Month: September 2006

Busted eye and 15 decisions

We’re in Branson, Mo tonight. We left Rockwall, Texas Wednesday night at about 2 a.m. and made it to Branson by 10 or so this morning.

We set up our wrestling ring, ate some lunch and then headed to the hotel for a few hours of naping.
Our show started at 6:30 p.m. tonight and nearly 250 kids showed up.

It was a great atmosphere and everybody did a great job.

We did have a somewhat minor injury tonight.

When taking a move, Phil “The Bishop” Barron was thumbed in the eye and got a nice shiner as well as a 3/4 inch gash below his eye.

He powdered out of the ring pretty quickly, but carried on shortly there after.

He finished the match and then came back to give the Gospel presentation at the end, bag of ice, bloody towel and all.

God really spoke through him and he was able to use his accident to tell everyone that despite his sacrifice, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was so much greater – even unto death.

15 people made a response of some kind, including eight people who accepted Christ for the very first time.
Well, we’re back at the hotel tonight and plan to hit the road by 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.

We’ll be in Iowa for another show tomorrow night.

How you can pray:
Praise God for souls that He touched tonight. Pray that they will get plugged into the church and grow closer to God. Also pray for Phil as he’s still waiting at the local hospital for stiches. And pray for safe travel tomorrow.

Driving your message

As I’m finishing up things at the office, I just finished typing this information on Wayne Hamilton, former Executive Director of the GOP party in Texas.
I think the message goes a long way towards ministry and driving/communicating your message our The Message – The Gospel.

“Driving the message is always important in politics,” Hamilton said. “The Democrats did a great job making Newt Gingrich look like an extremist. But the Democrats don’t follow their script very well lately. For that matter, the Republicans haven’t either. During the latest redistricting, the message was controlled from a Republican standpoint. Susan Weddington was responsible for the message and the state party was in a position to drive the message of ‘fair redistricting.’ They had credibility as the majority party and when the Democrats left the state the Republican party set out talking points. Ted Rueter and Robert Black helped implement the strategy then.”
Hamilton said that grassroots efforts played a major role in helping push the message and agenda.
“During redistricting people were updated and informed constantly,” Hamilton said. “When you can keep people updated and informed you don’t have to do much. The party did a phenomenal job in the media. The party also used paid media, which of course gets you earned media.”
But despite the continued use of mass media, Hamilton said the most effective way to drive a message is through personal interaction.
“Tom Craddic said it was the most effective grassroots driven message ever and it was a text book example on how to communicate a message,” Hamilton said. “We live in a very impersonable world where we work in one place and live in another. The personal touch of someone coming by and talking to you may be the only touch they have but it can make a world of difference. That can be seen especially in local raises like the city council or county commissioner elections which are sometimes decided by hundreds if not a dozen votes.”

I think that’s why churches and ministry need to continue to utilize technology like Flickr, MySpace, blogs and more to put a personal demension and touch on the ministry.
As ministries grow bigger and bigger and the outreach grows, you need to take advantage of every possible way to be personable and reaching out to your “clients.”

Less than nine hours to go

Just wanted to fill each of you in on how you can keep track of our trip “around the world” over the next few weeks or so.
I’ve started a new blog site (God bless blogger), where I hope to post daily updates about our trips between now and Oct. 12.

http://nigeria2006.blogspot.com

We will leave Rockwall, Texas tonight around 1 a.m. and head to Branson, Missouri.
After Branson, we will drive to Ottumwa, Iowa for a show there on Friday and Saturday night.
We’ll return to Dallas, where “Jesus Freak” Rob Vaughn and I will travel with a group of 13 others to Jos, Nigeria.
I’m so stoked.
We covet your prayers for the next couple weeks and feel free to share the link with others.
Thank you all for your support, especially those who gave financially.
God bless and I hope to see you all again real soon.

BTW – if you’re interested in e-mailing me, to make things easier, I will only be checking one e-mail account while travelling. Please direct all e-mail to: jdblundell (at) gmail (dot) com.