Tonight in West Hollywood

Dan and the team are back out in West Hollywood tonight. Please join me in prayer for them as they set up the ministry table and offer the Gospel in God's love to the broken.

Leaving for NYC in the Morning

Today is a busy day. I have to head to the storage unit to get materials to ship out to various locations. Plus, I am packing and preparing for my flight to NYC tomorrow. I have to prepare my songs, which I will be singing next week in the music studio, and schedule more details for the trip, such as a shuttle to take me to the airport. There is a whole lot to do before leaving early in the morning. I also need to work on preparing for our outreach this Sunday by getting in touch with many people about working with us at the ministry table after the morning service at First Baptist NYC.

LTW to the Smokies (last weekend)

From Claudette Litz, leader:

Each Saturday as I am witnessing at the LTW table, God gives me a song in my heart. Over and over today, these lyrics were on my mind: “Do you know my Jesus? Do you know my friend? Have you heard He loves you and that He will abide to the end?” So, that became my question for the day. “Do you know Jesus?” There was a steady flow of people coming to the table from 9 AM – 2:30 PM., and knowing Jesus was the theme for conversations with believers and non-believers.

Although everyone but two young people professed to know Him, I did get to briefly give the plan of salvation twice. A boy, around the age of twelve, said he knew Jesus, because He had spared his mother’s life in an accident on their farm. I explained to him that God had shown His love to him in this way, but he needed a personal relationship with Him. Our conversation was cut short because his traveling companions had to leave, but I think he understood some of what I was saying. I gave him a Bible and two tracts: “Where Do I Go From Here?” and “Steps to Peace With God.” Later, a group of teenagers came to the table. They all said they knew Jesus except for one girl. She did not know how to answer my question. I told the whole group the plan of salvation, and she listened. She expressed eagerness to know for sure she was going to heaven when she died. I gave her sermons by Hollie Miller and Tommy Fox; a Bible, and several tracts. Her favorite tract was “Where Do We Go From Here?” It was very sweet to see teenagers excited about the good news of Jesus regarding their eternal life.

A little girl’s words to her father have a special place in my heart. When he called to her and asked her what she was doing while talking to me, she said, “I’m just talking about Jesus, Daddy!” How wonderful! No parent could ask for words more precious.

Several adults took cards to use in witnessing to Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons. Some had children who were unsaved and took sermons and materials for them. Linda Harvey’s book, Not My Child, continues to be very popular among Christian parents seeking to keep their children in God’s will as opposed to the pagan, New Age culture so popular in today’s society.

Dr. Randy Carlson’s DVDs about creating a godly marriage were very much appreciated today. A pastor who counsels married couples was thankful to take one, expressing that it would be used by several people in his church. One couple was on a get-a-way weekend to improve their marriage and felt God had given the DVD to them to watch together on their trip.

As I was folding up the table to prepare for leaving, a man came over and said he and his wife had been listening to me talk with people. They wondered if anyone had been offended by the work I was doing. As he helped me carry materials to my car, I told him that during this season I had only one lady who left the table quickly when I told her the materials were all about Jesus. She said she wanted to go in the opposite direction as fast as she could. Then, I added that it would be an honor for me to be rejected because of serving Jesus. This is His work, and I am very thankful for this opportunity, humble as it is, to take a stand for Him. I shared the following scripture because it is one of my favorites: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Venice Beach

For those who have been following our ministry since it began in 2002 at Venice Beach, Abraham, the king of the boardwalk, is a familar face. His wife, Diane, is sick, and Abraham is requesting prayer. She has been hospitalized. He sent word to me to be praying for Diane, and I promised to pray for her. I used to sit beside this "wild" couple at my booth, and I have sung Gospel music with them and their band countless weekends on the boardwalk. "Abraham the Moslem" was also rumored to be practicing black magick [i.e., satanism.]. Still, I became friends with Abraham and Diane, and they are more than just strange creatures to me. I often found myself wondering who they could have been if they had not ended up at Venice Beach...Yet, realizing, God let me meet them there to tell them about Jesus.

Table Outreach in the Philippines Beginning this Fall

Team staying busy witnessing at various events and preparing for our new table outreach of apologetics to students to begin this fall in the Philippines...

The Meaning of Life When You Can't Find Any (by Daniel Mann)

NYU Professor of Philosophy, Thomas Nagel, wrote about The Meaning of Life, or rather, the lack of it:

Even if life as a whole is meaningless, perhaps that’s nothing to worry about. Perhaps we can recognize it and just go on as before.

Nagel maintains that, although we can’t answer the larger questions, life can still have “meaning” in a limited sense—planning the next meal or movie, visiting a friend—for some people. The key is learning to lighten-up:

Some of us have an incurable tendency to take ourselves seriously…If our lives as a whole seem pointless, then part of us is dissatisfied—the part that is always looking over our shoulders at what we are doing…If life is not real, life is not earnest, and the grave is its [only] goal, perhaps it’s ridiculous to take ourselves so seriously; perhaps we just have to put up with being ridiculous.

In one sense, Nagel is correct. If life is bereft of meaning and purpose, then struggling to try to find or create it will prove highly frustrating and disappointing. It would therefore be better to just resign ourselves to life’s meaninglessness and accept the inevitable. However, his advice is no more satisfying than, “Just be happy!” In fact, it lays another unbearable burden on our backs—the necessity of finding happiness or contentment within a life where peace eludes us like a rainbow when you try to catch it.

I know what my students would ask at this point: “Why doesn’t he just try God?” Well, Nagel seems to have an issue with God:

The same problem seems to arise if God and His purposes are offered as the ultimate explanation of value and meaning of our lives. The idea that our lives fulfill God’s purpose is supposed to give then their point, in a way that doesn’t require or admit of any further point…If God is supposed to give our lives a meaning that we can’t understand, it’s not much of a consolation.

We might not be able to understand God completely, but we can understand enough about Him to know that He is the source of all truth and goodness, that He created and redeemed us, that He loves us with a love that goes beyond anything we can imagine, and that He is totally able and willing to take care of us in all situations, even into eternity. Likewise, I might not know a lot about the healthful qualities of eating a salad, but I know enough to know that it’s good for me.

Besides this, He infuses our lives with significance, value and meaning—so much so that it is a joy to serve Him:

His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Psalm 1:2-3

www.Mannsword.blogspot.com

God's Mercy Over All Our Days

It has been a challenging day, because my whole condo building has been without electricity. I am thankful that it is back on with air conditioning tonight. I was not able to work on my computer, though, all day here.

My heart is FULL of joy tonight, just realizing that I have a mighty God who fights my battles for His glory as I trust Him. I am going to spend some time in prayer, opening my hymnal and singing hymns to God in worship...

This life is short, and my prayer is to live every moment for His glory, clear from distraction.

With His mercies new every morning,
Dwayna

Turning Our Eyes on Jesus

Click here for touching testimony from a woman dying of bone cancer with only a few months to live. She has since gone Home to be with the Lord.

I was reminded that even our faith in the Lord is a gift, as God's grace and mercy on this woman was so evident in her everlasting testimony. It is a blessing to hear. It really took my eyes off this world and put them on Jesus.

------
It was timely for me to listen to that testimony, because I have spent HOURS tonight trying to get the best deal financially possible for my upcoming trip to NYC to train our new leader, Christine, and work with First Baptist NYC this weekend. I have to sing a song in the studio next week before returning. Again, I am asking the Lord to meet the financial needs, because these trips sure are expensive, even though I am getting discount flights and hotel rooms.

Yet, God is faithful. I am going to turn off the computer now and spend more time in prayer tonight. I will continue to prepare for my trip to NYC tomorrow, post a new update from the "LTW to the Smokies" outreach, and also attempt to record a video for a women's conference where I will be singing and speaking in September.

Great Day... Feeling God Near

I have had another great Sunday at Buckhead Church. I got my hopes up, because I had invited an unsaved friend to church, but I guess he was too "scared" to show. Many people in my condo building go to Buckhead Church, since it is within walking distance. Just last night I met this man who said he had never been to a church other than a Catholic church, and I told him the difference in salvation by grace vs. works, which he said he had never heard before. As several of us stood talking in the building, he told us that he felt "scared" when we invited him to come with us to church. He promised he would come, and I waited and waited on him, but he did not show today.

