Friday Night Notes

a lost and wasted generation...



All and all... a pretty miserable night of evangelism.  Pastor Tim and I were downtown with our Bible signs, preaching the Word of God to a lost and rebellious people who had no interest in the Living God.

Drunkenness was the order of the day.  We watched hundreds of young people who despite -10C to -13C temperatures (roughly 8F), were walking around drunk out of their minds, in shorts and mini-skirts, going from bar to bar on a cursed pub-crawl.  There were so many inebriated young people, the police had to get involved to maintain to calm things down.  It was a really sad sight, watching so many young men and women destroying themselves physically and spiritually.

Another downer was in the poor number of Gospel tracts that were ultimately handed out.  Nearly 3 hours of evangelism, and I don't know if I gave out more than 5 tracts.  I know it was no more than 10.  The people were just so foolish, and in some cases, so hostile... attitudes that aren't at all conducive  repentance and faith.

Again, all and all, pretty miserable...

This was the first Friday this year where I was in all my winter gear.  If tonight is any indication, it's going to be another long, cold winter.  Winter evangelism is difficult.  From the difficulty of handing out literature with big mittens on, to my toes and fingers freezing after the first hour of evangelism, the winter season is always tough on us street preachers.

But we persevere... heading God's command to "preach the Word in season and out of season", and trusting that God, ultimately, is glorified.

That is "our reasonable service."

God bless you, dear readers.


Rand

No Notes

bad weather...

We weren't able to go out street preaching last night due to rain... and cold rain at that!

Have a blessed weekend,

Rand

Friday Night Notes

a couple of helpers...

I was late for our customary night of evangelism.  I had a major repair to do in the lab, and the hours just flew by.  It was about 8:30pm by the time I made it to the market, where Pastor Tim was preaching the Gospel, with the help of a couple of young men.

The man in the picture with Pastor Tim is brother Ovo, a Nigerian-born deaf Christian.  He's been staying with Pastor Tim for a couple of days, and insisted on coming out with us for open-air evangelism.  For three hours this dear saint stood on a street corner, braving the cold weather with a Bible sign in hand, and offering Gospel tracts to people who passed by him.  Brother Ovo puts a lot of saints to shame: there are a lot of believers out there who have no disabilities whatsoever, who are totally able bodied, but who have never labored for the Gospel.

Our other guest evangelist was a young man who visited our assembly last Lord's Day.  His name is Daniel and he was quite the encouragement as I preached the Gospel.  Daniel held a Bible sign next to me as I preached and ever so often, he'd let an "Amen!" out.  You can't believe how refreshing that is when you are used to hearing nothing but cursing and blasphemy when preaching the Good Word.

It was a pretty busy night, all and all.  Lots of people were walking around the marketplace, which means a lot of people heard the Gospel.  We gave out a number of Gospel tracts and had a few one-on-one conversations, but probably not as many as we'd hoped for when we saw the number of souls in the market.  Still... who know what the Lord will do?

Daniel and I spoke to an atheist who couldn't understand why a deaf man (Brother Ovo) would want to stand on a corner to "preach Jesus".  I explained to the man that the Lord had saved Brother Ovo and that was why he was on a street corner, "preaching Jesus".  He walked away perplexed and annoyed.  He didn't understand.  He couldn't understand.  The Lord have mercy on his soul.

Lots of people mocked and insulted us.  So much that I was kind of glad that Brother Ovo couldn't hear their awful words.  He wasn't unaware of what was going on all around him however.  At the end of our night of evangelism, he wrote me a note that began with:

"Lots of people rejected the Gospel tonight..."

I suppose tonight's evangelism would have been quite wearisome and depressing, were it not for the helpers the Lord sent us.  It was quite refreshing to have them with us.  I hope the Lord will be pleased to add a few labourers to work with us in the weeks ahead.  His will be done!

Have a blessed and safe weekend, dear readers...


Rand

"The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest." (Luke 10:2)

Friday Night Notes

Pastor Tim's back...



It was a shorter night of evangelism tonight.  I was stuck working late in the lab, and I didn't want to stay downtown 'till near midnight; I have a sermon to complete tomorrow for the Lord's Day evening service.

It was good to have my street preaching partner back.  Pastor Tim had been away for over two weeks, visiting family in Germany.  The good preacher is still quite jet lagged, so I think he appreciated a shorter night of evangelism tonight.  We were downtown from 8pm to a little past 10pm, in our usual spot, declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We didn't have much by way of one-on-one conversations.  Come to think of it, I don't think I had a single one.  Maybe a very short one with a middle-eastern fellow.  I saw Pastor Tim having a couple of conversations, but nothing too long lasting.  We both had a few souls come by tonight, asking us to give them a Bible tract, which we happily handed over.  One of those souls seemed interested to visit our assembly for one of our Lord's Day services.

We received a little bit of encouragement from fellow saints throughout the night, but again, for the most part, blasphemy, cursing and mockery was far more abundant.  One French fellow thought it amusing to yell out repeatedly: "He's dead!"  It'll be a fearful, awful day, when he realizes that his Judge is very much alive.

Another sad observation tonight: it looks like Brother Layton and his Open-Air Campaigners are done evangelizing for the winter.  They weren't at their post across the Rideau Center mall tonight, and if memory serves, this is about when they stopped in years past.  I know Brother Layton does various forms of evangelism throughout the year, and I pray the Lord give him success in his winter endeavors.

Well, it's pretty late... and I have a sermon to finish writing tomorrow, so I better turn in.

Thanks for keeping up with our efforts, dear readers.

God bless you!


Rand

Saturday Night Notes

cold weather is back...

Things were just too busy last night, so I went out for a few hours of street preaching tonight instead.  It was cold.  Real cold.  Next week, I'm wearing my winter gear.  For sure.

Saturday nights in the market are much quieter than Fridays if tonight is any indication.  I noticed that the big shopping mall at the edge of the market was closed when I started my evangelism effort; it's open 'till 9pm on Friday.  I suppose it closed at 6pm or 7pm.  With all those shops and restaurants closed for the day, it's little wonder things were quiet downtown.

I handed out a few tracts and only had two short one-on-one conversations with unbelievers.  Not terribly surprising considering the few souls I ministered to, and the frigid weather that had everyone shivering.  The souls I did minister the Gospel to, for the most part, was pretty vile and hostile to the Word of Life.  It's so sad to watch ruined people spurning the only way to make their lives right.  It's even sadder to see how most of the people don't even realize that it is their own sin that is ruining them.

The one ray of light tonight came when a cab driver, a middle-eastern man, stopped in front of where I was preaching the Gospel, rolled down his window, gave me a "thumbs up" and said he admired and approved of what I was doing.  He called me "his brother", and he may very well have been.  The Lord bless him.

Nothing much else to report for tonight, so I'm going to turn in now.

God bless you all, dear readers...

Rand