Now, let's listen into the interview with Botswana radio station, Gabs FM, where Pastor
Steven Anderson shares his views on air.
Now, the interview is courtesy of Gabs FM.
717 is your time.
Very good morning to you and thank you so much for being with us on Breakfast with
Reg.
Welcome to The Point.
Controversial you are.
You cannot deny that Pastor Steve Anderson is in Botswana.
He's that pastor who South Africa said, you know what, we are not going to allow you
to come into the country because what we think you are preaching is nothing but
hate speech.
Well, he's agreed to speak to us this morning.
He's in the studio.
Gentlemen, very good morning to you.
Thank you so much for being with us this morning.
Let me start off with you, Pastor Anderson.
First, how has been the reception in Botswana?
Oh, the reception has been great.
In fact, the reception here is better than the reception in the United States.
Yeah.
And why do you think that is?
Well, I think the people here are more friendly and willing to talk.
Whereas in the United States, sometimes people are just too busy, life is more fast paced
and people are less religious in the United States.
So a lot of them just don't have an interest in spiritual things.
So here we can walk up and down the street and people love to talk.
And when I preach the gospel to them, they're happy to listen and they like it and we
get along great.
I love this country.
Right.
You don't preach the gospel.
You spew hate speech.
That's what some people have to say.
Well, they said the same thing about Jesus.
They called Jesus the devil.
They called him Beelzebub.
And you know, they killed him for a reason because they did not like him.
And Jesus said, if they hated me, you know that they will hate you also.
Do you believe that you spew hate speech?
Do you believe that the way that your approach is, it may be uncomfortable for some people.
Do you believe that it could be wrong?
My approach is not wrong because if you read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and then you
read about Jesus and the apostle Paul, they preached our Jesus.
The Bible tells Jesus yelled when he preached.
He called pastors like this guy to my left who wear long robes.
He said the Sadducees and the Pharisees were serpents and vipers.
And he said they were of the devil.
And he said, beware of the scribes that like to go in long robes.
He said, watch out for those guys.
So you believe that he's false?
This guy to my left is for sure false because he thinks homosexuality is fine.
You know, that is just so contrary to the Bible.
Why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because they were filthy homosexuals?
Are you the judge?
God is the judge.
Okay.
You have nine kids.
This guy is like the prophet of Baal.
Just a sec.
Ref, please.
Pastor Anderson, you've got nine kids.
Yes.
I'm married with nine children.
Right.
You, you, you are 35 years old, 35 years old.
And you started when you started your own church at 24.
When I was 24 years old.
Do you believe that you are destined to be?
Yes, I do.
Absolutely.
I believe that God has chosen me to be a prophet to the nations, to preach the word
of God, and to sound it out with no fear, with boldness.
Not like these preachers who are only interested in people's money, so they tell them what
they want to hear for money.
I don't, I don't want your money.
I want to preach the truth and you can like it or lump it.
Leave this guy.
This guy is a fake and you cannot come and entertain our faith.
We are not there to see who, we are not here for a debate.
We are here for a, for, for talking, for discussing, for dialoguing, to know what is
the way forward.
What are we saying about, about the gays, about the lesbians in the society?
And if somebody, a fake person like this, who claims to be a pastor, talks like this
and expect, expect the listener to listen to this kind of rubbish, I doubt he's Christianity.
I doubt himself.
I doubt his love.
Because Christianity is all about love.
I know, I can't take it when I hear a God-fearing person, someone who claims to be a preacher
of the word, to say that he is homesick child.
What makes him to be special than other people?
What makes him to think that he is better than other people, even all himself?
We are all sinners.
That's why he just came here.
And we have to preach the gospel of love, me and him.
Well, you know what?
God showed what he thought about homosexuals when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
And in the New Testament, he refers back to that.
And he says, even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner,
giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh or queer flesh,
are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
So if you want an example of what God thinks about homosexual,
it's fire and brimstone being rained on Sodom and Gomorrah.
I don't know what Bible this guy's reading, but open the Bible to Genesis 19 and it's
crystal clear.
I guess we have to know the Bible and the context of the Bible.
Why was the Bible written in that way?
The quote that he's doing is out of context.
But Reverend, have you ever, I was asking him the same thing.
Have you ever, maybe at one point in your life, said to yourself,
maybe I'm doing things that are wrong.
Maybe this is not what God is saying I should do.
Maybe the, what I'm preaching is, is, is wrong.
My brother, I work for Theological Studies, okay?
Don't take me like any other person you see around.
My lectures in the university will tell you that I was one of the best students
in my time.
I did my, I did my diploma in Pastoral Theology.
I've got my degree in Theology.
I've got master's in Theology.
I've studied Theology.
That doesn't make you right.
And listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, I always want people to come and correct
me.
Those who understand this scripture better than myself.
Right.
But, Pastor Anderson, what do you say to that?
Well, I think that the listeners at home are smart enough to figure out who's fake
and who's not.
Let them decide.
And this guy can brag about all his theological degrees and brag about all these accolades.
You know what I got?
I got the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
And the Bible says in Leviticus, 2013, that if a man-
No, listen, don't think any spirit is the spirit from God.
What makes you that the spirit that tells you that is the spirit of God?
You should know-
Because the spirit that tells-
Maybe I'm following the spirit of the-
Well, because the spirit that tells me that agrees with the Bible in Leviticus, 2013, when
it says that if a man lie with mankind as he lies with a woman, both of them have
committed an abomination.
They shall surely be put to death.
Their blood shall be upon them.
If the Bible agrees with my spirit, then I got the Holy Spirit.
You have an unclean spirit.
Right.
That spirit is yours, my brother.
That's why you are saying you are against people.
Well, you know what?
I love people too.
I love children, which is why I hate pedophiles.
And you can't love the flowers without hating the weeds.
There's a lot happening in the studio this morning.
I see immigration officials just outside the studio.
We are trying to find out what they are doing here because I know I don't have an
interview with them.
I don't know whether they are here for you, Pastor Anderson.
Talking about immigration, we understand the way you had to get to Botswana is through
Uganda, is that it?
Ethiopia.
Through Ethiopia.
You can't go through the UK?
No, I cannot go through the UK, cannot go through Johannesburg or Cape Town.
Because of your sentiments?
Well, because I've been banned from South Africa and the United Kingdom because they
are afraid of what I have to say.
They are afraid of the truth.
So they want to silence me because they know that the words that I'm preaching from
the Bible have power and they are scared of the truth.
Alright.
I'm going to go to the news bulletin.
We are going to continue this discussion on the other side because I haven't been able
to take your calls.
I can see.
But like I was saying, immigration officials, for the first time ever, they are here and
I believe that they want to have a word with Pastor Anderson and we'll try to find
out what the whole issue is about.
So what exactly did Pastor Anderson tell you?
Well, it looks like he's not going to be able to fly out today, but they got him
a new fight tomorrow to South Africa.
Oh, that's good.
This sucks, man.
The whole reason he wanted to leave today is because the Holnose were threatening to
kidnap, rape and kill him.
Stupid.
So, hopefully, he didn't say he was banned, right, from South Africa?
No, no, no.
He plans to meet you for the Soba Nitty Van, but who knows when he's going to get there
now because he has to take a longer route to get there.
Alright.
Well, as long as he makes it to Botswana, I mean, because that's the main reason we're
going over there.
It's for Garrett's wedding and for Faith Award Botswana.
I think it's right over here, United Terminal 2.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, he said pick him up at United.
There should be a beer.
Here, let me call him to see if he can get a hold of him.
So I was less than an hour from getting on my flight and they tell me that I'm banned
from even connecting flights by the UK.
England will not even let me in their airport, so I have to fly out tomorrow morning
through Germany and hopefully, just hopefully Germany doesn't ban me, but they called security
and so far, they said they can't promise me, but that so far Germany looks good, so
I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning.
I'm banned from the home of my ancestors, right?
There's a reason that we fought for our independence from England, right?
Right now, we're pretty happy to be independent from them if they're banning this kind of
preaching, right?
And it's still possible, depending on what happens Tuesday, that I could be banned from
South Africa.
We don't know.
I mean, I've already been banned from one country.
It's just my words that are so dangerous, right?
I mean, all of this is about speech.
Just because I've said things, just because I've spoken the word of God, I've preached
what the Bible clearly says.
It's not even like an interpretation or an extrapolation.
The Bible says that if a man lie with another man, he shall surely be put to death.
Their blood shall be upon them.
I preach that.
I'm banned from one of the largest nations in the world, the United Kingdom.
The top story at the half hour, the Department of Home Affairs has barred anti-gay American
pastor Stephen Anderson from visiting South Africa.
Stephen Anderson and members and or associates of his church are prohibited from entering
the Republic of South Africa.
I have informed the Director General that I have identified Stephen Anderson and members
and or associates of his church as undesirable persons.
Furthermore, I have withdrawn their visa exemption status enjoyed by all Americans.
This is on the basis that I am certain they promote hate speech as well as advocate
social violence.
Stephen Anderson will be advised that he is a prohibited person in South Africa.
I'm really tired, man.
I've been up all night.
It took me like four hours to figure out a way to get to Botswana without going to
Johannesburg.
I'm just looking at like pages and pages of flights.
And it's just everything connects in Johannesburg or London.
So now not only have I been banned from England, I'm also banned from South Africa
itself now.
So I can't go to South Africa for the soul winning marathon.
The government has stated that they're calling every airline to cancel my flights to Johannesburg.
So I was up all night last night, calling the airline and searching online, trying
to find a way to get to Botswana without going through Johannesburg, because it's just
every flight seemed to connect through Johannesburg, but I finally got it figured out.
I'm heading for Germany and then Ethiopia and then into Botswana.
So hopefully Germany doesn't ban me.
You know, the way things are going, right?
I'm on a roll here.
They're trying to make it sound like, oh, well, we're going to stop you in Botswana
too, but it ain't happening.
I think that the person most likely to be banned is you, because our tickets were
bought on the same transaction.
But because I changed it, we're on totally different itineraries now.
Hopefully that'll separate it.
I think you're the number one most likely to get banned besides me and then Garrett
would be next.
I don't think that there's any way in Hades that they're going to ban Valerian or Theresa
Jones or Lola.
You know, how are they even going to know?
Or Shane and Rob, NAR.
How are they going to know?
People that are coming from Canada.
Yeah, NAR is not going to get banned.
If not, NAR is going to lead this event.
All right, let's try this again.
Third time's the charm.
All right, guys, I am here at the airport.
I'm all checked in, got my bags packed, got my coffee, ready to go to Africa, about
to embark on a trip of a lifetime.
I got my camera gear.
Got my laptop, got my script, so if I have any downtime, I can edit my script, but I'm
ready to go.
I can't wait.
I'm a little nervous.
Hopefully I get through, make it through all of the checkpoints, make sure hopefully
I don't get banned from entering the country, but it's looking good.
Next up, the Soviet Union.
The cats are going to come with us.
I'm banned from South Africa.
What?
You're banned from South Africa?
I don't know.
That's what I heard.
Why?
Do they give a reason?
No.
They just informed us that they will not let him in.
Hey, he's been banned from South Africa?
You're banned from South Africa?
I guess we're banned from South Africa.
We're going straight through to Botswana.
We don't know why the Soviet government is denying you.
They must have something in between.
Okay.
This is Gerett.
We're at Frankfurt, Germany.
Our plane is taking off right now.
We were banned at the gate and told that the South African government is not allowing us to get in.
We'll just have to find an alternative route.
There goes the plane.
We're just going to have to go to the ticket counter to find out what's going to happen next.
We're going to have to go some other way.
This was our flight, but it is backing out right now as we speak.
We are not going to make it on.
We have been officially banned from entering into South Africa.
It's crazy, huh?
It's a good looking plane, but we're just missing a few people.
I guess we have our own little personal escort here.
He's going to make sure we leave, all right?
I cannot believe this happened.
I can't.
You can?
No, I know.
I'm surprised NAR got away a lot of times.
Yeah, NAR, what did you do, dude?
I have no idea what I did. I didn't do anything.
How did they know me?
All right, Paul, I got it all figured out.
I've got new flights for you guys.
You're going to be going through Amsterdam and then Nairobi, Kenya.
But then Garrett is going to have to go through Istanbul and it looks like Zambia.
All right, so we're all on different flights, but that's great.
At least you got it figured out so we can get there in time for the wedding.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've been awake for 22 hours straight right now.
That's rough.
You guys have a rough couple days ahead of you.
At least I'm sleeping in the bed.
Yeah.
A chair propped up against the door right there.
Yeah.
So we finally landed.
We're here.
We're at the airport.
Everything is going great so far.
Garrett got in.
Pastor Anderson is in.
We are here in Botswana.
Just minus a couple of my bags.
A couple of my bags turned up missing.
But the ticket counter lady seemed very confident that they were going to arrive in a couple of days here.
So super, super excited about this trip.
Well, hi, you're here.
Hey.
Are you excited?
Yeah.
Hi.
Well, we made it safely.
We're finally here.
Oh, man, look who it is.
Hey, what's up?
Good.
What's up, man?
We made it.
I'm glad you're here, man.
We're alive.
I'm so much fun.
I'm a local, man.
What's up?
Good to have you here, man.
We made it.
I'm a local by now.
All right.
So tell us the story here if you got time.
The morning service?
Yeah, I'm on hold figuring out the luggage debacle.
So we show up this morning, and there's a van full of protesters, and maybe like five or six of them.
And they all said they're from Botswana, but none of them were black.
You know, so I think they're like foreign students studying at the University of Botswana is what's going on.
So they're holding up signs, Botswana doesn't want you here, blah, blah, blah.
Well, there was this old man who came into the church, and he was acting like he was just there for church.
He was acting like a normal person.
But through talking to this guy, it came out that he was one of these filthy sodomites.
He's a pervert.
He's a dirty old man.
What's that?
I'm not impossible to reach.
Are you a homosexual?
Well, I'm not heterosexual.
You're not?
What are you?
Well, I'm just not heterosexual.
Then what are you?
Are you a fag?
Well, that's what people call me.
Well, then get the hell out of here.
Hey, why?
Get this guy.
You can't be here.
Why can't I be here?
You can't.
Homosexuals aren't allowed.
Get out.
So I just grabbed the guy and just dragged him out of the church.
I mean, this is the first service.
I felt right at home.
I felt like I was back in Phoenix.
And then the TV station came and interviewed me, and he's putting on a big show to them,
going to them like, oh, I didn't even do anything.
I wasn't causing any trouble, and they just dragged me away.
And then he was saying, oh, I'm so sorry, and trying to shake my hand, and oh, I'm so
sorry.
And I'm just telling him, like, get away from me, you disgusting pervert.
You know?
Like, get out.
You're not welcome here.
He's like, oh, I'm so sorry.
He's like getting on his knees and begging me forgiveness.
Yes.
He got on his knees.
Yes, I'm here.
Yes.
I am.
I'm out of the business.
Get away.
Get out.
So we already had a lot of drama, even on the first service, day one.
And you weren't even there.
No, I was in there.
All right, everybody.
Welcome to our service.
This is a brand-new church.
Today is the very first Sunday.
We were actually supposed to be starting next Sunday, but we got here early, so we decided
to just start early.
So we're still kind of getting things together and getting organized, but this is our very
first service here in Botswana.
I've never even been to Africa before.
This is my first time.
I just got here three days ago.
And then Brother Garrett Kershway, who is going to be the main preacher here, he's
never been to Africa.
He just got here three hours ago.
So we're really excited to be here.
And this is a church with a goal to preach the gospel to everyone, to get people saved.
One of the big things that we do at our church is what we call soul winning, okay?
And soul winning is when we go out and we just talk to people.
We just open the Bible and just show them how to be saved, because the Bible tells
us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Now, I just want to mention that where I'm from in the United States of America,
you know, I've been soul winning for 18 years, every week.
18 years, I go out and I tell people about Jesus.
I knock on their doors.
I walk up and down the streets preaching the gospel.
And when we go soul winning in America, a lot of people do not want to listen.
But we keep going anyway, even though they don't want to listen.
And we will go for literally two, three, four hours where no one will listen to
the gospel sometimes.
And it takes us a few hours to get someone saved.
We have to go out for hours and hours and then we'll get someone saved.
But let me tell you, when we went out this afternoon soul winning today,
here in Botswana, people are much more open to the gospel than anything
I've ever seen.
I mean, this is the most receptive place that I've ever been.
This is the best place to go soul winning that I've ever seen.
Even the people who did not believe in Jesus, they still listen to us and they
allowed us to preach to them.
And the hardest part is just getting people to listen.
And once people listen, many of them will get saved.
And so I can understand now why the devil did so much to try to stop us
from being here because this place is white under harvest.
It's the best soul winning I've ever seen.
I've been doing this for 18 years.
So I'm very happy to be in Botswana and I'm excited to see how many people
we can get saved.
Alright, at this time we're going to take our Bibles and turn to 2 Timothy 1.
Now the part of this chapter that I really would like to focus in on
is verse number 7 of 2 Timothy 1.
The Bible reads,
For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love
and of a sound mind.
And that's what I want to preach about tonight,
is the fact that God has not given us the spirit of fear.
And we need a church in Botswana that will preach hard against sin
and stand up and tell people,
No!
And not fear man or not fear the news media
and not fear the protesters or the sodomites,
not fear the government, but to just stand up and preach the word of God.
Unfiltered.
Uncensored.
To preach the whole Bible with no fear.
That's what we need.
But let me show you this important point, okay?
The Bible says right here in verse 7,
For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power.
Right?
Powerful preaching.
Not scared, weak, timid preaching.
Powerful preaching.
Bold preaching.
Right?
But look at the next word.
But of power and of love.
Now why is that there?
Why does it mention love?
Not fear, but power and love and a sound mind.
I'll tell you why.
Because the preacher who preaches you the truth
and he's not afraid to preach the truth,
it's because he loves you.
He loves you.
Now the preacher who doesn't want to offend you,
so he sugarcoats everything and just preaches you part of it,
and he loves himself.
Actually, this is what he loves.
His wallet.
He loves his wallet.
He loves his money.
And so he wants to make sure to just get as many people
to come to church as he can
and just have a good old time and woo hoo
and have a little party.
But he's not going to preach against your sin
because he doesn't really love you.
He doesn't really care about you.
He cares about this.
But you know what?
You know what?
The devil tries to say we're hateful.
Hate group.
Oh, you're bringing hate to Botswana.
That's what they said about us on the news.
But here's the thing.
If you love the flowers, you must hate the weeds.
Think about it.
If you love the flowers, you have to hate the weeds.
If you love the children, you will hate the pedophile.
I mean, it's obvious.
And then look at the next words.
Verse number 8.
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.
Because of the fact that fear is not of God
when we're fearing man and fear.
He says because of that,
don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.
Don't be ashamed of the Gospel.
Why don't you open your mouth to your friend
and tell them how to be saved
and give them the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Don't be ashamed.
You say, well, it's embarrassing.
Don't be ashamed of the Gospel.
He said be not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.
And you know what the next thing he said?
Don't be ashamed of me.
Right?
And you say, well, why would they be ashamed of Paul?
He said, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,
nor of me, his prisoner.
Paul is in prison.
He got arrested for preaching,
and they put him in prison,
and he's chained up in prison.
But be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel
according to the power of God.
And he said, I like this guy, Onesiphorus.
You know what I like about him?
He wasn't ashamed of my chain.
He wasn't embarrassed to be associated with the Word of God,
and he wasn't embarrassed to be associated with the man of God.
And so we need to make sure that fear does not creep in.
Some people need to tonight
just get on their knees tonight
before they go to bed and just pray and say,
Lord, help me never to be scared.
Take away the fear, Lord,
and give me boldness, give me power,
because God will give us that spirit of boldness
if we ask him to do so.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much
for the Holy Spirit, Lord,
which is not a spirit of fear,
but a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind.
And Lord, we pray that you would protect us.
You promised that even through the valley of the shadow of death,
you would always be with us, Lord.
And even when we're alone, help us not to be scared
because we know that you're with us, Lord.
And Lord, I confess to you that I'm a human being
and sometimes I'm fearful and I have the wrong fear, Lord.
But Lord, I pray that you would give me boldness
and I pray that you would give every single person who's here tonight
boldness and take away the fear.
Help us to fear not.
And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
All right, we're dismissed. Thank you for being here.
Hula!
We believe that the marriage has to be blessed by the pastor.
So we thought you are going to bless the wedding in the morning.
And then after that morning session,
they will leave for photo shooting, right?
After the photo shooting, that is when the ceremony will start in the tent, right?
Then we just enjoy. It's just a simple thing.
We're just going to enjoy.
Then the food, we enjoy and all that.
But there will be a lot of people.
That I can guarantee. There will be a lot of people.
Great.
He has an appointment with the radio station tomorrow morning.
7 a.m.?
You have an appointment.
The radio station guy.
Yeah, I have to be on the radio at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning.
Which radio station?
Gaps.
Hey, you should say 6.
Yeah, 6 a.m.
Gaps FM.
Yeah, Gaps FM, yeah.
Well, yeah, she's getting there at 5.
So I want to get there way early, yeah.
Well, you're going to have a car later anyway.
We can just go down there.
If we can pick it up.
Yeah. Well, we will later today.
Sometime.
Okay.
Because it's important.
This is our first president.
And this is the son.
Our current president.
My mom loves the president.
Ava.
So this is your mother, right?
Yeah.
This is Garrett.
My friend, my mom.
Mela.
My brother hoping to take advantage of the
president.
He's so adorable.
How many WA is that?
About 45 minutes.
Yes, 45.
BERT Max.
What is that?
Great to be with you.
Hal, how manyucks do you know?
Okay, let me see if I can know this.
What's 50?
50ises.
I'm not sure.
Oh yeah?
How many ones?
What about the wedding is this is this a bigger wedding than most wedding.
This is the biggest wedding in Botswana.
I'm expecting thousands of people.
So how many people do you expect?
I can estimate to 1000.
What?
No.
So what's the funnest part of the wedding for a kid?
Like what are the kids like about the wedding the most?
I like when people dance.
So are you going to be dancing at the wedding?
You will see.
I want to.
I like to sing.
I like to dance.
A wedding day, a wedding day, a wedding day, a wedding day.
Thank you Jesus.
Amen.
So these are the urulations.
Normally it's not done by men like this.
It's done by the ladies.
So what do I do?
You women, you don't have a relationship.
It's normally done, you will see.
Most of the ladies will be doing that.
That's funny.
I think you can get her stuff.
You're done, you see.
Yeah.
Let's pass the dance.
Okay.
You make it here.
What's that?
So you make it here.
Yeah, I made it.
I went through Ethiopia.
I was trying to block you out.
You were trying to block me?
Yeah.
That wasn't very nice.
I was trying, you know.
I'm surprised.
I was just getting like...
So we allowed you to come in.
Yeah.
I'm surprised.
Yeah.
I was surprised because, you know, I was talking to the...
Yes.
I was talking to the friends and the minister.
No, don't allow him to come in.
Were you surprised that some people did not want you here?
No, of course not.
It doesn't surprise me at all.
Why wouldn't you be surprised?
Well, because there are always people who hate the Bible and hate the truth.
I mean, they killed Jesus, after all.
So there's always going to be evil people out there.
Yeah.
We're going to have to leave it there.
Thank you so much, guys, for coming through.
Pastor Anderson, I pray to the Almighty that before you go,
if immigration officials are not going to be whisking you out of the country anytime soon,
or we are understanding that even intelligence officials now,
intelligence agents, may be around.
If you are not being whisked out of the country anytime soon,
I hope before you come and speak to us again.
Thank you.
I'd be glad to.
Thank you.
The bottom line is there is an issue about the status in the country.
We cannot explain that now.
Okay.
But we shall require you to accompany us to immigration headquarters.
Okay.
We are not being secretly under arrest.
We are not talking about arrest.
You're requesting me to accompany you.
I'm requesting you to accompany us to the office
I'd be glad to.
Mm-hmm.
Sure.
So is there anything else that you can tell me about why this is happening?
They don't want you to talk about it until I get to the bosses?
There is an issue because we understand there are some journalists outside.
Right.
Should I talk to them?
Do we have time?
Let's try to avoid them.
Let's try to avoid them because as you know,
journalists are very interesting.
Right.
They may try to sensationalize issues that are not sensational.
Right.
Well, people want to know what the government's doing.
Yeah.
They like to monitor the government.
Yeah.
But the bottom line is we've got nothing to explain.
Yeah.
We just request you to.
Okay.
So they just want to go and make things.
Okay.
Sounds good.
Mm-hmm.
Let's do it.
Yes.
Okay.
Yes, that is.
Thank you.
Yes.
A!
You know how to get on hold, right?
You'll know how to get out of the way, right?
Shall I go to the middle?
Yeah, you can go to the middle.
Well, we didn't get the water either, so...
No, we'll get it.
We'll get it here, yeah.
Good morning, sir.
Morning.
How are you doing?
Very good.
Can I see your passport?
Yes, sir.
Just like that?
Yeah.
So is there any way that I can appeal that decision?
No, you can't.
So you guys lied to me then?
Because when you guys picked me up,
you said that I was not being deported.
You said that I was not being deported.
You said that I was not being sent out of the country.
I was told that you just wanted to explain things to me.
I was lied to when I was brought here.
That's not what I was told when I came down here.
I was told that I specifically asked,
and the media specifically asked,
if I was being sent out of the country,
and the people who picked me up said no.
Okay, if you're forcing me to leave, then I will leave.
Obviously, we are forcing you to leave.
Then I will leave.
Okay, I will leave today.
Okay, if you are making me leave, then I will leave.
Then I will leave.
So I can't get my bags in?
So I'm under arrest then?
Okay.
Oh, okay.
So I have no liberty until I leave the country.
So I have to just not talk to anyone?
Okay.
You're going to take my phone away?
Okay.
So I'll give you all my electronic devices?
Yes, sir.
What is the question?
First, where is Pastor Anderson,
and why has he been deported?
Because we've just seen a statement on BW government
saying that he has been deported.
He's been seen as an undesirable person, why?
Yes.
Why not? Why is it a secret?
Okay.
Now, how safe is he?
Where is he now as we speak?
I am speaking for my office.
I know that he is with the agencies
who are dealing with the deportation process.
I don't know where exactly he is,
but I can assure you he is safe,
and he will be proceeded to go back to his country.
Yes, because the reason why I'm asking all these questions also
is because he didn't come here alone.
He has an entourage that he came with,
and I wanted to find out whether they've also been briefed sufficiently
so that they can understand the circumstances behind his deportation.
I don't even have to check with them,
but all I know is that this gentleman has been saved.
Okay, Minister, thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
All right.
Stephen Anderson had to be deported back to the United States this afternoon.
He was early about from entering South Africa.
Botswana has not made it clear
why Anderson is a prohibited immigrant,
the pastor faced heavy backlash from the LGBTI community in Botswana.
Now, Anderson apparently arrived in the country on Thursday.
These are the exclusive pictures with ANN7,
where the pastor can be seen sitting at a radio interview
in a radio channel that is called Gabs FM.
Now, the pic also shows security officials sitting in the reception area
while the pastor speaks to the radio.
It was after this interview that he was asked to leave the country.
This guy and anybody else who belongs to that church,
should we know about them,
we will hit them with exactly the same pen
because according to 21D,
they belong to an organization and or association
that advocates racial hatred and or social violence.
What a headache. It's incredible.
Did they detain you?
No, we made it to immigration, we were asking for you guys.
They said Pastor Anderson has never been there
and they told us to leave.
Did you listen to the interview?
Yes, I listened to the interview.
Do you have the house keys?
I have the house keys.
Oh, cool.
Do you want to say something in the media?
I'm getting married in a couple of days here,
so I plan on getting married.
My plan was to live here, get a permanent residence,
then maybe they're not going to allow me to have permanent residence,
but that's my plan,
was to get married, get married in a couple of days
and take over the church that he preached in.
I don't know what the future of that is.
I plan on continuing to do that,
but we'll have to see what happens.
So I think the way forward is for you to choose up to one of your guys here
so that they proceed with the signing of the documents tomorrow.
You want to do it?
Stand in and be my best man?
Sure.
Okay.
I'd be honored by the day.
So tomorrow we have to sign that document, right?
Yeah, we have to sign the document.
So you're the best man now.
Oh yeah, that's awesome.
Thursday it's early in the morning, right?
Yeah, Thursday is early, but even tomorrow I would prefer we do it in the morning.
Yeah, we're preaching at the school tomorrow, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
Probably immediately after I preach.
Okay.
So you're preaching at the school?
Yeah, so we'll give it a shot.
I'm thinking, Garrett, there are all these noises about the...
I think my suggestion would be
why can't you just talk to the school authorities
and then you postpone and then after the reading,
things have started, then you book again.
Because this guy is... I don't trust him now.
Okay.
All right.
I don't really trust him.
Okay.
What do you think the problem is preaching at the school?
We plan, we ship so many Bibles here and stuff.
I'm saying because you are now the center of attraction, right?
You never know what can happen.
Okay, now we'll preach the gospel there tomorrow.
We're only going to be there for 20 minutes, 30 minutes.
They've only given us like 10 or 20 minutes, right?
Yes.
So we'll give them the gospel and we'll get out of there
and we'll give them what we got.
I don't think immigration is going to mess around with me
until I go and get the green card after we get married.
And so that'll be my impression is for whatever reason,
they're after Pastor Anderson and so...
They weren't after you because they could have detained you.
Yeah.
They could have detained me then.
And so how long I'll be welcome here, I don't know.
I seriously doubt they're not going to pull me out this week.
Yeah, but now that he's gone, you're the target.
Yes.
But here's the thing.
I don't think I'm going to be the target this week.
We're just going to go soul winning.
We're going to do what we were supposed to do
and whatever happens, happens.
Yeah.
Even though Pastor Anderson's been deported, you know what?
That's not going to change anything.
We came here to go soul winning and that's what we're going to do.
As a matter of fact, I'm going to keep going soul winning for the rest of the day.
This is for this month.
This mall is crazy.
You just park yourself in front of the entrance and just people flock to you.
You just give them the gospel.
Then people around them, you're watching them watching you
and then they come to you and they're like, they want to know.
They ask you questions.
They want to know.
I was talking to two guys right now and there was a guy who was standing about 10 feet away
and he was like answering the questions for them.
He's like, it's eternal.
You don't deserve it because you're a sinner.
You can't lose it.
He's going to give it to you because he loves you.
It's like the Cole's notes, the Cheen notes.
It's crazy.
We're getting this whole mall saved.
So while I was ordering the burger from the two checkout guys,
I got them saved and then Shane, who's a machine,
had this whole table over here with the wait staff restaurant
about five waitresses giving them the gospel, got three girls saved,
and promised the manager, who kept having to go back to work,
promised the manager to come back today and give her the gospel.
So that's what he's doing right now.
The Wimpy Burger man loves us here.
We've just been getting the whole place saved.
It's awesome.
But that's how it's been for a lot of these shops.
Every single shop, the Mug and Bean.
We've gotten basically every one that the Mug and Bean saved.
The Mando's Chicken, we've got their whole restaurant saved.
There's a theater upstairs.
We've got every single lowest person saved.
I mean, every shop we go to, we've been here for two or three days now,
and everywhere we go through this whole mall,
everyone waves at us and says hi because we've all got them saved.
This is the most fruitful place I've ever been in my life.
Every single person I talk to just about that I stop to ask,
they all want to hear the gospel.
Okay, so Friday at 1 p.m. we're going to wipe out this whole restaurant.
At Mug and Bean.
So we're going to save the entire restaurant this Friday at 1 at Mug and Bean.
You got an appointment with them?
Appointment.
We made an appointment with the whole staff.
Appointment for salvation.
The whole staff was like, yeah, we'll meet you there at 1 o'clock.
That's right.
It's going to be cool.
That's how we roll.
Blessed is he who is employed at the mall.
Blessed is he who is employed at the mall here in Botswana.
The Riverwalk.
They're all getting saved.
Now tomorrow morning it looks like we have a chance of preaching at a school tomorrow.
I don't even know if they know we've reserved it about six weeks ago.
But we haven't followed up and we don't know what they heard on the news and so forth.
So the door might be slammed on us.
But if so, we're going to go soloing up in Nail's home village, which is Molopolo Lake.
It's really awesome.
It's the largest village in the country.
It's 65,000 people.
So our expectation was there were going to be more receptive than Haberoni.
So if you can't have more.
So it's just everyone we talk to will get saved.
Because it's, have a mall then.
Nail and I have to do some administrative stuff for our marriage.
So we're going to cut out for an hour or two.
Based on our rides, you know, we'll start knocking doors together.
And you guys can make up whatever schedule you want to come back home based on your rides.
So we're getting ready to go preach to the school here.
We've got an assembly in the yard with all the whole school.
So what we're going to do is we've got like a ton of these USB CDs.
We've got a pallet of Bibles that we're going to drop off.
And we're just going to preach the gospel to the whole school.
And then there's a group of us here.
So what we're going to do is we're going to break into like individuals.
And we're just going to go and talk to, you know, as many kids as we can before they kick us out of here.
Music
Man that was incredible.
Like man, we got to preach the gospel to the whole school.
You know, we were handing out Bibles and DVDs.
We were like throwing them into the crowd.
Some of the kids in the back weren't getting any.
So I took a stack and I attempted to go to the back with them to give it to them.
And some kids spotted me and they just like swore me.
And they just grabbed them and I just like threw them and ran.
It's incredible to see how hungry they were for this stuff.
At one point there was a couple of, you know, we gave one kid a Bible.
And the rest of the kids jumped on top of them.
And they were just like biting each other to get the Bible.
And the teacher was trying to separate them.
It was insane.
So after we did all that, and this is just the assembly.
After we did that, we went over, we broke into individuals.
And we went to the teachers and students.
And I don't even know how many salvation we got because we haven't had a chance to count them yet.
But it's just amazing.
It was so receptive to school.
So Garrett and Neo just took the rental car.
They're headed to the marriage license to get it signed off there.
But while they're doing that, we're going to go soul winning here.
And hopefully get this whole place saved.
So it's a great day.
Super excited about the rest of the week.
And so, yeah, let's get to it.
What just happened, man?
Okay, so I just got a phone call from Rob.
He said they went to the license bureau to, I guess, file the license for Garrett.
And the police showed up and picked him up.
And so while I was talking to him, I asked him, where are you?
He goes, we're here.
And then somebody yelled at him.
And then he hung up the phone.
So I don't know where they are right now.
Do you want to try calling them back?
Yeah, we'll try calling them back right now.
Nothing, huh?
Dude, this is intense, man.
Yeah.
So this wedding is not happening, man.
Hello?
Hey, yo.
What's going on?
I'm with the police station.
Okay.
So what's happening?
It doesn't look good.
It doesn't look good?
Yeah.
Do you know where the police station is?
Yeah, we're going there right now.
We're going to be there in ten minutes.
Okay, bye.
Bye.
She doesn't look too happy.
Oh, man, it's not.
The wedding's off.
So if Garrett went to go get his marriage license
and the police were already there waiting for him to get him,
that can only mean one thing,
that basically the president has, like, made the decree
and we're just all going to get rammed up.
Like, whether it's at the church tonight
or the police station there,
I think we're all going to get deported.
I mean, we're on the front page today
of literally, like, seven newspapers.
Every one.
Every newspaper.
This is one of them, but there's even better ones
where it's a full front page.
It's in my bag.
Yeah, right here.
Yeah, exactly.
Where is it?
Where's the car?
Where's the front?
Where's my car?
Where do you drive in?
Right here?
Is that the car there?
That's the car.
Well, I'm not sure.
So where do you get the license from,
the marriage license?
Yeah, it's on the left side.
Oh, so it's the same complex?
Yeah, but the same complex.
Yeah, but this side.
Okay.
So it's got to be here.
So do you want to go in and try and get the keys?
And then, give me the number.
Hey, if they ask you, like, who are you,
just say, I'm a taxi driver and I need their keys.
All right, we're sending him in.
Not answering?
Neither of them.
What happened?
I couldn't find them inside there.
What'd they say?
I asked a police guy.
He sort of, he's telling me that he doesn't know anything.
Oh yeah, he doesn't know anything?
Is there another police station?
No, I want to know this one.
You want to know this one?
You're going to ask for Neo and say,
hey, I need the keys.
Yeah, you're a taxi driver, you need the keys.
And then you're going to ask where the car is at.
Yeah, you go with him.
I go here, I can go to him.
And then ask for the keys,
and grab my black bag.
This is how it's going to happen.
They're going to drive by and they're going to see us.
And then Kuma's going to drive by.
All right, they're on a stealth mission.
We're too scared.
Well, it's not a stealth mission
if Ryan's going with them.
I don't know why we sent Ryan in there.
Yeah.
It's fine.
We're like the ghosts in the back of everyone.
We're willing to sacrifice Ryan for this bag.
What do you mean?
Ryan gets out of these things.
We get sacrificed.
What's that?
They're gone.
They're gone?
Where did they take them?
We don't know.
They are with the immigration.
Like, you know what?
Where would immigration be?
Like, where would they take them?
Would they take them to the office down there?
Or here?
Or where?
They were here, and I don't know where they went.
But they did get arrested, though, right?
Maybe they are arrested.
No, they don't know.
No, just wait and check the station.
Come and ask him where.
Is that his office right there?
Yeah, his office.
Okay.
They knew who we were talking about, but he said he doesn't know where they are,
and then I said, they're still here, correct?
And he goes, hmm, yeah, they're still here.
They're over there.
Talk to the commissioner.
So I have no idea.
So we're going to go talk to the commissioner.
I don't know if they're here or not.
That's them.
That's how they took Pastor Anderson out, just like that.
The siren and everything?
The siren.
Do you want to call him?
No.
I'll get you stuff.
What do you mean?
Just saying like that.
Dude, this is terrible.
This is awesome.
We'll come back for you.
Yeah, we've just, we've got to get his cameras, like,
before we get deported, we've got to figure out where his cameras are.
What are the cameras for you?
He's up here on your left.
Yeah, I'm good.
So I went and talked to Chief of Police, or whoever,
and, correct me if I'm wrong,
but the Volkswagen that we're looking for is silver, correct?
