Boise State University #SFOI1000 Outreach

(vs. Fresno State)

12/3/2022

For this afternoon’s Mountain West Conference (MWC) Championship game at Albertsons Stadium, my partner Jason Morse and I enjoyed blue clear skies and crisp and cold (in the shade) temps between 28 and 34 degrees. Not bad for early December.

This was Jason’s very first outreach, and he was handing out tracts like a champ  He had been asking me for the past few weeks when he could join us, but (logically) it didn’t work out until today. Anyways, he really had (has) a desire to share his faith and to make Christ known. Very very encouraging! Just goes to show ya, that it’s your heart (not so much your head) that the Lord desires to use you in His work.

Together, we were blessed to pass out around 500 Million Dollar Bill (MDB) tracts. After about an hour of passing out tracts on University Drive (adjacent to the stadium south parking lot) at Grant Avenue, we moved right up next to the stadium and began to open-air preach the “reason for the season.” Before preaching, I was blessed to share the gospel with a Fresno State fan (and retired law enforcement officer) Barnabus Torres.

He was very appreciative of our efforts and thankful for meeting us and getting to know us. He noted that this was not a chance encounter but he literally stated that it was a divinely orchestrated meeting. I so agreed with him. I also gave him my ministry business card as he and his family are seriously considering moving to the Treasure Valley (Boise area) sometime soon.

For my open-air, I read Messianic prophecy from Isaiah 9:6; 53:1-12; and the biblical meaning of Christmas from John 1:1-18; and wrapped up with the gospel “reason” for Christmas. PTL, we faced no official opposition and many many people gave me visual (thumbs up) appreciation  and verbal approval and gratitude. Yay Jesus!

Jason and I stayed right up to kickoff at 2pm. I found out later that Boise lost the MWC Championship game to Fresno 28-16. All in all, the Broncos had a really fine year, finishing with a 9-4 overall record and an 8-1 conference record.

Our final football outreach opportunity this season will be the Famous Potato Bowl (FPB) game at Albertsons Stadium, on Tuesday December 20th, from 11:30 to the 1:30 kickoff.

Please pray for everyone who was impacted with the gospel today and our for our final SFOI outreach this season on the 20th. That the Lord would provide favorable weather, abundant gospel opportunities and more laborers (Matt. 9:38). You are all certainly welcome to join us.

Boise State University #SFOI1000 Outreach

(vs. Utah State)

11/25/2022

Due to holiday football TV scheduling, today’s Utah State/BSU game had a 10am kickoff. That meant that our SFOI outreach team needed to be on the ground at 8am to have a 2-hour outreach. Thankfully, it wasn’t as cold as it could have been with temps between 27 and 34 degrees and mostly clear skies. Also, the early start time helped us find a street parking spot about a block and a half from the stadium vs. 5-8 blocks normally.

Today’s SFOI team consisted of Robert and Shane Viera, Ben and Thomas Marcham, and myself. Since we have been moved around the last couple of games by  BSU Security and Boise PD, we opted to begin tracting along the public sidewalk adjacent to the stadium along University Dr. After an hour (around 9am), we went up to the stadium near the visiting team buses and began open air preaching and continued passing out tracts.

Praise be to the Lord, we encountered NO official opposition in the very same place we had been ejected three weeks ago! That’s not to say we faced no opposition, just none from the event authorities. One guy was very vocal that we shouldn’t open air because “everyone here is a Christian.” Of course he couldn’t be bothered to stay and discuss his position.

Another objected vocally to the 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 reference to homosexuals. Again, not willing to stay and examine the passage. And yet another, openly walked away, loudly mocking the preaching of Scripture. May the Lord give no rest or peace those who openly (and secretly) opposed to God’s Word.

All in all, it was a very blessed outreach. Approximately, 1,500 tracts[1][2][3] were passed out! I had no gospel conversations other than to explain that the million dollar bills were actually the real “reason for the season”— the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Next up, is the Mountain West Football Championship game at Albertsons Stadium. BSU will be hosting the Fresno State Bulldogs next Saturday afternoon (12/3 at 2pm MT). And beyond that, the very last game of the season, will be the 26th Annual Famous Potato Bowl game at— you guessed it— Albertsons Stadium!

Please pray for everyone who was impacted with the gospel, these upcoming games, favorable weather and treatment from those in authority, and “…pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matt. 9:38). Y’all are welcome to join us.

