Landmark Baptist

AMAZING WEEK OF MINISTRY AND OUTREACH IN PENNSYLVANIA!

Thank you for your prayers for CityReach 2008. In our planning and preparation over the last year much time was spent in prayer and discussion as we sought the Lords direction. We decided on 6 different ministry outreaches as we purposed to help build up the now 40 week old Lifepoint Baptist Church and its Pastors Aaron and Andrew Johnson.

The six ministries that we felt lead of the Holy Spirit to employ were
1. A kids sportscamp
2. A video game day camp for grades 6-8
3. A totally free car wash
4. A construction ministry
5. A special services ministry
6. Religious Opinion Poll outreach (door to door evangelism)

The following were the results of this outreach

1. Kids sports camp touched 50 lives of which 6 made professions of faith(one was a dad).

2. Video game day camp touched 21 lives of which 5 made professions of faith.

3. Totally free car wash had two sites in very visible areas of town and were highlighted on the front page of the local newspaper. They brought much publicity to the new church plant and CityReach. They washed 395 cars in 4 days and touched hundreds of lives if not thousands(through the newspaper).

4. The construction ministry worked on freely repairing 17 different homes around the city and were able to touch many lives.

5. The special services ministry prayed with soldiers, homeless, firemen, hazmat crew, correctional facility workers, residents at retirement homes, volunteered at a homeless shelter, did numerous acts of kindness all week and filled Washington Pennsylvania with the presence of God!

6. Religious Opinion Poll - Knocked on 3,118 doors -Shared the gospel 450 times- Witnessed 21 professions of Faith and left Aaron Johnson with 70 quality follow ups, many of which requested a personal visit!

We had something that happened this year that I never recall happening in the past 4 years. As we went door to door we found the field to be much harder than places we had been before. We were far out of the Bible Belt and in a largely Catholic area so this may explain some of the resistance we were having. As we progressed through the week knocking on doors we began to experience people that clearly stated to us that they would only listen to us because we had washed their car for free, because they had a kid in the free sportscamp, because they had a kid in the video game camp, because we had fixed steps and did repairs on their inlaws house and so on and so on. This was a powerful testimony of the importance how showing love and kindness will open hearts and minds to the message of Gods Word!

In all we witnessed 32 professions of faith! These 32 professions were not from people attending Lifepoint or CityReach but unchurched people in the town of Washington. Of the 32 professions Aaron Johnson has been able to personally visit with 28 of them and feels very good about their professions. Pray that they will follow the Lord in baptism and that many if not all of them will be added to the church plant in Pennsylvania. We believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was shared with 600+ people on a one to one level and that over 1500 lives were touched by the love and kindness of Lifepoint and CityReach. There is no one like our God! We strongly believe that God is going to do even greater things in this City! Come join us and see what God is doing!

In Christ,

Jonathon D Smith
CityReach International

www.gocityreach.com

Great report Bro Jon. Had a good visit with you father in Spokane..