Oktemberfest 2016

The Lord gave us good weather last weekend, and we were able to go out in our little city of Marshalltown, Iowa, to pass out gospel tracts and witness to our friends and neighbors at the annual Oktemberfest festival on the city square.

Vendors setting up in front of the Court House on Friday, 9/22/16. The rain was just letting up, and the weather was warm & dry for witnessing later that evening.

I was able to finish a project I had thought about for a long time, but never got completed: a light-up witnessing cross to use in the evening. I found some 10-foot battery powered LED mini-lights, and I made some small boxes from scrap wood. I cut some Lexan for the faces, sprayed the back side with frosted glass spray, and had my local sign shop make the "JESUS" and "SAVES" from translucent vinyl. I mounted this all on my largest witnessing cross, and it all came together just  in time for Friday evening.

On Friday eve, Nathan Sleyster and his 9-year-old daughter came from Des Moines, as well as our Farmers Market friend Chuck, but Frank Chirco was not able to make it for the first time since we started going out, and I was very bummed!  Aquila Sletten and his friend, Blake came out, and David & Anna Leigh Heckart, all from Marshalltown. We were out from 6:30 - 9:00, and then came to our house where Mary had a huge victory meal waiting for us. On Saturday evening, Mary & I went out, and we had some great gospel conversations with both fellow believers and lost folks. Mary gave out just a ton of tracts...I thought she was taking too many when we parked the car, but turns out she had to go back for more!

We thank the Lord for the opportunities he gives to reach out to those around us with the hope of the gospel, and are now praying for the many seeds sown at the festival. If the Lord gives us another year, and health & strength to labor in our little corner of his harvest field, I can't wait for next year! BUT...none of us is promised another day, so let us encourage - "provoke" - one another to the love & good works mentioned in Hebrews 10:24, to take advantage of every opportunity to point a lost world to the one-and-only Savior, the Lord Jesus. Amen.