Raucous Crowd
Raucous Crowd
Ministry Update August 27, 2024
Joshua, Anand (and two of his daughters), Anand’s dad Moses, Nancy, Justin and I witnessed downtown Friday night. Justin wanted to head the other direction, so he went by himself. The rest of us headed toward the square a couple of blocks away, but we never made it there. We ended up about a ½ block short of the square and witnessed to a raucous crowd waiting in line at The Regency to see Waka Flocka Flame. I’d never heard of him, so later on I tried to listen to one of his songs on Youtube. I didn’t even make it 30 seconds, but it did shed some light on the wild crowd.
Brother Moses had a small amplifier with him, so as soon as he saw the crowd, he started open-air preaching. Some of the people in the crowd immediately started going crazy, especially three women. They started cussing Moses and flipping him off. One of them even ran across the street and started twerking right next to him. But he didn’t miss a beat and kept on preaching! After a while the police showed up and told Moses that he couldn’t use amplification downtown. I’d forgot about the ordinance.
After the police shut him down, I started open-air preaching. I’ve only been handing out tracts the last couple of months, so it had been quite a while since I brought a message. But I really think it was righteous indignation that took over. The police weren’t rude or mean about the amplification, but it always bothers me when the Gospel is hindered. So I brought a message for as long as my voice held out. The crowd didn’t like that either. One the three women that heckled Moses, kept flipping me off and saying f-you. I told her “No thanks, I’m a happily married man.”
After I brought a message, brother Moses went right over next to the long line of people waiting to get into the show. He stood on a concrete platform that was right next to a temporary fence that the venue had set up. He preached right next to them. I love his boldness for the Lord. Moses is a soft-spoken person, so there was no way his voice was going to carry across the street, so he came up with the perfect solution.
Anand and his daughters, Nancy, Joshua and I all handed out tracts while Moses preached. We had a lot of rejections, but some people took them. Joshua got into a conversation with a young man that I had talked to a couple of times earlier. The young man was raised Amish and his girlfriend was raised Mormon. He took tracts and was willing to talk. He just kept saying that he doesn’t believe what he did when he was younger. Justin got into an hour long (plus) conversation with a person.
The raucous crowd reminded me of how witnessing downtown used to be. I have to admit that I enjoyed it. But mainly we pray that God will bless His truth that went forth through the Gospel tracts and the open-air preaching. Justin and I witnessed the two weeks prior and there wasn’t much to report except on Aug 9th we witnessed during the Route 66 Festival. There were so many people downtown that Joshua was there somewhere too, but Justin and I never even saw him. Justin and I handed out a lot of tracts. It was great seeing the crowd. Several of our group has been witnessing the last few months, we just haven’t posted about it.
Quiet First Week at MSU
I handed out tracts at MSU on Wednesday last week. Another group had a permit near Trottier where I had a permit. But MSU is adding onto or remodeling a building right next to the football stadium, so there literally was no traffic at the spot where I was at. Since the other group was where the students walk by, I moved up to different spot. It turned out to be a good place to hand out tracts. I gave out over 200 tracts in 30 minutes. I commented on the cross necklaces that some students wore and I also commented on any Christian t-shirts that I saw. I want to encourage them to be bold in their faith in Jesus. One student took a tract and took a few more steps as he walked away. He flipped the tract over and realized what it was and he gave out a hearty “Amen!” I really appreciated his willingness to speak up in public.
(These updates are given to encourage Christians to share their faith in Jesus with others. You may never open-air preach on a street corner, but all believers can hand out Gospel tracts and/or share their testimony with others.)
