BBC Missions And Evangelism

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So today's Sunday School is going to be very different than our regular Sunday Schools. It's primarily an update on missions.
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We have some changes in our missions. So we'll go over some of our existing missions, work, some of the changes, so you know what's going on.
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And then, is Barry Aloisi here? We will also cover some evangelism.
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I think I saw Bruce here somewhere. So we'll be covering something on evangelism as well.
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So before we begin, let's open with prayer. Our loving and gracious Father, we thank you for sending us your
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Son to save us. And we thank you that you can use us to support these missions that are going on.
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And we thank you that you use these men and women here to witness where you have placed them, especially in downtown
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Worcester. We pray as we hear these updates and we look into the
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Word that you will charge us up, that we would be about your business, going and telling everyone about your excellencies.
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In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Okay, so today's, like I said, we'll take about five minutes per missionary to give you a brief update for each of them.
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If you have any questions, feel free to ask. We have Erickson here who communicates with the missionaries, so he can give you some additional information as you need them.
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And then we will spend some time talking about evangelism as well. The verse that I want you to keep in mind as we go through this overview is 1
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Peter 2, 9, where we read, You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.
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And the purpose of all this is that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
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So the goal of our existence here is to proclaim the excellencies of Jesus Christ.
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And he has called us out of darkness and we go back into the darkness to the people in the world and tell them who this great
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God is. So I'm going to begin with Christian Andreessen. So all of these people are here on the missions board, so you can actually come and take a look at it, maybe after Sunday school so you can see a picture of what they look like and some new updates on them.
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So Erickson faithfully puts up new information there as he communicates with them, so you can get some of those.
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But for those of you who are not familiar with Christian Andreessen, he serves in the
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EBTC, that stands for the European Bible Training Center, and it's based in Berlin, Germany, and in Zurich, Switzerland.
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So they have training centers all throughout Europe. They've expanded a lot in the recent years.
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Andreessen is a native of Germany. He's married to Cheryl, who is from the
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U .S., and so they are now living there as missionaries teaching in this institute.
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So his main work there is at EBTC, and for those of you familiar with missions at BBC, our goal is to send men to different places, especially in places where the gospel is facing a lot of opposition and not as favorably received, so that they can train other men who can go do church planting and serve in that capacity.
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So that's the heart of BBC missions is to support men and women who would go out there, and especially men who would train other men who can be pastors and then who can support locally what these men would begin.
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So Christian and Cheryl, they've been there since 1997. We've been supporting them for a while.
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They have been directly involved in three church planting ministries, so three church plants have come out through their work, and they currently serve in a church where Christian is doing the teaching, and Cheryl also does the teaching for the women.
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Christian's title is actually dean for this institute, and he does both teaching as well as administrative work in getting different people to come.
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Now this year has been pretty good. They had a very strong semester, lots of courses, and they had three extra seminars where they were able to get in some qualified men to do some teaching.
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There was teaching on history of church doctrine and a few others. So in a place, especially in Europe, where there is not as much, the gospel is not valued as much anymore.
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It is one of those post -Christian countries, if you will. This is the place where we have Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, all these men beginning the
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Reformation, but now it is pretty dead. It is very hard to do evangelism.
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Those of you who met Christian when he was here, you heard about the response to the gospel.
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It is pretty, pretty tough. But in the midst of this, God is bringing these men to EBTC, and we have this training that is going on now faithfully year after year, and we are seeing a growth where people from,
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I think, Poland and other countries are also coming and getting trained here so they can go back and start churches.
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So we are very, very thankful for what God has done through the Andresans.
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Now when we think of proclaiming the excellencies of Christ who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light,
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Europe is pretty much in the dark ages when it comes to spirituality. In all other things, they may seem to be excelling, but this is a very difficult ministry.
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When we think of people in Europe, we sometimes think they are just having an easy life.
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It is not. It is very difficult. And one of the things that a Christian said when he came here was the world just looks at pastors and Christian workers as these guys just have an easy life.
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They just get money, and they do not work hard like us.
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So one of the things Christians would say is just the testimony of a Christian hard worker goes a long way as well for his neighbors and others.
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They just watch. He wakes up early in the morning, goes to work, and then serves in an excess capacity, which is truly what
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Christian ministry is. To the world, it may seem that it is not so, but year after year, this faithful labor is producing a lot of fruit.
