Ambassador Academy 13 part 2- Love Your Spouses

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Carl

By: Mande Kalbfleisch

I was originally going to title this “Love your wife”, but then I realized that there may be some women evangelists out there who have the same struggle with their husbands.

You might have read part one of this series last week.  If you did not please read it before reading this!  Ambassador Academy is an experience you will NEVER forget if you have the privilege to attend.  I can testify that my life has been totally changed by this.

This week I wanted to share with you on a different level.  Last week I chronicled my journey through AA 13.  This week I want to take a different approach……being the spouse of an evangelist.  I want to put a warning on this before going any further.  This is written from my point of view and does not give you both sides of the story.  My intention is to share with you some of the things I went through so as to hopefully help you see things your spouse could be going through also.  This article is not intended to bash my husband nor make public any problems we have or have had in our marriage. 

Several years ago a friend of mine and I were talking and she said to me, “It must be hard being married to John the Baptist.”  I gave her a blow off answer saying, “It’s really not that bad.”  I mean we had our weekly date nights, our weekend getaways, etc. and most of my friends didn’t have that after all.  Deep inside me her comment resonated through every bone in my body though.  Carl had been going out evangelizing for 6 months or so and had just asked me about starting Bezeugen Ministries.  He wanted my full support.  Of course he was very passionate about it and honestly at that point I didn’t see how it affected me so I gave him my approval.  I showed my love and support by enrolling in an online program to learn everything we needed to know about how to set up and run a nonprofit ministry.  We found out it was very complicated and way more than either of us wanted to do.  I made copies for him, stamped and labeled tracts, etc.  I felt like I was giving him 100% support.  He would say Thank You when I did things for him but honestly I didn’t feel like he gave me credit for what I was doing.  It was more than just my actions. I was drowning in a sea of life changes.

Deep inside, resentment was building up because although on the outside I was supporting him, on the inside I was resentful of what my friends were saying, how we were losing the friends we had because they thought my husband was crazy, and how we couldn’t do anything without him having to evangelize.  I could not get away from it. It wasn’t like he was doing things that were bad or even being a bad husband, I just didn’t know how to balance his new passion for evangelism with the passion I wanted him to have for me.   I began to let these feelings become real and my attitude changed toward my husband.  I began to feel like his evangelism and the lost souls he was talking to were more important than me. I began to let the verse in Eph 5:25 dictate my feelings and actions.  I began to blame him for what I perceived as not putting me first like this verse says.  Didn’t he see that if he asked me to “do” something for the ministry I would make sure it got done? It was as if all the love and support I was giving him meant nothing to him since I was not going out with him, handing out tracts, talking to people one on one, open air preaching, etc.  Notice all of the “I’s” in this story quickly appearing.  Being the spouse of an evangelist puts your life and marriage under a whole different form of spiritual attack than most people have experienced.  It can quickly reveal where your selfishness is and can allow Satan to attack in those areas.

A wedge quickly drove right through our marriage and when the topic of evangelism came up you could feel the strain for quite sometime because of it.  I became even more resentful when the spiritual attacks starting coming our way.  On days when Carl was going out to evangelize I would get very sick.  I could go from feeling GREAT to really sick in a matter of 10 minutes on those days.  Since I really resented him spending the day with someone other than the boys and I, what I really wanted was for him to stay home and take care of me.  That’s what Satan wanted too.   After this happened twice I told Carl “Just go. I’ll deal with it”.  It was amazing not 10 minutes after he left I was totally fine again.  So every time this would happen I would send him on his way with a prayer and a smile but inside I was so angry that not only was he going out again but that I was the sick one.  I totally felt unloved.

I tried to explain these feelings of resentment to him but could never quite find the words. I couldn’t explain it to him because he felt like he had been doing all the right things.  To his credit he had been trying to do things.   I became so angry, hurt and resentful of the ministry I finally told Carl that I didn’t want to be a part of this.  As I heard the words come out of my mouth I saw the crushing blow I had just delivered.  My fear, resentment, anger, and hurt had just crushed the man I vowed to love and support through thick or thin.  I kept thinking why doesn’t he see it?  Why can’t he see that his evangelism is ruining our lives?  Doesn’t he see how lonely I am because I have been exiled from my friends, social groups, etc. because of his actions?  As I look back on this I now see that Carl was seeing things through God’s eyes and I was seeing things though my own worldly eyes.  As a woman it is hard to get past the “what others think of me” stage.  I have just recently come to this conclusion, but I still struggle with it.  This will be something you will want to hang on to if your wife is struggling with this.  It is likely that unless you have others who are doing biblical evangelism around you, your wife may be going through some feelings of exile and rejection.  Here is a suggestion that might help.  This suggestion really only works for wives.   I will keep thinking if there is a group who needs suggestions for husbands.  Introduce her to some of the wives of others you know who are doing these things.  Facebook is a GREAT way to do that.  You can also contact some of your evangelism buddies and ask them to bring their wife to the next “event” and encourage the wives to go spend the time while you are out witnessing getting to know each other over lunch or shopping or whatever they enjoy doing.  If your wife is in the Dallas area I would be happy to get to know her.

Because of my feelings of rejection, hurt, etc. I turned to the two friends I had left for support and answers.  We agreed to do the Love Dare book together on our husbands and share our success and failures between the 3 of us.  In going through this book there were several days where the dare had something to do with giving into something your spouse would like to do.  The only thing I could think of for those days was going evangelizing with Carl.   Don’t get me wrong I had been “going with him” to events.  He would go one way and do his thing and I would go my way and prayer walk.  Most days it turned into a little bit of prayer and a lot of resentment building up because I had a long list of things I thought were more important.  I really had no desire to do what he was doing at all.  It was more of an obligation to support him than anything else.  We would go out and he would encourage me to leave a tract or talk to someone and I would just find the quickest way to get rid of the tract so I could say I had done it.  Both of our boys love to hand out tracts so most times I would find an excuse to just let the boys go.

