“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” So was the theme verse for Team State Street this past Saturday. The standard Friday night ministry to Madison’s State Street was replaced with Word on the Street, an afternoon consisting of live sacred music, gift card giveaways, and so much more.

Several MBBC students and faculty made the trek to a bustling downtown Madison to unload instruments, tables, soda, sound equipment, and tracts. The event took place at the westernmost end of State Street at ‘Concrete Park’. Several students brought their band instruments, and sang while the others spread throughout the streets to discuss the gospel with pedestrians. Team State Street presented the Savior’s marvelous message to many people Saturday, while countless others received tracts that illustrated salvation step by step.

The Lord made His power and strength evident in everything that happened that day; may His name be praised for it all! Six people made sincere professions of faith in front of Team State Street members. The group handed out well over two hundred clear gospel tracts to people up and down the street. The lure of ‘free soda’ and ‘gift card giveaways’ brought many young college students Concrete Park while others were just curious to know what was going on. A clear gospel tract accompanied nearly every can of soda handed out to passers by. The Lord truly provided numerous opportunities for His message to be proclaimed to the world.

Tim Miller was able to sit down with a Buddhist, and listen to everything the man had to say about his belief system. After shared his own beliefs, he graciously allowed Tim to share his own heart and testimony. Tim gave testimony to the group about his conversation with this man. “After having listened to his testimony and whatever he believed; he was willing, the entire time, to listen to the whole gospel presentation…That’s what we come out to do; share the gospel, and expect Him [God] to work. I just praise Him for giving the opportunity to share.”

God provided so many extraordinary situations to witness. The Team found such an encouragement in hearing the testimony of fellow believers in Madison, completely unrelated to Maranatha or the State Street Society. One young woman heard the sacred music from her apartment window a few blocks away. She came and talked to several of the Team members, relaying how refreshing it was to hear good Christian music once again. Such stories kept the attitude elevated on Saturday.

Dave Marriott handed out $5.00 gift cards to Chipotle to those who answered trivia questions correctly. After each question, the Team was able to ask them about their eternal destiny. Everyone was offered the true hope of Jesus Christ. Such a great opportunity was gained each time someone came to the booth to compete for the gift card.

The Team gave Bibles to several Chinese citizens to take back to their homeland. Several Maranatha students were also able to freely share the plan of salvation to this group of people who had never heard it before. Dave Marriot provided testimony to the group at the end of the day after talking to these few Chinese officials. “To see them all walk away with Bibles, and the look on their faces when they heard that Jesus died for Chinese people too was just incredible!”

The Team would also like to extend a special thanks to Dr. Saxon and Mr. Komis from the Bible faculty for graciously joining the Team and helping at the ‘Bible Answer Man’ booth. Their sacrifice of time was a blessing to the Team, and they were both able to answer the debates and questions of many. Dr. Saxon joined two other team members in a discussion with several Islamic. God allowed His plan of salvation to be clearly laid out for people who denied everything Jesus stood for on this earth. Despite the falsity of mans’ righteous attempts, God’s truth is always proclaimed.

“We bowed our heads, I prayed the sinners prayer, and I said, ‘If you did pray that prayer and that was the desire of your heart simply announce that by raising you hands.’ One by one, all four of their hands raised up.” This was Ben Lavicka’s testimony of just a part of God’s amazing work through Saturday’s Word on the Street. When asked what made Word on the Street a success, Pete Prusak replied, “because of all of the prayer that went into it by so many! I got two text messages just on the way down that said people were praying for us.”
--Josh Horneck

Word on the Street

With the beginning of a new semester comes another...Word on the Street!!!
This year, about twenty of us went to Madison...on the same day as the Michigan State/Wisconsin game. I have no idea what we were thinking when we picked that day! Traffic was terrible! But God was good. It was wonderful to see six people come to know the Lord. We will certainly be keeping in contact with each of them over the next few weeks as we get them connected with a good local church in the Madison area.
Pray for the society this year and please come out to Madison and join us as we seek to carry out Christ's last earthly orders:

"Go into all the world and preach the Gospel..."

Word on the Street

Happy Spring!

As many of you know, it has been a long time since we have been to State Street. Between the bitter cold weather and the unfortunate lack of drivers, God has seen fit to prevent our efforts to return...until now. This Saturday, April 7, we will be returning to State Street for our annual event: Word on the Street. What is the "Word on the Street?" The Word on the Street is that Jesus Christ is coming again and we need to be ready.

We are meeting at 4 PM in DC 202 and should return to campus by 10 PM.

Please make plans to attend...

Praise the Lord!

We had the opportunity to see two people led to the Lord last night (19th)! God is good! It was so amazing to see the excitement that one of the new believers, Barry, had for the Lord. "It feels like a great stone has been lifted off me!" he said to me as I was talking with him afterward. God is truly doing great things down on State Street but I know that God can and wants to do greater things with this, His ministry. I encourage you to pray that He will "send laborers." The fields are truly "white unto harvest." Join us next Friday night and pray that the Lord will do greater works then ever before.

Semester Update...

God continues to give the increase as we go and make disciples in Madison. Not only have we been blessed to see people saved, but it has strengthened my own faith to see the ongoing work of discipleship taking place. In a recent discipling conversation, I was going through Acts 4 and John 14 with two foreign exchange students from Korea. 8 weeks ago, one was a professing atheist. After explaining that Jesus was the only way to the Father, I asked them to make a choice. I said, "Either Jesus is speaking the truth and He is the only way or He is lying and is not the only way. What do you believe?" One of them looked across the table at me and said, "I believe the Jesus!" I am not sure yet if he is saved, but God is clearly at work in his life!

We look forward to...

Hot chocolate night where we will add some warm drink to our witnessing!

Christmas caroling where we will go from house to house singing and distributing tracts, New Testaments, and Candy Canes!

Pray for us...

1. Those being discipled.
2. Drivers for Friday nights.
3. Our faithfulness in the colder months.
4. And of course, that God would continue to work in showing us His power!

Hoodies...

We are hoping to get some State Street hoodies. They will hopefully look like this, printed on a black hooded sweatshirt.



We will tentatively sell these sweatshirts for $20.

We are willing to open this opportunity to anyone (MBBC affiliated) who wishes to purchase one. Inquiries can be made to:

dmarriott@mbbc.edu

A note from Agustin...

Sometimes we grow discouraged when we do not see lasting fruit from the ministry on Friday nights. I am thankful that those who are saved are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation! However, it is great to see stories like the one I am about to share.

2 students were able to lead a Mother and her son, Agustin to Christ last week. Just today, Agustin sent an email to one of the students.

"May God Bless You for all your attention to us, It is really appreciated., we look forward to see you too. I need an advice from you, "I wonder how can I approach closer to God, I really need to". Right now I feel a little sad, because I have gone thru many difficult situations in my life, but certainly I would love to change for good, I mean to try and keep on moving towards Jesus. I know you have a lot of potential in matters of the Bible., how about if have a cup of coffee this Friday, so we can talk...."

Agustin does not deeply understand yet what happened on Friday night when he accepted Christ, but I believe he was saved. How exciting that God has already placed a desire into his heart to "approach closer to God!"