Carrollton For Christ

We've moved

2011-01-22T20:47:00.001-08:00

This BLOG has been moved to the Bezeugen Ministries web site. Please visit us at www.bezeugen.org/doortodoor/

87 more

2010-08-28T14:39:00.001-07:00

I was able to put out 87 more door hangars this afternoon in Carrollton. Please pray that people will be touched by the message of the Gospel that they find on their door this evening.

It is interesting to notice that since switching to using door hangars, it seems like almost no one is home. Out of 87 houses, it only seemed like about five or so people were even around. This is just from noticing that houses were dark inside. There were a couple of people outside and I managed to talk with them briefly.

Door Hangars are not available for purchase

2010-08-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

Previously, we made arrangements with One Million Tracts to allow the purchase of any of the tracts developed by Bezeugen and used in the tract club. Today, I am pleased to report that Marv has offered pricing to allow you to purchase additional door hangars for use in your door to door ministry in your neighborhood. The pricing is as follows:

1,000 door hangars for $165 shipping included (16.5 cents each)
2,500 door hangars for $245 shipping included (9.8 cents each)

On the back of the door hangars there is a box and inside the box it says "Bezeugen Ministries, www.bezeugen.org". This area is intended to be used for a label to customize to your church or ministry. Marv has agreed to place your own contact information in the box prior to printing therefore saving you the cost and time of printing labels and placing them on the door hangars.
The door hangars advertise a free DVD. When requests for the free DVD are received, they will be forwarded to the church or ministry that handed them out so that the requests can be fulfilled by that church or ministry.

Please email Marv at One Million Tracts to place your order. Simply tell him you'd like to order the Bucket List Door Hangar developed by Bezeugen Ministries!

The text of the door hangar reads:

People often use the term “bucket list” to refer to a list of things that they would like to do before they “kick the bucket” or die. What is on your bucket list? Some popular choices are: skydive, take a trip around the world, run a marathon, take up a martial art, learn to dance, drive a race car, climb Mt. Everest, see the Seven Wonders, and ride the world's fastest rollercoaster. Need some help with number 10? How about…

back:

…find out what happens when you kick the bucket! It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. (Hebrews 9:27) The Bible says that when you die, you’ll be judged by God’s standard, The Ten Commandments. The ninth commandment says you shall not lie. Have you ever told a lie? If so, God sees you as a liar. Revelation 21:8 says that all liars will have their place in the lake of fire, which is hell. The eighth commandment says you shall not steal. Have you ever stolen anything? If so, God sees you as a thief. The sixth commandment says you shall not murder. Jesus took this to an even higher standard saying, “everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” and “whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matthew 5:22) Ever hated someone or called them a fool? The third commandment says you shall not use God’s name in vain. Have you ever used God’s name or Jesus’ name carelessly or as a curse word? That is called blasphemy. In Exodus 20:7 God says that he will not hold anyone guiltless that uses his name in vain. That is only four of the Ten Commandments. How will you do on judgment day? Does God see you (by your own admission) as a liar, a thief, a murderer and a blasphemer at heart? Will you be innocent or guilty? Will God reward you with eternity in heaven or punish you with an eternity in hell? God is perfectly good and just. He must punish sin. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man to die in the place of sinners. Jesus never broke God’s law. He claimed to be equal with God, and to have power to forgive sin. He claimed to know all things. He said of Himself, “I have power to lay down My life (crucified), and power to take it up again (resurrected).” Jesus died in the place of sinners, and was raised to life on the third day. It was not the price that was paid that satisfies God, but the worth of the One who paid the price: Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God commands you to repent, and to place your faith in the indescribable gift of Jesus alone, that you may not be condemned, but have eternal life. (Mark 1:15, Acts 17:30, John 3:16) Do it today- make it #1 on your bucket list - you may not have tomorrow!

Map of Door to Door ministry

2010-08-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

Recently, Bezeugen Ministries created a door hangar. We have now sent them out to over 30 people around the country and Canada. This map shows where people are doing door to door evangelism, using this door hangar and the methods presented by Bezeugen Ministries, an Ally of Living Waters Ambassadors Academy.

View Door to Door in a larger map

1000

2010-07-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we got out another 1000 door hangars.

If you are interested in 100 door hangars to distribute in your neighborhood please let me know.

If you already received door hangars from us, then please post a comment with how your distribution went.

Second day of door hangars

2010-07-17T12:12:00.000-07:00

Today was the second day that I went out to hand out our new door hangars. I went with six members of First Baptist Hebron in Carrollton. First Baptist has set a goal to take the Gospel to every house in the 75010 zip code. We marked off one neighborhood that has 225 houses. With seven of us we were able to cover each house in about 45 minutes. Five of us continued to another neighborhood and covered another 136 houses. So that is 361 more houses that have received the Gospel. Please pray for the people who receive these door hangars to read them, reach out to us or First Baptist, order the DVD and above all, repent and trust Jesus.

While we were out handing out the door hangars, I had a text from a friend whom I had given some door hangars a couple of days ago indicating that he and his boys had just walked around the block and put out door hangars. Praise God. What a great activity to do with your sons!

If you are interested in receiving a shipment of 100 door hangars to get started with door to door in your neighborhood then please let me know.

94 door hangars distributed!

2010-07-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

They're here
The door hangar shipment was finally located. Turns out that UPS delivered them to my address PLUS 10. But, fortunately, the woman who received them called last night and I went and picked them up from her.

Shipped 1600 door hangars
We offered 100 door hangars to anyone who would go hand them out in their neighborhood to get them started with door to door. Today at lunch, I mailed 1600 door hangars out to those who had requested them. another 300 are being labeled by a local church for distribution on Saturday. I got three more requests for door hangars today. Those will go in the mail soon. It's not too late. If you'd like some door hangars to get started with a door to door ministry in your neighborhood then let me know and I'll mail them out to you.

First Distribution
Since I've been waiting for a long time to receive the door hangars, I was anxious to go and distribute some. So tonight, I spent about 45 minutes distributing them. I reached 94 houses. One thing I noticed is that it seemed like no one was home. So the fact that I was simply leaving something on the door turned out to be a good thing. While I walked and distributed the door hangars I was praying for the neighborhood. The picture at the right is the first door hangar distributed to a house in Carrollton, TX.

