A Form of Sound Words

(Short) Friday Night Notes

2012-01-28T01:32:00.002-05:00

helping mass specs, and sinners...

I had my jacket, my boots, and my gloves on. I was on my way downtown straight from work for our night of evangelism. However, I just couldn't go without having one more look at the lab, to make sure everything was in order. I wasn't in the lab two seconds, and my gloves and jacket came off. The instruments in the picture to the left were not behaving at all. It took me two extra hours to get everything patched up.

Throughout that extra two hours, I regularly tried to reach Pastor Tim by phone, but there was no answer. Seems we got our signals crossed, he assumed I wasn't available for evangelism tonight, so he planned a couple of personal visits (which is why there was no answer at his house). It was 8:30pm when I finally left my work, and not wanting to go a whole two weeks without an evangelism report for you, dear readers, I made my way to the market. I always keep a stack of Bible tracts in my coat pocket, so I had some equipment with me for evangelism.

I found a street which had a steady flow of people and started offering tracts to those who walked by. I was surprised at how many tracts I gave out in an hour. The flow of people was pretty steady (there were a lot of hockey fans in the market tonight... my city is hosting the NHL All-Star Game this weekend). I even found myself offering a tract to François Gagnon, a sports writer and TV analyst for the Montreal Canadiens; sadly, he turned down my offer.

Nothing much else to report. I was glad that I was at least able to hand out some tracts and not have totally lost my Friday night of evangelism. Hopefully, next week, the good preacher and I will be at our post, proclaiming the Gospel of Peace to a very wicked, lost generation.

Remember us in your prayers, dear saints.

Rand

No Notes

2012-01-21T01:02:00.001-05:00

sick...

A virus has gone through my house this week. I'm its latest victim, so there will be no Friday Night Notes tonight.

Have a good weekend!

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2012-01-14T02:03:00.003-05:00

the pope is an antichrist!!!

We got a good shot of winter the last couple of days, with two solid days of snow as you can clearly see in the above picture. I thought the snowed-over roads would discourage many people from coming downtown... I thought Pastor Tim and I would be pretty lonely in the marketplace, but there were a fair number of souls walking the streets of the market tonight. We handed out a number of Gospel tracts and had a few one-on-one conversations. A better night of evangelism than I anticipated.

In my first half-hour of preaching, a young lady stood across the street, listening intently to my words. After a few minutes she came over with some questions about my evangelism and about the exact nature of the faith I was proclaiming. She was quite honest with me, telling me that she had no faith, but found people of faith interesting. I was able to give a short Gospel message to her and a friend who joined her moments later. She truly appreciated my words, and her friend concluded that I was: "the sanest preacher she ever spoke to!"

After completing our first hour of evangelism, the temperature starting dropping and the wind began to be a factor. The good preacher and I alternated warming ourselves in a nearby parking garage while the other carried on with the Gospel work. I prayed that the Lord would keep those who would harm us or our Bible signs away... the marketplace can be a dangerous place when unbelievers see that the preacher is alone. One man spat on our 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 sign and another tried to rip my Romans 6:23 sign from my hands, but I held on tight. A few short minutes after, the same man tried to do the same to Pastor Tim but even at well over 60 years of age, his grip is as good (if not better) than mine! Other than those three incidents, the rest of the night went pretty well.

During my round of preaching, a Muslim man came by to challenge me. It was pretty funny. He had all his anti-Christian arguments ready to go... he figured he was going to show me... poor soul, he left pretty confused. His problem was that in his mind, Christians were synonymous with Romanism. You should have seen his face when I said: "The pope is an antichrist! He is a really, really evil man!" All his "anti-Christian" arguments were actually "anti-Romanism" arguments, and when I pointed that out to him, and continued to point to the Bible as my sole authority for faith and practice, he was speechless. He walked away one confused man.

In our last hour of evangelism, Pastor Tim and I both dealt with a homeless man who had read one of our Bible tracts. He said that God would never judge or condemn him, no matter what! He said nothing could change his mind on that and quickly walked away, perceiving that Pastor Tim and I had an opposing point of view to present. We watched him go back to his panhandling, to his misery, and barring future grace, his condemnation. A sad sight.

Moments before leaving the market I had a quick word with a young mocker who pridefully exclaimed: "God's a fake!" I told him that he would regret those words on the judgment day. He stood in front of me, surprised that I had responded to his folly. I couldn't believe how effeminate he looked. I don't think he was a homosexual, but the Justin Bieber hair, the little cigarillo between his fingers, and his general disposition was, well, feminine. Kind of disturbing. His friends encouraged him to just walk away, which he eventually did after dishing out a bit more mockery. The Lord have mercy on his soul.

And that pretty much sums up our night of evangelism. I thank the Lord my God for His protection on us, and that we were able to preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ on yet another Friday night.

God bless you, dear readers. Have a blessed and safe weekend.

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2012-01-07T01:14:00.003-05:00

saved FROM our sins...

It was good to be back at our post tonight, for our customary night of evangelism in the downtown marketplace. Much quieter than in the summertime, but we still ministered the Gospel of Jesus to hundreds of souls with open-air preaching, tract distribution and holding forth our Bible signs. I trust the Lord was glorified.

Not much to report tonight. Pastor Tim had a couple of short one-on-one conversations with curious souls, I had but one, and it was of the unprofitable sort. I spent most of our last half-hour of evangelism enduring the ramblings, false charges and diatribes of an annoyed guitar playing pan-handler. The wicked soul was unimpressed with our Bible signs and berated Pastor Tim whilst he tried to preach the Gospel. So I suggested to Pastor Tim that he preach a little further down the street, while I offered myself as a target for the foolish persecutor. It was a long, long twenty minutes I have to say. At first I was called a hypocrite, then a hatemonger, a liar, and to cap things off, I was told that I was just looking to be a martyr to satisfy an ego trip (don't ask how that makes any sense... arguments against the Gospel get pretty wacky when sinners make things up as they go).

We gave out a good number of Gospel tracts tonight. Pastor Tim and I prayed that the Lord would use these throughout the weekend to save the lost.

I thank the Lord for a relatively soft winter night weather wise. It was about -9 Celsius (or 15 Fahrenheit) which is cold, but in Canada, not terrible. I thought I'd be able to make it through the night without heat-packs in my gloves and boots, but that was folly. After an hour in the cold breeze, I sought and found a dry spot in a nearby parking garage where I pulled out a couple of heat packs and threw them in my boots, and two others in my gloves. It did the trick.

Watching many souls walk by tonight, obviously unconverted, I thanked the Lord for saving me. Had it not been for His grace toward me, there would be no difference between the lost souls of the marketplace and myself. Praise God, Jesus died for me!

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

Rand

No Notes

2011-12-23T23:25:00.002-05:00

it's that time of the year...

There are no street preaching report for tonight, dear readers. We have my daughter's birthday tomorrow, Christmas on the Lord's Day, and my son's birthday early next week. I needed to stay home tonight to help my wife with all the preparations.

There will be a lot of traveling for my family and I for the next two weeks. It's doubtful that I will be able to do any evangelism work during this time. I leave you, dear friends, with a heartfelt: "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year".

Lord willing, I will be back at my post on the first week of January, 2012.

God bless you all!

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2011-12-17T00:48:00.004-05:00

let it snow!!!

It took awhile, but we have snow on the ground! Just a dusting... but it's a start. For the first time in a long time, I was actually prepared for the cold and snow: a pair of gloves with heat packs in them, my winter boots, a few sweaters, winter jacket and a hat. Unfortunately, not everyone in the market was prepared. You have no idea how many drunk women in high heels I watched slip and fall on their behinds tonight.

The response to our evangelistic effort was quite varied. There was some good, and some not so good. That said, the Lord helped us much. We kept warm, we preached the Gospel for a good 3 hours, and spoke face-to-face with a few lost sinners who had questions. I trust my God was glorified by our work.

After my first half-hour of Gospel preaching, a young man named Dominic came with some questions. He professed to be an agnostic, and wanted to know how I dealt with "God's apparent cruelty". I wasn't sure what he meant at first but after a bit of questioning I realized he meant "eternal condemnation". I explained that God's nature itself necessitates judgment and condemnation. His attributes like righteousness, holiness and justice required the wicked be judged and condemned, and that any compromise on God's part would destroy his perfect attributes. I then went into the Gospel message and showed forth God's perfect love and mercy toward lost sinners. The conversation was a good one. Really good.

After a few minutes however, another young man by the name of Taz showed up. Taz cut into our conversation and attempted to discredit everything I said. He was quite snarky and condescending. He spoke like Jeff Goldblum, snippy little diatribes, separated only with "uh... uh... uh...". Wanting to be "the bigger man", I just let him talk. I didn't defend myself or lose my temper. I just prayed for the Lord's help... and I got it. What happened next was most impressive. Dominic, the agnostic, looked at Taz and said:

"What are you doing? Why are you being so sarcastic and condescending? This guy isn't doing anything wrong... definitely nothing worthy of contempt."

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Not only was an agnostic sticking up for me, but Taz totally backed down and was apologetic. Never saw anything quite like that! At that point, Dominic and Taz started speaking of various philosophies, trying to understand the nature of morality, faith and happiness. It was quite the conversation. I contributed very little to their exchange, but when they wanted to hear what I had to say, I replied:

"My friends, I don't feel I'm well equipped to comment on the various philosophies you've been debating for 10-15 minutes now. All I know, for sure, is that Jesus died for me. He saved me from sin and misery 25 years ago, and by His grace, I have saving faith, the Holy Spirit is working sanctification in my life, and I am the happiest man on Earth. That's why I'm here tonight. The Lord has done so wondrously in my life, and this work is my reasonable service."

Neither of them had anything to say at this point. Taz shook my hand and bid us "goodnight", Dominic and I conversed a little more before he took off as well. Both men said that I had given them much to think about. I truly hope this is the beginning of wonderful stories of grace.

I'd say the first hour of our evangelism was the best. We handed out a fair number of tracts and the street preaching went on without much opposition. Both Pastor Tim and I spoke briefly with Christians who were walking by, and answered a few questions from curious souls.

By the second hour, we started receiving more mockery and scorn. From F-bombs to grievous blasphemies, we heard it all. An Eastern European woman, at one point walked up to me, just to make it clear that she "didn't care at all about the Gospel". An older gentlemen suggested I read some of Christopher Hitchens' works to "edumecate" myself. I replied that poor Hitchens knows a whole lot better today, sadly.

At 10:30pm, we called it a night and headed home. On our way back to Pastor Tim's house, I thanked the Lord for enabling us to serve Him tonight. It's rarely easy. There so much unpleasantness to endure, but as Hebrews 4:12 puts it: "Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." I know Someone who has though, and I hope to serve Him all the days of my life.

God bless you, dear readers. Have a blessed and safe weekend.

Rand

No Notes

2011-12-09T22:51:00.003-05:00

2011-11-11T19:38:00.002-05:00

away...

We are away this weekend, visiting family... so there will be no "Friday Night Notes" this week.

God bless!

Rand

Just A Few Notes

2011-11-05T01:05:00.002-04:00

what a work-week!!!

This week has been a crazy one at my workplace. Two of our mass spectrometers (very, very expensive lab instrumentation) experienced serious technical difficulties which required my intervention. A lot of overtime was done, and alot of money was, and will be spent to fix to complete the repairs. I spent the day and a good portion of the night staring at images like the one above (they are called "mass spectra"), so I didn't have much time for evangelism tonight.

That said, at about 9:30pm, I left the lab and before catching the bus home, I took a small detour to the marketplace and distributed some Bible tracts. The market was busy enough; I gave out a fair number of tracts in a little more than half-an-hour. I spoke to a young man named Julian, a student who is actually working in a lab in my building. He and I have spoken before about the Gospel of Jesus and I was pleased that he continued to show an interest in the things which pertains to the Scriptures. He took one of the Bible tracts I was offering before taking off... I hope and pray the Lord will save him.

The Lord use the little I was able to do tonight for His own honour and glory!

Have a blessed weekend, dear saints.

Rand

Thursday Night Notes!!!

2011-10-28T01:00:00.002-04:00

didn't expect that now did ya?

I went out street preaching a day earlier than the usual time due to scheduling conflicts. I'm not just a street preacher, I'm also a lab technician, a husband, and a father of four. Friday night, I will be putting on my "daddy" hat, and will be going to a hockey game with my eldest son who will be celebrating a birthday early next week (Pastor Tim was actually given a couple of tickets to our local junior hockey team and he passed them on to me and suggested I take my son).

I was out, by myself, for a little over 2 hours, street preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and handing Bible tracts, and I suspect Pastor Tim will be doing the same tomorrow night (remember him in your prayers, dear saints). It was cold and quiet on the streets of the marketplace tonight. I forgot to bring my gloves with me (I didn't think I'd need them), and my hands froze two or three times (to the point that they ached when I paused to warm them up). Mental note: break out the winter gear.

The market was mostly empty tonight. It's the same every year. Things will remain this way until December, and then there will be a bit of a spike in the number of souls in the market. Even then, the large crowds are gone until springtime, some 5-6 months away. Still, we will continue the work of the Great Commission... preaching to a few hundreds may seem like a big drop when compared to the tens of thousands that crowd the streets of the market in the summer, but giving the Gospel to those few hundreds is a whole lot better than not giving it to anyone over the span of 5-6 months!

With the smaller crowds, I ended up doing more tract distribution than preaching. I walked around looking for groups of people I could share the Gospel with. I ended up setting shop near the entrance of a shopping mall where many souls read the Bible sign I was carrying, and a fair number of them accepted some literature. The Lord use those seeds as He sees fit.

I spoke with a man named Randy who was mighty happy to see me preaching. He professed to be a believer, and said he really appreciated what I was doing. There were a number of doctrinal and practical problems in Randy's testimony, so I don't know if he is genuinely my brother-in-the-Lord, but he definitely had an interest and an appreciation for the things of God. I encouraged him to become faithful to a local assembly of believers, and most of all, that he would be faithful in the Scriptures. He received everything I had to say and didn't argue against the Scriptures I cited, which is a decidedly good thing. The Lord be merciful to him.

On a few occasions tonight, I had young people walk up to me to receive a Bible tract. Like they would walk from across the street, or would deviate from their course in order to receive something of the Gospel of Christ. I love it when that happens. One young lady, after taking a tract, even said: "I think you are doing the Lord's work right now... and I really respect that!"

I called it a night around 8pm. By that time, my whole body was shivering and both my hands were frozen. Ah! the cold season...

Here we go again.

Rand

No Notes

2011-10-22T01:46:00.002-04:00

rain and paint...

There is no street preaching report this week, dear readers. It was raining tonight, so both Pastor Tim and I stayed home and worked on our respective homes! Lots and lots of painting!

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

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2011-10-15T02:04:00.002-04:00

descent night of evangelism...

We nearly cancelled our night of evangelism due to rain, but by evening, the rain was really light, so we pressed on. It was wet and damp, a bit cold, but the Lord helped us complete another three hours of street preaching for His honour and glory.

For a rainy night, the marketplace was busy enough. We had a steady flow of people walking by our Bible signs, some took some of our Gospel literature, and we had a number of one-on-one conversations with lost sinners. All in all, a good night of street evangelism.

I spoke at length with three men: Liam, James and Clay. Liam had a battery of questions for me, from "why am I preaching downtown?" to "how does God affect your daily life?". He also asked questions about my life in general and was surprised that I was, in his words, "a real dude!" I was kind of funny. By answering his questions, Liam and his friends got a pretty good Gospel presentation from me; I hope the Lord will be pleased to save them!

Pastor Tim also had a few conversations with souls that had a genuine interest in the Gospel. I saw him shake hands with a number of people who offered him encouragement or simply came for some answers. Both of us heard "God bless you!" on a number of occasions tonight; some of those came from polite unbelievers, but many came from saints. During our last half-hour of evangelism, I even had a young couple, Evgeni and Rachel, come over to pray for me! And as if that wasn't enough, as this dear couple asked the Lord to bless me and help me in prayer, Pastor Tim, a block away, was visited by a group of young Christians who, you guessed it, formed a circle and prayed for him. The Lord bless and reward richly these dear souls for refreshing us evangelists.

The night did have its challenges though. The wicked guitar player that has been plaguing us these last few months was at his post again tonight, mocking and blaspheming. Pastor Tim and I agreed that it was best just to ignore the wicked soul, but when he yelled at me tonight, mockingly asking me to preach to him, I couldn't resist:

"Okay," I began, "you are a miserable, wicked sinner. You need to repent and be converted to God."

"Bah," he replied, "I may be a wicked sinner, but I ain't no hypocrite!"

"No," I said, "you're a hypocrite too!"

At that point, the wicked soul began walking away, heading for a pub I had seen him go to on a number of occasions in the past. Again, I couldn't resist:

"You go blow that money on drink now!"

The inside joke is that he proclaims to one and all before beginning his "musical" act (note the quotation marks... he's awful!) that donations go to help support his family. The fact of the matter is, the second he has enough money for the pub, he scoots off for a few minutes, only to return to "work" for the next trip. Good thing "he ain't no hypocrite".

There were other mockers and scorners, but at this point, I've forgotten most of what they said, and that's a good thing. The Lord have mercy on them.

On that note, I'll say goodnight and have a blessed, safe weekend, dear saints.

Remember us in your prayers!

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2011-10-08T02:43:00.002-04:00

Friday Night Notes

2011-08-06T00:49:00.003-04:00

busy streets...

Tonight was the busiest I've seen the marketplace this year. Thousands upon thousands of lost souls walking the streets looking for some vanity, some foolish and destructive activity to indulge in. It truly is heartbreaking to watch.

Due to an uncooperative experiment in the laboratory where I work, I was late in getting downtown for our customary night of evangelism. When I got there, Pastor Tim was already setup and preaching the Gospel. He was facing annoying resistance from three young panhandlers who were begging for spare change across the street from our usual street preaching spot. They yelled out obscenities from across the street, and on a couple of occasions, they walked up to him only to yell and mock. After 30 minutes of that nonsense, the young sinners realized that the good preacher wouldn't be intimidated, so they remained quiet for the remainder of the night.

During my preaching shift, I was able to share the Gospel with a young man who claimed to have studied the Bible. The conversation wasn't a long one, but I gathered the young man, while religious, wasn't saved. I handed him a Bible tract and encouraged him to prayerfully consider the words therein. The Lord be merciful to him.

Shortly after that exchange a young woman walked by me, surrounded by her friends. All of them were dressed provocatively, which always presents a challenge for an evangelist. The young woman read my John 3:16 Bible sign and professed to believe. I was about to point out her lack of modesty, but she walked away before I could utter a word. The Lord however would give me another opportunity. Moments later, the same group of women walked by as I was preaching...

"The Bible says the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good," I began, "what is God watching you do tonight? What words is God hearing you speak? What kind of clothing (or lack thereof) is He seeing on you? What secret thoughts do you have, that He is fully aware of?"

There was no doubt the young women felt conviction. They quickly turned their guilt into a joke and walked away laughing. What folly.

I spent a good portion of the night simply standing on a street corner with a Bible sign in one hand, and Gospel tracts in the other. With the crowds in the market, the noise level was so high (from music, chatter, and car traffic), it was difficult to preach. It was so noisy it was difficult to think! However, I did hear a lot of mockery directed at me, and in some instances, directed at God Himself. Only one man, driving a taxi, rolled down his window and said: "God bless you, my brother." The Lord bless him for his kindness.

We preached the Gospel to a whole lot of people tonight. A good number of souls have Gospel tracts in their pockets. Surely amongst all those souls, we've had some contact with some of God's lost sheep. The Lord use our efforts as He sees fit.

With that, it's really late, and I'm sooooo tired. Goodnight, dear readers.

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2011-07-30T00:17:00.003-04:00

so much misery...

It was an up-and-down kind of night, as far as evangelism was concerned. I was on my own tonight (Pastor Tim is out of town spending some quality time with his son and grand kids), with a pocket full of Gospel tracts and a Bible sign in hand, right there on a street corner in the marketplace. Downtown was busy enough, but not as busy as I figured it would be considering the warm weather and clear skies.

The first hour of my evening of evangelism was less than stellar. A woman walking by with her boyfriend fastened her eyes on me and my John 3:16 Bible sign and gave me the finger. No idea why. I didn't think asking for an explanation was going to be a very profitable use of my time.

