Ministry Update March 12, 2017
Man Tells Us He Just Got Saved
How can you have a bad night when a man walks up and says he just got saved earlier tonight? Friday Night Aaron and I were getting ready to sing hymns and street preach when Danny walked by us and he took a tract. When he realized what it was he was all excited. Then he walked up closer and told us that he just got saved at Freeway Ministries. We praised God with him and Aaron asked if we could pray with him and Danny said sure. So we prayed for him and before he walked away I asked him if he had a Bible and he said no. I offered him a Bible and he gladly took it.
We handed out a few more tracts and some hand warmers and a few homeless people appreciated them. One woman said thank you Jesus. Aaron and I laughed that it was a blessed night before we even got started. We sang several hymns and then I brought a message asking if Open-air preaching is radical. The answer is no, it isn’t radical, even though some people may think so. It was actually pretty calm and fairly quiet while I spoke. A few people yelled from their cars and some drivers revved their engines, but it was pretty quiet. One car stopped in front of us and asked what we were protesting. I said we aren’t protesting anything, we are lifting up the name of Jesus. The front passenger said that she was glad to hear that.
Then Aaron got up and asked several common questions we get a lot and answered them biblically. A couple of guys walked by and kept yelling and flipping him off. They even came back from around the corner to yell some more. One guy kept yelling that he was from Kansas City. I guess that meant more to him than us, but I’m not sure what the significance was.
Then he took off his coat and started taking off his shirt. I warned Aaron to keep an eye on him because I was afraid he wanted to come over and fight. But instead, he started pointing to his back and his chest where he had awful looking tattoos. I’m sure they were evil because he derived great pleasure in pointing them out to us. But just like how he kept yelling that he was from KC, we couldn’t see what the significance of him pointing to his tattoos.
Officer Tells Heckler To Stop Cussing
The Kansas City guy did draw a few people to us including one atheist who was really chewing on Aaron. This young man was an animated heckler, cussing up a blue streak and kept yelling at Aaron. After a while a police officer walked up and told the heckler that he wanted to talk to him. When they came back from around the corner, the young man came right back up to Aaron and started engaging him again.
The police officer walked up to me and said that he was all right with our preaching, but that he talked to the young man because he didn’t like all the cussing. I thanked the officer and told him that I didn’t like all the cussing either. We said good night to each other and the officer went back to his patrol car. By this time Aaron quit preaching and stepped down and had a long conversation with the young man. Not only did the young man quit cussing but he also took on a calmer and milder tone.
It’s All About The Greek
Again several people gathered around while this was going on. One young man named Luke came up and started talking to me because he was worried about the New Testament and Greek. He just kept talking about needing to understand Greek. I told him that I am an English speaking person and I have a Bible written in English; therefore I don’t need the Greek. After getting sidetracked about Greek, he finally got around to the fact that he didn’t agree with our method. Then I shared some Bible verses with him and suggested that he be careful criticizing us on our style of evangelism. I told him that I don’t criticize his method.
God calls us to street preach and he really should be careful condemning us. Surprisingly, he became very humble. We ended up having a great conversation and he asked if he could pray for me and I told him sure. He prayed that God would bless our street ministry. He’s going to Bible college so I prayed that God would clearly show him the path that God wants him to take, that God would use him mightily for God’s kingdom and that God would give Luke opportunities to share the Gospel and encourage fellow believers, even now, while he’s in school. Even though it was a cold night, it truly was a blessed night sharing the Gospel downtown Friday night.
There Really Are No Atheist
On Wednesday, Brian, Aaron and I witnessed at MSU. We all brought messages. Brian handed out water and Aaron and I handed out tracts. I also gave out 8 or 10 of The Biggest Question DVD’s. While Aaron was preaching, I tried to hand a tract to a student and he wouldn’t take one. So I asked him if he goes to church anywhere and he said, no that he’s an atheist. After a minute or two talking, he admitted that no atheist is really all knowing, so they are all agnostic. But they all like saying atheist instead of agnostic. (I didn’t point this out to him, but Romans 1:18-19 says there really are no atheists.)
While I was talking to Derrick, Aaron finished up preaching and then he got into a long conversation with a student that he knows, but I didn’t catch his name. Derrick kept asking me questions and we talked a good 25 to 30 minutes. He told me that he’d been saved and baptized a couple of times and it didn’t take. I told him that I thought I was saved and baptized at 11 years old and it didn’t take for me then either. Then I explained that I really wasn’t saved until nine years ago. I told Derrick that when God really saved me, He changed me.
Ask God For Truth
Through repentance and faith in Jesus, my life will never be the same and no one or nothing can ever take that away from me. I asked him if he has a Bible at home and he said, yeah, he does. Then I pleaded with him to read it with an open mind. To read it asking God for the truth. I told Derrick that if he will read the Bible humbly, telling God that he really wants to know the truth, that I believe God will reveal Himself to Derrick.
That is my hope and prayer that God will convict Derrick to read the Bible in this manner and that God will reveal Himself to the young man and grant him repentance and faith in Jesus. I offered him a tract again and said that I’d be happy to meet with him some time and buy him a cup of coffee if he wanted to talk some more. He took the tract and we shook hands and went our separate ways.
What Do You Do When A Young Man Drives 11 Hours One Way To Go Street Witnessing?
What do you do when a young man drives 11 hours to go street witnessing? Why, you go out street witnessing with him! Ivan, whom Aaron met in Houston, Texas during the Super Bowl Outreach and has been in contact with him since then really wanted to learn how to street witness. So he literally drove 11 hours here on Saturday night and after church on Sunday, we went street witnessing downtown.
Allen joined us and we had a great time. We started off singing hymns. Two guys stopped to listen and enjoyed the singing at the same time a mocker stopped to take a selfie with us singing. Some other guys across the street yelled that they wanted to hear some Hail Satan songs. Turns out they were a metal band called Dope (appropriately named?).
The band was setting up for a show Sunday night. There was a small crowd of people gathered across the street, waiting for the show. Aaron and Ivan were on that side of the street handing out tracts and later on I went over and handed out tracts with Ivan. I struck up a conversation with one of the guys with Dope. I asked him a few questions and then said did you get one of these and handed him a tract. He took it.
First Time Up
Allen preached after me and then Aaron was going to preach. But about the time Allen was finishing up, Aaron was in a conversation with someone. Earlier, I asked Ivan if he was ready to get on the box and he didn’t think so. I suggested that he read Scripture, John 1, John 3 or Romans 1. So when Aaron wasn’t ready, I looked at Ivan and said are you ready to read some Scripture and he said yes.
So he got up and read Romans 1. We had a blessed time witnessing for a couple of hours and then Ivan made the long trip back home. I’m grateful that we had the opportunity to witness with him and I pray that he can find some Bible believing, Bible preaching open-air preachers in Houston that he can go out witnessing with there.
(These updates are provided to encourage Christians to share the glorious Gospel with others. We have eternal life! How could we not talk about that? How could we not lift up the precious name of Jesus to this lost and dying world?)