I was still praying that we could have “normal” family activities like my old friends did. After 40 days of doing the love dare my girlfriends said to me “Mande this ministry thing is not going away. You married him and no matter if you like it or not you have to support him.”  One of them asked me why I thought it was such a horrible thing.  I told her it was because I felt second in my marriage to evangelism.  I felt like evangelism and the lost were more important to him than I was.  She encouraged me to try and find some other wives whose husbands did evangelism and talk to them.  So I did.  I sought out several wives of evangelist I knew Carl was hanging out with.  I prayed with an open mind that God would reveal to me my place in Carl’s life.  Over the next year God did just that.  God gave me the words to talk to Carl and tell him how I felt.  It was not easy as all the pent up emotions would come running out and jumble my words.  I started taking a few tracts and leaving them where people could find them.  I would prayer walk at events or lunches and earnestly pray for what was going on and when we would meet back up I would hear about how God had protected the team from security guards at the mall, from nasty hecklers, and from other things.

I began to see that my time spent praying was really making a difference and the feelings of unimportance began to go away.  We could go to an event together and both have an impact and support each other.

Our ministry began to really grow and flourish.   Carl went off to Ambassador Academy 10 and came back with some great stories, friends, and those friends had wives.  I began to connect with those women and share with them my struggles.  Most of them had the same type of stories.  As you know less than a year later I have had my life drastically changed by the very thing I used to despise and resent.

So why am I telling you this?  Why did I decide to share my heart with you today?  I believe there are many marriages out there that are just like ours.  One spouse has a zeal for evangelism and the other has not quite figured it out.  I believe that many evangelists can hopefully learn from my story and advice.   If you are in a situation like ours talk to your spouse, hear what they have to say and how they are feeling.  Put an extra effort into making sure if they in anyway enable you to go out witnessing that you praise them and make notice of that.  Don’t force them into doing evangelism just like you do.  BE PATIENT!  It may take them a while to come to the realization that they can and want to do this.  It did for me.  It was a 4 year battle for me.  Remember to love them first.  You may have to work harder at making sure they feel loved.  The things that worked before may not still work.  Be creative. Ask your spouse what would make them feel loved and important.  Yes you have a heart for the lost souls out there and that is awesome.  You have to remember to love your wife and have a passion for her more than for the lost souls out there.  When I realized that the battle I was fighting was really no battle at all I was much more open to hearing and seeing what this evangelism thing was all about.  I can tell you from experience that if your wife feels like evangelism and lost souls are more important than her you are never going to be effective in what you are doing.  Satan will always have a foothold into each and every time you go out!  Remember the Eph 5 verse I talked about earlier.  Put that into practice.  When encouraging your spouse to support you in this effort remember what Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (English Standard Version)

If your spouse would like to connect with another spouse who has been through the struggle and made it out successfully (I think) please have them contact me or leave a comment. I would be glad to share with them, be their friend, whatever they need.  I am also on facebook (Mande Williams Kalbfleisch).

Posted in Life of Evangelist Wife, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

God overcomes Obstacles

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Carl

There has been a lot happening in the door to door area. A door to door map is now online on the Bezeugen web site. There are people around the country that are starting to go door to door. One church here in Carrollton has committed to taking one of the zip codes. Dispite all these things, it often seems like there are obstacles.

Today at one house a man could not hear me because his dog was barking so loud. Rather than step outside so that we could have a conversation about everlasting life, he let his dog win and went back inside. I figure if God can use a donkey, then satan can use a dog to prevent someone from hearing the Gospel. One man seemed receptive to the Gospel, but said he had to go someplace with his brother. He accepted a tract. At another house there was another loud dog.

I was getting discouraged.

I just prayed for open doors and hearts and pressed on down the street. I prayed that God would remove the obstacles. I am glad I did.

I met a young father who received Christ as savior and Lord about 14 months ago. He realized he was a wretched sinner and repented and trusted in Christ. We had a long conversation. Please pray for his wife who is unsaved. At the next house was a Christian woman and we had a nice conversation as well.

On to the next street. At the first house, a young man answered. I don’t normally ask for food from teens since I don’t want them giving away food that belongs to their parents. So rather than put him on the spot asking for food, I went right to the Gospel. I asked him if he believed in God. He said Yes. So I asked if he believed in heaven and hell. And he said yes again. He said that good people go to heaven. So I asked if he was good. He readily admitted to breaking the 9th, 3rd and 7th commandment. I told him that God sees him as a liar, a blasphemer and an adulterer. I asked him if he would be innocent or guilty. He said he would be guilty and agreed he would go to hell. I asked if that concerned him. He said Yes! So I lead him through the courtroom example, showing how with a million dollar payment he would be free from a million dollar fine that was due. He said he would be so thankful. So I told him that that is what Christ has done for him and explained the Gospel. Then I asked him if he had ever heard that before. He said, “No!”

So here is a teen ager, going to one of our local churches pretty much his whole life. He thinks he is going to heaven when he dies, and then admits he has never heard the Gospel. How sad. it makes me angry that our “churches” are not preaching the Biblical gospel. But the good news, is he was very receptive to the message. I gave him a Why Christianity? DVD and he said he was going to watch it right away. I explained to him that he can receive Christ by repentance and faith. He said he understood that and that he believed. It seems he received everlasting life right there on his door step!

I never expect to see anything like this. I realize that the full fruit of any efforts door to door or any type of evangelism will not be realized until we are all in heaven one day. But if sure was encouraging and I thank God for letting me see the fruit.

