Tony's Last Day

2013 Aug 13 (45)

Exhortation

Today is Testify Tuesday. 6:30PM, Markville Mall.

Should I give an exhortation as to why we need to evangelize? No, that's saved for Harvest York Region Young Adults on Thursday. Come to that. However, I am going to ask you to pray and wait. Join me and the team in praying for God to do something great tonight.

This will be the 45th week that we have been out in Markville. 45 weeks of sharing the gospel,This will also be the last time I'm consistently there. Mike Fenty is taking over as I move to Chicago.

So if God is leading you, I would very much like to go evangelize with as many of you as possible. Will you consider it?

Testimony

This will be my last testimony sharing from Testify Tuesday... Sad times... My biggest takeaway: Prayer.

We started going out and sharing the gospel weekly at Markville Mall on October 3rd, 2012. Since then, we've gone out every single week (except Nov 7, arghh). Every single week, we were there talking to random strangers about who Jesus Christ is and why they should care. Many weeks we were discouraged, saddened that we faced so many rejections and so few opportunities to even share the message. Many weeks we begged God to save someone but seemed to face stone walls. But every week, we were faithful.

The biggest thing I want to leave with everyone is the importance of faithfulness, especially faithfulness in prayer. Testify Tuesday started with just one person. I went five weeks by myself, until I couldn't take it anymore. But when I took a break on Nov 7th, God convicted me of my sin and I had to repent. As I went back the next week, I pleaded with God to send someone with me. God answered and brought Mike Fenty. Shortly after, Ben Sampson joined too and the three of us have been going consistently since.

Since we started, we've shared the gospel with 365 individuals, faced many more outright rejections, and only encountered 11 actual Christians (not nominal ones). That's about 0.03% of the population. The harvest is very plentiful but the laborers are so few. Nevertheless, God is good. Over the span of the ministry, 29 different evangelists have come out with us. And we've had 5 people come to trust Christ as Lord and savior. We rejoice over these five souls. But please be praying for us as evangelism is hard, HARD work. We often wish for more fruit but know that this is not the nature of our ministry.

Last night, the team consisted of Mike, Ryan, Matthew, Ambrose,Samantha, Melinda, Linda, and myself. Norman even joined at the end. God has grown us from just one to this many! And we represent not just one church, but many. I know God can do more if we are faithful in prayer, so please keep praying for this. Please keep pleading for more souls to be saved. I know for a fact that our God answers prayers!

In the month of May, we prayed on our knees that God would do two things: 1) Save someone, 2) Add a team member. (http://testifytuesday.blogspot.ca/2013/05/2013-05-08.html) God answered both of those on the very last week of May. See, faithfulness in prayer is what pushes our ministry, nothing else. Testify Tuesday is a prayer movement more than it is anything about evangelism. Many weeks, within our team, we pray almost as long as we evangelize! Evangelism is merely a natural outflow of passionate prayer for the lost. Never forget that.

And why do we do it? Soli Deo gloria.

Souls (7+) {Total: 365+}

J (weird church);
J;
K;
M;
M;
M;
K

Team (8)

Tony, Samantha; Mike, Matthew; Ryan, Ambrose; Melinda, Linda

Rejection and Repentance

2013 Aug 6 (44)

Exhortation

Testify Tuesday. What does that mean? That means it is Tuesday and therefore we go to Markville Mall and share the gospel. Tonight we are starting at 6PM.

"Sing to the LORD, all the earth!
Tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!"
- 1 Chron 16:23-24

That! That is what we are doing tonight. You are invited to join.

Testimony

Testify Tuesday:
When God's people pray for his kingdom to be expanded he opens up Heaven and gives them more then they could expect. LTM~

Praise God for the amazing conversations we had tonight!
Our team consisted of Tony, Norman, and Melinda.
Upon arrival, Tony, Norman and Melinda were in conversation with a couple who seemed to be listening courteously. Apparently no one had ever shared the gospel with them, but they were willing to listen, and thanked us for sharing with them- which was an encouragement. We never know how the seeds will be invested in the soil.
We then divided into pairs, girls and guys. Initially as Melinda and I set off with our fire to share the gospel- it felt like it was doused with the water of rejection. We couldn't understand why no one we approached (three attempts) wanted to talk to us. Yet God is faithful, our fourth attempt was a lady waiting for her daughter, she professed to be a Christian and was so encouraged by us and wanted us to meet her daughter- who was inside the store. Further she was so encouraged by us she wanted to treat us to ice cream! We kindly refused the offer but appreciated her prayers and support- our efforts were renewed.

Norman and Tony seemed to have a fruitful conversation, so much that when they gave a invitation to check out our church, the guy they talked to said he would be interested in coming! Please pray for no hindrances, but for God's will to be done.

So after a reboot in confidence, Melinda and I approached a guy who is Catholic but also believes parts of the Muslim faith.
Melinda did a fierce job presenting the truth of the gospel stating that it's not about labels but about the heart what a person believes and a relationship with Christ. It seemed like we went down tangent lane alot- but through our discussion he came away knowing why as young people we were there sharing the gospel on a Tuesday and that Christ wants to pursue a relationship with him.

Norman and I then had the opportunity to have two conversations; One with a young man whose religion is Hindu, but he is an atheist. Praise God this young man has a friend who is a Christian, and apparently his Christian friend has talked with him and shared from the Bible! Amazing...seeds being planted at different stages! So Norman and I shared with him the gospel- although for an atheist he knew alot OF the Bible but not as much about the relationship with God- this was deeply lacking. He asked alot of good questions like how come we were Christians? What made us turn our lives around. This opened the opportunity for us to share our testimonies briefly and we both touched upon repentance in our own way. It seemed fruitful until his family came. We had given him a card and invited him to come out to Harvest and he seemed interested, but his Mom took the card. Regardless, our God is greater. Like we told him God has a plan for each of us and we never know where our discussion will lead.

Our second conversation was with a woman who says she is a Christian,although she doesn't go to church as often as she should, nor reads her Bible as much. When asked where she is going to go she said somewhere in reunion with her mother, father and brother- but not Heaven. We probed her about heaven and Hell and she refused to believe there was a hell or further that God would send people there. She couldn't get over how a little sin could send someone to hell. She was knowledgeable about the Bible, and Norman was really fierce in presenting the origins of Sin from Adam and Eve and how God is a righteous judge-but she just wouldn't budge.Overall she was kind to us. We wish we had more time with her, she was delightful to talk to, but had to leave. Apparently she was visiting her grand daughter and sister since she lives in Florida! Divine appointments tonight for sure!

Thank you so much for partnering up with us through prayer tonight, and for trooping through this essay .
Please continue to join us in our petitions that God will add to our numbers, unify us, give us courage, boldness when we go out and have wisdom in following up with those God places before us.

Thank you dear brothers and sisters.

1 Timothy 4:12:
Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

Souls (11) {Total: 358}

J, R;
D;
P;
J;
J;
M;
A;
T;
G;
N

Team (6)

Tony, Norman, Melinda, Linda; Ryan, Stephen, Matthew