Dear Friends,

Praise the Lord with me for an amazing 6 months of Gospel ministry.  Over 236 individuals have labored with SFOI making over 662 appearances.  Every year but last year twelve months was required to reach this level of participation.  The Lord is answering our prayers!  Hallelujah!

What these numbers means most importantly is more souls are hearing the Gospel, in person, from a living witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8)! 

Can there be any greater benefit to the unbeliever? 

What does the Father desire but that is His Son's Name is made great amongst the nations and evangelists preaching Christ as ministers of reconciliation is the pinnacle expression of His will.

These souls at events like Bonnaroo Music Festival, Niagara Falls, Indy 500, Blue Crab Festival, Kentucky Derby, Miami Grand Prix, NFL Draft, Final Four, Long Beach Grand Prix, St. Pete Grand Prix, NBA All-Star, Super Bowl, Gasparilla Pirate Festival and College Football Championship heard the amazing gift of God's mercy in the Gospel of His Son delivered to them by Christians who bore witness to His resurrection.  True Ambassadors's of Christ! 

Friends, while there are countless stories at these 15 events the main point in this letter to establish is to celebrate that Christ was preached and in that we rejoice (Phil 1:18).  Scripture points us towards focusing on our input instead of results.  Matthew 22:36 - 40 and Mark 12:28 - 31 make this point:

Matthew 22:36 - 40

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Mark 12:28 - 31

28 One of the scribes came up and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

In other words love God with all you got and likewise your neighbor and God will give the increase. This is why we celebrate Christ being preached because it is our input.  It is what we do.  "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4)

I Cor 3:5 -7:

5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.

We sow.  We provide the input.  God brings the results.

My friends we have been putting 'all we got' into this work for 25 years and our great God is bringing forth increasing results!  So today, let's resolve to continue to give it "all we got' in our partnership in the Gospel and watch our great God bring forth His divine results!