We're praising God for:
Being back on the roadside regularly after all the rain! The last couple of months have been like going to a daily family reunion. People with whom I prayed over the last year and a half now see Karen sitting with me and stop to introduce themselves to her. There is a family-like bond that we feel with all these people who stop to fill us in on what God has continued to do in their lives since the day we prayed. It is incredible to see the changes in these people from the first time we met. Everything in their lives is so radically different, often even their appearance! There are hugs and tears, laughter and exchanging of phone numbers. We praise God, for getting to see the truth of II Corinthians 5:17: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; and all things have become new."
Extra designated funds which allowed us to buy new seats for the new bike with a backrest for me, as well as a trunk with a passenger backrest for Karen. We both feel God is gearing the bike up for a trip.
The opportunity to be one of the speakers at an Evangelism Seminar presented by our CMA chapter Easter weekend.
An increase in our monthly support!

Prayer Partners:
If you would like to be an intercessor for this ministry, please email us at info@bwbministries.com. We will email you current prayer requests.

- "I’m on My Way to Do the Wrong Thing..."
Roadside Report from Emil

"Are you guys legitimate?" she began. "Yes, we are." "Really? Honestly?" I explained why we are on the roadside. "I don’t really know why I stopped. I haven’t prayed for 12 years," she said and paused a minute. We waited for her to continue. "I’m on my way right now to either do the right thing or the wrong thing. I’m not sure which it is." Another pause and then, "Have you been watching the news?" One of her relatives had committed a violent crime and was a fugitive, armed and dangerous. Her family had TOLD her to go help him. After listening to more of her story, I asked her if she knew Jesus because He needed to speak to her heart and tell her the right thing to do. Then she would be able to stand on what He told her, even in the face of her family.
I explained that, just like she wanted to rescue her relative from going to prison, even to the point where she herself would do time if caught with him, Jesus takes our sin upon Himself and truly sets us free. I told her Jesus died and rose again and that He lives and lives in us. She said she’s been totally confused, searching for the truth all her life, but now she wanted to pray to ask Jesus into her heart.
Before we prayed, I told her she could ask Jesus, "What is the truth?" and then listen for Him to speak to her. Suddenly she jumped and, with a startled expression on her face, said, "I’m not going! I just heard something say, ‘Don’t go.’ I was going to go and now I’m not!" I told her that if Jesus was talking to her that clearly now, think how she will hear Him when He lives in her heart! We prayed with her and asked for the Holy Spirit to fill her. We gave her a Bible and encouraged her to read it and to get into a good church. She promised to do this, hugged each of us several times before she left, and said, "Thank you. You guys have really inspired me."
When we got home, Karen sat down with that day’s newspaper and there was an article about her relative on page 3! We read of his arrest by an anonymous tip a week later.

From Hell’s Angel to Heaven’s Angel

"Nice ride," he commented, looking at the bike. He said he hadn’t ridden in years. His dad was a founding member of Hell’s Angels and had taught him that his purpose in life was to go to hell. I could see that the Lord was all over him so I asked, "Where’s Jesus in your life?" "Oh, I talk to him all the time." I heard the Lord, "Ask him if knows where he’s going when he dies." He responded that the Lord had told him he’s going to one of many places. I told him that wasn’t true and that God wouldn’t tell him that, that there’s only one of two places-heaven or hell. He seemed surprised at that. I felt the Lord say, "I don’t know him." When I asked him if he’d ever asked Jesus into his heart, he said, "No." I told him there’s only one way to heaven, through Jesus. He said, "Well, God just spoke to me right now." (I heard the Lord say, "No, I didn’t.") "The Lord just said to me, ‘Your name is the beast.’" I said, "That wasn’t Jesus. He’d never call you that. That’s Satan talking to you." He told me that Hitler appeared to him recently and said, "Jesus sent me to tell you that you are his servant and you’ll be going to the same heaven I’m in." I said, "Well, Hitler isn’t in heaven; he’s in hell. So Jesus couldn’t have sent him to you."
Suddenly He grabbed his ears, "Wow, there’s this incredibly loud voice yelling from inside of you. I’ve never heard it before. What is that?" I said, "That’s Jesus. That’s the Holy Spirit in me." I told him how Jesus died for him on the cross. He seemed totally shocked-"He really DID that for ME?" Then the Lord said he had voices in his head that endanger his life and that they keep him up all night. He confirmed this, "Yeah, I do! There are four of them and they never shut up." I said if he wanted to get rid of them, we could pray and he could receive the Holy Spirit instead. He said excitedly, "Yeah-I’m ready. I want it right now." We prayed for Jesus to come into his heart, then cast out 4 demons and filled him with the Holy Spirit. He said, "For the first time I can remember, my head is quiet. I can’t believe how peaceful I am." I said, "When the enemy tries to tell you to do things that are wrong, say ‘Jesus, what’s the truth?’ and He’ll tell you."
The Lord had me give him a Bible and $20 for lunch along with the pack of cookies in my pocket. Excitedly, he sat down and started opening the bag. "I haven’t done this since grade school. My mom always gave me cookies with my lunch, so I’m going to do what I used to do. I’m going to eat my cookies first!" God loved him so much that He made sure he had cookies before lunch! He knows the littlest things that will touch hearts.

