Penn State University

On Friday November 6th I again had the opportunity to preach on the campus of Penn State. Paul and Eric went with me and we meet Luke and Rodger and went onto campus about 12:00. It was a great day to be on campus. The weather was nice and many students stopped to listen to the messages as they were being preached. I spoke with several students and one of the students that I spoke with for about 20 minutes was a young man named Anthony. Anthony stated he had no religious beliefs and did not believe in creation. He did not think there was enough proof to make him believe that God could have created all that we see. I spoke to Anthony for quite some time and was able to share with him some of the evidence for the existence of God and the validity of the scriptures. Anthony told me that he had never heard anyone present the belief in God in such a way. I told him that it just makes sense after looking at the evidence and seeing how it is supported through documents that the God of the Bible has to be the one true God. He agreed but, was not yet willing to put his faith in Christ. I know that through this conversation God was working on Anthony's heart and that God will continue to reveal truth to Anthony through other individuals that are place in Anthony's path.

I have recently started using apologetics in this way because of a CD that I have been listening to about proof for the resurrection by Dr. Craig Hazen. I would have not thought this type of argument would have been very beneficial in the past but, now that I am encountering many college students that do not even acknowledge that God exists I have found this type of discussion is very useful in such a conversation.

Facebook | Open Air Campaigners

Facebook | Open Air Campaigners: "OAC MD was on the Montgomery College campus yesterday preaching the gospel. Paul and I ,Zane, both preached messges and answered many questions that were raised by the audience. It was a great day of ministry and many conversations with atheist, an...gnotics, and doubters took place. Paul took this picture of me as many students gathered around to join in and listen to the questions and responses. There was one particular conversation that occurred with a young man ,named Coy, that had listened to us in the past and was very hardened to the gospel yet, this day he seemed to soften and let down some of the walls that were preventing any meaningful conversation. Praise God. Please pray for Coy ,that God will reveal Himself to Coy,and that he might repent and place his faith in Jesus.

Ocean City Bike week

For the last two days I have been down at Ocean City, Maryland preaching on the boardwalk with Tom Fox and Greg Hunter. Tom is a partner of mine in ministry with Open Air Campaigners and Greg is an applicant for OAC. It has been a blessing having Greg come down and share in the ministry of preaching the gospel with us these last few days. Initially Greg was not going to be able to come along with us because he was leaving for Guatemala prior to this trip, but God worked things out by delaying his trip for a few days and this enabled Greg to come down and help us on the boardwalk. Having an additional preacher with us while minister on the boardwalk is very helpful. God has been faithful in sending out the people to hear the messages that have been preached. We were able to preach to over 250 people in just two days, Praise the Lord. Every time I think about the amount of people that are being reached with the message of salvation through the preaching of God's word through this ministry I am humbled and feel such joy to be a part of this awesome work the God is doing. I had said before that it is not about the numbers of people that we preach to that makes the ministry rewarding yet, the more people that hear the message means that more seeds are being planted and God will full fill His purpose through these seeds.
Tonight we will be going out again to preach on the boardwalk and I know that God is going to great things again for the His Kingdom. I ask that all of you who are reading this post please pray that we are able to go in the strength of the Lord and that many lives will be changed by the preaching of the gospel tonight. I pray that all of you have a wonderful day and I challenge you to look for opportunities to share Christ with someone today as you go on your way. To God be the Glory!

Tonight at Annapolis

Well, it has been a few months since I have posted anything on this blog and I thought I better enter a post or many of the people that follow this blog may think that it is no longer active. There are many reasons why I have not posted here lately and none of them would be very good reasons I suppose because I need to be diligent and post my progress as a missionary and glorify God for the great things He is doing in my life. Zoran is taking a nap right now. For all of you who do not know, Zoran is my 1 1/2 year old son. I wanted to also let all of you know that I am now blogging at the blog site for the Washington/Baltimore branch office and you can read that blog by going to www.oacmd.org and the click on the link that says "our blog". I have also been posting on facebook as well. The myspacepage that I have is also very out of date so I probably should go and update that page as well. So as you can see I have quite a bit of updating to do and it has been difficult while preaching and raising support. As you know I have been in Maryland just over two months and it has been wonderful. I will be going to Annapolis tonight to preach and I will be preaching a new message tonight so I pray that God uses it to effectively call many people unto Himself. Please keep me and the team in pray tonight because there will be many people on the streets that need to hear the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Well, I am going to go for now and as I have said in the past I will try to keep this blog updated and will inform all of you of the many ways God is using me in the ministry to accomplish His purpose in the lives of many. God bless and continue to look for opportunities to be used by God.

