|
Hello, Tammy!
WCU's 2004 Debut at Mazo Beach
Sowing Gospel Seed at the Farmers Market
A Great Time of Gospel Ministry at "The Great Circus Parade"
Two WCU Pickets Touch Thousands from around the Nation
Round One
Bringing Light to a Very Dark Event
Yes, we get good mail also!
A Parting Word
"Give unto the
Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of
holiness."
Psalm 29:2
WCU lit dropped homes in:
Hustisford, Neosho, Blue Mounds, Barneveld, Beloit, Brooklyn, Stoughton,
Mayville, Cambridge, Deerfield, Fort Atkinson, Viroqua, Readstown, Lake
Delton, North Freedom, Cuba City, Johnson Creek, Cambria, Friesland,
Dalton, New Glarus, Kendall, Wilton, and Norwalk; and passed out
literature to students at Argyle High School.
 |
|
One corner of a WCU
picket in New Glarus |
WCU literature was distributed
by others in: Cambria, Campbellsport, Cazenovia, East Troy,
Franklin, Janesville, LaFarge, Milwaukee, Mt. Horeb, Mukwonago, Sheboygan,
Viroqua, and Waukesha; Anza, California; Prophetstown and Rockton,
Illinois; Lynchburg, Virginia; and Bellingham, Washington.
WCU conducted pickets in:
Monroe (two), Mayville, Fort Atkinson, Viroqua, Wisconsin Dells, Baraboo,
and New Glarus.
Hello,
Tammy!
Congresslesbian Tammy
Baldwin visited Monroe on May 26 to meet with constituents at
the local senior center. Once again, my church, Pilgrims Covenant, was on
hand with signs, banners, and tracts to witness to Tammy and the crowd she
drew. The former was confronted and preached to as she scampered from her
car to a back door of the center. The latter consisted mostly of the
"I don't care what she does in private; I only care what she will do
for me with public funds" crowd. Everyone was offered literature;
everyone saw our signs; and many heard some preaching. The mostly elderly
crowd included only a few who were warmly sympathetic to us while the rest
were outrightly hostile. One robust woman in her upper sixties even made a
very determined effort to wrestle Mike Foht's sign away from him! Although
Mike was outweighed and the woman had the experience of years on her side,
our brother prevailed. By the way, Mike's sign read, "Christ can set
you free." "For the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of
God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). Back to top.
WCU's
2004 Debut at Mazo Beach
About thirty Christians joined with WCU to picket,
preach, pray, and witness at the Mazo
nude beach on Saturday, June 12. Four squad cars and four law
enforcement officers arrived shortly after we set up our gospel gauntlet
on the walk to the beach and put out our first responders in the parking
lot. As usual, we did not go to the beach itself where the nudity takes
place. The officers stayed on site the entire six hours we manned our
posts. Because of the torrential rains which Wisconsin had been
experiencing at the time of our ministry, the beach did not really exist.
However, a greatly reduced group of very nasty nudists made their way to
the beach area anyway in order to do the things they do so well. Police
officers stepped in on several occasions to calm down volatile nudists who
did not want to hear God's Word preached, to say the least. "Get
you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of
Israel to cease from before us" (Isaiah 30:11). By the time the
day ended, several hundred beachgoers had heard a clear message of God's
grace preceded by God's law.
 |
|
The start of WCU's
gospel gauntlet at Mazo Beach |
All the Christians on site conducted themselves with
great integrity and restraint, contrary to reports circulated by Ingrid
Schlueter of VCY America radio. On her June 29 "Crosstalk"
program, Ingrid poured out vitriol upon those who have the courage to
minister at Mazo under very trying conditions. The many slanderous things
which Ingrid stated included this: "And I do not agree with the
bullhorn strategy of standing out. And I know some activists in this state
that do that. They'll go out there to Mazomanie Beach; and they'll stand
there, screaming abuse. They call it preaching, but it's abuse -- ah,
screaming, 'Lousy sodomites.'" Praise the Lord that in spite of
threats from the devil's people and scorn from some calling themselves the
Lord's people, there are still Christians who minister at Mazo Beach.
Their efforts have contained the spread of public nudity and have caused
the incidents of children being taken to the beach to drop precipitously.
Ingrid Schlueter, by the way, has never witnessed our ministry at Mazo
Beach. Back to top.
Sowing
Gospel Seed at the Farmers Market
 |
|
Mike Foht handing out
gospel tracts at the capitol |
WCU spent Saturday, June 19, holding gospel banners,
passing out tracts, and preaching the gospel to 20,000 people at the
farmers market in Madison. We were able to hand out over 3,000 gospel
tracts and had many one-on-one conversations as a number of us
took turns preaching from God's Word. My high point came when a girl of
about nine walked up to me while I was preaching and asked to shake my
hand. As I bent down and took her hand in mine, she said, "God bless
you." Afterwards, I found out that she had expressed a desire to
"encourage that man" as she listened to my preaching. She
definitely encouraged me! It also overjoyed all of us when we met a
"new creature" whom we had preached to four years ago at that
very place. At that time, the lady was no lady, responding with great
anger and vitriol, finally stalking away from us in a towering rage. But
it turns out that the gospel seeds which were sown found good soil in her
heart! She told us, with great sweetness and joy, that she is now saved,
homeschooling her children, and just wants to live to honor her Lord.
Please remember that seed must be sown before it can take root and grow. "They
that sow in tears shall reap in joy" (Psalm 126:5). Back
to top.
A
Great Time of Gospel Ministry at "The Great Circus Parade"
 |
|
Two young girls come up close to hear Pastor
Ovadal preach the gospel |
July 3 saw WCU in Baraboo to preach to tens of
thousands of people who had flocked to that city from around the nation to
watch "The Great Circus Parade." The huge parade itself,
complete with numerous clowns and hundreds of animals, was the highlight
of an entire weekend of events. Large crowds gathered hours before the
start of the parade. We first circulated through the crowd and handed out salvation
tracts. Then we put up our gospel banner and preached at four
different sites around the downtown square, which was packed with people
sitting in lawn chairs, reclining on the grass, and sitting on steps or
curbs. We were blessed a number of times during our five hours of
ministry. For instance, we had several Christians, including at one point
three older people sitting on a bench, join with us in singing hymns. We
met a wonderful homeschool family from Iowa who handed out a large number
of our salvation tracts. Though the expected mocking and jeering took
place during our preaching, we also saw many listening and were able to
share the gospel one-on-one with a number of serious seekers. We were
especially touched at one point when two young, preteen girls stood right
in front of the preacher and, for quite some time, stared up in rapt
attention.
 |
|
Jack Kraller preaching from
the courthouse steps in Baraboo
to the crowd below |
The only hostile physical contact which occurred came
compliments of two middle-aged, neo-evangelical Christian men who
confronted us for "doing things the wrong way." These two
fellows insisted that we should be more like Billy Graham and that The
Passion movie was the "greatest" evangelism tool yet. When
we briefly examined Billy and The Passion in light of the Word of
God, the two supposedly saved brothers really lost it and had to be calmed
by police officers. Later, one of them organized a group of young women to
stand some distance away in the crowd to sing "God Bless
America" in an attempt to drown out our preaching. At that point, we
picked up the verse and outsang them to the end of the song. The crowd
then applauded, and we went back to preaching! The enemy had been taken in
his own snare. All in all, we had a wonderful, rewarding day sharing the
gospel of Jesus Christ, including bearing some reproach for Him. Toward
the end of our day, a man came out of the crowd and told one of our number
that many people were listening to our message even if the loudmouths were
mocking us. Back to top.
Two
WCU Pickets Touch Thousands from around the Nation
On July 3, WCU held a picket at a busy intersection in
Baraboo following our gospel outreach at the Great Circus Parade which was
held in that same town. The intersection was packed with long lines of
cars containing occupants from around the Midwest and even the country.
Our signs contained biblical messages about homosexuality. We also
displayed gospel banners and handed out WCU literature. The reaction was
far more positive than negative, although the negative had a certain
intensity to it! However, we were blessed to many times hear "God
bless you!" and to realize that, with the Lord's help, we had
encouraged, challenged, and strengthened many with our public proclamation
of truth.
On June 18, we did a picket at a busy intersection in
Monroe. The traffic was heavier than usual due to the World Honda Grand
Prix Balloon Rally. Consequently, we were blessed to give our message to
people from around the nation and the world. As always, a strong whiff of
homo-fascism was in the air, but our message definitely evoked more joy
than rage. That notwithstanding, the true blessing was standing for the
truth and exposing dark deeds with light from the Word of God regardless
of how anyone reacted toward us. Back
to top.