Broken Heart to Brokenness

He came with a broken heart. He got convicted over living with his girlfriend and felt they needed to move apart and do it right. He had moved out two weeks ago but just found out she had someone else and had been seeing the other guy BEFORE he had even moved out. He couldn’t get over that she had lied to him. He soon admitted that he hadn’t been good to her-everything had to be his way. She had four kids and felt he hadn’t done anything to make them part of his life. When he didn’t get her anything for Christmas, she said then that it was over but he didn’t pay any attention to her.
Now he didn’t know how to get over her. He’d fallen into cigarettes and drinking. I said "The Lord says that you’re holding onto those as a substitute for hanging onto Him." He got mad and pointed his finger right in my face (I thought he was going to hit me) and said, referring to Karen, "If she wasn’t standing beside you, you wouldn’t be saying those things. You don’t have any idea what I’m going through." I said, "But I do…" and told him some of my story. After that he listened to what I had to say. Although the Lord kept prompting me that he wasn’t saved, he kept assuring me he was.
Throughout the conversation, he made it clear that he hadn’t really cared about his girlfriend. The Lord said, "If he didn’t care about her, why is he having such a hard time getting over her?" When I asked him, he said, "That’s a really good question. I’ve always been the one that’s broken up or done the dumping. This time I got dumped. I really got hurt."
The Lord said, "Tell him that it’s not his heart that got hurt but his pride." He got very quiet, and then he said, "You’re right." The Lord said, "He has a spirit of arrogance and pride." I told him that. He agreed, "I need to get rid of them." I led him in prayer and he came out of agreement with them and we cast them out and prayed for those places to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I asked if he was willing to forgive her and himself and we prayed to do that. We gave him a Book of Proverbs before he left.
That night he called to say, "You hit so many things on the head. I took everything you said to heart. I read that little Book of Proverbs. It totally convicted me." He was broken and wept as he said, "I have to make it right." I led him in a prayer of repentance. Over the course of 3 weeks and daily phone calls, I couldn’t see victory in any area of his life. I felt led by the Lord to lead him through the prayer of salvation and he agreed. From that moment, his life changed. I can sum it up in one Scripture: "Know the truth and it shall set you free."

