Friday Night Notes

overwhelmed...


I'm presently sitting on the couch. I have a cup of lemongrass tea, and I have my softest, gentlest music playing. I've been taking it easy like this for a good hour before starting this post. I needed to calm my mind; I needed to get a grip. It isn't that something crazy dramatic happened tonight, but there are times when all the little things I hear and see on the streets of the marketplace just overwhelm me. I think I would like to cry right now, but I haven't been able to make myself cry in years. I really think a good sob-fest would feel real good right now though. Too bad, I guess.

Pastor Tim and I were a little late getting to our customary preaching spot, but we still managed to preach the Gospel for over two and a half hours. There was a cold wind blowing tonight, but my winter gear kept me nice and warm. Both pastor Tim and I are looking forward to the days when we will not be needing two sweaters and a winter jacket to go evangelize the marketplace. Shouldn't be too long of a wait now.

I don't think I was prepared for our night of evangelism tonight. Actually, I know I wasn't ready for it. This week has been so busy, so cluttered with all sorts of duties and responsibilities, I simply wasn't in a prayerful and focused frame of mind for our usual Friday night work. This surely explains, in part anyways, how I feel right now. Not going out there tonight though, was completely out of the question. A good soldier does his duty whether he feels ready or not, and I am determined to be a faithful soldier of the Cross.

How can I possibly convey to you, dear readers, all that my eyes have seen, all that my ears have heard, and how it has affected my emotional state...

I'll try this... here is a point-by-point summary of the highs and lows of my night of street preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ:


-I was walking on a busy downtown street with one of our Bible signs, handing out Bible tracts when three young ladies walked by me. One of them said: "Yay! Jesus! we're from a Christian school!" I suppose that would have made me happy, if the two other ladies weren't lighting up marijuana joints. As they all took turns smoking weed, I said: "Fat good you're 'Bible school' is doing for you ladies."

-I spoke for a good 10 minutes with two young men who claimed to be Christians, and who wanted to get more serious about evangelism. Now I asked them where they fellowshipped, and when I heard the name of the church, I knew that these guys probably hadn't received any quality Bible teaching in a very long time (if ever). I invited them to stick with us for awhile, to learn from us in our evangelistic effort; basically, I was giving them what they claimed they wanted. They left.

-The police showed up near the end of our preaching time and raided the parking garage behind our preaching spot. They were after a dealer who was moving around with a large bag. The ungodly wretch managed to escape. We had a good conversation with the officers after their failed attempt to clean up the parking garage from the continual drug trafficking that has been going on in there (one of the officers was actually an old acquaintance of Pastor Tim's).

-Both pastor Tim and I, on our way back home, were intercepted by three men who were obviously making there way from the homeless shelter to the marketplace to, no doubt, beg for money (for the usual alcohol and drugs). One of the men was in a wheelchair, having had both his legs amputated; he claimed that he had a terrible disease which cost him his limbs, but who knows, some of these guys get pretty messed up by abusing drugs. The man in the wheelchair gave us a brief account of his medical history and then asked us for some money to help pay for the "penicillin" he needed. Watching this man lie to us so easily was difficult to bear. Even his two buddies seemed to be uncomfortable with his lying to a couple of "God's preachers". We, of course, said "no!".

-After refusing to give them any money, one of the other men, looked me straight in the eyes and asked: "I just need to know, man, if I ask God to forgive me for the evil things I do, but I keep doing these evil things, will that help me at all?" When I told him that that would get him nowhere other than Hell, forever, his eyes teared up, and you could totally see the heartache that my answer had given him. I told him if he truly repented, the Lord would change his heart, and his old way of life would be no more; but he still walked away with his friends, going downtown to con their way to their next bottle or drug. How wretched... how absolutely depressing.


These are but a few events that caused me some measure of distress. There were others, but I just don't have the energy, or the willingness really, to share them with you tonight. I'm sorry. On the upside, I did receive one of the most original compliments from a brother-in-the-Lord who came to speak to us when we were preaching. It was also one of the nerdiest compliments I've ever received, he said:

"Wow! I'm really glad you guys are doing this! You guys are the real stuff! Not a lot of people are doing anything like this anymore... you guys are really the last of the Jedi!"

LOL! The last of the Jedi.

I'm off to bed now. Have a great weekend, and a blessed Lord's Day, dear readers. Forget "the Force" and may THE LORD be with you.


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism