Americans, Muslims And A Jew
Ministry Update November 4, 2018
Americans, Muslims and a Jews. I know, this sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but it’s not. This is just a ministry update from witnessing in downtown Springfield, MO on November 2, 2018. Conner, Pastor Joshua and I witnessed downtown during Art Walk Friday night. We handed out tracts and all three of us did open-air preaching. While one person preached, the other two handed out tracts. Pastor Joshua and Conner got into a few conversations and I really only had a few brief encounters. But we talked to several Americans, Muslims and one Orthodox Jew. Needless to say, it was an interesting night.
Conner handed a tract to a guy that came around later and had a really long conversation with Pastor Joshua. I started off the first message titled Are You Calling God A Liar? There was an ask a skeptic group on the square so that’s why I brought this message. I was intentionally trying to stir people up, to get them to think about their spiritual state. Guess what? I don’t believe I had a single mocker.
Pastor Joshua preached after me and right off the bat a guy slowed down in a van driving by and gave a thumbs up. Shortly after that Pastor Joshua had a couple of drive by mockers. Conner preached next and at that time I was handing out tracts across the street from him. Earlier I handed a tract to a Muslim lady and later on I handed tracts to a couple of young Muslims.
I Can Talk Louder Than You Without A PA
A group of college age girls walked by. A couple of them took tracts but the majority refused them. I could hear one mumbling under her breath. Then she turned around and told Conner, “I can talk louder than you without a PA. Get better.” I suggested she go ahead if she wants to because I recognized her from MSU. Her name is Emily and a few years ago she said the most vile thing anyone has ever said to me while I was out witnessing. After that she seemed to warm up a little bit, but evidently she’s leaning back toward her old ways. I called her out by name and told her she needs to quit mocking God, but she just kept walking away.
Most of the time while Conner was preaching, Pastor Joshua witnessed to the first guy Conner gave a tract to and spoke to briefly. Sadly, this guy seemed to want to argue over secondary issues and appeared to really just want to argue or disagree. Two guys walked by and mocked Conner as they passed by him. During this time I tried to hand a tract to a guy who kept looking down at his phone and just said “both my parents are pastors.” Like somehow that meant he didn’t need a tract. Unfortunately, he probably really needed one. But since he wouldn’t stop or look up, I didn’t say anything as he walked away.
Jaron Myers was performing at the Gillioz Theatre and they let out about five or ten minutes before Conner finished up his message. So I jumped back up and brought another message after him. During this time, Pastor Joshua was still talking to the same guy and Conner handed out tracts. I had one mocker but also had a guy and his daughter walk by. The dad gave a thumbs up and encouraged me to keep preaching truth and his daughter smiled as she walked by. (A little encouragement goes a long way).
Orthodox Jew
After I finished up Conner and I were standing around talking while Pastor Joshua finished up his conversation. A young man walked near me and I handed him a tract. He asked what it was so I told him that it’s a Gospel tract, it tells you about Jesus. He then proceeded to tell me that he’s an Orthodox Jew from Israel and he didn’t want to waste my money, so he tried to hand it back to me. I assured him that it only cost me two cents and that he could keep it. Since I wanted him to keep the tract, I tried to divert him to something else. I asked him what part of Israel he’s from and he said Be’er Sheva (Beersheba).
Then I asked him if he knew Isaiah 53. He corrected me on the enunciation and told me that it’s called Yesha’ayahu. I apologized and asked again if he knows it. He said that he doesn’t have it memorized. I told him that it prophesies about Jesus. Then I asked him if he’s familiar with Psalm 22 and reminded him that it was written by DaVID (David). He didn’t know it either. So I told him that it prophesied about Jesus’ hands and feet being nailed to the cross. He started to leave at that point, so I said, “Keep reading the Old Testament. I love the Old Testament, it points to Jesus.” May God save the Americans, Muslims and the Orthodox Jew that heard God’s truth out on the street in downtown Springfield Friday night.
Reading Tracts
The week before at MSU it occurred to me that many students refuse Gospel tracts and many students aren’t even offered them when they walk by while I’m open-air preaching. So on Wednesday I decided to read tracts the whole time that I was there. I’ve read tracts before or after messages before, but I had never had tracts be the whole message. I enjoyed this very much and hope to do this again in the future. While reading tracts, one student stopped to mock me like he was praying, holding his hands together.
Another student stopped to listen during one tract reading, but the majority just walked by, seemingly uninterested. But hopefully they heard God’s truth that many have not received by reading a tract in the past. A couple of students dressed in Halloween costumes walked by when I was holding some old curved illusion tracts. These were blue and pink and I was asking students which one was larger. One of the girls dressed up said the pink one. So I switched them in my hands and showed her how the blue one now looks larger. I walked over and handed them to her and told her that she could have them and stated that she should read the back of them.
(These updates are given to encourage Christians to share the Gospel with others)