Moments after that encounter, an elderly man, in a snarky voice, pointed out that he appreciated my "quiet preaching" (I wasn't preaching at the time, I was just handing out Bible tracts). He scoffed and rejected my Bible tract offer, and walked away, his nose pridefully up in the air. The Lord have mercy.

My second hour of evangelism didn't start out too well either, as I started feeling physically ill. Not sure if it was the humidity or if I'm slowly coming down with something, but I felt week and queasy. I did my best to shake it off and pressed on with a second round of Gospel preaching. An Iranian immigrant came by as I was preaching and took one of my Bible tracts. She claimed to be a believer but judging the way she was dressed, I had my doubts. She shared with me various problems and hardships she was going through and how she needed the Lord to help and uphold her. I encouraged her to get close to God by joining a sound, Bible-preaching church, and invited her to our church on the Lord's Day. She said she would come by on Sunday. I hope she does, as I hope the Lord will save and sanctify her.

Right after this conversation I ran into David. I met David for the first time a few months ago, he was high on drugs, but at the same time, knew he was in big spiritual trouble. I encouraged him to leave the wicked downtown environment, head home and start seeking God in prayer and in the Bible. I was shocked to see him take off for home that very second, and I was hopeful that perhaps the Lord would do something for the young soul.

Tonight, David had a bunch of Bible tracts in his hands. He was labouring with the Open-Air Campaigners and he had obviously been spending time in the Bible. He seemed to have made some progress spiritually, but the more we spoke, the more I was concerned for him. I don't think he's having a great deal of success over his addictions, and he is definitely tormented by various fears. Bottom line: I'm seeing evidence of a man who is trying to self-reform by religious works. He asked me to pray for him, and I promised I would. I encouraged him to build and work on a real relationship with the Living God, through Bible meditation and prayer. I hope he will again receive and follow my advice.

During my third hour of evangelism, I dealt with three lesbians who were for the most part, totally ignorant of the Gospel of Christ. I explained God's New Testament commandment that all were to repent (change their minds) of sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The women weren't too disrespectful (there were a few shenanigans), they took a few Bible tracts and went on their way. The Lord save them out of their ignorance, unbelief, and immorality.

With roughly thirty minutes left to my night of evangelism, I decided to walk around downtown with my Bible sign; there were so many people walking the streets, and many more sitting on outdoor restaurant terraces, I figured that taking my Bible sign around would be a good way to show forth the Word of Truth to many, many souls. I was, of course, mocked by many, scorned by others. I did however get some encouragement:

"God bless you, my brother," one man said, while driving by in his car.

"You're on your way to Zion, my friend," another man said. (I think I replied something like: "Can't wait to get there!")

That's all I have to report for this week. Remember me in your prayers, dear saints, as I will be responsible for all preaching duties at church this Lord's Day.

Have a blessed and safe weekend...

Rand

2011-07-09T01:45:00.002-04:00

messy night...

It was so warm this evening, that I opted to leave behind a vest I usually take with me for our night of evangelism. The market was teeming with life; thousands of sinners eating, drinking and being merry. The noise level was high and ungodliness abounded. As we made our way to our preaching spot, I marvelled at the desperate state of the people around me: unbelieving, lost and not caring.

We had just finished setting up our Bible signs, barely 2 minutes into our time of evangelism that two sodomites showed up, obviously scheming some mischief against us. Both Pastor Tim and I held our Bible signs tightly and waited to see what folly they would attempt on us. Turns out, they had stickers with foul language on them and they wanted to stick these abominations on our signs. Things were getting pretty tense when providentially, a police cruiser came driving by. We flagged him down, but the two sodomites rushed to the police officer, to state their complaints against us. We just let them have their time, being confident that the police officer was no fool. The police officer dealt with the sad souls for a good 15 minutes, and then directed them away from us. The officer, after speaking to Pastor Tim for a quick minute, came by and said:

"Everything's alright now, have a good night."

I thank the Lord for good police officers. They have been kind protectors more often than adversaries thus far. The Lord bless them.

I had good conversation with a man named William tonight. At first I thought he was a mocker, but then he started asking questions and claimed to be interested in the Gospel. We spoke for about 10 minutes. I explained his need to have a real relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and his need of the second birth. He listened and was quite agreeable. I encouraged him to read the Scriptures; that's when he showed me that he had the Scriptures on his iPhone. I hope the Lord will begin/continue a saving work in William.

I spoke to a panhandler who claimed to be a believer, and a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. I had my doubts but I listened to what he had to say. He told me he appreciated our ministry and bid me farewell. A couple of hours later, after having seen him with a bottle of booze in his hand, and him angrily yelling at other panhandlers, the man came back to our preaching spot. I seized the opportunity:

"My friend, are you born-again?" I inquired.

"Of course I am," the panhandler replied. "I accepted Jesus Christ as my saviour."

"I have a lot of difficulty believing that my friend," I immediately replied. "The Bible says that a man can't serve two masters. Which means you can't serve the bottle and the Lord at the same time. You need the salvation of the Lord."

Well, at first, the man wasn't too happy with my assertions. Regardless, I kept my cool and reasoned with the man. By the end of our conversation, the man said he would pray about all we had talked about. I hope he does, and I hope the Lord will hear him. For his sakes.

The mockery and the insults were very grievous tonight. After an hour and a half, I was beginning to get pretty down at the general response to our evangelism. That's when a frigid wind blew through the marketplace, bringing with it some heavy rain. In less than 10 minutes, we went from a warm July evening, to a damp, cold night (complete with the occasional lightning bolt). At this point I was really, really annoyed I had left my vest behind.

Pastor Tim and I continued handing out tracts and preaching the Gospel for another hour, and then made out way home. As we left, a nearby street musician cursed at us and said:

"You shouldn't be coming over here preaching the Gospel when everyone just wants to get drunk!"

Crude... sad... and probably quite true.

Lord have mercy.

Rand

Canada Day!

2011-07-03T23:55:00.003-04:00

sorry for being late...

(Full disclosure: My family and I were away all week last week. We were far out of town on vacation. I didn't like missing our annual Canada Day evangelistic effort, but the cottage we rented could only be booked on the last week of June. I didn't leave Pastor Tim high and dry however. I worked things out with Brother Rodrigo and Marcio for them to be there to help the good preacher throughout the day. Without further ado... here is Brother Rod's report...)

Dear readers,

First I have to apologize for the intrusion. This is not Rand, but I will use his space on the Web to give you an account of how our Canada Day evangelism was. He was not able to participate this year because he was away with his family, but the Lord gave us the opportunity to do it.

Well, introducing myself, it is enough to know that I have a privileged position in this world, I am a slave of Jesus Christ, but you can call me Rod if you want. :)

My son (Marcio), Pastor Tim and I arrived at the preaching spot (right in front of the Rideau Center) a little after 9:00AM and we started the work before 9:30. Pastor Tim tried to talk to the many people heading the Parliament using a speaker and a microphone, but some entertainers and their noisy presentations made his work impossible at a certain time. So we could “only” give out tracts and walk with the big Bible signs from that moment on.

The Open Air Campaigners were there as well and helped us a lot by watching Pastor Tim's stuff and giving us water sometimes. May God bless them!

I am happy to report that thousands and thousands (and thousands) of people were challenged by the Word of God on Canada Day as they passed by those “crazy” guys holding the signs. Some (apparently Christians) would encourage us with words like “God bless you”, “That's what they need”, or “I agree with what you're doing”, and there was even an old lady, Spanish speaker, who not only encouraged me, but also told me a lot of passages she knew from the New Testament. That was great!

A considerable number of people asked us if they could take picture of us holding the signs. “SURE!!!” I hope they will post those photos on Facebook or whatever, so that others will read the Word of God too. Awesome! :)

However, for the most part, people were hostile to us and despised the “Words of eternal life” as if they were garbage, but there was nothing too serious concerning our physical integrity. A few situations we experienced:

1. One atheist came to Marcio and started questioning the existence of God. As he tried to discuss with him, another guy to whom he had just given a tract “came to his rescue” by answering the atheist's questions and making him silent.

2. Two guys tried to knock down the sign Marcio was holding with punches.

3. Marcio was hit twice by paper balls (or something like that).

4. Marcio talked to some Muslims who asked him about his beliefs. When he answered, they doubted everything he had said. Marcio then asked if they believed that Jesus was a prophet and, after hearing their positive response, he told them: “Then you have to believe what He said: I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me”. They didn't know what to say and left.

5. A man showed me his bad finger once.

6. Another man said I should give him a break and stop doing that (at least) on Canada Day, followed by the “F” word.

7. Another man pointed his finger to my face (very very close) and said: “Look into my eyes! God is dead!”. He laughed with his partner and left. It amazes me that he thought that was funny.

8. About 4 p.m., Marcio and I were holding the signs in the same place when a drunk man showed up. First he tried to convince us of how boring our lives were, holding those signs while he was “free” to get drunk and high, and then he said: “I have read the %$#@ Bible many times, and it says that we have to repent. Well, I will live my life and I can repent before I die, and when I get to Heaven I will kill both of you.” I felt sorry for him.

9. One of the Gideons gave Marcio a New Testament, which he put in his pocket. Later in the day he spoke to a woman who asked: “How can I have Him in my heart?” He said: “Read the Bible!”. Then she (probably jokingly) asked him if he had one. He pulled the New Testament out of his pocket and gave it to her. She was surprised and happily accepted it.

10. There was a reporter close to the Parliament recording (or doing it LIVE maybe) something for the TV channel he worked for. When I noticed that, I positioned the sign in a way that his spectators would read the Word of God. I hope it worked! :)

None of our opponents gave me a change to reply to their nonsense as they would speak and leave immediately, so my strategy was to ignore them completely, pretend they were not talking to me, or sometimes look seriously in their eyes for them to know I was not joking there. Some of them changed their behaviour after finding out they were not being funny at all.

As Pastor Tim said, for the most part Canada Day is just an excuse to get drunk, and it breaks my heart to see so many people ignorant of God like that. They couldn't care less, which reminds me of the following passage:

“In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. ” (Judges 17:6)

We went back to Pastor Tim's a little after 5 p.m., joyful that the Lord had strengthened us to do His work, and despite all the bad things we saw and heard, it was a great experience to serve the Lord by spreading His Word on Canada Day, and I hope we will be able to do it again next year.

Also thank you for your prayers! I know you expected Rand to be there and prayed for him, but even having the wrong name, our Lord, who knows all things, heard your prayers and was gracious to us.

All being said, let His name and His name alone be glorified.

God bless you all!

Rod

No Notes

2011-06-25T00:54:00.003-04:00

dark and stormy night...

We were rained out tonight, so no Friday Night Notes for this week.

Next week, there will likely be a guest blogger. Stay tuned.

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2011-06-18T01:54:00.005-04:00

drunkenness, folly, and wretchedness...

I had a lot of work to tend to in the lab today, so I was late for our customary night of evangelism. Pastor Tim was already downtown, handing out tracts when I arrived at our street preaching spot. I was an hour late, so I hit the ground running and began preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ the moment I arrived in the market.

The market was extremely busy tonight. Thousands of souls walked by our Bible signs, some heard some of our preaching, and others received various Gospel tracts. Surely we ministered to some of God's lost sheep tonight. The Lord use our efforts as he sees fit.

The chief observable sin in the marketplace tonight was drunkenness. I don't remember dealing with so many seriously inebriated souls in one night. Many of these drunks mocked us, with a number of them giving us false praise. A few truly sad souls tried to "talk sense to us" whilst their brains were swimming in alcohol. Two men, in particular, come to mind...

The first was a well dressed man; likely a rich man. He took one of the Gospel tracts I was offering and began reading it next to me. The man had been doing a whole lot of drinking because he smelled of liquor and he struggled to keep his balance as he read my literature. Eventually, he said:

"I got to tell you, man... I'm a Christian, but I really don't believe in this bull####."

"Well, I have to tell you, my friend, that I find it very difficult to believe that you are a Christian, given the circumstances in which we meet tonight," I calmly replied.

The man stared at me for a few seconds, obviously aware of his level of intoxication and how my observation was purely logical. Not finding any arguments to defend himself with, the man slowly walked away.

Moments later, I dealt with the second memorable drunkard. This man was the total opposite of the first. He was an old street beggar with raggedy clothes, who obviously was ravaged by years of serious alcohol abuse. He approached me with a request for money, claiming that he was hungry. When I asked him why he didn't go to the Shelter at dinner time to eat, he claimed that he had gone too late (a typical excuse). The man then began to claim that he wanted to sober up and get his life on track, a claim I didn't take at all seriously, he was very manifestly reciting what he thought I wanted to hear; always in an effort to get some money.

"If you want to get your life back on track, my friend, you need to rid yourself of the booze that is destroying your life," I said.

Just as I finished saying that, I noticed the inside of a plastic bag the man was carrying. It was filled with empty vodka and beer bottles. I told the man that if he was serious about changing his ways, then it was time for him to rid himself of all the contents of his bag, and never go back to such destructive ways. That's when things got out of hand. The man was obviously annoyed at my refusal to just fork out some change, he began to take out all the empty bottles of booze that were in his bag. He pointed to them all and seriously said:

"There, they're all yours... for 50 cents."

It was difficult to not laugh, but I kept my composure. Seeing that this exchange was quite unprofitable, I walked away from the man and began to preach again, but the man wasn't done with me. He kept following me, doing his best to hinder my work. He repeatedly put his hands on me (and they were disgustingly filthy), and when he yelled at me, he actually spat in my face. One word: gross. That went on for a couple of minutes, at which point a man came out of a nearby restaurant and warned the drunkard that if he didn't stop pestering me, he would call the police. The poor drunk got the picture and walked away. I thanked my rescuer, and went back to preaching the Gospel.

With about 30-45 minutes left in our night of evangelism, brother Marcio (a dear brother and fellow member of our church) joined us and handed out Gospel tracts around the marketplace. It was nice to have a brother come and share in the work; the Lord bless him.

There was so much more... but I'm just too tired now. Suffice it to say that there was and still is plenty of work for faithful evangelists to do in our ungodly society. Watching the people walk by me tonight, with their multiple tattoos, piercings and immodest/bizarre dress, it really hit home just how far down, spiritually, Canada has gone.

The Lord revive His church and awaken this lost and foolish country, for His honour and glory.

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2011-06-11T01:21:00.003-04:00

not too stellar...

I was called a Nazi tonight. Not sure how that works, but that's what was said. Some ungodly man saw me walking by with my John 3:36 Bible sign and called me a Nazi. Kind of funny when one considers the fact that I worship a Jew.

Just a few moments later, I was called a "coward" by these two. I have no idea why. I didn't ask because I knew the answer would be less than stellar. They stuck around for a few minutes (felt like hours), mocking me, ripping up a Bible tract and paradoxically, calling me "hateful". People began to take notice of them (and me) when the woman started... well... to keep this post "PG-13"... she began to act lewdly. I averted my eyes, prayed and they both got bored persecuting someone who just wouldn't revile back. When they left, a couple of Muslim men came by and asked me if the wicked couple were giving me a hard time...

"Yes, they were," I answered.

"Why would they do that?" one of them inquired.

"Because they hate God," I replied.

Both men were incensed. They couldn't believe anyone could be so rude and mean-spirited. They both said they appreciated me "being a bigger man". One of them asked a few questions about the John 3:16 sign I was holding a the time. Being Muslims, they wouldn't go much further than "Jesus, the good prophet", and they eventually left... after shaking my hand.

The rest of the night went much smoother. Had a few short conversations and I handed out a number of Bible tracts. One fellow came by and asked me how many souls I had converted (no doubt attempting to point out that my evangelistic method was somehow lacking)...

"Not a one!" I replied. "God does the converting, I just hope to be used as the messenger."

"Okay," he said, "how many souls did God save through your preaching?"

"I honestly don't know," I replied. "And perhaps it's best for it to remain that way. No risk of pride if God never reveals to me, this side of glory, the results of my preaching."

"Well said," the man replied, taking with him the Bible tract that was in my hand.

Soon after that conversation a family walked toward me from across the street. The woman was nodding approvingly as her two little boys came up to me. One of the little ones asked if he could have one of my tracts, and I most certainly didn't turn him down! The woman, obviously, was a sister-in-the-Lord. We had a short conversation in which she had many kind words for our ministry. The Lord bless her and her home abundantly.

Such a crazy mix of experiences tonight. Good highs, terrible lows. All and all however, spiritually, things are pretty desperate in my corner of the world. Like I said to a man tonight: "The Lord can't come back soon enough!"

Remember me in your prayers, dear saints.

Rand

Ps: Sister Christina, I heard the bad news. My sincerest condolences. God bless and help you and yours.

Pss: Sister Nancy & Brother John, you are both in our prayers.

Friday Night Notes

2011-06-04T01:01:00.005-04:00

busy streets... a continual tide of lost souls...

I wish I hadn't been so tired when we were in the marketplace, preaching the Gospel. Had I been a bit sharper, I think I could have appreciated a great deal more the various events that took place tonight. Oh, I'm not going to report any mass conversions here, just a few sweet and nice events that encouraged us and gave us hope that the Lord will yet work great things through our efforts.

For the first time this year, I saw Brent downtown. Brent in years past has often dropped by to shake my hand and encourage me in my evangelistic work. He typically says: "I love what you're doing man! This is a good thing. I hope you are alright, I want you to be alright." I'm not convinced Brent is born-again, but he appreciates the preaching of the Gospel. Let us pray that the Lord will use what he has seen and heard to bring him all the way.

A few minutes after seeing Brent, a woman walked by me and showed her disgust with a facial expression. She then said to her boyfriend: "That's just so wrong, there's nothing right about all that!" I looked at the couple and slowly replied: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil..."

A brother-in-the-Lord came by as I was handing out Bible tracts on a street corner. I had met this brother last July during our Canada Day street-preaching endeavour. Like last year, the brother encouraged me with kind words, making it clear that he was quite pleased to see me continuing in the ministry. We spoke about his church pastor, Pastor Rick, who I mentioned a few weeks ago, was fighting prostate cancer. He told me that Pastor Rick had had a successful surgery but that he was still unable to minister at his church. Let us pray the Lord will grant him a complete recovery. Before leaving, the good brother embraced me, gave me a heartfelt "God bless you," and went on his way.

For a few weeks now, I've been handing out Bible tracts near our 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 sign. I noticed that if Pastor Tim or I are near that sign, no one tries to knock it down or damage it. The second we leave its side however, sinners do their best to rid themselves of this most convicting passage. So, not wanting to see another one of our Bible signs bite the dust, we are now babysitting our sandwich-board sign as we evangelize.

Before leaving the marketplace after three-plus hours of evangelism, a young man walked up to me, obviously high on something. He claimed to be under serious conviction of sin. He said he knew doing drugs was destroying his life and was inconsistent with a godly life. He said he would purpose to do right, but wound up in his favorite sin, every time. So I gave him this piece of advice:

"My friend, what are you doing the marketplace on a Friday night? Will this place help you get close to God, or will it get you closer to your addictions? When you got up this morning, did the drugs come a-knocking on our door? Or did you make your way downtown to get your fix? If you want to succeed, don't set yourself up to fail. Go home. Right now. Sober up. Spend time in the Scriptures. Go to church on the Lord's Day, and whatever you do, don't come back to the market. If you can help it, don't ever come back to the market."

The young man just stared at me for a few seconds, as if I had given him the greatest wisdom ever. He then replied: "Right! Okay!" And off he went for home. The Lord help him get things right, once and for all.

There is plenty more, but I'm too tired now. We gave out a lot of tracts tonight, and thousands of people heard or read the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ tonight. The Lord use our work as He sees fit, and may all honour, glory and blessing be His, now and forever.

Have a safe and blessed weekend, dear saints.

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2011-05-28T01:55:00.010-04:00

the folly of vain and false religion...

It rained all day, but just around 6pm, the Lord put a stop to it; so Pastor Tim and I got the Bible signs out, and made our way downtown to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite the wet, cold weather the market was quite busy (far more than I would have expected). By God's grace, we were able to present the Gospel to hundreds of souls in just about three hours of open-air evangelism. The Lord use our efforts as he sees fit.

Sadly, there isn't a whole lot to report by way of positive outcomes to our preaching. There were a few kind souls that gladly received our literature, and I did have a short conversation with a young man who works at a restaurant just across our preaching spot (I believe he is a nominal Muslim... please pray that the Lord would use our weekly conversations to save him). Other than that, however, it was all pretty bad.

