Friday Night Notes

sadly, again... tough crowd... tough crowd...

Back to the streets tonight, after a week off. My pastor and I were out at our customary place for our usual 3 hours of street preaching... actually, it was more like 2 hours of street preaching. You see, my pastor had a bit of a rough night.

First, it was the drunk, homeless Native. This is the exact same drunk guy who has given us quite a bit of grief over the last year, the same guy who assaulted me last summer, the same guy that just spent a few months in jail for assaulting another person. Well tonight, he was much calmer... tonight, he wanted to talk. So he talked with my pastor... and talked... and talked... and talked. My pastor lost a good hour with this guy, barely able to slide in one word; and the time truly was lost, since my pastor said: "he is just so messed up psychologically, probably from all the drugs and booze, he wasn't even making any sense."

Then, there were the sodomites.

I was distributing Bible tracts when a sodomite grabbed one of my tracts, ripped it in two and threw the pieces in my face. I just shrugged, picked up the pieces and went about my business. I may have said something along the lines of: "wow, what a great show of respect!" To which I got the middle finger as a response.

Five minutes later, a police officer comes by and talks with my pastor. He told my pastor that he was causing an "uproar" and that he had to stop preaching.

-"What?" my pastor reacted, "I've been doing this for 15 years! I've never caused an "uproar" or any kind of trouble."

-"Well, I don't care about that," the officer continued, "you do what I say now!"

-"You're not being reasonable or rational here, officer..." my pastor responded.

My pastor barely had time to finish that last phrase that the officer had walked away, probably realizing that he really didn't have the authority to remove us from the street, and my pastor just wasn't going to be intimidated. I was really surprised by all this, since, for the most part, the police have always been favorable to us.

And then it all became clear.

Remember those two sodomites? Well, where did the police officer go after he walked away from my pastor? Right across the street where the two sodomites were waiting. The three men had a brief conversation, in which, I believe, the officer explained that he couldn't get rid of us, and all three eventually walked away. So the scenario probably went something like this: the sodomites hated our message, they made up this "uproar" nonsense and the police officer bought it, and the rest is history.

Anyway, the Lord protected us from all these, and for that, I am thankful. The only thing we suffered from tonight, was a little wasted time; and I'll take that over a beating or an arrest!

On the good side, I did have a good exchange with a Romanist named Scott. He told me he read his Bible multiple times, so I asked him if he was born-again. He said he was unfamiliar with that term. I quoted John 3:3:

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

-"Pretty important term, wouldn't you say?" I continued. "If you are not born-again, you're not going to Heaven."

I then went on to explain regeneration and the gift of faith, that is to say, salvation by faith. He took it all very well. He took a Bible tract and thanked me for answering his questions. Let's hope the Lord has/will start a work in Scott's life; to take him out of the wickedness of Romanism, and bring him into the kingdom of God's Dear Son.

And that's the notes for tonight, dear readers. I'm beat... it's time for bed. Please pray for me brothers and sisters in the Lord, I'm going through a tough time of late... I'll elaborate some other time. Suffice it to say that I am weary and mentally fatigued; this is probably wicked principalities and powers doing what they do best: trying to knock down God's people. Your prayers are much appreciated.

Have a great weekend,


Rand