Friday Night Notes
Saturday, September 29, 2012
not much better, I'm afraid...
Can't say I'm as upset tonight as I was last week. There's a kind of cold resignation that comes upon me when I see too much bad. I'm not saying I'm throwing in the towel, not in any shape or form. What I mean is that I, without a shadow of a doubt, made my way to the market tonight fully expecting much evil to come my way... and the market didn't disappoint in that regard.It's a bad attitude to be sure.
Our John 3:16 sign took more beatings tonight, and in one instance, Pastor Tim took a few blows for trying to protect the sign. The good preacher even appealed to his attacker that he was "just an old man" who wasn't looking for a fight; and still, the drunken twenty-year old shoved and kicked. I ended up calling 911 for some police help, which scared the wicked soul away. An Officer Joseph arrived a few minutes after the fiasco, but by then, everything was well over.
While the physical abuse wasn't pleasant, I have to say the verbal abuse wasn't as grievous as last week. Ha! What a joke. I'm trying to find a silver lining and all I come up with is: "Well... my 60-something-year-old pastor was violently pushed around, but we weren't F-bombed as much."
Okay. I have a really bad attitude. I'm going to have to seriously pray about this.
Actually, here's a more reasonable silver lining: we handed out a fair number of tracts, and we made contact with an old friend who attended our church meetings a couple of years ago. Oh! and I should also mention, in the positive news category, that the guitar player who was so antagonistic toward us hasn't been in the market for weeks now. I had prayed to the Lord for his salvation, or that the Lord would just rid us on his constant berating. Seems the Lord went with the later request, for the time being at least.
I'm going to leave it at that for tonight. It wasn't a good night, yet I know the Lord could still work much good through it.
Brother Larry, an American evangelist who regularly comments here, sent me an e-mail I thought would be best shared with all my praying brothers and sisters who visit this blog:
Please pray for a glorifying out-come to a legal situation our preach team is involved in. Nine of our team was arrested on U.S. Labor Day weekend holiday, as we preached in the heart of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana.
13 or 14 people have been arrested, for allegedly violating a city ordinance which bans sharing a religious message between the hours of sunset & sunrise in this 24 hr a day revelry district. If this ordinance is not overturned our team members may face a $$$ fine and up to Six Months in jail.
Thank you for your faithfulness to our Lord.
Blessings,
LarryHu
Bans on "sharing religious messages" in a so-called "free society". How wretched. I'm not looking down on Americans in this regard, my city has similar by-laws prohibiting evangelism during the daytime in the marketplace. Freedom of speech... so long as you keep Jesus out.
Remember these brothers in your prayers, dear saints, and continue to pray for us.
God bless you,
Rand
2:39 AM
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Bro. Luc don't forget I still have a court date coming up for trespassing in the park in Cornwall during Rib Fest. I was not arrested, but fined, but I was remove in handcuffs from the park, and had a ride in a patrol car. Wow! Never had that happen before! It seems I broke a by-law that says if your a vendor selling items you need a license. Since I would not pay the fee to Rib fest for a spot to be a vendor, I was removed for trespassing. I still can't figure out what I was selling - salvation is free, and preaching/giving out gospel tracts is at no charge. So it is going to be interesting when I talk to the Crown on Oct. 16 - preliminary meeting. So as we pray for one another, may the good Lord be magnified in my life, or in my death!
Pastor Tom Newton