I continued down the street. At one house I noticed a little yellow phamplet that said “Jesus” on it. I could not make out exactly what it was. No one answered the door, so I left a tract. As I walked back towards the street I saw two women coming the other way on the other side of the street. They were going up to houses as well. I thought maybe they were Jehovah’s Witnesses and prayed that God would give me an opportunity to speak with them. I went to the next house and left a tract there. Now I saw a man and a woman coming from the other direction on the street doing the same thing. I walked across the street and introduced myself to the man. His name was Tony. Sure enough. The four of them are JW’s. He claimed that when we die our bodies return to the dust and our souls go to heaven. So I asked “who goes to hell?” He said “no one.” I told him “that is not what the Bible says.” At that point Tina joined us. I asked her the same question. I told them that according to the Bible there is a day of judgment based on the Ten Commandments and that we would all be assigned to heaven or hell based on that. Suddenly they claimed they did not have time to talk but that they would be gald to come to my house sometime. I gave them Why Christianity booklets. She would not take it. But he did. And I gave them each my card with my phone number and email address on it.

I’ll need to re-watch Way of the Master Jehovah’s Witness episode part 1



and part 2


and check out other resources before that discussion.

I then went back to door to door. At one house a man started asking me a bunch of questions about what church I am with. I tried to explain that I have an Evangelism ministry and offered him my card to identify myself. He refused it and asked me to leave. So I went to the next house. I had a couple more good conversations. At this point I was noticing that people were more standoffish. One man was a Christian, but was guarded. Finally, he stepped outside and explained that the JW’s had just been there. I told him about my encounter.

I completed my way around the entire block and put the food that I had collected into the car. I felt the Holy Spirit telling me that I needed to go up the other side of the street where the JW’s had been. So I started down that side of the street putting tracts on the doors where people were not home and talking to those that were. After a few more houses, a police officer pulled up in front of the house. She asked me what I was doing. I told her I was collecting food, gathering prayer requests and sharing the Gospel. She told me there had been a complaint and that I needed a permit to go door to door. She would not tell me who the complaint was from. I can only suspect it was from the man who asked me to leave on the other side of the street. So I will call the records department on Monday. Just like God overcame the other obstacles, God will overcome this obstacle too! More to follow.

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Ambassadors Academy 13 Testimonial

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Carl
What follows is a testimony by Debra Fuhrman who attended Living Waters Ambassadors Academy 13 with us last weekend in Los Angeles. Debra often hits the streets with us in Dallas/Fort Worth as well as participates in Project Ezra regularly. I hope you will be encouraged by her testimony and will consider applying to attend an Ambassadors Academy later this year. If you want to go, please fill out your application ASAP. The April, May and June academies are already full. Living Waters is only accepting applications for July and August (as of the time of this writting).
Day One: I arrived in Burbank on Wednesday and spent the afternoon shopping in Downtown Disney. When I got to the hotel, I met my roommate, Elsie Allen, who also is from Fort Worth. At registration we received a bag with some great evangelism material. We heard from Tony Miano and EZ from Living Waters. We then had a team meeting to introduce ourselves to the others in our team and to meet the leaders, Brett Coronado and Liz Ebert.
Day Two: We were indoors all day for our training seminar on evangelism and open-air preaching. We heard from EZ, Stuart Scott and Mark Spence. We also got to hear from Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron. Tony Miano gave us a wonderful talk about not quitting. We ended the evening with an awesome worship time with the entire group.
Day Three: We took a trip to the Living Waters headquarters. The building used to be a mortuary but has been turned into offices. The upstairs was the living quarters of the mortuary so offices are kind of small especially when they turn a closet into an office. As we were in the Board Room, we were told that the four chandeliers in there was the earthquake alarm. We had a good laugh on that one. Fortunately, they stayed very still! We visited everyone’s offices and got to chat with folks that were working there. We saw where they shoot against the green screen. Ray Comfort’s office was quite entertaining with the pictures and knick knacks he had. We saw the infamous rubber band ball. This ball was finally allowed to be bounced outside but ended up through the glass window. I’m guessing it’s retired from outdoor activities.
After the tour, we went outside the building and folks were given the opportunity to get up on the box and do some preaching. It was awesome and inspiring to watch them do that.
Our next stop was Hollywood. This was the weekend of the Academy Awards and the city was in full swing to set it up. This was also our first opportunity to go out and talk to folks one on one and do some open-air preaching. Hollywood is definitely a different of animal than what we have here in Texas. Folks are dressed up as movie characters hoping for a monetary donation for having their photo taken, music stars-wannabes are handing out CDs of their music stating they’re going to be a hit soon, and people were selling tours of the Hollywood area. The public are inundated with handouts and pamphlets at every turn. We were told it would be difficult to hand out tracts to them because of this – hence, Tony’s message “Don’t Quit!” With that in mind, I started handing out tracts to folks and got a lot of rejections but I also got more folks taking tracts than I anticipated. Glory to God!
Jaylene from Living Waters joined me as we went up and down the street to find folks to talk to. We met this one gentleman and had a conversation with him. In the midst of him telling us about Catholics in Germany and how the government takes care of tithing with your paycheck, I did manage to tell him the gospel. He also left with a couple of our tracts. We also spoke with a homeless man who said he didn’t want to go to hell. I’m not sure if he totally understood the message but we gave him the gospel as well.
I finally got up on the box in Hollywood. My preaching was very short. I want to work on being able to put more words into my preaching. With God’s help I was able to get my message out – both bad news and good news!
Elsie and I spent some time handing out tracts together. We spoke with a couple of women. One said she was a Christian and the other said she was agnostic. The one who said she was a Christian listened to our message. The other woman seemed a bit antsy but both listened.
After Hollywood, we traveled on the bus to Glendale, CA. There’s a lot of stores there as well as restaurants. Our only restriction was that we couldn’t go in the mall area to hand out tracts but we can tract folks as they went into the mall area and as they came out. I went out with Elsie and Liz to walk around to find people to talk to. We came up to a bus stop and found two young men sitting there as well as another couple. I struck up a conversation with the two men and Liz went to talk to the couple. The two men were very cordial and we went through the Good Person test. They both failed as we all do. I then told them the gospel and they seemed very open to it.
Back at the mall area, a box was set up for anyone who wanted to open-air preach. Elsie and I decided to tag team together. Elsie is a former Fort Worth police officer so we used the term Bad Cop Good Cop. I decided I would be the bad cop and she would be the good cop. I got up on the box and gave the bad news that everyone will die one day and if you die in your sins you’ll end up in hell. Elsie got up and gave the gospel of God’s grace if you repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus.
Day Four: Today we’re going to Huntington Beach. This is where a lot of video of Ray Comfort is done when he does his open-air preaching. Due to the weather we almost didn’t go there but we received the go ahead to come in. It was windy and cold there. I went with Elsie and Liz down the pier to hand out tracts and to find people to talk to. We stopped to talk to a woman with a child in a stroller. Her husband had gone back to the car to get a blanket. As we were finishing up witnessing to her, her husband showed up. Liz offered them a CD and DVD but the husband shut her down and refused to take anything. We were grateful that we were able to talk to his wife at least.
That afternoon we were treated to watch a gentleman present the gospel using a sketch board painting. It was amazing watching his presentation. He was able to engage the crowd there. I’m going to look into using that medium to proclaim the gospel. We then got to hear Ray Comfort preach. After him we saw Chad and EZ come up to preach as well as Mark Spence. It was awesome to see these seasoned evangelists share the gospel and to watch how they interact with the public.
At the end of the day we met on the steps overlooking the beach and listened to Tony. We then had our group picture taken. Elsie started singing Amazing Grace and everyone joined in. It was so, so awesome sitting there with the rest of the Academy folks singing Amazing Grace on the beach and watch the public that were walking by look up at us. Kind of our last hoorah before leaving them.
That evening was our final time together as a group. We were given certificates by our team leaders. It was really bittersweet. I really hated to leave as we were making new friends there and learning new techniques but I was also excited to get back home so I can try out some of the things I had learned. God has us where he wants us to be. We need to be able and willing to do his work where we are and when he calls us to. And I also learned to DON’T QUIT!!
You know…serving God is an exciting adventure. Don’t miss out.
To God all the Glory!
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Learn the Ten Commandments

