Thank you Faithful Friends
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Praise Chapel, Huntington Park
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Dear Friends,
Bro. Jed is home after 22 weeks of preaching on campuses this spring. We want to send a sincere thank you to all of you who gave sacrificially of your time, money and prayers to make our mission possible and successful. You are appreciated!
Watch for 5 more e-journals covering Bro. Jed and Bro. Mikhail's mission to Idaho, Oregon, Washington and California. This was an exciting and fruitful, men only team so don't miss the next five journals.
Bro. Jed is available for church meetings this summer so get him scheduled and your fellowship will be blessed!
In Christ, Sis. Cindy
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April 21, 2014, Indiana State University,
Since the fountain is still off, students were sitting on the steps surrounding the fountain. I had a ready-made audience. Initially, the students were hostile as I declared that Jesus has risen from the dead. One woman, who claimed to believe in the resurrection, objected to me declaring the event. Soon she angrily asked, "Why did my son commit suicide 6 months ago?" Her implication in the question was that somehow God was to blame. I replied, "He chose to take his own life. This is no reason to commit suicide."
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Bro. Jed chases down the sign thief. Sis. Cindy told Bro. Jed that at 71 he is to old for this!
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Soon someone rushed up behind me and stole my YOU DESERVE HELL sign. I chased after him which resulted in a wrestling match in which I regained the sign. Sister Pat, ever ready with her camera, captured some snapshots of the tussle. Gradually, the students settled down as I made it evident that I was not going to be discouraged. Soon the police showed up. The angry mother complained to the police about me. However, this policeman is one whom they must have assigned to me because he is the one who usually is sent out. The policeman never said anything to me. He seemed amused by my lecture, "Sex Ed with Brother Jed."
The police presence remained for the rest of the afternoon.
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Bro. Jed wrestles the sign from the ISU student.
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During Sister Pat's session she dealt mostly with the immodest dress of the girls in their short shorts. Too bad their mothers are not instructing their daughters in how to dress and be lady like. Their mothers may be as about as bad as the daughters. After her preaching session Sister Pat had a little group around her for the rest of the day addressing the issue of Christian perfection.
I set up the judgment seat; two females volunteered for me to j
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Bro. Jed walks back to his preaching post with the rescued sign. Those signs are expensive! We only lost one this semester!!
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udge them. They were both declared guilty and condemned to Hell. However, I did remind them that they could be pardoned through Christ but they must forsake all sin. One girl, who said she had been a girl scout, denied that that she had a soul. I asked her to define the faculties of the soul. She could not do this. I explained the faculties of the soul are the mind including the conscience, the emotions and the will. Of course, she did not want admit that she had no conscience, mind, will or emotions. She admitted that she was jaded concerning her emotions. She complained that she had an abusive father. The girl did seem intelligent and listened and even looked up Bible verses. One frat boy, who claimed he led a Bible Study in his fraternity, proclaimed that we ought not to judge.
It was a very good day by ISU standards. My last hour there was a fairly good spirit among the students. I was happy to regain my sign. I must admit I enjoyed the little struggle with the thief. Sister Pat and I left campus at 4 PM. This is the last week of classes at ISU.
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COMMUNICATION CLASS
April 22, 2014, IUPUI
My first audience was made up of mostly Moslems and a vocal Hindu. I said, "Hinduism is nonsensical for denying the reality of matter; however, Islam is the most dangerous religion because Moslems claim to respect Jesus but they misrepresent him by rejecting his deity and by denying his death and resurrection." Several others gathered as I argued with these false religionists for about an hour. Suddenly everyone left except for an Apostolic boy, who said that three months ago he had received the fullness of the Spirit.
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Preacher Mikhail joined us for a week of soul-winning and also to be a part of the reality show filming.
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I was waiting for the next movement of classes, when a pleasant young Christian greeted me warmly as "Brother Jed." As we were conversing suddenly a communication class gathered around me. The professor had brought her class of 30 or so students to question me, which enabled me to clearly communicate the gospel. They challenged me as to why I presented the bad news (Hell) before telling of the good news (the gospel). I illustrated that the engineer must diagnose the problem before he presents the solution and the doctor has to diagnose the disease before he speaks of possible cures. After about 25 minutes they returned to class. Having the opportunity to speak to classes is one of the highlights of my ministry. After all, I am a teacher by professional training.
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Students play a naughty form of the Apples to Apples game in the center of our preaching.
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By this time it was 2:30. I stayed another 15 minutes to converse with a few students after which I left to pick up Mikhail Savenko at the airport. He will be with us until May 1. He is going to have a part in the pilot for our reality show. The filming begins tomorrow and will go on for almost a week. The first week in May I will be preaching in Boise, ID. Then I will fly into Portland, OR, and work Washington, Oregon and California with Mikhail. I said to Mikhail, "I am assigning to you the protection of our signs. You will have to be the one to recover any stolen signs. I am too old to be tussling with college students."