Strategy
I plan to canvass a few neighborhoods in order to get a sense of what percentage of people are likely to request the door hangars. I don't plan to only door canvassing. At some point, I will go back to my previous door to door method (food drive, prayer request and sharing the Gospel) with the change being that I'd give them the door hangar or leave it on the door instead of the Good News / Bad News tract that I have been using.

Resources
There are a couple of resources that are handy for mapping your progress with door to door. The first is to use maps.google.com to map an area. Print the map, then use a highlighter to mark where you have been. The second resource is something I've been using in my running. It is www.gmap-pedometer.com and it allows you to map paths. For example, the path that I walked tonight to hand out door hangars is here.

Sorry for the delay

2010-07-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

For those of you waiting to receive door hangars from us, there has been a delay. The first order has been lost by UPS. We are trying to get this located. I'll post an update when we have a better idea of when we will have the door hangars to send out.

Milestone

2010-06-14T19:48:00.000-07:00

⁴Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. ⁵And Joshua said to them, "Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, ⁶that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, 'What do those stones mean to you?' Joshua 4:4-6 (ESV)

This verse came to mind as a reminder to remember significant events. On Saturday, I reached a milestone in my door to door ministry when I completed door to door in the neighborhood where I live. Granted there are still nearly 39,000 more houses to go in Carrollton. But, it is good to remember the steps and milestones.

Since July 25, 2009, I have been to 968 houses. I had 239 one on one conversations.I gathed 153 prayer requests and over 750 cans of food. I clocked 48 hours of work. Much of the time I was by myself. But, when others were with me it brought the total man hours to 68 hours.

So, what's next? I'll move on to another neighborhood and keep going. I would also like to encourage you to get involved going door to door in your neighborhood. We have a new resource coming next week. Please consider requesting some and getting started with a door to door ministry in your neighborhood.

I must say, that going door to door can be very tiring, difficult and discouraging. But, it can also be incredibly rewarding. Let me just share a couple of thoughts from Saturday. When I started out, I went nine houses in a row before anyone even answered the door. At the tenth house was a man who welcomed prayer as he was leading a group of teens from his church on a mission trip the next day. The next door after that I spoke with a woman who did not know Christ. But she was very open to the discussion. She did not say she repented and believed while I was there, but she agreed to consider what we had talked about.

At another house, possibly one of the saddest experiences I've had door to door. A woman pastor told me that everyone goes to heaven and that they don't even have to repent. I reminded her that the Bible says that "a man must repent". At that she was offended because she thought I was saying women could not be saved. I merely was just referring to mankind. It was really sad because this woman is leading her whole flock astray.

As I reached the home stretch in my neighborhood, I had one short street to go with just ten houses left. At the first of those houses, I was greeted by a man who was a strong believer in Christ. After talking to him, I asked a favor - to refill my water bottle - and he agreed. At the next house, another Christian greeted me. After talking for a few minutes, he invited me in. He asked about the ministry so I briefed him on what we are doing door to door and with the tract club and training. He offered me water, but I just had some from the house next door. So he called to his wife to come and pray over me. That was a tremendous blessing and encouragement.

So, yes, it might be tough out there. But, you must not quite. In the words of Tony Miano, "Don't Quit!" There are people out there that are destined for hell. We must take the Gospel to them and give them a chance at heaven. Will you join me?

What lies ahead

2010-05-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

Having been doing door to door for nearly a year, I've been continually praying about how to do this more efficiently and also help others get started. In about two weeks we will have the following available:

A door hangar - the door hangar will be 11x4.5 inches. It will have an expanded Gospel message (more than twice as many words as our typical business card sized tracts). It will have an offer for a free DVD. The DVD that we will be using is "The Big Question" by Wretched. You can watch a preview below. The thought is that each group will stock the DVD themselves ($1 a piece in a spindle from wretched.tv). In the event you can't stock them, then we may be able to help by providing you a smaller quantity than Wretched sells. Finally, the door hangar will have a place where you can affix a label with your personal or church contact information.

Prayer Cards - we will be making pads with 50 prayer request cards on each pad. We will also be providing the PDF to make these yourself via the web site. With the PDF you can either contact your local Office Max (or similar) and have them make pads for you. Or you can just print them and use them on a clip board without making them into pads.

Food Drive sheets - up until now, I've been using a sheet about the food drive that comes from the food pantry. However, in order to provide a level of indirection with the food pantry, I've contacted several other food pantries that I can donate food to. I've also made my own flyer about the food drive which lists the various food pantries we are working with. The food drive sheets will be available as a PDF with a place to put a label about the food pantry (or pantries) that you are working with. I may make these into pads, or simply just print a few pages out as I need them. I don't typically go through very many of these sheets as I generally only leave one behind when the people are interested in making a donation later.

If you are thinking of getting started with a door to door campaign in your neighborhood, please check the video and information on the web site. Then let me know if you would like a starter pack of door hangars. What I am thinking is that we should be able to mail about 100 of them in a flat rate envelope. I wont know the exact logistics until I receive the door hangars. I am working with the printer to get pricing on these door hangars for you. So my thought is that once we send you the initial set, you'll be able to order more direct from the printer.

Let me know your thoughts. I pray that these resources will be valuable.

900

2010-05-30T21:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had Brian's company as we went to another 35 houses door to door. We only collected about six cans of food. However, we had some wonderful one on one conversations. Tracts were left at each door where no one was home. We met a fellow believer in Christ who was very encouraging to our mission. And we met a man who had converted to Christianity from Hinduism! Praise God. With these 35 houses completed, I have now visited over 900 houses. I am estimating that in 2-3 more hours I can wrap up the houses in my immediate neighborhood.

Second Park Outreach

2010-05-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

Please read about our second park outreach in the City of Carrollton in the Bezeugen BLOG.

New BLOG

2010-05-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

There is a new BLOG called "First Thursday Day of Prayer". This group is dedicated to meeting at City Hall or your place of business to pray for the nation, state and city where you live. Please consider promoting this new blog and joining us (physically) or where ever you may live on June 3rd!

In Carrollton, we will be at the Carrollton City Hall at the Northeast corner of Jackson and Josey by the flag poles at 12:20-12:40PM.

First Thursday - Prayer for the Nation

2010-05-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

Today was the National Day of prayer. We joined about 40 other believers in front of the Carrollton (TX) City Hall and prayed. We prayed for our leaders. We prayer for our nations. We prayed for repentance. We prayed that our churches would preach Biblically. It was a blessed time. Afterwards we enjoyed some fellowship with the other believers that were there.

