(The following transcript is a rough draft, and therefore some minor discrepancies between
it and the source audio may exist.)
Michael Angeles: How you guys doing?
Audience: (screams)
Michael Angeles: I do not know about you.. I have about enough energy to make it to tonight.
Audience: (laughs)
Michael Angeles:
And I think that is a good thing. It means that we are going to leave it all on
the field. I can see it in your eyes and I think you guys are doing the same thing.
This is my favorite time of HSLT. This is my third year of being here, by the way my name is Michael Angeles, I’m from Lakeville Minnesota. For the record we don’t
really speak like that. Maybe we do (laughing) but this is my favorite time. Usually,
I am out there balling my eyes out from the stories and I got to be up here and
try to keep my cool as you guys share what God did this whole week and that is what
we are going to do here. We have got maybe a little over an hour to get a chance
to share stories. I want to give a few thoughts before we get started. I asked the
band to play “Not to us” as the last song and the reason why I did that is because
really that is what this time is all about isn’t it? It is all about glorifying God and what he did in us and through us and that is what we are going to do here
for the next hour. Another thought I had was that God really desires and he is worthy
of being on display and that is what we will do here too. We will put God on display so that we can worship Him. We will continue to worship Him in this next hour. The
other thing I thought about is how joyful were you guys yesterday sharing the gospel?
Were you joyful?
Audience: (screams)
Michael Angeles: Some of you I know were relieved because you were done, right? That is okay too. You know on our bus we were hopping. It was
electric. God did some amazing things and so we get to multiply that joy. We had
some joy on our bus. You had joy with your team. Now we get to multiply that? That
is one of the benefits and one of the blessings of being together as a family as
a church, so here is how it is going to work. I am going to call up groups of churches - you guys went out and visited cities. We are going to call up those groups and I
will give you the names of the cities and then you guys are going to line up in
the stairs here. We are going to get a picture of the groups, okay, and then I am
going to ask that one person from each congregation come up and share either a story
or something that maybe God has been teaching you either as a church or as a person.
I hope you guys are prepared and I am going to give you about three or four minutes
so I am going to let you borrow the microphone, okay. I am going to let you borrow it for
about three or four minutes and when I come back up.. you're talking, and I come
and walk and stand alongside of you - that means your done. (laughs)
Michael Angeles:
Not that I am being rude, it is just that we have 20 congregations and a lot of stories
we want to share in this short period of time. Does that make sense? Okay.
Audience: (applause)
Michael Angeles: I will share just give this one verse that God gave me this morning as I was
praying. It is found in the New Testament, it is a little book in the New Testament,
it is verse 6 and it is just 1 page, 1 chapter, “I pray that you maybe active in
sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing
we have in Christ”. That is what we got to experience yesterday.
Here
we go, let us have Columbia, Albuquerque, Glennallen and Seattle come on up. They
went out to ask us yesterday- Columbia, Albuquerque, Glennallen and Seattle all you guys come
up. Guys move over a little bit here, move over and get in the center so that they
can, they can get a… there you go that is better. Way over keep going. Keep going
guys. Alright, good, okay. Who from Columbia is going to start us off here? Come
on down. Tell us your name and your time starts now.
Amanda: I am Amanda and, wait, I have to get my notebook.. I did not know it was going to happen like this. Okay,
I am from Columbia Missouri and today I had a quite
time and I just really discovered
some stuff about yesterday when we was witnessing. It was really funny because it
started out witnessing, and I thought I was going to all nervous and stuff but I
was not and I just had an overwhelming sense of peace and when it came to be about
3 o’clock, when we were supposed to head out of there.
I did not want to stop and
I mean, I was just really excited about it and a lot of cool things happened and
here is what I wrote down from my quite time today. I never had peace like I had yesterday, when we went out evangelizing. God gave me a boldness that was definitely
not my own. Psalm 144 verses 1 through 2 says,
“Praise be to the Lord my rock who
trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. He is my loving god and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield in
whom I take refuge”. There is a battle
going on yesterday for every single person we came into contact with. God has equipped
me with everything I need to fight the battle for him. He would not put me out in
the field without giving me everything I need. Yesterday was the first time I realized
this. I had peace that was not from myself. God prepared me for yesterday just as
he saw fit and I mean he really did. He would never put his out, you know, without giving us everything that we need
and I really felt like he did that and me and my group did not see anybody saved
specifically, but I mean we saw the works of the Lord and it was really cool and
I am willing to do it again, like a million times
more.
(applause)
Michael Angeles: Albuquerque? Who is from Albuquerque?
Ana: I am
Ana and I am from New Mexico and I just wanted to tell you guys, like,
coming here made me feel so, like, I don’t know.. because when I go to school, I see all this brokeness
and all these kids that are so messed up, and they're just
so lost and I come here and
I see all you guys and your so on fire and it is like God! It is awesome! I can
just see him working in all of you and I just thought that was the most awesome
thing coming here, that I saw, and also all these friends that I have met. I have not
met all of you but I really want to you know (laughing) but these guys they are just the coolest, and I had the best time getting to know
them, and I know I can speak for all of us in New Mexico and.. yeah, so go with
God and all your wildest dreams
will come true.
(applause)
Michael Angeles: How about Glennalen. Who from Glennalen?
Ken: I am Ken. Wow! This week was just amazing. Yesterday when I was out evangelizing,
me and my partner went out to these two girls and we just asked them for some time
and they're like, "yeah sure." So we went through the survey with them and they were very open
to everything. Went to the tracks and they went through it and they were just so
interested and they were just so cool and in the end the two of them prayed to accept Christ, but the cool thing was not just that they accepted Christ,
but they had seen us talking to other people and they told us afterwards that they
had wanted us to come to talk to them and we were just like, wow. God really was
having, you know, divine appointments, you know.. he really was working. It was just so cool to see him working
like that.
(applause)
Michael Angeles: Seattle.
