Reaching the Marketplace for Jesus

Today is August 23, 2007. It has been waaaaay too long since I put an update on our web page – almost 5 months! Sorry about that. Well, a lot has happened. Let me try to give you all an update.

We had our first two events. We only had the bead bracelets (no yard sticks or walking sticks) for these two events. Our coming-out was at 19^th St Baptist Church in DC. We were able to give out 51 gospel presentations at the churches annual block party. There were 21 decisions for Christ throughout the day. It was our first event and God greatly blessed.

The second event was the Allegany County Fair. This was a 6 day event up by Cumberland, MD. With over 800 gospel presentations we saw 390 people come to a saving knowledge of Christ! Two great churches helped us in Allegany. Pastor Snow and his people from Heritage Baptist Church in Cumberland helped out. We also had help from Pastor Burkholder and his people from Faith Baptist Church in Frostburg, MD. A few of their people led their first person to Christ. What an awesome experience.

The next events.  The month of September looks to be very busy. We are starting the month off in Jane Lew, WV. We will be on the side of the road giving the gospel at the Jane Lew Firemen’s Arts and Crafts Festival. Pastor Brown and Grace Baptist Temple will be working with us there.

As soon as we get back we have our first event in Carroll County. On Sept 8^th Pastor Belcher and the Church of the Open Door (Westminster, MD) will be helping us at the Smallwood Festival in the Reese Carnival Grounds. This is a flea market event and a couple that has a booth there decided this year (rather than sell their wares) to let us use the both to give out the gospel!

As soon as we rest up from the Smallwood Festival it’ll be time to drive down to the Anne Arundel County Fair. Pastor King and Granite Baptist Church of Glen Burnie, MD will be manning our booth. The fair is Sept 12-16. We are especially looking forward to working with our friends and family from Granite. Cathy and I attended there before moving to Carroll County.

Business Update. We have our tax exempt status!!!! We got a letter from the IRS last month granting us status as a 501(c)(3) corporation. This means we can take donations and they are tax deductible for the people who donate. This is a VERY big step for ministries in the US. While we were waiting for this to come through, the Church of the Open Door acted as our corporate sponsor – this allowed us to take tax deductible donations while we were waiting. A big “Thank You” to the Church of the Open Door.

Documentation Update. Wow, we’ve been pretty busy here….

Completed:

Logo design (see it on our Home page – the pillars with Agora in Greek - agora)

Tracts designed and printed (front cover is a picture of our back yard)

Booth Evangelist Training Manual finished

Follow-up cards designed and printed

Follow-up book (Christina Growth) finished and in a few thousand printed

Display for mission conferences finished and (actually) used at the Sword of the Lord Conference

In the Works:

Booth Captain Training Manual in draft

Event Coordinator Training Manual still in the concept phase

Still working on the design of a marketing tri-fold – ideas welcome.

Prayer requests. We have a lot of prayer requests. The ministry is not raising the money it needs. Cathy is going back to work – as a high school math teacher. I (Bob) will probably start working as a substitute teacher to bring in extra money but still keep my schedule flexible. Please pray that we will know God’s will concerning the funding of this ministry. Also pray that Christians will see the need for the gospel to go out in this manner and will feel led to contribute to the work financially.

Also pray that we will be able to find events and churches to support those events so that we can continue to spread the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ.