Make a Sale Everyday

I was never any good at selling things. When I had to sell candy for the Boy Scouts I was petrified. Going door to door was absolute torture for me. And so the last thing that I thought I would be when I grew up was a salesperson. A funny thing happened on the way to adult-ville. I felt a calling to become an evangelist or a salesperson for God. Sounds like a peculiar calling for a person who lacks natural gifts in this area. For some strange reason I embraced the idea and set out to find out what it takes to be a great salesperson. I learned two rules that have become my credo.

Rule No. 1 – Love the People
I have met so many wonderful people in my life. One of them is Bernie. He is a retired paint salesman from New York City who now winters in Florida and summers in Pennsylvania. Bernie is always busy. He works around his house fixing the endless problems that come up when you live in a house older than you. He has beautiful gardens and is always tending to them. And Bernie paints. You would think that after so many years in the paint business Bernie would not want to touch a paintbrush. But he keeps the paint on his house in tiptop shape. And he has painted some of the common areas in his homeowners association. And when Bernie paints something it comes out beautiful and lasts forever.

I asked Bernie one day about what it takes to be a good paint salesperson. Bernie’s answer was simple and surprising. He said that a successful salesperson has to “love the people.” It was that simple. Bernie traveled from store to store talking to the owners. He would always smile and be gracious even when he was asked to leave. But he would always come back. He said that he showed them through his actions that he was dependable and caring. He simply loved his customers and that made all the difference. After many years of persistent selling he told me he didn’t have to leave his office to have enough orders for the month. People responded to his love.

Rule No. 2 – Don’t let the sun go down without making a sale
I asked another friend who was a fine salesman the same question that I asked Bernie. I expected to hear from him sage advice on how to approach people or how to pitch a product. Or maybe he would suggest I read a book on how to be a success. He suggested a book alright, but it wasn’t what I expected.

He gave me a book called, “The Greatest Salesman in the World” by Og Mandino. I love this book. It has communicated so many wonderful things to me. At one point it says that a great salesperson should make a sale everyday. “Don’t let the sun go down without making a sale.” I have taken that saying to mean that each day I should try to understand another person, or help another person, or encourage another person. Each and every day I should try to lead someone to a closer relationship with God. Every single day I should try to love someone else. And this is exactly what I have been striving to do. Sometimes the sun goes down and I felt that I haven’t made a sale. But when I do, I can’t describe the wonderful feeling that comes over me.

And so like the Fuller Brush man I plod along the road of life searching for a sale. Over time, and to my surprise, I have found that I do have some gifts in this profession. Maybe I had them all of the time and didn’t realize it? Maybe God gave me what I needed? Or maybe it’s just plain easy to love people every day and anybody can do it? You decide. And while you are pondering this riddle, make sure you don’t let the sun go down without making a sale.

God Understands Our Troubles

The Rev. William "Bill" Whitehead is the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Rahway, in Rahway, New Jersey. He is also a graduate of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

Ark Family Ministries Family Conference in India

Leaders Family Conference was conducted in Manipur state in T. Khullen village which is Kerry’s home village. Here we ministered to 4 pastor couples and other church leaders couples. Initially we were very disappointed at the small attendance of the pastor couples of that area, but our hearts rejoiced when the Lord allowed us the privilege of ministering to the local church couples at Kerry’s home church. Kerry had reminded us that we need to be very clear in our gospel presentation as there were many nominal Christians in the church. At least 5 couples trusted the Lord as their Savior during the family conference. Each night at the gospel meeting, there was tremendous moving of the Holy Spirit and many more trusted the Lord as their Savior. Please pray that adequate follow-up will be undertaken by the church leaders to disciple these new babes in the Lord.


"We thank the Lord for allowing us to join the couples conference. We have learnt things that we have missed and we regretted, but we will be doing what God require for each other and for our children. And one thing that impressed us is the time to pray with each other-husband praying for wife and wife praying for husband.” Kangsong & Salila

“We didn’t know the Lord before we came for the Conference, but both of us are sure we accepted the Lord as our personal Savior. Now we are born again believers in the Lord. So do kindly remember us in your prayer.” Suibipa & Malati

*Rev. Jayaraj Chintas of Ark Family Ministries will be speaking at FBC Rahway on Sunday, August 1st. To learn more go to; www.arkfam.org/, www.chintas.org/

A Little Garlic Makes for Good Friends

There is no greater gift than that of a good friend. I have close friends who have supported me over the years through many of my ups and downs. I have friends who despite being separated by long distances are still a big part of my life. How empty our lives would be without our friends. I want to be the best friend I can be to all of these supportive people.

I met Peter while I was out of work. He had befriended my wife while working on his product. Peter created an amazing garlic spread, Don Pietro’s Gourmet Garlic Delight. He used to say it makes every meal a feast! It was a great product. Betsy worked in a food processing plant and Peter used to come over and make his garlic spread. The place smelled great. And Betsy used to come home smelling a little too garlicky good.

Peter needed a bookkeeper so he hired me. I would go over his house and wrestle with his company’s checkbook. I got to know him pretty well in a short period of time. He would tell me of his struggles to keep the company afloat. He went to small grocery stores selling his spread. Some people would give him some shelf space, others would tell him to get lost. He had battles over the location of the product. If it were too high on the shelf, nobody would see it. The place everybody wants is eye level. He would stand in the stores for hours and give out free samples. Most people liked it, but some would give him a hard time. Peter always had a smart-ass reply for anyone who gave him a hard time.

