The NFL Experience is an interactive show for NFL Fans. It is set up at the Dallas Convention Center in preparation for the Super Bowl. As I understand it, there is an estimate that 250,000 people will attend this event in the ten days that it will be open. Today we headed to the Dallas Convention Center to do some recon prior to next weekends Super Bowl Outreach and also to preach the Gospel, hand out tracts and witness one on one.

Recon
The recon was a big success. Thanks to the organizers, they have only one entrance and exit to the event. The exit actually routes people back by the entrance. So there are some good areas to stand outside and preach to the people who are waiting in line to get in and also a steady flow of people coming out. We walked all the way around the convention center checking out where parking is, where the flow of foot traffic goes, etc. We got a good lay of the land for next weekend. We handed out tracts as we went. Had some one on one conversations too. And we talked to a couple of security guards and policemen to confirm where the entrances to the place are.

Wayne pointed out this funny photo op. The police car says “Serving since…” down the side. But since the door was open, it says “serving sin”. Funny!

Preaching the Gospel

Wayne, Jay and I spent about three hours outside the the NFL Experience. We estimate that we handed out at least 2,000 Gospel tracts. We had a number of one on one conversations. I used the Lie Detector to strike up some conversations. I preached the Gospel to the line. Then I read the book of 1 John in the open air. I am planning to read through the New Testament in the open air during 2011. Two books down.

Mark Cahill recently released a new booklet called “One Second After You…” Of course on the inside it indicates that what follows the ellipses is “die!” The book does a wonderful job of explaining that God exists, that Heaven and Hell exist and how to get to Heaven. There is some excellent background information to refute evolution and know that the Bible is true. Recently Mark donated a case of these books to us. Today we took them out to Brookhaven College and gave them away to the students.

We brought 180 copies of the booklet, three cases of water bottles, hundreds of tracts, a few DVD’s and about 100 AfetrLifeCatalog pens. Our primary focus was handing out the books and the bottles of water. Craig, Todd and I also engaged the students in one on one conversations. We each had a number of great conversations with the kids.

When I handed the book to one woman she asked “is this a God thing or a mysticism thing?” I said, “it is a God thing.” She handed the book back to me. So I asked if she liked to watch movies. She said sometimes that she did. So I handed her a DVD that we had instead. She took it and said she would watch it.

While most of the kids were passing by on their way to class. Some would stop and talk. Others took the books and then went and sat down in the courtyard area and began reading. This group of young ladies were all sitting around reading the booklet a short distance from where we handed them out.

Have you considered the parable of the sower?

And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. ⁵Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, ⁶but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.⁷Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹ He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matthew 13:3-9)

When out handing out tracts, books or resources we see all four types of soil. Some will pass by and totally ignore what we are doing. Some will ask what it is and then walk off uninterested. These two groups made up about ten percent of todays group. The next group will take it and might go off reading it or show better interest. This is the bulk of the people at the college. The last group is the ones that really excite us. You hand them a book and they say, “what is this? will you explain it to me?”


Today, a young woman who said she was a Muslim fit the last category. We talked for some time about God, Heaven and Hell and how to get to Heaven. We went through the Law and she indicated that she had lied, stolen and dishonored her parents. As we spoke more, she used God’s name in vain, twice. Yet, when I asked her if she would be innocent or guilty, she would say innocent. She and I went round and round a couple of times, talked about the court room examples and examples involving discipline in the classroom. I tried to explain how Christianity is different from all the other religions. But she was not listening. Fortunately, for me, Todd eventually came into the conversation and was able to explain to her that while religion is about man trying to earn favor with God, Christianity is about recognizing that God has already done everything necessary to save a person if they will simply repent and believe. She still had questions, but she listened intently. I was able to point her to some pages within the One Second After booklet that she already was holding the that answer some key questions, like how to know the Bible is true.

After about an hour and fifteen minutes, we packed up and headed home. We had handed out 150 of the booklets, a case of water, a number of tracts, all the DVD’s we had brought and a number of the AfterLifeCatalog pens. Brookhaven is one of our favorite fishing holes. We will be back next month!