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Carl

Using the Way of the Master method to evangelize means using the the Law (Ten Commandments) to show someone their sin. The method is based on a four letter acronym, WDJD. The first D stands for “Do you think you have kept the Ten Commandments?” At that point in a conversation, you would take someone through some of the commandments. Normally it is sufficient to ask:

  • how many lies have you told in your lifetime? Or simply have you ever told a lie? This is the 9th commandment.
  • Have you ever used God’s name in vain? (3rd commandment)
  • Have you ever looked with lust, which Jesus calls adultery? (7th commandment)

With these three of the commandments it is common to hear people say they have broken at least two if not all three of them. This allows you to move on to the next step in the Way of the Master outline: J for judgment.

So, normally just knowing some of the Ten Commandments is sufficient to get started with Way of the Master.But, what if you hand someone one of the Gospel tracts that ask people to name the Ten Commandments.  The Bezeugen “New Years resolution” tract or One Million Tracts “Can You Name Ten Beers?” tracts are good examples of tracts that ask people if they can name the Ten Commandments. If the person you are talking to try’s to name the Ten Commandments, will you be able to tell if they name them all?

Last year, Darrell Rundus ran a contest to see who could name the Ten Commandments in order in less than 20 seconds. That contest is now over. But, the training material for it is excellent. After I watched the two minute and fifteen second video last year a single time, I instantly had the Ten Commandments memorized in order. I’ve used this method to teach 200 children at the VBS at my church and another 100 children at the mission trip our church did last year. Simply put, if you want to memorize the Ten Commandments in order then check out this video:

I pray that this post and video will encourage you to learn the Ten Commandments and strengthen your witness for Christ!

I primarily wrote this article to encourage Christians to memorize the Ten Commandments for use in sharing the Gospel. However, if after watching the video and hearing the Ten Commandments, you wonder why God has these Laws, then please consider Revelation 21:8:

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

That pace of second death is hell; for all eternity. You see, God’s standard for you is perfection. Jesus said, to be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. The Ten Commandments shows how far from perfection each of us has fallen. Watch the video again and this time ask yourself for each of the commandments, “have I kept that?” If you not, you are a self confessed Law breaker. God will find you guilty on judgment day and send you to hell.

That is the bad news!

The good news is that God does not want you to go to hell. He has made one provision to save you from your sin. God sent his own son, Jesus Christ, to save you from you sin. Jesus being fully God and fully man, lived a perfect life, fulfilled God’s law and willingly became the only acceptible sacrafice for your sin. He laid down his life on the cross and died for you. Three days later he rose from the grave defeating sin, death and the devil. The Bible says that if you will repent of your sin and trust in Jesus alone to save you then you will have eternal. life. For more information, please contact me or read the more complete Gospel presentation.

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Input needed for third Reverend Fun tract

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Carl

I have designed two Gospel tracts using cartoons from the Reverend Fun comic strip. The first is an Easter tract and will be in the April mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club. The second uses the “I’ll Get This One” image and will be in the May mailing.

I’d like to make another Reverend Fun tract and can use your help. Take a look at the archives on the Reverend Fun site. Then comment here on the blog with your suggestions for which comic to use for our next Reverend Fun tract. You might include some suggested ideas for the text on the back as well. If we select the image you suggested then I’ll be sure to send you some extra copies of the tract once it is available.

Thanks for your help! I look forward to hearing your suggestions.