Yeah.
He said silver Volkswagen, gone.
And I'm like, gone where?
And they said they either drove it back,
took that drone, or towed it back.
What?
So he said they have it.
Like, the cops have it.
What are you talking about?
That's my understanding.
It's broken English, but that's my understanding.
I hope he's wrong.
Hello?
Hello, Chief?
Yes.
Her phone number?
What's going on?
I don't, I don't have it, honestly.
We're headed back to Habaron.
Do you know where they're at?
Yeah, oh, you don't know about Neil?
Yeah, I don't, I don't know where Lola is.
Okay.
All right, do you have no new news for us?
Good night.
So they want Lola?
Hello?
Hey, Pastor.
Hey, what's up, man?
What's going on?
So we got a call from Neo's brother that they're looking for Lola.
He didn't say where he was at, but I heard sirens in the background,
so I'm assuming he's at the police station,
and he was trying to get Lola's number.
Why are they asking Lola?
Well, it sounds like they're trying to ban everyone
who was banned from South Africa now or something.
They just, they just do whatever they're told.
Yeah.
That's obviously what's going on.
Basically, that means that NAR is in danger, and you.
I think priority number one is that you try to get the car back.
Yeah.
So go to the immigration office.
So go to immigration?
That's important, right?
Because the thing about Garrett is that it's out of your hands, Paul.
It's not your, you can't control it.
Yeah.
It's out of your hands now.
So I would just focus on getting the car back
so you can, you know, get your gear and get your stuff and whatever,
because this other thing is just, it's either going to happen or it's not.
Yep.
All right, cool, man.
All right, well, that's all I got.
We're going to go down and try to see what we can find out at immigration.
Just look.
For me, the only catastrophe is that there's this huge wedding planned,
and it's just all falling apart.
Like, the wedding is the catastrophe.
Yeah.
And I don't regret it because it's probably going to make an awesome movie,
and it's opening people's eyes and waking people up to what's going on in the world.
And, you know, hopefully, it's probably going to inspire people to go to Botswana with the gospel.
All right, very good.
There's a lot of people praying, and whatever happens is going to happen.
Hey, so you guys, I just need one of you guys to bring my stuff home, obviously.
Yeah, we will.
We'll get all your stuff back, and we'll, yeah, don't worry about that.
The service tonight really should go forward.
Get somebody to preach, just because there might be a whole bunch of people to show up from all the controversy.
You know what I mean?
All right, you got it.
I apologize to people to explain what happens, but have some service.
All right, bye.
Yes, where are you?
Where are you?
I'm being asked about everything, immigration.
Do you have our car?
Do you have the rental car?
What?
The rental car.
Rental car?
Yes.
How are you doing at the police?
What?
The government is asking.
We're looking for the rental car.
Sir?
We are looking for the rental car.
We're looking for the rental car?
Yes.
We're looking for it from the airport or the police?
The car that was rented, we're looking for it.
That you drove.
The one that you drove.
Oh, yes.
I don't know why.
Hello?
We're looking for the rental car.
Car?
Okay.
How many are you there?
Where is the car?
We're trying to find out.
Where are you?
Okay.
Okay, how many are you?
Where is the car?
Where?
There's two of us.
Two of us.
Okay, two of you.
Okay.
Where are you at?
Where's the car?
We just want to know where the car is.
Okay, meet me.
Okay, okay.
Okay, which place should I go?
I have no idea.
I know who it is.
Okay, that's the way it is.
Okay.
Let's go.
We're being set up.
We got to go.
Hey, that guy said this is the headquarters.
If you want to go anywhere, you have to go to the actual station.
Yeah, let's go.
Dude, something just transpired.
Neo is setting us up, man.
What do you mean, Neo?
Let's go.
Drive, drive, drive, drive.
Okay.
Garret's fiance is still at the government building, and they are trying to find out where we are.
So they had her call trying to track us down where we are, and they're asking, who are you with?
How many are you?
Where are you?
And any question we ask her, she won't respond to.
And you can hear the government person in the background feeding her answers and responses.
So we don't know where the car is.
She won't answer where the car is.
She won't answer where she is.
She's crying, too.
She was crying.
Yeah, but they told us to wait there.
They want to find us.
They're trying to find us now.
There's only a couple places that the car could be.
Now let's think about timeframe.
It's 4 o'clock.
Okay.
We got to do a sermon.
So let me go.
Oh, crap.
They're going to find us at the church, right?
So do we keep going?
Does that have a church somewhere in there?
It doesn't have to be at the church.
Everyone's going to show up to our church.
I got to go back to the church.
Should I call Pastor and give him the little download?
Yeah, let's give him the download.
The game plan right now is get all of this stuff together and bring it back with us.
And we're all going to meet up at church at 6.
Because what we're thinking is they're probably going to be at church waiting for us.
And we're thinking, hey, if we're all going to get deported today,
let's try to get some cool service of us trying to have a church service in Solon.
And the government drags us out of there.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Okay.
And then if you can make it through church tonight,
then the people who are not under suspicion to just stay far away
and just get as many souls as they can and not screw up their return flight.
Yes.
Well, what about the car?
Has the car been located?
No.
That's what we were trying to find out.
She wouldn't give any information.
Okay.
You guys haven't seen it in any parking lot recently?
No.
And we don't have the keys to get in there anyway, so.
Yeah, because Garrett has the keys.
Right.
Wow.
All right, I've got to let you know it, so keep your phone to the beat.
All right.
Thanks, pastor.
All right.
Thanks.
Bye.
Hello?
Hey, dude.
Hey, what's up?
Nothing, dude.
The bad news.
The car and Garrett are being deported.
You're being deported?
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay, so anyways, I've got to catch a flight.
I booked a flight to get out of here at like 745.
I've got to get my stuff.
Okay.
All right, so what I need to do is I don't have the keys to Ami's place.
I need somebody to go there and open the door because I've got to get my stuff.
I've got to leave.
I've got to hustle.
I don't know any of these people's phone numbers.
I don't have any of their phone numbers.
No, no.
Everybody's split up, man.
Hey, do you know what happened to the rental car?
How am I going to get that?
I don't think...
Okay.
So what do we do here?
So, Rob, is there anything funny happening, man?
Call me back before you leave.
I'll call you right back.
All right, all right, bye.
See, he didn't seem like he was being...
Yeah, but we...
I got to call...
No, dude, he said there's something funny going on.
He did.
Yeah.
I'm going to call Seth because Seth was trying to get to Ami's house.
Seth's bags are gone unless he wants to get deported.
Hey, listen, abort the mission as far as the church serves.
No church service.
Because it sounds like they're trying to deport everyone.
Yeah.
Which is a really bad situation if that happens.
Okay.
Okay, so this is my only issue, right?
I have no money, no passport, no ID, no car.
Okay, no car, no clothes.
I had my bags for less than 24 hours.
So, all right, we'll pass that information on.
I got to go back to that church building though.
All my stuff is there.
Just take it out there.
Okay, so Neo is untrustworthy.
Neo is untrustworthy and her brother is totally untrustworthy.
Moses was acting super weird.
They've been tainted, yeah.
They've both been tainted, so...
Got it.
Okay.
All right, bye.
Bye.
You have my car?
Great.
Okay, can you drop it off at the house?
I have no idea where I'm at right now.
I, look, this is why I don't want to come.
Because I don't want to get deported.
I don't, I can't take a chance to get deported.
I'm going to send someone over there to grab the keys from you, okay?
Here, I got it.
I can't, I can't hear you.
I'm having a hard time understanding you.
If I come there, you guys have like these, you're with NAR and he's being deported.
That means an agent is with him.
Why would I come there?
You know what I'm saying?
It sounds like you're being a little deceptive.
That's why.
Hey Garrett, I'm not going to get deported if I go there, right?
No one's hiding out for me?
Every time you stay deported, everyone looks at you.
Not that you don't.
They're going one day from here.
They're escorting NAR and I to the airport.
Okay, just leave the keys for me.
And make sure the car's locked, but just leave them in the door, okay?
I'll leave the keys.
Let's meet the threat leader.
We're going to have about the other 15 minutes.
Okay, this isn't a setup, right Garrett?
Not that I know of.
Not that you know of?
That sounds weird.
Okay, all right.
Are you sure that's, that sounds weird, Garrett?
Just be careful.
There's no cars around here.
Okay.
If there's any cars, just get out of here.
Okay, you got it.
All right.
Thanks, Garrett.
All right, thank you, Garrett.
Bye.
Yeah, don't, yeah, don't send Lola to the airport.
Nobody go to the airport.
Okay, take care.
Yeah, so are we.
We'll call you later tonight.
Okay, well, we got to get through the next, Sam, we got to get through the next couple of hours.
We'll call you in a couple of hours.
All right, sure.
Yeah, okay.
All right, thanks.
All right, bye.
All right, so, Ryan and I are headed to go get our rental car.
It has all my camera bags and stuff in the trunk, so hopefully it's there.
Hopefully we can get everything we need and continue on with this trip.
But I'm a little nervous because Neo sounded really sketchy.
Earlier, so did Moses, and that's who I'm kind of going to get it from.
So, supposedly, Garrett had them leave the keys to the rental car underneath the doormat.
So, hopefully it's there.
We can get the car, get all our stuff, and get out of there.
And, uh, so that's what we're doing.
Beep beep.
Well, I'm not sure why Garrett didn't leave the keys of the car where he said he was
going to leave the keys, but luckily the windows rolled down enough that we were able
to break in. So we have my camera bags, we have the footage, now all we have to do is
figure out how to get the rest of the luggage out of the house.
