The Elite 8

Why hello everyone. Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile, but the computer is becoming less and less a part of my life over the summer. Just so everyone knows, things are still going great here at SMR! I'm currently in a coffee shop in Granby, CO about to do my Half Day Alone With God (H-DAWG). I'm finding that these are one of my favorite new parts to the summer. Having an extended period of time to just read the Word, pray, look up questions, memorize the Word, etc. has been really beneficial. If you've never taken half a day and gone somewhere by yourself to just be with God, I completely and totally recommend it. This is something I'm hoping to continue when I get back to UW.
July 4th weekend half of our group went to Grand Lake, CO to do initiative evangelism. Some were nervous, some were stoked, and some thought this type of evangelism didn't work and was stupid (I was pretty excited). The guy who was most opposed to this went out to a skate park and talked to some kid riding a bike. And guess what? The very first person he talked to accepted Christ! There was also another girl who was so nervous she almost threw up before we went. She was paired with another guy who almost faked sick to get out of it. And guess what? They ended up being a part of 3 people coming to Christ! It was a crazy day. Overall, 8 people came to Christ on July 3rd! Now, I've been hearing a lot of people say that evangelizing door to door or randomly around large groups of people isn't effective. I even heard on a Christian radio station a few weeks ago that the listeners (and the host) agreed that you need to get to know someone first before you share the gospel. I say that's crap. Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with getting to know someone and then sharing the gospel with them. In fact, it's great! But, if you look through the Bible there are plenty of examples of people going out and sharing the gospel in cities and towns where they didn't know anyone (and thousands of people came to Christ). God calls us to "Preach the Word! Be ready in and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching." (2 Timothy 4:2). So, for anyone who thinks initiative evangelism is wrong or not effective, I have at least 8 people who would beg to differ.
So that's that ;). Also, things with Bruce and Eddy are going well. I'm still meeting up with them weekly, and they seem to be growing a lot. We're also having a lot of opportunities with some Turkish people here at the YMCA. They are all Muslim, but none of them have ever done anything with it. In fact, a few of them have never read the Koran. We've been getting into a lot of good conversations, so I'm excited to see how this pans out over the next few weeks.
Well, there's a lot I could go on about, but that will be it for now. We are going to Water World in Denver this Saturday! After that, I WILL post pictures on Facebbok. Don't fret people, they're coming. Until then, have an awesome summer!

Love,

Kolten

Passage of the week: 2 Corinthians 5:20-21