Still, the sermon was such an encouragement to me about waiting on God. I have had a great, full day, ending it down on my knees in a sweet time of prayer. I ended my prayer time singing praises.

"...I own no other master; my heart shall be Thy throne; my life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ for Thee alone."

Sites Exposing Scientology

We will be using these articles in our table outreach locations to give to Scientologists:

http://www.lermanet.com/e-metershort.htm
http://www.lermanet.com/shock1.htm
http://www.lermanet.com/becker.htm

LTW Update: Philippines Outreach Begins This Fall

I just came from our first ever meeting of our newly born campus ministry. Harry was excited. Me scared. Harry, Jason (the president), Alice (our secretary), and I had the meeting at the Student Affairs. We talked about the fees and deadlines of things like list of members and bank book. Please continue to pray and support us, because this is a very crucial month. We are considering to go to churches to help us jumpstart our ministry for financial support. Uphold us everyday to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Thanks and God bless,
Nitoy

Knowing We Are Saved (by Daniel Mann)

Apart from the gift of salvation, there is nothing more precious and necessary than the gift of the assurance of salvation. About this, the Puritan writer, Thomas Brooks, declared:

Now this assurance is the beauty and top of a Christian’s glory in this life. It is usually attended with the strongest joy, with the sweetest comforts, and with the greatest peace. It is a pearl that most want, a crown that few wear. (Heaven on Earth, preface)

Few things matched the pain I experienced when I lacked this assurance and was unable to find any adequate basis for my timid, retiring faith. Meanwhile, there is nothing that approaches the joy of knowing that God loves me and will never let me go! For me, coming to assurance was a slow and messy process, and a process it is! Few experience a blanket sense of assurance from the start. Instead, once we are saved, Scripture encourages us to seek assurance:

Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure… (2 Peter 1:10; also Hebrews 6:11; Eph. 1:18-19).

How then are we to become confident of our salvation? First, we have to realize that all good things come as gifts from God (James 1:17-18). If we forget this, we become self-consumed and discouraged—“What’s the matter with me that I’m always struggling with these doubts?” We therefore need to start our seeking by praying and praising our Savior, who will not withhold any good thing from those who diligently seek Him (Psalm 84:11).

After this, we need to understand that God works synergistically. This means that He works through our efforts. In other words, we can’t sit in a corner and claim that God will do it all without any participation on our part. Even for our efforts, we must thank Him, since our works, however diligently we must pursue them, are also His gifts to us (1 Cor. 15:10; Eph. 2:10; Philippians 2:12-13).

What then do we do in order to acquire assurance? Our efforts should begin with the Word, which produces both faith and assurance. Therefore, John wrote:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13; Romans 10:17).

It is in the Word where we find the reassuring promises of God—that He turns away none who come to Him (John 6:37), and that He receives all who call upon Him (Romans 10:13). These messages had been so important to me. I had often felt God’s cold shoulder, but it was His Word that convinced me of His warm embrace.

The very fact that we have some form of faith also is reassuring, especially in light of the fact that true faith isn’t something we naturally embrace (1 Cor. 2:14). Even turning to God is a gift and a supernatural event. Ordinarily, we are all fugitives from the light of God and wouldn’t be caught dead in its presence (John 3:19-20). If we find ourselves reading the Bible to find out more about God, it implies that a miraculous change has taken place in our lives. An unbelieving cousin just related to me miracle that had happened to her years before. She miraculously found a key that unlocked her car door. She immediately knew that she was intensely loved by God, but this was followed by an equally intense fear that has dominated her ever since. I explained to her that her fear represented the fact that she knew that this God also expected her to love Him. Even at the moment of the miracle, she intuitively knew that this obligation was more than she had signed on for.

However, faith by itself isn’t always able to carry us through the torrents of uncertainty. While faith is enough to save, it often isn’t enough to fully bestow assurance. While John writes that “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1), he never writes that through faith we know that we are saved! However, he does use the word “know,” connoting assurance, in regards to loving and keeping God’s commandments:

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us… (1 John 3:18-20).

We know that we are saved as we grow into living our lives as Jesus did. Faith alone will not always give us this assurance, and it shouldn’t. It might not prove beneficial if we receive it prematurely. My greatest moment of assurance occurred when I was lying in a pool of blood after a nasty encounter with a blood-thirsty chain-saw. As my life-fluid was hastily making its escape from me, I suddenly realized that I wasn’t alone. I was surrounded by the most profound sense of love, joy, peace and the conviction that God was in complete control. I was so assured of this that, when my surgeon told me that I had to exercise my hand in order to regain its use, I disregarded his counsel to the detriment of my hand.

Assurance can work against us if we’re not prepared for it, but Christ knows what we need and when we need it. Besides, it can also be spiritually unhealthy if we’re living a life of sin, in which we need some prodding instead.

John acknowledges that it is natural to doubt that we belong to the truth and to experience condemnation. At such times, we have to preach a sermon to our hearts, but of what will the substance of the message consist? Reminders that we have followed Jesus!

The fact that we lack a joyous assurance serves as a necessary goad to prompt us to meditate on Scripture and to make it our marching orders. It also drives us to self-despair and a crying out to God.

This “works” message might seem disturbingly self-absorbed, but is it the very text John has given us:

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him (1 John 2:3-5).

Paramount in the Biblical list of instructions is our responsibility to love (1 John 3:14). The reassurance we derive from walking in love as Jesus did removes the fear of rejection and condemnation:

…Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment… (1 John 4:16-18).

We gain confidence as we become “like him.” This is an assurance that banishes fear of condemnation. However I must admit that I feel somewhat uncomfortable with this teaching. It seems to place the weight of our lives back on our puny shoulders and refocuses our hope away from our God, the only source of hope. Nevertheless, it’s clear that assurance depends on walking in love.

I think that the resolution to this problem requires us to review certain truths. First of all, however badly our love-walk might be, this never has to permanently place our account in the red. If we confess our sins, our Savior guarantees that He will forgive us and cleanse us from whatever our failures or sins (1 John 1:9). Also, as we encounter our many failures—and indeed we will, because we can do nothing without Him (John 15:4-5)—it is so important to remember that it’s all about Him and not us (Gal. 2:20). He is capable and eager to establish us in love and obedience (Romans 14:4). We don’t have to look back upon our failures or forward to our inadequacies, because He is molding us into the very people He wants us to be (Eph. 2:10), making use of our failures and weaknesses (2 Cor. 12:9-10) to create His glorious portrait.

He chooses the lowest and the most unlikely people. He chose the no-count Gideon to bring deliverance to Israel and gave him the least to work with, and yet accomplished great wonders through his hand. And He does the same with His other “low-lives.” He is able to make us stand (Romans 14:4).

Daniel Mann
www.Mannsword.blogspot.com

A Wonderful Time Alone in Prayer

I have to say that the Lord is up to something good in my life--He has filled my heart with joy tonight.

I always start off my times in prayer alone with God with a few songs, and I just sing them to Him. By the time I was done singing "Love Lifted Me" and "Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior", "Jesus Paid It All" and "Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross", I was reminded of a chorus I had not sung in years:

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks for He has given
Jesus Christ His Son
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks for He has given
Jesus Christ His Son

And now let the weak say I am strong
Let the poor say I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us
And now let the sick say I am whole
Let the bound say I am free
Because of what the Lord has done for us
Give thanks

I am telling you, by the time I got done singing that song, I was so thankful! I found to my surprise my heart overflowing with JOY in the midst of my sadness. It is just this quiet peace and strength of knowing my life is not my own. He meets me by His Holy Spirit; nothing strange happens except for Him making me NEW. He humbles me and makes me realize how lost I would be without Him and how I am no better than anyone else, for the ground is level at the foot of the cross.

