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Pilgrims
Covenant Church Public Ministry Update
September 12—November 14, 2008
7,500 Gospel Tracts Distributed at Monroe Cheese Days!
Another Round of
Urgent Plea Tracts Going out in Mexico
A Providential and Timely Blessing in Utah
A Long Sought-After Victory Realized!
And the Truth Blitz Continues Unabated
Dear Friends,
There is so much to share with you in this newsletter, especially
concerning the Lord blessing us with the closure of the Monroe Planned
Parenthood. I hope that victory will encourage other Christians in various
other battles. I do want to say that we here are also encouraged by the
support we have had from so many of you and by knowing that many are
praying for this work as well. Thank you for that.
Sincerely,
Pastor Ralph Ovadal
7,500 Gospel Tracts Distributed at Monroe Cheese Days!
Every other year, the city of Monroe holds its three-day
"Cheese
Days" event which, believe it or not, draws 100,000 people from around
the nation and the world to Monroe. As usual, we at Pilgrims Covenant
Church took the opportunity to share the gospel with the teeming crowds
September 19-21. With the help of the Lord, we were able to pass out 7,500
gospel tracts! Thousands more also "heard" the gospel by way of the
very large Scripture signs we held and by one-on-one interaction with us.
In addition, we rented a billboard on the busiest intersection in town
for the whole month of September. The billboard message was the same as
the Scripture on the front of the gospel tract we had specially printed
up. The tract was titled The Value of Our Souls and the Scripture verse on
the front was "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul?" (Matthew 16:26). I am very blessed to report that relatively few
of those thousands of tracts we handed out were thrown away. We saw people
reading them and also carefully putting them into their pockets, purses,
etc. In fact, a police officer I know told me that he has never seen so
few tracts thrown on the ground after our ministry at Cheese Days. Of
course, we had some vitriol thrown our way, but we also had some
encouraging exchanges as well. All in all, our ministry at Cheese Days was
an exceedingly great victory for gospel truth, and we thank the Lord for
that!
Back to top.
Another Round of Urgent Plea Tracts Going out in Mexico
Beginning this month, Pastor Bert Craft and those who labor with him,
including a number of local pastors in Mexico, will begin distributing
another 25,000 of our Spanish
An Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics tract at
Roman Catholic festivals and events. Last year we printed 30,000 of those
tracts in Wisconsin and sent them to our brethren in Mexico. This time
around, a reliable printer, a friend of Pastor Craft's, printed the
tracts in Mexico. This resulted in elimination of expensive shipping
costs. May the Lord bless this outreach to the Roman Catholic people in
Mexico.
"'An Urgent Plea To Roman Catholics' Tract Has Been Printed And
Ready To Distribute: We praise the Lord for His provision for the printing
of 25,000 of the 'An Urgent Plea To Roman Catholics' tract. This
message, written by Ralph Ovadal, has been one of the most impacting
tracts on the common people here. Through its distribution, we have had
more opportunities to talk with people and reason through the Scriptures
than in the use of almost any other printed literature. The tract is
straight-forward and hard-hitting to a culture that is saturated with
mariolatry, idol worship, a human works salvation, and many other
abominations. Please pray that God will use this message effectually in
hearts to bring them to the truth of salvation by grace through the
consummated, redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ in His death,
burial, and resurrection."
—Bert Craft
Back to top.
A Providential and Timely Blessing in Utah
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Some of the homosexual mob who surrounded the
Mormon temple. This is one of their quieter moments.
Photo: Deseret News, November 8, 2008 |
A bright spot in the recent elections was the passing of three state
amendments to ban so-called same-sex marriage, including in liberal
California, and the passing of an initiative which bans the adoption of
children by homosexuals in Arkansas. Naturally, the homo-fascists have
responded to these defeats with a massive temper tantrum, in some areas
blocking traffic, vandalizing private property, attacking police officers
and, in general, threatening mayhem against all who oppose their perverted
agenda. Of course, New Sodom's citizens also lashed out at Mormon, Roman
Catholic, and Christian churches which supported the aforementioned
amendments. In Salt Lake City, Utah, sodomites surrounded the massive
Mormon temple to vent their madness at the Mormon church for being against
homosexual "marriage."
Providentially, we had just recently sent Utah pastor and street
preacher Lonnie Persiful 2,000 of our Homosexuality:
The Truth and What
the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality tracts free of charge. These
tracts were for distribution at sodomite events at which Pastor Persiful
and some of his brethren preach. This brother has also spent years
preaching to Mormons in Salt Lake City and exposing that false religion.
When Pastor Persiful heard the sodomites were descending on Salt Lake
City, he and ten other brothers loaded up the tracts he had just received
from us and headed for the Mormon temple where he preached and handed out
tracts to the sodomites who surrounded it! What a blessing that bold
witness ought to be to all of us, and what a blessing to know that the
Lord prompted us to provide the preacher with the very tracts needed at
that critical hour! As a footnote, it is also a blessing to see the
sodomites reveal their hearts to all those with eyes to see, including
policemen and the media. This is one of the benefits of being on the
offensive against evil. Back to top.
A Long Sought-After Victory Realized!