BTW, BSU topped USU today 42-23, on “the blue,” in front of 31,402 fans! WTG Broncos

Resources:

[1] Christmas Million Dollar Bill

https://livingwaters.com/.../christmas-million-dollar-bill/

[2] Christmas Cash

https://www.tractplanet.com/Christmas-Cash_p_121.html

[3] Are You a Good Person?

https://livingwaters.com/.../are-you-a-good-person-comic/

Boise State University #SFOI1000 Outreach

(vs. BYU)

11/5/2022

This afternoon, BSU squared off against Brigham Young University at Albertsons Stadium. It was much colder today than last week because of our recent snow storm. Temps were brisk—hovering in the mid 40’s with windy and cloudy conditions.

Our team today consisted of Robert Viera and his son, Ben; Rick Cordoba; and Tom Haines (who was outreaching for the first time today). We returned to the south end of the stadium near the opposing team buses. If you recall from last week, this is where BSU campus security advised us to go after asking us to leave the vendor area near the C Gate.

Well, once again were visited by campus security and advised to cease passing out tracts and to vacate our new location for the same reason. Eventually, Robert was confronted by 3 Boise PD and 2 BSU Public Security Officers after he commenced to open-air preach instead of tracting. Sadly, this too was prohibited.

We were directed to vacate the campus and go out to the nearby public street, University Dr. I conversed briefly with the officers and questioned why a publicly financed university could be considered private property. Apparently, it’s the same reason that entire blocks of public streets can be treated the same way. Event organizers are allowed to pay our public officials for the right to restrict public access for these events and then set their own access policies.

That being understood, I thanked the officers for their service and departed to the sidewalk frontage adjacent to the stadium. And just like last we, praise be to God, we enjoyed an excellent afternoon of passing out tons of tracts. Unfortunately, we didn’t find the sidewalk conducive to open-air preaching.

We found that certain intersections along University Dr. were packed with foot traffic, especially right before kickoff. I personally went through 500 plus tracts in no time! All told, we ended up handing out around 1K tracts, PTL

I was using LW’s Patriotic MDB’s (or USA Money, as I called them) while the rest of the team were using LW’s “Are You a Good Person”/Mr. Nice Guy tracts. I was also blessed to have a brief gospel conversation with one young man!

Please pray that when we return for the final home game on November 25th, that we would be able to freely share the good news without any opposition or restrictions. As I mentioned to the officers before I departed, that we seek only to make Christ known and to bring glory to God. May they stand convicted, along with the many football fans who were impacted by the gospel today.

And BTW, many BYU fans received gospel tracts as well. May the Lord open their hearts to His true gospel of grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. Yay Jesus

Boise State University #SFOI1000 Outreach

(vs. Colorado State)

10/29/2022

Yesterday afternoon, our small outreach team enjoyed a beautiful fall outreach day, for #BoiseState’s 4th home game of the year versus Colorado State. The leaves were still turning and falling with beautiful blue skies and sweet autumn temps in the mid 50’s.

I was blessed to partner with Robert Viera, his wife Beata. Our outreach began at our usual spot near the C Gate—the main Albertsons Stadium entrance. We arrived a little over two hours prior to the 5pm kickoff.

Last year, and so far this year, we have been free to outreach without official opposition. That changed yesterday as BSU recently changed the use the C Gate area, which is now reserved for paid vendors only. So, we were asked politely by campus security to move to another area adjacent to the south end of the stadium.

We quickly considered our options and decided to check it out the new spot near the stadium tailgate area and visiting team bus parking. As the Lord would have it, this new location was blessed with very heavy foot traffic and it was actually less noisy. This new spot turned out to be an ideal tracting and open-air location, after all.

We were blessed to be able to pass out nearly 1K tracts along with some solid open-air preaching. We also enjoyed a few brief conversations. Praise be to the Lord for such a blessed outreach opportunity.

BTW, BSU (6-2) bested CSU (2-6) 49-10, on “The Blue,” in front of 33,895 fans. Next up, BYU this coming Saturday, 11/5.

Boise State University #SFOI1000 Outreach (9/17/2022) 

My wife Rosie and I were blessed to outreach this afternoon’s UT Martin vs Boise State (BSU) football game at Albertsons Stadium on the campus of BSU.

The weather was beautiful pre-fall day with some of the leaves beginning to change, temps on the mid 70’s, and a pleasant cooling breeze. Pre-game crowds were huge for this sold out game, with attendance at 36,396!

Praise to the Lord, Rosie and were able to pass out over 500 tracts in just over an hour. We each were blessed with a couple of conversations. Please pray for a young man named Wyatt.

One odd thing happened towards the end of the outreach. A woman walked by me and thrust in ice cold can of beer in my hand. I couldn’t get to a trash can fast enough to get rid of it 😀