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Email comments/suggestions to : bodyofchrist7@gmail.com Ph.No: 847-312-2669
PRAYER AND OUTREACH VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED Prayer volunteers who can pray for the souls that are witnessed to and for the ministry. If you can volunteer 10-15 minutes or more a day for prayer, please contact us. We make every effort to make the outreach exciting and fun filled (intense and serious at the same time). Outreach volunteers can expect free pizzas, sandwiches, coffee, restaurant eat outs etc.. COME, JOIN THE EXCITEMENT. LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST BY MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE FOR ETERNITY. If you can volunteer at least 2 hours (including commute time) a week (doesnt have to be every week, just about any weekend of the year), please contact us at bodyofchrist7@gmail.com
Sunday 02/12/2012, updates:
It was another eventful day of street ministry. 4 volunteers were on the street ministering. An Irani muslim curious of Christian faith started going to a church ( nominally ) wants to know more about Jesus, has tons of questions for us and is interested in talking to us more. he gave us the location where we can meet him and discuss further. About 200 people received God's word. Please pray for sown seed of the word of God
Sunday 02/05/2012, updates:
5 volunteers were on the street ministering. A pakistani muslim was interested in discussing and we shared the gospel and he said he wanted to meet us to discuss more . Will be setting up an appointment with him to meet and discuss and answer his questions and share God's word. About 300-350 people received God's word. Please pray for sown seed of the word of God.
Sunday 11/27/2011 - 12/25/2011, updates:
Christmas day : We were out ministering on the streets and happened to meet a Pakistani muslim family ( mom, dad and two lovely girls ). The father, Iqbal said that they were searching for truth and expressed their desire to explore more into Christ's message and wished that they were at peace within themselves as we had. He told us to pray for them so that they may know the truth as well and eventually one day minister on the streets just like us.
Previous sundays : A lot of literature was distributed and may one-one conversations. Time fails me to journal all conversations and witnessings every sunday but please keep the witnessed in prayers and there is an urgent need to spread the gospel even more into this land where many non-christians ( particularly muslims ) are at our back doors avialable to expose the gospel.
Sunday 11/20/2011, 5pm till 8pm, 4 volunteers on Devon street:
Yet another eventful day of witnessing and sharing Christ. I thank God for the blessing and the privilege. Couple of highlights below to pray for:
- Witnessed to a person of muslim faith.
- When we handed over the gospel of John, we entered into a discussion and he was asking ( rather loudly ) on why there are different versions of the Bible. After a bit of discussion, our brother asked him, if mohammad is such a great prophet, why his name is not found in Torah or Bible? He couldn't answer. We had to leave to share the word of God to other lost souls.
- Witnessed to a person of multi-faith.
- It was an hour long discussion with a person of Assyrian origin who claimed to be part catholic, part hindu, part muslim, etc.. he refused to read our booklets or even take them. After a long discussion, I felt that we should move on to share the word to others and before leaving, it struck me to offer a prayer for him and he obliged willingly. After prayer, his heart softened a lot and he requested the booklets and said that he will actually be reading them. PRAISE THE LORD!! .
Please keep all the witnessing in your prayers and thanks for reading. God Bless you!
Sunday 11/13/2011, 5pm till 6pm, 4 volunteers on Devon street:
Thought I will start journalling these again. It has been a blessing to continue in the ministry. Even though I have not updated this page for well over an year, the ministry every weekend has been on going by the grace of God. We were joined by our fellow laborers in Christ who willingly distributed tracts inspite of their illness. Please pray for the witnessed and God Bless you!
Sunday 07/05/2010, 6pm till 6:30pm, 3 volunteers on Devon street:
This Sunday was joined by Bro. Walter and Bro. Mike from Family Life ministries. It was another exciting weekend of witnessing. Praise and glory be to Lord Jesus Christ for his abundant grace and privielge. Tracts and booklets were distributed. A person of Hindu faith was upset with God and said that he did not want to have anything to do with God. After some discussion and Q&As, he said that he will be reading the books that were given to him. Another guy of muslim faith refused to take the tract telling me that he already knows what the truth is, I have challenged him by asking why then, if he knows the truth, he is afraid to read the tract. Also asked him to show me what is false, if any in the tract that was distributed. Please pray that the word of God that was sown will bear much fruit. The harvest is plenty but the labourers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest that He may send more labourers. Thank you for visiting and God Bless you!
Sunday 06/06/2010, 7pm till 9pm, 3 volunteers about 60 gospel of johns and 100s of tracts were distributed on Devon street:
The preaching of cross is foolishness to them that perish but to us who are saved, it is the power of God. It was a blessed time of ministry once again, today. There were a total of three of us ministering today. Much seed was sown and word of God handed out to people living in darkness. There was a lot of preaching and discussions. The name of the Lord be glorified. We happened to meet this group of muslims who were in fact part of an islam preaching group. They had with them all the islamic materials and were questioning us on biblical concepts. How and why God saw that light was good ( God was already supposed to know in his infinite knowledge that light will be good ).. etc.. after discussion, I told him that God wants to love people and not kill enemies in self defence.. The one-on-one preaching was really good and a lot of people, from different backgrounds and faiths heard the gospel, there were lot of genuine interesting discussions about heaven, hell, God etc.. Please pray that the sown word of God may bear fruit and once again, brothers and sisters, thank you for stopping by and your prayers. Please continue to pray. God Bless you.Amen!
Sunday 05/30/2010 :
The harvest is plenty but the labourers are few. There is a whole multitudes of people that are living in darkness/ignorance while the children of the light at times are busy preoccupied with the temporary things. Good evening folks, I am writing this from my car (wonders of technology) on my way back from the ministry on Devon during this long weekend. Plenty of seed was sown . There were a lot of people. I ran out of material to distribute shame on me for being unprepared, fully.. There was an advertisement group for a music show next week that were playing songs and dancing on a particular street corner. I had my placards on me and wanted to make the best of the opportunity as there was a lot of people gathering around the music there. I stood at the corner with high visibility and witnessed a lot of people reading the word of God and how hell is real and my pleads for them to receive Jesus as Jesus is the only way to heaven. Lot of precious harvest bearing seed was distributed and while on way back, Me and my wife noticed this particular group of about 6-7 muslim men in their 50s who received the tracts and told us that Lord Jesus Christ was only a prophet. We had a nice discussion for about 20 minutes and saw many many muslims from the neighbourhood joining them in support. It was a privilege to tell them to investigate the truth for themselves and NOT to believe anything just because they were born into their faith. I challenged them with the thought that if they were born into a different faith, they would have believed the other faith as true. I told them that only GOD can tell people to love enemies.I told them that unlike Mohammed, Jesus did not fight back when Jesus was persecuted as Jesus wants us to love people, even enemies not hate them. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you.. It was along these words that we left them but not without giving them the tract of the Iranian muslim jihadist convert and they watned my phone no which I gave them. There was a little bit of commotion created and people gathering around. There was this one black christian couple who were passing by who , after we left the muslim crowd encouraged us by telling us in loud voice. "NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST YOU SHALL PROSPER" - We seconded it with an Amen.. Please continue praying for all those who were witnessed and that God may give us more strength and people to witness more.. Thank you for stopping by to read and for your prayers. May the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whom I serve fulfill all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus our Lord. Marnatha, Come Lord Soon. Amen.
Sunday 4/4/2010 till 05/23/2010 :
Beloved, the last few weekends were hectic in the ministry even though it was not reported here because of time constraints. Please continue to pray for the ministry and for God to use the material that was distributed in drawing souls towards his kingdom. All glory and thanks be to our Lord God Almighty.There were few discussions with people of Sikh faith and muslims. There is this one muslim who is constantly challenging me to come into the chat rooms for discussion. However, I am not sure if I should go into an arguement mode, whatever needs to be said, I have conveyed the message already. Praying still..
Sunday 03/21/10, 2 volunteers 6:30pm-7:30pm- about 50 gospel of John books and tracts were distributed on Devon avenue.
"You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. Amen. Great is our God. It was once again another week of blessing - to be able to reach forth to the muslim/hindu community and share the gospel. Please pray for the souls that were witnessed and the tracts that were distributed. The word of God alone is the seed that bears the fruit. Pray also for our volunteers. Thank you for visiting the site.
Sunday 03/14/10, 1 volunteer 6:00pm-7:00pm- about 70 gospel of John were distributed on Devon avenue.
Once again it was a blessing and a privilege to be able to distribue word of God - the REAL source of ALL power into the very hands of people that our saviour came to die and save. There were at least two people of muslim faith who entered into discussion and gospel was preached to them - Jesus Christ died and rose again. No salvation without forgiveness of sins. Discussions were mostly along the same lines as earlier. I wrapped the discussions telling them that "Injil" says that Jesus is the son of the living God, He came and died for sinners. Without forgiveness of sins, people will not go to heaven. And I told them that the I was exposing the gospel to them in obedience to the word of God so that they do not have an excuse on the day of Judgement.
Sunday 03/08/10, 2 volunteers 6:30pm-7:30pm- about 100 tracts were distributed on Devon avenue.
We are excited that spring is in the offing. It was cold but people were still there, more than earlier weeks. It was once again an abundant blessing to witness to hundreds of muslims on Devon avenue. It was a bit eventful with more than 3 personal witnessings the usual Q&A session with muslims. A muslim doctor received the tract and tried to give us back saying he already has it. I questioned him if he really has salvation and what he thinks about the message in the tract. This opened door for me to preach gospel and as usual, he had his own human logic to defend his arguments. He was however speechless for at least a minute when I asked him what if he was proved wrong on the day of judgement. He also had no answer to the question , when I asked him why Jesus did not have an army and did not kill in self defense and mohammed had an army and killed people. It was lot of Q&A session that time fails me to write everything. Hindu youth, came out of a restaurant to smoke. I handed them the tracts. They took it and I asked him about eternity etc.. I asked them if they were sure they are going to go to heaven. The guy replied, he doesnt care.. Well, pride of man... Please keep the witnessed in prayers. God Bless you for taking time to read this..
Sunday 02/14/10, 2 volunteers 6:30pm-7:30pm- about 30 gospel of john and 50 tracts were distributed on Devon avenue.
It was a blessing to be able to distribute the literature and actually see people reading it in full. So many took the material thinking it was something else and once they started reading, after a while, people just lift up their heads and give us a strange look. Thank God - it is the living word of God that they are reading rather than cunningly knit stories. Please continue to pray for the witnessed souls. Hopefully with spring in the offing, we will be able to distribute more literature. God bless you for taking time to visit us.
Sunday 01/31/10, 2 volunteers 6:00pm-7:00pm- about 40-50 gospel of john were distributed on Devon avenue.
Another wonderful time of outreach once again. It was very cold but we managed to hand out the gospel of John with commentaries to whoever came our way. Few refused to take, but they were few in number. It was a blessing to our hearts to see people (99% muslims) actually reading the gospel once they have taken the material. Please pray earnestly that God may use the gospel to shed light into their darkened world. God, in his abundant mercies has recently blessed me with some of the material things that this world offers. Right when I needed some urgent help, the good Lord has once again shown me that His grace is sufficient unto me. I am even more humbled with the way the Lord worked in this particular situation. I was presented with a career changing decision in my life over the past few weeks and thankfully, in this economy, I have received a mind blowing offer which is a senior role with perks and the like and this offer had grace of God written all over it and it stumped me on all fronts. Now, with the new job, I get to work from home and I believe this will give me more time for ministry - which , I was always praying for. May the name of the Lord God most High be exalted and glorified. Just wanted to share this with all the fellow believers and want to encourage everyone to KNOW that the good Lord is always mindful of us and he knows our needs. He is our father in heaven. Isaiah : 63 - 9 : In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Please pray and thank you for reading.. God Bless!
Sunday 12/13/09, 2 volunteers 4:00pm 5:30pm- about 70 - 80 tracts and 12+ gospel of john were distributed on Devon avenue.
Sickness and the season's busyness took over our volunteers and there was no witnessing on Friday and Saturday. It was an amazing time of witnessing once again. There was this one muslim who took the tract and said that he needed a job. We talked to him a bit and came to know that he was open to christian faith. It seems that his deceased wife was a christian. After his wife expired, he visits her grave every sunday. He once went to a church ( A catholic one - I think) and was sitting outside. The preist/bishop/pastor saw him sitting out and invited him inside. He told him that it is the house of God and open for everyone. He need not have to sit outside. He talked to us a bit about Lord Jesus. He said that a muslim cannot be a muslim without believing in Lord Jesus. After explaining the gospel, I invited him to accept Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. To my utter surprise, he said "yes". I was taken back. I didnt want him to repeat after me just because I told him so, I wanted him to mean it with all his heart. I told him that. He put his hand on his heart and told me that he wants to do it with all his heart and not just to please us. I lead him into the sinners prayer and in the middle of the prayer when I made him say, "Lord Jesus thank you for dying for me ", he, who was repeating after me everything until then, stopped all of a sudden and told me that "no Jesus did not die". I had to stop the prayer and explained him once again what I explained him earlier about how there is no forgiveness of sins without Lord Jesus dying for us etc... he said ok and I lead him into the prayer all over again. I pray that God really changes his heart and that he knows Lord Jesus Christ personally. Please keep all the witnessings and material distributed in your prayers. God bless you!
Sunday 12/06/09, 3 volunteers 6:00pm 7:00pm- about 50+ tracts and 20+ gospel of john were distributed on Devon avenue.
Inspite of the cold, people were still there on the streets. By the grace of God, we were able to distribute and sow the word of God. A muslim from Jerusalem, took Afshin's tract and said that he had a better story (he read the tract earlier itseems). I stoppeed by and asked him what his better story was,.. He said that for 10 years while he was in Jerusalem, he had virgin mary come to him in dreams every time. Even though he was not rich, he had peace in his heart because of the dream. He said that even though he was a muslim, he is open to christianity and religion. After he came to the US, he stopped having virgin mary dreams and he doesnt have peace. I invited him to read Gospel of John that we distributed. He said he can't read in english. Thankfully, by the grace of God, the gospel of John was in arabic as well. ( God bless the ministry that has helped put together the gospel in english and arabic in one book). We told him it has arabic as well.. You should see the way his face lightened up when we told him it has arabic as well.. He read it to see if it was arabic and was so happy. I told him that NOT Mary but He needed Jesus for lasting peace. I told him that if his sins are not forgiven, he doesnt have eternal life. He listened to everything ... said, he will read the gospel of John. Please pray that God may speak to his heart. Pray for the literature that was distributed. God Bless you folks for taking time to read through this. Remember the volunteers in your prayers. I just keep wondering .. everytime, how many souls would have gone unwitnessed if these precious dear volunteers did not sacrifice their time and strength for the sake of the gospel and kingdom of God. Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Soon - Amen!</u>
Saturday 12/05/09, 1 volunteer 8:30pm 9:30pm- about 25 tracts and 20+ gospel of john were distributed on Devon avenue.
I was the only one out on the street this day. It was cold (welcome season of christmas). I didnt have many tracts with me. Was blessed to have the gospel of John with the commentaries from former muslim scholars. Few muslims refused to receive the gospel of John and told me that they already have one. I asked them in return if they had read it. They said, they are reading it ( I doubt they meant what they said). There was this one muslim guy of an Arabic descent, well built and dressed in suit. He took the gospel of John and went a little further, stopped and read through few pages ( I think he was a bit surprised that a guy from india was distributing literature which was in english/arabic ). I was hoping that he come back and talk a bit. He read few more pages and I could notice he was very curious.. He walked away reading the book. Please, Please pray folks that God may use His word to let this person know the light of the knowledge of God's wonderful plan of salvation. It is written, "How can man neglect such a great salvation"..
Saturday 11/26/09, about 100 tracts and were distributed on Devon avenue.
There were few witnessings more along the lines of earlier ones. A black muslim refused to receive tracts. He asked me if it was regarding Islam or not. He said he would take only if it was related to Islam. I told him it was about Adha, Qurbani. He received the tract and asked me how he can know that it is the truth. I asked him on what basis he believed that Islam is the truth. He said, .. "Now you talk different. I dont want to take it. leave me alone". I told him that, I may leave him but God will not leave him. To which he replied, " I dont know what is your problem. Is there a communication issue or what ? I told you to leave me alone". I told him that "God wants to fill your heart with love instead of the hate that you are demonstrating". Keep the souls witnessed in yoru prayers. That the word of God may bear fruit.
I checked on Abdul (the muslim shop owner who keeps converting people from Christianity to Islam), I gave "Adha" tracts to muslim folks who were in his store. He told me that God is going to punish me for leading people into the wrong path and told me that if I become a muslim, Allah is going to forgive me of that wrong as well.. ( few things that I should be telling him). He had questions for me on inconsistencies in bible. I told him that bible is not a book written by humans so, it defies all human logic. It is has to be revealed by the Holy Spirit. For example, when Jesus said, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days", it was not in the literal sense. Jesus was referring to the temple of his body. In the same way, everything that is written in the Bible has to be understood in a spirtual sense and only Holy Spirit should reveal it to individuals
Friday 11/25/09, about 50 tracts and 20+ gospel of john books were distributed near mosque.
