Stirred Up Crowd
Ministry Update June 26, 2016
While Aaron, Kelly, Steven, Erica, Diana, Elise and I were singing hymns, a young teenager came up and asked if we were Christians? After being told yes, she walked back to her friend. Just about the time I started bringing a message, the same teenager came back over and wanted to talk about homosexuality. I invited them to listen to my message “We Don’t Want God, We’re Gay” and they sat down and listened for a while. But before long, they were a stirred up crowd and they started going crazy.
Aaron and Kelly were talking to some of the group and about the same time a professing Christian, a professed preacher’s son, came over condemning us and accusing me of being judgmental. He never saw the irony of his judging me while he was accusing me of judging others. But I kept going with the message and the group kept arguing. After a while they pretty much all left except for the professing Christian. He kept arguing. Erica tried to reason with him, but there was no reasoning.
John 3:16
While I was quoting John 3:16-20, a heckler that we’ve encountered many times rode by on his bicycle and yelled out that what I was saying was blaspheme. I yelled that he’s treading on dangerous ground, attributing what Jesus said to Satan. He rode off laughing and said “I’ll see you when you join me in Hell.” The professing Christian really got upset with me for being rough on the heckler. Also while I was quoting John 3:16, a guy walked in front of me and flipped me off. He continued flipping me off the whole time he walked across the square. The ironic part was I was just saying that even most atheists don’t mind John 3:16. Even people who don’t believe in God are alright with “For God so loved the world,” so then I added except for that guy.
Professing Christian
Then Kelly got up to preach and I tried to reason with the professing Christian. He kept quoting the same two verses even though he told me he studied the bible 2,600 hours last year. (In case you didn’t catch that, it’s a lot of hours. There are 2,080 hours in a year for an eight hour work day, five days a week). I couldn’t get anywhere with him, so I finally quit trying.
Kelly preached from Daniel and John. When he started talking about how Jesus talked more about Hell than anyone else in the New Testament, the professing Christian started yelling blasphemy, blasphemy!. So I asked the professing Christian what Bible does he reading. I told him that I don’t know how you can really be saved when you don’t believe all of the Bible and when you yell out that a man is speaking blasphemy when he’s just quoting Scripture. I stand by that statement, even if I was judging the guy.
You’re Too Loud
While Kelly was preaching, a man and his wife walked up and said that Kelly’s amplifier was too loud. I think he only uses about a 25 watt voice amplifier like I use. This man kept berating Kelly, but Kelly just apologized that the man was offended. The man said that they live in one of the apartments upstairs and that we were too loud.
Then Aaron started talking to the guy and asked him if he was here last weekend and the guy said yes. Aaron then asked him if he was here during the gay pride celebration and the man admitted that he was. Then Aaron asked if he complained that the gay pride event was too loud and he said no. So then he told the guy that he was a hypocrite. The man and his wife then walked away without saying a word. The ironic part was they didn’t even go to their apartment; instead they walked down South Street, which is very noisy with all the bars with open doors and windows. Hypocrisy in deed.
Aaron went next and he preached hard against homosexuality. The stirred up crowd really went crazy again. A couple of lesbians and a homosexual came over and one mocked Aaron while her friends took pictures and laughed. This girl just kept it up. She kept mocking Aaron, his gestures and what he was saying. I have to admit that she helped draw a bigger crowd and Aaron just kept preaching, in spite of the circus atmosphere. Then we ended the night singing hymns like we always do. Stephen did a great job handing out tracts all night. May God be glorified.
Planned Parenthood on Wednesday
Brian, Aaron and I witnessed at Planned Parenthood last Wednesday. It was a quiet day. One woman came out while we were preaching. We don’t know why she was in there and she didn’t say anything as she left. A couple of workers left during their lunch hour, but they didn’t say anything to us. Brian and Aaron both brought signs and held them up while we were there.
One guy pulled in the parking lot, got out of his car, shook our hands and thanked us for being out there. It’s always encouraging when people stop to encourage us. After witnessing, we were standing by our cars and someone yelled an obscenity at us from out of their car window. We were just standing by our vehicles. We weren’t even in front of Planned Parenthood, but someone still yelled at us anyway. You never know what people will say or do.
These updates are provided to encourage Christians to share their faith in Jesus Christ our Lord with this lost and dying world.