One of my best friends told me last Sunday that she has trouble "feeling" God near when she prays. I told her that I started out with hymns when I get alone with God to pray. One of the pleasures of being single is that it is easy to find time to spend alone with God in prayer. When I start out singing a hymn that focuses my mind on worshiping Him for HIS ways and not my own--His plans and purposes for my life and trials--I can lift up friends and loved ones in harm's way with confidence to the God of all gods who hears. I told the Lord tonight that only HE would love people so much to keep after them. The darkest of all powerful spirits have to submit to JESUS. Where would we frail humans be without such a Savior? Realizing that God promises to fight my battles for me (as our battles are all spiritual), my problems seem trite, and all that matters is whatever He wants.

Yep, I can give thanks tonight with a grateful heart...to the Holy One...for He has given Jesus Christ His Son! And there is no battle I am fighting alone. I actually have no battle to fight at all except to stay close to Jesus--the God who declares the end from the beginning. Close to Him, I don't want anything He does not want to give me.

Plans for Today

As for duties this week, all bookkeeping is done, and I believe we have a bookkeeper for the ministry, as I have been interviewing several this week.

I just sent off a check for 151.00 for excellent booklets in English and other languages for our NYC outreach called "Pure Gold." They are very well done and will be great for NYC. There is a Bible verse for encouragement on every page.

Plans for today have been to send out a ministry update. I will make my flight and hotel reservations for NYC tonight. I am working there in ministry with Christine, our possible new leader, on August 2. I have to be there to train her before she commits to leadership of the outreach with First Baptist NYC, but I am sure thankful she is interested.

Tonight I will also be emailing everyone in NYC who has worked with us in the past and friends at First Baptist NYC to let them know about our planned kick off for this table ministry with new leadership at 79th and Broadway.

Has Science Buried God?

Do You Really Want to Embrace this Theory?

Is the case for evolution a slam-dunk? According to the arch-militant-evolutionist Richard Dawkins, it is: “It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I’d rather not consider that).” These kinds of bombastic statements attempt to intimidate and warn that the case for macro-evolution, the vertical evolution that has allegedly produced us from our amoeba-beginnings, is unassailable. However, there’s another side to this story.

We all recognize that species change over time (micro-evolution). From our two parents, all the human races came forth, but do these minor changes provide any evidence for growth in complexity (macro-evolution)? Even hardened evolutionists admit that the evidence is lacking:

There is no theoretical reason that would permit us to expect that evolutionary lines would increase in complexity with time; there is also no empirical evidence that this happens. (John Maynard Smith, E. Szathmary—quoted from John Lennox’s book, God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God, 107. All the following quotations are taken from this masterful book!)

In the whole experimentally accessible domain of microevolution (including research in artificial breeding and in species formation), all variations have certainly remained within the confines of basic types [species, more or less]. (Siegfried Scherer)

Cell biologist E.J. Ambrose of the University of London argued that it is unlikely that fewer than five genes could ever be involved in the formation of even the simplest new structure, previously unknown in the organism. He then points out that only one in 1,000 mutations is non-deleterious, so that the chance of five non-deleterious mutations occurring is 1 in a million billion replications. [This means that every organism will probably die before it adds a new organ!]

Lennox observes that there seems to be a pre-planned limit within a given gene pool, beyond which it can’t go:

If there are limits even to the amount of variation the most skilled breeders can achieve, the clear implication is that natural selection is likely to achieve much less. It is not surprising that he [Grasse] he argued that microevolution could not bear the weight that is often put upon it. (108).

What is this “weigh?” Militant evolutionists trying to use evidence of micro-changes as proof of macroevolution! However, Lennox points out that this evidence is entirely lacking. Nor is there any laboratory evidence for macro-evolution:

In his book, Grasse observed that fruit flies remain fruit flies in spite of thousands of generations that have been bred and all the mutations that have been induced in them…More recent work on the E. coli bacterium backs this up. In this research no real innovative changes were observed through 25,000 generations of E. coli bacterium. (108)

Assessing the odds for macro-changes taking place, astro-physicist Fred Hoyle concluded: “Well, as common sense would suggest, the Darwinian theory is correct in the small, but not in the large. Rabbits come from other slightly different rabbits, not from either [primeval] soup or potatoes.”

Nor does the fossil record deal any more gently with the militants! Lennox continues:

The impression that microevolution is limited in its scope is confirmed by the comments of Wesson and others to the effect that the fossil record gives no good examples of macroevolution. (110).

Even Darwin confirms this dismal assessment:

The number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed on the earth, [should] be enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such graduated organic chain. (The Origin of Species)

This indeed is a tremendous problem. Instead of demonstrating a gradual progression among the various species—something that Darwinism must be able to demonstrate—the fossil record reveals that, for the great extent, species have remained unchanged. Regarding this embarrassment, the late eminent Stephen Jay Gould wrote:

The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as a trade secret of palaeontology.

The history of most fossil species includes two features particularly inconsistent with the idea that they gradually evolved:

1. Stasis. Most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking pretty much the same as when they disappear…
2. Sudden appearance. In any local area a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and “fully formed.” (111)

Other evolutionists make similar confessions:

Palaeontologist David Raup of the Field Museum of Natural History…said, “We are now about 120 years after Darwin and the knowledge of the fossil record has been greatly expanded. We now have a quarter of a million fossil species, but the situation hasn’t changed much. The record of evolution is still surprisingly jerky and, ironically, we have even fewer examples of evolutionary transition than we had in Darwin’s time. (111)

Eldredge [American Museum of Natural History] makes an astonishing admission. “We palaeontologists have said that the history of life supports [the story of gradual adaptive change] knowing all the while it does not.” (111)

Eldredge continues…I tried in vain to document examples of the kind of slow directional change we all thought ought to be there every since Darwin told us that natural selection should leave precisely such a tell-tale signal…I found instead that once species appear in the fossil record they tend not to change very much at all. Species remain imperturbably, implacably resistant to change as a matter of course – often for millions of years.” (113)

Now we find the militants barricading themselves in the Alamo of genetics and the DNA record where they hope to make their last stand. Here they point out the genetic commonalities between us and the apes and chimps in an attempt to argue for a common ancestry. However, this reasoning is inadequate as Lennox points out:

Thus the similarities in the DNA sequences could logically equally well be read as evidence of common design. (114)

Even the arch-militant Dawkins acknowledges a problem:

It is grindingly, creakingly, crashingly obvious that, if Darwinism were really a theory of chance, it wouldn’t work. You don’t need to be a mathematician or a physicist to calculate that an eye or a haemoglobin molecule would take from here to infinity to self-assemble by sheer higgledy-piggledy luck. (103)

Well, isn’t Darwinism a theory of “chance?” Isn’t it supposedly guided by nothing more than natural selection and random mutation? Dawkins, above everyone else, rules out any idea of a Creator. On the basis of what, then, can he conceive of evolution as something more than chance? Sounds like a substitute deity evolving clandestinely from his back pocket—something that will fill in the gaps left after his expulsion of God!

What is even more astounding than Dawkins’ reasoning is the way we Christians have imported this false “deity” into our churches where it continues to undermine doctrine and our confidence in our Bible.

(You must read John Lennox’s, God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God ! This book is head and shoulders above others on this subject. He’s got three PhD’s. Evidently, he’s learned something along the way!)

Daniel Mann

LTW Update: Rio Grande Valley (July)

Vendor on the left & Yoko

Little girl

Vendors on the right (Aldo & Frederick)

Marie & Ramon
Curt waiting for rain to stop

From leaders, Curt and Janie Rolf:

Since the first Saturday of July was the 4th, the Jackson St. ‘Market Days’ was postponed until the 11th.

We’ve been dealing with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees and Saturday was no different. We had to delay setting up our ‘Table’ as we had a much-needed, short, heavy, shower. It was great for the plant vendors but somewhat of a problem for many other vendors, including us.

