Friday Night Notes

a few ups... lots of downs...


On one hand, it was good to be out there again.  Doing the Lord's work, preaching His great Gospel... doing my best to glorify him in word, action and thought.  That was good.  On the other hand, there was still so many vile things going on in the marketplace (and I mean v-i-l-e!), it was difficult, at times, to not grow discouraged.

The market was pretty quiet tonight.  We would get a few bursts of people walking by, but all and all, the numbers were way down.  It'll probably remain this way until the Holidays, and I don't mind that at all.  After a number of really, really bad nights of evangelism, quieter times are welcome.

I was happy to see my good friend Peter tonight.  He drove by our preaching spot in his police cruiser and he would have passed right by without seeing me, had I not yelled out: "Hey Pete!"  We didn't talk for long, but it was good to shake his hand.  He asked me if I was scaring the heathen... and to that I replied: "I'm always trying to scare the heathen!"  He laughed.  Remember Peter in your prayers, dear saints.  Peter and I use to work together and I shared the Gospel with him a number of times, but it never took.  I'm hoping the Lord will use chance meetings like tonight to awaken Peter, before it's too late.

Another sweet thing happened when Pastor Tim and I were switching spots (when I took over preaching).  A Chinese woman who owns a store near our preaching spot came by to see us and gave us each a bottle of spring water.  We don't normally get a great deal of kindness shown to us on our evangelistic efforts... when it happens, it's quite refreshing.

We had a number of one-on-one conversations with sinners, but most of them were too vulgar for me to share with you.  I could, but I just don't feel like thinking about it and writing it down.  Most weren't terribly bad, but all were quite carnal and foolish.  One man in particular named Yvon, he showed much interest in the Gospel, but everything he said was, well, kind of messed up.  There's little doubt that there was a lot of alcohol in Yvon's system.  Remember him in prayer, that the Lord will use what we shared with him tonight to get him to church on the Lord's Day.

There was one funny moment, involving Pastor Tim and a woman who took exception to our 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 sign.  First she read it, then she walked up to Pastor Tim in a huff and said: "I'm so sorry that you interpreted the Bible wrong!"  Pastor Tim paused before saying anything, clearly baffled, and then slowly said: "But you just read the Scripture for yourself... I didn't say anything, much less interpret anything."  The woman then went bananas, and the good preacher just let her rant and rave till she exhausted herself and left.

On our way back home, we witnessed a number of sad, wicked, and degrading sights.  Neither of us commented on what we saw.  We didn't have to.  It's hard to not let it get to you, but we try.

Remember us in your prayers, dear saints.


Rand