The mosque outreach was remarkable. Even though there were just about 8 volunteers, conversations with muslims was long and impacting (in our opinion). There was this one muslim who confided that even though he was going to the mosque, he was searching to know the truth. We gave him many questions to ponder on. He was from Jordan and said he was surprised at the dullness of an Arab mind. He said Arab countries dont use much brain except for religion and oil. It was a long meaningful conversation. Pray that the witnessed word of God may bear fruit.
There was another long witnessing and discussion with muslim couple who were formerly catholic christians. They said that formerly, they were lost but now they are found ( after converting to islam). Looks like they like the agression and set of rules that they are now subjected to more than the redemption and liberty that Christ provides. They have never tasted the love of God. Hence, no wonder they were deceived. It turned a bit (just a bit) heated in the end. Pray that the love and restraint shown by our volunteers and the word of God that was sworn may impact them.
There was more witnessing on Devon avenue.. Time fails me to write everything. Please pray for the witnessed.
Saturday 11/21/09, about 50 tracts and 20+ gospel of john books were distributed on Devon. Updating this late,.. An incident that needs prayers.
A person received our tract and came back after us asking us if any one was converted with the tracts and why we are doing it. It seems that the person is a christian from Bangalore, India and has been witnessed by Muslims in devon area and he is almost bought into the lies about Islam and he told us that the bible is changed, Islam seems to be the true religion. It took lot of debating/questioning/counter questioning from us to enable him see the truth and stop from him from becoming a muslim right away. He told us that our talk opened his understanding a bit and that he will now start reading the bible in the new light. Pray that this soul may not be lost for eternity. He gave us the locations in Chicago where muslims are working overnight converting people from christianity to Islam. They do it in the night 12:30pm till 2-3am debating etc..
Saturday 11/14/09 : About 40 tracts and 12-15 Gospel of John books were distributed. Updating this late, An incident that I remember still..
Distributed tracts on Devon street. A muslim person stopped by and asked us to show unequivocally from the Bible, where Jesus said, "I am God". I gave him a book of Lee Stroble and told showed him few topics in the book and suggested that he can find what he is looking for in the book.
Saturday 11/07/09, 10:30pm till 12:30am (next day). no. of volunteers - 5 (2 sisters and 3 brothers), about 60 tracts and 30+ gospel of john books were distributed on Devon street, 99% muslims.
It was another amazing time of witnessing and ministry time.
Muslim gangs caught hold of a muslim business owner and hit him on the street and left him hurt and wounded. Our brothers and Iraqi sister helped him out and Bro. Walter offered to pray for the muslim. The muslim said yes to prayer and our brother prayed for him and asked him how he felt. The wounded muslim, to our volunteer's amazement said, that he felt that something supernatural had touched him and he didnt feel the pain no longer and was feeling better. Our volunteers witnessed to him and asked him what happened. He told our volunteers that those gang members were dealing with drugs and he had informed cops about it and since then , the gang members were after him. Our volunteers asked him why he is out so late. He replied, he couldnt help it as he has his business there.. Please pray that the word sown and the miraculous touch (as felt) by this muslim may bear fruit and save this soul from spending eternity in Hell..
While the above incident was happening on the west side of Devon, I was with my wife on the far east side where most of the muslims are.., conversing with, what seemd to me , an undercover muslim recruitee who was converting christians to islam . his name was also Abdul. He is originally form Pakistan and had with him a white muslim ( who was a christian convert to islam, who acknowledged to us that his mom is still a christian praying for him ). We talked at lenght along the similar lines.. bible changed, trinity, etc.. When I told him to think on what if Quran could be wrong because it was given by a single person.. what if that single person was wrong and few more discussions along those lines, he said he wanted to leave.. I asked him why. He said that I was making him think the things that he is not supposed to think and it was not befitting him.. I managed to talk a bit more.. but he left.. only later I noticed that he went and was talking to our Iraqi sister and brother Jack ( who is from Assyrian church but is of jewish origin.). He was arguing with our sister. I went to him again and told him that if Islam is peaceful, how come Pakistan, which is an islam nation has people who always fight among themselves killing each other. I asked him why Saudi Arabia as a muslim nation, doesnt allow muslims from another country to be buried there ? He was a bit agitated by this and said that even if muslims kill , they have a hope ( reward for their killing) , but if christians kill (or die), they have nothing.. only judgement for not worshiping the one ness of God. When he asked me about trinity, I told him that only God has to reveal it to him. It is not that we worship 3 Gods, it is one God who chose to manifest himself in three beings.. I told him that I and my wife, for eg., have no problem whatsoever with the concept of Trinity because the holy spirit has revealed it to us. and for him to understand it, all my explanation will do no good unless Holy spirit reveals it to him and unless he is receptive to the Spirit. He said God doesnt have a spirit. In front of our eyes, he saw a young black lady (christian) standing at the bus stop and started talking to her about islam and she, as a sheep that goes to be slaughtered volunteered to visit mosque and so.. seemed to be wanting to become a muslim.. this aggrevated our iraqi sister who told her in a loud voice.. mohammed married a 9 year old. do you want to go into such a religion ? There were more than 15-20 muslims with scarfs, caps on heads who were coming as a group towards us as if to intimidate us and upon hearing our sister yell out mohammed and his marriage to 9 year old, one muslim guy warned our sister rather rudely, to not talk anything against mohammed. This ticked off the flesh in me and yelled at him, put my finger on his chest and told him that this is America and our sister had every right to speak what she wants.. and he cannot dictate to my sister what my sister is supposed to say. It was as if I dared him to do anything to our sister to face the consequences later.. (Welll.. the flesh in me.. few things that I am ashamed of when I let the flesh take control, Paul says.. I die everyday..).. the guy abdul told him something in arabic/urdu and the guy turned back to me and said, i am sorry if i said anything wrong.. i told them that they need to leave the religion of hatred and violence and know the real God who made universe who tells people to love in return for hatred.
Friday 11/06/09, 9:30pm till 2am (next day) . no. of volunteers - 7 (4 sisters and 3 brothers), about 300 tracts and 60+ gospel of john books were distributed on Devon street , 99% muslims and prayer later at sister's house : Amazing ministry time. It was a bit rough .
Since it was late in the night, we had an opportunity to witness and reach out to the people who were drunk, gangs, fanatic, fundamentalist, muslims with extremist views. It turned a bit rough at one instance.
I had a 20 min conversation with a muslim who went on saying that he did not ever think the way I was asking him to think. He was however pretty deep rooted in his faith ( not a surprise) and said that I was misled. Pray that the challenging questions posed to him and the word of God that was quoted to him may draw him to the Lord. We sow the seed, the Lord does the rest.He refused to receive the tract or the gospel of John.
While I was witnessing to this one muslim, our sisters and brother went into the store of the muslim from Morocco (Abdul ) with whom I had a chat the previous friday, I was told that my sister (and him) read Isaiah 53 and John 1:1-14 on the iphone.. My sister says that he was a bit shocked to see the contents of Isaiah 53 and John 1 . It seems that he looked as if people (muslims who trained him) lied to him or did not reveal the complete injeel ( bible). There was a moment when an egyptian muslim entered the store and Abdul told our sisters to change the topic. Abdul also challenged our sisters to take poison and prove that it doesnt affect them (since Jesus said so..). Our sisters countered that we cannot tempt God. Finally, Abdul said, I challenge your God to change me. Our sisters took the challenge and offered to pray for him, to which he obliged and prayed for him there.. We did pray for him earnestly after the ministry time at sister's house that evening. While sisters were witnessing to this guy, our brother John Chandy and his wife were praying in the same store all the while - upholding our sisters and the whole witnessing in prayers.
This was the dangerous and challenging part of ministry this day.
Gangs : Drunk, mostly (96%) muslims, about 25-30 were yelling and running around . I strongly suspect there were drugs involved. After I was done talking to a christian brother whom I happend to meet, I saw this one guy who seemed to be the most vociferous and sort of the leader of the gang and he was going from behind me, I approached him and put my finger on his chest and told him , "Hey , You need JESUS CHRIST". It took him by surprise, drunk and rude as he was, he turned back and yelled at me, .. "WHAT?".. I AM A MUSLIM, "ALLAH OH AKBAR", MOHAMMED IS THE PROPHET. JESUS IS NOT GOD. YOU DONT KNOW WHO I AM .. I AM FROM AFGHANISTAN.. I told him that God loves him. He started profanity threw volley of abuses at me , I still told him again that God loves him. the other members of the gang came running to him and headed toward me. This guy pushed others members aside and told them to stay away and came to me and gave me a hug and said God loves me..
He however left using profane talk. Christ would leave the 99 saved people and go out reaching for this one soul out in the dangerous nights.
We left to Iraqi sister's place and had a wonderful time of prayer and fellowship until 2am.. It was a blessing. Our Volunteers are amazing. Armies of the Living GOD. Please pray that God may meet their needs. All of them have serious needs in their lives..
God only knows.. what is going on.. on the devon street in Chicago in the name of businesses. To me, it looks like a fertile recruiting ground for AlQaeda with muslims coming out in droves and very active at nights. hush hush talks,.. hostile looks etc.. Please fast and pray.. The forces of darkness are very active. There are christians (who are weak in faith) who are being converted to Islam in this region in the hundreds if not in the thousands..
Saturday 10/31/09, 4pm till 7pm. no. of volunteers - 5, about 800 tracts and hundreds of gospel of John books were distributed on Devon street, 95% muslims. : It was an amazing ministry time. Our sister preached the word of God using microphone. She told everyone of us that if cops come, we are not with her :).
I had atleast 10+ personal witnessings. Below is an outline of a conversation(to the best of my memory) that I (Sam) had with an atheist of Jewish origin while the sister was preaching using the microphone. The discussion lasted for about 20 mins..
Sam : If you have few minutes to talk, we can talk.
Atheist : Well.. I just dont believe in a religion.. i dont think there is God it is all perception. I am a man from Jewish descent my mom is of 90 yrs of age and she doesnt believe in God as well..
Sam : Well.. it is good that you are of a Jewish origin. Salvation is of Jews.
Atheist : Well.. it doesnt make sense to believe in a God that is going to send people to hell if they dont worship him. If you really say that there is a God out there and he is such a God, then frankly, I dont need him.
Sam : See, if there is a God, there is also a devil. There is a war going on for the souls of human beings. God on one hand is courting people towards his love, where as the devil always makes us doubt God and his perfect plan of salvation. What a man decides is ultimately his choice.. Why are you wording it that way as if God is sending people to hell.. Why can you not say it this way, that man sinned and is going to hell and God in his divine love and plan has come to take the punishment himself and is saving people..
Atheist : Well.. that is a good reasoning, I have never thought of it like that..
Sam : See the enemy makes us think that way.. God is a loving God and doesnt want any to perish but it is the pride of man that keeps us from accepting the truth.
Atheist : I try to be a good person. I dont do anything evil. I am not like a child molester.
Sam : God's standards are higher than human standards. There is nothing like a small sin or a big sin. In God's sight a liar is as sinful as a child molester. There is nothing like a drop of poison or a bucket of poison. Poison is Poison.
I had to leave it at that and the guy convinced me that he is going to read the tract and examine the facts for himself for sure. There were a lot more personal witnessing. Please pray for the witnessed and those who took the gospel of john. Please once again pray that they may read the book (gospel of john with muslim commentaries) and that God may open their eyes.
Friday 10/30/09 :
11:30am till 2pm, no. of volunteers -1 (Arabic christian sister): Mosque outreach. Oh WOW!!! Sister did an amazing job which not many men would even think of doing.... It blew the brains out of my head. What a desire to serve the Lord. I felt so ashamed of myself and broke my heart for being chickened out because of rain, work and other issues that the enemy put in my way. It was however very important from my work perspective that I was at work and didnt skip it because of issues that came up at work - some of the conflicting scenarios which I dont seem to understand. Deep in my heart, I however now feel that I should have in faith ignored work and stepped out to mosque. Next time, fool me twice satan, shame on me. Our sister, undettered by rain and loneliness, went alone when three of us brothers who initially thought we will go, could not make it. AMAZING WONDER. Our sister in rain, went right inside the mosque into the door. She was holding a banner which said in bold letters (about 6"-8" ) JESUS OR MOHAMMED - right inside the mosque folks and had a link to abnsat.net to the live talk-in show for muslims by apologetics. She distributed tracts in the mosque - all alone (Ofcourse the spirit of God was with her). All the while, sister told me that she was thinking inside, may be the muslims will call police or may be they will kick her out. But PRAISE GOD! nothing happened, she ran out of tracts and leaflets . On one hand a big 3ft by 11/2ft banner and on the other hand tracts, the wind, rain, she was drenched and once inside the mosque door, handed over all tracts.
10pm till 2am ( next day ) no. of volunteers -2 , about 40 tracts and 10 gospel of John were distributed. There were more lengthy personal witnessing and conversations. This time was a blessing.
Below is a conversation with a muslim store manager, Abdul and me (Sam). He was all bearded and seemed very religious. During the conversation, I have noticed many people who were converted to Islam from Christianity (possibly by this guy) coming and leaving the store..
Abdul : I read your paper, the material you are distributing. It is all false.. This guy ( the testimony that was in paper) was deceived by satan.
Sam : OK, do you have few minutes to talk ? I can talk all night if needed.
Abdul : Yes, I can, I am trained in interfaith dialogue and can talk.
Sam : Let me start from where you will start, that is you muslims are taught to believe that the bible has changed.
Abdul : Yes and I can show you the inconsistencies..
Sam : Sure... show me the topics that have changed, dont show me the things such as ,.. sugar is now called sweetner ,, "and" here was there and is now missing etc.. as these are issues which have no significance and have nothing to do with the message of the gospel.
Abdul : See if bible says solomon has 3 sons here and in some other chapter if it says solomon has 4 sons.. then which one will you believe.
Sam : That has nothing to do with the truth. You believe that bible has been changed right ?
Abdul : Yes
Sam : You believe that bible is still inconsistent even right now right ?
Abdul : Yes
Sam : Then why do you think that the people who are changing the bible did not remove all inconsistencies ?
Abdul : (No answer).
Sam : OK, even if we assume that bible has changed, provide me with the original copy of Injeel ( Bible) that the Quran talks about .
Abdul : It is not there.. Jews destroyed it.
Sam : How can God's book (Injeel) be destroyed ? Could not God have protected ?
Abdul : (No answer).
Abdul : If you say 2+3=5 and again say 2+1=3 which one can you believe ? It is as simple as that why dont you get it ?
Sam : That proves nothing. ( I thank Holy Spirit for this prompting). What is 2 divided by 0 , ie 2/0 = ??
Abdul : 0
Sam : Wrong.
Saleem ( This is a black muslim who was a bit hefty and was seriously listening to our conversation, we knew that this was a former christian who was converted to Islam): No it is undefined.
Sam : See Abdul, you are wrong, you have no idea of the right math and for you 2/0 is "0" but Saleem is right, 2/0 is undefined or Infinity (the symbol). So, now, how much is 5 divided by 0 , 5/0 ?
Abdul : Undefined.
Sam : OK, so, using your logic, if 2+3=5 and 2+1=3 cannot be true , then how can 2/0 = undefined and 5/0 = undefined be true ? If you show this to a kid, you are right, the kid will call you a fool to say that both 2/0 = undefined and 5/0 = undefined.. (using your first logic). But you go to any one who understands math, who is more knowledgeable, it makes perfect sense. It doesnt mean that the math is wrong,.. if it doesnt make sense.. it is to those who dont know math.. Similarly, if you find the contents of bible contradictory, then it is because you dont understand it and you are like the kid with no or little knowledge who dont understand it and calling it a false.. just because we do not understand few things in the bible.. doesnt make the entire bible false..
Abdul : (No Answer )..
Sam : If God has a different plan of salvation than what you believe, how can God show it to you ?
Abdul : Quran is perfect. there is no other plan.
Sam : How can you say that Quran is perfect, just because some one told you ? What if mohammed was wrong ?
Abdul : (quoted a quran surah in arabic to the effect that it is a sin to talk like that etc..)
Sam : If I tell you that this person in the testimony paper had a revelation of Jesus, you tell me that is deceived but why do you not say the same about mohammed ? what if mohammed is deceived ? Why is it that you are always questioning this and not that ? . It is somethign that people forced into your brain.. why is it that every time people call out to an unknown God, Jesus Christ appears to them ? Just think about it. There is a real enemy - the devil, that is influencing you to think the way you are thinking..
Abdul : I believe Mohammed because Quran is logically consistent.
Sam : That doesnt mean a thing. People write books that are consistent all the time. You take a math book with all equations and formulas, it is consistent. It doesnt mean that the math book is the word of God. To be honest, if there is a real book from God, it has to contain contents that a human mind cannot explain. Only if a human being writes a book can it be logically explained by a human mind.Thus making the quran a book possibly written by human thoughts... Let me ask you something, If I bring to you another book whose contents are exactly the same as quran and I add a line in the end saying, "Believe in Lord Jesus christ for forgiveness of your sins" will you believe it ? since it is the same quran and should be logically consistent as you said . I will also bring you 100 + people who can testify that I had a divine revelation in writing my book. will you believe the book I wrote as word of God.