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So you want to be praying for the EBTC itself, that the Lord would continue to bless it.
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There is a lot of work there, so students making a lot of sacrifices to come and study. So you can pray that God would bless these students, the teachers who are serving, and also
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Christians' family. And as you know, is Amelia here? Amelia had gone and served in Germany for a little while, and so they have some family needs.
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Erickson has been sending out some prayer requests. How many of you get the prayer emails from Erickson?
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Does it go to everybody? Yeah, so if you want to, you can sign up for the prayer email so you can get updates.
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So, for example, I think his daughter, Christina, and her husband,
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Marco, they should have had a baby in March, and the baby was born with some disease.
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I can't pronounce this, but as soon as the baby was born, it needed surgery. So they have the same kind of trials that you and I have as well.
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It's not just that missions work. They also have family needs. The grandfather died recently.
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The grandmom is living with those things. There's a lot of other things, updates you can get from the prayer email.
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So you can be praying for them, both in their family, that the Lord would bless them and protect them and provide for them.
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They have some, I don't know if you know, in Europe there was a lot of rains late last year and early this year.
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There was a lot of damage, so they needed some help. So you can be praying that God would provide for their physical needs as well as, especially as they go out and proclaim the gospel, that he would protect them and use them.
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Do you have any other updates? All right, so the next update we have is on the
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Bowmans. So we have Bob and Judy. So Bob and Judy Bowman, some of you would know they were working in the
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New Tribes missions for a long time. They've served in Bolivia. They've served in dangerous places.
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They came back. They were serving here to raise up men to go out. Now they have retired, and they are now in Paintsville, Kentucky.
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And Pastor Bob, for the newcomers here, he was our senior pastor here before he went out to New Tribes.
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So he's a dear friend to many of you here, and we love him. And now they are serving to mobilize believers in this
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Paintsville, Kentucky area. I think it's eastern, northeastern Kentucky. And so he preaches at the local church week after week.
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I think he's going through Colossians now. And he also serves at the local prison, and he's been doing that pretty faithfully for a while and also with the youth in the school.
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And at this point, they are meeting, I think, in a warehouse, and then they're looking to build the church up and then support it.
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So we are glad for his faithful service. I mean, most people would want to retire and then settle down, but not
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Pastor Bob. I mean, he's just going strong. And sometimes we think, okay, you know, in the U .S. everything is fine.
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It is not. And especially in rural Kentucky, there is a lot of work that needs to be done, and we're just thankful for a man of God who would, you know, just serve completely until the
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Lord would take him home. One of the things he is doing is he is doing a mini homiletics course for the men in his group.
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The goal, once again, is to train and equip young men so that they would continue the ministry that God has blessed them with.
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Erickson, do you have anything to add? Do you have anything? And I think the people are pretty poor in that region.
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Yeah, but they're really nice people. Very friendly, yes. But, again, the gospel needs to do the work there as everywhere else.
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Any other questions, either Pastor Bob or with Christian?
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All right, so moving along. The next, we have the Hofmeisters. They are also supported by us.
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They are our Awana missionaries. So those of you who have children here in Awana, you know the benefits that the children gain by coming here, memorizing the scriptures, having a lot of fun, getting excited about the
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Bible. So we are thankful for the ministry that goes on here. And Scott Ferrer handles
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Awana here. So if you have any questions, we can talk about them. If not, we'll move on.
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All right, so the next update is, well, let me maybe stop for a minute. Sometimes we forget how important the ministry in the church is also.
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In Awana, we get our children come, and then there are children from other families that also come here. And the darkness is not just in rural
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Africa, where we're going to see next, but it is also right here within our own families and in our communities.
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And I think we want to be faithful in proclaiming the excellencies of Christ, right from the little ones all the way to the ones who are in prison for life.
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So we are thankful for the ministry that goes on. The next missionary that we want to look at is
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Steve and Karen Plotnick. So how many of you are from Mozambique are here, the
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Mozambique trip? If you can just lift your hands up high. So these people went to Mozambique in 2009.
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Eight? Thank you. You can see how much my memory is. Thank you. And we got to see the
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Plotnicks in their own turf, if you will. They've been serving there for over 10 years now, and a faithful family in terms of just a background.
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Plotnicks, they came also from Master's Seminary. They were serving for about 11 years in Connecticut as a pastor, and then there was a call to missions.
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They have, let me read their children's names. They have six children,
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Stephen, Timothy, Kimberly, Catherine, Michael, and Luke. And Luke, I think, was born in South Africa.
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And they, big family, everything going on well here.
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They just up and moved to South Africa. And those of you who went to South Africa and are native South African here,
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I can see him. He's here somewhere. You know the difference in the comfort level and different types of dangers that you face when you go to this country, but they trusted in the
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Lord. They went there. They've been faithful. And their goal has been to equip the seminary. They serve at Christ Church Seminary and Christ Seminary in Polokwane, South Africa.
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And they've been very faithful in ministering. And the goal for Steve and Karen was to equip the locals there to the point where the seminary can be supported by indigenous people and then to find other call that God would have them to serve in.
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And for these last few years, he's not just been lecturing in New Testament exposition.
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When I was there, I talked to him. He just floors you. He just gives you like a fire hydrant of data.
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And then he's just such deep in the word and a real love for the saints in South Africa.
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And he's been equipping them faithfully. He's also been the administrative dean for the seminary.
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In the last couple of years, there's been a series of problems that has come to this place.
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The senior pastor was in sin. So there was a need for it. He was also serving in the local church.
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And there was a need for that to be dealt with and the fallout to bring the word again to bear upon the truth and to minister to the sheep.
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Things have settled down in the church. And likewise, the seminary was associated with this church. And that's also started to settle again.
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The Lord has given them two graduates, both of them with ministry experience, who are now going to be teaching.
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One of them has been teaching for a while. And the other is actually going to become the president of the seminary and take over the responsibilities of the seminary as a whole.
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So the ministry that the Paulard next were called to seems to be coming to a fruition.
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So they came there with a goal, and it seems like it is coming toward an end. And so as some of their children have also are now in the
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United States for college in the master's seminary and in Southern California. So it seems appropriate that now is the time for them to probably come back.
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So you can be praying for them, for their ministries. They have been faithful in proclaiming the excellencies of Christ in South Africa.
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And it seems now it would be that they are coming back here at some time to see whether it is to serve in a pastoral capacity back in the
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United States. So this is going to be involved a lot of transition, a lot of details. It's nothing is worked out yet.
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They just know that they have fulfilled their duties and now they need to come back. So you can be praying for them. Anything else you want to add?
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So pray especially now, because now is the time that they are looking to see what God would call them to, that they would have clarity of mind and God would direct them their paths in terms of where they are going to go in the future.
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Associated with the Paulard next, we also have the Samaria missions. So the Samaria missions was the group that took us into Mozambique and back.
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So they are again associated with the Christ Church in Polokwane.
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And they take people from the U .S. who want to come there for 10 days and go to these bush tribes and then preach the gospel.
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Very faithful servants. They have many teams. One of the teams is Sean and Gina Mullin. Once again,
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Sean and Gina Mullin are not supported directly by us, but they are very dear to us.
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They came to us last year. The VBS did a collection for them and sent them a generous gift. So we are in communication with them and we pray for their needs.
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As of now, things are going pretty well with Sean and Gina, but you need to continue to pray that the
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Lord would use them as they faithfully serve in ministering to both the villages.
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They train and equip leaders in the different villages where the churches are planted. And they also help
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Christians who come there in order to serve on missions. So you can definitely be praying.
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There is a new team that is being added to some area missions. So there is a lot of logistics.
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So if you wanted to be on their team, so you and your family decide, you go there, take a look at how the ministry is done, and then there is a lot of details that go on in terms of becoming a part of the team.
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So one such family from the U .S. is going there, so you can pray that things go well. So the next group that we want to look at is the
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Pastoral Training Seminary, PTS. It used to be Pastoral Training Institute.
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It used to be in Pune in India, but now it has moved to Goa. And there has been a lot of exciting things happening here.
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We have two missionaries here that we support. One is the Smith family, who are actually coming here in just a few weeks, 17th through 20th.
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So they will be staying at the Ready Home. You will have a lot of opportunity to minister to them while they are here.
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The other missionary is the Williams. We will talk about them in a minute. But the PTS, its goal has been to be faithful.
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Again, both of these men are from the Master's Seminary, very faithful men, and equipped with teaching the
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Word. So this seminary program is a three -year program, and they train these men, and then they help these men plant churches, go out and serve.
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And they have had this now since 2002, and they have done a phenomenal job.
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The Lord has been growing the number of students there in great ways, and I think it is an exciting ministry there.
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For the Smiths in particular, I think most of you probably know him. He has been here a few times, but for those of you who are new, you may not.
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Jeremy Smith and Andrea Smith, they have three children, Jeremy Jr.,
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Abigail, and Nathaniel. Thank you. So they have three children, and they have come here.
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When they went one of their trips back to India, Jeremy had a very serious car accident. Not just Jeremy, the entire family, they were going from the airport.
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We thought we would lose some of them in the accident. It was very catastrophic. And the
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Lord was gracious to preserve Jeremy's life, and the life of the family there. And when you see him, you will see the scars still from that accident.
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And many a person, and especially if you have grown up here, with all the comforts you would have said, maybe this is something that the
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Lord would want me to come back, because I can get better care here, and I have family who can provide.
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But not Jeremy. He said, God has called me there, and he has spared my life, and I am going to continue the ministry that God has called me to.
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And this is the family that I am sharing with, where God has placed me. Very faithful and dear friend.
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And you will get to see him more. He will probably give you more updates while he is here. So there are many ways in which you can serve the
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Smiths while they are here. So the Reddy's graciously are hosting them at their home. You might have seen some emails, if not you will see more, where you can actually have them over to your home.
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So if you would like to have them over, maybe open up your home, so others can also come and visit them. Or just enjoy them.
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You are welcome to host them for a meal. And they would love to come and talk to you. If you want to get fired up about ministry, about the
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Lord, I would highly encourage that. Make sure you do that. We also have a Saturday men's breakfast, where Jeremy will be speaking.
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So look up for that. Sign up for it. You will get a chance to talk to him, ask him a lot of questions. And then that Sunday he will be ministering here as well.
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I think we have a pot providence in the evening, so that we can fellowship with him and his family. The Smiths once again are going through a transition.
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So when Jeremy went to India, he said, I am going to go there for 10 years. And my goal is to equip this
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PTI, to a place where it is again self -sufficient. And the Lord has again done phenomenally, in terms of providing for the seminary.
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It has grown. They now have a land, that was gifted to them in Goa. And there are some logistics, in terms of just getting it registered, and taken as a seminary.
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Because politically, things have to go correctly. So you can be praying, that those things actually are done well.
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But I think the time is coming for Jeremy, when his ministry is coming to an end. The main reason is, there has been a lot of political issues with his visa.
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In the past, he had to go to different countries periodically, to make sure he can stay in India, as a visitor.
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And that has become harder, in the last few years. In fact, when we found out the extent of the strain, it was going to put on his family, we encouraged him, to reconsider serving in India.
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But he said, no, I think I love the Indians, so I want to stay. But they have tried that for a little while, and it is very difficult.
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Now that PTS is supported well, Jeremy does need to take care of his family.
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They were traveling between India and the US, every year, for a significant period of time. I think it was a wise call, for them to consider coming back.
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Jeremy may most likely go to Southern, to do his PhD in Biblical Studies. He has been teaching already, all these many years.
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But that is where his heart is, to be able to continue to teach. So he is coming here to be trained. Again, these are all early stages.
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These are just happening, as I am speaking to you. So you can pray for him, as you do for the
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Palarniks as well. That God would guide them, lead them, give them wisdom. But above all,
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I would love to see BBC, just pour your love upon him, and his family, as they come here.
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This is a dear family, that have just excelled, in showing forth, the excellencies of him, who called them out of darkness, into the marvelous light.
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I think for young people here, and for all of us, these are good models to look up to. So I would love for you to spend that time, and love them, and learn from them, while they are here.
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Ajay, would you want to add anything? Oh, thank you, yes. At the
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Reddy's. Even if you are not able to host, you can visit them. You will have some one -on -one time, to speak with them as well.
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Any questions so far? There is an open house on Friday, in the
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Reddy's home. So we will send out some BBC announcers, that will list out all the dates, what we are doing.