While talking, we thought, "why do we only do this one day a year?" So we quickly discussed it and decided rather than waiting until the first Thursday of May 2011, we would meet back the first Thursday of every month. I announced the plan to about 10 people who were still there. We heard a resounding, "see you next month."

So we have decided to have a prayer meeting in front of City Hall the First Thursday of each month. Will you join us? If you live in Carrollton, will you come on June 3rd and join us? If you don't live in the area, will you go to your City Hall and pray there for your town and our nation?

God sends encouragement

2010-04-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went door to door. It was the first time I had been on a weeknight in a long time. Prior to the spring time change it has been dark before people would be home from work. But, now the sun is up until 8PM. So I wanted to get out and share the Gospel and also see if there was any difference in the number of people that are home.

At the second house that I went too, I was speaking to a man who claimed he could get to heaven by being a good person. I asked how he knew that and he said "by looking in here" while pointing to his heart. I explained that the Bible says that the heart of man is wicked above all things. He then claimed that the Bible was unreliable because it was written by man. I explained that man was simply God's instrument to write it down. I asked which standard he used to measure goodness; his or God's. He said, "mine, but it is the same as God's." So I explained that God's standard is the Ten Commandments. He said OK. So I asked if he had lied and he agreed that he had. He then objected saying that he knew a lot of good Muslims and good Jews and that he believed that they would be in heaven. I said that they could go to heaven if they will repent and trust Jesus Christ to save them. We talked a short time longer. Then he accused me of speaking hatred and began to close the door. As he did, I simply said, "I'm sorry you say that, I am not spreading hate but love." At that, the door flew back open and he said sternly, "GET OFF OF MY PROPERTY." So I left.

It was a bit frightening. I have not been physically harmed or threatened while out going door to door. I continued to the next house, and that man would not even take a tract. Feeling discouraged, I pressed on because I know that I must not quit as people are perishing and facing God's wrath.

Finally, I reached a house where I spoke to a believer in Christ for about half an hour. It was very encouraging. So often when witnessing, I'll talk to someone who professes to be a "Christian" but then it turns out they are a Christian in name only. No so with this man. I asked how long he had been a Christian and he gave me his testimony and we talked for half an hour.

Saying good bye to him there were two houses left on the block. At the first of these two the house was completely dark. So I simply put a tract on the door and moved on.

At the last house, I was tempted to simply put a tract on the door and go home. It seemed to be dark as well. But as I went up the walk to the door, I could see the TV was on. So I rang the door bell. I was blessed to have another great conversation with a fellow believer. I was able to offer him some encouragement and prayer with him.

After a rough start to the evening, I am extremely thankful for the encouraging ending by speaking to these two believers.

800

2010-04-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

Crossed a milestone today. I knocked on the door of my 800th house! Looking at the map, it looks like I can finish off this section of town in about 4 more hours. With the 34 houses I went to today, I have now been to 832 houses total. I have had 210 one on one conversations, gathered 133 prayer requests and gathered 678 food items.

Today I ended up at a couple houses of people that I've known for many years, but had not seen in a long time. We had good conversations and I was able to share the Gospel with them. Just goes to show that it is tougher to witness to people that you know. But, I was able to do it. Praise God!

The map below shows my current progress in my neighborhood. The highlighted areas are the portions I have already been too! Since First Baptist Hebron is covering the entire 75010 zip code, once I finish these houses, I'll move on to another zip code within Carrollton.

What do we do with Prayer Requests

2010-03-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

I was asked in a comment on one of the posts "how do we collect the prayer requests and what do we do with them?" I thought the answer was worthy of its own blog post. So here it is...

The way we collect prayer requests is by asking, "is there any specific way that we can pray for you and your family?" This is step two of our three step approach. Step one is to ask for a food donation. And step three is to share the Gospel with them.

I carry a clip board with me when I go door to door. Among other things, on the clip board is a stack of prayer request forms. When I get a prayer request I complete information like data, name, address, request and general comments. I also have a place to mark if the person is a Christian or what other religion they belong too.

Once we have the prayer requests, we have a prayer meeting on the 1st and 3rd mondays of each month. At those meetings we pray for the prayer requests that were gathered. Normally we do this by dividing up the prayer request forms amongst all of those present at the meeting. Then someone opens in prayer. Wew each then pray over the cards we have. The cards can then either be put into the center of the table for someone else to take or passed left or right (as agreed in advance) so that everyone can pray for multiple requests.

Some requests it is appropriate to follow-up with the people. We have a separate team of people that are involved with the follow-up.

Normally, we will keep the prayer requests from previous meetings in future meetings for 2-4 months depending on the request and the follow-up feedback we receive.

For more information on the Carrollton for Christ Door to Door ministry please see the Bezeugen Door to Door web page.

God overcomes Obstacles

2010-03-13T10:43:00.000-08:00

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.

First zip code commitment

2010-02-09T21:00:00.000-08:00

Today I had lunch with the pastor of First Baptist Church Hebron located in Carrollton, Tx. We discussed how we can partner together in reaching the city with the gospel. Th pastor explained that his churches vision is o reach each household in the zip code where their church is located, 75010. He believes this is about 10,000 households. They plan to reach about 2500 of them this year. Please keep this church in prayer as they set out on this vision the Lord has given them.

There are four other zip codes in Carrollton: 75006, 75007, 75008 and 75011. Please pray that the Lord will raise up leaders to take the Gospel to the rest of these zip codes.

Please pray for how you will be involved. Is the Lord leading you to take the Gospel door to door to each household on your block, in your neighborhood, in your zip code or in your city? Don't live in Carrollton? That's okay! What's not start in your own city. Please let me know how the Lord is leading you.

Brrrr...

2010-01-31T05:43:00.000-08:00

Last summer, my wife had gone to the Trader Days in McKinney with a couple of her friends. She told me that there was a booth there with some Muslims sharing about Islam with people. We decided it was a good idea to go back so that I could talk with these men. I spoke with them for 20 minutes or so, but it was nearing the end of the day when I got to talk to them. I gave one of them my card so that we could talk more later. However, I've never heard from them since.