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Ambassador Academy 13- Exodus 4

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Carl

This article is written by Mande Kalbfleisch

This weekend I attended the Ambassadors Academy in LA put on by Living Waters.  I thought I would take this time to tell you about my journey.  This will be a two part series so stay tuned to next week also.
Before going to the Academy I spent most of the last 3 years trying to figure out how to support Carl in our ministry and to overcome some deep fears of what people thought about me and public speaking.  It has been a long journey for me.  I had handed out a tract or 2 to an actual person.  I was more of a “drop and run type tracter”.  I was deathly afraid someone might ask me about the tract and I would not have the words or courage to talk to them.
The idea of this weekend started stirring in my soul in May 2009 when Carl returned from AA #10.  After hearing his stories and experiences and seeing how God had changed him I started feeling like I should go.  We discussed it and thought about August.  August wasn’t God’s timing so as I prayed about it more I felt a stronger and stronger calling to go.  The decision was made to go in March 2010 and the application was sent it.  Not long after the application was sent in the floodgates of spiritual attack began.  I started questioning so many things.  Were the teaching of Living Waters biblical? Were people caring out The Great Commission in the right way or was it to confrontational? Could I do it and why should I?  All of my questions were answered.  And the answer to all was YES!
Carl and I arrived in Orange County on Wednesday early afternoon and had some time to hang out and meet others that were already there.  Wednesday night we had a great time at the opening sessions.  Tony Miano spoke as well as EZ of Living Waters.  Wednesday night we had a great time meeting others in the Academy.
Thursday began with an interesting twist. I was still on Dallas time so I was up @ 5 a.m. Carl had coughed all night and was getting sick.  I found the team leader and asked if they could take him to the dr. just to make sure it was not serious.  Praise God it was not!

We spent Thursday in Training and got some GREAT information.  Kirk Cameron spoke on Apologetics and their place in biblical evangelism.  It was really neat as I don’t know much about Apologetics.  I think I will investigate it some more here in the near future.

We learned about transition conversations, Open Air, why we are commanded to evangelize, and the most important message of all “Don’t Quit” when times are rough or your alone in your endeavor to save souls.  Thursday night we had the most incredible worship experience sitting in the meeting room.  45 men and women about to go to battle praising the Lord—I have never felt that close to so many people at one time as I did that night.  It was AMAZING!  Singing those songs with everyone will be forever etched in my mind.  It was AWESOMENESS to the max!  After that we broke up into teams for a team meeting.  Brett our leader encouraged us to go to the corner and practice stop light preaching.  I got up but just read the back of one of our tracts and stared at the tract the whole time.

Friday morning we loaded up to head out.  This was the day that we were touring Living Waters headquarters, going to Hollywood Blvd, and Glendale.  My goal for the day was to hand out some tracts and have a one on one conversation.  I had made it clear to everyone who would hear that I would NOT be open air preaching.  Our first stop was Living Waters headquarters.  What a cool place.  A mortuary turned into a ministry to support those who are sharing the good news with the lost and spiritually dead.  Some of our group did some stoplight preaching practice. I knew God was up to something when I couldn’t stop crying while listening to the people practice.  The message was the same one I had heard so I knew it was not the message.  It was God taking on my self built wall of fear and anxiety.  Earlier in the week I was working on a bible study and came across these verses from Exodus 4:10-17.  I was amazed to read that Moses, whom God used for mighty things, was also afraid of public speaking.  As we unloaded the buses near Hollywood Blvd you could see the craziness that was Hollywood Blvd during Academy Awards preparation.  What a bonus for us.  We were with “The Academy” right?  I thought it was a good line that Tony gave us.  Our group started out in front of the wax museum and the Chinese Theater.  Handing out Celebrity Millions was so easy.  “Hey did you get your souvenir from the Academy?” was my favorite line.   Just about everyone would take one.  Several people open aired.  One to one conversations were hard to get going.  My mentor Liz was AWESOME and we tried just couldn’t get it going.  At this point my nervous stomach was growling for lunch so Carl, Debbie, and I went to eat lunch.  We found a place upstairs in an outside mall type area.  We were blessed to be able to eat with Mark Spence and 2 others from Living Waters staff.  I could barely eat my stomach was in such knots.  I knew God was telling me to get on the box but my mind was saying “NO WAY!”  When we finished eating we were heading down to the subway station to meet our group.  We walked by a Claires and with out knowing why I just bolted in there.  I went right to the tiara section and picked out a little girls tiara with big jewels on it.  We walked down and found our group.  I have always said that God has a sense of humor.  In all of his hilariousness he had me on the box preaching.  I couldn’t believe it. I had come here to hand out tracts and learn how to have a one on one conversation not to preach.  I hadn’t even had a one on one conversation yet.   I found myself on the box preaching about the difference between my being a princess as a daughter of the King and the princesses that society has made that would be walking down the red carpet on Sunday. 


It was totally a surreal experience.  I remember thinking that what I was saying didn’t make sense and then getting off the box and crying in Carl’s arms.  It was amazing and nerve racking all at the same time.  I’m not even sure I can explain it in words that would help you understand the feeling.  We moved to another corner and yet again I was on the box.  This time shorter and it seems to make more sense.  Our time was up on Hollywood Blvd and it was time to head to Glendale.  While in Glendale I got to teach Debbie how to go to the bookstore and leave bookmarks for people who buy books. It is really fun!  I had the privilege of having my first one on one conversation and witnessing tag team with Carl.  What an awesome ending to the day!  God was glorified. 

