The Wicked and the Encouraging
Ministry Update June 5, 2016
We encountered the wicked and the encouraging both Friday night witnessing during Art Walk and earlier in the week at Planned Parenthood. Friday night Aaron, Brian, Chris, Diana, Elise and I started off singing hymns. While we were singing, I noticed Chris was missing. I asked my other friends and nobody knew for sure where he was. Evidently he stepped around the corner and was talking to a young man. Chris gave him a Bible and we hope the young man reads it. Also while we were singing, our friendly atheist Jim who we haven’t seen in quite a while, walked by. I saw him first and said Hi and handed him a tract. He hesitated and then took it anyway and promised that he would read it. Aaron also said Hi to him. Even though Jim is a devout atheist, he supports our right to preach. He’s even stood up to the police for us and he’s been kicked out of a couple of atheist groups because he says we have the right to free speech. Oh how we hope and pray that God would reach him.
The Wicked
Some of the wicked were so vile that I can’t even begin to repeat what they were saying. The man pictured above may look like a normal, average person, but he said such wicked things that I can’t repeat anything he said, at all. Then a young woman walked up to me while I was on the box and she blasphemed Jesus with her twisted and perverted beliefs. Aaron didn’t hear her and asked what she was saying. I told him that she wasn’t serious and to let her go. But I was too late, she repeated her wicked and blasphemous thoughts about Jesus.
The woman in the picture above was trying to burn a Seek and Save the Lost tract that she received from Chris, but her lighter wouldn’t work. Notice she walked right in front of us to do this, but the Lord saw fit to stop her actions. The night ended with a professing Christian named John who was drunk and trying to tell us what we were doing was wrong. He walked up while Brian was on the box and stayed through Aaron’s preaching too. He accused us of making people angry and that the way were going about it was wrong.
At one point I asked him why he was angry because he was the only one who was upset. Brian, Chris, Aaron and I all talked to him at different times, but to no avail. He believes God loves everyone and John says he repents every day. I tried to explain to him that if he continues in the same habitual sin, then he’s not repenting (2 Corinthians 7:10). He kept telling us what he believed and kept quoting Proverbs 31 about giving a drink to a dying man. I kept asking him if he was dying. We all gave him scripture, but he wasn’t receiving it because he really thinks that he’s alright with God – even in his drunken state because God loves everyone. He was hard to talk to because he kept talking. But I tried to tell him that Jesus came to set the captives free (Isaiah 61:1). We pray that John truly repents and surrenders his life to Jesus.
The Encouraging
While I was on the box, a woman named Leah came up and listened to the message. She kept saying Amen and was very encouraging. At one point I was saying that we can’t serve God and money and she jumped in and said you can’t serve two masters to which I said Amen. After I stepped off the box, she came over and thanked me and said she appreciated what we were doing. Then she hugged my neck. She said that she’s been a wayward Christian for a lot of years, but truly repented a few weeks ago. She thinks that she was a backslidden Christian while I think she may have been a false convert (like I was for so many years). Either way, she said she’s cleaned up and living for the Lord. She told me that she’s had to ask several of her friends to leave her alone. I hope and pray that she stays straight and leaves her past behind her. Please keep Leah in your prayers. I have a feeling that she lives in a rough neighborhood and she’s probably around a lot of temptation. I gave her a tract and pointed out that she can contact me through the website if she ever needs to talk.
Then a few minutes after that, a security guard from the bar across the street walked up to me and said that he enjoyed the message. I thanked him and gave him a tract. He actually came over one time in the past and helped us out when a drunk was hassling us while we were preaching. That time he came running over and told the drunk to move on. The security guard is a big guy and the drunk listened to him. It was a real blessing to have two encouragers Friday night in the midst of all the wickedness.
The Wicked at Planned Parenthood
Aaron, Brian and I encountered the wicked and the encouraging at Planned Parenthood earlier in the week. We started off singing hymns and while I brought a message the receptionist walked right up to the front door (on her side) and recorded me for a little bit. I could see her smirking, so I preached toward her pretty hard. I explained that one day God would wipe that smirk right off her face if she doesn’t repent and trust Jesus. She just kept on smiling.
Then when Aaron was preaching, a guy from the apartments behind Planned Parenthood started walking toward him. So I stepped in between them. He started yelling that we were waking his little child up from a nap because he left the window open. Of course my thought was why don’t you just close your window, but I didn’t say that. Then he started yelling that we were wrong and that we should leave Planned Parenthood alone because of all the good they do. I said they don’t do any good and asked him what good he thinks they do. He said they talked him out of an abortion.
My thought was that probably wasn’t too hard to do since a man can’t even be pregnant, let alone abort a baby, but I kept that thought to myself. He continued that they talked his girlfriend out of having an abortion. I told him that I didn’t believe him. They make their money on killing innocent babies in the womb. He said they don’t even perform abortions here. I said they offer the morning after pill and they refer people to St. Louis and other places. He started walking away and made a crude gesture and said something vile against God. As he walked away he was still yelling and mocking. I couldn’t really hear him, but I know he looked up to Heaven and dared God to strike him dead. Then he looked back at us like, see, there is no God. I yelled out to him that one day God would answer his request and he’ll wish that he’d repented and trusted Jesus before it was too late.
About the time the man was walking away, an elderly woman came out of Planned Parenthood and she started dancing as she walked to her truck. Aaron started preaching hard at her, but she just kept dancing and smiling. When she finally got into her truck, she made a call and I suspect it was to the police because a policeman pulled into their parking lot after we were already gone and driving off. But before that, the receptionist and another worker were standing beside the building, mocking us and dancing around while we were singing hymns to end our time there.
Another Encourager
While Aaron was preaching a man drove up and sat there with his windows down. I kept watching his direction and turning back to the elderly woman in the truck and the two mocking workers. But after we finished singing, the man started driving off and yelled that he appreciated us being out there. He said that he was sick and tired of hearing about a gorilla that had to be killed and yet most Americans don’t give a second thought about the 3,000 plus babies being murdered every day across America. To that, we say Amen. It was a real blessing to have someone pull into the parking lot from off the street to encourage us.
Just like we were encouraged this week, these updates are provided to encourage Christians to share their faith in our Lord and Savior with this lost and dying world.