Peter is a wise guy from Brooklyn, NY. Verbally abusing your fellows is a right of passage there. I am a wise guy from Rahway, NJ. We got along great. He would give me a hard time and I would give it right back to him. He tells me that he can beat me in basketball any time he wants to, artificial knees and all. But I tell him that at 40, I am playing the best basketball of my life, and getting better every year. At 50 I’ll be ready for the NBA. Not everybody likes a wise guy, but both of us love the verbal sparring. Maybe it helps us to deal with the challenges that we face in life.

It’s great to have a friend who accepts you for who you are. If I start in with the wise guy stuff around anyone else but Peter I get into trouble. People don’t expect their pastor to make sarcastic comments. And I can understand why. I am held to higher standards in their regard. I am ok with this. But it is so nice to get on the phone with Peter, relax, loosen up and be a wise guy. It’s so wonderful to have a friend who accepts me for who I am.

Peter and I had big dreams. We dreamed of making the product a big success. He was going to mass produce it and put it in every store in the country. I was going to go to work for him, maybe even be a partner. At the time I was in seminary, and I even thought of putting off becoming a full time pastor until I made my fortune with Peter and his gastronomic success. We would become the Kings of Garlic. Everyone would know who we were, if only by the smell alone. Peter’s story would be in newspapers and magazines as a rags-to-riches story. Yes indeed, Peter and I had big dreams.

Things started to collapse for Peter not too long after I got my job back. Peter always had trouble getting enough of his spread produced. He would sign a contract with a company to package his product, and then they either wouldn’t do it, or the product would be lousy. Then he signed a contract with a grocery store chain to sell the product, and they ripped him off. In the end he was left with no more money and he had to fold the operation. All dreams end badly.

There are several things that I have learned from my friendship with Peter. First, a true friend supports you beyond what is expected. We have stood by each other through some pretty tough times. For Peter, watching your dream crash and burn was terrible. I had to endure some trouble when he wasn’t thinking too clearly. And when my life got rocky, he had to listen to me whine. I’m surprised that he didn’t slap me around some to snap me out of it. Second, a real friend accepts you no matter what. Some people just don’t understand me. But Peter doesn’t care if he understands me or not. He loves me even when I’m acting like an idiot. That’s what friendship looks like.

A close friend is a precious gift. A gift that we need to hold dear for the rest of our lives. Treat your friend’s right and you will always be rewarded.

Pastor Jayaraj Chintas to Speak Sunday August 1st

Ark Family Ministries is committed to building strong, Bible based families. We believe that godly families will pass on the godly heritage to their children. This way several generations can be influenced to live out the Biblical principles.

The Challenge
Families in India are undergoing crisis.
Poverty, disease, influences of the secular media especially the western media, busyness, the lack of proper and adequate teaching on family life are some of the major causes for the conflicts in families and breakdown in relationships.

Divorce rate in urban India is estimated at 20%.
Sunday Times dated July 24, 2004 reports the following:

The divorce boom has been split wide open. As marriage melt-down sweeps across India and Asia, lawyers predict this is the biggest divorce boom on this side of the planet… 40 divorces are filed everyday in eight district courts of Delhi. Last year, 6,500 matrimonial disputes were registered in Delhi courts… One Indian psychologist says, “The reality of marriage is so unglamorous that the couples can’t adjust to it. There’s role conflicts, expectation conflicts and emotional conflicts.”

Even the Christian community is not immune from the above for example, in one church we know, all 4 young couples married that year separated before one year was over. The believing pastor was very distraught over this.

Rural families are facing tremendous problems due to dowry and dowry related deaths. Addiction to alcohol and unfaithfulness in marriage presents additional problems which often lead to conditions like HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is spreading fast and has reached pandemic proportions in India.

Our Burden
During 1980s as we ministered to boys and girls, we had the joy of seeing many children understandingly and with true conviction receive the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior from sin.

In the process of discipling these children, we realized that unless the husband-wife relationship in a home was a strong and a growing relationship founded on the Word of God and centered in Jesus Christ, they would fail to have a significant and lasting impact on their children. We were convinced that the Christian faith was only one generation away from extinction IF the families were not centered in the Word of God.

With this burden in our hearts, we were able to conduct our first two family seminars in Gujarat state in 1989. The response to these seminars was so overwhelming that we recognized that this Bible based family life teaching was the key to growing strong families for Christ.

The Birth of Ark Family Ministries
We have served the Lord in various capacities since 1974. It was in 1995 that the Lord called us in a very specific way to begin a ministry to build, strengthen and enrich families all over India. The challenge for this ministry was given to us from Hebrews 11:7, ”... Noah built an ark for the salvation of his family.” Just as Noah worked hard and was guided by the Lord to work for the salvation of his family, we were encouraged to challenge the Christian families to do the same.

Our Goal
Ministering to families provides us with open doors to bring the unsaved to the saving knowledge of the Lord and also to build families in the Word of God. We realized that with God’s help and teaching from God’s Word, families can become all that God intended them to be… fruit bearing families to the glory of God.

As doors for evangelism are quickly closing down in our land, preparing families for personal evangelism is a powerful means of reaching the lost with His gospel.

The best way to prevent HIV/AIDS and other dreadful sexually transmitted diseases is to build strong, faithful families.