Ministry Update February 14, 2106
Encouragers
Aaron and I witnessed at MSU on Wednesday February 10, 2016. It was a really encouraging day. I went first and two students came up while I was preaching and they were grinning from ear to ear, one of them shook my hand and thanked me for sharing the Gospel. Then later on, a student walked up near me, he didn’t stop, but as he walked by he said “keep going.”
Then after that Aaron preached and I handed out tracts. I handed a guy a tract and he walked over to Aaron and shook his hand and hugged him while he was preaching. Those who do street ministry know that it can be tough. God doesn’t give us quotas or demand that a certain number of people be saved; no He commands us to be faithful and share the Gospel – whether they receive or reject the Good News. The results are strictly up to God. But it can get burdensome when you constantly get rejected and mocked, so a little encouragement goes a long ways.
Human
While we were witnessing at our usual spot at the campus, there were several students running around trying to get signatures for a petition. I have no idea what their cause was about. But while I was handing out tracts, one walked close enough by me because he was trying to reach other students and I tried to hand him a tract. He rejected it and said I’m human. I assume that he meant he’s a humanist, but he shortened it to I’m human (Romans 1:18-25).
I could tell by his tone that he didn’t want to engage in a conversation, so I just told him to have a nice day. But what I really wanted to say is that we are all humans and we have all sinned against Almighty God and we all need a Savior – the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ (John 3:16). Ironically, the tract I was handing out was What is Sin? It’s a great old multifold tract that goes into a lot of depth. I hated that the human student didn’t take what all humans need to hear about and that is the glorious Gospel.
Sinner
Many students did take tracts as they walked by us on their way to their next class. Three young ladies walked by while Aaron was preaching. I handed two of them tracts, but I couldn’t reach the third one, she was on the other side of her two friends. So I handed another tract to the student closest to me and said, here, give this one to your other friend. For whatever reason she hadn’t really looked at the tract that I gave her, but she looked at it this time when I asked her to hand it to her friend. She laughed and said oh, she’s a sinner, she needs this. They all walked away laughing, but maybe one or all of them will read the tracts and may God convict and convert them.
Friday Night
Then on Friday night Aaron, Erica, Diana, Elise and I were joined by two young girls that go to their church. It was a cold night, but it was fun having the girls join us. I gave them hand warmers and Aaron bought them some hot chocolate. They sang hymns with us and they seemed to have a good time, even though they were cold. Three high school students stopped to hear Aaron preach. Earlier in the night, there was a moving truck across the street and a woman that was helping someone move out sand Amazing Grace with us while we sang and later on a passenger in a car driving by sang part of a hymn with us.
Mockers
I brought a message against drinking alcohol and had barely gotten started when a young man started walking across the street saying Jesus turned water into wine. I told him it’s too bad that he wouldn’t stick around because that was what my message was about. I had a few others walk by and mouth off too. Then a person came up and stood next to me, they were smoking and kept blowing smoke at me, but they never said a word. They were wearing a hoodie and I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. But the person just stood there smoking and looking at me, but they didn’t say a word. One guy came up to Aaron and I couldn’t really hear what he was saying, but I think it was the usual that we were sharing Jesus the wrong way.
Then Aaron preached and a few people mouthed off as they walked by. Then a couple drove by and the passenger had her window down and they guy reached across her and stuck hand out as far as he could reach and flipped me off. I was just standing on the corner handing out Bibles. I thanked him and said God bless you and he just kept repeating the gesture. Diana joked that he thought I was number one and I said yeah, and he kept thinking that many times.
Sign Guys
The sign guys from Monett were out Friday night on the corner just across South Avenue. These guys are sinless perfectionist, so we don’t agree with their theology and many times we don’t agree with their signs. But Aaron checked out all of their signs and they were all biblically sound. One of them that I remember is the one that said Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15).
Bibles
Last week our friend Kelly prayed with 11 people while we were witnessing downtown. So that inspired me to do something different this week. After praying about it, I decided that I would concentrate on handing out Bibles. So before we really started witnessing, I handed out several Bibles and before the night was over I had handed out 10 Bibles. My prayer is that God will convict these people to read their Bibles and that He will convict and convert them. May He draw the lost souls to Himself.
(This past week we encountered encouragers and mockers while street witnessing. These updates are provided to encourage Christians to share the Good News with this lost and dying world. The results are up to God.)