Catherine: Okay. I am Catherine,
I am from Seattle. We are the only other two out here besides my mom. Yeah, I know.
Little did I know that my day of evangelizing was going to go pretty bad, and I guess that is where this verse came, and I heard
it from my friend Laura, and it is Luke
6:22 and it says, “Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and
insult you and reject your name as evil because of the son of man.” I did not know
that this verse is going to come into play during my whole darn day. So first I
went out with Amanda and we went to track with this one girl and she said she wanted
to pray but she needed a little bit more time so that really encouraged me and I
was like, maybe we will get more people like this but almost every single person
after that rejected us and did not want to go to the survey.
So then, by lunch I
was pretty discouraged, but then after hearing everybody else’s stories, I was encouraged
again and I went to go back out there and talked to more people. After that, we got
turned down a lot more and then I decided to talk to these two guys named Dan and
Adam who are sitting at a table and I went to the survey with them, and Tyler went half way to the track, and then this man came walking
up with about five or six other people and they kinda surrounded our table and Dan
goes “Hi Pastor,” and I was like, maybe the pastor were Christian church, and I
asked him what church he was a pastor of and he was like.. well, he told me he was
not a Christian, so that was really awkward, and after they left I was just sitting there with Amanda and Tyler and I suggested
we should pray, and while we were praying I just remembered that God was blessing us and that even though we were getting
rejected. God kept blessing us and we witness a little bit more and got rejected
a little bit more but then the last that I went up to, she was really excited, and
me and Amanda asked if we could pray for her and she said yes, and she said “Okay,
let’s hear it I am waiting.” So we prayed with her
and she was already a Christian and it was good. It really encouraged me that there
were a lot of Christians out there. Even though I was getting discouraged it was
just really cool to see all the Christians that were out there, and even though we
are getting rejected it was good that we planted a seed and we were doing God’s work, and that is really all that mattered.
(applause)
Michael Angeles: Any other
leaders, maybe one of the leaders you guys would wanna say just a few comments about
the group or are something that God spoke you about? We have maybe minutes . . .
Eddie: I’m Eddie Algeo with the Columbia Group and ah, Mark is gonna come
to our city in about 3 or 4 weeks to share about the ten commitments, and that will happen
in a mini conference there in Columbia, and our kids came to us, who came to
me after one of the sessions and said, "You know, I think we’ve all just decided that
we wanna go ahead and serve the church to show care in, through other means, while
Mark’s comes, because we’ve already kinda heard what he had to . . . share, but
just their heart.. "I just want to serve." It was just very encouraging
to me and stimulating and so I just, ah, I’m very proud of you guys from Columbia that I have
decided to put into practice what we’ve learned, a little bit this week, so praise the Lord (applause) thank you guys.
Michael Angeles: Let’s thank the Lord for what he did.
Male: Yeah, whoa! (applause)
Michael Angeles: Okay, the hometown gang is next, Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley.
Come on up guys. They went to Boulder. (Applause) (Girl coughing) (Murmuring) Okay, this is a big group.
Let’s start with Fort Collins, who’s gonna share from Fort Collins? Come on over.
(applause)
Scott: Okay, this is Caleb and I’m his dad. I’m Scott and he’s gonna
share with you, um, in, about another divine appointment that happened in- an answered prayer.
Caleb: Okay, um, first of all, for our free day we went to rocks course,
and also there are rock climbing walls there. So, a lot of times, what happens, so
what that is, there’s a hard part of the wall were the rocks were really slippery
or whatever,
is hard to get a foothold, but the facilitator told us right after that
there is usually an easier section and so it kind of happened, with evangelism, until
we were at the toughest point in the day. And you know, my daddy told that me and
my partner that, you know, just cause someone looks intimidating it doesn’t necessarily
mean they are and we were involved or so. (Laughs) It was (Laughs with the audience)
it was interesting but (Laughs with the audience) but because of what we were told
we decided to go up to the sky hues and the back pack, he was dressed in black (Laughs
with the audience) and ah he was just, he was just really creepy (Laughs with the
audience).
Scott: He thought Caleb was scamming him because Caleb . . . but Caleb
was also reading the questions (Audience laughs) so, and so his, his, his voice
got really loud to it straight and he goes “If you’re blind how could you see me?”
(Audience laughs) and then he’s, he’s started having noxious and general posture
(Audience laughs) so just, go ahead. (laughs). So, anyway, after that you know,
I was a little of discouraged and more of afraid of him and eventually seems general
but I thought to myself (Laughs with the audience) I just, I thought to myself I
don’t know if I can take another rejection like that one.
And so, ah we just decided
to pray and we just ask, God please give us someone who’s genuinely interested on
this so we can have a good conversation with, whatever that means, and we were kind
of walking at the park for trees, at the edge of the mall or whatever and there’s
a part where they weren’t really any people on. So, I was wondering but I just thought
lets keep going, maybe God’s put us here for a reason,
and so we’re just kept on
going and the very next corner we turned.
We came to this building and the man was,
there was a man sitting on the wall right outside and he was on . . . work break and
we decided to talked to him and he did do the survey, and he’s- seem- he was really into it and we started the diagram. So, we got in through the bad- had a bad news,
the left side of um, is, was our
method, um- talking about . . . sin and death, and that kind of thing.. And then he got a phone call and what was really impressive was he
just told us to wait a minute, and when he was done he, he said where were we? And
we continued and, so we went through the entire diagram and he has, only needs to
know, he had to go back to work, but this is- it’s definitely there, and he could substantiate
it anytime so that was really great for us.
(applause)
Michael Angeles: Okay, at
Loveland. Who from the Loveland?
Chellsie: Hi, everybody. (Laughs) My name is Chellsie
(People cheering) I’m from Loveland and the last night we had our . . . down and they’re telling all of our
stories and, um, I was chosen to, to tell mine. So, I want
you guys to keep in mind that Loveland group are being going to Boulder for the past- this is our third year
going, and the past two years we had no salvations, we got shutdown, and it was it was really discouraging to tell you the truth. And so, this
year we went in, well, you know, we are really praying and really hoping God you
know, we’ve been calling, we’ve been watering and just, you know, give us a few apples.
