REVIEWS

Floyd's fearless zeal for evangelism has provided fruit in Europe and has challenged many of the fainthearted in North America. --Bert Elliot, missionary to Peru (brother Jim Elliot, missionary killed by the Auca Indians)

I told him (the author) numerous times that it wouldn't work. He told me that I was right--because I wasn't willing to try it. I tried it. Within the first week of using these principles, five people wanted to read the Bible with me. --Government official in Berlin, Germany

Floyd's Schneider's book is the ultimate encouragement for people like me who . . . are secretly ashamed because they're doing so poorly when it comes to evangelism. I've recognized both the validity and the simplicity of the principles laid out by the author and have seen them work. --Henk P. Medema, publisher, the Netherlands. (This book was published in the Dutch language a year later.)

Anyone who stuck it our in the missionary graveyard that is Austria and engaged in a successful ministry of evangelism and church planting there, is well-qualified to write a book on evangelism. We can all learn a great deal from Floyd Schneider's experience in the hard places. --Ian Burness, Echoes of Service, a mission agency in England

"Sarge, are you dead?"His question brought me back to consciousness. "Uh, no, at least I don't think so." I felt something sticky under my shirt. I reached inside my shirt, and my hand came out soaked in blood. The only thought that went through my mind was, "This is my blood on the outside of my body. This is not good."I joined the Army because I wanted freedom. My high school principal told me that I needed to grow up. We arrived in Vietnam on Dec. 15, and on Christmas day 1967, I grew up. A "training mission" turned into a full-scale firefight. Surrounded by killing and death, I had no time to reflect on my expectations of combat. We searched the bodies of those we had killed for any traces of information about their units. We treated our wounded. We put our dead on helicopters, and we returned to base as "experienced" combat soldiers. Why did I survive, and others did not? Although I puzzled over that question, it became clear that my job in combat, as a squad leader, was just to stay alive, keep my men alive, and kill the enemy. If I died in the process, so be it. I just didn't want my mother to suffer the loss of her only child. Schneider received four Purple Hearts, three in one day. He also received an Army Commendation Medal with V for valor. While his squad was under fire and he was wounded, he rescued three of his wounded men and continued to direct his squad.

Russia, 1997-1998

Learning the language in order to bring the Gospel to people has a hidden drawback. The more they helped us with the language, the closer our relationship grew with them. And then it really hurt to say goodbye.

We spent only four weeks with some Russians learning their language, but at the end of our time, a number of them begged us to stay much longer. We couldn’t. The language school moved us every month to a new city in Russia, and after our first city of Nizhni Novgorod, we realized that we would never see those people again. Our extremely primitive language ability and only four weeks. We at least gave them all a Russian New Testament. We placed on trust in God’s Word, that if they were true seekers, they would eventually find our Savior (Matthew 7:7-8). But as our language ability improved, the faster and closer our relationships grew with them, and the harder it was too leave.

But what about all those Russians in those other cities who had never heard?

By the time we returned to St. Petersburg, we had decided to stay there long-term.

God had other plans for us.

Most scholars believe that Mark wrote his Gospel to the Romans. True: but in addition to presenting the Gospel to the Romans, Mark actually contextualized his Gospel by challenging the leading propaganda of his day, Virgil's Aeneid. The Roman poet, Virgil, wrote his masterpiece epic poem, the Aeneid, to promote the myth that Caesar Augustus was the son of god. The Aeneid went viral almost immediately upon publication in 19 BC, becoming Rome's premier piece of propaganda that promoted Augustus as the emperor who would bring peace to the world. Within the first century, the Aeneid reached from Masada to northern Britain and became a foundational piece of Roman education.
Mark's mother, Mary, and his uncle, Joseph/Barnabas, raised him in wealth, and educated him in the four languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin. They drew him to Jesus, and Barnabas took Mark on the first missionary journey. Mark spent time with Peter in Rome, where Mark wrote his Gospel in Greek. Mark most certainly had direct access to the most influential piece of Latin literature, the Aeneid, and he wrote his masterpiece Gospel comparing Augustus with Jesus, the true Son of God.