There are nights of evangelism when I really feel just how flagrantly we evangelists stick out, and how absolutely incomprehensible we are to the wicked world around us. People have one look at us and show forth perplexed faces, angry expressions, some curse and blaspheme, others mock and laugh at us. It always reminds me of the section of John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress":

"Now, Christian and Faithful, as I said, must needs go through this fair. Well, so they did; but as they entered into the fair, all the people were moved and the town itself, as it were, in a hubbub about them, and that for several reasons; for their garments were very different from the kind sold at the fair; their speech was also strange since they spoke the language of Canaan. But, most of all the pilgrims took no interest in the goods offered for sale. They would not even look at them, and when called upon to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears, and cry, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and look upward, signifying that their trade and traffic were in heaven.

One trader mockingly said unto them, What will you buy? But they, looking gravely upon him, said, We buy the truth. At that the pilgrims were taunted and mocked and some even threatened to strike them."

who's God???

Cold wind blew through downtown all night tonight, making our night of evangelism a little chillier that we had hoped. That said, we faithfully laboured for the Gospel's sake for a good three hours: open-air preaching, distributing Gospel literature and speaking one-on-one with sinners who had questions or comments. Things went relatively well in that we weren't threatened or attacked in any way; the sad part however is that the Gospel was met with a great deal of apathy on the part of our audience.

Pastor Tim and I both had little by way of one-on-one conversations; the few that we had weren't very profitable. For example, a woman who claimed to be bisexual walked up to me on two occasions claiming she couldn't receive anything from me because she was quite happy to be bisexual. I replied that if she preferred her sin over God, then that was her right, but that decision would no doubt have dire consequences. Her last words to me as she walked away: "Who's God to refuse to accept me the way I am!" Oh dear. A sinful creature of no strength or consequence at all, pretty much telling God: "Who do You think You are?"

What folly. Couldn't help but remember the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 9:20: "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?" I don't think that woman will be anywhere as brazen at the judgment day.

One of the good things that happened tonight (and it happened to me a couple of times): a man walked by me as I was offering Bible tracts and he turned it down quickly, only to return shortly after, taking the tract and saying something along the lines of: "On the second thought, I think I will look into this!" The Lord show mercy and grace to those who did this tonight.

The authors of the some of the worse folly tonight were by women. From the lesbian mentioned above, to the young lady who needed to step outside of the pub her friends were in because she was too intoxicated, to the myriads walking about with their breasts popping out of their tops. For some strange reason, sin always seems more disgusting to me when it is publicly practiced by women. I could hardly look at the intoxicated woman, trying not to vomit out the alcohol she had filled herself with, sitting on the sidewalk where someone else, no doubt very recently, vomited out the booze he/she filled him/herself with. What misery.

Only had a little fun with one young lady who mockingly cried out to me from the other side of the street:

"There is no God!"

"The Bible says that 'the fool saith in his heart, there is no God', and this being April 1st, it would seem that this is your day, young lady!" I replied.

And that 's it for tonight, dear readers. I'm still recovering from a number of heath problems (nothing overly serious, but aggravating nonetheless), so I appreciate your prayers, dear saints.

Have a safe and blessed weekend everyone!

Rand

No Notes

2011-03-25T23:02:00.002-04:00

down time...

2011-01-29T00:41:00.003-05:00

enduring hardness...

I was going to begin this post by stating that it wasn't a particular smashing night of street evangelism... yeah... well...

I hadn't even finished my first half hour of Gospel preaching when I saw a young man, just a few yards away messing with one of our Bible signs. Our 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 sign often draws quite a bit of attention. At first I figured he was trying to scribble the sign with marker, so I made my way toward the man and said: "Excuse me, but that's my sign, please leave it well alone." I had just finished uttering these words when I noticed that in his hand was a very sharp knife, not a marker.

I did my best to keep him from further damaging our sign, but I was careful not to wind up on the wrong end of his blade. Suffice it to say that he totally scrapped our sign. I was annoyed, and feeling like I needed to do something, anything, I pulled out my cellphone and took a picture of the young man. I figured that perhaps now that he knew I could go to the police with his picture, he would leave us alone. Then, the man did something incredibly stupid. He walked into one of the nearby stores, walked behind the counter, put away the knife and hid in the store, which he obviously worked in.

A number of things went through my mind. I knew I couldn't let the man get away with his crime since, him working so close to where we evangelize, he would no doubt do it again and again in the future if he felt he could get away with it. At the same time, I didn't feel it was right to call 911 for such a trivial matter, and I didn't have the non-emergency police number. The Lord provide me with direction in less than 10 seconds: a police cruiser just happened to drive by me on the road.

Suffice it to say that the young man, who incidentally professed to be a homosexual, got one harsh lecture from the police officer. Information was obtained and arrangements will be made for the young man to reimburse us for the smashed up sign. The humbled fellow even offered an apology, after his verbal chastisement. I'm not holding my breath as far as the reimbursement is concerned, nor do I really care about that really. I just hope that this episode will keep him off our signs for good.

God be praised and thanked for sending us a kind and just police officer.

Irony of the night: the young homosexual's name was Samuel (Asked of God).

The following two hours of evangelism were far less eventful. I had a short one-on-one conversation with a foul-mouthed man who wanted to hear a "gospel-sales-pitch"; he wanted me to try to convince him to receive Christ. I gave him God's New Testament commandment, to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He said he didn't want any of that, so I replied: "Well then, I just can't help you." I told the man that I wasn't going to negotiate some other arrangement with him, or try to sweeten the deal; it was God's Way, or Destruction. He walked away mocking and blaspheming. The Lord have mercy.

We didn't hand out that many tracts during those two hours, considering that the market was fairly busy. I was a bit surprised at just how hard our audience was tonight toward the Gospel. It's rarely good, but it isn't usually that intensely bad.

My last half-hour was a real treat however. I met "me-in-my-early-20s". Okay, it wasn't "me", but someone who was going through exactly what I was going through back then. His name was Nick and he is presently attending the school I went to, studying biotechnology just like I did, and he is one depressed drunkard (as I was). It was great talking with him. I was able to relate to his problems and show him the Way I took all those years ago. I encouraged him to turn to the Bible and to give it a chance; it's done so much for me! Nick kept saying how happy he was that he got to speak with me. It was great.

The scientific community, especially in my city, is pretty small, so there is hope that I will be able to see and speak to young Nick again in the future. Let's pray to that effect.

After that wonderful conversation, Pastor Tim and I packed it in for the night. We picked up our smashed sign and made our way back home. I commented how not so long ago, we would have been far more upset than we actually were over the destruction of our Bible sign. I guess the Lord is working patience in us, nice and slow. I have to say though, the thought of that young man taking a knife to the Word of God, it's a pretty disturbing scene.

A Good Soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ

(trying to be anyway...)

Friday Night Notes

2011-01-22T02:39:00.002-05:00

no rest for the weary...

Our street preaching endeavour capped off one busy and challenging week. Eat-Sleep-Work, that sums up my week. I worked a great deal of overtime and tonight was no exception. I showed up an hour late at Pastor Tim's, and though I was exhausted, I really felt I needed to go with him for our customary night of evangelism. I thank God for His enabling power.

The night started out with the usual mockeries: "I worship Satan!", or "Get real! It's a myth", or various expletives followed by "God" or "Jesus". My head was still mostly on my various work responsibilities (and lately, they are many), so the cursing and mocking really didn't phase me. That's the good part. The bad part is that, with my secular work foremost on my mind, I had a real hard time doing the work of an evangelist; I felt like I was just going through the motions. I know that isn't a good thing.

Very few tracts were handed out tonight. There were plenty of people in the market, but very few received anything of the Gospel. Clearly, both Pastor Tim and I were disappointed. Yet, we pressed on and had a few short conversations with sinners. Pastor Tim tried explaining to a man that Jesus did indeed die FOR HIS PEOPLE, but the man was less than receptive. I had a similar conversation with a man who took exception to me saying that it was God that did the saving, not man saving himself. We don't often speak on the doctrines of grace when we are evangelizing, it was strange how it naturally came up on a number of occasions tonight.

I spoke to a man who said he "really respected what I was doing". He said he was the son of a Presbyterian minister, that he prayed often, and "always looked for ways to improve himself". It didn't take me long to realize that this man, while religious, was without a doubt, lost. I appreciated his favorable sentiment toward me, but everything about the man pointed to a lost state. From his chain smoking to patronage in a market bar, from his superficial knowledge of God to his quick retreat when I wanted to speak to him further about the Lord... none of it felt right. I wish I could have been a bit more pointed, but like I mentioned above, I wasn't really at my best tonight.

Remember me in your prayers, dear saints. Things are pretty hectic in my life right now. I need wisdom and guidance from the Lord.

Have a great weekend,

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2011-01-15T00:49:00.002-05:00

finally back to the preaching routine...

It had been awhile. The Holidays, various trips away from home and illness all contributed to a poor attendance on my part for our weekly street evangelism. It felt right being at our preaching spot in the marketplace. I thank the Lord my God for giving me both the ability and the will to be out there tonight, preaching the marvelous, wondrous Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I was surprised just how many things had changed in the market in just a few weeks. A popular little clothing store near our preaching spot was closed down, and the restaurant right in front of our preaching spot was closed for renovations (looks like they will be doing some serious work in there). Both these closures, no doubt, contributed to a quieter night of evangelism; that and the winter cold!

The night started out pretty well. I had a long conversation with a young man named Benjamin, a Romanist who, at first, was concerned for my well-being; he asked if I was keeping warm in the cold winter air. After reassuring him that I was well equipped to take the cold, he asked me about how my faith differed from Romanism. I pointed out the major differences: salvation by faith alone, worshipping in spirit, the priesthood of all believers, and holding the Bible as the sole rule for faith and practice. After expounding on all these, I get the feeling Benjamin was quite undone. He clearly seemed overwhelmed by the information I offered him. He accepted a tract and I invited him to attend our church service on the Lord's Day. I hope he takes me up on my offer.

At around 9pm, Pastor Tim took over the preaching duties and I took a walk to another street corner to hand out Gospel tracts. About 5 minutes later, I took a peak down the street to make sure the good preacher was safe and well. Imagine my horror and shock when I saw two police cruisers parked right in front of our preaching spot. I quickly made my way to Pastor Tim, only to find him having a friendly conversation with a police officer. Both were having a grand old time!

