By All Means

Coming to faith in Jesus Christ 24 years ago changed my perspective on a lot of things. One of them was the holiday of Halloween. The much anticipated & celebrated holiday was put into new focus, as I understood the dark history and ongoing relationship with pagan and the occult, especially from brothers and sisters in Christ who came out of heavy occult lifestyles. The day is a high sabbath for practicing witches, so the darkness is real, and present, and masked under the veneer of dressing up in costumes and going around in the evening asking for candy from the neighbors.


Because of this, I really wanted nothing to do with Halloween, and especially wanted to protect my children from its influence. So, on Halloween we kept the porch light off, the curtains closed, and prayed for the safety of all the children and adults who were out celebrating. 

My first attempt-October 31, 2017

My kids are grown up now and off living their lives. Halloween remains a dark holiday, but I have decided to redeem it for the purposed of getting the gospel message into the hands of children in my community (and their families). Two years ago, I got some Halloween-themed gospel tracts, put them in snack bags with candy, and waited for trick-or-treaters. Problem was, almost no one came. The street was empty. I had one car drive up and 2-3 kids ran up for candy, and that was it.

View of Main Street 2018

 A co-worker who lives on Main Street in Marshalltown told me that they had a ton of kids come by on Halloween, and suggested I set up at his neighbor's house that was for sale and currently unoccupied. These people happened to know about our little public ministry, and were excited to let us give out gospel tracts at their place. So, on October 31, 2018, I got home from work, got my stuff together and got set up just in time (see pictures right & below). And, my "set up" included my light-up "JESUS SAVES" cross!

My second attempt - October 31st, 2018

Mary & I had around 300 gospel tract candy bags prepared, but I ran out in around 45 minutes. And there were still hundreds of kids walking up and down Main Street! I had to quickly tear down, and as I drove home past all these children and parents still out and about, I thought, "Next year, we could do 1000 tract candy bags!"

And so as we rolled into 2019, I mentioned to my Pastor at Solid Rock Bible Church that we could reach a lot more of these kids, but that we needed to buy more tracts, more candy, and most important, we needed a place on Main Street to set up, since the house we used in 2018 was up for sale. When it sold, we started praying for a new location. I would drive to work down Main Street and when I pulled onto that street I would lift up this little prayer: "Oh Father, give us a place to give out gospel tracts this year!" 

150 gospel tract-candy bags ready to go!

 God has answered that prayer: my co-worker got into a conversation with the new owner of the home we used last year, and she was open to the idea of letting us use it again this year. I stopped by the other day to ask her directly, explaining what we did last year, and she gave us permission. With praise to the Lord, we've started on our goal of making 1000 gospel tract-candy bags. 

I still lift up prayer for protection from the adversary, for people out celebrating Halloween. And now, we also pray that God would use these gospel tract-candy bags to point children, their parents, and their families to the Jesus Christ: that they would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and be given the gift of eternal life. Please join with us, and not for us only, but for many other Christians who are reaching out to the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ.