Monday Afternoon Notes

don't argue with the pastor...


So I got done early from work today and I decided to start my Christmas vacation on the right foot: I went out street preaching in the marketplace.

Just before leaving work, I called pastor Tim up and asked him if he wanted to join me. His answer surprised me:

"No," he said.

"What do you mean 'no'?" I inquired.

"It's too cold and miserable out there," he said. "The weather is suppose to be better tomorrow, I'll go then."

"It's not that cold," I replied. "The Weather Network website says it's just -16 C (3 Fahrenheit)" (if you find this statement ludicrous, it's because you're not Canadian)

"Yeah, but you're not factoring the wind, Rand," my pastor added.

At this point, I stopped arguing with pastor Tim and told him that I was going to go preaching with or without him. I ended up going without him. Now it is here that I would like to make a note to myself, for future reference:

Never... EVER... argue with the veteran street preacher!

I can't even begin to describe to you how cold I was out there. Officially, it went down to -18 C (0 Fahrenheit) while I was out street preaching; but in the wind, it felt like -27 C (-17 Fahrenheit)! When I was walking down Byward street, I had the wind right in my face and I couldn't even keep my eyes open. At this point, I really felt stupid that I hadn't listened to the voice of Elder Tim.

Still though, by the grace of God, I managed to keep myself warm enough to put in nearly three hours of evangelism. I had to take a few breaks to warm myself up (you guessed it... I was back in the parking garage, running up and down those disgusting stairs). I couldn't stand in one place too long 'cause my fingers and toes began to freeze (literally), so my preaching stints were only 20 minutes long, as was my tract distribution.

The marketplace was still pretty busy despite the unfriendly weather, but as you can well imagine, not many were in the mood to talk with a street preacher in this bitter cold. However, I did give out a good number of Bible tracts and I did have one conversation with a Pentecostal fellow who was really pleased to see me doing the work of the Gospel. His name was Joshua and he said he would like to join pastor Tim and I on our next evangelistic endeavour. I told him to give pastor Tim to arrange a meeting with him and he said he would. Neither pastor Tim nor I have much time for Pentecostalism, but if we can help this young man doctrinally, or even just getting serious about evangelism, I believe the Lord would be glorified.

I also spoke to a woman who had parked her car in a "no-stop" zone. At first, I just warned her that she was at risk of getting a very hefty ticket. She said that she needed to pick something up from one of the nearby shops and that it couldn't be helped. When she came back she asked me if the "parking-nazis" had ticketed her, and I said that she had dodged a bullet. She took one of my Bible tracts and said: "God really is good!" We both laughed. The Lord be merciful to her.

I had a few souls mock me, a few others cursed at me, but all and all, not much nonsense. I guess it was just too cold to give the preacher a hard time. Heh heh.

And that's the notes dear readers. Probably won't be any notes until next week, we will be visiting family all over the place in the next few days.

Dear friends, have a safe, blessed Christmas.


Rand

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21)

Labels: Evangelism