Round
One
On July 7, I was in federal court seeking an injunction
against Madison, Wisconsin in a religious liberty case. The City of
Madison has decided that WCU cannot stand on caged-in, pedestrian
overpasses on the Beltline highway or anywhere in Madison displaying a
banner reading, "Homosexuality is sin," and a sign reading,
"Christ can set you free" -- this in spite of the fact that such
pickets have been upheld by courts elsewhere and are even safer than
curbside pickets. Of course, the Beltline highway is littered with huge
billboards, including large traffic signs over the Beltline and state
signs which contain multiple wording and icons advising of businesses at
the next exit. Last fall, we were thrown off of two different overpasses;
and the city is steadfastly insisting that such pickets constitute
disorderly conduct because certain individuals react to our message with
anger and obscene gestures. At the injunction hearing, Judge John Shabaz
listened impatiently to the evidence and testimony which we presented and
then whipped out a pre-typed decision and read it! His statement largely
consisted of chastising me and upholding the unconstitutional heckler's
veto. In essence, Shabaz ruled that my conduct was disorderly because
people were acting unlawfully in response to our message. Suffice it to
say, we will be pursuing this important case as far as necessary to turn
back this dangerous infringement on free speech. Back
to top.
 |
|
Some of the leather crowd at
Madison's "pridefest." Yes, two of the individuals are
dressed as horses. |
Bringing
Light to a Very Dark Event
 |
|
Nick Bergum preaching
at the "pridefest" parade |
On Sunday, July 18, about thirty Christians linked up
with WCU to hold signs and banners, to preach and pass out tracts at the
sodomite parade and rally at the capitol in Madison. While it was a
blessing to take a stand for the Word of God and reprove the dark deeds of
Sodom, this ministry was also a very troubling one. We saw many young
people and children in a parade that included obscene costumes as well as
sadomasochists and bondage adherents. For instance, we saw a man with a
horse mask and tail who had a saddle on his back. For part of the parade,
that twisted individual went on all fours. The "leather" crowd
flaunted whips and chains. We were repeatedly cursed, mocked, and
threatened. Several of us were shoved and had water thrown on us. In fact,
I was thoroughly soaked down while preaching. All of this and more took
place at an event featuring as honored speakers and guests a number of
elected officials. But by the grace of God, we had a very strong presence
at the sodomite rally. Later, we set up at two locations along the parade
route to hold signs and preach with a truth horn. We went home with an
even stronger conviction that the sodomite movement is an extremely
violent, dangerous, even demonic one which must be boldly confronted and
countered with the Word of God. If this evil tide is not turned back, our
children and grandchildren, not to mention Christian liberty, will suffer
grievously. We must pray that those sodomites who are not reprobate will
be saved and that the Lord will see fit to deal with the rest in His way
and His time. Back to top.
Yes,
we get good mail also!
- I
received your brochure on Homosexuality: The Truth, placed on my fence on
Wednesday when I got home. Thank you for it! Just what I need to send to
our school board, and the administration of [deleted] Schools. They had a
homosexual speaker for diversity day this spring, and I started a petition
to get it changed to remove the homosexual speaker . . .
So that is why I need your brochures. I want to thank
you, and the Lord, for preparing that brochure. I sat down and read the
whole thing, and it is great! Exactly the questions uninformed people ask!
. . .
Was that your group that held up homosexuality is sin
signs that day too? That was great!
- Thank
you, brothers and sisters of WCU, for going public with the gospel and
other Biblical issues. We need more Christians on the front lines to get
God's message delivered, and I certainly pray that many will be encouraged
to go public for Christ after reading your (May 21st) newsletter. Keep up
the good work, for we shall reap, if we faint not!
—In Jesus, Russell Mallon, Preacher in Japan
Back to top.
A
Parting Word
I want to thank those of you who have been praying that
my recent book, More
Than These, would be used by the Lord for the good of His
cause and His people. We have been blessed to receive very encouraging
feedback from readers, and a number of ministries have made the book
available. In fact, since Wisconsin Christians United is not set up for
credit card orders, I would encourage those who want to obtain More
Than These with a credit card to do so through Mike
Gendron's Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries. You can do that by calling
972-495-0485.
More Than These also garnered some attention from the
United Kingdom. I thought that you might enjoy the following excerpts from
a review which was written by an Englishman, Andrew Hall, and appeared in
the newspaper the English Churchman.
More Than These: A Call for Reformation
Pastor Ralph Ovadal
This book explodes the myth that Protestants can
unite with Roman Catholics in activities such as Pro-Life actions.
Concise and layer by layer investigations coupled with the solid backing
of Scripture is what gives this book its hallmark.
At 270 pages, the book is -- as the cover heading
states -- "A History of How the Pro-Life Movement Has Advanced the
Cause of the Roman Catholic Church". This is no six week experience
investigative journalism, rather the story from a man whose own
experience in the fight against abortion has spanned three decades. . .
.
The message is for Protestant Christians anywhere in
the world. Just because Roman Catholics share similar moralistic values,
does not make them Christian. Alliances with the RCC are totally wrong
in the sight of the Lord (Isaiah 30:1-3). Our strength is in the Lord
alone (Isaiah 31:1). . . .
"More Than These" is not just a good read,
but a message from one of the few ministers prepared to stick his neck
out today in courage that becomes a Man of God. Let this be a lesson to
us all.
Back to top.
|
