Sowing the Seed....The Laborers are Few

 

We were handing the 180 tract that deals with two nations, Germany and the holocaust and then America and her holocaust. Germany killed her millions and America has killed her tens of millions! There is a personal application to repent and believe in Christ for salvation. We had Brother Andrea come out to hand out tracts. He is a friend of Pavel and attends a Ukrainian church in Vancouver Washington. You see in the picture below folks receiving gospel tracts as they go on their way through the market. 

This next week Brother Sean Hole is coming through Portland to preach the gospel. Pray for a good day as to the weather and plan to come out to pass out gospel tracts with us or just come out and watch and pray. The harvest is great but the laborers are few! We will be at the Skidmore Fountain at 10:30am, Portland, Oregon. You can park at Loyd's Center Mall and then ride free of charge on the Max Train to the Fountain...BE SURE TO RIDE A RED OR BLUE LINE TRAIN! The Green Line train by passes the fountain.

In Due Season you Shall Reap if you Faint Not!

It has been a few weeks since I was able to go out to preach and hand out tracts in portland. I had a bad ear condition that completely blocked my hearing in my left ear. I thought is might be an infection but it turned out to be blocked by wax...Thanks to the Doc it is all better...I'm am back to normal and  I am not saying ....what? to my family as much!

I give thanks be to the Lord for the faithful brothers that went out to sow the gospel seed in my absence. Brother Pavel is a very faithful soul-winner and preacher of the gospel and I am honored to serve with him and others who come out! Pavel shared with me that last week a man approached him and asked to share his testimony. He revealed to Pavel that he had heard the gospel in this very spot at the Skidmore Fountain, some 29 years ago, from a faithful servant of the Lord and had come to faith in Christ as a result! We cast the bread of the gospel on the waters, not knowing what the Lord is going to do in the hearts of men, women, boys and girls. We must be faithful to obey the call to the field of service he has for us. God bless everyone and thank-you for praying for the ministry of the gospel in Portland!

We had a Great day of the Streets....

Jon Gives a Public Testimony

It is always exciting to meet new people on the streets of Portland who were moved by the Lord to share the gospel in some way. We met Jon and his wife down at the river front several weeks ago. Jon takes an elevated place near the 'portable potties' and reads the Gospel of John to the people standing in line to use the facilities! Now that is getting creative! Jon dropped by Saturday at the fountain and gave his testimony of salvation on the 'box'.

I spoke to a pastor from Granite Falls Washington who had stopped with his wife to here the preaching. He asked me if we were all from one church. "No" was my reply, "We met here on the streets of Portland." More and more Christians  are answering the call to share the gospel today. As wickedness becomes more prevalent and bold there must be a bold reply from the kingdom of God to the spirit of this world, " YOU CAN NOT PASS!"

Barry Offering the Gospel

We had nearly a dozen brothers come out to share the gospel through preaching and through the written word. I began with a call to repentance to our nation calling into remembrance Hitler's Germany and the source of his doctrine of death. Many do not know this but Hitler was encouraged by Eugenicists in the United States! These groups were forced underground after the war...can anyone say, "Planned Parenthood". These wicked people continue on today, financed largely by tax payer dollars. Hitler killed 6 million....The doctrine has killed over 57 million in the United States! The count is rising each day. There are more killed on any Saturday in the US than died on 9/11. And yet there is not ever a stir. We have become complacent with the American Holocaust. See the film 180, by Ray Comfort. Judgment day is here! Do not think that we are exempt from God's righteous judgments. There were some people responding, saying "That's right" and "Amen".  We pray that people are beginning to wake up. God help us to stand against wickedness and stop the killing of children in our generation!
Thank you for your prayers! It was a good day, scores of tracts were received. The gospel was preached, the Lord's righteousness was lifted and his name glorified!  Pray that the Lord will use his word to convict and save the lost.

We Need Air Cover !

Tomorrow we are meeting at Skidmore fountain, to preach the gospel and hand out gospel tracts. Please pray for God's name to be glorified !

Paul proclaimed, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also the Greek". Romans 1:16

And, "For since in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" 1 Corinthians 1:21

We need 'Air Cover"! You may not be called to preach on the street but you are so important in the spiritual battle for the souls of men! We covet your prayers, that God would grant us boldness and clarity of thought to present the gospel in a clear, concise and loving way.

The Sidewalk Scribe

The Lord gave us a great sunny warm day to do gospel work on the streets of Portland this past Saturday. One never knows what may take place when you step out in faith to sow the seed of the word of God in open air. The spiritual give and take is living, dynamic and always changing; but we go in faith believing the gospel is the "power of God unto salvation". It is not pragmatism that drives the gospel ministry. We do need to be creative in presenting the gospel....but the speaking of the gospel in the open air is foolishness to the unbeliever; this will never change. It always be foolishness to the sinner until God's quickens his heart in repentance and faith.

Today something new happened.  I was on the box preaching and a man began writing on the sidewalk while I was preaching. First he wrote,  LOVE.....LOVE....LOVE... . I thought to myself, "I can go with that..." "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son...." "For God did not send His Son to condemn the world but to save the world..." I then went on to explain the consequences of neglecting and rejecting God's only provision of salvation in Jesus Christ...,  "He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already..." After having extrapolated on sin, condemnation and the lake of fire, the sidewalk scribe then wrote, "You are scaring me!" To which I proclaimed, " Do not fear those that can kill the body, but rather fear God who is able to cast both body and soul into hell fire!" The fear of God is good and with good reason as it will drive you to Christ, the only hope of salvation. Finally he wrote, "Tell me something good!" The good thing is that today is the day of salvation! There is none good but God. For God made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ" Now that is the Good news of the gospel!