Saturday was Huntington Beach day!  Carl woke up with no voice, it was supposed to be raining all day, and breakfast was slim pickings.  As we were coming out of our room on our way to breakfast our team leader Brett slowed down to tell us good morning.  He noticed Carl’s voice condition and said to me ” Guess you will have to be his Aaron today.”  Brett had no idea that the verses he was speaking of had been my motivation and life verses for the past week.  My dreary day turned to a glorious day with that reminder that God is in control and His work will be done no matter what.  Thanks Brett!  You helped me to put my center back on Christ that morning.  Off to Huntington Beach we go with the back up plan of going back to Hollywood Blvd if  it was raining.  We get there and one of the leaders says it is raining and no one is out so we are going to Hollywood Blvd.  The bus turns around and heads to Hollywood.  Less than 10 minutes later we were turned around again and headed back to the beach.  God had answered the many prayers going up and cleared the skies.  The people came out and we had a wonderful day.  Talked to several people, stop light preached, saw Ray Comfort preach, and saw the Gospel painted in scenes.  It was an awesome day!

God transformed my life this weekend.  He showed me not only could I over come my deepest seated fears and grow closer to Him, but he also showed me a whole new level of marriage I have never experienced before.  It was AWESOME!
Please check back next week for part 2.
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As You Go – announcing a new blog!

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Carl

Last year, I wrote a series of posts entitled “As you go” with the encouragement to take a step by step process to engaging in personal evangelism. The idea is to put into action the command of Christ in Matthew 28:19 to make disciples of all men. Of course, we can only make a disciple if we first share the Gospel so that they can become born again and believe in Jesus in the first place.

Everyone may not be called to “stand on a box” and preach the Gospel. However, it is reasonable to expect that everyone who knows Christ to share him with others. 1 Peter 3:15 says, “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” People talk about what (and who) they love. If you love football you talk about it. If you love your wife, you talk about her. And if you love Jesus, it is reasonable that you will talk about him. Mark Cahill said:

“If you don’t talk about Jesus, then maybe you don’t love Him half as much as you think you do (if at all).”

So rather than suggest that everyone should open air preach, or even hand out tracts at an event, I am starting a new blog to encourage daily personal evangelism “As You Go”! Specifically, I am suggesting that you too can hand out Gospel tracts as a simple way to share the Gospel “as you go!”

The first thing you need is some tracts. Bezeugen will supply you with 30 gospel tracts per month for free along with the encouragement to hand them out – one per day! You can enroll online.

Starting March 1, I will post a new entry each day to the new “As You Go” blog documenting how I handed out a tract from the March mailing of the Bezeugen Tract Club. I encourage you to follow that blog and post comments of how you handed out your tract that day.

In the meantime, as we look ahead to the daily posts, here are simple ways that I have handed out tracts recently:

Tuesday

  • handed a tract to the cashier at Wich-Wich
  • gave tracts to three people in line at the Wich-Wich
  • gave spanish million dollar bill tracts to four spanish speaking workers at the mall

Wednesday

  • gave a tract to the cashier at the rec center
  • gave a tract to a guy at the rec center while he was watching racquetball
  • Put a tract on the bulletin board near the racquetball courts at the rec center
  • put tract in the the credit card slot at the gas station while filling up the car with gas

Thursday

  • I attended a seminar at a hotel and gave spanish million dollar bill tracts to two groundskeepers working in front of the hotel on my way in
  • At the Honda dealer, I gave trillion dollar bill tractst to two of the workers. One read it right then, said he had never seen that message before and then had to go back to work before we could discuss the gospel.
  • Gave a trillion to the cashier at Honda
  • Gave tracts to a customer and his daughter while I was leaving Honda
  • Sent a tract to the cashier at the bank from the drive thru lane
  • Left another tract in the carrier of the drive thru lane for the next customer to receive
  • At the toll tag store I gave a million dollar bill to the cashier
  • As I was leaving the toll tag store, I gave a riddle to one of the people waiting in the lobby.

Friday

  • Gave a tract to the cashier at breakfast
  • Left a tract on the bulletin board at the restaurant where I had breakfast
  • Gave a tract to the hostess at dinner. This is kind of fun. Even though we had a reservation, I said, “can we please get a table right away” and handed her a million dollar bill tract.
  • Left a tract when paying the bill at dinner
  • When returning a DVD to blockbuster, I put a tract in DVD case.

Saturday

  • I didn’t go anywhere. But, I was still able to put a tract into an envelope when paying a bill

Sunday

  • While using the ATM, I left a tract for the next customer

Monday

  • I went to the post office and gave a tract to the worker there.
  • Gave a tract to the hostess at lunch. Using a St Patricks tract I asked her if she is lucky. She did the test and was disappointed that the clover did not turn to gold. I pointed her to the gospel message on the back.
  • Left a tract with the bill at lunch
  • Went to the airport and gave a tract to the bus driver that drove me to the terminal.
Tuesday
  • Gave a tract to the cashier at Starbucks
Wednesday
  • Gave a tract to the waitress at breakfast
Thursday
  • Gave tracts to the employees at the airport and the man next to me on the plane
Friday
  • Gave tracts to all the restaurant employees and waitress at Spaghetti Warehouse
Saturday
  • Gave a tract to the toll booth attendant while paying the toll on the Dallas North Tollway
I hope from these things you can begin to see ways to incorporate tract distribution and witnessing into your daily life “as you go”. Please come and check out the new “as you go” blog. 
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What about Bob?

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Carl

On Friday night, Manuel, his Dad, Shane and I met in Dallas to hand out Gospel tracts at Winter Jam, a Christian concert, being held at the America Airlines Center. We had about 500 each of two different tracts that said “Are you really a Christian?” and “Are you a Christian?” on the front. The people took them gladly and most I could see were reading them. We explained to the crowd that we were giving these out because many people “call themselves Christian” yet are unsaved. I can point to people that I know that have served as pastors, seminar graduates, etc that stepped out of their position because they were unsaved or false converts. We encouraged everyone to read the tract and then if they realized they truly were saved to give the tract to someone else that needed the message! We also handed out a number of other tracts like Million Dollar Bills, Get Out of Hell Free and the Are You Lucky tracts. Shane and I each took a shot open air preaching with the new handsfree microphone. It worked great! Very loud, even on low volume setting on the amplifier.When we were nearly done handing out the tracts, I had about 25 of the “Are you a Christian?” tracts let, I suggested we finish handing those out and then go and eat dinner. Just then, a school bus pulled up and stopped about 50 feet from us, opened the door and unloaded all of the people inside who were going into the concert. I handed out the rest of the stack of tracts I had and Manuel blessed the rest of them with Million Dollar Bills.