So this right now is kind of our last trip to Faithful Word Botswana. I guess the church
is not happening. We're going to go back, grab all the hymnals, grab all the media,
grab everything that's in the building that we can get. We're going to leave all the
chairs, but this is it. Faithful Word Botswana is not happening. It's sad, but I just want to
get myself and get out of here. So here it is. We just cleaned out everything out of the
church building and everything except for these chairs, and we're getting out of here, man.
We're just leaving everything else, some trash there. Looks good, man. Looks good?
Looks good.
All right, so say goodbye to this baby. This is the last time we'll see it, probably.
I don't know how to kill the lights, but whatever. I just think it's crazy how the
president and the government can influence so much when the people here are so thankful
and grateful. Like Pastor Anderson is getting thanked on the airplane as he's being deported.
Everyone we talk to agrees with us, but yet it's just the government that wants us out.
It's pretty crazy. The more people they deport, the more people are interested in what we're
doing, and it seems like the guys that came here are not even discouraged. Everyone's still
soul winning. Yeah, plans have changed, but the more it changes, it seems like the better
everything is. The more publicity, the more we're in the paper. That's actually what we want.
They actually help us get the word out. It sounds like, by the way of it, that we're
actually not fully kicked out of the country. It sounds like Garrett might be able to come
back, so who knows? But at the end of the day, more people are getting saved and more
people are hearing about Faithful Word Baptist Church.
We need to record what just happened because that was just too intense, man.
So Paul and I, we had our driver go back to Brother Garrett's house to get the bags,
Pastor Anderson's laptop, his equipment, Brother Garrett's stuff, and Lola's passport,
the most important. As soon as we pull up, we see the army probably a block or two away.
They didn't look like they were coming our way. They're already dismounted. That's why
we thought we were safe for a second because they looked like they were going away, but the
army was there when we pulled up. It looked like they were doing something else,
like they weren't even in our direction. Yeah, I mean, we should have known better.
As soon as we saw all those military vehicles in that area, we should have aborted the mission.
We parked. Paul and I got out. We went in the house real quick, but what was really weird
was his car was already gone. Yeah. We had no idea where his car went.
Dude, this is crazy. The military is literally outside the house right now.
We're like wanted criminals here for doing nothing.
Wait, what's going on? We need a different driver to come pick us up.
Are you guys like Garrett's house? Yeah, dude, the army just literally pulled
up and are searching Kumo's car right now. Kumo, that's your driver, right?
There's like an army patrol truck with like a ton of guys.
They look like soldiers, not cops. Yeah, they're soldiers.
Here they come, dude. We'll close it. Close the window, dude.
Are they coming to us?
They're stopping and talking to every, so there's a couple of locals that are on the
streets walking around. They're talking to them right now. They're seeing if we came in.
Because we had to pick up Paul's bags.
And Pastor Anderson's... Shut the door. Shut the window.
So Pastor Anderson's, all his stuff was here. So we came to pick it up along with Paul's.
But we shut down. Crap. They're searching the whole car. Do we have anything in there?
My bag is in there. No, it's not. What bag?
Ryan, I'm telling you, man, I wish I would have started recording this earlier,
but the army was literally stopping and talking to everyone that walked by this house.
Moses completely screwed us. All right, they're driving away.
Get out of that window. They're going the opposite direction.
Nope, they're coming our way. Tell us what's going on right now, man.
All right, so we went back to Garrett's house to pick up Lola's passport, Paul's,
Garrett, Pastor Anderson's bags. And as soon as we got in here, our driver parked on like
two blocks down. So he went to get caught and the army rolled up searching them. Now they're
doing patrols throughout this street. So we're stuck in this house right now.
And this is intense, man. I think they're going to round us all up.
Kumok just pulled up.
He's not going. He's not going. Go, dude. Get out of here.
He's giving us a wave. We told him if anything happens, leave.
I mean, do you think it's a good idea to go?
All right, we're laying in the backseat of the car. We ran out of there. Oh, man.
We need to get out of here. We need to just get out of here.
I can't believe we got out of there. The army's right there.
Really. There's an army truck right in front of us. Just
we're busted. No, no. Get down, get down. But the army's in front of us.
Slow down and get away from this truck. Turn a different way. Turn a different way.
Turn on the next road, man.
Why is he trying to set us up, man? Turn on the next road. You need to get down, man.
You need to get down. Sit down. Get down, man. Seriously. You
let me keep. Yeah, there we go. We're done. We're good. I need your phone.
Oh, sorry.
Hey, Ryan, this is Paul, man. You guys cool? Yeah, I think we're good for now. But we
got to get out of here, dude. It's too hot down here. There's like 30 military
and immigration officials downstairs in the lobby. They're in your hotel? We just went
down to go to breakfast and we stopped to tie Isaiah's shoe. And there's like 30 military
and immigration officials downstairs. We almost walked right into it. I don't know what's going
on. I don't know why they're here, but we got to get out of here. It's too hot in this area.
So who knew you were staying at that hotel?
Nail and Garrett are the only ones. We were just talking to Nail about it last night. She
was like, oh yeah, I know the hotel well. We're going there on our honeymoon.
And you know, I don't know anyone else who knows where we're at right now.
Wow. Well, just, I guess just help Sam plan the safari that we were talking about. And
we'll just take that the next couple of days to lay low. Yeah, I think that's probably
a good idea. Uh, I got to go though. I'll give you guys a call back. I'm out of air time.
All right, brother. We'll talk soon. All right. Bye. Bye.
What did they say to you?
Yeah. Why did they say that?
Wow. Did they sound like they were searching for somebody?
You opened the trunk?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.
Dude, this is intense, man.
He's the brother of Nail.
Really? Wow.
It was crazy. This is, this is probably the people I used to track and we used to kill
them. This is probably how they felt. Oh yeah. This is how they felt like, but their
lives are at risk. Our lives aren't at risk. Sleeping in a different place every night on
the run. Wondering like when the drone's gonna come and like bomb them. Switching sim cards,
phones. Logan, how crazy is this? It's pretty crazy. Yeah. Like that's what I was asking
when I killed, like how many, like, what do you think we get? Uh, like what's the,
what's the exchange rate in heaven for getting arrested for the cause of Christ?
Like, is that like a diamond in your crown as a movie? Like, what do you get for that?
I don't know. Are you glad you came on the show? Dude, this is like the most intense
day of events of my life. It's marriage, birth of my child, going to Botswana.
So, um, so three of the, the waiters came outside and they were standing up a bit away
and looking at Paul. And I thought they were looking at Paul because he had a big
glob of sauce on his cheek. And so I was like, oh, he's got stuff on his face.
And then they walked over and presented us a newspaper with Paul's face right on it and said,
is this you? And we said, what, all Americans look the same? See, he's not wearing the hat.
Oh man. We've been in the hotel the whole time, trying to stay low.
And the minute we decide we stay, let's just go get some lunch in the hotel lobby.
Now we're on the newspaper. We got to get out of here.
This is getting crazy, man. We need those. We need to disguise or something.
I'm good, man. I'm ready. Looking fresh. So let's get out of here before they come
bust down this door, huh? This is our escape. So we're moving to the next location. We've
abandoned this hotel and moved on to the next hotel. Going to the safe house.
This is the perfect hideout. What's up guys.
We finally reunite. And we're all still here.
Did you disguise? Dude, we went to.
Where have you been all my life, man? We all reunite.
What's up, man? Good to see you.
What's up, man? Made it.
Don't put it on camera. You're already banned from every country.
No, I'm not going to talk about me on camera. I'm sorry.
Is it bad? What did she say? Straight away she said, where are you?
Yeah. She says, first thing she asks, where are we? Where are we? Next thing,
you know, and she asks twice. She says, where are you?
And so then the story is, she's like, oh, I lost my keys. You know, you have spare keys.
You need to give them to me. Now, she lives with a guy who works next to the house.
So he starts telling her, like, go talk to him, get the thing. And she's like,
no, I need your keys. You need to come give me the keys. You know, where are you?
And we told her a lie and then just,
So I emailed Garrett and then about seven hours later, he emailed me back.
He's talking about his fiance says,
She says her phone is tapped. I don't think her Skype is tapped. I'll tell her to talk to Moses
about returning the car. She's fine. She knows this is nothing compared to Rahab the harlot.
And I have of course asked Garrett how he's doing. He says, I'm fine. I heard your voice
yesterday at the immigration office. Thanks for trying to make contact. So when I was running
around the building and looking for him, I was right next to him. No way. Oh, that's what
he's talking about. So yeah, when I was going through all the floors, they actually heard my
voice looking for him. He sent the second email says, Neil says she doesn't know who
has the keys and she doesn't trust her brother right now. And please, his phone is tapped as well.
That's it. That's the crazy man. That's a crazy. I'm glad he contacted us. So we know
is just okay. Her phone's compromised. She doesn't want to talk to me. That makes more sense.
Hello? Hey, what's up? Who is this? It's Neil. Did you guys take the car? No.
Yeah, those are not looking good. Why? So I think the state took the car. Okay.
We want to investigate you guys. For what? I don't know.
Just like if the car's not there because they want to see you guys. Okay.
You know what I'm thinking? This is just my opinion why I think, okay? What I'm thinking
because it's not looking that good, I think because we got only one Sunday, right? Yeah.
So what I'm thinking is that you guys show yourself, right? To them. And then I think,
the way I'm thinking, I don't think they're going to do what they did with Garrett and
others if they're thinking that you're running away from something. Oh, man. I think
they may just want to investigate you guys. Okay. And then maybe it could take up to Sunday.
Okay. We got to go. Thank you. But hey, we'll call you back up to five days. Whoa, dude.
So they have my rental car. They're like holding a hostage.
She said the phone's tapped. So they knew about the plan and the keys and where to put
it and all that. So they went there, grabbed the car. So you have to go to get the car,
you know, before you leave to get your stuff. To where? To the government.
