Milestone

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

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

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

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

New BLOG

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

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

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.