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Coming Events
Note: Outreaches are subject to change. Call (510) 282-5629 to confirm outreaches or for more information.
Friday April 4, 11, 18, and 25 6 – 9 PM Witnessing in San Francisco neighborhoods.
Sat. April 5 and 12 11 AM -4 PM Fisherman’s Wharf Outreach, Jefferson St. near Powell, San Francisco.
Sat. April 19 12:30-4:30 PM Berkeley Outreach. Center and Shattuck St.
Sat. April 26 12-5 PM UN Plaza 7th St. and Market. SF
August 6-9 SOS-San Francisco 35th Year!
Loving Our Enemies
Dear Christian friends,
Dan Baumann had been a missionary in Muslim countries for several years. In 1997, he traveled to Iran for two weeks with a friend, Stuart Timm. As they tried to leave, they were arrested by the Iranian police. The two were put in separate cells, left there 24 hours a day, and taken out only to be interrogated. They were beaten for many hours at a time.
Baumann wrote, “I struggled with faith, ‘Was God with me? Did He love me? If God is good why would He allow me to go through this situation?’ And I remember waking up that day thinking to myself, ‘If I’m going to be here the rest of my life, why not check out?’ My only thought was not to stay there, and the only way not to stay there was to die.
“Four times I tried to kill myself, but every time I tried I was too scared. And I remember lying down on the ground in that moment – all of a sudden the room fills with this glorious light. And I turn around to see what’s going on and there is Jesus. And He’s standing in
front of me. And it was at that lowest point that He met me. And He looks at me and He stretches out His hands and He puts them underneath me. And in the vision as I see Jesus, He looks at me and says this, ‘Dan, I love you, and I promise to carry you through this time.’ And from that day until this day, I’ve never had those thoughts again.”
“God began to challenge me to love my enemies.” The next time he was brought into the interrogation room to be tortured, Dan said to the interrogator, “‘Sir, if I’m going to see you for the rest of my life every day, why don’t we become friends?’ He’s like, ‘No that’s impossible!’ And I said, ‘Sir, you can start by telling me your name.’ And I stuck out my hand to him, and I said ‘Sir, let’s be friends.’”
“And as I stuck out my hand to shake his hand he just stood there and he froze and after a few minutes he started to shake. And all of a sudden I saw his hand creep towards mine and he shook my hand. And as he’s shaking my hand I saw these tears start to roll down his face and for about ten minutes he just shook my hand. And tears streaming down his face and he finally looks at me and says this, ‘Dan’ – and he calls me by my name – ‘My name is Rizak, and I would love to be your friend.’ And it caused me to see that there is no heart too hard for Jesus; that He can change the hardest heart. God taught me to love my enemy.”
“I heard these guards talking about ‘the foreigners’ (me and my friend), ‘They’re Christians. They follow Jesus.’ And another one says, ‘Oh, these foreigners, they knew they could have problems when they came here. But they have purpose. They have a reason to live and a reason to die. And that’s what I want.’ And I heard three of these men say, ‘Yes, today we are going to follow Jesus. We are going to follow the way.’ And if that was part of the reason God allowed me down there, so be it.”
Timm and Baumann were sentenced to two death sentences, for being a missionary and a spy, but after 9 weeks the convictions were overturned by Iran’s Supreme Court. Today, Bauman is a missionary with Youth With a Mission.
Raising Up an Army
SOS Ministries Internship – July 1-31, 2014
Over the years SOS and other ministries have noticed a decline in the number of people interested in doing outreach ministry, and in particular evangelism on the streets. After our prayers for the Lord of the harvest to send out workers, we have come up with a training ministry that hopefully will attract younger Christians. We are offering a short internship opportunity for young men during the month of July 2014. We have called it the “Mini-i” internship program. We also hope to offer longer internships in the future.
The Mini-i can be described as simply discipleship in evangelism. The participants will have the opportunity to stay in our ministry house. Besides our weekly outreaches they will learn evangelism on the streets in all its aspects. Each day will be spent preparing spiritually and then, after some classroom teaching, we hit the streets to put into practice what is covered in the class. They will get days off and plenty of free time.
Here is how our internship is different than most: because the interns are only here for a month, the time will be spent teaching and training them, instead of having the interns doing chores and other work for us. If you know anyone who would be interested, we have complete information on our website including tuition costs, teaching syllabus, daily schedule, and more: www.sosmin.com/internship.
On the Streets
This past month, Roy Spears has been staying at our house. He is a campus evangelist from Arizona who visited us last year. He has been witnessing every day at the University of California, Berkeley. Larry DuBois and Dave St. Marie have joined him during the week. Larry D. witnessed to Calvin and Caden, two students who were very receptive to the gospel. Roy also met some Christian students who are interested in witnessing. He will be meeting with them to train them in evangelism.
On Friday Feb. 21, we witnessed at 16th St. and Mission. Dave witnessed to Rich, a Catholic who was convicted of his sin and realized he was lost without Christ. Dave and Kris witnessed to four teenage girls, including Natalie from Brazil. Her family came to the US as Catholics but all of them, except for her, have become born-again Christians. Dave also witnessed to Thunder Eagle, a Sioux Indian in his 50’s. Kris had many good conversations and prayed with two people to get right with God.
The next day, we witnessed in Downtown Berkeley. Richard Griffin and Dave May played music. Richard, Dave May, and Umberto ministered to Jonah, who was backslidden. I witnessed to Sabrina, an Algerian who spoke very little English. She was listening to our preaching and said she had a lot of problems. I tried to explain the gospel to her, and left her with a simple gospel tract. Dave witnessed to Michael from Hayward, 18, who was very receptive to the gospel and Marcellus, about 19, who said he went to church every week but they never explained the gospel to him. He also witnessed to Mustafi, an Iraqi who was a nominal Muslim and works at the nearby Chase bank, and Mark, whose son is in Bible college but who was quite argumentative.
On Friday Feb. 28 we witnessed at Powell and Market. Mike witnessed to Francisco, a drug dealer who spends a lot of time there. He shared the whole gospel with him and urged him to get right with God. Dave witnessed to Franklin, who was listening to our preaching. He also witnessed to Cantrell, who was backslidden and used to preach at Powell and Market. They prayed together.
The next day, we went to Fisherman’s Wharf. Tim Moon played music. Dave witnessed to Sanjita, from Nepal, who works at the counter in the Subway Restaurant. He shared the gospel with her and gave her a New Testament, which she said she would read. She was quite open and said she would pray to Jesus. He also witnessed to Tevin, who was reading a tract and asked him “What must I do to get right with God?” I witnessed to a Hare Krishna from India, and tried to explain how Christianity was different from Hinduism. Although rain had been forecast for Friday night and Saturday afternoon, we had virtually no rain during our outreaches.
Ministry Needs
Thank you for your prayers and financial support for the ministry. We have obtained our park permits for 2013. The cost was $822, including a new $150 fee. We still need a musician to minister with us on Friday nights. Also, we still have openings in our evangelism house in Oakland for Christians with a serious interest in evangelism. We are particularly looking for Christians in their 20’s or 30’s. We need to reach the younger generation for Jesus.
On February 24, Mike, Larry D. and I went to Davis, CA to set up a ministry booth at a Toby Mac concert. About 7000 people attended the concert and we gave out about 800 fliers and talked with many people about our ministry.
Please pray for those we have witnessed to recently, especially those mentioned in this newsletter. I hope some of you will join one of our outreaches this next month.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum