Pilgrims Covenant Church - 10-3-07 Newsletter

It is time for me to update you with a summary of our PCC public ministry work. This is the public ministry work to which we apply the gifts we receive from many of you. We do not put any of that money toward such things as our church needs or support for our overseas missions efforts. Summary is the key word in my first sentence since it would tax my time, and probably your patience, if I tried to give you an in-depth report on all the ministry work carried on by PCC members and those whom we supply with literature.

Before we turn to that summary, I want to pass on an item which may interest you. Last newsletter, I reported on our ministry in front of the "Christian" rock festival called Cornerstone. I mentioned that while we were there, I was interviewed by a reporter for a British newspaper. The very long, in-depth article he wrote was published in the Observer. We were thankful for the witness which was provided by the following portion:

Not everyone is happy to see it there: plenty of believers still hold that rock'n'roll of any kind is still the devil's music, and that Christian rock is the first step on a slippery slope to perdition.

On the first morning of Cornerstone, protestors gather outside the main gate, brandishing signs that read 'Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness', and 'Cornerstone Dishonours God' at the stream of traffic heading into the campsite.

The leader of the demonstration is Pastor Ralph Ovadal, a self-described 'fundamentalist' in a baseball cap, who tells me that he is deeply concerned about what goes on at the festival. 'We believe Cornerstone dishonours God because the music itself is dishonourable. It's not reverential—it's raucous, worldly and crude,' he says. 'Cornerstone is a worldly carnival that will corrupt the hearts and minds of God's people.' He wishes me a good day, and as we part, hands me a tract entitled: 'How can ye escape the damnation of hell?'

For the record, the hat I was wearing was not a "a baseball cap" but just a plain old cap. But I did want to pass that excerpt from the Observer on to you as an example of how the Lord often amplifies the truth shared during open-air ministry. The Chicago Sun Times also did a story on our ministry at Cornerstone and also included a good quote in that article. We thank the Lord for the mercy and grace He so freely bestows on those in His service. We are also grateful to all of you who pray for and support this ministry effort. I hope you are encouraged by this report. Back to top.

Mike Foht continues his almost weekly gospel witness and preaching on State Street in Madison, along with our brother Dale Stanford. On September 5, Pastor David Carson of Chester, England and I joined in the preaching, tract distribution, and gospel sign display. Pastor Carson preached at our annual PCC camp meeting and was delighted to have the chance to also preach to the crowds on State Street. We did have some worthwhile conversations and got out a good number of tracts, considering most of our audience were university students. As is to be expected, our most vocal critics were neo-evangelical Christians and a Roman Catholic man. But the gospel was preached, and for that we rejoiced.

By the way, Mike Foht continues to also minister at an abortion clinic in Madison on a weekly basis. As I am sure you know, a number of us also continue to minister every week at our local Planned Parenthood. Back to top.

On Tuesday, September 18, and the next day, a small group of us from PCC set up a gospel display for the benefit—eternal in some cases, we trust—of attendees of Farm Technology Days which this year was held near Albany, Wisconsin. The bad news is that the first day, we had no end of trouble with a Department of Transportation official who insisted we were "interfering with traffic" by displaying our gospel signs. The good news is that our Green County Sheriff's Department and the State Patrol officers on hand had much more regard for religious liberty and, I think in the case of some, the good news of the gospel. Certainly, they saw that we were not interfering with traffic and certainly were no danger to anyone except the devil. To make a long story short, the DOT man did not get his way, and we ended up having a very fruitful time of ministry.

On the second day, we set up our display very close to the entrance to Farm Technology Days, which I am told is attended by 120,000 people. We spaced out our large signs which began with the text of Mark 8:36 and ended with the text of Romans 6:23. We hit just the right time; and for the better part of 2-1/2 hours, the road alongside which we stood was jammed with barely moving, sometimes not moving, cars, including many bus loads of school children. Our mostly rural audience was, for the most part, very accepting and even supportive of our message. At times, we received unsolicited waves and verbal encouragement from the occupants of as many as ten cars in a row before several would go by which showed no interest. We had only a handful of negative responses. In short, we seemed to be on good ground for gospel seed sowing, and we were very encouraged, trusting that the Lord had done a great work in the hearts of many through our witness. Back to top.

The translating of our tract An Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics is finished. I have confidence this translation done by a team headed up by missionary to Mexico Bert Craft will be an excellent and accurate one. Brother Craft is sound in doctrine, fluent in Spanish; and has made certain the Scriptures included are from a Spanish Bible faithfully translated from the Received Text. We have put in an order to the printer for 30,000 Spanish Urgent Plea tracts which we will send to Bert Craft, at no charge to him, who in turn will distribute them at Roman Catholic festivals in his area of Mexico. These tracts will not have our contact points but rather the information which will put seekers in contact with our brother in Mexico.

But we will also be printing this Spanish version of Urgent Plea with our normal contact information for distribution in America, or for that matter, other countries as well. There are many Spanish-speaking Roman Catholics in America, and that number is growing. This Spanish tract will be invaluable in exposing the darkness of the pope's church and sharing the gospel with Roman Catholics. A Hispanic pastor in the Omaha, Nebraska area has asked if we could provide him with a quantity of the Spanish Urgent Plea tract for distribution to the large Spanish-speaking community in that town. That pastor told us, "This tract has powerful truth which needs to be shared." We have promised him that as soon as the Spanish Urgent Plea is printed, we will provide him a large quantity, at no charge, to distribute. Of course, we also use and supply others with our Urgent Plea tract in English.

Quite frankly, members of PCC and our friends are going through an enormous amount of literature, including that tract of which I have been speaking. Consequently, we are very thankful for those who generously support this work, especially at this time. Back to top.