The One Second After You booklet is available from Mark Cahill’s website. Many thanks to Mark Cahill for making this resource and providing them to us for the outreach.

Saturday, January 22nd marked the 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to decriminalize the sin and crime of abortion which has become our nations holocaust. Since then, the slaughter of the innocent in the womb is estimated at over 48 million unborn babies. To mark this occasions there were a number of pro-life rallies at churches and abortion clinics around the country. I was invited to join up with some folks who were meeting at  Northpark Medical Center in Dallas.

When I got there, I was the first one there. Having never been to one of these abortion clinic events before i was not sure what to do. Eventually I just took the cross over and stood next to the entrance of the clinic. Eventually a few other people came. I had one of them hold the cross while I read Psalm 134-139.

There were at least three organizations represented at the event. Two groups were from different churches and one group was from Christ for the Nations. I asked someone after the event and they told me that someone had counted 64 people in all standing up for the innocent unborn babies.

The people there gathered together in prayer, read scripture, sang songs and preached a few sermons. Some carried signs and banners. Others held a cross. Everyone prayed. As people came to the clinic they were offered material about the dangers of abortion.

A single security guard stood outside the gate and encouraged those coming to murder their babies to come into the center. I shared the Gospel with him. His name is David. I encouraged him to leave this job, and turn to Christ in repentance and faith. Then he could have eternal life.

I decided to continue reading from the scripture. I noticed one other guy there looked like he wanted to read from the Bible as well. So I asked him what he wanted to read. I suggested either the Sermon on the Mount or the Gospel of John. We agreed on the Gospel of John. So I started with chapter 1, he took 2 and we alternated back and forth. For about two hours the Gospel was read. The security guard heard the whole thing and I also explained the Gospel to him.

Please pray that David will repent and trust Jesus. Please pray for those that go regularly to these clinics to stand in the gap for the unborn babies that are being murdered. Please pray for changed hearts of the doctors and staff at these clinics. Please pray that those considering abortion would reconsider, surrender to Jesus Christ and receive eternal life.

1. What are three basic items found on a tombstone?
2. A hundred and fifty years from now will it matter if you _______ (made a million dollars, graduated college, drove a fancy car, etc.)?
3. What then? What then? What Then?…
4. Eternity is an awfully long time. Make sure you have the right answer.
5. Do you realize there is a 100% chance you will die? And do you realize that you will be dead a whole lot longer than you will be alive?
6. Can you guarantee that you will wake up tomorrow morning?
7. BIBLE: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth
8. I care where you spend eternity. (or) It is very important to me where you spend eternity.

1. Where are you on your spiritual journey? (or) What is happening spiritually in your life?
2. If you died tonight, are you 100% sure (or “certain”) that you would go to Heaven?
3. If you were to die tonight and stand in front of God, and He asked, “Why should I let you into Heaven?” what would you tell Him?
4. When you die what do you think is on the other side? What do you think is out there when you walk out of here?
5. Why do you wear that cross?
6. Do you want to go to Heaven?
7. What is the most important thing in the world to you? On the day that you die, what do you think will be the most important thing to you?

1. What do you mean by that?
2. How do you know that to be true?
3. Where do you get your information?
4. What if you are wrong?

On Friday night, Ann, Ellen, Wayne and I went to Arlington to witness at the Cotton Bowl. This was a great opportunity to reach people, many who had come from out of town, with the message of salvation through Christ alone! It also served a dual purpose in that it was one last chance to attend an event at the Cowboys Stadium prior to next months Super Bowl Outreach.

Ellen, Ann, Wayne and Carl witnessing at the Cotton Bowl

When we arrived in Arlington, I dropped off Ann, Ellen and Wayne as close to the stadium as I could before getting caught up in the traffic. I then went to park the car. Amazingly, I was able to park the car a mile from the stadium for only $10! That is pretty good pricing in these parts! I saw spots across the street from the stadium later in the evening were going for $60.

When I paid for parking I gave a tract to the parking attendant. She was reading it as I came walking past leaving the game. She was a professed believer in Jesus. She said she would give my contact information to the pastor of her church. So, I went back to my car and got a packet of information about the ministry and gave it to her to give to her pastor.

With that, I was off to meet up with the rest of the group. I was walking briskly and passing people as I went. So I handed each one that I passed a tract. I was mainly handing out New Year Resolution tracts. They went easily by simply wishing people “Happy New year” and handing them a tract. I walked through the edges of the parking lots giving tracts to all of the people that were tail gating in the parking lots. Most people took tracts from me.

Sun setting behind Cowboys Stadium.

I reached the corner where the rest of the group was and we waiting in line to cross at the cross walk. As we waited I got out tracts to most of the people there waiting to cross. At this point we saw one other guy witnessing who was doing some stop light preaching. A couple of the people in our group got a chance to say “hi” to him later on.

We handed out tracts for awhile and I selected a corner where I was planning to preach from. I got set up only to find that my amplifier no longer works. That was disappointing. But that corner was too loud with cars to be heard without an amp. Instead we walked up to the east end of the stadium. I put my stool down and preached “a la whitfield” for a time!

Wayne and I made a lap around the stadium to check out the possible logistics for next months Super Bowl. While walking we handed out a number of tracts. We had some great one on one conversations with a couple of city traffic workers as well as some of the chauffeurs waiting by their limos.

When the game started, we headed back to the car praising God for the opportunity we had had to share the Gospel with so many people. Then we enjoyed some fellowship while we had dinner.

On Thursday, December 30th we went to the Dallas Mavericks game for the purpose of sharing the Gospel. I had over 1,000 New Year Resolution tracts that we wanted to get out. We also brought a long a couple thousand other tracts. Thanks to the city of Dallas, the DART Green Line train now extends from downtown Dallas all the way north to Carrollton where I live. We met at the train station and took the train in to Dallas. The train stops at Victory Plaza which is a couple of hundred yards from the American Airlines Center where the games are played.

Even if we had never made it to the game, the night was complete in fellowship and sharing the Gospel right from the train ride in. We boarded the train and sat down. Since North Carrollton is the end (and beginning) of the line, there were only a couple of people on the train. The guy sitting one row behind me looked pretty bored. So I asked him where he was going. He spoke mostly Spanish, but some broken English. Basically he said “I am just riding around.” We talked a little, but he was not too interested in talking. At the next stop a woman got on with her two kids. One of the kids sat next to the man and the other sat with her mom across the aisle. Those two were directly behind Ann. Ann reached in her bag and handed each of the three Good Person comic tracts and million dollar bill tracts. They started looking at them. At this, the man behind me peaked up his curiosity. As we asked the kids if they were “good” he suddenly said something to the effect of “you can’t be good.”

Ann also had Spanish versions of the same tracts. So she gave him one of each of the tracts in Spanish. This started a long dialog with him as he tried to practice his English by translating the tract back to me asking me the questions. He was a firm believer in Christ. It was great meeting him. While he and I were talking, I asked the kids if they had been good. This lead Ann into a conversation with the mom.

As we continued towards downtown, the train continued to fill up. Eventually another guy ended up sitting next to me. He explained that he and a friend had come to Dallas to look for jobs. After spending the afternoon entertaining themselves at “some of Dallas’s finer places” he said his friend was pulled over while driving and it turned out there was a warrant out for his arrest. His friend is now spending 30 days as a guest of the City of Dallas! Anyway, this man had just admitted to me that he had been lusting after women all afternoon and was asking for money to get a bus ride back to Arkansas. As we arrived at Victory Plaza, I handed him a few bucks, gave him directions to the Bus Station in Dallas and then got a Good Person comic tract from Ann to give him. I asked him to read it and he said that he would.

As God would have it, he was not done with the woman who Ann was talking to. As I got up from the train and told Ann this was our stop, the woman and her kids also exited the train. Ann was able to spend another 15-20 minutes at the station, during which time she was able to completely share the Law and the Gospel.

Ellen had missed the train that we had caught. So we hung around the train station until her train arrived. During that time several other trains arrived and I handed out a number of tracts to people as they left the train going up to the game. The station is set up such that there is basically one way out. So with a couple people it is pretty easy to cover all of the people coming off of the train and give them tracts.

One note about tracts. While handing out the New Year Resolution tract, I was simply say “Happy New Year” and hand them the tract. Most people would take it. I find this to be the case with most of the seasonal tracts. Last week, “Merry Christmas” and hand them a tract. Or having a tract that fits the event. Like at the Dallas Cowboys game to hand out Cowboys and NFL Trivia. This has prompted me to create a Dallas Mavericks Trivia tract that we will bring to a game next month.

Of course, the “did you get one of these” still works well to hand out these tracts and others. But, I am finding that the more the tracts fit the environment the easier they are taken.

We walked over to the stadium and were handing out a few tracts. Neither Ann nor Ellen had done witnessing at the American Airlines Center so I was pointing out some areas and experiences that we’ve had there in the past. The game was 90 minutes from starting. The crowds were a little light where we were so I suggested walking around the building to see if there were more people in other areas. When we walked around to the South end where Victory Plaza is, we found the people!! Now, in the past we have been told not to hand out material in Victory Plaza so we just cut through and went to the sidewalk on the south end of the stadium. By this time, the crowds were picking up and people were coming from the South East corner. We started handing out tracts. Ann had a short conversation with a pastor and gave him a copy of Ray’s God has a Wonderful Plan for your life book. Remember him!

I pointed out that the people pass us so quickly on this side of the street that it is hard to get tracts to all of them. So I pointed out where we have stood on the opposite street corner in the past and handed out lots of tracts. So, Ann and Ellen took some tracts to the far side of the intersection. As people were held up by the police waiting to cross the street they were able to give tracts to most of the people coming from that direction.

I remained on the side of the street nearer to the stadium. As the police sent people across I could still hand tracts to those coming from the other corners from where Ann and Ellen were and also get tracts to any of the people they had missed.

I find that handing out tracts like this leads to many one on one conversations. We see all four types of soil as people pass by. Some ignore us. Some take the tract, look at it and then toss it on the ground. I probably picked up 25 or more tracts during the evening. Most of those got handed out again. A few were too messed up to hand to someone else. Then we see people who will take the tract, look at it and then put it in their tract. But the last type of soil is the one that asks “what is it?”

“A Gospel tract?”

And then they say “are you going to tell me about it?”

At that I can take them through the Law. I ask a few question about whether they have kept the Ten Commandments, ever lied, stolen, hated or lusted? Most will admit that they have. They see they are guilty before God and deserve nothing but eternal Hell.

However, this gives the chance to share with them that God does not want them to go to Hell. He sent His one and only Son Jesus Christ to live on the earth. Jesus being fully God and fully man paid the price for their sin. And then I talk to them about the cross, Jesus death, and his resurrection. Finally, I share that God commands them to repent and trust in Jesus alone to save them.

While I was having a number of conversations and handing out many tracts, the pastor was watching. I had a few short conversations with him. Eventually he said, “can I help you pass those out?” WOW! I was so encouraged. So of course, I handed him a stack of tracts and he started handing them out! Eventually he went into the game and he said he would call me to discuss the Super Bowl Outreach.

There were many other one on ones. Eventually the crowd thinned as the game was starting. So we headed back to the train. Had a nice time of fellowship on the train ride back to Carrollton. We handed Bibles and tracts to several people as they left the train. A lot happened that night. I have not even touched on helping the guy up who slipped while riding his bike, or my conversation with the Bhuddist at the train station! But, I’ll leave it here.

If you have never been to a witnessing event, I’d encourage you to go. If you live in the Dallas area, subscribe to our Bezeugen Blast and the witnessing events mailing list and check our witnessing calendar. We’d love to have you join us. If you live elsewhere around the country, check the local events calendar of your sporting arenas, get a group from your church and some tracts and go share the Gospel. We know many people around the country who are doing these types of outreaches. If you are unsure if there are folks in your area that you could hook up with, then post a comment below and I’ll see if I can connect you with someone in your area to go Evangelize with.