Back in January, 1989, I found out that Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin
had opened a clinic in our hometown of Monroe. I organized our first
picket of Planned Parenthood that very month. Over the next nineteen years
and ten months, we fought PP tooth and nail. In addition to our picketing,
preaching, and literature distribution in front of their clinic, we
employed a wide range of other tactics and tools, including countywide, to
expose and resist the filthy, bloody work of Planned Parenthood. For
instance, we used citywide information campaigns which utilized a number
of tools, such as a truck with special signs on each side that drove all
over town, including through store parking lots. At one point, we staged
an eight-hour, non-stop preach-a-thon in front of Planned Parenthood,
which was then located on the downtown square in Monroe. Another time we
put out the call to other brethren for help in a day-long truth blitz that
included preaching, picketing, lit dropping of homes, and delivering
information on Planned Parenthood to city officials. Several other times,
we employed parodies in printed form lit dropped to homes and businesses
to drive our message home. And drive it home they did, amidst much
controversy and squealing from Planned Parenthood.
We also regularly filed freedom of information requests with the police
department, various city departments, and the school district
administration. By law, all of those public entities are required to
reveal on request if they have had any interaction or association with
Planned Parenthood. My aim was, obviously, to find out that information
but also to send a message to those receiving the requests. The message
was: We are watching you. If you partner with or co-operate with Planned
Parenthood of Monroe in any way, expect to have members of Pilgrims
Covenant Church picketing and preaching in front of your offices. This
made our public officials and school officials very wary of Planned
Parenthood, and they, including the school district, steered clear of PP.
Another thing we did was to send to our local police and D.A.
documentation of Planned Parenthood misdoings and lawbreaking in other
places. An example of that would be cases in which Planned Parenthood
employees covered up statutory rape or unlawfully arranged for a minor to
have an abortion. This tended to make the city leery of Planned Parenthood
of Monroe and, in some cases, very contemptuous of that organization.
We also initiated and won two federal court cases against PP-inspired
moves against us by the Monroe City Council which passed an
unconstitutional ordinance severely restricting our freedom of speech and
also tried to use another ordinance in an unconstitutional fashion. For a
number of months, we fought that battle out on the street, with some of us
incurring multiple arrests, and also in both the state and federal courts.
In the end, the City of Monroe had to pay all of our legal costs, drop the
charges against us, and repeal their ordinance.
And thanks to Planned Parenthood, we spent some other time in the
county circuit court as well. In one instance, the state Planned
Parenthood office installed an open sodomite as the director of the Monroe
PP. This person spent much time on the sidewalk, taking pictures of us and
trying to provoke us in various ways. Of course, I preached a great deal
to him from the Word of God. Finally, the sodomite found a police officer
willing to charge me with disorderly conduct, based on some lies he told.
But the whole thing turned out to be for the hurt of PPM. I defended
myself in court and really grilled my accuser, including on homosexuality
and also the workings of Planned Parenthood. The city attorney objected,
but the judge ruled my questions were relevant to my defense. It was a
very long day for my accuser and the police officer who had charged me. In
the end, I was declared innocent and state PP officials moved the sodomite
manager to a new job elsewhere. And there was another blessing attached to
the affair: some time after the young police officer had charged me, he
approached me to engage in friendly conversation. I rebuked him for
bringing charges against a pastor on behalf of a sodomite who was acting
as an enemy of religious liberty. I also gave him a gospel tract. Months
later, I heard from a reliable source that the officer had taken the
rebuke quite seriously and was carrying the gospel tract in his pocket,
taking it out from time to time and reading it!
Planned Parenthood began in an office owned by the Monroe School
District. Our picketing ended that cozy arrangement. Next, they moved to a
plush three-room office on the square. This was a great place for us to
hand out tracts, preach, and reveal truth with our signs to the whole
community. Our constant pressure eventually forced PPM out of that suite
and into a small one-room office in the same building.
Then, several years ago, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin bought a house
for PPM, and they moved into it. But this site featured high vehicular
traffic, and so our signs, including gospel signs, exposed many town
residents and out-of-town residents to much truth. Also, the parking lot
at this location was in the back, but then the clients had to walk across
the parking lot and through the side yard and finally into the front of
Planned Parenthood. And so we set up a car with gospel signs and a picture
of an unborn baby alongside the parking lot. The young women arriving at
Planned Parenthood saw that witness coming and going. They also heard Mike
Foht preach to them until they got across the parking lot and to the back
of the PP building. Then they heard my preaching as they made the long
walk to the front and into the door of PPM. The women, and anyone else
going into PPM, had to run the same gospel gauntlet in reverse when they
left.
This move by PPM to a free-standing building of their own was heralded
as a new beginning which would feature a great expansion of Planned
Parenthood's services. Alas for the child-perverting baby killers, it
was not to be. October 20 was Planned Parenthood's last day in Monroe.
They are completely closed down, moved out of town, and their building is
up for sale.
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"The Lord hath done great things for us;
whereof we are glad." Psalm 126:3 |
I could spend pages writing about our various battles with Planned
Parenthood, but instead we have simply put together a few newspaper
headlines, reduced in size, and a few of hundreds of pictures
available in order to give some impression of the almost twenty-year
battle. Between our pro-life signs and Scripture signs, our gospel tracts,
and our preaching, we know that many unborn lives were saved; many
citizens were educated on abortion; many also heard the gospel; and there
were souls saved, including a young couple who come to my mind. We are
deeply grateful to the Lord for this encouraging victory which came in His
time, by His power, according to His will.
By the way, Mike Foht continues to represent our church at the abortion
mill in Madison, doing a great job of preaching the gospel and also
pleading for the lives of the unborn about to be murdered. Now that our
church will no longer have the weekly witness at PPM, the rest of us are
considering other ways to stand against unborn child killing.
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