Music Opens a Door for the Gospel in Tempe — Fall 2007

In May, we hosted our third annual Bible Conference. Richard Rubi, Rick Buchholz (our missionary in Turkey), and Pastor Mitchell were our featured speakers. Our daughter and granddaughter churches sent a number of delegates and all in attendance were greatly stirred for breakthroughs. At the end of the week, five domestic works and one overseas work, Lado and Tamie Esquivel into Tegucigalpa, Honduras, were launched.

We had a unique outreach opportunity on the 4th of July when literally thousands of people went to Tempe Town Lake to watch the fireworks. We set up in the middle of the main intersection with a Marine at attention holding up the US flag on one side, a bloody Jesus holding up the cross on the other, and a coffin draped with a US flag in between. As soon as the Grand Finale finished off, the real fireworks began. From behind the coffin, the message that ‘the price for freedom has always been blood’ began to be proclaimed. God came down and a powerful impact was made as many stood wide-eyed, taking it all in and listening to the uncut Gospel. That night, nine people gave their lives to Jesus and many more heard the Word. In addition to regular large scale events (Mill Ave, music scene), our continued labor in not so prominent arenas has been fruitful also. We regularly see visitors from our folk’s workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods, reached by each saint’s effort in personal evangelism. Local outreaches like movies/concerts in parks and neighborhood crusades continually shine the light of the Gospel into pockets of need across Tempe. As we are faithful to sow, God is faithful to bring the reaping.