One thing I’ve found over the years is that by sharing the Gospel at events like this, it makes it that much more on my mind to share the Gospel every day “As I Go!” If you are not already enrolled in the Bezeugen Tract Club, you might like to enroll to have tracts to hand out each day!

Bezeugen Ministries

2010 Year in Review

Bezeugen Tract Club

Door to door

Training

Events

Online

Looking ahead to 2011

Christmas is next week. Have you finished your Christmas shopping? If not, let me make some suggestions for the Evangelist on your list:

Registration to the Super Bowl Outreach – What could be a better gift for the Evangelist on your list than the opportunity to spend four days in Dallas with other Evangelist having fellowship, enjoying Biblical teaching and witnessing on the streets around the Super Bowl. The outreach is February 3-6, 2011. Ask you a registration for Christmas! You can register online.

A box of tracts – You can order any of the tracts from the Bezeugen Tract Club in bulk. Quantities range from 250 tracts up to 5,000! Help the Evangelist on your list prepare for that next outreach or just stock them up on their favorite tract. You can request bulk orders on the Bezeugen Tract Club site. Don’t forget the One Million Tracts Christmas special is still in effect with 2,500 tracts for just $59 and 5,000 tracts for $89!

An Amp – Maybe your favorite Evangelist does not have an amplifier to do street preaching with. We use the Behringer EPA40 portable PA system. It works well, has a rechargable battery and is very affordable. The size works well to fit into a back pack or directly in your preaching box.

Preaching Box – Speaking of a preaching box, that might make a good gift too. You can pick up some nice options at Sears or Home Depot.

Additional Resources – You might consider stocking them up on Books, Bibles, DVD’s and other resources that they can hand out while witnessing. There is a list of suggested resources on our web site. Whether it is give away Bibles, thought provoking books like One Heartbeat Away or DVDs like the Big Question, these resources are bound to be a hit with the Evangelist on your list. Buy in bulk, so they have plenty of copies to give away.

Headset – Maybe they already have an amp and a preaching box. Maybe they are looking for a solution to holding the microphone while they preach. Radio Shack has a nice solution. You can read about it in this BLOG post.

Back around 1982 or 1983 while I was a junior or senior in high school, I got this crazy idea to run a marathon. Back then I was on the cross country team and as I started training I remember being up to about 10-12 miles a day in my training. I had my sights set on running the Dallas White Rock Marathon. However, as time passed, I lost interest in running the longer distances and gave up training.

Now consider my “giving up” compared to Brock’s deathcrawl in the movie Facing the Giants!

This spring a friend and I were discussing an idea for a “Bucket List” Gospel tract. I wrote the text for the back that includes nine suggestions for a persons bucket list. After the tracts were printed and I started handing them to people, I’d ask “do you have a bucket list?” and then follow it with “do you think you will ever do the things on your bucket list?” This got me to thinking, “will I do the things on my bucket list.”

As I continued to pray about all of this, I realized the desire from my youth to run a marathon was still there.

So one day in June, I looked up online “training for a marathon” and found a number of sites. When I looked at the training plan it looked good to do a half marathon first and then the full marathon afterward. I had already been running for a couple months and had gotten to where I could run three miles at a time. While looking at a ten week training plan to run a half marathon I noticed that there was a half marathon exactly 10 weeks from the day I was checking it out. I also found that there was a full marathon exactly 16 weeks after that and that there was a sixteen week training plan for the full marathon.

Putting all of this together, I decided to make running the Dallas White Rock Marathon my goal. I set out to follow the 10 week half marathon training plan. During that training, I ran a 10K the weekend of the Fourth of July, I ran in the beach in California and around Travis Lake in Austin, TX. During that training run in Austin, my iPod got so much sweat in/on it that it no longer functions. The half marathon came on August 15th. I completed it in 2 hours and 49 minutes.

