Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Evangelism August 2011


 I am so amazed at what the Lord has been doing these last few days.

Monday
Nathan and Nathaniel came over from Stevensville to help us for a couple of days. When they arrived we went out and hung packets for several hours. At around 4 we went downtown to share the gospel with as many people we could find. The first group of kids that I walked up to shouted to me before I even got to the table. “We are Satanists”. I asked them how they knew that I was different than them and they right away told me I was a Christian and they could see it when they first saw me.  I proceeded to try to share the gospel with them but one kid pipes up and goes off on how I shouldn’t be out here sharing about this stuff, but that I should be letting people read the Bible and decided for themselves. I got in a good conversation with another one of them and I didn’t leave so they all left me and went inside the library.  I proceeded on handing out tracts trying to catch up with Nathan, Nathaniel and my sisters. They were farther down the walking mall handing out tracts. We went down to hill part were we talked to some kids and encouraged one believer and shared the gospel with the others. Nathan took a group of a few kids and every once in a while girl would interrupt him and finally I answered one of the questions the girls asked and so she came over and talked to me instead. Nathan went on and got to share the gospel with all of those kids while this girl and her friend listened to me.  PTL. Next we went up the hill to Hill park. There were some kids there so we approached them.  Job was there, He is a person who believes in everything I believe in and more, as he puts it. I had talked to him a couple weeks ago and he would not let me say anything. I did not see him at first and so I tried to talk to some of the people around him(he has a following of 270 People). There were about ten people with him. As I got to read Isaiah 53 to one kid he just told me that I had no basis for my beliefs then he tried to tell me that the air is a fluid and so is ice. I told him he was wrong and he told me that I had never taken a science class or I would have known that. Then he went on to tell me that an Ape’s DNA is only 1% off of ours and I told him again that he was wrong and that was not true. After a while he finally told me to leave so I did. I turned around and Nathan was in a good conversation with two other kids and Job had just gone over to distract them away from him. I quickly decided to take my chance with talking with Job. I drew him away from Nathan and the two guys he was talking to and we started talking. He told me about smash (an adrenaline rush you get from throwing stuff and breaking stuff). This is the basis of his belief system. Nathan got done talking with them and came over. I decided once again to take a chance at telling him the gospel. This time I told him that I had let him tell me about what he believed last time and now it was my turn to talk to him. I have no idea how I got through the whole thing, but I did without him interrupting. He has heard the gospel so he has no excuse. He told us that if anyone ever tried to hurt us he would come after them. We told him that the Lord would protect us and that we trusted in Him and not man.  Meanwhile Nathaniel gets the courage to go up to a table of guys and give them tracts. Much to his surprise there is a guy there that he knows. Nathan and I walk over to them and I say hello and one of the guys says I know you. There sits none other than Jesse Tack. A believer in Christ and a guy that I played basketball with and went to school with. We talked with each other for a while. It was encouraging how the Lord worked through that. That ended our day. What amazing work the Lord does.

Tuesday. We went out at 8:30 and hung out packets getting my projected goal done that morning. PTL
In the afternoon again we went downtown and shared the gospel. It was pretty dead down there not many people there at all. Nathan got into a good conversation with a kid. I got the chance to talk to a few people. One of them is a Christian fellow. Later on when going back to our car. I talked to some kids who were more Satanists, they were closed to the gospel. Then I met three ladies who are Christians, they were a great encouragement. Then a little while later I met a family who had just moved from Auburn, who are looking for a church. The Lord put them in my path for a reason. PTL.  All the while I was meeting more people and giving them gospel tracts. It was great. The Lord is so good to us.  : ) That evening Nathan and Nathaniel left to go back home. What a great encouragement they were to us. We had a good time fellowshipping with them.
Wednesday
We decided to do a small part of East Helena, with packets in the morning. All of the people we talked to were excited and glad that we were passing them out.
As I went through the crowd of people this evening at 5:15 the music had not started so people were sitting all around waiting for something to happen. As I made my way through the crowd of people handing out tracts almost all of them took them.  Some said no, but were very polite about it. Some talked to me and I got to share the gospel with them.  Many people either read the tracts I passed out or heard it directly from me. It was very encouraging. Several people I talked to were true believers in Christ. That also was very encouraging. Please pray for these people that were at Alive @ 5. Many of them needed to hear the gospel. Pray that they will be convicted of their sins.

In all that we did in these three days 1000 packet were hung out and 400 gospel tracts were passed out. PTL. Seeds have been planted. It is exciting to see all of these things happen and encouraging. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to go to Bozeman, but there is a great mission field even there.  A special thanks to Nathan and Nathaniel for coming over and to my sisters Marissa and Emma and Andrew and Seth and my Mom and Dad. Also, to all of you for praying for the evangelism this week.  The Lord works even with the smallest amount of people. Thanks to you all and Praise the Lord for all that He has done.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Summer Update August 2011


Hello everyone,
I feel the need to update everyone with what is going on here in Helena and in my life. Tomorrow we will be starting our half week of evangelism. We will be hanging out packets on doors and doing street evangelism in the afternoon/evening. This summer has been very interesting for us here. One of my evangelism partners and friend (Scott Doherty) and his family has gone to Costa Rica to learn Spanish and then on to Peru to be a missionary to Peru for the rest of his life. Please keep him in your prayers.

