The team spent Saturday night at Needles, CA parked on the driveway of a wonderful Southern Baptist Church, where they were welcomed with open arms by the pastor. Sunday morning they attended church service and were graciously allowed to share with the congregation. They were invited to have lunch with the youth group. During their time together, five of the young people gave their hearts to Christ!!
This Spirit-led church maintains Agape House for drug addicts. The congregation will spend the month of April in prayer and fasting before beginning an all-out evangelism campaign among the Indians at a nearby reservation. The Indians live on welfare money and receive free housing. They pay no taxes. Flip said, "It's a fatherless society. They expect the government to meet all their needs. There's a lot of drunkenness." He added, "They feel they are victims of the white man."
On Sunday nights four churches in the community meet together. The team attended the service. Flip said, "The church is not used to hearing a message like this – ‘Abortion is murder, Homosexuality is sin, Islam is a lie.' Christians think we can't judge anything. When we don't judge, any disease at all can creep in.
As they left Needles, the team traveled through the reservation. Flip said all the Indians were looking at them. He said, "Of course everybody looks at us..." He called to one man, "You need Jesus! Without Him you're going to hell." The Man responded angrily, "Don't you tell me, you white man, that I'm going to hell." Flip said, "What I'm telling you is that, without Jesus, you will surely go to hell." The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked. Proverbs 10:11.
When asked about the Mojave, Flip said: It's Hot!! It's very dry!! It's barren!! He said, tongue-in-cheek, that the only tree they've seen is a shoetree. The "lakes" they see from a distance turn out to be nothing but huge salt deposits upon close inspection.
When I rang off, Flip, Rusty, Judgment and Mercy were standing in the parking lot of a business advertising itself as The best adult entertainment - Porn stars. Patrons ducked their heads and hurried past the Christians and their message. "You know, this place is a thief," Flip said, "stealing fathers from their children and husbands from their wives. We've passed many like it on this trip."
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