Ocean City Ministry with Youth group

Last Tuesday I went down to Ocean City with Tom Fox, one of my partners in the Washington/Baltimore branch of OAC. We meet Paul Adams the branch director down at Ocean City where he had a team of youth from Forcey Memorial Church. This team is in the process of a 6 week local missions trip and last week they were at Ocean City.
I was excited about going down to Ocean City to help with the training of the youth althought Tom and I were only going to be there for 24hrs. We arrived at the house were they were staying at around 1:30 and then I was told I would be teaching Ryan, a youth on the team, the message he was going to be preaching and how to paint the pre-sketch. We spend the remainder of the afternoon working on the painting and also on reviewing the message. Then after devotionals and dinner we went out to the boardwalk to preach the Gospel. Each of the 4 young men preached a message as well, as Paul, Greg, and myself. It was incredible to see the 4 youths preach the Gospel on the boardwalk. It truly showed that the power of the Gospel proclaimed
is effective unto salvation. We are just vessels that God uses and it was great to be used to help instruct and then watch to Gospel being preached and knowing that God allowed me to be a tool in this process. During the night of preaching many people were preached to and many one to one converstations occurred. It was a great night of ministry. Then the following day Tom and I were able to go to the beach and spend some time in prayer and Bible reading which was very refreshing. Having a few hours of solitude by the ocean and reading God's word was a real blessing. Then around 1:00 we headed back home to the D.C. area. I pray that as you have read this experience you are able to see how important this work of spreading the Gospel is and I pray this blog will inspire you to personally share your faith more or if you are involved with a group that would like to have an opportunity to share go on a short term mission trip just visit our website at www.oacusa.org and contact one of our evangelist and we will try to arrange for you or your group. God bless each of you and good night.

We are now in Maryland

Hello all,

Well, we are offically moved into our new home in Silver Spring, MD and I am so glad that I can now begin working with OAC on a full-time basis. Since we have been here I have already been involved in two outreaches. One was to the city docks in Annapolis and the other was to the Washington mall on the 4th of July. Both of these opportunities to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ we wonderful and many seeds were planted. Now tomorrow I am going to Ocean City, MD to help with a youth group from Paul Adams' home church. I am looking forward to going back to do more ministry at Ocean City because it is such a great place to share the Gospel with a wide range of cultures and ethnic groups. My new newsletter will be posted soon at the OAC website so if you do not recieve it in the mail you can see what else I have been doing over the last few months by going to www.oacusa.org then go to my page and it should be there by next week. Well, I have to pack for tomorrow and then get to sleep so I will keep you all updated of things to come and ministry events. Praise God we are here and well.

Preaching at Ocean City, MD

Hello all,

I just returned from Ocean City, MD where myself and several other evangelist from OAC where preaching the gospel. It was a great time of ministry and we were able to preach multiple messages each night. We preached for 5 nights and had crowds ranging from 10 to 60+ people at times. The gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed and many one on one conversations took place after the messages. I was able to preach 4 of the 5 nights and it was incredible to share in the labor of preaching the gospel in such a unique setting. Paul Adams, myself, and Tom Fox, will be going back down to Ocean City with some teams from churches later this summer to continue this work. I praise God for the fruitful ministry that occurred and I will be praying that many people come to faith in Jesus Christ because of the proclamation of His message. One additional note that I would like to share with all of you that keep up with my blog is that me and my family will be moving to Silver Spring, MD at the end of this month and then I will be preaching the gospel with OAC out of the Washington/Baltimore branch full-time. Please keep us in your prayers that we are able to continue to proclaim the gospel and see many come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and that God will continue to provide for all of our needs as we take this next step.

