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Pilgrims
Covenant Church
Public Ministry Update
January 29—April 9, 2009
"So
shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."
Isaiah 55:11
Dear Friends,
For those interested, here
is a summary of our public ministry work since the last time I sent out a
newsletter. Since there is quite a bit of ground to cover, I will keep my "opening
remarks" restricted to sharing just one of the many blessings the Lord was
pleased to bring our way. In late February, we received an e-mail from a
very angry Louisiana State University female student who had received our
gospel tract Heaven or Hell? from a Christian brother who was
preaching on that campus along with his pastor. Among other things, the
young lady wrote, "I'm a Christian though had I not been, it'd turn me off
on God, NOT to Him! You guys don't have a clue about . . . the true love
of God and being an example of Christ!" Six days after receiving that
message, the campus preacher wrote to us that the college co-ed, who was a
Roman Catholic, had been in contact with his pastor through e-mails and
phone calls. To make a long but glorious story shorter, the Lord was
pleased to humble that young woman and by the Holy Spirit work saving
faith in her heart. We bless the Lord for the witness and labor of that
college preacher and his pastor. And as another reminder that the
distribution of gospel tracts is a worthwhile work, we leave this matter
with a quote from the campus preacher: "Just thought you would like to
know your tracts were greatly used in this girl's conversion."
As always, we are very
grateful to those who pray for, and support, the public ministry work of
PCC. I hope all of you are encouraged by this ministry summary.
Sincerely,
Pastor Ralph Ovadal
Witness
at the WIAA State Boys' Wrestling Championships
This most encouraging
witness took place at the Kohl Center in Madison. These statewide high
school sporting events are an excellent opportunity for a gospel witness.
The crowds are large, come from diverse areas of the state; and the
attendees are predominantly young. Our witness at the boys' wrestling
championships this year took place on Saturday, February 28. For various
reasons, there were only five of us available for the work. One of our
number held a large free-standing Scripture sign while the other four gave
out gospel tracts. While there was some contempt shown us, mostly from the
older set, there was also a real openness to take the gospel tract, which
was The Value of Our Souls. In some cases, there was even an
eagerness to receive that tract. In the window of opportunity we had,
which was not all that long, we were able to give out over 1,500 gospel
tracts. Now, that in itself is wonderful news, but it gets even better. No
more than thirty of our gospel tracts were thrown on the ground or in the
waste receptacle in front of the Kohl Center entrance! I have never in my
life seen so few tracts discarded per the number handed out. This was
nothing less than a great encouragement from the Lord! We trust that in
His time He will bring a bountiful harvest from that gospel sowing.
Madison
Metro Bus Campaign
In February, it was brought
to my attention that the Madison, Wisconsin based Freedom From Religion
Foundation had posted small messages on the inside of Madison Metro buses.
The FFRF postings consisted of quotes from "free thinkers"—quotes
mocking the existence of God.
On March 9, our response
began appearing on the outside of eleven Madison Metro buses. Our message,
in beautiful color, was taken from Psalm 14:1— "The fool hath said in
his heart, There is no God." For one month, the buses with our message
were rotated around Madison, including having a heavy presence on the UW
campus. Several of the buses also spent time in Fitchburg and Verona.
The media, via the
Associated Press, covered our campaign very well, including across the
nation and, in at least one instance, in the overseas press. The story was
also reported on radio and television. The best part about the press
reports is that they uniformly included Psalm 14:1! For instance, the
Wisconsin State Journal article included a picture of our message on a
front page. Of course, FFRF reacted as we expected, by squealing that we
had resorted to name calling while they had taken "the higher road." My
church and I were also excoriated on many a media blog and, in some cases,
in e-mails sent to us, including from an ELCA Lutheran woman "pastor."
But, on the other side of the ledger, in addition to the Word of God being
shared with a multitude through the bus messages and media reports, for a
number of days, hits to our church web site increased three- to five-fold.
Every single one of those visitors was exposed to a hefty dose of biblical
truth, including the gospel. It was also clear from the e-mails we
received that many Christians across the nation were inspired by our
campaign to do more for the Lord. We are extremely grateful to the Lord
for all of this which we saw, and so much more which we did not see,
including the work of the Holy Spirit on many a heart. My thanks again to
those Christians from other churches who gave special gifts to help us
undertake this biblical response to the mocking of our God.
"Saint"
Patrick's Day Witness
On March 17, several of us
set up a gospel sign and gave out gospel tracts at the small St. Patrick's
Day Parade here in Monroe. Even though we are well-known and have handed
out many tracts in this town, we were very gratified by the number of
tracts we were still able to distribute.
Another
State Championship. Another Gospel Witness.
Saturday, March 21, found
us back at the Kohl Center in Madison to share the gospel at the WIAA boys'
basketball championships. This witness also went quite well, although the
crowd was smaller than the wrestling crowd and perhaps not quite as
receptive to the gospel. Nevertheless, we gave a good number of tracts
and, again, there were few discarded. We are certain the Lord will work
good and glorify Himself by the gospel message we proclaimed.
Spring
Preaching Conference
I thought it might
encourage many of you to hear just a few words concerning our church's
Spring Preaching Conference, which this year was held on March 28. In
spite of the weatherman threatening us with eight inches of snow which
resulted in a number of individuals canceling plans to attend,
approximately eighty individuals from five states were present for the
conference. From all reports, many were greatly encouraged, in some cases
convicted, by the messages preached. In addition, a great deal of
biblically sound literature and books, including from the Trinitarian
Bible Society, went home with the attendees. Those of us from PCC are
grateful that the Lord so richly blessed the conference and, we trust,
also our guest speakers. The conference messages are available from our
church on tape and CD. I would also encourage those who have not yet
visited the web site of the Trinitarian Bible Society to do so at www.trinitarianbiblesociety.org.
A
Heaven-Sent Witness to Romanists
On March 31, I traveled
with Rev. Stephen Holland to Madison. Rev. Holland, a Welshman who pastors
a church in England, was a guest speaker at our Spring Preaching
Conference. My plan was to show Rev. Holland around our state capitol
building and combine that with literature distribution to members of an
ecumenical pro-family organization. That organization, the Wisconsin
Family Council, was holding a lobby day and also a prayer meeting in the
state capitol. Of course, the organization does good work politically; but
unfortunately it is run as a ministry, a ministry with both Roman
Catholics and Protestants as members. Our plan was to hand out the PCC
tract An Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics along with our booklet
Romanizing America through Illegal Immigration. This we did by an exit to
the capitol as WFC lobbyists were leaving. While we did not get a large
amount of literature out, we handed out enough to have an effect. But in
the providence of God, we also found out from a Roman Catholic that the
Wisconsin Catholic Conference was holding a conference in the nearby
Monona Terrace Convention Center! This lady even told us the time that the
350 Romanists, including a number of priests, would be coming out of the
building. Now, to make this "coincidence" even more amazing, the subject
of the meeting of the WCC was immigration policy! Suffice it to say, Rev.
Holland and I gratefully took advantage of this heaven-sent opportunity to
pass out our Urgent Plea tract along with the Romanizing booklet.
By the grace of the Lord and with His assistance, an astounding number of
Roman Catholics took our literature as they came out of the doors of the
conference center and milled about, waiting to board buses. Rev. Holland
and I went home rejoicing, although the same could not be said for the WCC
priests.
Steubenville
Mailing Campaign
Toward the end of January,
we sent out a mass mailing to all Steubenville, Ohio rural homes.