Abdul : No.
Sam : Then why do you believe that the book that mohammed has is the word of God ? See you are not using your brain, you are just believing what people forced you to believe.
Abdul : (No answer)
We discussed a lot more.. but most of them were along the same lines as few conversations that are outlined below..
A jewish couple stopped their car to discuss with us, we ministered to them while they were in car and I and the sister both took each window to talk to them. The guy said that he is a good person and doesnt believe the new testament which was changed by catholics. I told him to check out the facts about the arkdiscovery at www.arkdiscovery.com . He was a bit taken back and said that he would check it out.. we talked for about 30 mins or so..They were genuinely interested and were asking good questions.. Thank the Holy Spirit of God that our answers made them think.. Our sister told them to read Isaiah : 53.
Sunday 10/25/09 : 3pm till 5pm, no. of volunteers - 2, about 100 tracts and 35 gospel of John were distributed.
There were about 4-5 one-one conversations and witnessings among muslims mostly. Conversations were along the similar lines as earlier conversations
There was this muslim brother who stopped by and told me to know the truth. I told him not to be deceived by what people told him. Unfortunately, this discussion was a bit loud and intense.
A disturbing incident was, while we were distributing tracts that we had the uncomfortable option of listening to the loud noise from microphone coming out of a nearby mosque. I was tempted to call cops and report a public nuisance ( similar to what few muslims did while I was preaching using microphone) I later felt that they probably had a permit. Oh well... God Bless America!.
All State Arena :10:30am till 2pm, No. of volunteers - 2, about 200 tracts were distributed :
Below is the report from our dear Bro. John Chandy
I was kind of threatened by a jewish lady, which I ignored. 80% accepted our tracts. Few of them were so encouraged
by us as looks like as if a 'hindu Indian' passing out the christian tracts.
It was so fun to interact with so many inernational people.
After next Sunday they are closing for the season, until they open next May of next year.
Saturday 10/24/09 : Was a disappointment with too many interruptions and change of plans.
Friday 10/23/09 : 5 of us were witnessing 10:30pm - 0:30am on Devon. About 70+ tracts, 30+ gospel of John with muslim commentaries and literature was distributed. It was very very cold and kudos to our volunteers. God Bless them.
Even though it was late, people were still present almost all of them muslims. Having 5 volunteers (all sisters except me) helped us in being able to cover more area and distribute more literature and also we had more time to witness.
A muslim youth, received the tract and immediately tore it and put it in garbage. Our sister from Iraq told him that he tore the word of God and he is Harram (forbidden/of the lowest order) per Koran. Our sisters were all furious as to how much of a deal would have been created if the torn paper/booklet was Koran. Should we sue ? Well.. the world is under the sway of the evil one. We can only pray and bless and ask God to forgive . We settled it at that.
There were 4 muslim youth just chatting ( who knows, may be they are part of a sleeper cell). We gave them the tracts. Our sister told them to check the facts for themselves. I talked to them a bit as well told them to not be deceived into believing what people or Koran told them. Asked them what if God has a different plan of salvation, how can he reveal it to them. Folks already started reading the paper and they all said that they will read the gospel of john as well. There was a sense of satisfaction when we left them.
A muslim man stopped by and said that Bible was changed etc.. ( the same ..). He was a bit overwhelmed when 2 sisters and myself almost pinned him to wall with our conversations and witnessing :) Cops were following us. They were probably looking for an ocassion to get us, thinking that we may harm the muslim physically. The muslim however agreed to certain things that we said - God did not tell him all that he believes. He does not have the original copy of Injil ( New testament). He would not know if he is not open to God's revelation if God had a different plan of salvation than what he believed.
Wednesday 10/21/09 : 6 volunteers were witnessing 4pm-7pm. There were about 10+ personal witnessings and about 100+ tracts,bibles,books, literature was distributed.
Our Sister from Iraq planned the open air outreach because the weather was nice and she didn't want to let go such a nice weather. It was tough for me to get a half day off from work. I managed to get off from work @3:45pm.
Crowds were different and more open for discussion probably because it was the weekday crowds and they were not used to witnessing or receiving gospel/literature.
The exciting and the most fruitful part of the ministry time was when one of our brothers, Martin witnessed to a youth and the guy made a commitment to Christ. It was a serious commitment. The saved person has now started attending bible study and fellowship. Amen! Praise and glory be to God!
I talked to a lady from middle east who was filled with bitterness towards all religious people and said that she did not believe in Jesus. She was only shouting verbal abuses. I talked to the lady at length. It was difficult to get her listen to me as all that she was doing was verbally abusing - non stop and she wanted to leave. I asked her why she is afraid to talk to me. She said she was not afraid and turned back. I told her that God loves her. I told her that "MOST CHRISTIANS ARE A BAD ADVERTISEMENT TO A GOOD GOD". I made her think as to what if Lord Jesus Christ was true. What if there is a real Hell and real Heaven. Is she going to stake her eternity based on her experiences with religious folks ? etc.. I offered her to make a commitment for Christ. She did not do it there but said that she will read the testimony later. She left saying that I was a nice person. well.. at least she thinks some one is nice.. Pray for the lady. she is filled with bitterness and hatred.
Brother Martin gathered few youth (all muslims) who were walking on the streets, and preached the gospel and made an offer to them to receive Christ. He did at least 4-5 such group sessions. Pray for the youth.
A person patiently received the gospel and was just soaking it all in. He was as cold as ice.. but was really listening. He said, I do see what you are trying to say. I do get it. I will have to think about it seriously. He said he will read the tracts and examine himself. Please pray.
A muslim couple from India stopped by and took DVDs , tracts etc. I witnessed to them for a bit and they had to leave. We had interesting exchanges. Please pray as I believe that I really made them think.
Two Hindu ladies who were returning home from work stopped by and I had an opportunity to witness ot them in Hindi.
Our sister used microphone and started reading the gospel of John along with alter calls and gospel messages.
After a while, I was preaching using microphone when cops came and stopped us.
We had an opportunity to witness to cops as well. I gave them a copy of the tract and told them that we are law abiding citizens. I asked them what if God removed all air from earth because men are breaking God's laws. I told them to think for themselves as to why everytime some one calls out to a living God to reveal himself, only Lord Jesus Christ appears. I told them that what we are doing helps in decreasing crime in the neighbourhood, help change gangsters, it is good for the society. etc.. I told them to check and verify the facts for themselves. They said they would read the tract for sure and left after warning us to not use the microphone. <span style="font-weight: bold;" />
There was more witnessing but these are written so that the body of christ may pray for the witnessed, for volunteers, for the ministry and use the experiences here to witness to the lost.
Cheers and God Bless! - Sam Gaddam.
Friday (10/16/09) : Three of us were witnessing.
Saturday (10/17/09): Disappointment - More than one interruption from the enemy.
Sunday (10/18/09) : I witnessed alone.
Total of about 150 tracts and 50 books (muslim commentaries with Gospel of John ) were distributed over the weekend.
When our sisters offered tract to Umar, a muslim from Hyderabad, India (where I come from), he recognized one of our sisters (Arabic sister, who had earlier witnessed to him). Umar said that he is going through lot of difficulties in life and said that he is determined to know the truth about God. He has been trying to get in touch with our sister to know the truth about God. He lost his job. His mom is sick in India. He was hurting. Our sisters offered to pray for him, he immediately said, "please, please pray for me". our sisters prayed for him there and told him that he now has a new family (we people) and that he can count on us for any help within our means. He was leaving for India the next day . We offered to take him out for dinner or breakfast the next day (to befriend him). But he had a busy schedule. It is amazing that the almighty God who knows everything has arranged this meeting before he was leaving to India. He said he will check out all the internet links and volunteered to visit Church (when and if he returns to US) with us as part of his investigation of the truth. I am sure that by God's grace and much prayers, this kidnapped (by devil) child of God can surely come back into the family of God. PLEASE PRAY FOR UMAR . If we defied the rain and the cold (looks foolish to the lost), it was worth it at least for this one soul.
We had at least 7+ minor conversations. Below are few conversations that are written so that the body of Christ may pray for the people who heard the gospel and also in the hope that it may help us all to know how to answer muslims ( they are everywhere in America like an army/colony of ants from an ant hill and are all out in full force to convert people to islam particularly the youth in schools/colleges.). The answers that I gave may not be the perfect answers but I did notice that they were effective in countering an argument/view point.
I saw three muslim youth standing and prayed that the Lord may give me an opportunity to witness. I offered them the tract. They rejected to take (what a way the Lord gave me an opening to witness , I was reminded that the sale starts when the customer says no), Below is the conversation (to the best of my memory).
