Desert Highway Newsletter October 2006

SEE SEPTEMBER 2006 NEWSLETTER

Desert Highway Newsletter

October 2006

As promised we are covering the “Heroes of the Faith” Missions Chopper in this newsletter

NEXT MONTHS NEWSLETTER FEATURE: Preliminary plans for the…

From the Chicago Dream Center to the L.A. Dream Center
SO YOU CAN START PLANNING FOR NEXT YEARS TOUR.

MAIN ARTICLE

"Heroes of the Faith" Missions Chopper *There is a link at the bottom of the article for you to be able to bid on this chopper*.
From Executive Pastor Ron Masten, McAlester Oklahoma. 1st Assembly of God Church (The Senior Pastor is Jerry Burnside)
Approximately two years ago, Ray Luna and his wife, Mary, gave McAlester First Assembly Executive Pastor Ron Masten a 1948 style FL Harley. Prior to giving his life totally to Christ, Ray was a local biker of McAlester and had spent time in the Oklahoma State Prison. Ray built this Harley from scratch and it was to be his last motorcycle. In the late 1980's , Ray disassembled the bike to make a repair. While the bike was disassembled, Ray suffered a stroke and was unable to finish the work. The bike remained unassembled until giving it to Pastor Ron.
	Pastor Ron began cleaning it up for reassembly. But in January of this year, at a Speed-the-Light Missions Convention, Pastor Ron felt God saying, "I want your Harley for missions" as Missionary Bill Moore laid out the challenge of providing scooters for national pastors in the Congo. Pastor Ron involved the youth and men of First Assembly in this project and over the next few months it evolved into a full blown one-off custom chopper using the 1948 style FL Harley as the initial investment. The project became known as "Heroes of the Faith", our missionaries being our heroes.

The chopper was completed in time for its initial showing at the School of Missions in Springfield, Missouri. As part of the project we are collecting ministry data and signatures from as many missionaries as possible. Using a form that was designed for this purpose to be deposited at the A/G Archives as well as accompany the bike to its new owner.
The chopper will be auctioned at the end of November 2006. We anticipate there will be enough interest within the Assemblies of God to complete the auction via our A/G national website. We hope to inspire all Honor Bound and Youth Groups in the Assemblies of God to similar projects raising funds for missions in new and different ways. The proceeds on the sale of the chopper will be used for Speed-the-Light, Light for the Lost and other missions projects. The project has inspired our youth group to design "Heroes of the Faith" chopper t-shirts and "do-rags" to sell as an additional way to raise money and promote outreach.
	Michael Anderson Design of McAlester provided oversight of the build. Airbrush Guy, Inc. of Little Rock, AR applied the custom paint. The custom upholstery was designed by Alissa Carmany, McAlester. The bike and wheels includes STL, LFTL, A/G World and U.S. Missions insignia. The bike features a 96 cubic inch S&S Super Stocker motor fifty-state legal, Rev-Tech five speed gear box, open primary drive, 200 mm rear tire, and will be sold with custom covered Fire Bible and Custom Leather Jacket. At McAlester First Assembly, we love missions!
For information on the project or the chopper, contact Ron Masten at 918-424-0450 or at ronmasten@sbcglobal.net. The chopper may be available for your events on a limited basis. Please call for details and date availability.

Executive Pastor Ron Masten, 1st Assembly of God Church, McAlester Oklahoma.
*TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THE MISSIONS CHOPPER.* Desert Highway Ministries will not have a part in determining how the funds are distributed. Desert Highway Ministries are ONLY providing a means for the silent auction to take place

Insights

I Love My Master…

I prayed a “sinners prayer” when I was saved. I was eleven years old and it was in the living room of our home. But I only prayed the prayer after it was explained to me what I was actually doing. I had walked the aisle at church that morning and the pastor came to our home that afternoon. He gave me a little new testament in which he had marked “turn to page” in. It led me through scriptures he had underlined which make up the “Romans Road”. He then sat there and made it very clear to me what I was doing. He said I was confessing Jesus as Lord and wanted me to understand that not only was I recognizing that I was a sinner and in need of a savior, but I was also making a commitment to him to be the boss (Lord) of my life. He explained that although salvation was free according to Ephesians 2:8-9, but verse 10 meant I would become a new person that was created to work for God. THEN I prayed a sinners prayer, but it did not just acknowledge my sin and my need… it also confessed my commitment to Him as Lord of my life.

Because that kind of commitment is so critical to being a Christian there must be some kind of event that we can look back on and pinpoint when we made that commitment. It may be a sinners prayer or some other way of making that commitment to Him. No one becomes a Christian by osmosis. For me it seemed to really take place completely in that one day, but I have known many that the sinners prayer was actually just a starting point towards being saved. In fact I have known more that way than I have who were brought to that point of commitment that quickly.

For many, we lead them in a sinners prayer when really the courtship between them and the Lord has only just begun. They have come to a place where they believe He is who He says He is, but have yet to come to a place to make a commitment to Him as Lord. We see this in scripture with the rich young ruler. Only Jesus did not pronounce him saved for acknowledging Him. Instead we see him walk away when he refuses to do as he is told by the master. Today he would have been led him in a sinners prayer and pronounced him saved and sent on his merry way. In some ways, this compares to conception and birth. A life begins at conception, but it is not ready to be birthed. Premature birth will cause death or at best a weak baby that must be carefully nursed to prevent death or life long illness. It is the same way in the spirit. The tragedy is that many times these are not premature spiritual births, but rather spiritual abortion.

It is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. For this to happen they have to realize it is God who is good. This may require walking with Him a ways first. It is kind of like the man who became a bond servant under the old law. He would realize his need to pay a debt he could not pay, he would allow himself to be sold, but at the end of seven years he could either go free or belong to his master for the rest of his life. The decision was his to make. If he chose to remain, it was a lifetime commitment. It was made by going before the elders of the city and plainly saying “I love my master…”. After this they would mark the man by driving an awl through his ear and placing a big ring in his ear. Then all who saw him would know that he belonged to someone else.

LATEST NEWS –

We have been on the West Texas District Christmas in October tour. It sure has been good having Janet back on the road with me. This is a wonder ministry that actually provides a lot of our groceries for the year. Our thanks go out to the WM’s of the West Texas District.

We have been asked to minister in the chapel services at the Teen Challenge on Wednesday morning to the end of the year so we are going to try and be in the Midland area on Wednesdays as much as is possible. We have a pastor to back us up when we have to be out of town.

We have had several saved in our first two chapels at Teen Challenge.

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The man was not a bond servant when the price was paid. That was just the beginning of an awareness of the one who would pay the price. It began a period of time when he could begin to know the goodness of the master. He only became a bond servant when he made the decision to yield himself to the master, made a public confession, and agreed to be noticeably a bond servant to all who saw him.

One of my friends says that we don’t allow this because it takes too much commitment from us. It we set the goal at getting them to say that prayer then we can move on to the next as soon as we get them to pray the prayer. Our work is done. Plus, we can get many more at a time. Maybe this is why Jesus spent three years with intense discipleship of only twelve and even more intensive discipleship
of four.

“I LOVE MY MASTER…
” and I mean it from my heart.
Jesus is not only my Savior;
He is my Lord and Master.

Want to support YOUR motorcycle missionaries?

HonorBound Motorcycle Ministry

It is READY TO GO!
We are starting the HonorBound Motorcycle Chapters.
Right now we are working to do this primarily in Texas as we itinerate, but it is available everywhere,

CHECK OUT THESE LINKS:
HonorBound Motorcycle Ministry links Page
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MOTORCYCLE MINISTRY
HBMM GUIDELINES
HBMM APPLICATION AND PASTOR'S ENDORSEMENT

FREE Global University Courses

• The Great Questions of Life
• The Life Of Christ
• Your New Life
• Your Helpful Friend

Click on the links above
to go to the lessons

If you know others who would support this ministry,
Forward this email
to them
The sooner we are fully funded the sooner we can devote full time to ministry instead of raising support.

GREAT NEWS!

The West Texas District stepped up to the place for us in a big way. Janet’s deductible on the surgery was $1500. The WTD sent us a check for the full amount long before the surgery.

All we will owe is 20% of the total medical bill.

PRAYER REQUEST

Janet's complete Recovery
For us to be able to pay off the
remainder of Janet’s medical bills
quickly rather than
having to finance them.

For us to reach our budget
from those who see the need
for our ministry

SUCCESS STORY

Currently we are at only 33% of reaching our budget. So that limits us in how much we can minister with other churches. However we had already committed to continuing to minister at the Golden Aspen Rally in Ruidoso. Although we could not do all we will eventually be doing, we had a great time ministering one on one as we gave out free hamburgers and Hope for the Highways bibles in the Church of Christ parking lot and then ministering in First Baptist Church Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Pray that next year we will be able to include a free bike wash.

THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE SIGNED UP WITH FAITH PROMISE
AND HAVE BEEN FAITHFUL TO GIVE EACH MONTH
YOU ARE A PART OF EVERYTHING WE DO
AND EVERYONE WE REACH

THANKS!

If you have not done a Faith Promise and would like to do it now.
Download the Faith Promise by clicking here.
Fill it out, print it out, and either Fax it or mail it in.

-- PLEASE NOTE --

Assemblies of God U.S. Missions require enough signed Faith Promises to cover the amount of the missionary’s budget before the missionary is authorized to work full-time on their assigned mission field.
Please help your missionary get to the field by mailing or faxing a signed Faith Promise form as soon as possible. If You do not have a Faith Promise form, click on the button above. Thank you!

In His Service,
R. Duane Gryder