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You will have many opportunities, to meet with them, when they are here. The next is the
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Williams family. Sammy and Nicole. They have four children, Hannah Joy, Caleb, Micah, and Sarah Grace.
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Sammy's dad, Chris Williams, is the pastor of the local church, from which
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PTI started. That was in Puna. The seminary was associated, with the church.
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Sammy was educated again, in the masters. He went back to be part of PTI. Many of you would have met him.
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He was here last year. You have gotten an opportunity, to meet him. Moving to Goa, once again, the
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Lord has just added, the students so much. The Lord has blessed them significantly, in terms of the ministry.
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Especially with the Smiths coming back, the Williams will have, a lot more load. They do have new support staff.
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I don't have their names here, but they will not be, lacking teachers.
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Just the weight of responsibility. Sammy has been, Jeremy has been there, for over 10 years now.
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You want to be praying for them, as they take the weight of the ministry, over there.
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Laughter So, PTS, is like this.
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These are not, first of all, PTS, I don't think it's still accredited. I think they were working toward it. Do you know if it's changed?
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Yeah, it's not accredited. It's not a seminary for, people who say, I want to study, and then just go into a cushy job, preaching.
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These are for men who say, I want to know what the Bible says. They do Greek and Hebrew, just like a typical seminary here.
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It's just not accredited by the local, accreditation agency, because one of the things is they need a lot of books, to have a big library.
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They still don't have the funds for all that. In time, hopefully they will get that. But the people who come are normally people who say,
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I got saved. I'm passionate about the Lord, and I just need to go and proclaim the true gospel, to everyone.
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I want to understand the word well and thoroughly. These are men, whatever phase in life they are in, they just come to PTS, three years, and many of them are married.
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The church and the seminary, their goal is not to separate the family, so they bring them over. They actually provide for some accommodation locally.
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It is difficult. The studies are subsidized, but there's a lot of, you can imagine, if we suddenly decided, we can have a lot of people come and stay, just within these facilities.
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We don't have a lot of resources. How difficult it would be for the families to make those sacrifices, and to work with one another.
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You can pray that God would give wisdom, as this whole thing grows. This new land obviously is a huge gain, that has come to pass, and we would pray that God will, continue to bless the ministries.
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Like I said, the number of people, the number of students, that have heard about this, and are coming are phenomenal. Last time when
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Sammy was here, he said, we just don't have the bandwidth, to actually cover all the requests, that are now coming in.
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There are churches that are calling them, to do these seminars, conferences. Pastor Mike has gone there a few times, and I think
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Haley has gone too. It's an exciting place. There is much need, and these people are exactly, where God has placed them to be.
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We are glad to be able to support them, basically from the back end, while they are out there, proclaiming
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Christ and his excellencies. Please be praying for the Williams.
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The next, and I think this is the last I have, is the Compassion Pregnancy Center. Is Lou here? He is in Sunday School, teaching the youth.
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Many of you know, Compassion Pregnancy. We did the bottle collection. Lou was serving as the president.
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He still is. I think there are some transitions, happening there, but he will continue to serve there. A huge ministry.
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When we think of in the local communities, we are going to be talking about, downtown evangelism in a minute.
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These are women who get pregnant, and are choosing whether to have an abortion, or let the baby live.
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Compassion Pregnancy does that ministry, of coming alongside, giving them the options, working with them, and being able to proclaim the gospel as well.
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Those of you on the prayer list, would have seen the tragic circumstances, that these women go through, and the faithfulness of God, in ministering to these women, through compassion.
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You can talk to Lou, for more details. Erickson is in communication, with all of these things.
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We will have a compassion walk, early fall, where there is a fundraiser, that happens.
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I think the ultrasound, they are working towards gaining,
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I don't think that has come yet. They have been looking, to have an ultrasound, because that goes a long way, when the women can see a live baby, and realize this is not just a tissue, but it is actually a human being, that they would have to choose, to either keep, or abort.
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They also deal with women, who have had abortions, and minister to them, to recognize that the grace of God, extends to everyone, and you can be forgiven, and be saved.
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This is a very quick overview, of all our missions. The goal of this was, mainly there are two big changes, one is the
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Smiths, they will be coming here, so enjoy them, but also be praying for them, as they are ministry changes, and also for the
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Plotniks, as they are looking to see, what the Lord would have them do. Any questions on the missions?