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Group of costumed students paraded by and stopped to heckle Bro. Mikhail.
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"THE SHOWMAN"
April 23, 2014, Indiana University
We had four cameras on us at IU today as the crew came in last night to film for our reality show, which is tentatively entitled, "The Book of Jed." Our theme for the day was courtship and marriage. Cindy drew a crowd, which grew close to one hundred. Students were lively and attentive for the most part. The crew filmed the footage they wanted and left at 2:30. One of the producers, Paul, said to me, "Brother Jed you are a great showman!"
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Producer Roger Nygard films Bro. Jed at IU.
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After the filmmakers left, we were able to expand to other themes, including social, political and economic issues. Some of the girls were offended when I said social workers were mostly busybodies, who tend to victimize people instead of encouraging them to be responsible, independent and industrious. Sociologists are always trying to change the social institutions for what they perceive to be the betterment of mankind or what they would call humankind. We Christians are trying to change the individual from living a self-centered life to one centered on others, especially God.
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Bro. Mikhail calling students to turn from a self-centered to a God-centered life.
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I explained that Christianity is better than other religions because it gives coherent, reasonable and believable answers to the great questions and issues of life. A group of atheists played cards at my feet attempting to be a distraction. However, I was able to foil their plans by staying on the move.
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Student wanted his photo with Sis. Pat and the infamous soul-winner sign! Bro. Mikhail with banner on the right.
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I had several good conversations on the sidelines as did Sister Pat, Cindy and Mikhail. One of my conversations was with a Muslim female turned atheist. I prayed with a girl who said she believed that God had forgiven her but she said, "I can't forgive myself." I counseled her to read 2 Corinthians 7 on the fruit of true repentance and to read Psalm 51 where David said, "My sin is ever before me." Even Paul decades after his conversion said, "I am chief of sinners." We have to be careful about taking our past sins too lightly. It is not necessarily bad to maintain a sense of shame over our past sins; it keeps us humble. Shame over our past sins may motivate us to militantly battle against sin the world. However, if our shame immobilizes us, then that demonstrates a lack of faith in God's forgiveness.
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Bro. Jed had a long serious conversation with an ex-muslim now atheist.
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We left at 5 PM rejoicing over the great day. The daughters will be returning home Thursday and Friday to be in the show.
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THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN
April 24, 2014, ISU
Despite the noisy fountain being on, we preached within the amphitheater. Mikhail started and gradually drew an audience. After he turned the meeting over to me around 2:30, I held forth for the rest of the afternoon. An extremely overweight heavily tattooed she/he/it, who claimed to be a transsexual told us about the testosterone she/he/it was taking for her complete transformation into a male. This person who was born with a vagina now considered itself to be a man, claiming to be married to a woman. As foul as she was, I considered the people in my audience, who approved of her, to be worse for they took pleasure in its perversion. The pervert is planning on getting a PhD in psychology and is considered to be brave by the person's professors.
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Convincing students that evil exists is sometimes the first task.
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The last two days I have sang "The House of the Rising Sun" to the students warning them that they are living in a whore house spending their lives in sin and misery. They still have one foot on the platform; however, the other foot is on the Hell-bound train at they wrap themselves in the balls and chains of sin. When I was in college at ISU, there was a notorious red light district several blocks from campus. Those houses are long gone. Who needs prostitutes today when so many college coeds are just giving it away? The madams of the houses of yesterday probably had more morals than the coeds of today. One girl preparing to be a social worker told me today that there is no such thing as evil. I can't imagine a prostitute fifty years ago suggesting such a thing.
There were a couple of Baptists passing out tracts on campus, who remembered my late associate, Max Lynch. I was in bantering mode for much of the afternoon. I shared stories of my wild days of yore as a student at ISU. Towards the end I had a confrontation with a Moslem. Students were interested in the reality show and our return to ISU tomorrow for more filming.
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Bro. Jed shares tales of his days at ISU.
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Before we started preaching two Chi Alpha boys, Cody and Justin, quizzed me concerning Christian perfection and my approach. They seemed opened and generally supportive. Sister Pat had a good conversation with them yesterday.
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BEHIND THE SCENES
April 25, 2014, ISU
We now have a film crew of eight making the video for "The Book of Jed." We started filming at 10 AM and did not finish until 8:30 PM. Putting a show together is hard work. I am getting an understanding of all the behind scenes work it takes not only in filming but preparing for the shoot. There is a lot of time and money being invested in this project by Country Music TV.
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The dining room scene.
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We did not actually start the campus preaching until 2:00 PM. I was concerned that we would not get much attention on the last day of classes with finals starting next week at ISU. However, we soon gathered an audience of 40-50. When we were shooting for the show, Martha and Sister Cindy did "The Sorority Girl Who Meet the Devil, Priscilla sang a solo with her guitar and Justina and Iris sang, "This Little Light of Mine." Iris quoted her Scriptures. Much of the crowd was made up of perverts including the transsexual from yesterday and one other transsexual. There were numerous lesbians and several homosexuals in the crowd. It seems like we drew the deviates, hopefully we had most of them surrounding us; however, I fear there were many more who were unaware of our preaching. Once again none of the students voiced any objection to someone attempting to change their sex, which is not actually possible. Most were supportive of transsexualism and lesbianism and sodomy.
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Sis. Cindy interviewed.
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About 3:30 I gave the meeting to Sister Pat. Four Christians questioned me concerning my approach. They informed me that I needed to practice relational evangelism. The most vocal of the group attends a Christian college where he is taught relational evangelism. I was sorry to have to break off this conversation at 4 PM but we had to return to our home for filming of family part of the show. We finished the day shooting at Highland Lawn Cemetery.
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Bro. Jed filmed at the cemetary where he plans to be buried. Talking about the hope of Eternal Life through Jesus Christ.
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Advice to Bro. Mikhail on how to get a wife.
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Sis. Pat confronts atheist Zane..."Are you a Christian?"
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The shooting was a lot of fun! Priscilla Smock
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IN THE SPOT LIGHT
April 29, 2014, Indiana University,
Yesterday, we finished six days of filming the pilot for "The Book of Jed." Even if the pilot is not accepted by CMT, all the cast agreed that it was a memorable learning experience. It was also tiring work. For instance, on Saturday we filmed from 9 AM until 10:30 PM. Yet, we all had fun and a lot of laughs. Daily, we had a full house with eight men in the film crew, six members of our family, plus Sister Pat, Mikhail and Zane, a college friend of Priscilla, which adds up to 19 people. The crew stayed at the Holiday Inn. I suppose the neighbors wondered what was going on. Cameras followed me and others all over town. It was a big deal; CMT has invested a significant amount of money in this project, which has only gone to the expenses of the project, not to the cast.
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Planting seeds in hopes that one day these students will bloom like the tulips at IU.
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Because of the filming and wet weather, we did not preach on campus yesterday. If the show is accepted as a series, the earliest it would run would be next January.
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Mikhail, Martha and Justina in the dinner scene.
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Today, Mikhail started preaching underneath the IU clock and quickly gathered a crowd of 25. However, after forty minutes everyone suddenly left. Meanwhile, I talked with Becca, who was distributing vegan literature. She parted by expressing an interest in reading the Bible this summer. She was a bright girl but totally ignorant of the good book. Eventually, Mikhail gathered another crowd of fifty. Mikhail continued with the theme of the reality show, which is courtship and marriage.
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The whole gang who are making the Book of Jed, minus Sis. Pat and Evangeline who had to leave early.
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While I preached, one queer pranced around in lace hose and high heels. A well-dressed lesbian constantly bitched.
There was one angry loud-mouthed swearer wearing a Bob Marley shirt, who nagged that we were not showing love. One modest Christian girl listened most of the afternoon. At 2:30 a policewoman showed up; several students complained to her but she said nothing to me. In my youth they would have arrested the high heeled homo. These days they are liable to offer him a job on the police force in the name of diversity. At 3:30 a thunderstorm hit; as we were departing, the swearer said, "I hope that you get killed in a car wreck on your way home."
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Jesus and Jed
April 30, 2014, IU
I was interviewed by Molly from the IU TV station. Afterwards, she took over an hour of footage of Mikhail and me preaching. We had a crowd of up to fifty. A black guy, who came from a Pentecostal home, said he had been listening to me for five years. He is graduating; he admitted he was not leading the Christian life; nevertheless, he wanted to counsel me on how to preach. He was a likable person. I had fun joshing with him. When Mikhail called upon me, the students were quiet and attentive. Holiness was a major issue. A fellow from India, who professed Christianity, opposed both Mikhail and me. Several Christians started praying around me, which I listened to until they prayed to correct me. I had an hour conversation on the sidelines with one of these Christians.
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Atheists more evangelical than most student Christians.
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She was agreeable; however, she kept insisting that we were all sinners. I finally told her cut-off jeans were inappropriate for an academic setting. She did not protest my gentle rebuke. She prayed for me at the end of our long conversation. The students were interested in the reality show. This could end up being big. The producer hopes to run with it for at least six seasons. A man who heard me back in the 70's expressed surprise to see that I was still preaching. A woman in her early 40's, who has a campus ministry with her husband, objected because the man remembered me but not Jesus. I countered I am part of the body of Christ; Jesus is the head of the body; to talk about me is to talk about Jesus. I am impressed that he still remembered me. As a Christian I carry Jesus' name. Often students have complained to me, "We cannot mention the name of Jesus on this campus without someone bringing up your name." I take that as a compliment that my name is so associated with Christ. We preached until 4 PM when it started clouding up and looking like rain. It was a good day of preaching at IU for the spring semester.
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Bro. Mikhail warning the wicked!
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Contact Us
Website!
brojed@aol.com
573-999-0347
Home Office:
CMUSA
PO Box 3845
Terre Haute, IN
47803
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WRESTLING MATCH