Muslim#1 - Black muslim.
Muslim#2 - Muslim from India (The most difficult to minister).
Muslim#3 - Muslim from Egypt.
Me (Sam) : Why dont you want to take the tract. May I know the reason ?
Muslim#1 : I am good.
Me (Sam) : Man, you read so many books in life. This is just couple of pages. Why dont you read it?
Muslim#2 : (He took the tract noticed the word JESUS CHRIST and gave it back to me). See, this name - JESUS CHRIST, this is what makes us not take it. (I thought to myself - Ignorance and pride - that is the very name which decides where he spends eternity)
Muslim#3: What is this about? What religion is this ? Are you a Christian?
Me (Sam) : I don't have a religion. This is not about religion. I don't believe in religion because religion enforces on people, hard to keep set of rules. This is about God and a personal relationship with God.
Muslim#2 : I want religion.
Me (Sam) : What is your religion?
Muslim#2 : I am a muslim.
Me (Sam) : And why are you a muslim?
Muslim#2 : Because Koran is the truth.
Me (Sam) : Who told you that Koran is the truth?, your mom? or some one else told you right ? you were not there when it was given, obviously some one told you right ?
Muslim#2 : I know Koran is the truth. OK you want to know why it is the truth, it was written some hundreds of years back and it explains birth of an infant - way earlier than it was discovered by science. that is why I know it is the truth.
Me (Sam) : That doesn't prove a thing about God. There are so many books that are written which have some truth. You ask a Hindu, he would say that Bhagvad Gita has truth about life even before anyone discovered. That doesn't make it the truth.
Muslim#2 : What makes you think that bible is the truth. they changed bible as they want. I can show you two bibles whose contents are different.
Me (Sam) : If the bible is not the truth, How can you explain the prophecies in the bible that are fulfilled? What if Koran is not the truth. What if God has a different plan. How can God show that to you?
Muslim#2 : Koran is the truth. There is no "what if". Prophet Mohammed told it and that is it.
Me (Sam) : You did not investigate this yourself right ? Some one told you all this. Why is it that you are always believing what some one has told you ? what if people are wrong ? It is like some one programmed your brain into believing what you now believe. What if God has a different plan? God is your creator and you might find yourself opposing God. I am not forcing myself on you but something to think about. Just putting it out there.
Muslim#2 : I am locked up. I know what I believe is true. (they wanted to leave).
Me (Sam) : Why are you leaving? It could be that I want to learn more about Islam. tell me more about it .
Muslim#2 : You come to Mosque there the preachers will talk to you and you can learn.
Me (Sam) : Why should I allow people to tell me. What if people are wrong? Do you see what I am trying to show. It looks like you three intelligent people are forced by people into believing what people believe and you did not get it from God. I am just showing you a possibility that you could be believing something that is not part of actual plan of God and what if God has a different plan. How can God reveal that to you?
Muslim#2 : You ask me how I know this is the truth, listen to this, my mom had a dream that my dad should not go to texas and he didn't and it stopped from something bad happening.
Me (Sam) : That doesn't prove anything. There are many Hindus, Christians who had dreams like that.
Muslim#2 : God talks to me in dreams and gives me advice.
Me (Sam) : Why does God need to give you advice if Koran is complete and has everything? Don't you see then that the Koran is incomplete then ? Even if for argument sake, I assume that God is really speaking to you through dreams ? what is the guarantee that it is the God of Koran and not the real GOD ? how can you be sure ?
Muslim#2 : Jesus was a prophet. He was a human being.
Me (Sam): How then can you explain that Jesus was sinless .
Muslim #2 : Mohammed was sinless too.
Me (Sam) : Mohammed killed people.
Muslim)#2 to Muslim#3 : Did Mohammed kill people?
Muslim#3 to Muslim#2 : yeah, in war.
Me (Sam) : See you folks are brilliant intelligent young people and you have a great future. I hope you now agree that there is a possibility that you folks are forced to believe what people pushed down into your brains which could be wrong. Let me ask you a simple thing. If you make a movie and have two God characters in a move, One character is a God of vengeance who tells people to kill people in self defense or whatever. Another character is a God who is always telling people to love people to win people by love. Who in the movie would be the villain and who would be a hero ?
Muslim#3 : The God of love would be a hero.
Me (Sam) : And why is that so complicated for people to believe ? Are you seeing what I am trying to say ? Because there is an enemy of God who has blinded the eyes of people and doesn't want people to know the truth of God's love for mankind.
Muslim#1 : I am leaving now (He was very passive and felt that I was making them to think and doubt their beliefs).
Me (Sam): Why are you leaving ? You are strong in your faith, why doubt it ? help me understand Islam and let us reason.
Muslim#3 : See, I am memorizing Koran now. no one memorized bible. So many people memorized Koran and that is the greatness.
Me (Sam) : What is so great about it ? Why do we need to memorize it ? What has that got to do with knowing the truth?
Muslim#3 : Did any one memorize bible so far ?
Me (Sam) : Well.. any one with a fanatic mind would probably do. but why do we need to ? The real God who made us is a loving God and is wanting and longing to have a relationship with us. It is not about - us finding a relationship with God, it is about Him trying to reach us.
Muslim #3 was the most receptive and he really did start to think about the issues. I have invited our arabic sister to talk to muslim#3 in arabic. Sister talked to him and sister happened to know the guy's parents and family(the guy doesnt know our sister). Sister knew that the person was going through few struggles in life and told him in arabic, that he is going through issues and Jesus (his creator) loves him if he prays to Jesus , God will answer him and it really did touch the muslim's heart. The whole conversation was in rain. The rain picked up and we had to depart. The conversation was very fulfilling. The guys went thinking ( at least that is the impression I got). We were very happy.
The below witnessing conversation was on Sunday, when I was witnessing alone. I have handed over literature to this muslim from Pakistan and he asked me what it was. I forgot his name. He requested that I speak in Hindi/Urdu. The original conversation was in Hindi/Urdu. Below is the translation and brief summary of the conversation.
Me (Sam): This is about islam and Jesus.
Muslim : I believe in Allah and he is all powerful. He is taking care of me.
Me (Sam) : That is good for you. There are lot of other people also that God is taking care of.
Muslim : God made people and he will take care of his servants.
Me (Sam) : That is right. I think you were born into a muslim family and someone told you all about Allah.
Muslim : Yes. I was born into a muslim family. There is only one God.
Me (Sam) : What in your opinion happens after you die ?
Muslim : We go to grave yard and soul goes to allah.
Me (Sam) : What if God has a different plan of salvation (outside of islam) , how will he show that to you ?
Muslim : I know God's plan, you suffer for your bad deeds and if your good deeds out weigh bad deeds you will go to heaven.
Me (Sam) : That is what people taught you since you were a child . What if God has a different plan. Hindus will say that their religion is true since they are born into that religion. Christians will say something that they believe, so, you are saying what you were born into. How can you know what is the truth ? Did God tell you that ? - No.
Muslim : See, God takes care of me. He wrote on every rice seed who needs to eat it. And he put it in my destiny that I should be in America.
Me (Sam) : OK Why did you come to America ? Why did you not go to Saudi Arabia ? Saudi Arabia is a muslim country . Why dont they accept you guys (in the sense of burying etc..)? Saudis believe in Islam, Islam is a good religion, then why dont they accept you?
(No Answer from the Muslim he turned his face away . He was very embarrassed. I deliberately gave him a good 45 seconds to be embarassed so that i can talk later and he disturb me less and be able to agree with me.)
Me (Sam) : Let me tell you why. Because the religion that the Saudi people are following (Islam) is only set of rules made by man inorder to please God and is filled with hatred towards some instead of following a path of Love. Look at America, most of Americans believe in a God who wants people to walk in love. Now, how can God show this to you ?
Muslim : I really did not think like that . To be honest, I dont know .
Me (Sam) : Did you pray to Jesus any time?
Muslim : Jesus was only a prophet, I pray to Allah.
Me (Sam) : People told you that Jesus was a prophet. God did not tell that to you right ?
Muslim : I have a need but I know God will provide.
Me (Sam) : What is your need?
Muslim : I need a job .
Me (Sam ) : Let me tell you something. Lord Jesus loves you. He is your heavenly father. I know that this Father concept is alien to Islam, but that is the reality. I talk to Jesus every day and I can feel Him. I want you to know that He is your God, your creator, He loves you. He wants to take care of your problems. You pray to Jesus now and you ask Him yourself. Can I pray for you ?
Muslim : Yes. please pray for me.
Me (Sam ) : I will pray in Jesus name. Next time you run into any trouble, pray to Jesus. At least then, you will know that Jesus is God's plan for salvation.
