Day #1 Soul-winning marathon!

We had a glorious day today. It is so good to be in service for the King of kings. Brother Alen, my two boys and I started the day in Varazdin. We passed out close to a 1,000 tracts in about an 1 and a half. I was able to preach the Gospel 3 different times. Marko, a 17 year old young man, got gloriously saved!

From Varazdin we headed to the airport to pick up Brother Sam. Praise the Lord he was on time with all of his luggage - that's a miracle in itself. Then we went to the main train station where there is always people and we passed out another 1,000 tracts. We were able to share the gospel 8 times, but we had no one saved! We were not discouraged because 8 people heard how they could escape the flames of hell.

Monday we will officially start our soul-winning marathon. Today we wanted to break the ice a little. Please be in prayer for us. Croatia is a dark place, and we have got to have the Holy Spirit of God working!

Tools are needed!

Tools are used to help accomplish tasks. A builder would have a hard time building without tools. A mechanic would have a hard time repairing a car without tools. Most every profession requires some kind of tool to accomplish the job. I believe that God has given us a task to accomplish. All around us there are souls perishing. God wants us in the business of soul-winning! As I prepare for our soul-winning marathon, I've been thinking about the tools that we will be needing to accomplish the task God has given us.

Tool #1 is God's power. I know that maybe it's difficult to think of God's power as a tool. However, we need to remember that a tool helps us to accomplish a task. I've learned that without God's power we can do nothing. Without this tool we will be ineffective soul-winners. I've been soul-winning too many times without this tool. My witnessing was dry and ineffective. Then there were other times that I went with God's power. The words seemed to flow out of my mouth directly into the heart of the one listening. This week I will be emphasizing this to all who go out with us. We must go with God's power!

Tool #2 is our New Testament. I know this seems elementary, but it is definitely the Word of God that does the working. It is not all of our polished illustrations and humor. It is God's Word that gets right into the heart of the one listening to us.

Tool #3 is a soul-winning partner. I know you can win someone to Christ by yourself. However, I believe there was a reason our Lord sent His followers out two by two. I can win souls by myself, but when someone is with me I have more boldness than I do alone. Soul-winning partners can strengthen one another.

Tool #4 is something practical that I made up this year. I remember Dr. Carl Hatch used to carry a soul-winning card in his pocket. This year I decided to make one for all of our soul-winners. On one side it contains the plan of salvation, on the other side it contains verses about Christian growth. I hope this can be used to help our soul-winners get more people into church and baptized.

Tool # 5 is also practical; a pen and convert slips. They may seem insignificant but they are very important. Winning people is only the first part of our task. We need to do our best to follow up on our converts and get them into the water and on to the pew! We have done a poor job of this in the past, but we are working on it!

I am sure there are many more tools that can be used to help us in our God given task. Maybe you know of few tools that are not listed here. Feel free to add them to the comment list. The tools you add may help us all to accomplish our God given task of winning the lost!

Well Glory!!!!!!!!!

After much work, I just read the last Amen in the book of Revelation! I thought I was going to have a shouting fit! For you that have no ideal what I'm talking about let me explain. For the last three years we have been translating the New Testament into the Croatian language. We are close to finishing it, and the excitement around here is growing. We are all working hard to proof it a final time to weed out any mistakes that might be. The last two months I've been busy listening to the KJV online while reading the Croatian text. This has helped me to compare it with God's Holy Word! This method has proven very fruitful. I've been able to find many problems and get them fixed. Well about 10 minutes ago I started Revelation chapter 22. The closer I got to the end the more excited I got. When John said the last amen, I shouted amen right along with him. Praise Almighty God!

We have a total of two weeks left on the project. Brother Rich and his wife are reading it one final time to get rid of any grammatical mistakes! On November the 1st we will send it to Myra Noel in Texas. She will format it for us and make it look like a Bible. Then off to India it goes. Yes you heard right India! There Brother Treadwell out of Heritage Baptist Church will print it for us! I can not describe what it feels like, after 9 years to almost have the Word of God in the Croatian language in our hands!

All I can say is, Weeeeeeellllllllll Glory!!!!!

Soul-winning marathon!

In three days our soul-winning marathon will begin! Our good friend Sam Ward will be returning to Croatia for 16 days. I'll pick him up at the airport at 2:00 on Saturday. He told me, "brother Johnny bring some tracts while we are in the capitol because I want to spend a few hours to get started." I guess jet lag and all we will begin the marathon on Saturday!

Last year God did incredible things! We had a total of 76 saved in 10 days. When brother Sam left, the church here was on fire! We are all excited about what God is going to do. We have a goal to see 100 people saved and 10 baptized! For Europe that seems impossible, but we know nothing is impossible for our God.

I know I have not blogged in awhile. I hope to be more faithful about it in the future. I'll be giving updates through out our soul-winning marathon. Please be praying for this. Brother Sam and I will spend 5-7 hours a day soul-winning. We need God's power and we need your prayers!

Kid's Day 2009

Today we had a program for children, which we simply called kids day. Tomorrow all of the children will go back to school, so we wanted to give one last try at reaching some of them for Christ. I can say God blessed and we had 54 in attendance. I had over 30 in my 9 passenger van. When I took them home I did it in two trips. Several prayed to receive Christ and all of them heard a good message from Pastor Rich about being fishers of men. Brother Rich organized most of it and he did a great job. It makes me feel great to see him take charge of something and do a good job at it.