Project Thessalonica

Hallelujah! GREEK PROFESSIONS OF FAITH!!!

Our dear Avra, the Greek lady for which we have prayed so many months, brought her sister and daughter to our street meeting yesterday AND declared to us that she was SAVED! She has heard so many messages throughout the last months of her faithful attendance in church. We have talked with her for hours with an open Bible. She said that she had called out to the Lord for salvation and that the tears wouldn’t stop rolling down her face. She said for three days she has been overwhelmed by this experience. You must understand. From an Orthodox person’s understanding, there is NOTHING to experience with God. Everything is impersonal. Nothing has heart. Everything is in the mind and in vain exercise of habitual tradition. For an Orthodox person to receive salvation and have the Holy Ghost fill their soul, I would not imagine it would be any thing less than an EXPERIENCE. We will continue to follow-up with her about her profession, but nonetheless, it is her profession of faith in Jesus Christ that now she knows she is saved. We do not tell people that they are saved but make them tell us. Whatever emotion, peace, joy, or other experiences she is having in her heart is secondary in our minds (although not in her’s). Avra said yesterday, “When I first heard you preaching about being born again, I knew two things. You knew you were, and I knew I wasn’t and needed to meet you to know how. I now understand.” Glory! Pray for this dear soul. There is no way to get into anyone’s mind or heart. We can never know the true condition of the hearts of others before God, but we can continue to give God’s words over and over to instruct them through the Holy Scriptures.

Another dear Greek lady named Harula that has been attending our church services also said after one of our meetings that she was now saved after calling upon the Lord. We will continue to follow-up on her as well to make sure she has a true Biblical understanding of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

THE FRUIT IS COMING BRETHREN…stay tuned and keep praying.

Great Street Meeting!!!
Too much to tell…

NEW TEAM HITS THESSALONIKI

The combined families of the Logan brothers are now serving on the streets of Thessaloniki, Greece for the Saviour. Pastor Joel Logan of Sweet Springs Baptist Church (Ardmore, AL.) brought his entire family and another young man to labor for the sake of the gospel with Bro. Brent’s family and Bro. Angelo.

Today, after grocery shopping for the largest team yet (13 people), we covered several more streets in the town of Thermi with our Gospels of John stuffed with tracts and our contact information. It will take several more trips to finish this small suburb of Thessaloniki.

The little ones make effective witnesses. Don’t underestimate them! See the picture of 5 year old Megan handing out a Gospel of John to a vendor on the street in Thermi.

We are excited as to what the next day will hold in the city center! What a joy for families to serve our wonderful Master together!

We reached out to yet another town in the suburbs of Thessaloniki. Thermi has a population of about 20,000 people (map below). It will take a much longer amount of time to place a Gospel of John with tract in each dwelling than it did in Neo Risio, but by the grace of God we will complete this with the next team coming. A map with all the streets in this city was printed off so as not to miss any area. We have already received one phone call with a promise to come to church. Bro. Rick Thompson and Bro. Greg Cook from Spring City Baptist Church in Virginia were a great help and blessing in all of our outreaches for the past two weeks. We hated to see them fly back home. May God give strength to continue on week by week to warn every man and preach to every creature.

“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision”
(Joel 3:14)

Our day was again the same as we stood for the truth of the glorious gospel of Christ. The faces, names, and conversations change, but the theme always remains. Some mock while others ignore. Some get visibly angry in contrast to curiosity and serious interest in Bible discussions. Most have no idea how to go to heaven. We are doing our best to show them.

One man went nuts and interrupted Angelo’s gospel discussion with two ladies (picture below). He was screaming profusely. We tried to calm him down to no avail. He cursed us in Greek and then in English declaring the Orthodox church to be the only way of salvation. With the vile dirty words proceeding out of his mouth, Bro. Logan was able to separate him from Angelo so that the witnessing with the ladies could continue. The filthiest English words you have ever heard were hurled at Bro. Logan. He responded by asking whether or not he had learned these words from his wonderful all-saving church. “Is this how they teach you to speak?” Baffled and speechless, the man stopped his diatribe but made excuse for himself by saying that he wasn’t really a believer, but he knew he was still right. The Lord used the violent behavior of the man to stir others around the square. People began approaching us in curiosity over this event. DIscussion after discussion over the Bible continued. The Lord had turned something bad into a good opportunity.

Once again, we received several promises from people to come to church and learn the word of God. How we wish these promises would come to fruition! We are still waiting on so many.

Each conversation is important. Every soul is eternally precious. We attempt to reach them one at a time. This is the heart of the Great Commission. They are all in the valley of decision and are making those decisions. The day soon approaches that will reveal whether they made the right choice.

The Bible says that “Jesus went about all the cities and villages” (Matt.9:35). Our desire is to do the same. While we continue to reach out to the multitudes in the city of Thessaloniki, we desire to reach those in the surrounding rural areas as well. One such place is where the Logan family and the missions house is located. A decision was made at the beginning to live in an out-of-town area to give some respite from the concrete jungle in which the labor is done from day to day. That place is Neo Rysio. It is a small town of about 4000 people. It is very quiet without the trappings of city life, however, it holds all the basic necessities to live. It is also a place that needs the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is one Orthodox church in the town. There is, of course, no Bible witness outside of our efforts. This week our team from Virginia worked hard and covered the entire town (door to door) with Gospels of John and tracts with our information inside. Stuffing mailboxes is something very normal here. If there is no box, then the gate outside is the receptacle for advertisements, bills, mail, or TRACTS. We are praying that God will speak to the hearts of those in our “village” and that they will give God an open door in their lives. As of this week, they can never say there was no one who cared for their souls. We have tried to reach them. By God’s grace as we continue to witness in Thessaloniki, we will not forget the surrounding suburbs and towns. We have the literature so now we must work to get it to every soul.