So, me and my partner James, James White (Laughs with the audience) we were, we
went to Upholster Mall and we were walking down and I, and I’m telling you not even
25 minutes, that we were there, there was just some kind of chubby looking guy come
toward us and we were talking and I'm thinking to myself that we wanna get him.
I want to go after, I mean James is not so sure, so I mean without me even kind
of.. after
him. I go over to the guy and I started, I ask him to take the survey
and, um, he goes through the entire survey and he’s really interested. So, I ask
him, “Would you like go, would you like to go thorugh the track?” and he said, “Yeah! I’d love to do
that”. So, we go over and we just, we sit on the bench and we’re going through the track
and not even half way through, God said to me, “Chellsie, you gonna get an apple
today” and um, so we went to the whole entire thing and,
ah, I asked him, “Would you
like to pray or to see Christ?” and he said, “Yeah, I want do it.” So, we pray right
there and afterwards he said, “You know, I had this Bible in my back pack that I
was reading with my friends" and you could just,
you could see in his eyes that he really wanted to get but he just did not know
how to get it. So, that day we brought 9 others to salvation and God was really to us in the apple picking. So, (laughs)
that was our story (applause).
Michael Angeles: How about Greeley? Who is from Greeley,
come on down.
Steven: Hey guys, I’m Steven from Greeley (applause). I would like
to talk to you about the chain of events that happened to me prior to coming here.
I have some friends in Greeley, that is true, they tell us the truth that they are
Mormons. Do you have a question about that? At Salt Lake, I know it, um. I was drowning
before I came here. I was, I was losing my struggles with my faith. I was becoming
lost again. I was losing what this friend was saying. It is very enticing, very
tempting as I look at it. Wow, look, that’s kind of cool. This is a kind of different,
is it true? And then I started even thinking, well, should I go to this conference?
And there was a time right now, I am not going to go. I don’t want to go. I can figure
out all on my own, but somehow, somewhere I found myself here. It was a kind of
a last minute thing. I was leaving this split life and separating me from my family,
from my God.
It’s a horrible thing because I got here and lo and behold, what is the main topic?
Commitment. Wow! I was just going to use ______ right now. It is awesome
and I had no idea what topic was. I have been, I have been on a lot of trips this
summer and I have not been to lot of youth groups. So, I just said, “Hey, I’m going
to go”, not knowing what I was asking myself into and- commitment, commitment. Wow!
God, God would really bless me and I was prepared to come here with arguments, with
objections. And then Mark came up here, Mark, I thank God for you. I thank God for
this conference and he started talking to me with God right there and he got me
back on the bandwagon (applause).
Guys, one of the main things I had really, really
learned this week is that there was nothing, no one at all, like God and I challenge
each one of you: seek counsel and pray, because I have lost that somewhere. I have lost- don’t allow people to persuade you with temptations, anything else because
this is it and if you don’t understand what God plans for you and you are not willing
to find it, then how are we going to fulfill the Great Commission? Going out and
sharing was the biggest eye opener I could ever ask for. Since people involved is
a lost community to some, a broken down community absolutely, and seemed down and
in despair and giving them the option that is so simple, brings a new life into
all of us. God is good and God is alive today. Thank you.
Michael Angeles: A lot
of good wisdom there. One of the leaders may be, guys come down and summarize maybe something from the time you are involved there or come
on down just a minute or so (applause).
Bob: Hi! I’m Bob and I’m from Loveland and it was, this is, I
have been here. This is my third year. I’ve been up here for you to speak to you
on this. It just keeps getting better and better and I just really thank God for
all of you and your commitment to be here and I am just really proud of everyone
and just how you have been letting God work through you and I appreciate all the
teaching synopses which had been amazing, really good. That’s all I can say (applause).
Michael Angeles: Okay. Next group is Grand Forks, OakClaire, Omaha and Lincoln,
the groups that went, that stayed in Fort Collins. Grand Forks, OakClaire, Omaha
and Lincoln! Just a little bit. Come on down in front here and be together so we
could get you all in the picture. Come on down. Okay, Grand Forks, who’s from Grand
forks? (applause)
Male: Hey guys, I’m _____. So, like I said I am from Grand Forks.
Actually, my story starts back beginning in my senior year here. And I was going
great and seemed like everything, probably, the closest time, I, you know, close
I was to God- then thing-
was going, to seem, to go down the hill.. I lost four close
people to me in one year and like everytime I started to get over the first one,
another hit, I was just kind of keep sinking down and down and I was- just kind a
got really frustrated with God, like why is this happening to me? And it pushed me
away. I’d wanted absolutely nothing to do with Him anymore and just, any mention
of God just going.. made me
crabby. I kind of pulled away from our youth group and just going to- went did my
own thing.
I got into just a bad group of friends before
I knew it. Drugs, alcohol, everything you could name were involved in my life. I didn't even feel like I was part of my own family anymore. My mom and I had horrible
fights. I don’t know. I would not go home for a couple days at times and I would
never talk to my family. My little brothers felt like I was drunk, to push them away and they looked up to me and once..
said they are really hurt. It was hard to deal
with. And finally, probably about 3 weeks before, I think, yeah, about 3 weeks before,
this trip here, my mom was cleaning my room and found everything she would . . . just to want to find and when I came home just to see the look on her face, like
just beyond hurts, beyond everything, just betrayal. She was just, I don’t know.
I can’t take that back away. It just crashed me and it was probably one of the hardest
things to deal with, I mean, not just like, I mean, messing of my life but just
like how much it had impact on my family and how much they look up to me.
