June 1999 Newsletter

June 1999 Newsletter
Preacher
"...the street shall be built again..." Daniel 9:25

INTERESTING EXHORTATION INDEED

I recently heard a dear friend preach from this text. He is both a pastor and a street preacher. He made the unusual application here of this text pertaining to the Lord building up the street ministry in the last days instead of actual road construction. He made the observance that I have made many times that just a few years ago there were very few of our crew doing much publick ministry and hardly any full time street preachers. Today we can boast of several hundred in attendance at the national conventions and many scores of churches that we often pray for from coast to coast and border to border. I would not make this exposition a part of my foundational theology but it was quite a timely observance. We publick ministers are enjoying a mighty swelling in our ranks.

PREACHING POLICE POSE POLICE PROBLEM

We were in the middle of a street meeting in the middle of Chicago. We had about sixteen publick ministers involved with signs, banners, tracts, Bibles, music and, of course, preaching. It was going great even in the midst of the huge celebration, or should I say, confusion of the Puerto Rican independence day. One of the men who preached for the first time that day was Freddie. He was the former head of a Puerto Rican gang in that same neighborhood. He was saved a year ago and is now ganging up for the Lord and for righteousness. Suddenly the lights from a police car distracted us. Though we never have any trouble from the police in a mega-city we were now involved in a metro-police-encounter. One of the pastors and myself talked to the female officer but she was unreasonable, as most female cops usually are. So I played my trump card. We had two Chicago policeman with us on the street meeting. They had preached for the very first time just a few days prior. One of them walked up to the policewoman and called her by her first name and tried to reason with her but by now she felt scorned and became even more unreasonable. Our preaching policeman requested that she call the supervisor and that took care of the problem. So from now on the SWAT team is considering putting our own cop on full time. Eccl. 10:4 reigns again.

ON THE STREET

We had a record breaking month as far as putting new folk and churches out on the street. The best count I have is 3 brand new churches, 33 brand new soldiers and 11 first time publick preachers. All of these showed credible evidence that they fully intended to carry on this ministry after we leave. "...this my joy therefore is fulfilled". Jn. 3:29b. We were back on Beale street in Memphis, TN for two more nights of ministering to the revelers. We took pastor Jerry Hickson and some of his men who had never been on Beale St. before and their heart of ministry was fulfilled. The streets of Des Moines, IA rang strong with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. A man approached me and asked me if I had preached in St. Louise just a month before. I said "yes" that I had and he said that he was there and recognized my voice here in Des Moines. The heathen take note even if the brethren forget you. He chose to remain a heathen though. We had several street meetings in Chicago, IL and all of them were rated 10 on a scale of 1-10. One of our preachers led two souls to the Lord during one of our street meetings. We had kids with signs and tracts, ladies with signs and tracts and men (real men) with banners, signs, tracts and powerful preaching. Finally we joined a veteran street preaching platoon from upper MI for a street meeting in West Branch, MI. The city manager, accompanied by a local policeman, came up and reminded us of the rules and then drove off leaving us to our liberty and victory.

IN THE CHURCHES

We were honored to minister in the following churches this past month: Spring City Baptist, pastor Brent Logan, Cleveland, VA, Cornerstone Baptist, pastor Ron Ralph, Riddleton, TN, Grace Baptist, pastor Jerry Hickson, Halls, TN, Aurora Ave. Bible Church, pastor Arthur Arnett, Des Moines, IA, Tipton Bible Church, pastor Richard Smith, Tipton, IA, Tabernacle Baptist, pastor Royce Phillips, Coralville, IA, Leavitt St. Bible Church, pastor Rick Olivera, Chicago, IL, New Hope Missionary Baptist, pastor Larry Johnson, Summit, IL, Bible Baptist, pastor Lore Bacerra, Chicago, IL, Victory Baptist, pastor Mike French, Chicago, IL, First Baptist, pastor Dennis Hicks, Shererville, IN and Bible Baptist, pastor Paul Heaton, Lupton, MI.

VICTORIOUS TESTIMONIAL LETTER

Dear Bro. Sutek,

Prior to January of 1998, our church went street preaching once a month. About that time, I felt God leading us to start preaching at an adult book and video store. Bro. Sutek did a revival for us and gave us pointers and encouragement for preaching at Boulevard Video.

We started preaching there weekly. A man and his family started coming to church after seeing us preach there. The man’s father and mother also started coming street preaching with us. While we were preaching one night, the father was assaulted; they had the guy arrested.

The bookstore tried to discourage us by putting up a sprinkler on their fence and throwing flour on us. They also tried to arrest me, but it did not work.

The bookstore employees came out and offered us cokes and water and also a donation. We refused it all politely.

A few weeks later, Claude, the co-owner came out and I dealt with him for 15-20 minutes and also dealt with the three other employees. Time went on and they continued to harass us. One day, Claude showed up at the church. He was shaking very badly. My son and I prayed with him. Claude said he was too far gone for God to save. He said he was getting out of the business in January 1999.

We continued to see Claude off and on until February 1999. We did not see him after that. In May, I prayed that God would give us a victory. Everyone that went preaching was getting discouraged, but we would continue to go.

On June 9^th, Claude walked into the church after the singing, looking too ashamed to stay for the service. I recognized him immediately and put my arm around him to welcome him to stay. The message was 100% for him. It hit home hard. At the end of the service we talked. He explained he’d been saved recently. It was the result of preaching and witnessing in front of the bookstore. Claude said the first time I’d talked to him, it scared him to death. He asked me if I’d ever preached on Grand Street. I told him yes and asked him why. He said he had owned that bookstore also and closed it down. He remembered me street preaching there in front of another bookstore. He had originally owned three and has now gotten completely out of them all.

Little did I know that I would see the results of my street preaching from four years ago in front of another bookstore. God was good to let His laborers know that it does have an effect. We might not see the results right away, but God always knows what is going on.

No one except God knows what a victory it was to see our Bro. Claude walk into church and worship God with us. Before, he was calling the police on us. When the people at church realized who he was, everyone started shouting and giving God the glory.

Please pray that we will see complete removal of all the dirty bookstores in our city. We are not able to close them but our God is able. AMEN.

Your Brother and Friend
Larry Hickam, Pastor
Charity Baptist Tabernacle
Amarillo, TX
806-381-0980

We continue to have need of nothing but your prayer...

Preaching the gospel on your streets and around the world,
Gerald Sutek
and the S.W.A.T. Team for Christ
2 Tim. 1:8, Amos 5:10