On our way

Well, I am offically done working on Wednesday and I will be going into full-time ministry with OAC in June. I have been encouraged by many people and there are many friends who have helped me through prayers and support which have given me and my family the faith to leave my salary paid position and completely trust God and the body of Christ, the church, to supply for all of our needs. I will be going to the Washington Bible College ETA to help train students how to effectively share their faith and preach the gospel in the open air. This will occur from June 8th untill June 13th. For all of you who are new to this blog I would like to explain how it came about.

It stated out because I was listening to a message by John Piper,for those of you who do not know John Piper look him up on the internet he is a phenominal preacher, and in the message he stated that all good preachers need to be able to be well written and since I am encouraged by John so much and I am just starting out in open air preaching I thought I would like to be a good preacher, not for myself, but for God's glory. So I decided to start this blog. At first I though it would be a theology blog because I had many questions about God's will and our free will. I have since come to an understanding and feel a peace about these issues. I do not wish to argue or try to persuade anyone to accept my theology concerning Calvinism or Arminianism but, I know what I believe and I know God is in control and that is all I will say at this point. I am not saying that in the future I may not come back and revisit this debate and maybe even discuss it more on this blog but, as for now I will not.

The only thing that I feel compelled to preach and teach is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The gospel message that Jesus lived a sinless life, died on the cross and took the punishment for our sins and on the third day rose again and defeated death so that we do not have to pay the penalty for our sins. All anyone needs to do is repent of our sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. This is the message of hope that I pray I am able to share with the world for the remainder of my life. I want to share this message and if this brings one or more to faith in Jesus Christ I will rejoice. To God be the glory.

Home again

Above is Mark Kennedy getting ready for a children's message on Sunday at local church in Easton,PA.
I arrived back in Altoona about 2 hours ago and it is good to be home. I was meet at the front door by my wife and baby boy. Zoran was very excited to see me and it is great to be back in my home with my family. After being away for 5 days home being home is nice.

I had a wonderful time at the Staff conference and seeing and hearing all of the reports from the branches of OAC throughout the country I can't wait until we are able to move and go into the ministry full-time. I know God will provide for our needs and I ask that each of you keep me and my family in your prayers. I am planning on assisting with the Evangelism Training Academy in the month of June at Washington Bible College and I will also be starting to look for housing in the Washington D.C. area in preperation for our departure at the end of June.

Well, just wanted to give a quick update and now it is time to spend the rest of the day with my wife and family before I have to go back to work tomorrow. God bless all of you.

Staff Conference

Hello all,

I am currently at Open Air Campaigners' national staff conference. I have meet many fellow evangelist and the knowledge I am gaining is great. I will be here at the conference for another 3 days and then I will be heading home to Altoona. In June I will be attending the Evangelism Training Academy at Washington Bible College. This is the same Academy that I just went through last year and I am amazed at how God has moved in my life and has enabled me to be doing the thing that I love, which is preaching the Gospel, just in one short year. I would encourage anyone who has a desire to do evangelism to check out the video on the oacmd.org website. The training Academy last year was phenomenal and taught me so much and it was an invaluable experience. Well, I will update all of you later on how the entire conference went but,for now I must go. May God bless you and your families as you continue to follow Him.

Outreach to Penn State

We had a wonderful outreach on the campus of Penn state a couple of weeks ago. Jim,Roger,Glenn, and I went down to Penn State with Luke's church and had a great time of planting many seeds for the Lord and where involved in many conversations. We spoke with a Gentleman named Peter and he was very interested in the work we were doing. Although according to his words. " We are on the same side except you guys are on the front line and I will act as a support person. I will hand you as many supplies as you need while you are on the front line fighting." He wanted to make a donation to us and we informed him that we could not accept a donation and did not want anything. He did end up going to Dunkin Donuts and bringing us back some donuts. We told him we really did not want him to but, he insisted and would not take no for an answer. I do have to admit on the ride home after the outreach the donuts did taste good. Overall we were able to preach to 25 to 30 people and handed out many tracts. I want to thank all who participated and Praise God for his faithfulness in bringing the people to listen to His word being proclaimed. We will be look at doing another outreach to Penn state in May if all works out according to God's will. I will be heading to OAC's annual staff conference this week and I am very excited to meet all of the other staff evangelist that I have not yet meet. I know this will be a great week of learning, ministry and fellowship. I pray all of you have a great week in the Lord and until next time may God richly bless you and your families to God be the glory.

Amazing movements of God

Hello all, I wanted to update everyone of some pretty amazing things God has been doing in my life recently. As you know I have been in the process of raising support to go to Washington D.C. as a missionary with Open Air Campaigners. This work of raising support has been challenging and also rewarding. I need all of you that have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ to pray for me and my family as we move forward in this journey. Recently I have had the opportunity to meet with several pastors and I am praying God will place a burden on their hearts to join us as monthly contributors. I have also meet some fellow Christians that have a burden for the lost just as I do and they are going to join with me to do and outreach on April the 11th at Penn State. This will be a great opportunity for us to share the gospel with many students that need to hear the truth of God's word. One final note is that my current level of support is now at 7.2% and I know God will continue to bring faithful men and women into my path that will want to share in this ministry by supporting us. If this may be how you feel God is leading you please pray about it and follow His prompting. We know that the body works best when all of the parts are working together. May God continue to bless you in all you do and until next time. Continue to praise His name!

In Christ,

Zane

Assurance in difficult times

I just spoke to a friend of mine, Jim and he just experienced the loss of his mother. I was able to talk to him about the assurance we have in knowing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Also the hope that we have that we would be reunited with our loved ones that have gone to Heaven before us. After about an hour on conversation that ranged from the goodness of God in all things to the discussion of some scripture we ended the call and I told him if he needed to talk about anything I was only a phone call away.

As I think about the conversation we had and the encouragement that Jim is to me and I pray I am to him in situations, I began to think about those who do not have friends or family or a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ to help them through the difficult times and my heart is saddened by this and it gives me a greater desire to preach the Gospel to all those lost and dying souls.

So for any of you that are reading this blog and do not have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, I implore you to seek the scriptures, which is the Bible, the only true word of God that tells us how we are to live and what we must do to be saved. I would recommend reading Romans 10: 9,10 and truly make a decision to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth and you will be saved. Once you have accepted Jesus into your life continue to walk in the truth that will be revealed to you through the Bible and find a good Bible believing church to help you grow in your faith. Well, I have said all I can at this point and if God uses this blog to touch the lives and convict the souls of the unsaved I say to Him be all the Glory, Honor, and Praise for He alone is worthy. Amen, and have a blessed night.

Fine Arts Festival

Well, I attended the fine arts festival that my daughter participated in and it was incredible. I thought it would be nice but, it was much better than I thought it would be. The talent of the youths at the festival was awesome. To see all of those young people glorifing God with their talents that God had given them was incredible. Then to make it even better the group that my daughter sang it did great and will be moving on to the state level of competion. She is very excited about this opportunity and I am also looking forward to seeing her singing at the state fine arts festival. This is her first year in fine arts and it is a great accomplishment to go to the state competion. If she does well at the state's then she would go on to the nationals, but I don't want to get a head of myself. I am very proud that she is using the ability God has give her to bring glory to His name. I pray all of you have a great work week in the Lord and may God bless you.

Friday night

Well, the weekend has arrived and I am excited because tomorrow my daughter is going to be singing with two groups in a fine Arts festival at our church. I am sure she will do well, even thought she is a little nervous because she does not usually sing in front of that many people. I praise the Lord for they way he is using her to show others that it does not matter what age you are because God can use each of use for His glory if we are just open to His leading. Well, I better get to sleep because I have to get up early and it will be a long day tomorrow. I pray you all have a blessed weekend.

John 3:30

"He must increase but, I must decrease" I have heard this verse twice in the last two days and I know now that this is true to all of us. If we want to display Jesus through our lives, words, and actions, we must die to ourselves so that we can live for Christ. If we are not willing to decrease in our thoughts of self God will not use us to our full potential. Tonight at church Pastor asked us to go and pray with someone and just encourage them. I saw a man I have known for awhile in the front of the church and I was drawn to go pray for him. Was this difficult to walk past all of those people and pray with this man? Yes, it was difficult. Yet, I had to decrease and not think about myself or my feelings and think about what God wanted me to do. After I stepped out and went up front and prayed for this man I knew for sure that God had set up this appointment for me to intercede for him in prayer and I felt an overwhelming feeling of joy for stepping out and decreasing myself so that Jesus could increase. God bless everyone of you. To God be the glory!