At another booth, I meet Wally. He had a booth sharing the Gospel using the Eye Test and the Way of the Master. Wally is also involved with Extreme Missionary Adventure. We exchanged contact information and agreed to keep in touch so we could do ministry together. Over the past couple of months, Wally and I have talked several times. He is now teaching Way of the Master Basic Training at his church. Once the class is instructed, he wants to be able to take the members out door to door so they can use what they have learned.

Wally and I agreed to meet on Saturday morning. Little did we know it would be one of the coldest days in Dallas this winter. Wally came to my house and we had some good fellowship and a cup of coffee before we headed out. As we walked down the alley from my house to the street, we had to be careful as the water in the alley had formed a thin sheet of ice. I shared with Wally my experiences going door to door. I told him how you could get any response from people not being home, to those that would allow you to share the Gospel. We experienced all of that in a short time.

In the first ten houses, nearly no one was home. This really surprised us since we figured the cold weather would have kept people home. We eventually were able to have three one on one conversations with people. At one house we had a good conversation with the woman that lives there. She readily admitted to breaking the commandments by dishonoring her mom and dad, stealing and lying. However, she said that when she is judged, "it would be based on the whole body of work of her life." We explained to her that in a court room a judge does not do that. She agreed. However, she did not connect the dots to God. At that, she said it was too cold to continue the conversation so I gave her a "Why Christianity?" tract.

The last conversation was with a Catholic man. I asked him "as a Catholic, what do you think happens when you die?" He then explained to me how he hoped his good works would be enough get him to heaven. I explained to him difference between what he believes and the Biblical Gospel that says you must repent of your sins and trust solely in Jesus for salvation. He also took a tract.

We visited 26 houses, had 3 one on one conversations, got 3 prayer requests and gathered 19 food items. This brings the total number of houses visited to 663 with 176 one on one conversations. I have now collected 110 prayer requests and 588 food items.

Thanks for your continued prayer and support.

Are you ready to start going door to door in your neighborhood? Could you commit to sharing the Gospel with everyone on your street? Everyone on your block? Everyone in your zip code? Everyone in your city? Pray about it. If God leads you to get started then please contact me so we can discuss it and add you to the door to door map.

Why Christianity?

2010-01-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

As I have been going door to door, I've handed out a lot of tracts and booklets. I've been praying about what other resources to provide people. So I ordered copies of Why Christianity on DVD from Living Waters. When ordered in bulk (10 or more) you can get these for just $2 a each! I've been carrying these with me for the last couple of times out going door to door. Today I was able to give away the first two copies.

The first DVD went to Andrew. He is an agnostic. His dad was a Buddhist and his mom is Roman Catholic. Andrew was not sure if there is enough evidence to believe in God. I talked to him about creation and the evidence that the Bible manuscripts are true. Then I took him to the Law and walked him through the good test. He admitted that he had lied, stolen, blasphemed God and lusted. He agreed that if God exists, then he would go to hell.He said that his motto is "live and let live." And I shared with him that that verse agrees with what the Bible says in John 3:19, "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, andpeople loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil." I offered him the DVD along with a challenge that he needs to decide what is true and not just what he believes.

Two houses later, I meet Nathan. When I asked him if he believed in God, he said, "I am a Jehovah Witness." Rather than immediately challenging him on who Jesus is, I asked if he would go to heaven and then took him through the Ten Commandments. I reminded him that the command is "to be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect." He admitted to lying and hatred which is murder. When we started to talk about hell, he said, he was busy and needed to go. So I asked if he would watch a DVD and he said he would. So I gave him a copy of Why Christianity too.

I was able to visit 43 other houses. I had 9 other one on one conversations. I gathered four prayer requests. And I collected a whole cart full of food to donate to MetroCrest Social Services.

My Challenge to You
May I challenge you to take the step to go door to door in your neighborhood. Do a food drive. Ask for prayer requests. Then ask if they believe in God. See where the conversation goes and share the Gospel with them. Give them a tract. Or simply leave the tract on the door when they are not home. We never know which will fall on the good soil.

If you live around Dallas, why not come with me sometime soon. Get some hands on experience going door to door, then start doing the same in your neighborhood. If you are not close by, then feel free to contact me, leave a comment or check out the door to door recourses on the Bezeugen web site and this BLOG for guidance on getting started. Once you decide to cover your neighborhood, city or zip code, let me know and I'll add you to the map. May God be glorified as we share the Gospel door to door!

New Years Day door to door evangelism

2010-01-03T15:32:00.000-08:00

On New Years Day, I started off the year by going door to door in my neighborhood. I was not sure how it would be received given that it was a holiday. However, I ended up having some great one on one conversations, gathered prayer requests and collected the largest amount of food in a single day yet!

The picture at the right shows the wagon full of food that I collected. That's right - my cart has become too small to carry the generous donations of food, so I am now using my wagon (that I've had since I was a kid) to carry the food home.

The table below shows the progress over the past three door to door outings as well as the totals since I started going door to door.

date	houses	1 on 1's	prayer requests	food items
12-Dec	35	13	11	86
26-Dec	23	11	7	56
1-Jan	69	17	7	96
total's	537	150	94	499

I would like to share one an exciting thing that happened when I went door to door on December 26. I was going to spend two hours going door to door in my neighborhood and then meet some friends in Dallas for Project Ezra, witnessing and tract distribution before the Dallas Mavericks game. At the last house that I went to I had the pleasure of speaking with two believers. We had a great time of fellowship and we talked about evangelism. The man said, "I wonder why God orchestrated this meeting?" I replied, "probably to encourage you to share your faith more." I then realized I was late for getting home to eat lunch before going to the basketball game. I thanked them both for their time and headed home. When I got home, I was eating lunch when a car pulled up and a man came walking up to my door. I answered the door. It was the man I had just been talking too. He said, "are you going to be staying for the game?" I said, "No!" He said, "can I come along with you?" I said, "of course!"

It turns out that from our conversation he felt convicted to join us on our witnessing event. We had a nice time of fellowship and handed out lots of tracts. It was really great for God to show me this other fruit of my door to door efforts that this man not only joined the tract club, but joined us witnessing. And, I expect he will be joining us again in the near future.

Status Update

2009-12-13T06:41:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, I visited 35 house, shared the Gospel one on one with 13 people, gathered 11 prayer requests and collected 86 food items. This brings the totals to 445, 122 one on one conversations, 80 prayer requests and 347 food items collected. The map below shows the area covered. The push pin in my house. I use the highlighter to track where I have been. Thanks for your continued prayers for this effort.

Are you ready to get started going door to door? I have created a map to keep track of people going door to door in their community. If you would like to be added to the map as a participant, then please contact me.

A good problem

2009-12-13T06:35:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, I went out door to door for two hours. I changed my tactics slightly for this day. Instead of collecting food for MetroCrest, I decided earlier in the week to collect the food for "a family in need." You see, my wifes family has decided that this Christmas rather than exchanging gifts with the adults we would adopt a family in the community and give gifts to them! When we looked at the needs, we realized food was a big one. So, I prayerfully decided to designate the food collected on this trip into the neighborhood to give directly to this family. Instead of my normal "MetroCrest" flyer that I put on my clip board, I made a flyer describing a "Bezeugen Ministries food drive to benefit a family in need in the neighborhood." With that, I set out.

As I proceeded down the street, I was overwhelmed with generous food donations. People were giving more than normally. In the past each house that gave would give a couple (maybe three) cans of food. But, on this day, the bags were coming back with five, six, seven and up to ten cans of food in them. As I continued down the street, I had to stop and rearrange the food in the cart. Then as I went to a couple of more houses, the cart was overflowing again. By this time I was a half a mile from home. I did not want to "waste time" walking back home to put the food away and not be able to stop at any houses since I could not carry any more food. So I called my wife to see if she could come and pick up the food. However, she was not nearby so she could not. I continued on anyway and was sharing the Gospel at each house. Finally, I had so much food that it would not stay in the cart. The cart was full and I had two full bags of food in my hand. And I was a full half mile from home as I came back up the other side of the street. I posted a message to facebook thinking maybe one of my friends could come and pick up the food. However, I got no response.

Finally, as I prayed the Lord lead me to an answer. I had just spoken with a believer on the other side of the street. I went back to their house and told them my delimma. I asked if I could ust leave the food on their porch for an hour and a half and then I would come back for it. They agreed. I lightened my load and proceeded on up the street. Eventually my wife was on her way home and she stopped at that house and picked up the food for me.

On a typical door to door outing, food collections are about 1 can per three houses. On this day, the food collection was nearly three cans per house! After visiting 35 houses, I had collected 86 cans of food to donate to this family. I had also shared the Gospel one on one 13 times and gathered 11 prayer requests.

Please pray for all of the people that I shared the Gospel with that they may come to salvation through Jesus Christ.

How to pray for them if they don't give their name

2009-12-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

As I have been going door to door, I take down prayer requests. Some people get added to our prayer list, even if they don't mention a prayer request. How is that, you might ask? If in the course of discussion, it is determined that the person is not a Christian, then I add a prayer request for their salvation. In many of these cases, the person had not given me their name. So, we have ended up with a number of prayer cards that say "Name: not given" or "Name: Unknown". Now God knows who the person is living at such and such an address, so when we pray God knows the need. However, I've found a way to make the pray even more personal. Whitepages.com offers a "reverse lookup!" With reverse lookup you can look up a name based on knowing the address or the phone number. It's not 100 percent - probably due to unlisted and such, but it is at least in the 95 percentile based on searches that I have done. So, next time you are praying over that prayer card where you did not get their name, go look it up in the Whitepages Reverse Lookup!

A question

2009-11-22T17:40:00.000-08:00

I have a question for those following this blog:

Would you be willing to lead an effort to go door to door to all of the households in your zip code?

please post a comment or contact me with your response.

Fifty Five more houses

2009-11-21T12:58:00.000-08:00

I just got in from covering 55 more houses in my neighborhood. You could break up the 55 houses into three groups. The first group, I did by myself. The second group, Pastor Tony was with me. The third group my youngest son was with me. Along the route we talked with several mormons and several hindu's. I also had a very long one on one dialog with an agnostic who had grown up in a Christian household. Pastor Tony and I spoke with a Hindu man who after we shared the Gospel with him, said that he had never heard the Gospel before. Pastor Tony was really amazed that people right here in the neighborhood have never heard about Jesus and the free gift of eternal life. I also had the pleasure of speaking with several born again believers who could clearly articulate how to become a Christian!

Today I visited 55 houses. I collected 62 food items for MetroCrest Social Services. We gathered 12 prayer requests. And I had the opportunity to share the Gospel one on one 16 times!

As Pastor Tony, my wife and I talked, I came up with an analogy that I'd like to share. It is a comparison between a shotgun and a rifle. Shotguns spray their ammunition out over a large area. Some of the spray hits something. Some does not. In comparison, a rifle has a scope and is very precise at hitting a particular target. This is the analogy to show what door to door evangelism is about. Door to door is the rifle, while a witnessing event like handing out tracts at a sporting event or even a mall is the shot gun. I personally participate in both types of witnessing events. However, when God called me to go door to door, it was precisely for this reason. Some people may never come out of their house and go to the mall (or where ever we may happen to be witnessing). So, for those people we need a targeted approached. That is where door to door comes in.

If you have not yet considered or started going door to door, I encourage you to give it a try. Please check the other blog posts here and the door to door section of the Bezeugen web site for more information on door to door Evangelism.

Evangelism Linebacker on Door to Door Evangelism

2009-11-21T07:25:00.000-08:00

I find that many people don't get started doing door to door evangelism for the same reason they have not gotten started doing evangelism in the first place. This video addresses this about 50 seconds in you will see two college students going door to door...

The reality is that people are fearful. Fearful of the unknown. Who (or what) is behind that next door. Fear of what to say! What if they ask me a question I don't know the answer too? Fear of humiliation! What if someone I know or work with lives here?
All of these are natural fears. But, we must over come them. Peoples eternal destinies are at stake. Jesus has commanded us to share the Gospel with others. Our three step plan makes it easy to ask people a few questions and share the Gospel with them. Here is what we do:

Ring the door bell
Tell them we have three reasons we have come to the door
The first is to collect food for a food drive
The second is to gather prayer requests for a prayer meeting
The third is to do a spiritual inventory of the neighborhood. Then ask, if they believe in God and if they believe in heaven and hell and how to get to heaven.
Lead towards the good person test using The Way of the Master Method.

You can do it! You can overcome your fears and go and knock on a few doors. Let me know how it goes. I plan to put together a map showing where people are doing door to door very soon. So please get started and then send me your location so you can be on the map when it is released!

For more information on door to door evangelism, please see the other posts on this blog and the door to door section of the Bezeugen web site. If you would like training in the Way of the Master method of Evangelism to help you get started, then pleased start with our As You Go checklist and then contact me if you need further assistance.

Back to the Neighborhood

2009-11-16T04:53:00.000-08:00

Last week I wrote about the seminar and going door to door at Empowerment Christian Center in Farmers Branch. A week after the initial training and neighborhood witnessing, the church invited me back to lead the team into the neighborhood again. They were having a weekend long Harvest Outreach and had slated Saturday morning to reach out to the neighborhood. When I arrived at the church at 9:45AM, there was no one there. We were supposed to start at 10AM and still, no one was there. I tried to reach the pastor and got no response to a text message. I sat in my car waiting and praying. Some of the people had been a little late the week before. So, I was not overly concerned. Finally, I thought, I'll just get started by myself. I'll leave a note on the door to tell them where I am and they can come join me. Just then one of the women from the church arrived. She told me that the pastor was detained because he and his wife had had to take their youngest son to the Emergency Room during the night. So, she and I prayed and then headed out to the neighborhood across the street from the church.

We went to about four houses, gathered a few cans of food and a prayer request. We gave out a couple of tracts. But a couple of the people were not home. As we made our way up the street, the pastor arrived in his van. He needed to run by the church to get something and then said he would come back to join us. We continued up the street. When he came back, he had FIVE others with him! Two were from Kenya. One was a pastor from another church in the area. But, aside from the pastor, they had not been at the training the week before.

So, we had Evangelism training at the side of the road!

I pulled out a WDJD/Craft card and explained the Way of the Master. For those not familiar with this card, you can order them from Living Waters. They are perfectly sized to carry in your wallet. This is wonderful for people that are newly learning Way of the Master so that they can carry them with them, refer to them to refresh their mind about the method and even hold it in their hand as they have a conversation if necessary. For example, while witnessing door to door, one could put the card on the clipboard and easily refer to it inconspicuously while witnessing to someone one to one at their door.

I explained WDJD to the group. Then I turned the card around and explained the Craft side of the card. If you are not familiar with these concepts, then please contact me and we can talk about doing an Evangelism Seminar in your church.

Once I explained the method we use to share the Law and the Gospel, I then spent a few minutes explaining our three fold method of going door to door, asking for food donations, asking for prayer requests and then taking a spiritual inventory with the purpose to share the Gospel using the method we just discussed.

Everyone in the group said they were ready to go. I promoted Pastor Tony and Hilde to team leaders. I lead a third group. Then we split the other five people into our three groups. One group when back down the other side of the street that Hilde and I had covered. The other two groups took each side of the street as we continued up the street.

The three groups continued door to door for about an hour. By then we had two carts full of food, about a dozen prayer requests, had shared the Gospel one on one nearly twenty times and had visited over fifty houses! We went back to the church and prayed over the requests. Pastor and I prayed for the church members to have a burden for the lost and continue this task. Would you please join in that prayer?

Resources for Door to Door

2009-11-15T17:07:00.000-08:00

So you have decided to start witnessing door to door in your neighborhood and are wondering what you need to get started. We are using a three pronged approach to witnessing door to door:

doing a food drive
gathering prayer requests
taking a "spiritual inventory" for the purpose of sharing the Gospel

I thought I'd make a list of the items that are useful.

Cart
I take a cart with me when I go witnessing door to door in the neighborhood. The primary purpose of the cart is to carry the food that is collected for the food drive. However, the cart also holds additional tracts, Bibles, books and plastic bags to give people to put their food donation in. Don't forget to put in a bottle of water for each member of your team, especially if it is hot. These are available at Staples. The cart folds up for easy storage when not in use.

Plastic Bags
When asking for food donations, sometimes it is handed to provide the person with a plastic bag to put their donation in. Some people will have their own plastic bags handy. However, some will not. My wife saves the plastic bags from when she shops at the grocery store. I take these bags with me when I go door to door. When I approach each door, I bring one bag up to the door with me. That way if the person would like a bag, I can simply hand them one.

Clipboard
I carry a clip board with me. You can get a clip board at any number of stores. This one at Office Max is less than $5. On the clip board I put the following items:

Several sheets of blank paper for taking notes, tracking the number of houses and one on ones, etc
Several prayer request cards. In a future post, I will provide you with the prayer request cards that we use.
Several copies of the information sheet from MetrcoCrest Social Services about the food drive. If you are in the Dallas Metroplex, this sheet may be useful to you. Otherwise, ask your local food pantry for a similar sheet.

Tracts

Since it is our primary objective to share the Gospel with each household in the city, we must carry a supply of Gospel tracts with us when we go door to door. We have decided to use the Good News / Bad News tract that we developed at Bezeugen Ministries.

This tracts contains a number of scripture references on each side. This tract is the size of a business card with good news on one side and bad news on the other. The card provides links to our outreach web site with additional information.

You can use any tract that you like. We decided to use this one because it eliminates cultural boundaries that may be found with many tracts. So, if we leave a tract on the door and we don't know who the person is, we may not otherwise know which tract to leave that is well suited for them.

Business Cards

We have printed business cards for many of the people involved with our ministry. If we have a conversation with someone and they would like to contact us, then we will leave them with a business card which provides our contact information. If you make business cards, then I recommend at least providing your name, email address and phone number. Our also include the web site of our ministry. Then on the back our business cards provide some of the more popular links within the site that people may be looking for. This way, let's say someone is looking for a church, we can point them to a link on the back of our business card which points them directly to the section of the web site that contains that information.

Bibles

It is helpful to to have Bibles and scripture portions to hand out to people that may not have any. We buy our Bibles from BiblicaDirect. We have found that we can get good pricing when buying these per case. We have used and recommend the following resources:

Gospel of John - You can choose two different covers. These can be purchased in bulk for 30 cents each.
Pocket New Testament - The cover comes in four colors. There are actually less expensive options, but these are very nice because they fit in a shirt pocket or the pocket of your jeans to have them with you. They run $1.60 each when purchased by the case.
NIV Outreach Bible - Choose from five attractive covers. These run $2.35 each when ordered by the case.

In addition to these Bibles, I have found that Christian Book Distributors offers an ESV New Testament for 79 cents a copy when you order at least 10. This is a wonderful price. The format is slightly larger than the Pocket New Testament above, but it is certainly an inexpensive ESV option to try. We will likely order some of these once we use up the New Testaments we have already purchased.