Turns out the police officer was an acquaintance of Pastor Tim's. When I asked about the officer to Pastor Tim, he replied: "Years ago, a man attacked me while I was preaching. Just as things were getting really out of hand, that officer appeared out of nowhere, grabbed my assailant, cuffed him and took him away. Since then, we've been great friends!"

After those two warm exchanges, like the weather, things got pretty frosty. The few favorable responses we got were questionable at best, and then there were the unfavorable/unsavoury responses. One young lady told me to "*$%# off" when I kindly offered her a tract. Then there was a steady stream of blasphemies (towards God) and mockeries (towards us). Despite all this, however, no one threatened us directly, no one harmed us. Praise God! Even our Bible signs nearly made it all night without being kicked to the ground. With five minutes to go in our 3 hour street preaching endeavour, a wicked young lady pushed our Romans 6:23 sign down to the ground. The Lord have mercy on her foolish soul.

While it was pretty quiet downtown tonight, both Pastor Tim and I handed out a good number of tracts, and hundreds of souls heard something of the Word of God tonight. The Lord use our efforts as He sees fit, and may He be glorified.

Lord willing, I will be at my post next week... thanks again, dear readers, for keeping up with my preaching escapades... and please dear saints of God, remember to pray for my health...

Very Sincerely,

Rand

2010-10-23T00:33:00.004-04:00

feeling like the "weeping prophet"...

I've been reading the book of Jeremiah in my personal / devotional times, and I have to say: do I ever see a lot of parallels with our street preaching ministry and the people of our city. Poor Jeremiah had the unenviable task of preaching judgment against sinful Israel and calling for repentance that he knew full well would never come. You don't have to read to many of my posts to see that our calls to repentance are mostly/vastly ignored and scorned. I suppose the big difference between Jeremiah's ministry and ours is that without a doubt, God is still saving sinners today, while in Jeremiah's day, well, this is mostly what he got for his trouble:

"Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said: We will not walk therein." (Jeremiah 6:16)

The market was mostly empty tonight. It was bitterly cold out there tonight which most likely kept people home. An hour into our endeavour, it actually started snowing! I had to run up and down a stair case in the parking garage behind our preaching spot in order to keep warm for the two-plus hours we were out there evangelizing for.

Pastor Tim had the bulk of the one-on-one conversations tonight. He spoke to a young Romanist named Paul, and the good preacher told me the conversation was quite profitable. Paul took some Bible literature including a short tract which points out the errors of Romanism, so please remember him in your prayers, dear saints. The Lord saved me out of that wicked, vain religion... here's hoping He will do the same for this young man.

The cursing and mockery wasn't too grievous tonight; probably due to the lower turnout. Less sinners, less trouble, I suppose. There was one man, however who was intent on mocking us and blaspheming the Lord. Twice he came by to mock Pastor Tim and I. The first time he just yelled out blasphemies, when he came around again, he thought it would be real funny to take off his shirt (in the freezing cold), stretch out his arms to make it look like he was the crucified Christ and mock/blaspheme. I just carried on preaching and thankfully the man kept walking and left us alone for the rest of the night. The Lord have mercy on him.

Pastor Tim had to answer, for the 1,374, 453, 293,095, 321 time if he actually thought his evangelistic method "worked". This question was of course posed by a couple who professed faith in Christ Jesus. Pastor Tim told me how he dealt with them and I think he did a great job at explaining why our evangelistic method is biblical and does "work". The whole conversation got me thinking about how I would answer that question in the future.

I think I now know what I'll answer... stay tuned.

There was an insane number of police officers in all of downtown tonight. I don't know what was going on, but I have to say, I felt quite safe tonight. I doubt anyone would have tried to harm us or intimidate us when so many police cruisers drove by our preaching spot. I hope the Lord will save some of those brave men and women in uniform, through the reading and hearing of God's Word.

With that, dear readers, I close this edition of the Friday Night Notes. I can't keep my eyes open. Good night, and have a blessed weekend in the Lord.

Enjoy the Lord's Day, dear saints.

Rand

2010-09-25T01:58:00.003-04:00

finally back at it...

After a multi-week absence, it was good to finally be back at it! It just doesn't feel right anymore... to go weeks without going downtown to preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder when that change happened?

It was a fairly good night of street preaching; not to say that there wasn't a few "challenges" along the way, but I did go through the night without being harmed or threatened with harm. Even the amount of mockery was exceptionally low towards me tonight. A welcome change. I was by myself out there tonight (Pastor Tim is away visiting family and friends), so not having to face a mob of angry sinners wanting to humiliate or harm me was something I thanked, and continue to thank the Lord for!

The first half hour I spent in the marketplace was really good for Bible Tract distribution. I gave out lots of Bible literature. Some people even walked up to me from across the street in order to receive a tract. I hope those little Bible messages will be used of the Lord to save lost men and women.

For about an hour after that, I was faced with a few challenges:

- One man claimed that there was no such thing as sin. "That concept has died long ago," he claimed. My answer to the sad soul: "So, you have no sin, huh?" The man didn't answer and walked away.

- I spoke with a complete lunatic for about 15 minutes. Actually, he spoke for about 14 minutes. Non-stop. Agitated speech. He sometimes yelled. Other times he whispered. He misquoted and downright butchered Scripture on several occasions. It became clear after the first five minutes of our conversation that the man was under the influence of alcohol, or narcotics, or both. Anyway, in his 14 minute diatribe, the man attempted to convince me that President Obama is the Antichrist, that he (the man speaking to me) was "the advocate" spoken of in 1 John 2:1, and that Paul teaching in Romans 13 about submitting to our civil leaders was one of three outright lies the apostle Paul slipped in to the Word of God. There was more... a lot more... all of it pure nonsense; the vain and wicked imaginations of a drugged up fool. I took a minute (one minute) to make it clear to the man that I thought he lost, and that he had no genuine knowledge of Scripture. He didn't take it to well. I let him rant and rave for a couple of minutes, and then I walked away. The Lord have mercy.

- Some time later, I apparently was visited by a modern day "prophet". A young man who obviously was living on the streets came up to me with a "message from God". His message was as vague as a fortune cookie and contained a number of questionable prescriptions. I think I'll stick with my Book of Prophecy of the Lord.

My final hour of evangelism was pretty good. I spoke at length with a man named Jerome, who claimed to know Jesus, but admitted that he didn't know Jesus. It was clear through our conversation that Jerome had made, and probably still is making a real mess of his life; there is probably some substance abuse, immorality, and other forms of ungodliness that are ruining him. I didn't write him off however, because he was asking me genuine questions, and he was honest and transparent with me. We spoke for about 20 minutes and when I had answered all his questions concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he shook my hand and thanked me for taking the time to help him. I promised him that if he came to church service on Sunday, I would give him a Bible, for him to get to know Jesus better. I hope he takes me up on my offer. Please pray.

Finally, a rather unusual and "kind-of-fun" thing happened just before I left the market to head back home. Two ladies came up to me and said:

"Hi, we just wanted to say 'hello', we spoke with you three years ago on this very street corner, and we didn't want to just walk by without saying 'hi'!"

"What are your names?" I inquired.

"I'm Harriett," said one of them.

"I'm Tia," the other said.

"Those names rings a bell, but I'm sorry, I don't remember our last conversation for the life of me!" I replied clumsily.

"That's okay," they replied. "We understand that you meet lots of people when your doing this work. Anyway, all the best and hope to see you around again in the future!"

So, when I got back home tonight, I looked through my posts from three years ago, and found this:

"I had a nice long Q&A session with two ladies tonight. They really wanted no part of the Gospel, they assured me of that much, but they did want to know more about what I was doing and why I was doing it. We had a pretty good conversation and I pray that the Lord will use our discussion to either save these ladies, or deal with someone else through their "Christian education" tonight." (Friday Night Notes, September 15th, 2007)

And this:

"Tia and Harriett were back tonight. These are two ladies I mentioned in my last post who really had no interest in repentance and faith in Christ, but who did want to know more about why I was preaching the Gospel. Again, these two ladies showed alot of respect for me and again asked me a few questions about the Gospel. They even brought in a couple of their friends to join in the conversation. I truly hope the Lord will ruin their sinful night in the marketplace tonight, and will give them eyes to see, and ears to hear the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Matthew 13:10-17)." (Friday Night Notes, September 22nd, 2007)

Not only did both these young ladies remember me, they really cared enough about me to not walk by without greeting me. Praise God! And now for the kind of freaky observation: check out the time stamps on the above two block quotes. Tia and Harriett said they had spoken to me roughly three years ago; a rather accurate approximation... wouldn't you say?

Rand

No Notes

2010-09-18T00:23:00.002-04:00

feeling bad...

I was really looking forward to go out tonight... I've had a pretty bad week, health-wise, but I really thought I'd be well enough to go out preaching with Pastor Tim.

Five, six o'clock came around, and I knew that I simply didn't have it in me. Please pray for me, dear saints, that I may heal up more quickly... I don't want to miss another week!

Have a blessed weekend,

Rand

Vacation

2010-09-11T01:31:00.003-04:00

taking some time off...

Hello dear readers... Again this week, there will be no Friday Night Notes. I've been away all week with my family, camping at our favorite Provincial Park. The break was a real blessing; it truly was good to have a week of rest, and spending quality time with my wife and children.

I've attached some pictures of wildlife I've seen on our various hikes:

A Doe

A Downy Woodpecker

A Black-and-White Warbler

A Red-Eyed Virio

A Great Crested Flycatcher

A King Fisher

Snapping Turtle (just hatched)

Red Tail Hawk

Black Rat Snake (endangered species)

God bless you all!

Have a great weekend and a glorious Lord's Day!

Rand

No Notes

2010-09-04T02:24:00.002-04:00

away...

There will be no Friday Night Notes tonight since Pastor Tim and I were both away at an important church meeting.

Have a blessed weekend, and a glorious Lord's Day everyone!

Rand

Sunday Afternoon Notes

2010-08-30T00:47:00.002-04:00

the cursed pride parade...

**Warning: this post contains mature subject matter. To the pastor(s) who post print-outs of my "notes", you may want to skip posting this one.

So today what the abominable "Gay Pride Parade" in my city; and as is our custom, Pastor Tim and I took a couple of Bible signs and headed downtown. We each picked one side of the street the parade would travel down, held up our signs, guarded our eyes, and prayed.

I never know just how much I should describe what it is like to be an evangelist at such a wicked event. Should I describe the men and women I saw who were bound in leather and chains? Or the transvestite man's (I think) lewd behaviour? Should I give examples of some of the vile, wretched, and downright disgusting things that were being uttered all around me? Or how about a description of the men that surrounded me, all of them obviously sexually aroused by the abominations that walked and drove by us? Shall I list all the different ways I was denigrated and humiliated by the mob that surrounded me?

I think I've said enough. To be honest, I don't really care to have a written record of the goings-on of today.

When I first arrived with my Bible sign (2 Peter 2:6 on one side, Psalm 9:17 on the other), a number of the sodomites protested that my sign should not be around children (yes, there were children at the pride parade...). Moments later, a man in the parade took a cane, put it between his legs and pretended to masturbate, and that, within 4 meters of the children my Gospel sign had supposedly scandalized! Needless to say, no one protested.

Take home message: The Bible is no longer a healthy influence on children; a grown man pretending to masturbate in public is quite acceptable.

The parade lasted nearly 2 hours and I assure you, they were two... seriously long... hours. There was the S&M group, then the atheist-homosexual group ('cause why stop at immorality?), the vegetarian-homosexual group, the United "church" group with their homosexual "minister", the drag queens, the homosexual politicians... etc... etc. When the circus of immorality ended, Pastor Tim and I walked behind the vehicle of the parade and let the crowds on each side of the road read our signs. I don't need to tell you that we weren't crowd favorites.

It was during this walk, however, that we met up with other brothers (and sister) in the Lord. Brothers Tim and Brian (I believe from the Metropolitan Bible Church) walked with us keeping an eye out for anyone who would want to do us, or our signs, harm. On our way back home, we also met up with Brother Paul, his wife Kim and James, a friend of theirs. All three of them were doing some street preaching just a block away from where pastor Tim and I were holding up our Bible signs. The Lord bless all these brave souls for their good works, and the genuine love they have toward the lost, even the lost that despised them without a cause.

Now that this post is done, I'm going to do my best to forget this afternoon ever happened.

The Lord use the work that was done, as He sees fit.

To Him be glory and honour, now and forever. Amen.

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-08-28T00:57:00.002-04:00

they don't understand... will they ever???

I know I've mentioned this before (probably repeatedly), but there are nights of evangelism in the market where the sheer number of lost souls (most being quite happy to be lost) walking around me just totally overwhelm me. Thousands and thousands of men and women, cursing and blaspheming God; many of them looking onto us preachers with obvious disdain and hatred, for no other reason than the fact that we shed light on their evil ways. I'm telling you, there are nights (like tonight), you can almost physically feel the bitter cold animosity the market revelers have for us. It's not all fun and games this street preaching business.

Before going downtown tonight, I went into Pastor Tim's backyard to pick up our Bible signs and wondered where on of my favorite Bible signs was. It had John 3:16 on one side, and 1 Timothy 1:15 in large letters on the other. Pastor Tim informed me that that particular sign was stolen last week while he was preaching the Gospel with brother Rod and Marcio. Young men on skateboards grabbed the sign when pastor Tim put it down but for a quick minute while he was preaching the Gospel. That story annoyed me quite a bit. Not exactly sure what annoyed me most: the fact that these cowards stole a 65-year old's Bible sign, or that I had lost my favorite preaching tool. My night of evangelism wasn't starting out too well!

By the end of the night, Pastor Tim and I both handed a low number of Bible tracts, and one-on-one conversations were few and far between. No, tonight was a pretty lousy night, all and all. We had a street musician come by and set up his "performance" right in front of our preaching spot (an attempt to rid the market of us). We had two lesbians scheming to do our 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 some mischief (I stood close guard, nothing ultimately happened). Even Christians in the market found a way to be somewhat aggravating: a young lady was really curious to know if our "evangelistic method" actually worked (I tried to explain, but I don't think she got it).

Seeing so little fruit in the souls we were preaching to tonight, I started pondering on Hell; the likely final destination for many of the souls we attempted to minister to. I wondered: "Will these souls ever truly comprehend the gravity of their sins against the Living God?" I still wonder, in Hell, will the damned fully understand the gravity of their sin and how the Lake of Fire is a fitting punishment? I'm going to be thinking about this for a few days...

I saw my old friend Richard again tonight, "walking" up and down the same street in an alcohol/drug stupor, begging people for spare change. It was a sad sight. He was near my preaching spot for a couple of hours, but he never came to speak to me, nor did make eye contact. If his mind still functions well enough to remember me, perhaps he felt some shame over his physical/spiritual state. Who knows? The Lord have mercy on his soul.

With that, I close this edition of the Friday Night Notes, dear readers. I want to thank all of you who pray for us on Friday night. You are precious to us!

God bless you all,

Rand

No Notes

2010-08-20T22:01:00.002-04:00

a weekend in TO...

I will have no Friday Night Notes for you this week, dear readers. I'm currently over 500 kilometers away from home, visiting "the center of the known galaxy" (if you're Canadian, you know where that is). My family and I will be attending a wedding here tomorrow, so I decided make a "family-focused" weekend of it, by taking my kids to the zoo today. The kids had a great time, and it felt great to spend quality time with "my posse".

Here are some pictures of "our family day":

A peacock!

Just hangin' around!

Lunchtime!

The kids were seriously impressed with this tall fella!

I think she liked me!

I'm going to have nightmares about this tonight!

My boy was afraid to get wet at the water park... I helped him out!

Three bunnys!

Just had to imitate the siblings!

I trust all went well with the brothers in the market tonight. I'm pretty sure they were going ahead without me.

God bless you all,

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-08-14T01:15:00.003-04:00

new partners...

Pastor Tim was unable to come out for our customary night of street evangelism again this week (he needed more time to prepare his Sunday sermons), but unlike last week, I wasn't downtown by myself. Brother Rod and his son (new members of our assembly) came out to give out Bible tracts and hold up the Word of Truth. It was good to have three evangelists in the marketplace, our sphere of influence was definitively larger, many sinners were reminded of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel tonight. The Lord show mercy to whom He will show mercy, and harden whom He wills.

As far as Friday night evangelism goes, tonight went pretty smoothly. I think Brother Rod was taken a bit aback at how vile some of the responses to our efforts were. I didn't think the mockery and scorn was too grievous tonight, but then again, I've no doubt developed a thick skin over the years. That said, I must point out that the men performed admirably in their first open-air evangelistic effort in Ottawa's marketplace. They walked all over downtown with Bible signs and were quite zealous at offering Bible tracts to all who would walk by. Brother Rod even preached a bit near the end of our time of evangelism.

The marketplace was very busy tonight, with many souls taking tracts; though few stuck around to talk about the Gospel. Brother Rod seemed to have had a number of conversations, but he made it clear that most weren't too promising. Still, who knows what the Lord will do?

I have to say it felt strange to be the "senior evangelist". On a number of occasions, I found myself giving pointers to my two comrades... instructions on how to survive in the wicked mess that is the marketplace nightlife. Never would have thought I would have grown so accustomed, so familiar and even, more or less, comfortable with this street preacher's life. The Lord indeed works in mysterious ways (and He undoubtedly has quite the sense of humour).

Other than the novelty of having a couple of newbies with me, tonight's endeavour was a lot like last week. No shortage of nonsense, mockery, hatred, vanity and other sinful conversations, but I had much rougher nights. I only had two one-on-one conversations, both with professing believers (if I'm not mistaken, both were charismatics). They both had kind words of encouragement for me; they were genuinely happy to see me preaching the Gospel. The Lord bless them and help them out of the doctrinal error they're in.

With that, I'll close this edition of the Friday Night Notes. I need to get some rest... tomorrow we will be celebrating Pastor Tim's birthday. I'll be nice and keep his age under tabs!

God bless you, dear readers, and thanks again for keeping up with my street preaching escapades.

Have a restful weekend, and a glorious Lord's Day,

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-08-07T00:57:00.002-04:00

be a short one... my bed is calling...

It was, without a doubt, a quiet and easy-going night of street preaching. I was by myself again since pastor Tim was away, visiting family. I manned our preaching spot for about two hours, and then walked around downtown, offering Bible tracts. After a busy week at work, tonight's two and a half hour endeavour really tired me out.

Gross ungodliness was everywhere. From the man who decided to relieve himself on the front lawn of a downtown apartment complex, to the steady flow of cussing by the marketplace revelers, to the scantily-clad women who looked on me with discuss as I preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it was all pretty ugly. All that said, no one really gave me too much trouble. A bit of mockery here and there, but nothing too grievous. For the most part, I was able to preach the Gospel unhindered, and for that, I thank the Lord my God.

The one-on-one conversations were short tonight. A few words here and there with some Christians (for example, a Pentecostal woman said she would pray for me), a Romanist quickly told me that "he was good to go" since he was raised 'Catholic' (oh dear...), and I had a few words with a work colleague of mine... now that was fun. At first, the man didn't recognize me, so when I offered him a Bible tract, he looked on me with disgust. It was funny to see his countenance change when he recognized me.

It will be interesting to see if this surprise meeting will positively or negatively affect our working relationship in the future.

I'm afraid that's all I got for tonight. I absolutely exhausted and it's going past 1am. Please continue to pray for me, dear saints. Life just seems to be getting busier and busier!

Have a blessed weekend, especially the Lord's Day,

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-07-31T00:16:00.003-04:00

father... scientist... preacher...

I was preparing to head off to work this morning when I heard my youngest scream and my other kids yelling out: "The baby is bleeding!" Right then and there, I knew it would be a wonderful day.

Turns out, little Joe cut his chin when he had an unfortunate encounter with the kitchen floor. The cut wasn't that bad, but I knew that it would leave a nasty scar if it weren't closed up properly; so I took my boy to the hospital where he received his first two sutures. Watching his freaked out little face, I felt like the Worst-Dad-In-The-World.

After 4 hours in Emergency, I made my way to work. I had lots of work waiting for me there, and I was now 4 hours late! You see, in our laboratory, whenever a long weekend comes around (like this weekend), my workmates usually ask me to set up experiments that have long incubation or analysis times. Most of the instruments at my workplace can function and operate by themselves so long as they are programmed properly. It took me about 5 hours to set everything up; this made me happy because it was only 6pm, plenty of time for me to head downtown with Pastor Tim and do some street preaching!