12 years old

Well, that is how old my daughter will be tomorrow. I can hardly believe my baby girl is going to be 12. I can still remember caring her back and forth in the hallway to get her to go to sleep as a baby. She was a good baby for the most part and now she is growing up so fast it makes me proud and sad at the same time. I see how she is becoming more independent and wanting to spend more time with her friends than with us, her parents. I know that during these next years of her life she will have to make decisions that will change and impact her future in significant ways. What does she want to become? Where will she go to College? Who will she chose as a husband, wait a minute, I did say 12. I am not going to start thinking about these things quite yet. I know the High School years will be here before I know it and my prayer for Zana is that she always uses Godly wisdom in all her decisions and that she allows Christ love to shine through her in all of the relationships she has with her peers.
As for now, I am going to take the time to show her how special she is to me and how proud of her I am. I am going to make this birthday party that we are have for her one she will remember and treasure. I don't know how many others of you have a little girl that is turning 12 or 13.... but, I pray you also are able to enjoy these years and make them count because soon your little girl may start to spread her wings and fly and all your will be able to do is watch. Always treasure the special gift God has given you of a baby girl, I know I will.......God bless each and everyone of you and your daughters too.

Web space for his Glory and influence

I'm back. I noticed something tonight on my facebook account several of the people that I made friends were passing drinks around in cyber space. At first my thoughts were to delete these people from my facebook then I realized. God may have brought them to my facebook in order for them to see a positive influence and an example of how Jesus Christ can transform your life. I think when I see these people that several years ago I would have probably joined in on this activity yet, now I only am sad because of the lostness of the souls of these individuals. I pray that anyone who uses the internet for corrospondence with others be very careful of what you post because your words or actions could have a lasting effect on someone's eternal destiny. I pray my witness effects many for the Kingdom of God.

In His Service,

Zane

Junior Bible quiz

Today I spent the day at State College assembly of God at the semi-finals match for the Junior Bible quiz team that I help coach. They did a wonderful job by just getting to qualify for the semi-finals and I was very proud of them for this accomplishment. They had 3 regular matches and placed first place in the district that they compete in. This is how they were able to go to the semi-final round of competion. Even though they did not win today or advance to the finals it was incredible for them to have made it that far and have learned many memory verses and facts about the scripture which is what it is all about. Any one who is not fimilar with Junior Bible quiz that has young children, I encourage you to look into it because it is a great way to teach your children the word of God and to have fun while doing it. The children that I have been involved with over the last couple of years have enjoyed it very much. God Bless all of you.

blogging again

Hello all,

It has been a couple of weeks since I last entered a post so I felt it was as good of time as any. Many things have been happening since the 13th of January. As far as my ministry with Open Air Campaigners I conducted a training at the home of a friend of mine that is interested in going out into the open air once the weather gets warmer. I spoke to a fellow evangelist with Open Air Campaigners and he is was going to preach at a college in Maryland for the last couple of days. Cold... is all I can think about but, I know Paul and he will stay warm because of the compassion and conviction that he receives through the Holy Spirit. I pray he is able to reach may with the gospel message. The training that took place at Luke's house was incredible. I enjoyed teaching him some simple object lessons and he is excited about learning more and being able to go out and preach this spring. I pray that God will continue to raise up many more individuals that want to be trained and become bold in Christ to share their faith. Have a great night and God bless each of you.

Boston branch trip

Praise the Lord,

I spent three days at the Boston branch of Open Air Campaigners and it was incredible. God's spirit was very evident while I was in Boston preaching the gospel in the subway. I had never been in the subway before and just the experience of being able to speak to people about the eternal truths of salvation while they waited for the train was wonderful. Many people were very receptive and took tracts and many people heard a clear presentation of the gospel. I look forward to going back to Boston in the future and spending more time with the remarkable group of evangelist in that City. I am planning to visit New York City and also Washington D.C before I finalize which city I will spend my internship at. To all of the Christians that are reading this please pray that I will be open to the leading and direction of God as he reveals to me the city that He would have me go. May God bless you in the ministry he has given to you and if you are still searching for the place God can use you keep your eyes on Him and He will reveal it to you.

In Christ,

Zane D. Dempsie
Evangelist
Open Air Campaigners