrupted. There's gonna be other characters coming up and flocking around.

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And I want you to understand, those are real people, and they are hearing me proclaim the gospel to Chris. And when

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I am done with this, you'll understand that it's basically a virtual street corner, and it is the gospel being shared and heard by everybody there.

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So, have you heard of who Jesus Christ is? What do you know about him?

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You're exactly right. Is that, do you know anything else? Okay, well

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Jesus is actually God. He's all God and all man.

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And he was born 2 ,000 years ago to a virgin, okay, which is the only time it's ever happened in history.

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And he lived a perfect life. He never sinned once.

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He did everything that was pleasing to God. And then, you're exactly right, he went to the cross and he died for us.

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But he didn't just die on that cross, he actually took, oh, wait for her to finish talking.

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Okay, so he actually took the wrath of God for our sins, our lies, our thieving, our blasphemy, all of those things that we've done.

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Jesus Christ died on the cross and took the wrath of God for those so that we could be forgiven of our sins.

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And then he died. But it didn't end there. Three days later, he was resurrected into a new body.

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Have you heard that part before? No. You've never heard that, that he was resurrected?

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I've never heard that part. Yeah, he is actually alive right now, seated at the right hand of the

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Father in that throne that the devil, Lucifer, he wanted to have.

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Jesus Christ is seated there right now at the right hand of the Father. And he is the first man to get a resurrected body.

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He is the promise of the resurrection to come for us.

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So who do you imagine the person behind that virtual character to be?

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In these environments, it's often hard to tell who I'm sharing the gospel with. Are they an adult or are they a child?

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Are they in the U .S. or overseas? Sometimes they're people you would never have a chance to meet any other way, like Chris.

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This was Chris Green in real life. 22 years old, less than 90 pounds, confined to a bed on a feeding tube because of muscular dystrophy.

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He was in a home with a stepfather who proclaimed that Zeus and Medusa were just as real as Jesus.

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Through the controller in his hand, he was connected with our ministry, and he heard the gospel, that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life, and that no one will come to the

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Father except through him. Jesus, Chris died last

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April. And thanks to our good and loving God, he is free from the suffering of that broken body.

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And he is now with our king, and I am looking forward to seeing him again in glory. Likewise, I was blessed to have the opportunity to share the gospel with this young lady from Chile several years ago.

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Hello, everyone. My name is Kathy. I'm 16 years old, and I'm a Christian from Chile, South America. I was raised

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Roman Catholic, but as I grew up and became a teenager, I became an atheist. That was until Peter shared the gospel with me, and that was the first time that someone actually explained it to me.

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Over the weeks and months, Peter kept answering all of my Bible questions and just overall giving me life advice as I read the

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Bible for the first time. I used to use video games as an escape mechanism, but I don't need to do that anymore.

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Missionary Gaming Ministry showed me how awesome God is, and I'm so thankful for Peter and his community for all that they have done for me.

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Like Chris, Kathy is in a home where the truth of Christ is not taught.

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And as another example of a person I would never have a chance to meet in any other way. Our interactions don't stop with sharing the gospel.

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Some, like Chris and Kathy, come back for discipleship and attend our in -game

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Bible studies where we go through Fundamentals of the Faith by John MacArthur, The Way of the

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Master Training, Evangelism Training by Ray Comfort, and God Wrote a Book by Jim Osman.

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Kathy has continued to be part of our ministry and was one of the first to use the same tools and techniques in her own live streaming to share the gospel.

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These are just two of the examples of the many precious people God has given me the opportunity to know and to minister to.

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This is Pastor Jess, and it may shock you to learn this, but he is not one of the three billion online gamers.

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Due to a serious injury which prohibited him from attending church or even leaving the house because of his pain, he was able to join our ministry through that smartphone right there, and he gave this testimony.

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I personally disdain any type of video games, but after I got over my personal inhibitions and experienced the tools and techniques that Peter has implemented,

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I quickly saw how my concerns and disdain were unwarranted and was surprised at the genuine opportunities to share the gospel and even disciple people through gaming -related technologies.

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These men are not gamers either, but they do believe in this outreach, and they have joined us in helping shape the future of this ministry.

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If you're interested in finding out how you can partner with us, pray for us, pray for those we share the gospel with, or participate in this ministry, we'll be available after service today, and there's a handout in the service bulletin as well.

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I hope you'll consider joining our efforts of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ on virtual street corners all over the world.