Many received the gospel tracts and many heard the gospel preaching....pray that the LORD prepares Portland to really "hear the gospel" in the biblical since.

Luke 10:2

Therefore said he unto them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest."

Do you have any questions about open air gospel ministry? Please ask! Sign up on our Prayer Partners list, follow the new of what is going on in Portland. 

WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!

P.S. More news is coming...we had another first happen on Saturday! So stay tuned.

The Persistant Witnesses

Today I decided to stay home. After all it was raining and Molly and the girls had been gone for two days and I wanted to visit with them and take it easy before going off the work. But I have to admit that I did feel a tinge of guilt. That is a good thing if it is for the right reason. Liz looked up from her hand work and said, "Who is here?" I turned to look out the window, "Looks like a J W coming to visit us!". 

I grabbed the tract "A prayer from Hell" and headed for the door. Our house has no front door. When people come to the house for the first time they sort of hang around in front of the house wondering where to go! I come out to face off with my visitor, a fit medium sized man in his late fifties with white hair and a penetrating blue eyes.
"Hi, want can I do for you today?" I began.  He is reaching for a piece of literature as he begins to speak, "Hi there!" "You're a Jehovah's Witness, right?" I said holding out the tract, "Here is something to tell you about the hell you do not believe in." He had gotten his 'Watch Tower' about half out of the bag when he looked up with a start. His hand went back in the bag with his literature, "I can appreciate that your mind is made up...".

"I'm pretty settled in what I believe...not much chance of either one of us convincing the other....we'll just have to wait until we die and then we'll find out who is on the right side of things." To which he countered, "Yep we'll know in the resurrection...".
"No, 'To be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD' (2 Cor 5:8), now we can joust for hours if you like....it's sort of cold today..." He turns and trudges back to his van, "Maybe we'll see you next time...", he said over his shoulder. "Maybe...or maybe not...God knows," I replied.

We have been up here on the hill for over twenty years. We have been visited faithfully by one church multiple times during those years and it is NOT the Christian church! Not one Christian has ever come to visit us with the gospel! But the Jehovah's Witnesses have visited us not once, but at least four times! Years ago a young man, I would guess to be about 14 years old, came to the house (He had a driver...looked like his mother). He was sincere and earnest in his presentation of his belief. It was like the story of the rich young ruler. The scriptures records that Jesus looked upon the young man and loved him. My heart went out to this young man! He was so sincere and yet so wrong! On his way to hell was the best of intentions!

Let us learn a lesson from these persistent false witnesses. First, we need to learn from their diligence and faithfulness to go, stand and speak!  We have the true gospel! We should be ashamed that we are not more diligent to get the saving message of the gospel to lost souls. Second, we must be faithful to take our children with as we serve the Lord in evangelism! Handing out tracts should be an activity our kids see us involved in.  Don't go alone, take your young person with you!

So here I am 'AWOL' from preaching the gospel down town today and the LORD sends a persistent witness, an example in faithfulness...the ever diligent heretic!

How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation; if we neglect so great salvation: which at the first began to spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him... ( Hebrews 2:3)

Note that it does not stay 'they'; as in the lost, but 'we', the people of God! How shall we escape the condemnation of our Lord if we do not obey the last command that He gave before going back to heaven? Even the Apostle Paul said, " ...Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel!" (1 Cor 9:16b)  May the Lord work in us to be a faithful and persistent witness of the true gospel!

Sowers Went Forth to Sow

College student reading "A prayer from Hell"

 On Sunday evening on the 4th, I was home for a change (Not at work!). Our family sat down to watch a film called, "Go, Stand, Speak" , The Forgotten Power of the Public Proclamation of the Gospel. This  is a lengthy presentation with six segments, each dealing with an aspect of open air ministry. Afterwards,my daughter, Lizzie, said, "Dad, I'd like to go out with you on Saturday!" And so, Molly, and daughters Liz and Jo came with me and Larry Dubois out to sow the seed of the gospel.

We went down to the river side. The crowds came by in groups. Many heard the gospel and many received gospel literature.

Larry Dubois, from Citrus Grove California, spent the entire

Larry Dubois preaching the Gospel

week in Portland doing open air ministry. During the week we preached at and near the Pioneer Square, joining forces with Ron Roman and several that serve with him on a weekly basis at the Square from 11:00am to 1:00pm, on Tues, Thurs and Fridays. Molly and the girls handed out several hundred gospel tracts. I am very pleased that Liz chose to spent part of her birthday in the fields of harvest sowing gospel seed. This is certainly the greatest gift ever offered and someday she may have the joy of being introduced to a soul who believed the gospel after reading a tract from her hand on this very special day!

Jo, far left, Molly and Liz, right, offer the Gospel with a Smile!

Lady Reading "A Prayer from Hell"

You see in the picture on the right a lady reading a gospel tract, "A prayer from Hell"  This is not the first time I have seen or heard of people being impacted by this particular title by Holmes Moore. It is distributed by Chapel Library, Pensacola, Florida.     www.mountzion.org.

One particular time as Liz offered a Catholic man the tract, "A Prayer From Hell". He asked, "What is it?" "It is a gospel tract" she said. He retorted "Why should I read that?" To which Liz replied, "To keep you from going to hell..." she said holding out the tract with a smile...he traded Liz, taking the tract and giving her piece of Catholic literature..

Keep these and other dear souls in your prayers that light of the glorious gospel will shine into their hearts!