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| Ruskin, FL |
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Feb 7 - Feb 18, 2007
South Hillsboro Church of Christ
1611 First St. SW
Ruskin FL , 33575
Feb 18, 2007 - Campaign ends with 17 obeying Gospel in Florida
On Victory Sunday it was 17 who obeyed the Gospel in Florida. It was two in Lithia and 15 in Ruskin, including one whom a new convert converted himself! See picture of new converts.
The final one to obey was one Reggie Gardner (Cadre, Meridian, Idaho) and his team found. He found Belinda Brown, who is blind and has Lupus, and learned in the interview she was already a member of the church. He mother is not, neither was her daughter Cassandra. But Cassandra came to Victory Sunday services and heard the Gospel again. As we were making closing statements, Don Tate, local, interrupted from the back and said, "May I interrupt?" Of course! "Cassandra wants to obey the Gospel." What a way to close a victory service!! Now Belinda, so touched before yet so ill, is one happy lady. She is now returning to the arms of the Lord and His wonderful people at the church in Ruskin!
John Sanpardo, not a Christian three weeks, was driving with his next-door neighbor in town, teaching her the Gospel. He was using terms and making Gospel points he was hearing in our sermons each night of the Campaign and from personal studies from our Cadre and local members. "I need to be baptized," said his neighbor. John pulled into the parking lot of a nearby Church of Christ, walked in, told the preacher there in his office the story, and after the preacher tested the teaching, he baptized her into Christ! So John is now a soul winner himself. BTW he also led singing Sunday night at Ruskin!Praise God!
YOU need to be a part of this wonderful work. Go with us! Have a Seminar or Campaign in your congregation. Send a donation to help this work continue! We need you and your love and help.
Thank you dearly!
Just an update: One of our new brothers, Spencher (press the blinking "In Progress" once on front page, then see pictures at right), is out on a team today, wanting to get his newfound salvation in Jesus told to others. Pray he and the team he is on has a great experience of winning another soul! That always helps greatly to lock in a new convert's commitment!
Thank you!
A lady who lives just across the street from the church building, seeing all the activity, called the church office. Reggie Gardner (Cadre, Boise, Idaho) answered the phone and invited her to lunch with the workers in the building. And here she came. "I've been watching this church for ten years," she said. "I've been wanting to come to church here but I didn't have the right clothes." She now knows that doesn't matter, not with this church, and she is now your new sister in Christ. BTW, someone also gave her three new dresses, just out of love.
Then a gentleman, seeing the sign in front and the activity at the building, drove into the driveway. Roberta Thompson (Cadre, DeSoto, Texas) was in the yard. Seeing him, she asked him, "May I help you?" He is a truck driver looking at present for work. She asked him the question. Again, they ended up in the building and Roberta with Harold Neely (Cadre, El Paso, Texas) sat and presented to him the Gospel. Spencher Fields is now a new-born babe.
Both these new converts simply are testimonies to the fact that, hey Christians, step up to the plate, confront people! Ask them the kind question, "What if the Lord were to come right now; would you know you would go to Heaven?" And "Let's talk about it!"
And TALK about it ... for Heaven's sake!! They will come and be saved!I suppose we need to pray for more rain. Yesterday afternoon it was a lightening rain storm, but workers braved it anyway. We knocked only 11 doors and nine were home; then, of those, we conducted seven Bible studies with seven people and baptized two into Christ! Lord, send us more of Your lightening!
Praise God for all these new souls! You need to join us!
It is simple. It is just soldiers kindly stepping up to neighbors and spouses of members, asking them our We Care Question, "What if the Lord were to come right now; would you know for sure, nothing, you would go to Heaven?" And leading into salvation dialogue, they get into the Gospel of Christ.
And people respond to Jesus. And all rejoice!
We conducted the training for the campaign in Ruskin two weeks after we had arrived early. The morning after the first training evening, two people came to the building for assistance. Everett Tate, local preacher, asked them the question and, using the We Care New Testament, taught them the Gospel, and both obeyed. On Wednesday evening, Mary's mother came to Bible class with John and Mary, the two new Christians, and Dewayne Smith, WCM Cadre member, took Martha aside and taght her the Gospel. At the end of class, here then came, interrupting the class, to rescue her in the blood of Jesus. Now Martha is a Christian. And all three have been at every event in the last two weeks.
Meanwhile, four of our other Cadre members were spending the two weeks in Lithia, Florida, just 45 minutes away from Ruskin, training Christians there in the We Care approach. At the end of that time, two marched forward on Sunday to obey the Gospel. The tears were plentiful, tears of happiness.
We have spent time contacting five churches in the Tampa area, training in the WCM approach. And great things are happening, heart warming.
One preacher in Tampa told us he and his congregation were already knocking doors around their building and felt it was an unprofitable area. "We felt lucky if we could get a hot lead," he told us. Maybe one in fifty would talk to them, so we were told. So, we trained them in our approach for three hours on a Friday night. The next morning, some of those members went to Lithia to help the church there knock doors. That wonderful preacher, Marcus, got a team of his own, and with only three hours of training, he went out and knocked just four doors. Only two people were at home ... and he conducted studies with BOTH of them! He bounced home with joy!
Then, he came to Ruskin yesterday, the first day of the campaign here. On the team, he got in the FIRST door and presented the Gospel. And it was those four who obeyed the Gospel this afternoon! Yeeeehaaaa! That's how rescuers really feel! Praise God!
Does door-knocking work? Does success depend on the approach? Ask Marcus what he thinks! What do you think he will say?
Praise God, people are reachable and the powerful Gospel works!
Stay tuned!
