Last Saturday night four of us, including Shawn, went downtown to preach the Gospel despite a torrential downpour. While we showed up separately, and were evangelizing on different streets at first, we eventually met up right at the big fountain in the middle of the Grove. I had not seen Shawn for sometime as he had returned to his home state of Ohio to attend his dad's funeral. We embraced warmly and expressed our love for each other in the person of our Lord. Shawn promptly placed the little collapsible step he uses on the ground and exhorted me to preach the Message(not the foul Bible translation, but in fact the Gospel Message). Shawn had just got through preaching to a very large crowd of folks lined up for a local concert. I stood up and preached to a small crowd of people waiting to get in to the hockey game at Key Arena. I preached law and grace, sin and new life, creation and responsibility, the Bad News and the Good News. God is so amazing, I did not want to stop! I read Psalm 19 and then later I read Romans 1. The surprising thing was that people were actually stopping and listening! Not one person heckled me, which I did not expect. In street-preaching you can really make use of a good heckler, because he helps to draw a bigger crowd if handled correctly. Even still, it was a pleasure to just have attentive listeners.
Prior to meeting with Shawn, I was on 8th and Idaho streets speaking with a man wearing a backpack who told me he had been on the street since 1998 and loved it. He definitely had alot of spirit and seemed very much at home. He had just made his way down through north Idaho, a very cold journey but said that he had been enjoying himself. He said that he just goes where the Lord directs. I asked if he were a Christian and he said he loved God. He said he had been reading the Bible, but had decided to read the Quran. I questioned him on the contradiction and he did not have very good answers. We talked more and I exhorted him to the exclusiveness of Christ, then bought him a slice of pizza.
After preaching to the hockey crowd we returned to this same corner and set up shop. Shawn began preaching while the three of us handed out Gospel tracts. Many took them, and many did not. 8th and Idaho is right beneath a balcony that is home to a gay bar. They have access to the railing outside the bar and many stand outside where they can easily hear the preaching. They become very upset at times. We actually had a man who claimed to be a Christian accost us to a great extent. While we were speaking with two 17 year old boys arguing profusely with us about the validity of Islam, which they claimed to be a part of, this particular man was holding up his jacket in a crazy attempt to separate us from the two youngsters. He insisted that we were doing more harm than good, and demanded that we stop. He was very loud and kept strangely affirming many vile sins of his own. He got very close to Shawn so I stepped between them and at that point this professing Christian let loose a slew of curses at us. He eventually began banging his keys on the metal sculpture next to us and tried for some time to just drown us out. We stopped and waited, and he soon left.
Please pray for the two 17 year old kids who had been thoroughly indoctrinated with the evils of Islam. They mocked God and argued with us at every turn.
We ended the night in front of Key Arena again as the crowd let out. We passed out more Gospel tracts and had some fascinating conversations. TJ preached his guts out in the pouring rain and had many a listener who wanted to challenge him. He was very good at engaging them and exhorting them to sound reason all the while preaching the full Gospel. Good Job TJ!!!
Thank you for your continued prayers for this ministry. If you are interested in joining us, please contact me.
Also, keep in mind that we are preparing for the gay pride week this year. We will be very ready with several evangelists, street preachers, and worship. This will be a major outreach effort to the homosexual underground as they come out in force to attack our community. Please be praying for victory.
