ENDING 2010 STRONG!

Wow! I can't believe I haven't posted anything here for nearly two months! I guess it had something to do with the school year ending, Christmas, New Year's, etc. I'm sure you can relate.


8-32 BOARD GIVES GOOD ADVICE
Anyway, it's been a good year... especially the second semester. I met last July - while we were in the U.S. for our new mission agency's annual conference - with my The 8-32 Movement advisory board, comprised of two pastors, two mission committee chairmen, a church elder and a very-interested layman. One important piece of advice that I was given was to move 8-32 closer to home by returning to the public university - Fluminense Federal University (UFF) - where our ministry in the Greater Rio de Janeiro area began in 1994! We had wanted to stay away one more semester to allow most of the students we knew while serving with Campus Crusade at UFF had graduated, but I saw the wisdom in my board's advice. I'm sure glad we returned.


ROOTS!
Upon our return our initial strategy was to "filter" out those students at UFF as well as from several private universities in our city - Niterói - by offering a biblical* evangelism course.  We had 26 students participate in our class (in person and/or virtually) but, due to four long weekends this past semester, our class lost some momentum. However, we ended with a strong nucleus of eight students and one professor; these will be our key people with whom we plan to kick off the new school year this coming March.


CAMPUS EVANGELISM
On the evangelism front, I developed a banner diagramming Josh McDowell's Lord, Liar or Lunatic? argument to generate interest in seriously considering Christ's claims to be God and the implications of those claims: "You can either accept Him or reject Him as your God, Lord and Savior." Of course, introducing Jesus' role as Savior opened the door for me to share the biblical gospel with my listeners.  Aïda  and I ended the year having reached - primarily via this method - 1,038 students. Of course we used our campus ministry background in personal evangelism and discipleship to take our Biblical Evangelism module students sharing on campus, which is reflected in our total.


GETTING PERSONAL: Brenda (from our last newsletter) 

As Brenda and I (Aïda) approached Livia on Brenda's campus (UniPli) we immediately felt welcomed.  ”I love to talk about God," Livia exclaimed.  "I've got a whole hour before my bus comes!”  

When we started dialoging with Livia she told us she believed she would go to heaven if she were to die that night.  But soon, after a few penetrating questions, she agreed that if she were to die that night she would be guilty before God and, according to the Bible, deserve eternal punishment.  We asked her if she would like to hear what God had done so that she didn't have to end up in hell.  She quickly shot back, "Yes, of course!"  After telling Livia the Good News of Jesus' substitutionary atonement and resurrection so that she could be made acceptable before a holy God, she said she wanted to benefit from the gospel by repenting and trusting in Christ.  Livia  then thanked us and told us that she had only become interested in spiritual issues a month earlier; at that time she decided to check out a class for seekers at a local Catholic church.  She  confided in us that she didn't get much out of that class because it ended up only being a “self-study” course!

GETTING PERSONAL: André (from our last newsletter) 

André, a Telecommunications Engineering student on our main campus - UFF - leads evangelism in his church; however, he had never shared his faith on campus.  When he heard of our class he was eager to learn to do evangelism in the university context.  

Bill began taking Andre with him to share the gospel one-on-one with students, in addition to involving him in his "mini-talk" evangelism outside the main student cafeteria.  As you may remember, Bill effectively uses his "The Trilema of Christ: Lord, Liar or Lunatic?" banner there almost daily to expose students to the gospel.  He said that Andre's presence enables him to speak to many more people because Andre deals with students more one-on-one, which frees Bill up to explain his banner – including why  each needs Jesus as his or her God, Lord and Savior and how to benefit from His sacrifice for sin – to many more students who stop to watch and listen.  

Although he has only done five classes so far, Andre has already grasped the essence of how to share his faith biblically, leading a good number of those he's "practiced on" to  repentance and faith in Christ.  He even preached to a group of seven neighborhood bar-goers one Saturday during a heavy rainstorm.  All were stranded at their sidewalk table.  "I was shocked to see all their heads bowed as I led them in a prayer of repentance and faith!" an amazed Andre later exclaimed.  And to top it all off we're in the middle of giving our abbreviated Biblical Evangelism Module to Andre's church - plus 3 others - including taking the 60 participants – along with 3 pastors - out into the neighborhood to put their training into practice! 

 

MORE 8-32 COMPONENTS
8-32's Professional component saw me primarily using open air preaching to reach those who work in downtown Rio. The missionary who had some experience working with professionals sensed God's leading to do something different this year, so we didn't develop this component. In fact, until God raises up some interested professionals (ideally graduates from our campus ministry) or a missionary experienced with "marketplace ministry," we're going to put this aspect of our ministry on hold. As far as our Church component, thanks to one of of the UFF students involved in our class, 8-32 developed its Biblical Evangelism module (a 6-8 hour seminar - including an outing in the neighborhood to put the training into practice).  Sixty-two people started our course, but only 26 finished.  We think it had something to do with the fact that we spread it out over two Sunday afternoons. Live and learn! Next time we'll do it all in one day!  Mainly due to my open air preaching 2-3 afternoons a week in downtown Rio, not to mention some select crowd-gathering events like Carnival, Rio's annual Gay Pride parade, several Catholic and Spiritist festivals and New Year's Eve festivities, 8-32 preached the gospel to over 48,000 people in 2010!  


WRAP-UP
So, I'd say 8-32 had a good first year of existence. I know one thing: Aïda and I feel free now to do what God has gifted - not to mention called - us to do, and that included preaching the biblical gospel to thousands, teaching and training 160 students and laymen in biblical evangelism, preaching six sermons, teaching 25 weeks of Sunday School, etc.


PEF  
On top of that, He has called us to do what we do as part of an excellent little mission agency - in existence since the year Aïda was born (i.e., 1958) - Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship - PEF! After participating in PEF's annual Family Conference last July in Elizabethton, TN, we came away totally impressed with the caliber of men and women who, like us, serve the Lord through this organization around the world! 


2011: THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS
So, that's about it for now. I hope this recap of The 8-32 Movement in 2010 has been an encouragement. Look out 2011! I'll be starting the year out by heading to Uganda on January 13 to participate in a School of Evangelismand missions project put on by two PEF leaders twice a year there. Since we hope to host them here in Rio next July, I look forward to "testing the waters" with them in Uganda. I also look forward to doing some biblical evangelism in a primarily English-speaking African nation for a change. My previous four trips to Africa have been to Portuguese-speaking countries - with the exception of a couple of days spent preaching at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa in February, 2009. God bless!
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* Biblical Evangelism is a term used by author and speaker Ray Comfort of Living Waters Ministries along with actor Kirk Cameron, both of Way of the Master TV & Radio. The principles of Biblical Evangelism can be found in Ray Comfort's book, Hell's Best Kept Secret, which talks about the biblical principles that Jesus laid out for us regarding evangelizing the lost (e.g., using the moral law - the Ten Commandments - to reveal to them their sin and show them their need for a Savior); see Matthew 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30 for biblical examples.  The basic concept is this: LAW for the proud-hearted; GRACE for the humble-hearted. In other words, we must first show people that they have a “contagious disease" called SIN (John 3:36, Rom 3:23) which will eventually eternally "kill" them (Rom 6:23). By helping people understand this Bad News first - that all will perish and go to hell if they die in their sins -  then the cure of the Good News of the gospel (Jesus Christ's' death & resurrection for our sins) will suddenly make total sense! They will be able to clearly understand what they are being saved from (i.e., God's justice, holiness and wrath); the Good News of Jesus Christ will truly be good news! One more important aspect to Biblical Evangelism: One truly converts to Christianity by repenting of his or her sins and by placing his or her faith/trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Both repentance and faith are understood to be gifts of God, so pressuring an unbeliever to "make a decision for Christ" via "the sinner's prayer" is frowned upon.

THE CAMPUS CHRONICLES - Part 2

This week Aïda - my wife - set up two appointments with two women involved in our Biblical Evangelism course that we're currently offering to university students in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro. One of the women, Brenda Ticiane, studies on a local private campus, Plinio Leite University (UniPli). Aïda met her on her campus and they approached two different students over the course of the hour they had scheduled to do evangelism.


Both girls were open to conversing, especially after Aïda demonstrated for Brenda how to use the Ten Commandments to appeal to the person's conscience.  With questions like "Have you ever told a lie?" in light of the ninth commandment ("Thou shalt not bear false witness.") and "Have you ever taken something that didn't belong to you, including downloading or photocopying things without paying? in reference to the eighth commandment ("Thou shalt not steal."), Aïda was able to show the women she and Brenda had approached that they were sinners ("...sin is the transgression of the Law" - 1 John 3:4 KJV) and subject to an eternal and painful penalty for their crimes (Rom. 6:23; Rev. 21:8; 1 Cor. 6:9-10). One student had claimed to already be a Christian, but knew nothing about the Bible and demonstrated an very unbiblical worldview. She was left with the challenge to "repent and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15), thus ensuring her conversion and salvation. The other student didn't decide to abandon her sin and place her faith in Jesus as the only one who "... died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures..." (1 Cor. 15:3-4), but at least both left understanding their need for Jesus Christ and what they needed to do to benefit from his sacrifice: repentance and faith.


After her appointment at UniPli Aïda went to meet with Michele Estarneks, a Business Administration student on The 8-32 Movement's main campus, Fluminense Federal University (UFF). Michele had asked a Christian friend of hers to tag along and learn how to do biblical evangelism from Aïda, so the three of them first approached two women. They asked questions related to God's Law, but one declared, "I don't believe that God would send a homosexual to hell who only does good to his fellow man while allowing a horrible person who supposedly converts on his death bed into heaven!" Recognizing her comment as an attempt to flee the implications of breaking God's Law, Aïda wisely directed the student back to her situation before a holy God. Both had to head off to class, but not before hearing of the solution God offers in Christ.


Aïda, Michele and Michele's friend then approached a group of five women in the Biological Sciences area. All claimed to be Christians, but Aïda decided to verify their conversions using our biblical evangelism questionnaire.  All but one of the women confirmed they had repented of their sins and were trusting in Christ as their Savior and Lord, so it was good that Aïda decided to take them all through the questionnaire. The one student who wasn't truly converted now understands her true situation before God and what she needs to do to remedy it. Both Michele's friend, who was exposed to our approach for the first time, and two of the women in the group of eight that was evangelized in the Bio-Sci area of campus decided that they want to join our class every Monday afternoon! Aside from the obvious benefits to the unsaved - of Christians doing evangelism - our outreach efforts can be used by God to motivate Christians to "hit the streets" after getting properly equipped!


Meanwhile, after being out all of last week at an excellent conference for pastors and leaders (an annual conference put on by one of the better evangelical publishing companies here in Brazil - Editora Fiel [English site] - that publishes books by John MacArthur, John Piper, Al Mohler, Joel Beeke, Steve Lawson, Puritan authors, etc.), I was back at UFF this week preaching the gospel via my apologetics banner on "The Trilemma of Christ" (see Oct. 7th post) and training new disciples like André Orsi (Telecommunications Engineering-UFF) and freshman Filipe Gonçalves (Physics) in biblical evangelism.


One guy André and I approached was a former church member who had fallen away. After taking him through the Law, I asked him if he would be found innocent or guilty on Judgment Day for having broken God's Law. He said, "Guilty." I then asked him if he'd go to heaven or hell? He said, "Hell." I asked him if that made him worry, to which he answered, "Yes.  A lot!" I asked him if he knew what God had done so that he wouldn't have to go to hell when he died. He said he didn't know, so I explained the Good News of Jesus dying for our sins, being buried and resurrecting on the third day. I told him that, in order to benefit from Jesus payment for our sins on the cross, he needed to repent of his sins and place his faith/trust in Jesus as his Savior and Lord. I then showed him Psalm 51, had him read it and asked him if that expressed what he was wanting to say to God. He said it did, but because I sensed a bit of reluctance on his part to talk to God in front of us, I encouraged him to follow repentant David's lead and get right with God ASAP.


Meanwhile, André invited him to his church because he lives relatively close to it. Let's pray for Márcio... that he would truly repent and believe and get plugged into a good church like the one André is a member of.


All in all Aïda and I preached the gospel to 54 students this week - primarily at UFF. At least two of those were "ripe for the pickin'," and the others clearly heard who they were in God's sight (i.e., law-breakers and sinners under condemnation), what God did so that they wouldn't have to spend an eternity in hell (i.e., 1 Cor. 15:3-4) and how they could benefit from what God did (i.e., Mark 1:15). In addition, each was given evangelistic materials to mull over after. And hey, we recruited at least three new students for our biblical evangelism course in the process... while giving hands-on training to some of those already enrolled!


Not a bad week, I'd say. Not a bad week at all!

THE CAMPUS EVANGELISM CHRONICLES, Part 1

This week has been gear-switching! I put together a vertical banner on The Trilemma of Christ, based on C.S. Lewis' words in his little book, Mere Christianity (The MacMillan Company, 1960, pp. 40-41):


I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.


Well-known author and speaker Josh McDowell diagrammed Lewis' argument like this:

Of course my banner is in Portuguese, and I added C.S. Lewis' quote at the bottom under the heading "Conclusions of a Scholar." I can assure you these kinds of visual aids really generate a lot of curiosity among students!

For example, the first day I used it - this past Tuesday, Oct. 5, over 70 people stopped to read my banner.  I was able to walk 40 of them through the argument, bringing in the gospel at the end by saying, "The most logical way to deal with Jesus' claims is to conclude that He was telling the truth about Himself. The other options present serious problems in common sense terms. If Jesus was telling the truth, He is God. If Jesus is God, by definition He is also  Lord over His creation. However, Jesus didn't make the claims He made so that we would agree intellectually with those claims. He made them so that we would make Him Lord of our lives! How do we do that? Well, we first have to recognize that He is not Lord of our lives because of our rebellion against His lordship. We demonstrate our rebellion by breaking His laws: for example, 'Thou shalt not steal,' 'Thou shalt not commit adultery,' 'Thou shalt not bear false witness,' 'Thou shalt not have any other gods besides Me,' etc. When we break a human law, we're subject to the consequences. In the same way, when we break a divine law, we are subject to divine consequences. The Bible says that 'sin is the transgression of the Law' (1 Jn. 3:4) and that the consequences of breaking God's Law - or sinning - is the eternal death penalty (Rom. 6:23). In order to 'make Jesus Christ Lord of your life,' you have to first deal with your sin problem by repenting of your sin (i.e., 'changing your mind' to the point of hating your sin) and depositing your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, as the only one who can solve your dilemma (i.e., Because God is holy and just, He cannot let sinners into heaven and He must execute the sentence He already announced in Romans 6:23). Think seriously about this because, if you die in your rebellion against Jesus as God and Lord, you will not go to heaven when you die. You will end up in hell." At the end I gave each listener an evangelistic tract with The 8-32 Movement's e-mail on the back.

I can't express enough my satisfaction over knowing that I am declaring truth about Jesus Christ in the university context (and in a way they can relate to) as well as clearly presenting the biblical gospel (i.e., bad news + Good News + repentance + faith). God is also bringing Christians to the surface on campus who've been looking for a serious Christian group to plug into.

Speaking of Christians coming out of the woodwork on campus, we had our third week of Biblical Evangelism classes this past Monday. The group was down to six UFF students this week (several had time conflicts and/or tests), one student from a local private university (UNIPLI) and a Math professor from another private university (UNIVERSO). We also had two women participating from the church that is hosting The 8-32 Institute, Red Beach Baptist Church, as well as our two daughters.

During class Aïda and I asked students to put their evangelism training into practice by going out witnessing with us. Aïda set up appointments with two girls, while I set up appointments with three of the guys. Due to extenuating circumstances, I was only able to make one of those appointments, but WHAT AN APPOINTMENT!

I met with Stephan, an Engineering major, to go out sharing. Stephan had already concluded, based on his own studies, that he needs to be biblical in his evangelism. When he saw our poster on campus advertising The 8-32 Institute's Biblical Evangelism classes, he jumped at the chance to be a part! We met a History major by the name of Renato, who was studying alone before heading for lunch. Renato was an interesting person because his mother has been attending evangelical churches the past several years. Despite his mother's influence, Renato has chosen a different "god" - the god of Pantheism. When I read the following passage to him, however, he changed his tune:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.


For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them (Rom. 1:18-32).

After sharing the biblical gospel with him during our interview, Renato congratulated us for "hanging in there and patiently dealing with my views." He also said that my reading of the Romans passage to him made him rethink his concept of God. Our prayer is that Renato's concept of God will become that of the God of the Bible. We're also praying that God's Law will continue to have its intended effect, convicting Renato of sin, righteousness and judgment and driving him to the cross of Christ.



After witnessing to Renato, Stephan and I walked over to the main cafeteria on campus. We set up my Lord, Liar or Lunatic banner display outside a main exit. The curiosity level was not as high as the day before, perhaps due to the fact that many students had the opportunity to read the banner while waiting in the lunch line. Tomorrow I will cover some of the key points so that students will want to stop after lunch to "figure out" the crazy American missionary's banner!


To be continued...

