YouTube Video of Randy Forbes

Distinguished Christian Statesman of the Year

Dear friend,

Our press release is done announcing Randy Forbes as the Distinguished Christian Statesman of the Year! You can see the release at:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/07/prweb2611704.htm

Praise God for leaders like Randy Forbes. Can I urge you to take a moment today and pray for Randy and his family as they serve God in Washington D.C.? And add George and Linda Roller to the prayer asking God to fill them with His peace as they labor on Capital Hill.

May the Lord bless you today.

John

XEE—The NeXt Generation

I always enjoy chatting with Adam Bond, Director for XEE Expansion, here in USA. He had plenty to say about XEE and what’s going on with this ministry.

“We are starting to hear some incredible stories of how XEE is impacting people around North America,” he said. According to Adam, the most profound indicator of XEE’s impact is implementation. Among those pastors that attend an XEE two-day Launch, 95 percent of them implement the XEE tool in their churches.

Adam talked with an elder from a church near Indianapolis who cannot wait to implement XEE at his church. “This excitement typifies how people feel about XEE,” Adam shared. “We are just scratching the surface in terms of understanding what we have in XEE.”

By any standard, XEE is leading the way; generationally, it is being adopted by all ages. Educationally, it presents unique methods that work, and its communication platform makes connecting and relationship building enjoyable. Ultimately, it provides more opportunities to share the Gospel. Many people are intrigued by XEE’s approach. “The ongoing development of XEE is only hindered by the number of hours in the day!” Adam explained. The collaborative effort and growing relationships with local churches have made discovering new and very creative ways to share the Gospel extremely successful. “I personally believe that God has HUGE plans for XEE in the next few years,” Adam shared excitedly. People just love XEE when they first hear about it.

As XEE continues to develop, please pray for:

• Its success

• The leaders training others

• Those making professions of faith in Christ

• And that Jesus Christ would be glorified.

You can check out the website at: http://www.xee.info or log onto the Facebook page for XEE NA here.

God bless,

John

D.C.

Dear friends,

Had a great time in Washington D.C. last week. We should get the press release out today or tomorrow. I'll post it here. But here's an email from Shirley Beattie about the events. Shirley did an outstanding job organizing all of these events with George and Linda Roller.

God bless,

John

From Shirley:

Hi everyone - just wanted to thank you all for your prayers for our week in DC - everything went extremely well!

The Politics and Principles luncheon on Tuesday had attendance of almost 100 interns and Hill staffers. Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana spoke to the group and encouraged them to stay strong in their faith.

The attendance at the Distinguished Christian Statesman Award Dinner was around 200, including several Congressmen. Randy Forbes received the award for 2009 - he talked about how important the Center is for reminding people of the Christian heritage of our nation.

We also had a phenomenal Wallbuilders Tour of the Capitol, which included a spontaneous visit from Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann who preached a mighty sermon and blessed us with an equally mighty prayer - right in the old Senate room. Then in the old Supreme Court, Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado read several passages of scripture. The night ended with a rousing rendition of "God Bless America" led by opera singers, Chris Holloway and his wife Sasha, who were there as a part of our group. Chris sang two of Rep. Forbes' favorite hymns at the dinner on Wednesday.

George Roller is always pleased to share about this ministry, especially if you know any young people who may be interested in interning with him.

Blessings, Shirley

Urgent Prayer Request

Dear friends,

Here is an urgent prayer item from David Gomez in Guatemala. Please feel free to pass it along to those who you know will pray!

John

PRAYER REQUEST:

(Summary translation from Spanish) On June 25 at the startup of two simultaneous EE
clinics in Guatemala City ---a Kids' EE teacher training clinic and an EE
Youth clinic--- armed bandits entered the "Open Bible" host church, ordered
everyone to lay on the floor and turn over their cell phones or be shot
dead. The thieves also took the laptop computer belonging to Paola Gomez
(the Kids' EE organizer/teacher/facilitator), as well as the ministry's
video projector.