Booklets

As with any witnessing conversation, it is often good to have resources to provide the person that you have witnessed too. Two resources that I carry with me are:

Why Christianity? - this is a wonderful resource to provide people who practice other religions, especially if they practice Hinduism, Buddhism or Islam.
Scientific Facts in the Bible - this resources is wonderful to give to intellectuals and atheists. One time when I was witnessing, I actually had a teen aged girl say, "it's not like you can prove any science from the Bible." I said, "oh, yeah, would you like to read this?" and handed her one of these booklets. She started reading it immediately.

Books

If finances allow, you may also like to stock a few books that you can provide to people who have more questions and interest. A few of my favorite books to give out in these circumstances are:

There are many other wonderful resources available. These are the basic set that I use when witnessing, especially door to door.

A time to pray

2009-11-10T12:45:00.000-08:00

I was riding my bike and reflecting on the Ecclesiates 3 reading from Project Ezra last weekend. Consider the words of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
²a time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; ³a time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up; ⁴a time to weep, and a time to laugh;a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ⁵a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ⁶a time to seek, and a time to lose;a time to keep, and a time to cast away; ⁷a time to tear, and a time to sew;a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ⁸a time to love, and a time to hate;a time for war, and a time for peace.

As I rode, I was praying to God. Passing by so many houses in the City of Carrollton, I realize there are many doors yet to knock on. Well, actually, most of the houses remain. I've been to a little over 300 out of 40,000 (or so) houses. From this, there is obviously a time to knock on doors and a time to refrain from knocking. Why refrain? To pray for the soil!

So, not only can I get some much needed exercise, but I can use the time to pray for the city. Would you join me in praying for the City of Carrollton? Here are some of the things that I have been praying for:

That God would make the soil fertile so that when we knock on doors the seeds will take root
That God would raise up workers to go into the field with me to share the Gospel door to door. If you live in or near Carrollton and would like to go door to door to reach the city, please contact me.
That there is sufficient time available to share the Gospel door to door
For wisdom on other ideas on bringing the Gospel to the city. Specifically, I need guidance on plans to do "revivals" at apartment complexes as a way to bring the Gospel there.
I am still praying for a good location in Carrollton to do Project Ezra. Currently, I do Project Ezra each week at a park in Plano, which is the next town from Carrollton.The park itself actually borders with Carrollton. But, if possible, I'd like to find a public place in Carrollton where there are people to hear the Words of Project Ezra and the associated open air preaching.
Pray for Godly leaders - major, city council, police, fire department

Perhaps you can pray these things for your city too. Post a comment below with other prayer requests for Carrollton or your city.

BTW, the city is extending the greenbelt bike path. It comes almost to my house now. What a great ride. I don't know who at city hall is responsible for extending this bike path, but you have my thanks and appreciation!

So that you can pray over Carrollton, please see the map below:

View Larger Map

Seminar and door to door

2009-11-09T05:06:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we taught the Basic Evangelism Training Seminar to a group of believers at Empowerment Christian Center in Farmers Branch, TX and then took them door to door in the neighborhood across the street from the church.

When we went door to door down the street, we split into two teams. One went down one side of the street. The other went down the other side of the street. At the first house an woman answered the door. She did not speak a word of English. I was thinking, "wow, this is going to be tough." But she went and got her teenaged daughter who, in between text messages, would translate between me and her mom. She told her mom that we had come to collect food for the food pantry. They went off and came back with more food than would fill two of the plastic grocery sacks that we had brought with us! I then said, "the second reason we are here is that we are having a prayer meeting, and wondering if there is any specific way we can pray for you." The girl looked puzzled, translated, then said, "no, that's ok." Eventually the father joined the conversation. The father could speak some English, but it was broken and very hard to understand. So, I said, "the third reason we are hear is we are doing a spiritual inventory of the neighborhood. For instance do you believe in God?" Yes, came the answer. "Do you believe in Heaven and Hell?" Yes, again. "How do you get to heaven?" She replied, "by doing good things!" So, I asked if she considered herself to be a good person. We had a good long conversation from there. She eventually told me that they believed in a religion from Asia called Jainism. Unfortunately, I was not familiar with it, but I was still able to reason with her from the scriptures, from logical thinking about the fact that there must be one thing that happens when a person dies, and the like. I offered her a "Why Christianity?" tract and she said that she would read it. As we walked away from this house, the two ladies from the church that were with me were absolutely amazed at the beliefs of this family and so concerned that they were going to hell.

We moved on to the next house on the street. As we went down the block we talked to a Catholic who after hearing the Law and admitting she would go to hell for breaking it, excused herself from the conversation. At another house when I asked, "do you believe in God" she responded, "no, and I don't care to participate in your survey" and closed the door on us. At another house as soon as we asked about "spiritual things", the woman closed the door.

As we went from house to house the women fro the church that had just been trained got up the courage to ask the first two questions about collecting food and the prayer request. Then they would hand off the conversation to me to do the spiritual inventory. Yet as we moved down the street and realized that each house was filled with people going to hell. They were more and more concerned.

Finally, at one house when we asked how he was going to get to heaven, the man said, "only by trust in the Lord Jesus Christ!" Yeah! This man had six children and ten grandchildren. And he was teaching his grandchildren about the Lord. We prayed with him and his granddaughter.

We finsihed going down our side of the street and then meet up with our group that had been going down the other side of the street. We compared notes. They counted two Christians at one house. And we also counted one Christian household. Pastor Tony told me later, "surely our eyes have been opened" to the needs of the community. We went back to the church and prayed over the prayer requests that we had gathered and for the salvation of all the people that we meet that are not saved.

We plan to meet again next Saturday and do some more door to door in that neighborhood.

Now it's your turn. Why not schedule a Basic Evangelism Training Seminar at your church, small group, youth group or retreat and then start going door to door around your own neighborhood?

Ambassador's Alliance Radio Interview

2009-11-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

Last week I was interviewed by Tony Miano on Amabassador's Alliance radio about door to door methods that I am using in Carrollton. I invite you to click the link, listen to the show and then post your comments. The interview begins about 8 minutes into the audio. Let me know what you think.