EARNESTLY CONTEND FOR THE FAITH WHICH WAS ONCE DELIVERED UNTO THE SAINTS

Today was exhilarating in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. The crowds were mostly back to normal. We were eager to give them the gospel. We were not disappointed. It was action from the outset.

After prayer was made for the power of the Holy Ghost in our preaching to touch the hearts of those who hear, Bro. Logan began to preach. A priest sat idly by in conversation with someone. He began to listen. He saw the Scripture signs. He listened more intently. His heart was pricked with cries of “Mono Isus sozi” (Only Jesus Saves!). The priest angrily approached Bro. Logan and began yelling at him. The preaching continued unabated. The priest then verbally attacked Bro. Angelo saying he was full of the devil. He told Angelo he would have him arrested. “How dare you come into our country with your garbage! Take your garbage and get out of our country. You are all going to hell.” The preaching continued. A crowd gathered as Angelo contended for the faith once delivered in this city by the apostle Paul. A larger crowd gathered. Shouts were raised. Some condemning us and others condemning the priest. The power of the preaching of the gospel was at work in hearts. All were responding in some way.

Angelo let the crowd know that there was only one mediator and that Jesus was the only Savior. “This priest can’t save you. He didn’t die for your sins. He can’t give you eternal life. He needs to be saved just like you.” Shouts rang out…”You can’t talk that way to a priest.” An unknown man shouts out, “They are speaking the truth. This priest is corrupt. He’s in it for the money.” The crowd grew bigger. Three fourths of the people were cursing us. A lady we vaguely remember from a month or so ago came through the crowd and grabbed Angelo’s hand, telling him to get out of there. “Don’t waste your time with the priest, just preach to the people.” Angelo began to preach in Greek. Bro. Logan was still preaching at the same time in English. Two messages going on at the same time pleading with about 40 captivated people to repent and believe the gospel. The scene was surreal.

A different man, with whom we exchanged information later, lifted up his voice and said, “These men are preaching the truth!” With tears in his eyes he began to beg the people to trust Christ. “You need to be born again.” Thank God for His children wherever they are. At the right time, God brings them out when the redeemed of the Lord must say so.

The priest made good on his threats. He went to the police. They came as the crowd dispersed. I asked if there was a problem. The officer said, “There’s no problem. We just need to see your identification. We knew it was you guys.” PRAISE GOD! Angelo and the officer spoke very friendly to one another. The only thing they instructed us to do was not to leave one of the Scripture signs propped up unattended. 🙂 We continue to have God-given liberty.

I know this report sounds too over the top. I wish you could have been here to see it. The power of the Holy Ghost in the preaching of the word of God is alive and well in 2012. May Jesus Christ be praised and pleased for the honor which is ours to represent His worthy name to a lost and dying world.

Something New In Thessaloniki…Empty streets and sidewalks

Today was the great wicked Greek Orthodox holiday for the Virgin Mary. It is called Panaghia or Dekapentavgoustos (proclaiming Mary to have ascended to heaven as Jesus) and is the 3rd most important holiday in the land of Greece. Multitudes go for a ten minute walk through an Orthodox church (a very unusual event for people in Greece) in order to worship and pray to Mary whom they call the mother of God. She is asked to perform miracles for them. Her pictures are kissed and bowed down to. Candles are lit in her honor. It is most pagan. Then, they walk out to go back to their life of sin and disregard for the word of God. With their quick meaningless religious ritual done, the majority pack up and go to the beach. Therefore, because of this, no one is in the public square.

In spite of hearing of these events, we were determined to try our best to represent Jesus this day. With our new team from Spring City Baptist Church (Lebanon, Virginia), we went to evangelize and found the city as we had never seen it before. The pedestrians were gone (picture below). We stayed for a few hours with our scripture signs and gave tracts to the very few that walked by. We then packed up and went to another location at the Galerius Arch. It was no better there except for the fact that there was a large Orthodox church nearby where people were coming in and out. We stood our ground in front of this shrine with the word of God meeting them. Pray for this land of spiritual deception and darkness.

Bro. Angelo did have several good conversations today. One in particular merits your intercessions. Katerina (pictured below) approached Benjamin and was directed toward Angelo who was already speaking with a man about Christ. Katerina thought she was accepted in the sight of God because of her religiosity and the dreams/visions she had. Angelo sat and showed her the Bible. She read for herself how Satan deceives with signs, miracles, and lying wonders. For over half an hour she sat and read aloud the Scriptures. After her reading, she became very scared and convicted in her spirit. With tears, she acknowledged that she was not saved. Angelo exhorted her to receive Christ. She promised to consider these things and to come to church, howbeit, in a few weeks when she returns from her holiday.