Most of the people present for the training were teenagers, and the
atmosphere was very tense. However, we know that we have the joy of
"stealing" away souls from the Devil who has come to rob. He who is with us
in more powerful and will give us the victory in the next three days of the
clinics.

We invite you to join with us in this great battle, confident of the Lord's
control and power, knowing that he is very present with us, and that all
will turn out for the good.

In the all-powerful Christ who is Lord over all of heaven and earth,

David

Twitter!

Well, I've finally signed up for Twitter... I'm not sure that's a good thing? But maybe so. You can find my by the user name: jbsorensen.

Have a great week.

John

Kids’ EE Celebrates its 10th Anniversary, and Partners with OneHope

I was recently in Australia with an entire group of Kids' EE specialists working on materials for our partnership with OneHope. One of the specialists was Marcia Ardis and she reminded me about the beginning of Kids' EE.

1999 marked the beginning of Kids’ EE, and now, ten years later, Kids’ EE is planted on every continent around the world. “I feel like we have received a tenth anniversary present from the Lord!” Marcia declares. Those working with Kids’ EE are known to be passionate and oftentimes impatient. This impatience is understandable—children grow up so fast. “If a child’s tender heart is not filled with God, the world will fill it with ‘untruths,’” Marcia explains.

OneHope is a children’s ministry dedicated to child missions and child evangelism. It now partners with Kids’ EE. Together, we share the same vision—to reach millions of children globally, in a short amount of time. Marcia excitedly shares, “This ‘short amount of time’ is what grips our hearts. In just three years, through the partnership, 20 million children will be reached!”

In May, representatives from the worldwide Kids’ EE team met ‘down under,’ in Australia. These reps came together to design a plan to reach these 20 million children. The plan is to have Kids’ EE leaders and field workers train teachers who will then equip children to share the Gospel with others. “This cycle will continue—multiplication at its finest—adults reaching children who reach more children…who reach more…who reach more,” Marcia happily explains. “THANK GOD for this tenth anniversary present!” she exclaims.

Please continue to pray for Kids’ EE, OneHope, and the partnership we are making. God has blessed us so much; pray that He will continue to do so.

The Excitement of Center for Christian Statesmanship is Contagious!

I recently talked to George Roller, Director for the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship (CCS), and long time EE advocate, and friend.  He spoke of the excitement he has for this summer, but particularly for June 21-28, 2009.  This is the week of Mission to Congress when college and graduate students join EE and The Center to reach out to the Members of Congress, Congressional Staffers, and Congressional Interns. 

Last year's winner, Mike Pence, from Indiana

This year, CCS has the honor of bestowing the 14^th Distinguished Christian Statesmanship Award.  Those who have received this prestigious award in the past include:  Senator John Ashcroft, Senator Sam Brownback, The Honorable Kay Coles James, Ambassador Dan Coats, Representative J.C. Watts, Representative John Hostettler, Representative Marilyn Musgrave, Representative Mike McIntyre, and Representative Mike Pence (the 2008 winner).  This year, the honor is being given to Representative Randy Forbes, a Congressman from Virginia.  Randy has been serving in the House of Representatives since 2001 and has been standing up for his faith in Christ and proclaiming God’s love in his actions.  He fought to include God in the Capitol Visitor Center as well as established the Congressional Prayer Caucus.  I had the immense privilege of handing this award to Mike Pence a year ago in 2008, and I again have the honor of giving this wonderful award, this year to Randy. 

I asked George to share some of the excitement he has for this year.  “I’m excited by the caliber of the new winner, Randy Forbes, and his absolute, strong commitment to Christian values.”  After the National Day of Prayer, Randy organized a press conference to counteract what the president had said about America not counting itself as a Christian or Jewish nation.  The purpose of this prayer conference was to outline our history to show that we were founded on Christian principles.  At that conference, the filing of a bill was announced which will make the first week of May every year a Religious Heritage Week.  “I’m excited about Representative Forbes being our new winner for the year,” George eagerly conveys, “and for the week in June that will give us the opportunity to allow many people on the Hill to hear about our organization and to uplift the name of Jesus Christ to these leaders of our country!”

There is going to be an evening tour of the capitol, with a commentary by the Wall Builders Association, headed up by David Barton, which will promote and make people aware of our country’s strong Christian heritage.  “Thousands of interns will also be coming to Washington D. C. this summer and we will have the opportunity to impact many of them to let them hear the Gospel, and to see Members of Congress as role models, sharing the Gospel,” George excitedly shared.  

Last year's intern BBQ

I hope that you all will pray for this upcoming week, June 21-28, that the interns attending will be greatly impacted, and the Congressmen will be affected by CCS and will make a difference in our country for Christ.

Facebook

Dear friends,

Technology can be a wonderful thing (I say this with a grin...)!

And through the hard work of some younger folks, EE has entered the Facebook age.  Amazing!  We have a lot of staff that regularly use Facebook to communicate with friends and ministry partners.  Now we have an EE page!  You can become a fan by clicking HERE.

May the Lord richly bless you today.

John

A great opportunity for this summer...

Dear friends,

This summer, we have a great opportunity for you or someone you love to experience missions in a big way.  For the past two summers, Evangelism Explosion International has offered a missions experience on the beautiful island of Fiji for all young people that are considering the call of God on their lives.

I interviewed one of our staff, Langdon Stewart, who has helped with the program.  You can listen to the interview by clicking the link below.

INTERVIEW WITH LANGDON STEWART

The interview talks about XEE in the first half, and then, at about 15 minutes in, switches to talk about the Mission to Fiji.  We have some great info on this on our main website.  You can find it HERE.

Please think about and pray about whether you know someone who would be blessed by this kind of great experience.

May the Lord bless you this week.

John

More reports!

I received an email from Larry Piedt, the Outreach Pastor at Coral Ridge.  He gave me a report of what God did through a wonderful project as an Easter outreach project.  Larry is creative in coming up with ways to get out into the community to bless people and share the Gospel.  Praise the Lord!

Here is the note he sent me...

Here are the results from the Easter Project. Thank you so much for your heart for the hurting, your passion to share the good news, and your faithfulness to His Church. Report Session was indeed a “taste of Heaven.” 

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of the faith Gal. 6:9-10.

People met with: 50

Gospel presented: 40 times

Professions of faith: 24

No decision: 7

Pray for assurance: 16

Only friendly visit: 2

Already Christian: 8

Reports!

We've received some wonderful reports lately from the field. This one I received from David Clark, a regional director for the western region of the United States. This report shows what one church in Phoenix was able to do, by the grace of God, with 14 teams that were willing to go out and talk to people about Jesus! I'm sure you'll be just as amazed as I am.  I really appreciate the recorder that took the time and energy to put such a report together so that we can pray and rejoice!

In Him,

John

REPORT:

Our night out for OJT was very inspiring and eventful. Thanks for your faithfulness in praying for us. Here's our report for this week:

PRAYER (these people answered the questionnaire, some heard the Gospel, but
didn't make a decision; some were left tracts; some are contacts that people
in EE have made and are continuing to witness to.

LT – means they were left a tract

Chris – motorcycle accident
Leonard
James – LT
David – LT
Lady w/Dog
Kids @ Skate Park
Anais – LT
Anna – LT
Adrian – LT
Jesus & Maria – LT
Lucy – Assurance
Nina – New Age
Tu
Dan – Health
Charlene's Mom – Cancer
Rosanna – Other faith
Sarah
Leroy – LT
Money (that was the name given to us)
Syl – Failing Health
Ferhad – Other religion
Raymond
Danny – LT
Hannah, Abbey, Line – ladies of other religion that were very nice, listened, searching, had many questions
Travis
Joe – Other faith – LT
Alina – her mom – bypass surgery
Shelley – LT
Marcella
Melissa
Rachael
Dorothy – Health issues
Marvin – Health issues
Lenny
James
Guadalupe
Roger
Kristin
Desmond – Buddist; and Nick – Atheist – These two were talked to by another team this week. The fact that they were approached again this week seemed to get their attention! Nick said he still had the information given to him last week, he hadn't read it yet, but it was on his dresser. Please pray that he will read it this week, and if the Lord wills, another team will approach them in the coming weeks.

PRAISE!!!! (These people all prayed to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior!)

Brandy, Jasmin, Alex, Luis, Maria, Carlos, Idali, 

Lucy, Victor, Kunisha, Rick, Charlene, Dan, Blanca, Eddie, Raymond, Elizabeth, Anthony, Katina, 

Miranda, Robert, Bryson

Here is a more in-depth report from one of our teams:

"Our team shared the Gospel for a heartfelt 45 minutes with Anthony and his girlfriend Atina as they sat on the park bench. As we talked, Anthony shared how he had lost both his parents and how his only parent, his grandmother was dying. He felt he had no one to talk to except his girlfriend. He felt lonely and desired peace. Every time he opened up to his "friends"...they did not want to listen to him.  He felt burdened with much responsibility in his life. Death and seeing loved ones suffer had taken its toll on him. He felt this huge void.

"He knew about God but felt he did not believe anymore until last weekend. See, Anthony was not supposed to be in the park, he had gotten in trouble recently with a 3rd DUI and was in jail facing felony charges and prison. But, when he went before the judge for the crimes…mysteriously there was NO record of his charges anymore. As a result, the judge had to set him free. He knew he was guilty and even thought maybe jail would keep him safe somehow. Anthony even still had the paperwork in his pocket and showed it to us. He was still shocked by it. He had been thinking about God the past few days.  I told him how this was much like how Christ paid the penalty of our sins and there is no longer any record of them and how we have been set free.

"Anthony said, “he was looking up to the stars and was asking to hear something good and we came along”…and he heard something good all right, he heard the Gospel. After accepting Christ in their hearts, Anthony said he felt good just being around us, and felt that we were positive. I know he was feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit and Jesus.

"They thanked us and wept and hugged us. Anthony was now smiling and encouraging us as we were leaving. He said, “keep doing what you are doing”…sharing the Gospel. He hoped some day he would do what we do. We are hoping to seem them again in 7 days!"

We can't Thank You enough for all your prayers.  May God Bless and protect you! "

2009 International Board Meeting

My dear friends,

We just concluded our 2009 International Board meeting and it was quite a wonderful week! We heard many outstanding testimonies from the vice president's regarding the ministry all over the world. The board members considered the outcome of the organizational review task force. And they adopted their recommendations for making the board a smaller, corporate board, and establishing a Congress of Mature Nations for the future.

The first Congress of Mature Nations will be held in Kuala Lumpur in March of 2010. The Archbishop Harry Goodhew has been assigned as the chairman of this Congress. I can't wait until those opening moments of this new Congress as leaders from every one of the mature nations around the world come together to dream and pray and believe God for the future of this great ministry.

I created a page with some of the highlights of the banquet that came on Friday night at the end of the board meeting. This podcast contains several wonderful projects that the ministry is working on worldwide. I encourage you to take a listen. I've also placed one of the songs my daughter Hannah sang at the banquet (she was wonderful!). And finally the comments of Rich DeVos to wrap up the evening.

(LISTEN HERE)

It was a wonderful board meeting and banquet. And a great vision for the future of this ministry. Thanks for sharing in it. Together we can make a difference.

Yours in His service,

John

Australia Day

I write this from a chair looking out into the mist surrounding the Sydney airport on a rainy day.  Normally you could see the city scape in the background but today it is hidden in the mist.  Yesterday was Australia Day (I know, my laptop date is one day off!).  And it started as a brilliant day.  By mid-day, there were heaps of people crowded into the public spaces around the water front of Sydney harbor.  Many displaying the flag and celebrating their country.

Every time I spend time here I am taken by how well the Australians live together.  There are people of nearly every race who call Australia home (it's funny to see a Chinese face with an Australian accent!).  Every stage performance that I saw included Aborigines, Australia's truly native people.  But race and color don't seem to be a problem here.  When I look around, I see good attempts at unity and it's a delight to my eyes.