Recently, the sodomites and their friends steamrolled over strong public opinion and against the wishes of the majority of the taxpayers in Rockton, Illinois, instituting a Gay-Straight Alliance in the local school. The good news is that two men with PCC and the wife of one of those two men have lit dropped almost every home in that town with our brochure What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality and have also done several public witnesses using signs with biblical messages about homosexuality. I cannot help but think that this sodomite victory in Rockton is the sort of triumph which in the end will ruin the homo-fascists. Their effort to start a GSA club showed the homo-fascist heart of New Sodom and stirred up a good number of apathetic citizens who formerly may have thought homosexuality was a benign issue which did not affect them. The contest over the Rockton GSA club made homosexuality an issue of great controversy which in turn made it a perfect time to lit drop our tracts in that town.

One of the brothers who did the work in Rockton also distributed our gospel tract, Heaven or Hell?, at a Northern Illinois University football game in September. Back to top.

• Door-to-Door Lit Dropping by PCC: • Heaven or Hell? gospel tracts: Argyle, Brodhead, Monroe, Wisconsin; Freeport and Rockford, Illinois • How Long Have I to Live? gospel tracts: Albany, Wisconsin • Urgent Plea: Monroe, Wisconsin; Genoa and Warren, Illinois • Bible or Truth: Brookfield, Eagle, East Troy, Hartford, Howards Grove, Kenosha, Manitowoc, Mequon, Sturtevant, Two Rivers, Waupun, Wisconsin; Rockford and Rockton, Illinois.

• PCC provided literature at no cost for distribution by brethren in the following places: • Heaven or Hell?: Aurora, Illinois • Bible: Appleton, Cazenovia, Milwaukee, Mukwonago, Palmyra, Platteville, Wisconsin; Aurora, Illinois. • Truth: Appleton, Milwaukee, Mukwonago, Palmyra, Platteville, Racine, Wisconsin; Aurora, Illinois; and Merritt, Michigan • Urgent Plea: Appleton, Little Suamico, Mayville, Milwaukee, Mukwonago, Palmyra, Platteville, Wisconsin; Aurora, Illinois; and Merritt, Michigan.

• PCC provided literature at cost for distribution in the following places: • Heaven or Hell?: Milwaukee, Mukwonago, Palmyra, Racine, Viroqua, Wisconsin; Eagan, Minnesota; and Newquay, Cornwall, England • Bible: Collegeville, Pennsylvania; Bothel, Washington • Truth: Collegeville, Pennsylvania • No Excuses: Appleton, Brookfield, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Independence and Milo, Missouri • Urgent Plea: Eagan, Minnesota; Independence, Missouri. Back to top.

Here are some examples of the encouraging feedback we have had over the past two months. We certainly hear plenty which would be the dead opposite of this, especially from sodomites. But here, for your encouragement, is some of the good stuff.

• Australia: "We are always encouraged by reading about the 'hands on' work you do to further the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Also thank you for sharing your sermons with us too. God bless you and your precious work."

• Rhode Island: "I'm writing to say that I am so grateful for your messages. Thank you for passionately defending the truth. . . . You've enlightened me to the truth about neo-evangelicals and other ecumenical evil of our day. . . . Thank you for sounding the alarm and staying true to that belief about the true antichrist."

• Canada: "I've been listening to your Heart of the Matter program & some of your sermons for over a year, and I'm currently listening to your interview with Steve Armbruster. As a police officer (the Royal Canadian Mounted Police), I wanted to thank you for this program—it was very encouraging."

• Idaho: "I have listened to a number of your messages on Sermon Audio finding them refreshing to a weary soul. . . . Hold fast and give no quarter to the enemy."

• California: "I want to thank you for your sermons and your Heart of the Matter Program."

• Northern Ireland: "I do enjoy your Heart of the Matter broadcasts. As a life long resident of Northern Ireland I appreciate your genuine interest in my beloved land . . . May the Lord strengthen you in witness in America."

• Finland: "I am listening to your podcast with the former Greek Orthodox. Presently, I am studying Orthodoxy and their theology and it has a lot of good points. But...icons, praying to the saints among other points I disagree. Do you have a website of this former Orthodox man who you are interviewing? Thank you."

• Switzerland: "The voices against Romanism are getting fewer and fewer. . . . May God bless your ministry and protect you against the enemies of Christ, so you may be able to continue to sound the alarm."

• Wisconsin: "I agree with your stand (100%) on the Roman Catholic religion. Thank you for the good tract you put out, An Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics. . . . Keep up the good work. God bless you!"

• South Carolina: "Thank you for your stand against ecumenism/Romanism . . . I see Roman Catholicism as a great threat to the true Christian church in America."

• Illinois: "I greatly appreciate your Urgent Plea tract, and it seems to be one-of-a-kind. . . . I share your belief that there is no more urgent call than to stand against the error of our day that is coming from so-called 'Christian' sources and the antichrist church."

• Milwaukee, Wisconsin: "It's been 5 years since we started lit-dropping. . . . [We] have lit-dropped 48,100 [PCC brochures]. We will continue on, Lord willing. . . . We are just a handful of people, but God is Almighty . . . All glory to God, and thank you, Pilgrims Covenant Church, for the literature and support! For Christ, not man, is King!"

• Omaha, Nebraska: "I just wanted to thank the Lord and to thank you all for all that you do. The sermons, the Heart of the Matter, the tracts, the camp meetings. . . . Thanks for printing up the Catholic tracts and sending me 1,000."

• Brodhead, Wisconsin: "We found a gospel tract on our doorstep today from your church and it is excellent! It is excellent because it is true."