Praise the Lord Greetings!

The last three weekends have been amazing! 400,000 souls at the NFL Draft; 250,000 at the Kentucky Derby and 100,000+ at the Miami Grand Prix.

Here are some general comments about the 3 events: "The Word is Always at Work" Audio on the NFL Draft; Miami Grand Prix; Kentucky Derby. (9:54 minutes).

There were 5 evangelists at the Draft and Grand Prix and 24 at the Derby! See the team pictures below. At each event the teams were amongst the fans and local citizens evangelizing 7 - 12 hours per day.

The sports world seems to continue to expand and thanks to your continue gracious support Greetings! SFOI has brought the Gospel to many of the major sporting events and is continuing to labor to reach more fans.

As a reminder if you did not know you can always check this page for updated Ministry Partner info. It's been updated and better organized so you can more easily see the fruits of your investment in the Kingdom of Christ: www.sfoi.org/mp
Miami Grand Prix
Miami Grand Prix team picture: The words are on the picture because it needs to be edited. Left to right: Evan Johnston (FL); Nick O'Berry (SC); Michael Seethaler (NC); Stirling Long (GA) and Bill.
Above and below are videos from the MGP.

Top left: View of main ministry location at Gate 5.
Top right: Michael preaching a sermon to the fans at the same ministry location in the video on the left. The fans at the location waiting to cross the street are able to clearly hear Michael's message.

To view all videos visit this link: Miami GP '23 Videos.

Below are pictures from the primary ministry location at Gate 5. There were 2 Gates: 5 & 8. Stirling was at Gate 8 and Bill at Gate 5. Fans walked up to this traffic light for 7 - 8 hours for 3 days and were able to hear the Gospel and the messages preached.
Top Left: Crowds gathered all day at the traffic light to cross the street to enter Gate 5 who could hear the Gospel.
Top Right: Gate 5. One of two Gates where the fans entered the Race track.
Bottom Left: Nick O' Berry preaching.
Bottom Right: Michael Seethaler preaching.
Kentucky Derby

Bobby McCreery, third from the left with the beard and lanyard, led the Derby again while Bill was in Miami leading the Miami Grand Prix. For the third year the Derby had a large turnout of evangelists. The Derby is the second largest event SFOI hosts and one lesson is that when an event is held in the same location and at the same time every year that helps the numbers of evangelists participating increase. Here's the SFOI Event page with many of the evangelists profiles at the bottom of the page: Kentucky Derby (sfoi.org)

More videos and pictures will be sent on the next Weekly Report.
Kentucky Derby Team picture: left to right:

Jacob Colby (AL)***; Troy Goldsmith (KY); Dan Davis (WI); Joshua Payne (IL); Tyler Watkins (IL)***; Joe Toy (NC); Steven Kendall (IN)***; Justin Johnson (WI)***; Donald Stark (TN); Stephen Brock (NC)***; Heath Pucel (WI); Gene Bottoms(TN); Ryan Hartzell (PA)***; Tyler Mansfield (TN)***; Bobby McCreery (GA); Ken Hisle (IL); Corey Lindsay (TN)***; Caleb Davenport (OH); Wendell Shrock (TN); Adam Cutshaw (TN); Wendell Tyler Shrock (TN); Rich Suplita (GA); Tristan Mullane (OH). ***means new to the Derby (8 this year)
NFL Draft

Five evangelists traveled to Kansas City for the NFL Draft. The Draft has become a major annual event for the NFL where their mission is to recruit more loyal, dedicated fans to their league. Thus the NFL hosts fan events all day for the three days of the Draft.

Kansas City was a new city for SFOI and downtown Kansas City turned out to be an excellent location for the Draft. The Kansas City football and baseball stadiums are not good at all which is why SFOI has not ministered there before. They both sit in a large parking lot where everyone can park on their property thus creating no public spaces and no accessible foot traffic.

You can see an aerial picture of the Stadiums: Arrowhead Stadium Complex.
NFL Draft team picture: Pastor Jeff Parks (KC - he spent one day with us); Doc Schank (MN); Heath Pucel (WI); Bryan Conwell (MN); Greg Fischer (WI).
One unexpected reality of the Draft is that all 400,000 fans who attended had to walk the same route to the fan activities at Union Station. We were able to station ourselves in 3 locations from the beginning to the end of the route. So probably 98% of the 400,000 fans heard the Gospel as they went to the Draft fan festivities and as they left.

You can see the route they walked on this map. Look for the dotted blue line to show the walking path: Crossroads, Kansas City, MO 64108 to Money Museum - Google Maps

The videos below were taken to show you how the foot traffic was developed as the fans made the 1.2 mile walk which took about 15+ minutes. The videos are a decent attempt to show this reality which happens at all sporting events (the development of foot traffic). Next time an effort will be made to make the videos more continuous vs. being broken up and difficult to follow.
Top Left: Fans exit the Light Rail to walk to the Draft fan events. Plus fans park in the downtown area to walk to the fan events.
Top Right: Fans walk to the first corner where they turn left on E 20th St. to walk to Grand Blvd.
Top Left: Fans have turned left on E 20th & walking to first ministry location.
Top Right: Fans continue past ministry location on E 20th to Grand Blvd. where they will turn right onto Grand. Blvd. for the 10 minute walk to the Draft fan events.
Top Left: Fans have taken a right on Grand Blvd. and begin the long journey to the entrance of the NFL Draft.
Top Right: Fans all walking together on Grand Blvd. towards the entrance. They come to the park where Heath and his team are located.
Watch all of the NFL Draft videos:
Above: the fans enter the park where Heath and his team are located.
SFOI promotes other ministries and other evangelism training. Below are trainings two friends of the ministry are hosting and leading. Click the banner of each training for more details.
O my flight home from the Final Four I happened to sit between a man and his son from Houston traveling to the Masters Golf Tournament. The man, a retired lawyer, attended a church in Houston where I had previously attended a meeting and knew a couple of people. We chatted for a while and he even ultimately referred me to a gentleman in Kansas City he thought could help us.

Turns out he and his wife are also engaged in ministry work and they created the Gospel Box below. It's a way to share your faith. Like a wordless book if you have ever seen it. So we promoted this on out latest "Get in the Game" email. Click the banner to learn more.
Below are videos for upcoming Gospel Invasion events which are events SFOI hosts but are led by someone else. The top one is Joshua Richards leading the Indy 500 outreach.
All Indy 500 videos: Indy 500

Below is Jason McGough for the Myrtle Beach Gospel Invasion.
All Gospel Invasion videos. See invites for the Riverbend Festival and Music City Grand Prix: GI: Myrtle Beach; Riverbend Festival & Music City Grand Prix
Thank you Greetings! again for your continued partnership in the Gospel and investment in the Kingdom of Christ!

Do you have anyone you can refer to go with us on an upcoming trip or to give to further the Work of the Gospel through SFOI? If you want to give today you can use this link: SFOI Donations.

Praise the Lord Greetings! The Gospel is being preached and in that do we rejoice!