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The next thing, I want to take time here, is evangelism. Barry is here, if you would just raise up your hand.
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Those of you who don't know Barry, he handles the evangelism, he handled it last year, very faithfully, and there is a band of people here, those of you who regularly go, can you just lift up your hand, so people can talk to you about this.
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Lift it a little higher, so people can see you. If you have questions on, you want to be involved in this, downtown evangelism, and you want to ask, find out how you can serve, you can talk to Barry, talk to any of these men, starting the first Saturday in May, which is next
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Saturday, we are going to be having men go out, into downtown Worcester.
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You will have this opportunity, where you can actually go, give the gospel, and speak to people, who do not know about Jesus Christ, and you have teams from BBC, that will go, so even if you have never done this before, you can actually join these men, the way it works is,
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I think 10 o 'clock, little before 10, everybody meets at the BBC, Worcester Public Library, and thank you,
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Pat again goes faithfully there, and then 10 to 12, they go out in two by twos, and you take a
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Bible, a handful of tracts, and you just walk down the streets, giving the tracts to different people, and those who want to speak about Jesus Christ, you give the gospel, again proclaiming the excellencies of Christ, to people who, actually do not know about Jesus, and the material
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I prepared, was from Bruce Binnies, he is one of the ones, instrumental in getting this whole thing started,
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I still have your highway and hedges, handout here, Bruce was passionate, about getting the gospel out, and through that, and it is now,
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Bruce has moved to Gardner, and Barry has been able to lead this, but you would still be surprised, the number of people who do not know, about Jesus Christ, we go week after week, we meet a lot of people who are same, but we meet a lot of new people too, but the ministry in downtown, is a little different, because you normally get to meet, some of the poorer people, some of the homeless people, some of the people who are kind of down and out, and in desperate need of just, help, and what else can you give, than the excellencies of Christ, who called you, out of darkness, that can call them out of darkness as well, and it will actually, every time
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I have gone, I have just been broken, to recognize the desperate need, in which people live in both the physical, as well as spiritual, some of the sin, that we hear about is, we do not normally see that,
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I have not seen those types of sin, in my life, and I am just thankful for God's provision for me, and just you learn to love people, that you otherwise would never meet, so I would encourage, those of you who can,
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Saturday mornings, email Barry, so he knows who is coming, you do not actually even have to do that, you can just show up on Saturday mornings, starting next
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Saturday, at the Worcester Public Library, the main Worcester Public Library, we will send out an email, that will have more details, so those of you, who are already comfortable, know what it is to give the gospel, you will pair up with someone, who has done, so you know how it is done here, there are some things you do want to avoid, for example, people will ask you for money, we normally do not give money, they will give you a lot of reasons,
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I think I might have shared with some of you, one of them said, my car is broken down, and I need to go to the hospital for delivery, and they will make up really good stories, because they are desperate, they do not have money, and they will try to get your money, and most of them will ask you for food, so we would say,
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I will take you to a place, and there are plenty of places, where you can take them, and give them a meal, if you would like, and you are able to, but we encourage not to give money, or take money, just to be safe, we always go two by two, and our main goal, is to proclaim the gospel, and love on those people, let me just say a few things,
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I had a lot, but I think we need to finish, any questions so far, on evangelism, do not have to raise hands on this, has anyone actually decided, that I think
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I might go there, this year, if not, maybe you should, think about it, if you can, you do not have to go there every
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Saturday, but it will change you, when you realize, how much need is right around us, and for those of you, who are shy, you do not have to be even speaking, because one of the things, we do need is prayer, so when you go two by two, normally it is one person speaking, we do not try to gang up, and beat up the person, we are talking to, you are proclaiming the excellencies, not the iron fist, so the other person, is normally just praying, so you could just be there and pray, while this person is speaking, and giving the gospel, and you might ask, why should
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I do this, I am having enough, I am the new Christian, I do not know much to say, first of all, because God has called you to,
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Matthew 28, 19 to 20, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that is a call upon every single Christian, we ought to be proclaiming the excellencies, we ought not to hide that light under the bushes, we ought to be telling everyone, and here is one opportunity, where you can actually do that, so you want to obey
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God, if God has saved you, we have no business hiding that light, or saying,
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I am sending money to my missionaries, and they will do the job for me, no, we do the job that God has called us, and placed us to, so wherever you are, we saw
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Havana, so within your families, you want to give the gospel, we see compassion, so we give that to the ministry, throughout the nations, but right there in the cities and towns, your neighbors, your loved ones, and this will actually help you, understand how you can give the gospel, we don't do methods here, we don't say
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ABC, and then you did your job, you have the gospel, everyone is equipped, every one of you is equipped, when
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I say obey, one of the things that come is, what do you want to say, you want to tell people about Jesus Christ, and let's say you just got saved yesterday, you just knew you were a sinner,
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Jesus died on that cross, and you trusted in him, and he has changed your life, that's good enough, you don't know the scriptures yet, share that, tell and proclaim the excellencies of the man who saved your life, the
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God who died on your place, that's all that it takes, sometimes we think we need to be theologically smart, answer all the questions, for these people to believe, no that's not what they need, we'll talk about learning, but when they see that you love
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Jesus, and you love them enough, to tell them about the gospel, God can use even that, to change people's lives,
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I'm not saying that every single person that you're talking to, is going to fall on their knees, and then say
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Lord save me, we wish, we pray every time before we go, and after we come back we keep praying for that, but that's not the goal, our goal is not
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I got these men saved, X, Y and Z, we saved nobody, God does the saving, we want to be faithful in proclaiming the gospel, and that's what we do, we obey and we tell them what we know, and that's pretty much it, but as you go out you will realize, that there are things that you know, and things you don't know, one of the things that we will equip you as you go, we call the four
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W's, who is God, you want to tell people about who God is, so you learn more about talking about God, God is the creator, people don't know that they were created by God, Romans 1, they know there is
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God the creator, but they have been suppressing it so long, that they don't even pay attention to it, so when you say God created you for some people, it's like I never even thought about that, what do you mean,
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I thought we all evolved, we don't need to get into a debate on evolution, but we can just proclaim, declare, say this is what the
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Bible says, God says you were created, and you need to one day meet him, not as just your creator, but as your judge, so you will find attributes of God, that you yourself will learn as you start to tell them, but once again if you are new, don't worry about it, you don't need to know all these things, you just come, just tell them
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God saved me, this is what the Bible says, and I want you to be saved as well, and you can go with people who have done this for a long time, and you will learn as you do that also, every time
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I go, some of them ask just questions in order to throw you off, but others actually genuinely ask questions, and you will come back and you will learn more, as you study the word, who is
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God, who is man, people again don't realize how desperately wicked we are, and the danger that faces us, who is
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Jesus Christ, most people just know Jesus as a word they use when they speak, they don't really realize, who this
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God is, this excellent Christ who is lifted up, and we do that, we raise them up so they can see for the first time, for many of them who this
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Jesus is, and then we put the call of the gospel upon them, that they do need to repent and believe, and sometimes we are able to give the entire gospel, sometimes we are just able to say one thing, and then their bus comes and they need to leave,
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God is responsible for all those things, we just need to be faithful, and get out there, you will learn, you will learn to trust
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God more, as you go that morning, you will be praying really hard, asking
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God for strength, and then once you, as you do this more in your own lives, you will be able to equip others, to help others, proclaim the excellencies of Christ as well, and it will change your lives, as you see the need, as you see how
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God, can use you, you will become more faithful, one of the things is, some people who struggle with sin,
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I just tell them, you have to be evangelizing more, when you actually go out and speak, the greatness of Christ, you can't just go back and then, hide in the darkness of sin, this is the
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God you love, and part of putting off and putting on, is this, that you be serving
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Christ, where God has called you, let me stop here, I'm out of time, Barry if you have just a quick, anything to add, we can take that,
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I didn't pay him, Simon, thank you, so every third
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Friday, people who are literally, at the end of their lives, and going to meet their
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God, you have a great opportunity to love them, and to give them the gospel, so let's pray, if you have questions, you know the people to talk to, please do that afterward, a loving
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God, we thank you for saving us, and we thank you for using men like our missionaries, to proclaim your excellencies, and Lord we also, are reminded today, that we will, do the same in our lives, wherever you have placed us, and the rest of the service we commit into your hand, be glorified oh