HANDS HEADLINES

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>> The Hands

514 Benson Hurst Drive

Mableton, GA 30126

770-944-0036

>> Contributions:

Please make checks payable to “Campus Crusade for Christ” and mail
to:

Contributions

Account # 0438803

100 Lake Hart Drive

Orlando FL 32832

Online Contributions: HandsHeadlines.com/give.htm

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Click below to visit the homepage of our website, Hands Headlines. com

October 26, 2004 Newsletter :
I (David) spent my first year with Campus Crusade in eastern Europe – in Czechoslovakia, trying to reach out to English-speaking university students there. A good percentage of students there – perhaps a little over half – speak English, and one student named Tomas had particularly good English skills. Tomas and I became friends over that year. Yet, Tomas remained an atheist. He would always come to all the meetings and most of the small group Bible studies we had – even as an atheist – and he would always leave our meetings saying something like, “You still haven’t convinced to believe in God.”

That was in 1992. Communism had fallen in Czechoslovakia at the end of 1989, so Tomas had gone through most of his academic life being taught that there is no God.

The day before I left Czechoslovakia after having been there a year, Tomas came to me and said, “you know, I would like to stay in touch with you when you go back to America but I also want you to know that I think I will never become a Christian.” I told him that I would pray for him anyway and would still keep in touch.

Tomas and his family in Slovakia, 2002

Over the next few years, Shannon and I had the privilege to help send several teams of Campus Crusade staff and students back to Slovakia. And we would always tell them to go and visit Tomas. And they did! Year after year he got to hear the gospel. After a couple of years, one team came back after a summer trip and said that they had given Tomas a Bible and that he had started to read it. Then, about a year after that, another team came back and reported, “Guess what!? God broke through to Tomas. He prayed to receive Christ with us!” We, of course, were overjoyed but I asked, “What was it that caused him to believe? He always would say he wasn’t convinced.”

The team said, “he just told us one day that the stories about Jesus in the Bible all just seemed to really connect with him. Tomas just stopped and thought: If all these things are true, then the real question for me is: is God trustworthy? And Tomas said that, over time, God had convinced him that the answer was ‘Yes.’”

The best part of this story is that, today, Tomas is now a staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ in his country. He is being much more effective in doing what we had only prayed to do: reach students who, like Tomas, have so many doubts about God. Just about six months ago, we got a letter from Tomas including a picture of a young man named Juraj (Yur – Eye). It’s exciting to see how the gospel can change one person and then so quickly spread to hundreds of others.

Juraj (pronounced Yur-Eye)

Here’s Juraj’s Story:

“In my family, Christian traditions have always been very important. However, I never understood their true meaning. I went to church regularly but my idea of God was very vague and false. I always tried to live a good and morally perfect life. I was sure that soon I will be able to overcome the shortcomings I had. But the opposite was happening. I kept finding new and new faults and negative traits in myself, and in spite of all my honest and great effort I was not able to deal with them.

As a college student, I went to an English language camp one summer to improve my language skills. This camp was organized by Campus Crusade for Christ. I met many people there who were much closer to my unreachable ideal of a “good life” than I was ever able to get to. I didn’t understand why it was so. They said they were Christians and they had a personal relationship with Jesus. I didn’t understand that either.

“Why, I am a Christian as well, and I go to church and believe in God just like they do,” I kept saying to myself. This experience was so strong that two years later I decided to go to another English camp. The same thing happened again but this time I was intent on finding out what I was missing, what I had to do to become like them. I found answers to my questions and shortly after I returned home from this camp I trusted Jesus as my Savior and gave my life to Him.

Four years have passed since then. Many things have happened in my life and the Lord has led me through many paths. However, one thing has radically changed. I realized that I am sinful and that I will have to deal with temptations and failures all my life. But thanks to Jesus I have been cleansed of all my sin. I can stand before my Creator as His child, clean and flawless. I still desire to be better but I know that the path of sanctification does not lead through my own efforts but through my trust in God and fulfilling His will in my life.

During the first few years after my salvation, my spiritual growth was closely connected with the ministry of Campus Crusade. Here I learned to take my first steps with the Lord and how to grow in my faith. After graduating from college I returned to my home town. I found a new spiritual home in a small evangelical church planted not long ago. The Lord led me to this place where I can not only receive and grow but also minister and be a blessing to others. Currently I am actively involved in youth work in my church and my town. It is my desire that many of these young people may get to know and receive a similar undeserved grace that I received and that those who already know the Truth may further grow and be involved in proclaiming the Kingdom of God.”

God was faithful to change Tomas. Tomas then helped reach Juraj. Now Juraj is influencing dozens of youth with the gospel!

The gospel changes lives and it is a message worth communicating well. Thank you for your support!

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>> The Hands

514 Benson Hurst Drive

Mableton, GA 30126

770-944-0036

>> Contributions:

Please make checks payable to “Campus Crusade for Christ” and mail
to:

Contributions

Account # 0438803

100 Lake Hart Drive

Orlando FL 32832

Online Contributions: HandsHeadlines.com/give.htm

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