Friday Night Notes

back from vacation, and back to work...


Back after a 3 week hiatus due to a long overdue family vacation, and found the marketplace much like how I left it.  Filthy.  Wicked.  Desperate.  Demented.

It was a fairly uneventful night of evangelism.  Had just a couple of one-on-one conversations with sinners and gave out a fair number of Bible tracts, but no great revivals to report (no great persecutions either, for which I am thankful).

One of the conversations I had was with a young couple who inquired why Pastor Tim and I were in the market with Bible signs, preaching "God-stuff".  I explained that doctrine of the Great Commission, and that our Friday night endeavours were our application of this doctrine.  The young man immediately said: "Well... there's nothing wrong with that!"  The young lady quickly concured.  It always makes me laugh that for so many, it is a shocking and surprising thing the we Christian Fundamentalists really are perfectly reasonable people.

I received a number of blessings from people who walked by me as I preached this evening.  None of them stuck around to speak to me, so I'm not really sure how many of the "God bless" I received were actually genuine.  One man however made it clear he supported me by handing me a 20$ bill, saying: "I want you to take this in support of your ministry."  (I put the 20$ in Bytown Baptist Church's rice fund jar... money that is used at the end of each month to purchase rice bags for saints in need in Liberia, Africa).

The wicked guitar player that has been plaguing our evangelistic efforts for the better part of a year was MIA tonight, and that was a wonderful thing.  Don't get me wrong, I don't wish him any ill, but not having him around mocking us incessantly was so nice.  Two other guys had set up shop near our preaching spot with a drum set and an electric guitar, and they played their music loud enough that I wondered if we would have to find another area to preach from.  Everything worked out however when a police officer showed up and instructed the young men to drop the volume of their amplifiers, or he would have them removed.  The young men complied and our work continued unhindered.

About half an hour before Pastor Tim and I called it a night, a young lady, speaking to her boyfriend, referred to Pastor Tim and I as "Jesus Freaks".  Hadn't heard that one in a long, long time.  I told the young lady that she reminded me of the old DC Talks song by that title.  Not surprisingly, she had never heard of it.  I think she felt bad that I had overheard her derogatory remark, so she actually took a very conciliatory tone and asked for a Bible tract, which I promptly handed to her.

I got an even clearer apology a few moments later, but that whole event was really off-putting.  A child, not older than 10 years of age called me an exceeding crude name (I doubt the child even knows what the word means), in front of her parents no less.  The parents scolded the child and I got a "I'm sorry, okay, I was just kidding around...".  I didn't make a fuss and just nodded to both the child and the parents, but that whole scene was really disturbing to me.  Had that been one of my children, I'd be spending the next few days wondering how I could have failed so badly at parenting, to have my child speak such filth in public, to a complete stranger.  The Lord be merciful.

When I got home, near twelve midnight, it felt like I was back to sanity.  My wife greeted me with a warm embrace, and when we went up to our room, we found someone had made his way into our bed...



God bless you, dear readers.

Rand