So this is how every day has gone so far. We wake up thinking, oh man, this is a great day.
We have a great breakfast. We plan a good day. And then it just like,
all goes downhill. As soon as we start. Yeah. As soon as we start.
I'm just going to head over to the Joburg. I think my flight leaves Monday, but I'm going
to leave a couple of days early. I'm like the last Canadian here. So I talked to Rob
and he said to just come over. We can go soul winning and go to church over there.
And like I said, I'll just leave Monday, go back to Toronto. I've got the laptop in here.
It's got the footage for the movie. So I'm going to try and get it out ahead of time.
That way, if there's any problems, you guys will know before you head to the airport on Monday.
And yeah, that's it. I'm heading out. All right, guys. All right. Here we go. Be safe,
man. All right. We'll see you hopefully. Yeah. If we get there. Yeah. Give me a call.
If anything happens or give, who can we call? I don't know. We'll figure it out.
All right. All right, guys. See you, man. All right. Take care. Bye.
So now what we're trying to decide is how are we going to play this thing with the car
and the stuff? Because Paul can't leave. Whenever he decides to leave this country,
his passport's going to flag and they're going to detain him, right? So the problem is,
oh, for sure. Because everything's electronic. Our only concern is, and there's probably nothing
we can do about it, is that they're going to want to take him back to the main office
in Habaroni and question him there. And then because the government office isn't open,
you know, they're going to make them wait until Monday, is the kind of what we
were thinking may happen. So we're kind of not too sure the best play for Paul.
I mean, Paul should give a backup hard drive and the footage.
We've already done that. We have multiple backups going out.
It's with someone that's already gone.
Yeah, we have multiple backups going out. Yeah, we're good on that.
Okay, good. When you go to the airport, Paul, you just need to go by yourself.
Yeah. Yeah.
Hamburgers. All right. Anyways, we'll talk later, Pastor.
Yeah. All right. See you later, man.
All right. Bye.
All right.
Thank you.
All right.
It's too early to be on camera, Paul. Okay.
I can't do that. You look great.
No. Oh, you're next.
So I just woke up after a great night's sleep. And of course, it's starting all over again.
Pastor wrote me an email saying, called me ASAP. I got an email from Shane stating that
he got detained at the airport. I mean, it's not good. And so here, I'm going to call
Pastor and see what's going on with everything.
No, I never got it.
What's up? What'd they say about what's in our bags?
There's a book on how to escape from prison and a book on my secret terrorist or something.
Secret terrorist. Good night.
So it's two books.
Yeah. Read the email.
I thought they're going to place.
In fact, there was an ax knife and a poison. Well, in Paul's bag, there were books called
how to escape from prison and secret terrorists or something like that. So it looks
like now they say that the guys had an agenda coming here. I'm afraid that this email may be
followed. Please pray for them. I called Shane to try to explain to him, ask him to go and
turn themselves in so that if they get investigated, he would still make their flights on
Sunday. It looks like he did not like what I was saying. He may not trust what I say at this point
and rightly so please advise them in a very good way because honestly, at this point, I'm so
worried about them. I wonder what our state will do because now they want to say that the
guys are not innocent. Have a good day. I wish there was a way of at least calling you,
but all the phones I use are followed. Please pray for them because my faith is
wavering. I'm so worried our country is not a good country.
So what would you do if you're in my position?
Well, let me tell you my story first. So basically, I get to the airport and I get to
the immigration counter. The lady wants to swipe my passport and when she swiped my passport,
she just stopped and I see her eyes open and I'm like, oh boy, here we go.
So then she like, she kind of looks behind her, she looks around and then she's like,
just wait a second, sir. I said, am I under arrest? And they're like, no. So they took me
to this immigration room. I waited there about an hour and a half. They got my luggage
off the plane, all that stuff. And then the government showed up and they were first,
they were nice. And then they started just going into like, where's Paul Whitberger?
Where's, where's the group? And then just asking more and more questions.
But then they started searching my bags and they went through all my bags, all everything,
like top to bottom. And, and then they found my laptop and they're like, what's in the laptop?
And I'm like, nothing. And they're like, we're going to search the whole laptop. I'm like,
okay. And you know, I started getting nervous because obviously, you know,
we have the footage for the movie in there. And then they, they, they just,
they grilled me for about another hour and a half, two hours. I don't even know just
where's Paul Whitberger. Where's Paul Whitberger. And then at some point they were, they said,
listen, if you don't tell us where he is, we have ways to get information out of you.
And they said, we can take you somewhere cause you're in Africa. We can take you somewhere
and we can just do things and get the information out of you. If you don't tell us,
cause you're hiding something. And I said, no, I'm not. They said, well, we can take you.
I'm like, wow, I don't want to go. Kind of deal. And they're like, listen, you're in
Africa. You're going to sit there and take what we give you. You have no rights.
And yeah, that's basically it. So start to finish, they, they tied me up for about seven
hours. I missed my flight. I had to buy another flight and, and they're looking for you. Like,
I don't know, they just want you. So, man, this sucks. So I don't fly out till
seven tonight. So, so basically what you're saying is I should probably go to the airport
right away. Yeah, I would get too long to get him to take you to the airport like right now.
All right, brother. Yeah, dude, I have, I've, I literally had, I don't think I've ever been
this nervous in my whole life. So yeah. Yeah. It was pretty intense. I won't lie.
All right, brother. Well, I'm glad you made it through. Um, we'll talk soon. All right.
All right, man. You take care. All right, brother. We'll talk later.
All right.
Yeah.
Hello? Hey, Teresa.
You know how worried I've been. I'm alive.
Okay. I just spent 30 hours in a small, tiny jail cell covered in pee.
Leaving Botswana turned into a complete nightmare. As soon as immigration scam,
my passport, the look on the guy's face really said everything. I knew right then and there
that I wasn't going to be flying out that day. I was arrested by immigration and taken
to the airport police station where they locked me in this tiny cell for about four hours.
Then immigration turned me over to Botswana's Directorate of Intelligence Services,
otherwise known as a DIS, which is very similar, and I say that loosely, to the CIA in America.
The DIS then brought me to this unmarked facility. They took me into this really fancy
boardroom where they already had all my gear laid out. They had all my camera bags,
all my luggage that was confiscated a few days earlier with my rental car. They had everything
laid out on this long table. They kept asking for me to show them the footage I shot from the
Gabs FM interview. They asked me to tell them where the rest of the members of the group
were. After hours and hours of threats and intimidation, they took me to the central
police station where they made me take off all my clothes and search me again.
I was finally charged with terrorism and pressured into signing papers that I'd be incarcerated for
14 days while the investigation continued. They said I was a spy secretly recording
government officials. They said I was trying to poison their water supply and that I was looking
at a life sentence. I was denied any phone calls. In fact, I even asked one of the arresting
officers, is it okay if I called my wife? I said, you know, I'm sure my wife's worried about me.
I just wanted to let her know I'm okay and where I'll be. And the guard looked at me and
laughed and said, you're in Africa, bro. You have no rights. They then put me into this cell
with about 15 other immigrants from Zimbabwe. And that's when I started to get nervous.
I'm an extremely claustrophobic person and the tiny cell was nasty and crammed with people.
I was one of the last inmates brought in that night so I had to sleep directly on the concrete
with no blankets. And since I was clearly the outsider in that room, I was the one that had
to sleep closest to the toilets, which gave off this horrific smell. The toilets were overflowing
with piss and feces and the cement was soaked in urine. We all had to eat out of the same
stainless steel buckets. Everyone would lick their hands clean and then stick their hands
back into the buckets and eat this nasty slop. There was no dishes or utensils. We all drank
out of the same community water bottles. I mean, it was really the worst experience of my life.
After about 30 hours of being in that cell, the door opened, they called my name and they
told me that they were going to allow me to leave the country and that I was being deported.
They took us to the room and told me like, no, show us where those people are. I'm like,
no, we don't know where those people are. And then they told us they're going to take us to
jail. So at that point we're panicking. And then my brother told them, okay, guys, give me one day.
I know where these guys are. These guys are staying in my place. And the men said, okay,
show us where the guys are. And then it's like, and my brother said, give me 24 hours.
So after that, that's when I made the call, shame. And then my brother wanted to know
where you guys were. But honestly, me, I was very much worried about my brother's job and
my friend's job.
Malusi Gagaba is a liar. He lied under oath. There is no way
for him now to escape that. There is absolutely nowhere to hide now.
Home affairs minister Malusi Gagaba claims that a leaked video of a sexual nature
is at the center of blackmail and extortion attempts against him. In a series of tweets,
he apologizes to his family and the public for the quote, pain and embarrassment, unquote,
that the circulation of the video will cause. Gagaba had, of course, been under fire for
many issues, ranging from lying under oath to his relationship with the Gupta family,
the creation of a sex tape, the Fireblade saga, and the list goes on. This is a guy who,
by all indications, had presidential aspirations, was seen as potentially president of the Republic
of South Africa somewhere down the line. And now he has resigned.
A dramatic arrest of one of the most once powerful men in Botswana, former intelligence
chief Issac Kossi. He was apprehended in full view of cameras in front of his family as well,
and members of the public at the Tsaretsi Kama International Airport. The charges he faces, tax evasion.
I'm going to the top of the mountain. I'm telling you, heaven.
So when the missions trip that you saw in this film ended and everybody had gone home,
actually everybody hadn't gone home. We had one guy from our church that we had stay behind
for another seven months in Botswana, and he continued the work. We also sent people to go
work with him every month. Over the next seven months, we'd fly different people out each month
to encourage him, work with him, and they went soul winning together. They preached in schools.