And each
one from there, I don’t know. They restricted everything. I was not allowed to leave
house. I had to ask before I was allowed to go anywhere, who is going to hang out
with and I felt pretty crabby. I didn’t want to come to LT so I didn’t do any fund
raising or anything. I said if I didn’t raise the money, I couldn’t go and I will
just stay at home, do my thing but God had other plans. I have talked with the youth
leaders’ captain and he said “Go, we will raise enough money and you know, you can
go on" and my mom cannot push me towards, just like, I don’t want to go. Now, the
hallway up here for the Muslim when I got here, I just kind a crabby, you know,
I did ask to do something. I was like, ah, you know, and go back to my room and
speak crabby man.
I don’t know, it was just one day, like we are talking in, Mark was up here. He
was talking about commitment and everything and, you know, it just kind of clicked
and everything. He has kind of made more sense and.. how much I really
need God and how much I’ve fallen off that path and just how horrible life was without
Him and like, I don’t know now and like, even people in my group have said they have
noticed this is different, kind of more of a glow and like difference in my attitude
and just like that makes me feel just wonderful inside. So-(applause).
Michael Angeles:
OakClaire. OakClaire, come on down Jack.
Jack: What’s going on everybody? I am Jack.
I am the youth coordinator. Ah, well, I want to talk about, ah, something that, just
was so encouraging to me all week long. Seeing the work of zeal and our kid’s eyes
was tremendous. The work of eagerness to learn and grow and I just want give a talk
about a couple things that happened. Um, that one night we were all sitting down,
sharing, just talking and having a tired down and three people in our youth group
said that God was convicting them to go home and to start serving at home on a much
bigger level and I thought that was great. I thought that it was amazing testimony
to the fact that these guys are willing to make the commitments that Mark is talking about, and there was a situation that had arose.
It was just a simple, small situation
where one of the girls in this group had let her sister to take a drink of water
and quickly pulled it away and spilled water all over and the night before she had
mentioning about wanting to serve her sisters more. And I knew it wasn’t a big deal
and I knew it, you know, it was kind of a joke but I said, I said, I pulled her
side and I said, “Think about what you had said last night about serving your sisters
more”. And she smiles and said okay and about five minutes later, she came over
to me and she said, ‘Thank you for correcting me’ and I thought that was awesome
and so, I just want to share that thing to encourage guys that these small things
matter. And serving in even just the small, simplest ways make a huge difference
and that’s where is going to take to be able to keep these commitments. So, I want
to thank my group, you guys, your awesome. We prayed for transformations before
this week and to God be the glory, they did (applause).
Michael Angeles: Okay. Omaha,
Omaha.
Omaha: Hello! I’m Jacob from Omaha and Omaha is a group, we thought it was
just a good idea to everyone write down one idea or something I learned. So, just
bear with me. These are all of those things we’ve learned as a group. We learned
that God can use interactions and conversations for His good, no matter how good
or bad they went. If you love God, we will obey Him. God is gracious to those who
get on their knees before Him. God wants us to trust Him full heartedly. When we
share the gospel with someone who has not been saved, they will be encouraged by
our faith and they see something that we are doing for the lost. When you’re about
to just go out to someone and you are scared, asking God to give you the courage, gets you through it. We learned just to sit down and talk about Jesus to unbelievers.
We learned that we should be more open with our faith and with yourself you would
learn to be more patient to one another with everyone around. We learned to share
our beliefs openly without fear or nervousness. We all loved the opportunities just
to go out and witness to everyone. We loved to just step out in faith. We don’t
need to be afraid to share the gospel, just because God will give us the courage.
We learned how God is merciful and how God’s grace is, that we are going to be used.
We learned that it’s amazing to have unity among us as a group and everyone here
and just- God uniting us together in this, giving us the same cross and we learned
just to love and obey God. That’s everything (applause).
Michael Angeles: Jacob,
thank you (applause). Lincoln, whose going to share from Lincoln? (applause).
Gerald:
Hi! I’m Gerald from Lincoln and well, I don’t really know our group has learned in summary, so I just going to a, kind of say how our evangelism went. Well, our
first staff, we stayed here on the campus to try and find those six thousand people
Greg has been talking about (laughs) but then we found out after a little while
that five thousand of those were campus crusaders so, we kind of give up there.
So, then we went and look for some parks and still could not find anyone and so in
the afternoon, we ended up with the Omaha and Grand Forks and they were all going
to the old market and so, then we started to find some people and I had gotten into
conversation with two people who were kind of, just, I don’t know- the guy seemed
interested. He was interested in knowing if he knows for 100%, if he was going to
heaven, but his
girlfriend was just very agitated. She didn’t want him to keep talking. She kept
getting really agitated and mad and as he was praying, well, my Dad shared that he
would just, that God would just silence anything that was going on with her and
eventually she laughed and we just kept talking with the guy. The kind of thought
that, he just did not really think that there was a Hell, that he thought everyone
would go to heaven, that we encouraged him to go and read the gospel of John for
himself but he was really close and so, he was just really cool, talking
it out there in the old market and talking. We had some other conversations and
so, it was good. (applause)
Michael Angeles: Maybe, one leader, one of the leaders you have that
may give some summary thoughts.
Male: First of all, you know, as a dad, I have five
daughters at home and it is really, it’s my first time coming out. I have two of
my daughters here and I think with all of these guys and all of you, it has been,
it’s really a blessing for me. I’m 46 year old and you know, back in 1982, I came
to know Christ in _____, Iowa far away from Moines. Thank you for your dads and
you moms who, (applause) you know, they are over there. Many of your parents were
involved in my life back in early 80’s and I remember some of the first days of
coming to know Christ, we went out and knocked on doors and now, I have two of my
daughters doing that and it’s very encouraging to be here with all of you seeing
that happened twenty years later, twenty three years later.