Throughout this summer I have gone on the streets and see a great need for young people who come along side kids and just talk with them, because the kids can relate to us. After sharing the gospel with them, they have wanted to talk to me about the Bible for at times hours on end. They have never heard such things as this. They do not know the stories of God’s great power. They yearn to hear. When asking how I could contact them, it has been hard to get a response from them, they don’t really want to be contacted. Many of these kids want to give up their drugs and their addictions and follow Christ, but they see it as to hard or that they will do it later.  They yearn for something more in life then what they have. They yearn to be loved by someone.

When I started doing street evangelism this summer Helena was totally open to the gospel. People would take tracts and they would talk to me. As the summer has progressed there has been more and more opposition. There was one man named Job of Ob who had a bunch of his Atheistic followers with him. As I approached them they started shouting at me. A couple climbed up in a tree and started shout profanities and random things at me. Job was absolutely closed to the gospel, so much so that I could not even talk to him. He went through his spiel and then told me to leave. As I left he told me he would rather rot in Hell then to acknowledge that there is a God. I was saddened by this, but the Lord can even break the hardest of hearts.
A week from tomorrow, Monday the 29th I will be starting my classes at MSU. I have decided to change my major to Construction Engineering Technology. The Lord has worked it out that I have taken most of the classes I needed to take, last semester for this degree. I don’t know what is in store for this year, but I hope and pray for many opportunities to share the gospel with the kids there. I have found that many younger kids that I have known are going to be going to MSU. I would ask you all to keep them in your prayers, that they would stand firm and that I would be able to encourage them and that they would not fall away.  It will be an exciting, but hard year this year. I am ready for it.

This last Friday I gave out tracts at my last day of work. I was amazed at the responses. The people, I thought were absolutely hard against the gospel , were open to it and the one who I thought was a Christian turned out to be a JW. It gets harder and harder to tell Christians from the rest of the world, because many Christians swear. Many are in this world and of this world. Please pray for me as I respond to this JW and also for the rest of the guys in the store that they would come to know Christ as their Savior.

This next summer I will be planning a trip to Nigeria, Lord willing. There is a possibility that I can do an internship over there. Please pray for that. There is no way on my own that I could get over there the Lord will open the doors if it is His will. : )

Please keep all of these things in your prayers. Many things are happening here. The Lord is working in amazing ways. Thank you to you all for your prayers.

Your brother in Christ and Servant of the Lord,
T.J. Kerttula


Friday, August 12, 2011

Are we Hypocrites or Disciples?

 "Hero" by Abandon

"He walked the dirty streets famous for nothing
He said, "Come follow me" and they came
A face like all the rest, but something was different
The Son of God would lead the way

And soon they all would say

There He goes, a hero, a savior to the world
Here He stands with scars in His hands
With love He gave His life so we could be free
The savior of the world

He spoke with clarity, walked across the sea
A single word would calm the storm
His touch could heal the sick, but He was called a hypocrite
Laid behind the stone, his death was shortly mourned

He left the curtain torn

There He goes, a hero, a savior to the world
Here He stands with scars in His hands
With love He gave His life so we could be free
The savior of the world

He chose to take the cross, shed tears for the lost
The broken and the needy, forgiving those who were and will be
The angel made it clear, he told them, "Have no fear
He's not here, He's not here"

There He goes, a hero, a savior to the world
Here He stands with scars in His hands
With love He gave His life so we could be free
The savior of the world
(The savior of the world)

The savior of the world
(The savior of the world)
The savior of the world"



As I listened to this song tears came to my eyes. What an amazing sacrifice Jesus Christ made on that cross.With love He gave His life so we could be free. He is the only Savior to the World, and yet people continue to mock His name. Whether by their word's or by their actions. Even us, Christians, mock Him by disobeying Him and not living the life that we should. As I have been reflecting on the life that I have been living, I realize that my life is not what it should be. It is us that lead the way to godly and holy living. Are we going to throw away this great opportunity to point our generation to Christ? Let us both in word and deed show the love of Christ. First, of all by sharing the gospel with others and second of all by showing others the One we follow is the loving Savior of the World, by showing Christ's love, to whomever we come across. Do we deny Jesus by our lifestyle or do we show Him through our lifestyle? Friend's let us together change our lifestyle, to what is pleasing to the Lord, not what seems to be pleasant to us. Let us love God with our whole heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength. Let us stand up to this world and not compromise. Let us read the Bible and do what is says. Let us obey the commandments that have been given to us. Let us stand firm. I, for one, am sick of the apathetic rut I am falling into. It's time to show the World who this Savior of the World we follow is. It is time to follow in Christ's steps. It is time to stop being hypocrites and it is time to be disciples.  I would like to leave you with a few verses to think about.

1 Corinthians 15:55; 16:13-14 "'O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O  DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?; The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord..... Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love."

I was listening to this song as I was writing this and decided to include it. I pray that the Lord would raise of men after His own heart.
I wanna know you like that- Anthem Lights

I wanna know x7
Just today
I heard a story of a Pastor far away
Who watched his church walls fall with the rain
With tears in his eyes
Here is what he had say
"Let's reach the ones that will rebuild this place"
 I wanna know You like that
To live to love
With everything I am
To give it all
 I wanna know You like that
To become
A man after Your heart
And not look back
I wanna know You like that
 I wanna know x3
 Like David did
He lived a life this world cannot forget
He'd fall so hard then get back up again
 Then face the giant
Knowing he would win
Because You were with him
 I wanna know You like that
To live to love
With everything I am
To give it all
 I wanna know You like that
To become
A man after Your heart
And not look back
I wanna know You like that
 With every breath I breathe
I wanna help others see
And I will never stop
'Til everybody's singing
I wanna know You like that