Muslim : I dont mind, My brother married a christian and he is in Texas. He named all his Kids christian names.
Me (Sam ) : See - May be your brother knows the truth and he is praying for you ? and that is why God introduced you to me. Please take this encounter and our discussion seriously. Why do you want to go to hell. Without Jesus there is no salvation.
Muslim : Every one has their own beliefs. I will read this tract (and booklet) . seriously.
Me (Sam ): Wait, I want to pray for you. close your eyes now and I am praying to Jesus. ( prayed a short prayer and asked Christ to reveal himself to this person).
After prayer, I showed him my email address and phone number on the tract and told him to call me if he had any questions or needed any basic help . Please pray that this person may know the Lord.
Previous Reports:
Friday 10/09/09, Sunday 10/11/09 : Disappointment . The team came under enemy attack with sickness among volunteers and van issues. Please pray that this might not be the case, the next weekend
Saturday 10/10/09 (8pm - 12am ): Devon first and then downtown. My sister was in NY for the weekend so, missed her.
we were 4 of us witnessing this weekend. hopefully, next weekend more folks will be able to join us.
I saw my wife and my niece talking to couple of muslim guys. I stepped in and below is the conversation . I captured to the best of my memory . I later came to know and understand that muslims in chicago , particularly on Devon avenue formed a network. that whenever they see some one distributing tracts or preaching, they call few muslim debators to come and keep the christians busy so that our time is spent arguing with them instead of witnessing and reaching out to souls. We sorts of fell trap to it this weekend but we will watch out for it in the coming weekends.
Ahmed , Muslim guy : The bible was changed . chapter in kjv has less verses than in another version etc..
Me (Sam) : Do you happen to have the original injil that the koran refers to ?
Ahmed, Muslim guy : No.
Me (Sam) : Then how can you say it is changed ? The thing is, you got all your information from the internet and your argument points are all too common and they are there on the internet. Let me tell you why you are talking like this. You are probably born into a muslim family and that is why you are believing this. If you had been born into a hindu family, you would have believed and argued that hinduism is true.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : No. I read all religions.
Me (Sam) : O.k , so, which religion were you born into..
Ahmed, Muslim guy : I was born into a muslim religion.
Me (Sam) : Koran tells people to kill infidels. It is not about killing people. God wants us to love people. Jesus said love your enemies.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : You are taking it out of context. you dont know koran. Do you believe old testament?
Me (Sam) : Yes. ( i could see where he was coming from)
Ahmed, Muslim guy : Lord (who is your Jesus ) told to kill people, women, children in Old Testament.
Me (Sam) : Old testament was a shadow of things to come. People did not have salvation until Lord Jesus came. . When Jesus came, he revealed the love of God. Love your enemies. it is all about love and grace now. Jesus said, a new commandment I give you. that you love one another.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : Oh So, God changed ?
Me (Sam) : No. It was God's plan to send Jesus later and all law is fulfilled in Love. Jesus accomplished and finished it all . Old testament was not perfect. It was a shadow of things to come.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : So, God sent Jesus?, then Jesus is not God.
Me (Sam) : How can you explain that Jesus was sinless. If Jesus was human, he would have sinned. Koran says Jesus was sinless. Jesus is the only person in history that did not sin.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : Mohammed was sinless too.
Me ( Sam) : How can you say Mohammed was sinless when he killed people. Just because Koran says so ?
Ahmed, Muslim guy : killing people is not sin.
Me ( Sam) : Look at how low the human race has fallen. that they now say killing people is not sin. if you try doing it in today's wolrd, you will be put in prison. at this point, muslim guy didnt know how to counter ,thinking... no answer.
Me (Sam): You have lot of knowledge that you read on the internet and people forced the knowledge into your mind. Do you hear God talking to you ?. I hear that.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : I have koran. Koran has everything and is complete.
Me (Sam) : Well. it doesnt talk about computers. You read the testimony of this person (I said this, pointing to the tract that I distribute). He had a revelation from Jesus Christ.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : Well.. any one can say anything. Jesus was only a prophet.
Me (Sam) : Mohammed is prophet. Jesus is prophet ( in your words). then why did Mohammed Kill people and Jesus did not kill people ?
Ahmed, Muslim guy : Jesus did not have an army. Mohammed killed in self defense.
Me (Sam) : At the time of Jesus, Jews were under oppression from Romans . If any self defense should have been used , Jesus should have done it there. Why did not Jesus have an army while mohammed had ? why dont you ask this question ? . If I tell you that God revelead this terrorist the truth. You tell me that this could wrong. Then why dont you ask the question that the revelation that Mohammed had is wrong ? Why is it that you are always asking the wrong questions ? while just believing some other ? Why ? The reason is, it is not the real you, there is a force that is making you ask the questions and believe another. Similarly, there is a force that is making me believe what I believe. We have to be careful to the source of our thoughts ? Your source condones killing people (in self defense or whatever) . my source wants me to love people, enemies.. I dont want to argue.. but i hope you acknowledge it . Think about it. why are you always asking questions on few things and giving a pass to the other ?
Ahmed, Muslim guy : No answer.
Me (Sam): Read the book - gospel of john with muslim commentaries.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : I read it. it has contents which are pulled out of context.
Me (Sam): If bible were not the word of God, how can you explain all the prophecies that the bible has that are being fulfilled ? Even the nation of Israel was formed at the exact hour to the second that it is written in the bible.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : There are prophecies that were not fulfilled.
Me (Sam) : This heaven and earth shall not pass until every word in the Bible is fulfilled. The prophecies that you say are not fulfilled are in the process of getting fulfilled and waiting to be fulfilled.
Me (Sam): Jesus said love your enemies.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : That is not practical.
Me (Sam) : Again, look at how low human race has fallen that you now feel it is not practical to love enemies but it is practical to kill in self defense ? Can God be the author of such killings ? Looks like you only want to argue. God's word says that not every one will be saved. Only people to whom it is given will be saved. Do you have the assurance of going to heaven.It is not practical to love enemies. But if you are born again, with the help of Holy Spirit. It is practical to love enemies and people outside of God's plan cannot understand this.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : Yes if we believe in one God and do good.
Me (Sam) : Jesus is the way the truth and the life . no man cometh unto the father but by Jesus. You cannot work your way to salvation. humans are incapable to sae themselves.
Me (Sam) : If Jesus shall set you free. you shall be free indeed. Else, you will die in your sins. As long as a person commits sin, he is a slave of sin and not free.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : you mean to say, christians are sinless. I work among children and christians and they sin. we converted about 400 girls from christianity to Islam in Chicago. I dont kill people. I dont sin.
Me(Sam): Did you lie any time ?
Ahmed, Muslim guy : See there are levels in sin. Some are of higher degree some or low.
Me (Sam ): That could be in your eyes. God's standards are not human standards, they are much higher. Don't try to set standards for God or pretend we know his standards. In God's eye, sin is a sin. There is nothing like a drop of poison or a bucket of poison. Poison is poison.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : How can you christians say that every one has sinned ? An infant who is just born , how can he be a sinner.
Me (Sam): It is because he is born into the nature of adam. The sin I am refering to is the Sin as God sees it. Inject yourself with Aids and if you have a child who inherits it. you dont say, what is the mistake of the child. Why should he get AIDS. he gets it as he inherited. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Ahmed, Muslim guy : Jesus was a human being He went to washroom. You are believe in three Gods.
Me (Sam): You have a soul, spirit and a body(flesh and bones). It doesnt mean you are three people. You are just one person. I will pray for you. It is very cold and you are shivering. I am concerned you might fall sick. Do you want me to get some hot cofee or tea (the muslim guy's tone changed at my thought and concern for his shivering).
Ahmed, Muslim guy : Let me tell you final thing, you follow Jesus, follow the religion Jesus followed.
Me (Sam ): I dont follow any religion. I don't need one. I have a relationship with the creator and Jesus made it possible. I talk to him and hear him every day and read his word. Let me tell you. The bible is clear that not every one will be saved. If you do not understand the gospel and or if the gospel is hid from you, it is because you are lost or the enemy has blinded your eyes that you do not know the truth. It is however God's will that none should perish. You are very knowledgeable and may be you won the argument with me. I give this debate to you. But please think about your soul. What if what you are believing is not God's plan ? How can God show that to you ? Please think!
My wife (jumped in) : We dont want to argue. God told us to tell you so that you will not have an excuse on the day of judgement. You go home tonight and ask God yourself. All these days, you were taught or read on the internet about your faith. You didnt hear from God first hand. You dont know if those things (revelation of Koran was true). Similarly, I dont know if Bible was true. as we both have been told and taught . I asked God myself and know from God first hand that the bible is the truth. Similarly, you go tonight and ask God yourself to reveal his truth to you and do not rest until you get the answer from God yourself.