They handed out thousands and thousands of Bibles, flash drives, CDs, DVDs,
and they worked with some of the locals and took the local soul winning. And when all was
said and done, in that seven month period, they won an additional thousand people plus unto
Christ. So in addition to the 411 that got saved during the missions trip,
over a thousand more people got saved in the following seven months. It was just so receptive.
You know, we wanted to stay and do more, and we got a lot more done, but there's still
a lot more left to do. So we're hoping that someone will see this film and pick up where we left off.
The British critic, Stephen Anderson, of the Christian faithful word.
Jamaica has banned the Holocaust denying pastor Stephen Anderson from entering the country.
Stephen Anderson has not only been banned from the Netherlands,
but he was also banned from all the Schengen countries, which include Austria, Belgium,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland,
Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Ireland has banned
the US preacher known for anti-gay and anti-Semitic views using a 20 year old legal
power for the first time. I have signed the exclusion order under my executive powers
in the interests of public policy, said Flanagan in a statement.
Australia has joined more than 30 countries to ban American gay hate pastor Stephen Anderson.
And now New Zealand is the 34th country to ban me, which I think is great because every
time one of these countries bans me, we're all over the news in that country. And way
more people are hearing the gospel and finding out about our church and hearing the preaching
of God's word on YouTube and on our church website. And when you ban something,
it just makes it more popular. Think about when a rap song gets banned, more people want
to listen to it. When it gets a parental advisory label, more people buy the album.
And so by banning my preaching, they're actually just making it more popular.
And I'm not the only person in our church that does soul winning. We have hundreds of
people in our church who do soul winning. And there are hundreds of people all over America
and all over the world that are going to continue this work, not just in Botswana,
but in all these other countries as well. The people that do know their God,
the Bible says in the last days, we'll do great exploits. And so I'm glad that things
happened the way that they did, because if it means more people hear the word of God,
then I say, praise God for being deported.
Hmm.
Hey, everybody. Pastor Steven Anderson here from Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe,
Arizona, in the United States of America with a very important message for you. But first,
let me ask you a question. If you were to die today, do you know for sure that you would
go to heaven? Well, the Bible tells us that we can be 100% sure. In the next few moments,
I'm going to give you, God willing, that assurance. First of all, in Romans 3 23,
the Bible says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Every single person has sinned. That's pretty easy to understand. The Bible even says,
The thought of foolishness is sin. So even just thinking something stupid is a sin. The
Bible says, To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. So even
just not doing something good is a sin. So we've all sinned, and truth be told, we probably
all sin every day, because none of us is perfect. As it is written, There is none righteous,
no, not one. Well, the Bible tells us that there's a punishment for our sin. In Romans 6 23,
it says, For the wages of sin is death. But not only that, when we go to the end of the
Bible in the book of Revelation, it talks about the second death, it says, And death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found
written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire. And of course, the lake of
fire is what we would commonly refer to as hell, a place where people will be punished for their
sins for all eternity, place of fire and brimstone, horrible place of punishment.
Well, in chapter 21 of Revelation, it has a list of who's going to hell, it says, But the
fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers
and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and
brimstone, which is the second death. So it mentions some pretty bad sins there, like murderers
and sorcerers, but then it says, All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with
fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And of course, we've all lied. So again,
we've all sinned, we all come short, and we all deserve to go to hell, because even all liars,
the Bible says, are going to hell, and we've all lied before. But the good news is
that in spite of that, God loves us. And so of course, God does not want us to go to hell.
But of course, He wasn't kidding when He said that those people would have their part in the
lake of fire. So He did something to save us. The Bible says, But God commendeth His love
toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So we're all sinners,
we all deserve to go to hell. But then the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ died for us.
Now, what the Bible means when it says that He died for us, it's basically saying that He
took our punishment for us. So Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived on this earth, He lived
a perfect life, He was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin.
He did a lot of miracles. Of course, we know He walked on water, healed the sick, raised the
dead, turned the water into wine. But He also preached the Word of God. Well, when you speak
the truth, a lot of people get angry, a lot of people get offended. So there were a lot of people
who hated Jesus. So they ended up arresting Jesus, He was beaten, spat upon, whipped,
and ultimately He was nailed to the cross. And the Bible says that when He was on that cross,
He Himself bare our sins in His own body on the tree. So every sin that I've ever done,
and every sin that you've ever done, it was as if Jesus had done it. Jesus was taking the
punishment for our sins. Well, when He died on the cross, they took His body and they buried it
in the tomb. His soul went down to hell for three days and three nights, and then three
days later, He rose again from the dead, and even showed the disciples the holes in His hands
and the hole in His side to prove that He had literally bodily risen from the dead.
Now, of course, Jesus Christ died for every single person in the world. The Bible says He
died not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. But is everyone automatically
going to heaven? No. There's one thing that we must do to be saved. The Bible asked that
question in Acts chapter 16, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Notice He didn't say, go to church and you'll
be saved. Notice He didn't say, give money in the offering plate and you'll be saved. Notice He
didn't say, clean up your life and stop sinning and you'll be saved. Those are all good things to
do, but when it comes to being saved, the one thing that we must do to be saved is to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3 16 is the most famous verse in the whole Bible. For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life. Not whosoever is good enough, not whosoever cleans up their life,
but whosoever believeth in Him. Because the Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. So
we're not saved by the works that we do, we're simply saved by believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, not trusting in our own works or
our own deeds. That's why the Bible said that salvation is a gift. It says, for the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord. Now a gift
is something that's free. It's something that you don't have to pay for, you don't have to work
for. If you had to pay for it or work for it, it wouldn't be a gift. A gift is paid for by
the giver, and it's given out of love to the recipient. Jesus Christ paid for the gift of
our salvation when He died on the cross for us. He paid with His own blood. All we have to do
is just accept that free gift, and we just receive that by believing in Jesus, by putting
our faith and trust in Jesus. Now here's the most important part about this message.
Once we believe on Jesus Christ, He gives us eternal life. The Bible says the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord. Well the word eternal means forever,
so if God gives us a gift that lasts forever, how many times do we have to get it?
Only once, because it lasts forever. Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So once we
believe on Jesus Christ, we are saved forever. There's nothing we could ever do to lose our
salvation. He promised, I will never leave you nor forsake you, and nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now let's say you do something really
bad after you believe on Jesus Christ, and let's just get kind of crazy and say that you
were to do something as extreme as to commit murder, okay? Well obviously if you commit murder,
that's going to make God angry, and God's going to punish you, but that punishment will
come in this lifetime, okay? We will reap what we sow in this life as Christians. The Bible
says, whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourges every son whom He receiveth.
So it's sort of like, I have children. I actually have 11 children, and if my children disobey my
rules, I'm going to discipline them. I'm going to punish them, but I'm not going to throw them
out of the family, okay? I'm not going to say to them, well that's it, you're not my son anymore,
because you've broken my rules. It's the same thing with God. The Bible says, but as many
as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
His name. So if you believe on the name of Jesus Christ, you are a son of God. You are a
child of God. And just as I have rules for my kids, God has rules for His children. If you
break God's rules, He'll discipline you in this life. Now if you commit a huge sin like murder,
you're going to get a huge punishment. If you commit a huge sin like adultery, you're going
to get a huge punishment. If you commit a smaller sin, you're going to get a smaller punishment,
but you're going to be punished for your sins in this lifetime as a child of God. But you're
still His son. He still loves you. He'll never leave you or forsake you. Just as my children
will always be my children, a child of God is always a child of God. Once we're saved,
we're always saved, because we have everlasting life. Look, I was never good enough to be saved
in the first place. I can never be bad enough where He'll take it away from me, because it's
all by grace. So you only have to be saved one time. Now just a quick review. We're all sinners.
We all deserve to go to hell. Jesus Christ loves us. He died on the cross for us. He was
buried and He rose again. That paid the price for our sins, and He offers salvation freely
to anyone who will just receive that free gift by believing in Jesus. Look, if you think you're
going to heaven because you're a good person, you're going to hell, because you're not
trusting Jesus, you're trusting yourself. If you think that going to heaven is because
you go to church and you live a good life and you stopped sinning and you've turned from your
sins and all, look, you're trusting in a works-based salvation. You're trusting in yourself.
You need to put all of your faith and trust in Jesus Christ in order to be saved,
because Jesus warned that many people would come to Him in the last day and say,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name and in Thy name have cast out devils
and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Notice what those people are
bringing up. Oh, we've done all these works. They think they're going to heaven because of
their works, but the Bible says salvation is not of works lest any man should boast.
You've got to have your faith in Jesus, not in yourself. And so if you are hearing this message
now, and you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for all your sins and rose again,
and you believe that salvation is simply by trusting in His finished work on the cross,
and you're willing to put all of your faith and trust in Him, I'm just going to lead you
in a short prayer where you could pray this to God and ask to be saved right now.
And this is a one-time deal. Being born again is a one-time thing.
So I'm going to lead you in this prayer. You can just repeat this after me,
but make sure that you believe this and that you're saying this from your heart.
Dear Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I deserve to go to hell,
but I believe that you died on the cross for all my sins and rose again from the dead.
Please save me right now, and give me eternal life. I'm only trusting you, Jesus. Amen.
Now, if you prayed that prayer and you believe that, you are saved, and you are saved forever,
and that is the best news that anyone could ever tell you. That's why the word gospel means
good news. That's great news. And so now that you're saved, you have two choices.
You can continue to live the way that the world is living, and you'll still be saved,
you'll still go to heaven, but you're going to constantly be running into God's discipline,
and you're not going to be blessed by God like you could. Or you can start going to a good
Baptist church, reading your Bible, learning more, following God's commandments, you know,
doing the things that God wants you to do, and then you're going to be blessed by God.
And so thank you for listening to this message. God bless you, and have a wonderful day.