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Exciting News Dear Friends, Read on for exciting news about changed lives in Minnesota, the Omaha CBMC Vision Night, Anna reaching out to inner city children, and God answering Phil’s prayer to return to the Marine Corps! What a few weeks we have had! The most exciting news is the fruit from Phil’s last few trips. In our last email we asked you to pray for two leadership prayer breakfasts to be held in Maplewood and New Hope, Minnesota. The Lord did great things! At the Maplewood Leadership Breakfast, long-time CBMCer Russ Barrett organized this first-time event. 40 out of 150 prayed to receive Christ. They were thrilled! The follow-up now begins. The next morning on October 31 the organizers of the New Hope Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, Crystal Evangelical Free Church, had offered to bring me up for the event so I was able to see first hand the exciting morning. After wonderfully inspiring music, a Marine Color Guard, and an impressive award to a community-focused local company, Phil shared his story. Following his presentation of the gospel he said, "If you have prayed to receive Christ before, you don’t need to do it again. But if you have never done this, please pray along with me silently . . ." 142 out of 540 prayed! My sister, Paula, was trying to sort the cards afterwards (it was her church that has sponsored this event the last twelve years) but she was crying so hard she could hardly see the cards. Imagine the impact for Christ if more churches across this country did events like this. The pastor in charge estimated that a third of the people were from their church and a third from the community inviting the other third from the community. Please pray for the follow-up of both of these events. As you know, it is so important that these people get into Bible studies and good churches. Of course, one-on-one discipleship would be the best, but there are never enough men and women available. If anyone in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area is willing, let me know and I will put you together with the organizers.A few days later Phil was privileged to speak at the Omaha CBMC Vision Night for the purpose of raising money for the CBMC ministry in Omaha. God moved hearts and they were excited and thankful for the gifts the Lord brought in. Please pray for this outstanding ministry. God is changing lives every day through the faithful work of Ken Korkow, John Reimer, and Dan Hazuka. Last Thursday, Phil gave his testimony at a prayer breakfast outreach of a hardware convention in Naples, Florida. 49 men and women out of 84 prayed to receive Christ! The organizers have had this outreach for many years, and they were so excited about the fruit. Since Phil came to Christ in 1976, he has been praying that he would have an opportunity to share with the Marines at Camp Pendleton and MCRD, the bases where he was trained. Yesterday he flew to southern California for that very privilege! He expects to be speaking to several thousand Marines at various meetings this week. Please pray for deep and lasting fruit. There will be people of all (and no) faiths in the groups. He is also the guest of honor and keynote speaker at the Annual (since 1775!) Chaplain’s Dinner. What an opportunity to give the vision for discipleship. Speaking to all this brass is quite a step up for old Corporal Downer! There will be Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, Christian, and other religious chaplains attending. We truly covet your prayers for these events. On the family front, you may remember that Anna (16) was trained to teach Child Evangelism Fellowship’s Backyard Bible Clubs this summer. Many children were saved but in those situations you have the children for just five days. Her desire was to have children on a longer-term basis so she could really develop a relationship with them. A few weeks ago Phil took her down to meet the principal of an inner city school in Chattanooga. When she told the principal her vision for the children, she said, "I’ve been praying for you!" She shared that she had been asking the Lord for help with the spiritual needs of the children in this elementary school. Pray for this courageous principal! Anna invited her friend Shelby to do the Good News Club with her and the first week was quite a disappointment as there had been some confusion with the sign-up sheets and no one showed up. The principal began making announcements every day and last Thursday they had twenty-one children! I was present for "crowd control" and prayer support and was overwhelmed at seeing Anna take on this important ministry. She was 1 when we did our first Good News Club in Atlanta, and 6, 7, and 8 when we had our clubs on Signal Mountain. The Good News Clubs we did in those years were our children’s first opportunities for personal ministry and public speaking as they would get up in front of their friends and share a few lines of the Bible story. Please pray for the salvation and discipleship of these precious children. No room to tell you about the exciting marriage conference last week – next time. You are very dear to us, wonderful friends. Thank you for your prayers and support. We love to hear from you, too! In His gracious care,
Susy for the Downers |