There were almost 5-6 muslims gathered, and i could see it was beginning to get a bit intense.. I told the muslim to send me an email and showed him that the tract had my email and the phone number as well. He was trained, he was always telling us to read koran ourselves.. sort of what we try to do to have people read God's word.
The muslim guy put his hand on his throat and promised that he will ask God tonight. later on, i came to know that muslims have set up a network in devon area that whenever they see gospel preached, they call their network and they are in full force in Devon to argue. Please continue to pray.. We really need hours of fasting and prayers to break the strong holds of the enemy. PLEASE PLEASE PRAY.
Another muslim, on seeing us distributing tracts, he asked what is this. I told him, this is about Gods love for you. God is about Love. Jesus Christ loves you. we talked for length mostly similar to the conversation above. This guy was however a bit naive in his talk. Gave him the gospel of john and told him to ask God himself directly to reveal the truth to him.
Another muslim came to us and started talking. This one said that God has given us brains and believing bible which is inconsistent defies all logic. I told him, it is not about logic because conclusions are drawn based on who is influencing the logic. It is about one's heart. Is your heart right with God. Are you sure your sins are forgiven ? You are talking the way you are talking because you were probably born into a muslim family. If you would have been born into a hindu family, you would have believed hinduism is true. It is not like that with me. My dad was a hindu.
Another two muslim gentlemen who were rather rude. they talked a bit and told one of our sisters to be very afraid as they are changing america soon and very soon america will have more muslims and the entire world will be ruled by muslims. They told the sister to say shahadah (The muslim declaration whereby a person converts to islam) The declaration reads: laa ilāha illa Allāh, wa Muḥammad(un) rasūl Allāh (translated, “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God" in English..) The arabic christian sister who volunteers with us, lost patience and told them in aloud voice, "you are going to hell if you didnt believe Jesus christ". I requeseted the sister to not use such harsh language in future but to speak the truth in love..
There was a black muslim who converted to islam from Catholic faith . Our arabic christian sister talked to him at length. Sister said that he has the seed in him ( based on his earlier catholic faith). we sowed the seed of word of God.
We have distributed literature to atleast 100+ people in downtown. There were few people in downtown because of the cold that has set in. We miss the sunny days. Pray that summer may arrive soon :)
There was more witnessing at least 10 + more conversations but time fails me to share all these with the body of christ. God willing, i will add more in the future emails.
Have a blessed week folks!
Godspeed!
Sam
Friday 10/2/09: Did not go because of Rain. Disappointment
Sunday 10/4/09: Did not go as planned because of situation in the family. The small groups ministry from 10am - 4pm was a blessing!. It was a blessing to watch young christians who are growing up with zeal for our Lord and to listen to their questions, struggles etc..
Saturday 10/3/09 (About 300 tracts were distributed out of which 50-60 muslim books for muslims):
In the drizzle Muslims on Devon received the tracts and the Gospel of John and the testimony tract that we usually distribute. Some refused to take. We started giving out the literature saying , "salaam ale kum" (translated, Peace be upon you) and boom! every single muslim received it by responding, vale kaum assalaam. (peace be upon you ..). It was late in the night between 10-12pm .. Glad we were able to give them to those people who are up very late and some times forces of darkness and evil activity are in full force.
After Devon, We were in Downtown and distributed tracts there until 2am.
A lady patted my back and yelled at me in a loud voice, "I am a GAY'. It was obvious from her facial expressions that she was expecting a rebuttal from me. I turned to her and said, "God Loves you". She was stunneed and speechless for about 30 secs.
Then we had a talk and my sister talked to her for length. She finally said, What should I do now. My sister offered her to make a decision for christ. She said that she had some issues that she had to deal with but she felt that christians are loving people not the type that media depicts them. she said she will read the testimonies and proofs online.
A lady noticed my banner from far off and came all the way and I thought to myself that she is offended in her heart. She passed by me and few steps later, came back and asked me, can I have one of those sheets that you are distributing. I wanted to tell her about Christ, when she said, that she is going to read it in full after she reaches home. Please pray.
A guy was selling necklaces on street ( probably stolen) and one of our sisters got to witness to him when he stopped by to ask what we were distributing.
There were more than 4-5 groups of Hindus who passed by us giving us a wry look. Some took tracts, some did not.
We stood on the busy intersection in downtown and on every red signal, most of the cab drivers are muslims, all muslim cab drivers got a copy of Gospel of John along with the tracts . Oh how awesome! . I was thrilled with joy seeing pure word of God flowing into the hands of the very people that our saviour died for.
Usually, when I stand with banners on me, I see cops pass by and at times the flesh in me gets a bit nervous that they might come and tell me that I am disturbing traffic. Well, this one cop car passed by today and the lady cop was just waving her hand towards me in acknowledgement of the message on the banner. and she just couldn't stop waving her hands until I waved back and she moved on to loose sight of me. It was assuring to know that folks in Chicago police department still have few believers.
Previous witnessing ( I will keep adding more in subsequent emails because cannot add all of them now because of shortage of time):
Last saturday : We started from home at 7pm and when every one was picked up, it was 11:30pm by the time we reached downtown. we were delayed by at least 1 hour because of traffic.
A person by name Ken, of african american origin stopped by one of our sisters, Sharon and started a dialogue question the authenticity of God. He was an atheist. We spent some time answering his questions and ministering to him. I gave him a copy of the gospel of john and he promised he would read it later.
A lady passed by one of our brothers, Sagar and asked him what is that you are distributing. Sagar told her about God's love for her and then she was so happy. Looks like she was hurting inside and then she said, Oh thank you for telling me that God loves me and she hugged him and left.
There was a group of youngsters 3 guys 4 girls, Hindus, Muslims and a chinese girl. Young folks who were there to go to a bar and looking at my banner, were reading it loudly. I went back to them and they were taken back. They did not think that I would go to them and dare them. I went and told them. You were reading my banner loudly. I want you to listen to me for few mins. I gave them all a copy of the tract and told them, why they believe in what they believe, It is because they are born into a family of that faith. I told them that could not possibly true as every religion cannot be true as they contradict each other. I spoke them into their face for about 5 mins. Pin drop silence. they were nodding their heads and heard me . I encouraged them to read the tract and check out the links.
Group of muslims going to club stopped by me, even after seeing my banner and asked me for a directions.. I gave them the tracts, told them to check out the link to Jihadist's testimony.
A person entered into a dialogue with my sister and had a civic meaningful (from our end) conversation for about 1 and half hour.
He was bought into Deepak Chopra's teachings. We had to leave because it was about 1am and few folks who were with us had to leave becase of church early next morning.
A jewish person stopped by my wife and began arguing telling us that we do not know much about their ancestors ( as we are from India) . We had exchanges from God's word. It was interesting, but he left in a huff saying that we made Jesus a statue. However, he was dumbfounded when his questions were answered and when asked counter questions.
Two muslim brothers, attorneys by profession were standing on the street and saw me giving out tracts and made a comment . I stopped by turned back and asked them if they had few mins to talk and had a lengthy discsussion, I made them agree to me that they are following their religion only because they were born into it and shared Christ. however, they have their own opinion and told me that I was mis guided..
Atleast 3 muslim brothers along with a Sikh brother on devon were sitting on a bench and when we preached gospel, he started saying bible is altered, god cannot have son.. the routine stuff.. and again the answers followed. The muslim asked me for injil in urdu,hindi, I couldnt give him as I did not have one. I still meet him at times but looks like he is a drunkard and not serious.. Keep praying still. Lord Jesus died for him.
A muslim guy along with his father stopped by me and told me i was mis guided, we had a lenghty discussion on God, son of God. why he is believiing what he is believing.
A hindu brother sitting on a bench alone, I went started a chat with him an asked him if he believed in God etc.. etc.. he took the tract, said until then he did not believe in any God but said, he will check online the testimony of afshin and other material in tract and will think about it. may be he said that so that he may get rid of me.
A Muslim guy very huge and scary with loud voice, stopped me and said that he is a muslim and will die muslim. I told him that he is a muslim because he is born into it. I told him that God loves him. It is not about kill kill kill but love love love.. etc..
A Hindu person questioned me if I saw hell how do I know etcc.. etc.. I countered saying, if he saw a thought. etc.. told him to read the bible, the tract verify the facts for himself and just not believe anything because he was born into it.
A hindu sister, wanted to make fun of the sentence, "There is no other way to heaven". I went back and had a chat.
ZION HOLY TRINITY TABERNACLE MINISTRIES
