As I was talking to Bill, a gentleman at Gold's Gym, yesterday, he made the above statement.  I hear this statement a lot and I always assure the person I'm talking to that I'm not necessarily trying to increase a church roll as much as I'm trying to increase God's roll - the Book of Names. While I don't believe that church attendance is a dogma for salvation, I do believe it is essential for each believer's spiritual growth and maturity. More...

Last week, I stopped in to buy a snack from at a Exxon gas station.  One of Switchfoot's songs was on the radio.  I asked the attendant, Manuel, who is 22 years old, if he had heard the song before. Manuel said that he had.  I asked him if he had ever listened to the words.  Manuel said that he hadn't.  So, I started speaking the words of the song as Switchfoot was singing.  Then I asked Manuel what he thought those words meant.  From that, the door was flung open for me to share, over the next 30 minutes, a full presentation of sin, righteousness and judgment.  He asked questions and I answered them.  Before leaving, I asked Manuel if he had a Bible at home.  He said that he did.  I encouraged him to read it because it would explain in greater detail what I just got through sharing with him.  Manuel said that he would.

Today, I stopped back in the Exxon station to buy another snack (Sobe's and Snickers are great snacks after a workout - carbs and protein). Manuel was in there again.  Immediately he exclaimed, "Welcome, my friend!"  I returned the greeting.  My daughter was in the car so I couldn't stay and talk, but as I was checking out, I asked him if he had thought any more concerning what we talked about.  He said that he has thought alot about it.  I asked him if he has started reading his Bible.  He told me that he had started reading a little bit each day since then.  I told him that I would stop back by later when I had more time (I had a meeting to get to).  He answered, "Okay."

As I drove away, he waved bye to me.

Two prayer requests:

1. Prayer of thanksgiving and praise that God has 'begun a good work' in Manuel AND that God would take the next step in that work (i.e. salvation).
   
2. Forsyth County (the county in which I live) has the 7th fasted growing community in the nation.  Being that there are a lot of home developments, many Latinos are moving to the area to find work.  The Latino population is increasing steadily.  When I was at Carson-Newman, one way I reached out to the Brazilians on the men's soccer team was letting them teach me a little bit of Portuguese - their native language.  You could see they were very grateful and felt honored for someone trying to learn their language and great friendships were cultivated as a result.  I desire to witness to the Latino's, however, I do not know Spanish. Please be in prayer that God would provide the resources to purchase computer software to help me learn Spanish or that God would, perhaps, provide someone in a local church who can teach me. I want to use every opportunity I have to share the Gospel.

As always, thank you for your prayers and e-mails/phone calls of encouragement.

This morning as I was praying, God laid on my heart to go to the mall this afternoon to share the Gospel.  I had the opportunity to talk with three different individuals. The greatest thing about it was you could tell the conversations were Spirit led and hearts were completely open to discussion.  Each of the three conversations were vastly different and each message was tailored to the individual.  I mean, no 12-step Gospel presentation here.  It is such a blessing to serve in your area of giftedness and just watch God use you - I totally enjoy using my gift of evangelism to serve to kingdom and reach people.

As I was talking to the third young lady, a security guard approached me.  He was led to my table by an onlooker who didn't appreciate what I was doing.  The security guard asks me if I was soliciting religion.  I answered, "Well, me and the young lady here are talking about spiritual stuff.  I'm not sure if that's what you call soliciting religion."  He told me that I wasn't allowed to do that.  I told him that I asked the girl if she minded and she said that she didn't.  I invited the guard to ask the girl if she wanted me to leave of if I could stay.  So the security guard asked her and she said that I was okay and wasn't bothering her.  The guard told me that I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone else after her and if he saw me, then he would escort me out personally.  I told him that when I got through talking to her, I would leave.

When the conversation with the girl was finished, I thanked her for talking and started making my way out of the food court. On the outskirts of the atrium, I saw the guard again.  I decided to go talk to him.  I figure the worse thing that could happen was that he would escort me out of the mall. Either way I was leaving, so asking him would still be a 'winning' situation. More...

Well I was reading, praying and resting this afternoon and lo and behold guess who knocks on my door!?!?  Yep, some missionaries from the Latter Day Saints church.  One had been on his mission for about 8 weeks while the other had been here only about 6 weeks.  I welcomed them in, gave them some water and we sat down and talked.

I won't write everything on here regarding what we talked about because we talked for OVER 2 HOURS (I wish I had recorded it though). We had a fantastic conversation!

At the end, I told them that I was glad they came and that I hoped they were encouraged and challenged just as much as I was.  I told them that I hoped they felt loved, safe and non-threatened as they talked with me.  They replied that it was one of the best conversations that they've had and that they did feel welcomed and safe.  I invited them to come back any time they wanted to and they said that they would.

Before they left, they asked if we could pray together and I said, "Sure."  Then, they asked me if I would pray because they wanted to hear me pray.  It was awesome and an incredible blessing to pray for them. 

I wrote down a few of their arguments so that I could go back and study the scripture and be prepared next time they return.  Praise God for the opportunities that he brings to my door, literally.

 Another conversation that I had at the ultimate tournament was with a student who argued that governments in third-world countries should freely distribute contraceptives. His reasoning was, by distributing contraceptives, the total amount of abortions would decrease thus eliminating the sin of murdering innocent children.  He argued that conservatives should support the distribution of contraceptives if we felt that it was wrong to have abortions (he also tried to discuss politics with me, but that was one avenue I wouldn't follow him down).  I asked him, "Don't you think you're missing the point?"  More...