And it just gives some
of us dads, and I think I speak for all the parents here. It is a need to be with
you and to see what God is going to do in your life in the years ahead of the labors
that your parents put in, in those early years in your life and now, you are running
for the Lord and because one day we are not going to be around anymore and, but
you are going to be getting the baton from all of us and we are going to be cheering
on in heaven but there’s a lot of work to do ahead of us. So, it is just, again,
great to be with you and had a great time these last days and I’ll be back. I have
three more daughters younger than my two who will be back again and look for to
seeing all of you again. Thank you. (Applause)
Michael Angeles: Give the Lord a
hand for that. Okay. Next staff, we have those that went to _____, Aurora Parker
in Salt Lake City. Come on up, Aurora Parker in Salt Lake City (applause). Okay.
Aurora who is going to talk from Aurora?
Cathy: I’m Cathy and I’m from Aurora, and
I want to say, kind, ah.. I don’t know, I don’t, what? I didn’t know what was going
to happen? I was just kind trusting on guys, and the very last person we talked
to, we just saw this girl in front of the place where there was a riot . . . or something and she was just standing there waiting for something. So me, and my
partner went up to her, and we asked her the questions just like. We asked her if
she wanted to go to the Booklet. So, we went to the Booklet with her, and like in
the middle of the booklet her cell phone rings, and so, she said that it’s her
brother, then she says she can’t hear him. So, she just hanged up the phone on him.
So, we were just praying that her brother would not come. So, what do you think?
So, at first she was kind of, she was really in to it, but as we get . . . going
through she got, she had like more, more and more into it. And so, like at the end
of the Booklet we asked if she wanted to pray, and she actually said yes. So, she
got saved. (applause)
Michael Angeles: Okay Parker. Parker.
Thaller: My name is Thaller.
I’m from Parker. I got saved by the year ago which was very cool, but it was totally
because the people I came with this week. So, I going to tell . . . about how
awesome my group is. On our free day we went for fun, and have a little fun you
know. Then, we went to the creek for display around and have lunch. Then so many
of the group members just wanted to go out and evangelize,
go try to get some people saved. So, we went out, and we saw two people saved that day. So, that was awesome.
(applause). And then on our evangelizing day, we went to Wyoming to rodeo, and that
was cool, and me and my partner was Josh, and you know it’s his first time as well.
So, we were both like . . . ready to go, and like
it was just cool. How awesome it was just going out there, we were just, "come on
lets go find someone." We got rejected
a few times, and then we met some Christians, and that was really encouraging. A
little bit before lunch time, I saw these two girls who just walking off for a ride
and my partner just keep walking. You know it was like I need to talk to these girls.
So, I talked to these girls just like, “Do guys believe in Jesus Christ?” They said,
“kind of”, and I said, "Do you if
you know if you’re going to heaven for sure?" And
one girl was kind of not interested, and then one girl some, she was kind more interested
to my question in my question, and she said like, “yeah, I would know for sure if
I going to heaven”. So, I went over her, and talked to her a little bit, and I kind led her prayer, and she just totally broke down. She prayed the prayer, and I cried
with her. I gave her a hug, and that was so awesome and encouraging to meet her.
Just got that, I just.. So, amen God.
Michael Angeles: Okay. Salt Lake City.
Kelsy:
Hi, my name is Kelsy. I want to share a little bit about God’s faithfulness. See
up until a couple of days before we went out on Saturday, we were praying for cloud
coverage, and we were praying for six people to get save that day. And there was
a cloud in the sky that morning. I mean, I mean there was little tiny morning and
feel the same. There’s our cloud guy, there’s cloud, and later that day the whole
sky was filled with clouds. It was amazing, and we were just praying out there a
little rain drops were coming on us. It was awesome, and six people got saved
. . . as well. It was amazing. (applause)
Kelsy: And ah, how you young guys encouraged
me so much, it’s awesome and these old guys as well, and when we get old I want
to be like these old dudes.
Michael Angeles: Just. So, you know I’m not old. How
about one of the leaders of you guys want to come down. Maybe somebody come down
and share some of their thought, one of the leaders.
Male: This is real blasphemy,
here I am. I’ve been in a lot of church plants, and I was in Aurora years ago, and
we are in Missouri, now in the church plant. I got to bring by daughter and son
here, and this is a fantastic group, these whole group that was there. We’d see
everybody just constantly walked around, and sharing what the rodeo, and there are
millions of people.. I was stick to group that was looking for people to share what
come with us, because they got really busy. Anyway, some of the things that were
impacted here was the simplicity, impurity and devotion that these guys have in
sharing their faith. When you get older sometimes you want to look respectable in
such when you present the gospel. I apt of the number who share their faith, and
they just get some these, let read to this, and let’s pray. You know it’s pretty
simple. We sometimes under estimate the word of God, and the impact it has. It’s
the fear of God with for salvation, and we were out there and sometime we got discouraged,
because people rejected. One time the guy told me years ago, “that it’s not you
and it’s not the message. It’s the soil that you’re planting the seed in it, and
you’re going to get rocky soil, and you’re going the get fertilizer. You got to
go find out where that fertilizer is?” I’ve keep casting it, and this guy did a
fantastic job. So, the person the say, then it’s a group who are committed to Great Commission. All we can change and also the interesting in it is the teachable
. . . willing to be learners. Here’s Martin dealing screwed out with me. Always be a learner,
and he was 76 and still learning. But it was a privileged to with you guys.
Michael
Angeles: Come on up Blake Bill. Smile.
Blake Bill: Okay. We went to Greeley very drowsey, of this beautiful map, of Greeley,
it had all the spots where all the unbelievers
hangout, and there was some parks and there was a big old fair county fair that
was suppose going on and we had breakfast with our leadership team yesterday morning.
We prayed, and God gave us the strategy. We had the strategy for the day, and it
didn’t go anything like we planned. But
God did have a plan, and we had a wonderful
time. So, I would have Magan could come down.
Megan: I am like Mike said, my name
is Megan. We had a rocky start man. We could give and tell you men. I was just hoping
we could find anyone. We saw so many .
. . people and tell, “I can tell the gospel,
and it vanishes.” Now I’m peel off. So, I just sort of, kind of, to get them like God
give me just one person to share the gospel that’s all. We were rocking down the
mall, and after.. Well first we
were just at the parking.. nothing for me. So, we eat
lunch and then we went to the mall, parked down, and nothing. Finally, I see this
person and walked with him down with there to end, and so I said this person, would
you like to be survey? She said like, what survey? I’m like spiritual survey. She
said alright. So, I’d asked the four questions, I mean, she was into it, and then
I’m like you can, and
as, like, well let us goes to down and go through this little
booklet and using it for [a] survey. So we sat down and we are going through the booklet
and I was explaining to her that she was a sinner and, like, "have you ever lied?", and she
said “yes.”
Have you ever dishonored your parents? And she goes, no, it is not what we do. We
are Catholic so if we dishonor our parents it is just wrong. Everyone
gets mad at you or whatever and I was like well have your parents ever told you
to clean your room and you wait 20 minutes because your watching the TV show? And
she goes, yeah. And I was like well that is dishonoring your parents. So she is like, "alright I
guess I have done that" (laughing). So we just keep going through the chapter
and Jesus- her eyes are so big and she is just soaking in all of them and I am like,
well you know, if you want God to forgive you the, well, you know that Jesus died _____
and she goes, "uh hmm." And I was like, well, if you pray this prayer and accept Jesus
Christ in your life, your life will be changed forever so we prayed the prayer.
She is saying, _____ and I was like do you have a bible? She said yes. I was like, "you open it up and good things will happen." (applause)
Female: So, hopefully she
will just keep pursuing that and keep just, relying on God, to give answer to your prayers - and that is what happened yesterday.
Michael Angeles: Catherine you may now come down.
Catherine: All right my name is Catherine and I have been going here
for three years. This is my third year and my first year was really good, really
nervous as a freshmen and I- the first two people I met, I prayed with, so I have a pretty good experience
of [the] first year, the second year I had three people [who] prayed with me, I
believed so. I was really excited about yesterday, ah, like Meagan said, we had
a really rocky start it.. _____ was like a ghost town we couldn't find anybody,
so we went to the mall and I was really excited and you know, I saw this first guy
we were in the mall for five seconds, and I went up to the old guy and I said “would
you like to take a survey?” We went through the survey.
The third question how certain
are you that you are go to heaven and he says, "well
I really don’t believe in heaven." I said well, what do you believe in? He said, "have you ever seen Star Wars?" and he said, "oh yeah I really like stars" and he
said, like, well I kinda believed in the Force. And I was like, okay well thank
you for your time so (laughing) we kept flocking
and men, our group, I love you guys so much, and I’d- everywhere I went we were like,
half the populations of the mall, so that was kind of hard too, but everywhere we went I saw my group sitting
down, the people having really good conversations, and here I was with my group,
actually I had Hector _____ who is actually from Venezuela,
which is really cool because there is tons Latino in the Great Lake so it was really cool so..
Ariel, who is fluent in Spanish, and so she would took him and went up to Latino[s?],
so this is me and this girl Melissa and our leader Dave and we’re going around asking
surveys, and people will go to a survey with us, but nothing really and so I was
looking around and I just saw my whole group basically just sitting down and having
really good conversations with people, so it seemed, and I was just like God you know what is
wrong with me this year? I mean I have felt so unworthy of, you know,
just sharing the gospel, you know, since I am… I felt so inadequate. And, you know,
I was just sitting there and Melissa had gone off to get a gum ball or something because we were just
basically waiting there for it to be 3 o’clock, and I saw this
lady - older lady - just
in the corner of my eye watching her grandchildren playing on this play place, and I was just like, "You know, just another rejection" - you
know . . . one and another one is not really gonna matter and so I went over to
her and I asked her if she'd mind if I do the survey, she said sure.
The minute I looked into her eyes, I knew that
she is going to go to the check with me. I did not know how I knew but I just knew, and so I knelt down at her and I
went through the check[list] with her and she was, enough already, to be taken and
she prayed with me and I just felt like.. "God, this is [not] just
another trial. You have brought me through all this discouragement to show me that
I really am adequate and that God can use anyone, so that is what I have to say.
Michael Angeles: Okay. How about one of the leaders, if you have a thought, one
of the leaders want to come down? We’ve got a lot of leaders up there, come on down.
Somebody come down.
Crowd: Dave!
Michael Angeles: Dave! Okay Dave.
Crowd: (laughs)
Michael Angeles: Thanks for volunteering Dave.
Dave: What do you want me to tell
them? (laughs)
Crowd: (Laughs)
Dave: I do not know what I should say. Well I have just been really proud of these
guys. They have been great Evangelists and we went to the mall like Catherine said,
and we were half the population, and so I am really
glad we weren’t wearing orange shirts and the people just to the left, into the right, and sharing with people
all over the place, and it was actually _____ who just spoke and it was discouraging
to go around because there was nobody left for us, and then she was really discouraged,
and it was . . . I guess I wanna talk about Hector David from Venezuela and he was
from our group too, and we went to the park in Greeley, and we were looking for
people where . . . to meet for lunch after going to the county fair, and nobody
was there, and he was really afraid because he does not speak English
very well and so he was just really afraid and we drove to the Hispanic part of town
and his eyes started to light up when he could read the signs.
And so we went to this
park in there and he was just all fired up this year and there was a guy, an older
guy laying on the grass there, and he looked Hispanic,
and I said “Okay, David there
is a guy in there that looked Hispanic” he goes “are you sure?!” He wanted to know
for sure if this guy is going to speak Spanish and he looked at him and yeah I think
he is going to speak Spanish. So, I went with him just in case. He went up to him
and the guy was really opened and he really
listened well, and they spoke in Spanish and I prayed and tried to just figure out
what is going on. And the guy went through the track with him really well and the
guy prayed and while they are going through it this [a] woman showed up. This older woman who had come to the park to meet the guy
and while we were talking, she pulled a book out of her purse and that book was
about the power when women prayed, but
it was in Spanish, yeah, . . . was in Spanish
so I did not know what area to read.
So then he got them with that guy, he turned
her and she kind of eaves dropping and then he shared with her too and both of them
prayed to receive Christ that day and so. (applause)
Michael Angeles: It is amazing how God answered the prayers for divine appointments. Hector David’s dad and Hector
and his mom patty were at the mall with us too. They are kinda on vacation they
are hanging out with the Myers and I don’t think they are here, we would like to
have them share but they are not here. They came to the mall with us and John started
a conversation with a Latino gentleman and John knows a little Spanish so he took
them a little ways and then kinda handed the baton and for about an hour Hector
and Patty sat. They looked like they were hanging out with a buddy, with this gentleman.
They were just having this wonderful conversation and I talked to Hector this morning and the man got saved. He received Christ and,
I just thought what a blessing it is to be able to come over from Venezuela and
God has a divine appointment for Hector,
David and Patricia - and they’re family
- to be able to share the gospel. God is amazing.
Okay we are going to move on to those who went to Loveland aims and see the rapids,
come on up. (applause)
Michael Angeles: Do we have our photographer ready? Where
did he go? (Laughs) here he comes, alright. Come on the down to the center here
come all the way down now. (Laughs) okay, who’s going to share for Aims?
Sarah:
Hi! I’m Sarah, you have heard a lot about what people have been learning lately
this week, I guess what I wanted to tell you is what I think the issue take back.
Because being here a [few] days he felt you know, being an any teenager is not’ really,
you’re going to have some emotional highs and you’re going to be writing that one
when you go home and, you know some of you, you guys are going to have
thoughts with them. It’s just, I’m going to be, I’m going to be so good, I’m going to be
the best Christian this world has ever seen. I’m going to turn so many people to God and I have come back from so many retreats, thinking that, and the minute
I get home you know something happened, like you know, my little brother, you know,
broke
my CD, my mom yelled at me to do the dishes whatever, and immediately I’d
just feel this you know, this irritation, and everything goes back to the way that
it was when I left
Well, so you know I wanted to tell you a few things that why I am not going to go
back the way, to the way things look to me, because I am not going to look back,
because one of the verses that we talked about earlier. 1st Peter 4 3-5 says, you
have used too much time already. Do you mean if the pagans chose to do living
in the debauchery . . . and drunkenness lust and, you know, detestable idolatry but
. . . someone looks down on you for not choosing to dip into blood of dissipation,
but they will have to give account to the one who is ready to judge the living and
the dead. And I just, I really encourage- don’t look back, do not go back, to that
and one of the way . . . do that is you find support and you be bold, and 1st Corinthian
15:33 says, do not be fooled for bad, bad company corrupts good judgment and good
character and you really just need to surround your self with believers. Tell somebody
that this has happened, tell somebody about your incredible faith, tell your parents,
tell your friends, tell, you know, everybody who is around. Just be filled with
love for Christ and tell everybody that this has happened and you know, you just, the
more people you tell the more people you have to be accountable for it . . and
you know so, and then, as far as being bogus, Isaiah 55:11 says “so is my word
that goes out from my mouth it will not return empty but when accomplished what
I desire and achieve the purpose for which I spent it.” Achieving the purpose of God is the greatest glory that anyone can ever have and you know, . . . at
the end of all of it, remember you are going to mess up, things are going to happen
when you go home but he will always love you, he really will. It does not matter
what you do, because you know, I have done drugs, I’ve had premarital sex, I’ve gotten
so drunk and .
. . out of my mind that I don’t remember what happened the night before,
and he still loves me. And as the years go on (laughs), God bless for that.
Crowd: (shouting, clapping)
Michael Angeles: Okay, see their efforts?
Crowd: (shouting, clapping)
John: I’m John and I have to write mine down. I came to Christ about six
months ago and I was baptized. I accepted Jesus in my heart when I was, you, know 7, 8
or 9, but it didn’t mean anything, you know, I would just go on with my life and
I did not have a second thought about it. I’m sorry. And you know coming here, I was
just sort of I felt, like, young and Christ- I felt like I was the shortest guy in
the room, you know, I . . . look around, it was like I wasn’t enough to everybody
and, you know, it just transformed me, you know. Just being here with three hundred kids
about my age with the same ideal - and I can barely find a handful in my school - and that’s just so encouraging. I mean after listening to the messages with you guys
and fellowshipping and, you know, spending- the Gospel is such a blessing. You know
I have opportunities here, you know, sharing the gospel in particular,
that I don’t think I would have had and you know, I didn’t know if I would be a Christian for
the rest of my life. I honestly had no clue. You know after coming
here, I know
I’m going to follow Christ till the day I die, I mean my faith is just . . . much more . . .
Crowd: (Clapping, shouting)
John: I was reading Matthew this whole week
and Matthew 22:37-39 and Jesus was asked,
"what is the most important commandment?" I mean there, so many, shouldn’t there,
be like one universal one, so he says, “Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul with all your mind”, this
is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it “Love your neighbor
as your self” and I never had trouble with loving my neighbor, but when I came here
I have learned to love God, and that
something I have strived for, for so long, and thank you all.
Crowd: (shouts, applause).
Michael Angeles: About one of the leaders,
Kurt, well I’m one those old guys (laughs) and I don’t know about the rest of you
old guys, but there is one clear thing that,
I have just been the most blown away at this time. This is my first year here by
the way, and it is the courage of this young people, it’s just absolutely amazing.
Crowd: (applause, whistles)
Male: I
think of that little sister who got surrounded by those guys and I’m thinking “man
I wish would have been there, I would have put that pastor in his place,” but
they don’t need us, you know, they’re just fine. But just to see their courage, I don’t
know about some of your groups but obviously we tried to find young people
to share with, but we found a lot of adults to share with and the kids just went
right up to the adults and started sharing Christ to them. So I would often step back and
just observe and I could just sense that the adults, they are blown away by their
courage and their sincerity. Where they could just see, if this kid is serious about
what they are saying to me, and they really mean it, and they really
believed it, and it was such an encouraging thing to see that..
I just want to encourage all you young people to take that courage home with you.
You said no to your flesh, and yes to god yesterday. It's not a very easy thing, is it? But you experienced the joy of doing it and I’m just going to encourage you
to do it again and again and again when you get home. It takes courage to honor your mother and father, you have got
to say no to your flesh and yes to God. Just
like you did yesterday, and you will
experience the same joy. It takes courage to study hard and get good grades and
reach out to your friends and be different, but
I’m just so encouraged about all of you and I’m so encouraged by your courage for
us older people. We don’t care what people think of us, I don’t anymore, I don’t
really care what people think of me anymore, but when I was their age, I think that’s about all I thought about, and
that’s why I’m just so encouraged . . . That’s a supernatural thing, and I’m just
very proud of all of you. (applause)
Michael Angeles: It is okay in the center.
Just go ahead. Move into the center. Come on down. Okay, Des Moines. Des Moines,
isn’t it?
Rachelle: Hi! I am Rachelle from Des Moines. This is my 5th year coming
to [office?]
and I have to say, it definitely gets better every year. We have a great
group here and this year has been a really great year for our group. We have had
a lot of spiritual growth and I think this week we will really reach a new level
of unity and love for each other and personal and collective commitments to God
and so, that’s going to make to, um.. We went to Denver and we had a lot of really
good experiences and I wish all of them could share their stories with you because
they are really encouraging but, um, we touched a lot of people, probably, and I think
we talked to like 10 to 12 people and I guess our group, we scattered a lot of seeds
and we merely encouraged to see what or to find out from the- what happened with
others and what God is going to do with them. I think 5 people prayed with our group
and that’s really cool. The coolest thing is several of them, like 3 to 4 . . . people who had never shared
the gospel before.. So, it was really cool just to see,
just to have God used the inexperienced and our weakness, and He came through with
His faithfulness and His enablement and that’s really cool. So, that’s all I have
(applause).
Michael Angeles: What a rebuke.
Lisa: Hi! I am Lisa and this is my partner
Mica and we when went out and . . . staying in Denver and it was a kind of [a] encouraging experience because, I know a lot
people I need to share with the group. We have a few people into survey, but we
went up to a staff, this lady, and students . . . while
we still, we really kept talking with them. So, this guy that sits next to her is
kind of _____ and Mica was next to him, and we asked [him] to take the survey and he did. So, we asked
him a question and then after that, he went through the book with us and
after I went through the book with him, he said, “Can I ask you a question now?”
and he just, loved it when I said, “Just knowing that God will help you get through
each day and he just cannot, he looked like he was looking for someone to help him to
say, get through the day.. and then he went on to tell us about his situation .
. . very tough, and we just told him tell him that would be praying for him and
that God is there waiting for him and He could come to him anytime he wanted to-
he did not pray with us, but he took the tract. So, hopefully, God
will work in his heart (applause)
Michael Angeles: How about one of the leaders?
Male: Hi Maestro! I am from Des Moines . . . One thing
that I have really been encouraged by this time is just to see the development.
This is my 5th year . . . and Rachelle
is the one, the only one who shared, that I think who is also on her 5th year, and
just to see the boldness and the growth of some of these young people, and I am
sure many of you, adults, are seeing the same thing in your group too as you see
these people coming as freshmen. I mean as a graduate, and they are leading the church and Rachelle is
one of ours that leads the church and that’s why we asked her to come up and share
with you guys today. But, um, this day was a little bit challenging for us down
in Denver. We did see some people pray with us to receive Christ, but we saw a lot
of nuisance and a lot of people who did not care . . .
One guy, and I asked him if
he would like to go through the survey, he said he would rather go to Seattle (laughs).
Yeah, I guess he said Seattle and I said I am not
the one going to Hell and, you know, he was really taken back by that, and just
. . . faced to the guy, but that’s courage. Also by our adults because some
of our adults, it is their first time to go out and really be active in sharing
their faith, and I was really encouraged to see some of them having interactions
with people, and given the opportunity, is really encouraging for me and.. I was
just thinking about a verse, as I watching everybody, you
know, approaching people and this is the verse that came to my mind, which was Isaiah
50:11 . . . which states, “This is because the sovereign Lord helps me, I will
be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like flint and I know I will not be
put to shame.” So, it was a
great opportunity yesterday and I wish to thank you for this. I am sure of it (applause).
Michael Angeles: Did we miss anybody? Okay. We have
a few minutes. Here is what I like to do. I was talking to my guys earlier today
and I think there are two words that going to sum up this week in my mind, and that is "answered prayer." Do you guys agree with that? (applause). God was faithful to
answer. I know there was a lot of praying being done up to the conference and throughout
the conference and I believe God was faithful to that and He answered our prayers. So,
what I would like to do here, we just have a few minutes. I would like to put your
head with the person next to you and let’s pray for three things. Let’s thank the
Lord for what He did. Let’s pray for those who heard the Gospel yesterday, who were
touched with the conversation. Pray for those people and then lastly, pray for one
another. As you go home, what you have said, let’s take it home with us. Pray for
one another that we would go back with zeal to be active in sharing our faith so
that we can have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. We
got to taste that. Let’s pray and ask God to help us do that, those three things.
Thank God what He did. Pray for those who heard the truth yesterday, those who got
saved and pray for one another.
GCx Web Library
Resources on the Great Commission church movement
aka Great Commission Churches, Great Commission Ministries, Great Commission Association of Churches, Great Commission International, Great Commission Students, The Blitz Movement
Resources on the Great Commission church movement
aka Great Commission Churches, Great Commission Ministries, Great Commission Association of Churches, Great Commission International, Great Commission Students, The Blitz Movement
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