3/26/25

On Monday, Nick and I continued preparing for the witnessing workshops we will be providing in the coming months, met up with someone for a Bible-dialogue, and later went to CSUF to begin a new Disciple-Making Community with *Jacob and *Dumas. When we arrived at CSUF for the new DMC, we learned that *Jacob wasn't able to join us that day, but we decided to still meet with *Dumas while we were on campus. While we were waiting to hear back from *Dumas about whether he could still meet, Nick and I started walking around campus to see where we could join God at work. In this "unplanned" time, Nick and I were met with many amazing ministry opportunities! Here are a few highlights from that time:

• We were able to talk with a cult leader on campus that has become less hostile towards us recently, and we were able to continue our conversation about the true gospel and contrast it with the cult teachings. We had a good conversation and pray that God would be at work in the heart of this young man to recognize the truth revealed in scripture and walk away from the cult and towards Jesus.

• We ran into a few different Christian ministries that were beginning their time of evangelism that day, and we were able to encourage them and pray for their time to be effective and fruitful. While talking with one of these ministries, we learned about two young men who are members of the Fellowship cult but are considering leaving. It sounds like the main reason that they were hesitant to leave is that their involvement with the cult has made them dependent on the group for housing and probably created various financial issues as the cults can create high financial demands. Both of these young men know *Dumas, who recently left the cult himself, and we pray that they will leave the cult and join Christ!

• We also ran into a Muslim friend of ours, *Asher, and were able to continue discussing with him about Islam and Christianity. We have discussed many, many topics with *Asher in the past, but we decided to maintain a relatively straightforward discussion this time. *Asher is notorious for evading objections and challenges we make, and he often sights obscure scholars with arguments that are painfully unsupported and easily overturned. However, we began our conversation by asking *Asher a question that had been interesting Nick and I for a while. Every time we were on campus with our whiteboard and *Asher saw us, from the first day we did it until now, *Asher always came and debated us about Islam and Christianity. We decided to finally ask him why he kept coming to talk to us, and he said that he felt that he should do it because we are wrong. Well, that's a fair enough reason I suppose. However, when we continued our conversation with *Asher this time, we pressed him on the issue of the Quran upholding the Gospels and Torah as God's word and that the Quran supposedly confirms what was written before it. This is a pretty large issue however because the Quran contradicts the Gospels and Torah on many subjects. The standard response from Islam is that the Gospels and Torah have been corrupted and the Quran was given to correct the corruptions; however, there is no actual evidence of textual corruption, we have ancient manuscripts of the Gospels and Torah dated far before the existence of Muhammed or the Quran, and the Quran never speaks ill of the Gospels or Torah (rather that they are sometimes misinterpreted). Long story short, when *Asher realized that we had won the debate, using only his Quran, he abruptly took his things and left. While I wish *Asher would not have left as he did, I also realize, as we had also asked him in our conversation, that he was not willing to change his mind based on any amount of evidence we might provide him. We can sow seeds and water, but only God can make it grow. Please pray for our friend *Asher, that he might have an experience with the true God that would open his heart to listen.

• We also ran into a Christian student, Daniel, who has visited and talked with us multiple times when we had the whiteboard out. We talked with Daniel for the rest of our time at CSUF that day about our interaction with *Asher (which Daniel was listening in to) as well as the Christian's relation to the Old Testament Law. This was a great conversation, and we were joined part way through by *Dumas who was previously out doing evangelism with a ministry called Campus Revive. Both Daniel and *Dumas know the two students that were members of the Fellowship cult mentioned above, and we prayed together for them, as well as committed to pray each day that God would free these guys from the cult and lead them to Christ. Daniel and *Dumas are awesome young men that Nick and I are blessed to serve and help equip in ministry at Cal State Fullerton! Today while on campus, Nick and I met one of the guys previously thinking about leaving the Fellowship cult, and we found out that he has left the cult and desires to join the DMC with *Dumas and *Jacob this next Monday! God answered our prayers for this young man's liberation, and we continue to pray for the other young man considering leaving! Please pray that God move him to walk away from this cult and towards Christ!