Following the half marathon, I took two days to rest. Then I started on the 16 week marathon training plan. I replaced my iPod with an inexpensive mp3 player. I was enjoying listening to praise and worship songs while I ran and I even made some devotional time with the lyrics after my runs. But, that mp3 player suffered the same fate as the iPod – but my son later fixed it. I ran seven miles in Norman, OK one weekend while visiting my mom.  A business travel took me to NY so I had the opportunity to run across the Brooklyn Bridge as well as along the Hudson river. Fitting in training with my sons band contest meant that one day I ran from Arlington to Bedford, TX. I also ran some hills in San Antonio while we were there on a band weekend. But, mostly my mileage was run right around my house. A week ago I was discussing with my family how many miles I’d run and determined where I could have run too if it were all run in one direction.
 

During my training, I ran 195.1 to run the half marathon and 399.2 to run the marathon. This is a total of 594.3 miles!
 
Amazingly, if I had run south or west, I would not have even made it out of Texas! Here is where I could have run to if I'd run all these miles in one direction... 

• Going south from my house in Carrollton, TX that would take me to South Padre Island
• Going west out I-10 it takes you past Allamore, TX which is nearly to El Paso
• Going North West towards Amarillo you can catch 40 West to Santa Rosa, NM nearly to Albuquerque.
• Going north through OKC on I-35 I’d pass Kansas City to Cameron, MO
• Going North East towards Sherman (US 75) to Tulsa and then up I44 to St Cloud, MO which is almost to St Louis
• Going East on I-30 I’d cross Arkansas and reach Jackson, TN
• Going East on I-20 I’d cross Louisiana and Mississippi and nearly make it to Tuscalusa, AL
• Going Southeast I’d make it to New Orleans with with 30 miles left to make it to Mississippi

Many of my training runs were long hours spent running by myself. Having done in two MP3 plays, I took to prayer. I found that this time was a great way to talk to God. I wrote prayer lists on my hand and then would pray for each person for one mile (a suggestion I got from my Pastor)!

As I prayed, God gave me ideas for new Gospel tracts, messages for the newsletter and BLOG and time to just reflect. 

Often as the miles added up and I was tired and wanted to quit, I'd hear Tony Miano's voice in my head:

Don’t Quit

 I think the first time that happened was when I was just getting to where I could run 3 miles without stopping. I could see my house coming up down the street:

Don’t Quit!

Later into my training, I would hit a hill and be ready to give up. Then I’d hear in my head

Don’t Quit!

While running the marathon yesterday, my wife, my sons and my mother and father in law cheered me on. At mile 23 I turned a corner to go up a slight hill. I stopped running and started walking. Then I saw my mother-in-law at the top of the hill and started running again. As I passed by my father-in-law reminded me I only had a 5K left to go.

Don’t Quit

Folks, in April, I could not run to the end of my block without being out of breath. I had a goal to run a 5K without stopping. But yesterday, I ran a marathon – and basically without stopping.

Don’t Quit!

Yes, this BLOG really is about evangelism. I layered shirts to keep warm during the race and had my AfterLifeCatalog t-shirt at the bottom of the layers. It showed for the last six miles!

Don’t Quit

As you go about your day, don’t quit share the Gospel. If you need some ideas check out the As You Go BLOG.

Don’t Quit

If you need Gospel tracts to hand out then enroll in the Bezeugen Tract Club and we will send you 30 per month – for FREE!

Don’t Quit!

If you live in Dallas, join us for our Basic Evangelism Training Seminar. The next seminar should be the second or third week in January. Send me a note, or follow the Bezeuegn Blast to get the dates.

Don’t Quit!

At the end of the Ambassadors Academy, Tony preaches another version of the Don’t Quit message. He reminds everyone that they have to go home now. Back to their home town where they might be the only one engaged in Biblical Evangelism. I invite you to watch as he addresses Academy #15. Many thanks to Ben Adams for responding to my request for this video and posting it for me. It is really interesting that in the midst of encouraging the attendees, a man comes and Tony witnesses to him.

Don’t Quit!

Only final video for you. Six months of training paid off. On December 5th, I ran the Dallas White Rock Marathon. Here I am crossing the finish line!