CALL IN THE MARINES - Reflections on Those Who Are "Takin' It To The Streets!"

I was reflecting yesterday on the, sometimes, shocked reactions I get from so-called "Christians" when I am open air preaching (a "nicer" way of saying "street preaching," but can include campus preaching). I remember one group that passed me back in 2007 on its way to an ice hockey game in Atlanta. One guy yelled out, "You're doing it all wrong!" Apparently emphasizing the justice, wrath and fear of the Lord was, to that guy, "doing it all wrong." Another time a lady reacted to my quotation of Psalm 111:10 & Proverbs 9:10, which say, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom." I was biblically justifying the message on my banner, which used "NFL" in the following acrostic: Need to Fear the Lord! The lady in question blurted, "The Bible doesn't say that! It says, 'The LOVE of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom!'" Such biblical ignorance!


I find it amazing what some so-called "Christians" will come up with to try to get you to stop preaching because, as emergent heretic Rob Bell so honestly puts it in his "Bullhorn Guy" video, "Bullhorn guy, I don't think it's working... I actually think it's making things worse... And to be honest, it's confusing for me, because you and I end up getting painted with the same brush." 





In other words, most so-called "Christians" - of which Bell is one - complain about street preachers mainly because of how it reflects on them. They are, frankly, incredibly embarrassed at the thought that someone might actually equate them with the "Bullhorn Guys" out there.


I don't know where you stand on all this, but I am an unashamed "Bullhorn Guy." Why? Because I, along with those who've preached before me, serve a very special purpose in the "Army of God." You could compare us to those who "soften the target" by "being the first ones in" when invasion time comes. Open air preachers are like the Army Special Forces who go in and take out key targets before the main invasion. Or we could be compared to the Marines, who pride themselves on being the first ones to "hit the beach" when the invasion begins. Either way, we serve an important role in God's Army. Let's just say that the success of an evangelistic mission may depend on what we "marines" do either before that mission actually starts or gains momentum.


Think about how open air preachers in the 18th, 19th and even 20th centuries were used of God to spark Great Awakenings and revivals. It is said of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, that he once preached open air to nearly 20,000 people (without a sound system either!) on the holiness of God. When he finished and everyone had left, there were 1,800 people unconscious and laying all over the field. They had been so convicted regarding God's holiness and their unholiness that the only way they could deal with the "pain" of the Holy Spirit's conviction via Wesley's preaching was to pass out.


Are you beginning to see how important the role of the open air preacher is in God's Army now? So, instead of questioning the validity of God's Special Forces, why don't we think about the benefits they bring to the evangelistic mission of the Church?


First, if it weren't for open air preachers, many people would still be clueless as to which standard God will be using to judge them someday. Let's face it, to say the things street preachers say in most pulpits today would empty churches of all but real believers, and that would be disastrous for the seeker-friendly, emergent and liberal varieties. In other words, there would have to be a lot of downsizing - and even unemployment - which is a price most churches are unwilling to pay.


Second, if it weren't for street preachers, many people would not understand why they really need Jesus. I mean, we have pastors and church members "hawking" Jesus as a cure-all for bad marriages, mediocre sex lives, rebellious teens, financial problems... basically, for anything and everything, including "Your Worst Life Now." Somebody has to tell them the truth regarding their rebellion and the eternal consequences they'll face if they die rebels without the blood of Lamb of God applied to the "doorposts" of their lives.


Third, street preachers prepare the hearts of the lost for the Good News. Let's just say we do the dirty work, which is something many Christians, conditioned by our PC world, aren't willing to do. For the most part Christians today are afraid to tell people straight out that they are wrong, dead wrong. We have gotten so used to hearing everyone else's opinions, but we've also gotten used to having ours "shot down" in the media, in the classroom, in the lunch room, etc. So we clam up when it's our turn to opine! That is sad, so we street preachers are actually doing you less-courageous brothers and sisters a HUGE favor! By not beating around the bush, we're providing you with all sorts of potential witnessing opportunities! My advice? Instead of running for cover like a cowardly soldier in his first beach invasion, take full advantage of the opportunities we provide! Storm the banks! The enemy is out of ammunition!


Lastly, although there could be many more benefits mentioned as to the role of street preachers in God's Army, is the benefit of emboldening Christians. The growing "street preacher movement," which is confirming false teacher Rob Bell's worst fears, is alive and well and serves as a reaction by true believers to the myriad of truth-compromising, unbiblical evangelistic approaches being promoted by so many. Open air preaching is biblical and, despite what the culture-first crowd may tell you, still incredibly relevant! Any time a Christian communicates biblical truth to a non-Christian, that is highly relevant! And as for being biblical, let's not forget that Jesus never said, "Go into all the world and make friends with non-Christians," or "Go into all the world and invite people to your seeker-friendly service." He said, "Go into all the world and PREACH THE GOSPEL TO ALL CREATION." Enough said!


So, the next time you come across a "Bullhorn Guy," read an account of one of his outreaches or watch one of his videos (there are literally hundreds, if not thousands on YouTube), try to think of him as a member of God's Special Forces whose role is to make it easier for YOU to share your faith! 


One last thought: Some object to "Bullhorn Guy" because they say he's turning people off. That reasoning totally ignores how the Bible describes people without Christ: DEAD (Eph. 2:1)! Think about that the next time you're tempted to underestimate God's role in a person's salvation. After all, if God doesn't show up, you can befriend an unbeliever all you want and he will NEVER become a Christian.  Acts 11:18 says that God has to grant people the ability to repent. Eph. 2:8 says that God has to give saving faith... as a gift! So don't give yourself too much credit for a person's conversion. At the same time, don't blame "Bullhorn Guy" too much for a person's continuation in sinful rebellion. It's called the doctrine of monergism, which says that a person's conversion is all about God and not us. Our role is to PREACH, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ (Rom. 10:17).

EVANGELIZING THE OLD-FASHIONED, BIBLICAL WAY!

As we try to get our new ministry, The 8-32 Movement, off the ground, two days a week I have been going on the campus of Cândido Mendes University (UCAM) in Rio de Janeiro's business district (known as "The Center") to share my faith and to try to scrounge up some Christians interested in revolutionizing their campus for Christ. Actually, I was unable to go on campus for two weeks (the last week of October and the first week of November) due to our trip to Collierville, TN (just outside of Memphis) for the Worldview Weekend Training Institute. My wife, Aïda, is now in charge of training and materials (including the development of a transferable - for training purposes - evangelistic tool) for our new ministry (under the umbrella of PEF), where we are targeting university students and professors, professionals and churches. Our motto is Knowing, Living and Proclaiming Biblical Truth in a Postmodern World. We are doing this by reaching, developing and mobilizing students, professionals (including professors) and churches for the worldwide harvest. We reach via biblical evangelism, develop via apologetics and biblical/theological/worldview training and mobilize via short-term missions projects and long-term service opportunities.

Besides my wife and me, The 8-32 Movement (given this name based on John 8:32) has enlisted the participation of former Priority Associates (Campus Crusade for Christ) staff member, Erica Ribeiro, to help us get the professional component off the ground. Erica is currently discipling and training three professional women on the staff of Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ).

Getting back to my ministry activities in downtown Rio, I have found, in light of my strengths and gifting, the best of both ministry worlds! Not only do I get to interact with students about their faith (or lack thereof), but I get to open air preach in the notorious "Largo da Carioca," where tens of thousands of people pass daily. "Carioca," as this nerve center is commonly called, is a smorgasbord of sights, sounds and experiences. You never know what's going to happen next!

For example, I was introduced to a slightly-built preacher two months ago when a crowd gathered around him and an older gentleman decided to start slapping him! I intervened, holding the aggressor at bay long enough for the municipal guards to show up. I wrongly assumed they would uphold the preacher's right to preach, but they hauled him off and warned him to stop. Seeing a crowd of nearly 100 gathering out of curiosity, I whipped out my bullhorn and began preaching! After scolding the guards for violating the Brazilian equivalent to the preacher's First Amendment rights, I started to use God's Law to show the crowd its need for a Savior. After asserting that the Ten Commandments condemn lying, I asked anyone who felt they had never lied to raise their hand. Two men raised their hands. I told them they were lying about lying, and asserted that I knew they were sinners based on Romans 3:23. One guy grumbled something as he walked away, but the other guy - probably in his late teens to early twenties - started getting visibly angry, saying I had no right, as a foreigner, to be preaching. I responded with the fact that I may have been in Brazil longer than he, assuming he was 18 years old or less. He looked like he wanted to attack me, but his friend ushered him out of the area.

So, it's never a dull moment in the "Carioca!" This past Wednesday I was preaching against the gay agenda in our schools here, and a guy stopped to listen. He interrupted me to inform me that a well-known comic book series was introducing the gay lifestyle into its stories; 5 minutes later he handed me a copy of the comic book in question, pointing out the subtle, yet clear, message: "Let's all be tolerant of our gay friends and their choices." I'm going to boycott this comic book publisher from now on, as well as encourage others to do the same! Absurd!

When I was wrapping things up, a guy shows up and asks me to look up a verse in my bible for him. He then took issue with the fact that the verse translated God's OT name - Yahweh - as LORD. I knew I had a Jehovah's Witness (JW) on my hands, so I asked him about his view of Jesus. I confess that I didn't handle the situation the way I would have liked to (Hindsight is always 20/20.), so I plan to take a different approach next time. I encourage you to get your hands on the following tract and/or memorize it's approach to dealing with JW's. I know I will! Fortunately there's a Portuguese version.

To finalize, I came across the following video that graphically explains the benefits of open air and campus preaching. Yeah, it's considered controversial today and the results are not often immediate; nevertheless, God uses it to change lives. Invest just 7 minutes to see what I mean:

GOD EXPANDS OPEN AIR TO CZECH REPUBLIC

(I received the following post in an e-mail from open-air preacher Bro. Jim Webber, author of Blood Power. I find this young street evangelist's testimony compelling, to say the least! I ask you to read it and respond as God leads. Pavel's e-mail is: pavel.zalio@email.cz. When you consider all that other Czech heroes of the faith went through to preach the gospel in what's now known as The Czech Republic, we Christians should seriously consider investing in someone willing to pay the price to get the gospel out. Such men are a rare breed in this day and age, and will become rarer in light of the recent "hate crimes" legislation passed by Congress - and only awaiting Barack Obama's signature to go into effect.)

Dear brothers in Christ Jesus,

My name is Pavel Zalio and I am from the Czech Republic. I was saved in June 2007 by miraculous power of the Lord Jesus Christ when calling on His name and asking Him to save my soul from hell and bring me to heavens with Him. Instantly a beam of light touched my heart. In the warmth of that light my heart melted down and disappeared; the same happened with my mind and on the top of it an unspeakable joy engulfed me. It happened in a hotel room in Beijing,China. I had no Christian background and knew no Christians.

After something like four days after this I stopped my wanderings, took my backpack and went back to my country, the Czech Republic. Before that the good Lord put a strong love on my heart for people of my country. After coming back I started to work with handicapped people, but after three months they dismissed me as I was too much for them. Then I translated a book God In My Corner - by two-time heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman - into Czech language, but failed with publishing it.

I started to preach on the streets in the spring of 2008 after seeing some pictures of bro. Ruben Israel and other brothers on the Internet. Then i got the book Blood Power by bro. James Webber (alias Bible Jim) which helped me to enforce my position theologically. I started with a simple proclamation that people were in a great trouble and the Lord Jesus is their one and only chance to be saved from the coming misery and wrath of God which is about to fall on this earth. God's judgement.

Just about recently I started to gain little bit of confidence and self respect, as before I was depressed and humiliated everywhere I went by family, church, material conditions etc. I got little bit of peace when preaching after I moved to a garden hut and had a stable spot where I could sleep and pray undisturbed. Before that I prayed at public restrooms before going to preach and lived in an old ambulance car. That time Satan went heavily on me telling me I was a
loser, I lost it and so on. But God was telling me: "Seek first the heavenly kingdom and the rest will be added to you."

About almost a month ago there was the Pope of Rome visiting the city where I currently stay: Brno. I went there with a sign saying the Pope = the Antichrist, which I made after much prayer, reading the Bible and also fasting - which not always is a successful endeavour for me. The other side of my banner said: Trust Jesus. I had the great opportunity to preach to about 120 thousand attendants of the open air mass and all of them had to pass the block I was standing at.
Some Catholics were coming to my block threatening they would beat me up. But God always stopped them so they could only yell at me, waving their hands around me. Sometimes waving their Vatican flags or shouting Viva Papa, Viva Mama (for Mary), while I was preaching the Bible against so called "tradition," which is just another name for a bunch of satanic lies.

In one moment a big tattooed muscular man came to me telling me I should move as I was ruining his business at that spot. I refused, he pressed on me, but when I asked him to show me papers that he had that spot rented he went away. When the situation got quite hot the police came, handcuffed me and arrested me. They drove me away and after some discussions with their boss with walkie-talkies they took the picture of my sign and then let me go. So I went back to the location but before reaching my spot I was arrested by another police patrol. I was handcuffed again and after some time spent in their police car I was asked for the second time that day if I am freely willing to go with them to the police station in the center of the city to give them an explanation. I said - no. Handcuffs again and we were on the way to that station anyway. There they hold me for about two hours. I refused to answer any of their questions and also sign any paper but used the time to witness to almost every police officer I met. After two hours they let me go but confiscated
my banner. That day was a great blessing. I never did such a big event before besides one homo parade which was also a great blessing.

The next day I went to see an ombudsman for human rights and was told to send an appeal against such police conduct, which I did. Now I am waiting for the answer from the police. Problem is that it is police itself who will investigate my complaint. But I am decided to run this case as long as God is willing.

Statistics say that his country, Czech Republic, is the most atheist country in Europe. The majority of people who think they are Christians are Catholics. Major society hates churches because of our past when catholic church together with a secular power burnt at the stake Jan Hus plus other people and persecuted true Christians. (Catholic church was always on the side of our oppressors with just one exception - the communist regime. Because the catholic priests
were persecuted some people think they were the martyrs for the faith and thus their faith must be the right faith. With this logic the contemporary widespreading sect (cult) called Falun Gong, whose leader claims he is the Messiah, would have to be also right as they are persecuted by Chinese communist regime as well. Satan uses the
natural tendency of man to sympathize with the victims to lead people into his snares.) I believe that Almighty God didn't give up on our nation and calls us to repentance that we changed from once Godly nation to a nation of cowards, drunkards, fornicators, money lovers, pot smokers, TV idolaters, showbusiness stars worshipers, thieves, new-agers, Me-god believers ("I just believe in myself."), "good persons," etc.

I would like to ask you, if you could financially support my ministry here in Czech republic. I have enough money for food and have enough clothes, but I need money to expand my ministry and start printing stickers, gospel tracts and the other things. I got in touch with bro. Petar in Norway and just talking with him on the phone was a great source of encouragement.

Recently I started with a public transportation ministry. I was very much delighted with its effect. Once a young men get off the bus with me and had many questions about Jesus Christ being the only way. Two weeks ago I went to a rosicrucian meeting (an occult sect), and I stood up and publicly rebuked their satanic new age lies. When leaving the hall a man joined me and I had a pleasure to answer his question about why I believe the Bible is the true word of God and why Jesus is THE ONLY way to be enlightened (that is what all these buddhists, taoist, new-agers are looking for but cannot find it without acknowledging that they are, deep down, rotted sinners totally dependent on the mercy of Almighty God). This just passed Sunday I got so angry with the Jehovah's Witnesses for promoting their false teaching with a systemacy (sic) of the sons of darkness that I went to their Kingdom Hall after the service was finished and rebuked them in their own lobby.

My next event is a concert of Harlem Gospel Choir. They have posters all around the city and in the middle of them is Barack Obama with a huge smile. I don't understand how the charity program called Feed the Children, which is promoted by this music group, goes together with Obama's pro-abortion position. That's why I want to go there
and expose this conflict of interests. I have a hope and faith that this time I will not go alone as one brother wants to go there with me. Please pray for us.

I have many ideas and see many occasions how to reach the lost of this world, but being a lonely soldier can get very heavily (sic) on ones mind and heart. If I could get just a little bit of support that would turn into a great blessing for everybody. I believe that we have an example in the Bible when saints help other saints in their needs.

Philippians 4:10-17

I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. Moreover, as
you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am
looking for what may be credited to your account.

Once a brother who saw me turning an old ambulance car into a Christian vehicle gave me 20 dollars without me asking him a word. It is hard to describe for me how happy I was and how much easier it was for me to work on that car.

2 Corinthians 8:13-15

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.

If any of you would like to contribute to my ministry here in the Czech republic than you can do so by contacting me at pavel.zalio@email.cz or by sending your support to the account below.

Bank address:

CSOB a.s.
Dobrovskeho 4
682 01 Vyskov
Czech republic
account number: 201037352
IBAN: CZ910300 0000 000201037352
SWIFT #(BIC): CEKOCZPP

My adress: Pavel Zalio (removed by request of Bro. Pavel).

Thank you very much for reading this letter and may God bless all ofyou and sustains you in the fight for the heavenly prize!

Pavel
Brno, Czech Republic