At that we set off for the West End to eat dinner.We discussed eating at Spaghetti Warehouse, but first walked through the West End looking at the other restaurants. We discussed going to get BBQ but at last headed back to Spaghetti Warehouse. At this point, none of us realized that God had a divine appointment to keep there!

I gave Get Out of Hell Free cards to all the employees who greeted us. We were seated promptly. The waitress took our drink order. I gave her a Get out of hell free card. Dinner was wonderful. We all ordered from a special “trio” that included an appetizer, entree and desert. During dinner we discussed the witnessing encounters we had had that evening and enjoyed some wonderful fellowship.

As we were finishing the main dish and moving on to desert, I started telling the other guys about my last night in New York this week and the witnessing encounters I had there. On that night, I witnessed to several people at the Apple store. I’d walk up and ask “do you know who took the bite out of the apple?” “Steve Jobs?” came the reply. That lead to sharing the Gospel. Leaving the Apple Store and heading back to my hotel I shared the Gospel with a Bhuddist and then a couple of agnostic kids about 100 feet from Radio City Music Hall. These kids were totally opposed to any of the things of God. But we had a long talk. One of them kept walking off and then coming back to talk more. They definitely heard the Gospel. As I was speaking with them, the show at Radio City Music Hall must have ended. The doors came open and suddenly hundreds of people were coming out onto the street!

I wrapped up my conversation with the two boys and headed over into the crowd. I had a couple of hundred tracts in my pockets and handed all of them out except for a couple that I was saving in case I ran into a scientologist in Times Square. I had several good conversations with the people that were leaving the show.

As the crowd dispersed, I headed over to Times Square. I had a few tracts left so I was handing them out as I went. One young man asked me, “what is this?” So I told him it was a Gospel tract and lead him through the good person test. It turned out that he is a Muslim. As we got into a discussion of our differing views of who Jesus said He is versus who the quran says he is, the young man eventually got frustrated and walked off.

I then started telling my friends that as I finished that conversation, I looked over and another young man was standing against a wall. He had heard a bit of what I was talking to the other man about. I then took him through the good person test. I was telling my friends how this man got hung up on admitting he would be found guilty. As I was talking, I looked to my right and noticed that the man at the next table was on the edge of his seat listening to my explanation of these witnessing encounters.

Not thinking anything of it, I went back to explaining my witnessing encounters. I explained how this young man finally agreed that he would be guilty before God. He and I then went round and round in getting him to understand that he would be condemned to hell if he died right then.

I again looked to my right. This time I noticed that the man was extremely angry. I stopped and asked him if he was interested in what we are discussing. He said a long string of expletives ending with “to judge other people.” He then asked if I hate Jews, Muslims and everyone else. My heart was really racing. The man was only about five feet from me. Behind me was a brick wall and a window. I wondered if this man, who had obviously been drinking was going to become violent. He then asked Shane, Manuel and his Dad if I was “trying to recruit them” or ask them for money. I then started to explain to him that I am not after money and not trying to get him or anyone else to join my church.

He said his name was Bob. Bob explained that he thought Christians were hypocrites. He said he had been hurt by Christians. He had a lot of anger towards me, all Christians, all religions and even God.

Over the next 45 minutes or so, I lead him through the good person test in an attempt to show him why and how Christianity is different from all of the world religions. He even objected to my having a stack of Gospel tracts on the table. And then he came over to our table to look at the Get Out of Hell Free cards. He was actually intrigued by them and said he would hand some of them out. He took about 20 of them. Interesting that God could use this man who does not even believe in Him, to share the message of the Gospel if he actually went out and handed out these tracts.

Shane, Manuel and Manuel’s dad must have been praying like crazy because over time the man calmed down. However, he continued to ask how much money I was trying to get out of him and others. In order to demonstrate grace to him, I asked the waitress for his bill and paid it for him while he was not paying attention. Then when I explained the Gospel to him, I said, “just as if you owed a fine you could not pay in a court of law, Jesus paid the fine you could not pay before God and in the same way, I have paid the bill you owed here at the restaurant.” Then I put the paid bill folder down on his table. I must thank Mark Cahill for his March newsletter titled “money bag” that had brought to the forefront of my mind this illustration to pay his bill.

We talked a little longer. He demanded to pay me back and offered me cash of what was actually less than his bill. I told him the bill was paid and he could keep his money, or it would be left for the waitress as a tip. At one point in the conversation the man declared to be his own god. We know from John 3:19 that this is what to expect because people love their sin more than the savior. If they are their own lord then Jesus can not be Lord of their life. He then tried to explain that the Bible is irrelevant and that all we need to live by is the “golden rule”. I tried to explain to him that the golden rule comes straight out of the Bible. He denied it. But fortunately as we were talking, Shane looked up the verse. Around this time, he tried to give me the money for his bill again and laid it on our table and then also gave me his dessert which had been packaged.

At that I drew our conversation to a close. I got up from my seat and thanked him for his time and asked him to seriously consider what we had talked about. Shane then showed him in the Bible where the golden rule comes from. And while he was talking to Shane I put the money he had put on our table back on his table.

When the conversation started it seemed we could be headed for a violent scene. Forty five minutes later, we shook hands and said good bye. So, what about Bob? Will he repent and put his trust in Jesus? Please pray for him.

We left praising God and giving him all the glory for a divine appointment to speak to Bob!

Sorry, Manuel, I never did get to tell you the rest of the witnessing encounters from Wednesday night in New York. I filled Shane in on the ride back to my house. I told him about talking to a man from south France and then witnessing and open air preaching to a man that was handing out half price discounts to a mens club. I can fill you in on those accounts when I see you in LA next week!

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A little light shinning in the Big Apple

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Carl

Before I came to New York on this trip, I connected with some people who live in New York tyring to find some Christians to evangelize with. A couple of emails later, I had a message from the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church which was only a short walk from my hotel. So after work on Tuesday evening, I walked over there and attended their Tuesday night prayer service. I’m not sure exactly what I expected. I had no idea really how big the church even was. Somehow I had in my mind that it would be me, the pastor and two or three others. Boy, was I wrong. I was told that the church has about 140 each Sunday in worship. On this Tuesday night there must have been 16-20 people there! We sang songs and then heard a wonderful message from Pastor Recker from 1st, 2nd and 3rd John. Then we broke into groups of three or four shared persoanl prayer requests and then prayed for each other and over the prayer list. I could truly sense the presence of God in this place. If you are in New York, check out Heritage Baptist Church. The church does tract distribution on Thursday nights. So, schedule permitting, I’ll plan to join them for that.

In New York, there are many “lights”. Times Square is lite up day and night. Heritage Baptist Church is shinning the true light of Jesus Christ. Please pray for this church as they shine the light of the Gospel in the midst of Manhattan.

After church, I had dinner at a little Chinese restaurant. Then I walked to Times Square. I talked to a guy at the souvineer shop. Walked him right through the “good test”. He flunked! Like the rest of us do. I said, “By your own admission you are a liar, murderer and adulterer at heart, will God find you innocent or guilty?” At that, he did not want to face the fact that he would be guilty and go to hell. So he changed the subject. I picked out a souvineer and paid. Gave him a tract and told him the truth of the Gospel. His manager was asleep on the counter inside the store. So I put a Million Dollar bill on the counter right in front of him to find when he wakes up!!

On Monday night, when I had witnessed to a scientologist and posted about it on facebook several people posted that they wished they could ask a scientologist some questions. So, during dinner, I posted on facebook “what questions should I ask the scientologists.” I got a number of responses. So I walked down to the church of scientology to see if I could ask someone those questions. When I was here in October, I asked someone the question, “Do you consider yourself to be a good person?” and their response was, “what is a person!” I had not heard that one before. It does not deter me from sharing the truth with these people.

The church is a block from Times Square. They send people out from their church with postcards inviting people to come see a free fifteen minute video called Dianetics. I have not watched the movie, nor been inside the church of scientology building. From what I have read online about dianetics it is about controlling the thoughts in your own mind. When I got about 100 feet from the church I saw the guy they were sending out. He had a stack of the post cards in his right hand and was talking with someone. So I came up and waited for my chance to talk with him. The “other guy” looked at me and asked, “can I help you?”

I said, “yes, I’m looking for directions. Can you tell me if you are from around here?”

They said, “yes.”

So I asked, “can you tell me how to get to heaven from here?”

They both said, “I have no idea. And then asked me.”

So I proceeded to tell them about the Bible, God’s Law and pending judgement. At that, the guy with the cards suddenly had to go and headed of down the street. I followed behind and tried to continue a dialog with him. I asked him, “if you are out representing your church then how come you won’t talk to me about how your beliefs differ from mine.” He replied, “go get a book and read it.” So I offered him a “one heartbeat away” tract where he can also get a book to read. But he refused.

As he continued down the street he got to Times Square where he immediately started handing out his movie invites. Here is a picture of him handing them out.

The “hit rate” in New York of handing out tracts is a lot lower than many places I’ve distributed tracts. However, I’ve found that most people that take the dianetics card will also take a tract from me. I like to hand out the “one heartbeat away” from Custom Tract Source or the “Where will you spend eternity” that we distributed in this months tract club. Both of these tracts offer a copy of Mark Cahill’s book, “One Heartbeat Away.” So while the scientologist card is an invite to watch a movie, mine is an invite to receive a free book.

Once he would hand a card to someone, I would hand a tract to them saying, “I offer you the truth.” The scientologist did not like this. He did everything he could to get away from me. I had several short conversations with him. I even invited him to go to starbucks and have a cup of coffee and talk about eternity. He told me that he had to “meet quoata.” I guess he is obligated to hand out a certain number of these cards in a certain time. However, he really was not willing to talk to me. I find it odd. The Bible says to always be prepared to give the reason for your faith. Their religion teaches people to go read a book. I did some short open airs within ear shot of where he was handing out his cards and talking to people. When I did, he eventually pulled out his phone and called someone. I suppose he must have been calling back to the church for backup. Here is a picture of him calling on the phone.

At least while he was on the phone 3-5 minutes passed while no cards went out and people were not invited to the movie. On this night, it was raining, people were just trying to get where they were going and very few would stop and talk and if they did did not want to stand in the rain very long. So, I decided to call it a night.

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Solution to holding the microphone!

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Carl

Recently as I’ve been participating in Project Ezra or just reading the Bible in the open air, it is cumbersome to hold the mic and the Bible all at the same time. Last weekend it was even harded because it was cold and I had also to deal with wearing gloves at the same time. Debbie and Roy mentioned a solution – a headset microphone from Radio Shack that sells for $23. So, I went and bought one. Testing it at home it seems to work well. Will try it out this weekend.

The set includes a battery, headset, strap and a really long wire including an on/off switch. Since I figured the unit would get some heavy use and possibly be bounced around, I also opted for the extended warranty that will replace it should it break. So for about $30, I can use my existing amplifier and be hands free! You can check out this microphone headset at Radio Shack.

For reference, the portable amplifier that we are using is the Behringer EPA40.

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