Eighteen Months Later…

"A friend called me about a biker with a Free Prayer sign on the side of the road. It was just too weird so I came to check it out for myself." He stayed for 2 hours!
Six years earlier, after his mom tried to commit suicide, she threw him out of the house and he moved in with his girlfriend. She left him after 3 years. He had always hoped she’d come back, but she had just called to say she was moving to Utah with a guy. He said, "I really thought she was the one! She tore out my heart and she’s gone." I told him how I had prayed in the past, "Lord, if this relationship is not of you, then please burn it up." And He did! His eyes were huge, "I recall asking the Lord something along the lines of ending the relationship if it wasn’t alright with Him!" I said, "See? She didn’t break your heart by dumping you. The Lord wants you to know today that He ended it in answer to your prayer. The Lord delivered you from a life of misery because He loves you so much!" I asked about his mom. "My dad left her when I was 6. She got remarried when I was 9. He abused her and she left him when I was 14." He said she became suicidal after he started dating. I asked, "Have you carried a lot of guilt and fear that you were going to find your mom dead because of a girlfriend?" Teary-eyed, he answered, "It’s unbearable." The Lord said, "Tell him guilt and fear are of the devil and keep him from going forth to do what I have for him and from the wife I have for him." I explained that his mother lives in fear that one day he will leave her just like his dad did and hurt her just as deeply. I saw a picture of him talking on the phone to his mom and said, "The Lord said to tell your mom, `I’m not Dad…[just then I saw the name CHARLIE written across the sky]... And I’m not Charlie!’" He jumped, "How do you know my step-dad’s name is Chuck?!" We prayed, breaking demonic strongholds off him, and in tears, he truly accepted the truth that God loves him very much. He hugged me, "I never thought when I stopped here that I would leave totally free for the first time in my life." That was in December of 2003.
Last month, he stopped to meet Karen! He has forgiven his ex-girlfriend. He and his mom are restored, and she's close to giving her heart to the Lord. He’s on his church’s worship team and is on fire for the Lord! We all prayed and thanked God and I got the words "6 months" for him; that in six months, he’ll look back and see that God has done even more in his life!

The Reality of Fiction
by Emil

One guy stopped to show us the crosses he makes but I noticed that he never mentioned Jesus in our conversation except to say that he’d met someone who could etch the image of Jesus onto the crosses for him. The Lord kept prompting me, "Ask him where I am in his life." When I did, he responded, "Kinda there and kinda not." I asked, "Do you know if you’re going to heaven?" He wasn’t sure, but said, "I’m a really good person, better than most." I replied, "That’s good, but it won’t get you into heaven. There’s only one way."
I explained about total surrender to God, about going to church, about the sin in his life. I told him that Jesus wants His image etched on his heart more than on the crosses he makes. I asked how he could represent himself as a Christian by selling the crosses when he’s not living the walk? What will he do when someone who’s looking at his crosses someday asks him about Jesus? I said, "You know OF Him but you don’t KNOW Him."
He realized through the course of conversation that he really was NOT saved, but when I asked if he’d like to pray with me to ask Jesus into his heart to be his Lord and Savior, he wasn’t interested. He took our card and said he’d call when he is.
I’ve had this conversation more than once with people who stop, thinking they’re Christians. It breaks our hearts when they are shown clearly that they’ve believed a lie about where they stand and they still make a conscious decision: "I’m not interested." At that point, all we can do is bless them and hope that the word we planted will sprout another day.
Charles Spurgeon once said, "Preaching the gospel is to us a matter of life and death; we throw our whole soul into it. We live and are happy if you believe in Jesus and are saved. But we are almost ready to die if you refuse the gospel of Christ."

Who Am I, Jesus?
by Karen

Unexpected feelings surfaced in me the last few months. Two weeks ago, I tried to explain to a friend how I felt and she prayed for me. She asked God to heal my "feelings of inadequacy." That word struck a chord within me. She was right. I was feeling EXTREMELY inadequate about everything! About church, about the ministry, about relationships, about the class I’m taking, about the cell group I attend, you name it!
One night soon after, I mentioned to Emil how out of place I felt and he counseled, "Ask God what the truth is about it." So I did and immediately heard, "It’s because you aren’t working any longer!" And I knew instantly what He meant. After almost 3 decades, my 8-5 outside-of-the-home jobs had come to an end and so had my authority and confidence and ability to make friends! At least that’s how I felt!
So where were all these feelings coming from? God’s timing is perfect. The next day we met our pastors for lunch and as He would have it, the conversation soon turned to how I had been effected by some situations that Emil and I had been through several years ago. Which of course led to EARLIER situations. Through their questions, insights, and observations, the root of my inadequacy began to be revealed. They encouraged me to take some time and let God show me the rest of it.
So, Emil and I took a day off last week for a personal prayer retreat. I took my journal and listed 20 lies I have believed about myself most of my life! It was incredible to be able to come out of agreement with those lies, to close the door to the lying spirit and open it to the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, and then to come into agreement with what God, my Father, says about me... the very same process we lead people through on the roadside!
He who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day Jesus returns! (Philippians 1:6 paraphrase)

To all of you who have so faithfully given to this ministry, these are the lives that have been changed in 18 months:

Friday
July 30, 2010
Read the recent Roadside Report


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