No ordinary cookie

This is no ordinary cookie in my hand. This cookie is very special. It is special, not because of what it is made of, but because of who it came from.
Here in Čakovec, I have a favorite street corner where I stand daily during  rush hour holding gospel signs for the hundreds who pass by.
My first time on that corner, a month or so ago, a very large man walked by. A few minutes later he walked back by in the other direction with a little boy holding his hand. Apparently the man had walked to a nearby nursery school to pick up his youngest son.
As he passed I reached out to offer him a gospel tract and he politely received it.
Since that day, this man and/or his wife (sometimes both) have passed by that corner to get their little boy. They don't speak English, but I have managed to invite them to church and exchange basic greetings. They are
always polite and are becoming more and more vocal as time goes on.  Thankfully, I have also come to know the names of both of their sons, Kristijan and little Sebastijan.
Today, as they returned from school, both boys came by with their mother, and they had their hands full of cookies. Since Kristijan, Sebastijan and I have gotten to know each other on the street corner over the past few weeks the boys couldn't wait to share their cookies with me.

Thank you, Kristijan and Sebastijan, for sharing your cookies with me.
Someday soon, I hope to share Jesus with you.

This is a very special cookie indeed.

Thanks Mom!

My mother sent some money for Christmas and said to use it for whatever I wanted. After considerable thought, I decided, "Nothing could be better than three new signs for the sign ministry"!
So, here they are, and we are thrilled to be using them regularly.
From left to right, the translations are:
"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."
"Christ died for our sins."
"Christ suffered for sins, the just for the unjust."

There is nothing better than standing up for Christ and wearing His name before a lost and dying world.

Thanks Mom!

A Rock Concert in Varazdin!

One of our group, Kevin Brown, saw a sign in our city and figured out that it was for a rock concert Friday night.
After some detective work on the internet, we found out the time and place.

We donned our reflective vests (required in Croatia for roadsides at night) and took our reflective signs in search of a good place to stand to share God's word with all who would attend.

The place we found was right near the facility and the traffic was tremendous. For over an hour, we had a steady stream of slow moving cars coming by reading our gospel signs as they searched for parking spaces.

What an incredible blessing to be able to share this many Bible verses with hundreds and hundreds of people all in the course of an hour or so.

I wonder how many people went into their concert talking about eternity instead of rock music.

Amen.

My home Church - Reaching people for Christ

During the week of the Super Bowl in Arlington, Texas, multitudes came to town for the game and all the other activities leading up to game day.

My home church, Trinity Baptist, was right where they were supposed to be - trying to reach the lost
with the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Amen! I am so proud of my church for working to win the lost.

Oh, and the man in the red vest - THAT'S MY PASTOR!

Help from God getting the Word out

We are just a small group of soldiers for Christ, trying to reach a large of number of Croatian people with the gospel message.  Knowing this, God reached down from heaven and helped us in a mighty way.  As we stood in the freezing weather a few days ago during rush hour, a newspaper photographer stopped by and took our photo.  Today, this photo and story in appeared in the weekly edition of one of the most widely circulated papers in our county. 

Now, everyone who picks up the newspaper (possibly 25,000 people or more) will get to read the signs in the photo which say, 

Where will you spend eternity?

Only Jesus Saves  You must be born again

None righteous, no not one. None seek after God.

While we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us.

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

In addition, this paper has an online edition which should be updated to include this story later in the week.

To our delight, the article is also very positive and translates closely to this:

Signposts to eternity

Quite a few were surprised who were in the January 28 peak traffic moving from the direction of the Čakovec to Šenkovec seeing people who are at the edge of the road with signs.

The column of vehicles slowed down because drivers were trying to read the text, hoping that they had just one last chance to save money or find a bargain on some expensive product.

But there was none of that. The inscriptions on the signs, held by members of the Independent Baptist Church Stablo Života from Čakovec, pointed drivers to the right path to eternity.

Thank you God, for your help in getting the message out.  God is not willing that any should perish.

On the streets again

Standing up for Christ is such a joy!
Today we "braved the beautiful 65 degree sunshine" and stood for a total of three hours, delivering the gospel of Christ to hundreds and hundreds of Croatians.

What a gorgeous day the Lord gave us in which to do His work.

Amen.

I will sing of my Redeemer

I was watching the video from the Sunday morning service at my home church, Trinity Baptist in Arlington and one of the hymns sung during this service is I will sing of my Redeemer.  This hymn blesses my heart so much.

My God is so holy and righteous and loving and merciful, and I am so excited about Him that I can hardly see straight.  This hymn makes me want to jump and shout.  (In fact I did do some shouting. I'll leave the jumping to the younger crowd.)


Dear God, I just want to say that I LOVE YOU and THANK YOU for saving my soul.  I WILL sing of my REDEEMER.  I will serve you and honor you all the days of my life.  I am not ashamed to wear your name.

O magnify the LORD with me, let us exalt HIS name together!

Here are the words to this beautiful hymn.  I found them here, http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/m/y/myrdeemr.htm

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross He suffered,
From the curse to set me free.

Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer,
With His blood, He purchased me.
On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.

I will tell the wondrous story,
How my lost estate to save,
In His boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave.

I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I’ll tell,
How the victory He giveth
Over sin, and death, and hell.

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His heav’nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God with Him to be.

A great day of witnessing

Today was a great day for witnessing in Čakovec. I walked through the downtown this morning and was able to give out around 70 gospel tracts. 
Then went to the bus station at 2:00 and talked with many teenagers who were waiting for their 2:15 departures. Eighty-five of them accepted gospel tracts and I had a very pleasant time chatting and making them laugh a little to put them at ease.
Then, after holding up a gospel sign for all the bus riders to read as they departed, I made my way to the south of town to stand with the gospel signs for rush hour. (It got all the way up to 27 deg F today - It felt like a heat wave!). A higher-than-usual number of people responded positively to the Bible verses as they passed by.
As rush hour ended I went to meet Pastor Telebar so that we could make a visit to the Gypsy village of Kuršanec to encourage Brother Dejan and his family. While there, I had the joy of watching Brother Telebar lead a man named Damir to Christ.

What a wonderful day!

Praise God for an opportunity to serve the Lord.
God save Croatia!


Psalam 126:5 Oni koji siju u suzama, žeti će u radosti.

(Psalms 126:5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.)