What I Keep in My Purse

The clerk watched me rummaging through my purse. I had already paid and should have been walking away. I was pawing through more than seven varieties of tracts trying to find the right one. The minute this took to do was agonizingly long.

This is awkward, I thought, as I finally handed her a little green booklet. I went home and removed some of the tracts. (Read more of this story.)

The basic booklets I keep with me are also different colors and, therefore, easy to identify and pull out.

I have:
green Would You Like To Know God Personally,
blue Satisfied? (The Holy Spirit booklet),
cream/green Beginning Your Journey of Significance (new Four Laws for women),
cream/purple Living a Life of Significance? (new Holy Spirit booklet for women),
yellow The Four Laws in Spanish, and
black The Passage.

I use the green and blue booklets because I think the question on the cover would draw the person in to read the tract. Also, several times when I used to have the original yellow English Four Spiritual Laws in my purse, I would discover in the checkout line that all my booklets were in Spanish! However, God can use that situation, too!

In 2007, I also started carrying the Who is He? mini-CD for giving to twenty-something guys and for giving to internationals since the mini-CD presents the Gospel in more than thirty languages. Check out the content of this powerful tool. (An entire English Bible, apologetic books, and more).

Another tract I have added recently is 4 Laws – Discovering God in Chinese Characters. This tract explains how to know Jesus by explaining the etymological roots of Chinese characters. The message of salvation found in Genesis is revealed in these characters.

Read real-life stories about sharing tracts with the people you meet.

Tools for the Olympics

Read stories and testimonies of athletes, view video clips, and explore a personal relationship with God at Struggle and Triumph, a website from the Athletes in Action ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. Struggle and Triumph is also a DVD that you can share with your friends. (The DVD is available in 36 languages).

Another website, Beyond the Ultimate, changes seasonally with whatever is the biggest sporting event at the time. Naturally, you will find Olympians on that site right now. If you read one of the testimonies and want to share it with someone, click on “Share This Story” in the right sidebar. You will have several choices, including sending an email with a link to the story, or posting the link on your Facebook profile. (I recommend adding a personal note in the email. Send one to yourself first to see if you like how your email looks.)

The Go for Gold website has links to over twenty country-specific “Looking for God” websites to help people begin their journey with God.

The Olympians continually challenge us all to run the race God has given us. You might like to use this moving video of Derek Redmond being supported by his father to communicate the Gospel to a friend. Your main point could be: we are weak, but our Father is strong and will help us finish the race.

Easter Outreach Ideas

I am addressing Easter cards this afternoon and plan to invite some of our neighbors for a local sunrise service and also for our church’s Easter service. As you probably know, Easter draws a lot of people to church services who otherwise would not go to church during the rest of the year.

I have given the “Jesus” film as a gift at Easter time, but realized today that I have not been that creative in using Easter as an open door for reaching people. Fortunately, I received two emails recently with a lot of good ideas that I can share with you today.

Campus Crusade’s website has an article entitled “10 Outreach Ideas for Easter“. The ideas range from gifts, to Easter egg hunts, to Facebook ads, to a strategy your church might consider (Prayer on the Porch).

Some of the items mentioned can be ordered at one of Campus Crusade’s online stores.

Our staff at our main store suggest two new resources.

1) The Case for a Creator is a new DVD based on Lee Strobel’s book of the same name. According to the email I received, “The Case for a Creator DVD is one of the most compelling arguments for the intelligent design theory useful for believers and skeptics alike.”

Click here for more infomation or to order your own copy.

2) 6 Reasons for Faith distills the essence of the Gospel into 6 points and 55 pages so you can take it anywhere. You could mail it to family or friends, hand it out when shopping, or use it for a community outreach.

World Series and More

If you or your friends love baseball, you might be interested in Reversing the Curse, with stories from the Red Sox during their comeback in the 2004 season when they won the World Series. You can also order a companion DVD on the site.

You can find more than baseball on sports DVDs from Athletes in Action, Campus Crusade for Christ’s sports ministry. If your friends like soccer, football, basketball, and more, they will enjoy these DVDs with stories from accomplished men and women athletes. These DVDs are also available in other languages and in PAL versions.

Athletes in Action is also offering some great booklets with changed-life stories from athletes. These could work for almost any age group at any time of the year.

You can give any of these items as gifts or use them in an outreach to sporting events and clubs.

PS: Click here to find more stories and ideas about reaching the sports fans in your life.

The Trick-or-Treaters

Every year, I set up a little table by the door with a bowl of candy and stacks of tracts. And then I wait.

We are on a dead-end street so we never know if we will have many or a few trick-or-treaters come to our door.

Some tracts that I use are:
In Search of the Greatest Treasure,
Have You Heard of the Four Fantastic Facts and
the Good News Comic Book and Glove
which can be found at Campus Crusade’s online store.

This year, the store is offering Scripture candy with 75 tracts of your choice.

If teenagers or adults are also at your door, you may want to have
Connecting with God
What You See is NOT All You Get
Who is He? Mini CD

You can find these at the online store as well.

I just learned that Athletes in Action is also offering some great booklets with changed-life stories from athletes. These could work for almost any age group at any time of the year, but are a great idea for giving out at Halloween.

Click here for a real-life story about witnessing on Halloween.