Unity is a difficult thing really.  Perhaps impossible in it's fullest sense (without Christ).  We know that Christ has called us to unity within the Church.  And He told us to live at peace with all men (as much as we are able).

My prayer for this Australia Day is that we, who are Christ's followers, will long for unity.  To be one in Him so that the world will know (John 17).  One of the things I most love about EE is it's unifying force as we all join together to do the work of the Gospel.  Unity.  May it be true in our lifetimes.

Yours in His service,

John

Fighting Evangelism Fatigue

Dear family,

Lee Strobel wrote a great blog on fighting evangelism fatigue.  I think if we are all fair we would agree that his words resonate in us as well.  I've quoted his blog here and given a link at the bottom for the rest of the article.  He offers some helpful tips to staying on task...

May the Lord richly bless you today.

John

"Your brother is an atheist. Your neighbor is into New Age and Tarot cards. Your boss thinks Christianity is based on ancient mythology. The waiter at your favorite lunch spot is a Muslim. Your chiropractor is simply indifferent about God.

"And some days – if you're really honest – you just don't care very much. At least, not enough to initiate a spiritual conversation with them.

"Let me be the first to confess: there are times when I suffer from evangelism fatigue. I know I should care, I know I should reach out to them, I know I should talk to them about Jesus – but my motivation meter is hovering at low voltage.

"Maintaining a high-energy evangelistic lifestyle isn't easy, is it? Sometimes our passion for personal outreach begins to flicker. Call it unspiritual. Call it sin. But let's be honest enough to call it what it undeniably is: very, very real. So what can we do about it? Here are some steps I take when these doldrums hit." [read more]

The craziest things happening right next door....

Take a look at this video.  You will probably find it as amazing as I do.  The issues that we face are not distant from our homes anymore.  We are living in troubled times.  Buses in Fort Lauderdale advertise for young people to call to find out more about Islam...  Protests are happening in our streets...



One thing is sure...  we cannot hide, nor pretend that we are not affected.  We cannot retreat into our Church walls and imagine that the danger will go away if we do not get involved.

The only thing that will change society for the good is the life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The only hope for permanent, positive change in our society is for our neighbors, work associates, friends, and family to come to a right relationship with Jesus Christ.  Only then we will have peace.  For He is the Prince of Peace.

If you're on the side lines, it's time to step up.  Get involved in sharing the good news.  Nothing could be more patriotic.

John

Christian Values Network

Dear friend,

In this season of giving, we are thankful for the many blessings God has given us.  And, as we experience God’s love poured out on us, it makes us desire even more to advance the Kingdom.

Now, with our new association with Christian Values Network, there is a way for you to help ensure that our Kingdom impact is fully realized – at no cost to you.

And the good news is, it involves something as simple as shopping!  Here's how it works...

All you have to do is begin all your online shopping at the CVN.org web site and a percentage of your everyday shopping purchases will go directly to Evangelism Explosion.

Yes, you read it correctly.  All you have to do is shop at the popular online stores you always frequent, buy the same things you always purchase, and get the same bargains you always find.  The only difference is that you start the process at the CVN.org web site, click on your favorite store, and in no time, you’re buying what you need, and 3 – 7% of your purchases are given back to Evangelism Explosion!

It’s that simple.  And it doesn’t cost you any more!

Just like the millions of others that shop online – you’ll pay the best price possible at your favorite major stores like Target, Best Buy, PetSmart, Macy’s, Sports Authority and so many more.

Imagine what a blessing it would be if a percentage of all travel you are already going to buy through Expedia, Orbitz, or Travelocity, could go back to fund programs that share the Gospel!

That’s the power of our partnership with Christian Values Network.

Click here  to learn more about Christian Values Network and browse our list of well known, respected and trusted shopping partners and become a member for free today!

Yours in His service,

John

P.S.  As an encouragement for you to join today (it’s free to join), Christian Values Network will make a one-time contribution of $5 for a purchase you make of $25 or more by December 31, 2008!