Kelly Open-Air Preaching
Blessed Night
Ministry Update June 21, 2020
Kelly and I had a blessed night of witnessing. It started off slow, but picked up later on. A college student named Tia took a Gospel tract from us as she walked her dog. Kelly asked about her dog and that led to a conversation. The young lady says that she is a Christian. We asked her to read the tract and pass it on to someone else and she said that she would. I brought the first message and had mocker right of the bat. He walked out of a convenience store heading the other direction, but turned around and cussed real loud. A couple of cowboys were walking near us and the first one said, “just ignore him” to which I said “Amen” and the second one stopped and shook my hand.
Cowboys That Supported Us
As I was near the end of my message, Sanjen walked up to Kelly and wanted to know how we know the Bible is translated correctly, Kelly talked about how even though our Bibles are in the English language, we know they are translated correctly. Sanjen said that he’s a linguist and he does translations for a living, so he doesn’t trust the Bible. Says he grew up Protestant, but isn’t religious now. Kelly did a couple of things that I loved. Kelly asked Sanjen how to say yes in German, Spanish and English and Sanjen said yes in the various languages. Then Kelly said “yes” still meant yes in the different languages, nothing was lost. Sanjen kept arguing that we don’t know that Bible is correct, there have been errors over the years. To which Kelly replied to him that Sanjen must make a lot of mistakes translating. Sanjen insisted that he doesn’t make mistakes. So Kelly asked him how he is so sure he doesn’t make mistakes, but he’s sure that the Bible is full of them.
Guy Asking How We Know The Bible Is Accurate
How Do You Know The Bible Is Translated Correctly?
Kelly started preaching after I finished, so I talked for a little bit with Sanjen. I asked him if he knew how many old copies of the New Testament are in the world and he didn’t know. The answer is 24,000 copies. There are more old manuscripts of the Bible than any other old document. I pointed out that we have the Dead Sea Scrolls that show the translations are still accurate. Since I could tell we weren’t really getting anywhere, so I politely pointed out that Romans 1 says that unbelievers suppress the truth in unrighteousness because they don’t want to be accountable to God. I told Sanjen that he wants to be his own god and run his own life, but none of us are in charge of our own lives. This offended Sanjen. He told me that I was psychoanalyzing him and it was kind of d___ move. He then said that he was just trying to get us to question the authenticity of the Bible and he walked off. Hopefully he was mad because God is convicting him.
A man walked up as Kelly was preaching and he donated money to Kelly for the ministry. Frankly, the guy didn’t look like he could afford to give any money away, so he appeared to be sacrificially giving. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him around before and he may even be homeless. While Kelly preached, I handed out New Testaments. One young man was carrying something in his left hand and just his keys in his right hand, but he refused a New Testament because he said his hands were full. Then three guys walked toward me and two rejected the offer, but the third guy took a New Testament. He was wearing a Playboy shirt.
Young Man Wearing A Playboy T-Shirt Takes A New Testament
Handing out Tracts and New Testaments
After Kelly finished his message, we walked around downtown handing out tracts and New Testaments. People were very pleasant. One guy took a tract from Kelly and he thanked us for being downtown witnessing. He thanked us for open-air preaching. Then a young lady took a tract from Kelly and she said that she is a Christian and she told us where she goes to church. Kelly asked her to read the tract and pass it on to someone else and she said she would. It’s been quite a while since Kelly and I witnessed together and we had a really blessed night. Most nights witnessing are a blessing, but some nights are more blessed than others and this was one of those really blessed nights.
(These updates are provided to encourage Christians to share the Gospel with others)