Our neighboring vendors proved to be quite the blessing. Aldo and Frederick were our neighbors to the right. They asked what we were selling. We said, "nothing," and explained, “We’re promoting the Bible and Truth with free apologetic materials as well as materials for kids.” They were pleased, said they were Christians and invited us to pray before our ‘start-up time’. Frederick said he had a steel pipe hit him just below his eye as they unloaded their canopy frame. It turned into a nasty blood-filled swelling and was an interesting ‘testimony tool’ for him as they sold their window-sun-screens. They eventually left a bit early as the wound was creating quite a headache. We prayed before they left.

We had a lady stop by the table who quickly took the book on near-death experiences, Heaven Can’t Wait. She explained, with tears in her voice, that her husband had died about 6 months ago. She was unable to talk about the loss, and we pray God will reveal His truth about death and eternal life through that book, as well as His comfort.

Talkative Marie and new husband, Ramon, stopped by, and Marie shared her concern about her divorce and remarriage. She said when she saw a picture of the “Holy Family", she realized Joseph was a stepdad. Of course, hindsight is always 20-20 with nearly every Table visitor! We did give Marie and Ramon a Bible, signed it, and pray they will read it diligently together!

It took until early afternoon when one fruit-cup vendor to our left mustered up the courage to visit our Table and ask for a coloring book. I did talk a little about the Bible stories in it. About an hour or two later, her co-worker came over and between our church-friend, Yoko, and her Spanish and my past experience with Catholicism, we prayerfully answered some questions concerning some Catholic practices and gave her a couple of tracts including ex-priest, Richard Bennett’s conversion testimony.

With friend Carlo’s help, many Bible Story coloring books were given out, several with an explanation of Jesus’ involvement in creation…Curt loved watching a little girl as her mom ‘checked out’ a coloring book.

We are beginning to develop relationships with vendors as well as with browsers. Curt was even able to describe to our church-friend, Yoko, what he has found concerning Rick Warren and gave her Warren Smith’s book “Deceived On Purpose”.

It was so hot that even young vendor Jason didn’t have coffee for Janie this time.

P.S. We’re eager to display the new Muslim tract Dwayna sent. We’re hoping the Arabic on the cover will attract the attention of the Muslim lady who has purposefully avoided our Table for the past 3 times.

It was a good day!!! What an awesome God we serve!!!

We look forward to our vacation (mid-Aug. to mid-Sept.) and a possible visit with Dwayna in October.

Relying on Him as “He Directs Our Paths”,

Curt and Janie Rolf

LTW in Prison at "The Bloodiest Prison in the South"

I am so thankful that it has been confirmed I will be sharing my full testimony and singing "My Prize" at Angola, which used to be known in the 1960s as "the bloodiest prison of the south" and is the largest land-based prison in the US. (Click here for more of Angola's history.)

I have the joy of speaking and singing at a women's conference in Baton Rouge, LA, September 11-12 and will be sharing my testimony with the prisoners and singing at Angola on the evening of Sept. 10th in the chapel service.

Thank you for the prayers,
Dwayna

Scientology

While I was walking along the subway in NYC last month, someone gave me a card with these sites, protesting Scientology:

http://www.whyweprotest.net/en/

http://youfoundthecard.com/

I thanked them for their work, though they were not professing Christians. Right across from where they were, the Scientologists were set up with the e-meters. I walked up to one woman and asked, "Have you spent $7000.00 yet?" She was one 'Thetan' who did not appreciate the question!

Update on Administrative Work

Tomorrow I plan to order tracts for our NYC outreach in various foreign languages, to be kicked off in NYC next month with a new leader.

I will also get in touch with a publishing company in England, which publishes a great little booklet of Bible verses called "Pure Gold". We want to use that booklet in all of our table ministries of apologetics.

We have a praise report--someone has offered to help us get a "spot" on the boardwalk at Venice Beach. Our leader, Mike, is out of town until August, but we hope to kick off this ministry with Mike as leader next month. (We would have been out there on Ocean Front Walk already, but we have not been able to secure a spot on the coveted boardwalk with the lottery drawing on Tuesday mornings at 8:30 at Venice Beach. Our leaders work full time, and have not been able to attend the lottery. It has taken us all summer to find someone who can show up on our behalf and help us get a spot for on the boardwalk. We thank God for this!)

Links have been updated on the web site here.

My new music CD entitled "My Prize" is a work still in progress. I am still in communication with graphic artists for the design. I will be re-recording the standard, "Old-Time Religion" in NYC with my producer there when I return next month. We want to try again with that old song for a more creative, current approach. As soon as I get to a stopping place with the graphics for my new music CD, I will send out a ministry update to prayer partners and press on to getting more goals accomplished.

Announcement:

I will be sharing my testimony and singing at Angola Prison in September in Louisiana, as well as singing and speaking at a women's conference there in Baton Rouge. I am looking forward to this. I plan on returning to Los Angeles to check on the ministries in CA the end of August. Thank you to everyone who prays for us and supports this ministry of evangelism through service and donations.

Last Week's Outreach in the Smokies (July 4th Update by Claudette Litz)

LTW to the Smokies
July 4, 2009

When Dwayna was two years old she sang “God is so good. God is so good. God is so good. He’s so good to me!” The second verse is “God answers prayer. . . He’s so good to me!” I thought of this short song today as I witnessed at the Sugarlands Visitor Center outside of Gatlinburg. A Muslim lady, dressed in black with her face covered, passed the LTW table on her way to her car. I caught a glimpse of her but was busy with other people. As soon as I was able to break away, she was gone. This is one time I would have approached someone, but I missed her. I had the letter “Dear Muslim Friend” published by www.arabicperspective.com to give her. In my heart I felt disappointed and began asking God to give me another opportunity to share with someone of another faith today.

Shortly, He answered that prayer. There were many people from India visiting. None of them had stopped at the table until after my prayer. One Indian lady came over wearing American clothes but was with a large group, and all of the other ladies had on their native sari dress. After introducing myself, I explained about how everything on the table was about Jesus Christ. She said she had heard of the Old Testament and asked if I had one. As I began showing her the complete Bible, I told her about how wonderful Jesus is. She listened as I showed her the New Testament and in it the book of John. I told her the plan of salvation and how much Jesus meant to me. I selected various tracts and put them in the Bible she was taking. She also took sermons by my pastor, Hollie Miller, and by my previous pastor, Tommy Fox. It was then she saw Dwayna’s CD which had “Wish I Could Give You Jesus” on it. She asked for it. As she returned to join her group, she showed the materials to all of them. I was praying that the men or other ladies would not ask her to bring anything back, and they didn’t.

Another answer to prayer was when a Messianic Jewish lady told me about her husband being unable to understand how Jesus was the Messiah. When she saw all of the tracts from the International Board of Jewish Missions, she began to hug me and literally jumped for joy. She took a copy of each one of them and is going to read them with her husband. After praying together, she asked me to share with other prayer warriors her desire for him to be saved. I assured her that God is sovereign, and His Holy Spirit would be with her as they read the material together. Her happiness and excitement was contagious. While we were off to the side in conversation, many people were at the table eager to find the right thing to meet their needs, too.

A family came by whose house had recently burned. Everything they owned had been destroyed. There were four of them, and each took a Bible. Thanking me over and over for them, they were overjoyed as they took books, sermons, and tracts. After leaving, their daughter returned with a donation for the ministry, although I explained earlier that everything was free. She said her mommy and grandmother insisted that I take it.

Many Christians took testimonies on CDs from ex-homosexuals to share with members of their family and other friends who were struggling with same sex attractions, books and DVDs on family life, and the booklet of quotes from our founding fathers which shows our nation’s Christian heritage. Since today is the 4th of July, many people were attracted to this booklet. There were many children taking the Keys for Kids magazine, and some were Hispanic, taking the Spanish version. Some parents stood back from the table but said they would read the magazine with their children.

After looking at the banner around the table, one man asked me to quote Nehemiah 9:19, since these words were on the banner. This gave me an opportunity to take a Bible and read it to him. I explained how this verse applies to our lives as it tells how God’s Word is the light that shows us the way to go.

All conversations today were about “Our Great Savior.” As the words to this hymn states: “Jesus! What a Friend for sinners! Jesus! Lover of my soul; Friends may fail me; foes assail me; He, my Savior, makes me whole.”