The links referenced in the interview are:

BLOG (this site) - door to door evangelism blog: CarrolltonForChrist.blogspot.com
Bezeugen Ministries - our ministry web site: www.bezeugen.org
After Life Catalog - online Gospel presentation: www.AfterLifeCatalog.com
Tract Club - enroll online, get 30 Gospel tract for free per month: www.bezeugen.org/BTC/BTC.html
Bezeugen BLOG - periodic updates on the ministry and witnessing "as you go": bezeugen.blogspot.com

Five suggestions

2009-10-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

As I was going door to door this weekend, I was praying for some helpful tips that I could share about going door to door. God revealed five things that I can share with you.

1. Stand Back From the Door
When I ring the door bell, I like to stand back 4-6 feet from the door while I wait for someone to answer. This is helpful because that way, I am not right in someones face when they open the door. In addition, in many houses, it allows the person to look out from a window in a room near the door to see who is standing at their door.

2.Watch for signage
When approaching a house, watch out for No Tresspassing and No Solicitation signs. Solicitation is typically used in conjunction with selling something or asking for money. Since we are doing neither of these things, I don't actually think we are violating a No Solicitation sign. However, most people that put up such signs do so so that no one will bother them. It is my experience that they get "bent out of shape" by knocking on the door. For this reason, I choose to bypass houses that have No Soliciting signs posted. I will pray a prayer over the household as I pass by. I have noticed that some No Soliciting signs are posted fairly inconspicuously. So you really have to look for them sometimes. A couple of times, I've run the door beel without noticing the sign. Fortunately, when I saw the sign, I just left and it turned out no one was home anyway. I think obeying the No Tresspassing sign is obvious.

3. If in doubt ... ask if it is a good time
A woman comes to the door and looks like she is not feeling too well. I say, "hi, is this a good time to talk for a minute?" She says, "no." I hand her a tract and tell her to have a nice day. The bottom line is we need to be sensitive to the fact that they may not be able to talk right then.

4. Ask for their parents
Sometimes a child will answer the door. In this case, I'll ask, "is your mom or dad here." If they say no, then I give them a tract to give to their parents. If they say yes, then I wait to speak with the parent. Now, I only apply this rule when the child is say less then 14 or so. With teen agers, I'll ask them for prayer requests and talk to them about spiritual things.

5. Recognize when it is time to leave
In Matthew 13, Jesus teaches about four types of soil. When we are planting seed in good soil it is fairly obvious. Likewise, we need to pay attention to the leading of the Holy Spirit and recognize when we are spreading seed in the rocky places. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to spending an hour (or more) at one house talking with someone. I've actually had some long conversations with people while going door to door. But, if the conversation is going no where, and they are not interested at all in talking about the things of God, then I will hand them a tract, excuse myself and move on to the next house. On one particular occassion, the man had made up a god to suit himself. He had totally dismissed the idea that any god could judge and send people to hell. Then he began telling me that it was not appropriate to have a spiritual conversation in front of his two children (1 and 4 years old). I pointed out that the Bible says to have the faith of these little children. At that he said something to the effect of, "I am not going to discuss my beliefs with a stranger." Interestingly, we had already been talking about these things for 5-10 minutes. I handed him a tract, thanked him for his time and then left. Finally, I added him to the prayer list for salvation!

Statistics
Here are the updated statistics on reaching Carrollton for Christ.
Houses visited: 337
One on One conversations: 90
Prayer Requests: 56
Food items collected: 199

Well, that's it for now. I hope these suggestions are helpful.

The Cross

2009-10-01T05:11:00.000-07:00

It has been over a week since my last update. Due to some rain and a very busy schedule both personally and with some other ministry events, we have not been able to do any more door to door since the last update. I hope to cover some more houses on Saturday morning.

We did try another way to reach Carrollton for Christ by standing with a cross at the corner of Old Denton and George Bush on Monday evening. You can read about this in the Bezeugen Blog. As we continue to consider various ways to reach the city for Christ, it seems that this will be a good thing to include.

Your continued prayers for our door to door ministry and reaching Carrollton for Christ are appreciated.

Mapping Carrollton

2009-09-22T20:06:00.000-07:00

The City of Carrollton (Texas) has approximately 40,000 houses. I am not sure if this includes apartments or not. Actually, the total number does not matter too much to me. I wanted a way to be able to visually tract which of the houses I have been too. I was able to get a city map from city hall for free. I simply looked up the city web site and then sent a request for a map. They mailed it to me and I had it in about two days. Here is a picture of the city map. The pen at the top is pointing to an area that I highlighted that shows the portion I have covered so far.

I wanted the map of the whole site to pray over the city and also to be able to see in one shot the whole project. However, when going door to door, a zoomed in map is easier to deal with. For this purpose, I went to google maps, zoomer in on the area where I am working and then printed out the map. Then I use a highlighter to track the areas where I have been. This map shows the area that is pointe to by the pen in the top picture:

The push pin is my house. I started with neighbors on each side and am now working out from my house.

If you are planning to go door to door in your city, then these ideas to get a map from city hall and from google maps may be helpful to tract the progress as you go throughout the city.

Please continue to pray for me as I go door to door in Carrollton. I am talking with the Pastor of a church here in town who has indicated he may be interested in helping with this project. Due to schedules, we plan to meet up in early October.

A new blog for Carrollton

2009-09-20T07:07:00.000-07:00

I decided to create a separate blog for the Carrollton for Christ effort of Bezeugen Ministries. This makes it easier for people to follow the effort without having to go through the other updates on the Bezeugen Ministries Blog. Feel free to subscribe to both blogs!

On Saturday we covered 13 more houses, had 6 more one on one conversations, gathered 4 more prayer requests and 2 more cans of food. With these, the total counts now stand as:

Houses visited:	296
One on One conversations:	83
Prayer Requests:	50
Items of food collected:	174

I've also been praying about other ways to reach Carrollton for Christ and researching these ways. If anyone has experience with these and can provide insight on their effectiveness please let me know. Some things I'm considering:

Open Air revival at the park
standing on a street corner with a sign or cross
settign up a prayer table at a local wal-mart - I'll note here that although I was told the company policy allowed this, it appears the policy has changed. Two of the four wal-marts in or surrounding Carrollton have told me that they no longer allow this
purchasing a billboard to proclaim the Gospel
finding a place within Carrollton to do Project Ezra. Currently I do Project Ezra at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano which borders Carrollton.

To read past entries about this effort please visit the Bezeugen Ministries Blog entries:

September 13 - provides a quick update
August 30 - provides information on the method
August 2 - update
July 26 - the vision and report on first experience