Steubenville University is a Roman Catholic School, Franciscan to be
precise. The area is saturated with Romanism, and so we decided to do a
little saturation of our own with An Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics
along with our Heaven or Hell? gospel tract. As I said, each rural
home in that area received both tracts through the mail. Readers of this
newsletter might be interested to know that the pope may have had a
faithful disciple working at the Steubenville post office. I say that
because in February, a few weeks after we sent out the mass mailing from
the Monroe post office, we received a call from an upset postal employee
from that same post office. Our trays of mail had come back, minus their
identifying tags and paperwork! This postal worker, who is one public
employee well worth his salary, made it his business to get our mass
mailing back to Steubenville and out to its intended recipients. As I
understand it from previous mailings we have done, the post office has the
right to check the contents of such a mailing by opening one of the
envelopes in it; thus my hypothesis concerning the Roman Catholic postal
employee in Steubenville. You may trust me when I tell you, this is not
the first time we have had strange things happen along the way when we
have set out to dispel popish darkness with gospel light. As we have
funds, we hope to send out more such mailings to strongholds of Romanism
around the country.
PCC
Door-to-Door Lit Dropping Summary
Several of our PCC members
have again been lit dropping gospel tracts in Monroe all winter long. When
the town is covered with one gospel tract, the process is begun over with
a different tract. Since the last newsletter, PCC has also lit dropped
gospel tracts in Hazel Green, Madison, and Milwaukee (UW-Milwaukee
neighborhood). PCC has lit dropped either Homosexuality: The Truth
or What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality (those tracts
also contain the gospel) in the following cities and towns: Appleton, Fond
du Lac, Kaukauna, Kimberly, Madison, Middleton, Milwaukee, Muskego, New
Berlin, and Seymour, Wisconsin; Anamosa, Clinton, Iowa; and McHenry,
Illinois.
PCC
provided quantities of literature free of charge to trusted brethren for
distribution in the following places: Heaven or Hell?:
Platteville, Wisconsin. • An Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics
(English): Madison and Palmyra, Wisconsin. • What the Bible Really
Says about Homosexuality: Janesville, Palmyra, and Racine, Wisconsin.
• Homosexuality: The Truth: Janesville, Milwaukee, Palmyra,
Racine, and West Bend, Wisconsin; and Claude, Texas.
PCC
provided our literature for cost for distribution in the following places:
Heaven or Hell?: Palmyra, Wisconsin; Westminster, California;
Omaha, Nebraska; and Cunningham, Tennessee. • The Value of Our Souls:
Omaha, Nebraska. • An Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics (English):
Amery, Wisconsin; Westminster, California; and Cunningham, Tennessee. • An
Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics (Spanish): Palmyra, Wisconsin and
Westminster, California. • Romanizing America through Illegal
Immigration: Janesville, Wisconsin. • No Excuses: Palmyra,
Wisconsin and Westminster, California. • What the Bible Really Says
about Homosexuality: Westminster, California and Omaha, Nebraska. • Homosexuality:
The Truth: Omaha, Nebraska.
Click
here
for an order form for the items listed below.
PCC Spring Preaching Conference
Conference messages available on CD or tape for a gift of $2.50 each or
$6 for all three. Click on the links to listen online.
•
Revivals in Wales: God’s Past
Blessings
on a Nation, Rev. Stephen Holland, Westhoughton Evangelical Church,
Westhoughton, England
• The English Bible: Does It Matter Which One?
Mr. Alastair Matthews, Representative, Trinitarian Bible Society—USA
• Ye Serve the Lord
Christ, Pastor Ralph
Ovadal
Books/Booklets
Romanizing America through Illegal Immigration by Ralph
Ovadal (booklet)—gift of $.75
More Than These: A Call for Reformation by Ralph Ovadal (270
pages)—gift of $8.00—free
online!
Tracts
What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality—gift of $.06 each
Homosexuality: The Truth—gift of $.08 each
An Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics—gift of
$.07 each
SPANISH An Urgent Plea to Roman Catholics—gift of
$.07
each
Heaven or Hell?
gospel tract—gift of $.06 each
NEW!
The Value of Our Souls gospel tract—gift
of $.06 each
No Excuses! PCC's pro-life/gospel tract— gift of $.06 each
Subscriptions
Sermons—8 weeks on CD or tape for gift of $13
Heart of the Matter—8 weeks on CD or tape for gift of $13
Heart of the Matter/Sermon Combo—8 weeks on CD or tape for gift of $19
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