When I got to Pastor Tim's place, he told me he couldn't make it out tonight; he needed to take more time preparing his Sunday sermon. So I grabbed a good number of Bible tracts, a Bible sign, and made my way to the market.

It was a pretty cool night for the end of July. I regretted all night long that I hadn't packed a sweater or even a jacket before leaving home. I nevertheless soldiered on for a good two and a half hours of street preaching and tract distribution. To keep warm, I took walks around the busy streets of the market with my Bible sign in hand. Lots of people heard or saw something of the Gospel of Jesus tonight.

A number of Christians encouraged me tonight. One woman said: "You're doing a great thing!" Another man just exclaimed: "Praise God!" Another young lady said about the same thing, but had she stuck around I would have questioned her profession: she was wearing very short shorts. Hardly fits with what we read of in 1 Timothy 2:9.

I had a long conversation with a young believer who, in the past, had expressed interest in coming to our church services. It became clear in our conversation that the young man rejected the doctrine of election, so I did my best to explain to him the validity of this doctrine. I don't know if I got him thinking or not, but he did repeat his intention to visit our services soon. I hope he does.

After this long conversation, I preached the Gospel awhile longer at our customary street preaching spot, and then opted to go for a walk to warm up my bones. Turned out to be a great idea because I handed a number of Bible tracts to souls who I walked by; many of them even thanked me for my work. Only one man violently opposed my efforts. The man was in a wheelchair and showed his hatred toward the Gospel my cursing and blaspheming as loudly as he could. The Lord be merciful to him.

After a long night of evangelism, I made my way home, tired and weary from a long day of labour. My wife stayed up to greet me and when we both decided to call it a night, we found the our little girl had snuck into our bed, hiding under a number of pillows and blankets. She probably thought we wouldn't notice her... silly goose.

It's quite the blessed life I live... in all its facets: father-scientist-preacher.

Wouldn't change a thing for all the tea in China.

Have a blessed weekend, dear readers. Remember me in your prayers, I will, Lord willing, be preaching the evening service on the Lord's Day.

The Lord bless you all, dear saints of God.

Rand

No Notes

2010-07-24T00:50:00.002-04:00

Mr. Mom for a few days...

Hello, dear readers. I'm afraid there will be no Friday Night Notes this week. I was unable to go street preaching with pastor Tim due to my wife being away on family business, leaving two of our four kids in my care.

Hope to be back at it next week... Lord willing.

God bless you all,

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-07-17T00:52:00.003-04:00

trying to teach lunatics...

At least once a year, I have a night of street preaching like tonight; a night in which I find myself dealing with people who are clearly OUT OF THEIR MINDS. Not eccentric. Not simply ignorant. Rather, crazy... insane... a few quarters short of a dollar... nuts. For example, consider this exchange I had with a young man:

"Did you know that Jesus has already returned?" the young man exclaimed.

"Really?" I dryly replied (after a decade of street preaching, an evangelist can get pretty cynical).

"Yes, he's speaking through a woman just across the bridge, 20 minutes from here," the young man continued.

"Uh-huh," I unenthusiastically replied.

"You don't believe me, do you?" the young man asked.

"No," I replied, wishing I had never taken part in this conversation.

"Well, can't say you weren't informed," the young man concluded.

"Oh yeah... can't say I wasn't," I replied with a generous amount of sarcasm.

The Lord Jesus Christ, back and speaking through a woman in Gatineau... I wonder how that all fits with the prophecies in Scripture? Oh dear...

Moments after this great revelation, I had another conversation with a lost soul which ultimately only lasted 5 minutes, but it felt much... much longer. This man spoke to me about a pot smoking, alcohol abusing "Christian" friend of his, how he's seen two leprechauns (yes, dear readers, leprechauns... no kidding) who were trying to steal his gold ring, and how he'd lived 20 lives so far. After 5 minutes of all that non-sense, I let a long, deep sigh out and walked away.

There was plenty of such crazies in the market tonight, and then there was the more mean spirited mockers and scorners. Two young men made it their goal to disrupt the preaching of the Gospel for several minutes tonight, yelling obscenities and blasphemies while I tried to present the Gospel to those who walked by. They ran off when they saw a very unimpressed pastor Tim coming over to have a chat with them. Wasn't too long after this that a woman screamed insults at me from her car as she drove by the spot I was preaching from.

Those two sad events got me wondering: how do these souls feel moments after reviling me so grievously. Do they just brush it all off and have a great evening? Do they enjoy a nice meal at one of the market's restaurants? Does it bring them any lasting satisfaction? I've insulted and mocked people in the past. Not as grievously as some of the things that I've been served, but I have been guilty of that particular sin, and I can say, I've seldom felt good about it (if ever). There's something very distasteful in verbal attacks; they are insensitive, juvenile and cowardly (IMHO).

Anyway, the night wasn't a complete waste: lots of Bible tracts were handed out, lots of lost sinners got to hear the preaching of the Gospel and/or read some Scripture on our Bible signs. Summertime always brings thousands of souls in the marketplace of my city, giving us great opportunity to remind lots of souls of their responsibilities towards God. I even got the attention of the CBC's Mark Kelley, who without a doubt, read our Bible signs before walking away.

The Lord use our evangelistic work as He sees fit, and may He be glorified.

Good night and have a blessed weekend, dear readers.

Rand

2010-05-07T22:58:00.002-04:00

see you next month...

Due to poor health, I was unable to go out street preaching tonight.

I should also point out that there will most likely be no Friday Night Notes for the next month! I plan to take my Sunday School class out camping next Friday and Saturday... and the two Fridays after that I will be, Lord-willing, in Salt Lake City, Utah, for a scientific conference. I'll most likely post some updates over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

Sincerely,

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-05-01T01:49:00.002-04:00

a shortened endeavour...

I was late for our Friday night of evangelism, so we were only able to preach the Gospel of Jesus for just a little over two hours. I'm working a whole lot of overtime in the lab, preparing a report I will be presenting in a couple of weeks at a scientific conference. Any reader from Salt Lake City, Utah? That's where the conference is being held this year.

Anyway, Pastor Tim and I wasted no time when we got to the marketplace and started preaching and handed out Bible tracts. The market was very busy tonight; no doubt the warmer weather is attracting people to come downtown. It's good in that, it's all the more souls Pastor Tim and I can share the Gospel with. It's bad in that all these people are basically in the market chasing after all manner of sin.

It can be pretty intimidating facing increasing numbers of people who, for the most part, hate both me and my God. The mockery is pretty steady, and in the back of my mind, I always wonder when someone will show up who will want to beyond just mockery. I see it as a matter of statistics. More people, more chances of a meeting with someone who is truly dangerous. I suppose this is a lack of faith, and/or a carnal fear of man. The Lord help me to be strong and of good courage.

I met an old friend tonight, a man named Janos. I first met Janos on the street a couple of years ago, during one of our street preaching endeavours. The man isn't saved, actually, he is a Romanist, but he's always seen the merit and importance of what Pastor Tim and I do. He doesn't have saving faith, but there is a measure of the fear of the Lord in him. Anyway, I had a short conversation with Janos and gave him a little booklet on the errors of Romanism, and encouraged him to leave the wicked market! The Lord help him see the heresy of Roman Catholicism, and save his soul.

Pastor Tim had two long one-on-one conversations. The first was most unprofitable (I walked in on the last part of the conversation). Two young ladies who actually believed they were righteous individuals, and that, without God. One of them claimed to have, by faith in herself, experienced a type of "second birth". Both ladies were wearing skirts that barely covered their rear ends. 'Nuff said.

The other conversation, by the sound of it, was most profitable. A man named Daniel spoke to Pastor Tim, confessing that he was a truly confused youth leader at a non-denominational church. You see, Daniel was going about a wishy-washy version of Christianity, and then he got exposed to Paul Washer's preaching on the Internet. Brother Paul blew his head off! (lol)

"Well, Paul Washer and I would be in much agreement in both doctrine and practice," Pastor Tim said.

"Can we meet sometime next week?" Daniel asked. "I'd really like to talk with you about doctrine."

I think both men are planning to have coffee together next Tuesday. Remember this day and meeting in your prayers, dear saints.

As for me, I only had one meaningful one-on-one conversation with two young men, who ultimately didn't have any time for the Gospel. They came to me with all sorts of ludicrous claims like "the Romans wrote the Bible", and tried hard to convince me of "facts" they obviously had made up themselves. They cursed and blasphemed as they walked away.

The Lord have mercy.

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-04-24T01:16:00.002-04:00

not much fun... being reviled...

A tough night of street preaching for us tonight. The couple in the above picture definitely played a big role in making things quite difficult for me. Even after 10 years, seems like my skin isn't quite thick enough...

Our evangelistic effort didn't start off too badly. I spoke to a man named John, and that conversation went really well. It's not every day you can tell a Romanist that he is completely wrong in spiritual matters, and he actually takes it! I encouraged John to read the Scriptures, put away the Romanist dogma, and just follow what the Book says. He didn't disagree with anything I said. I hope the Lord has or will start a good work in him.

I had a few short conversations with fellow believers (some were evangelizing, others were just walking by), which is always nice. One young fellow even asked me if I was "reformed theology", and when I answered "yes", he gave me a high five and said "right on!" I also got a few words of encouragement from people who walked by me as I preached and handed out Gospel tracts.

For the most part, however, tonight was a night of grievous mockery and blasphemy; and when I say grievous, I mean GRIEVOUS. Some of the base and disgusting things people said to us tonight, well, I don't care to dwell on it too much, much less write in this post the full details. Trust me, it was bad. Both young and old hurled all manner of wicked speech toward us tonight, most with a generous amount of obscenities, for good measure (or should it rather be 'evil measure?'). The couple in the above picture stood there for a good 15 minutes, laughing at my every word and not sparing any opportunity to mock me with the most filthy words. When they walked away, I thanked the Lord for his tender mercies.

A drunkard also came by and disrupted our preaching efforts. Pastor Tim finally had enough, and started preaching against drunkenness. Offended, the man warned Pastor Tim that he would, get this now, report him to 'his pastor' (clearly the man had now idea that Tim IS a pastor) and that he would see to it that Pastor Tim's pastor reprimand him for his harsh words towards drunkenness. We both tried real hard not to laugh.

Shortly before putting an end to our night of preaching, a young lady took one of my Gospel tracts and again, get this now, acted like she was defecating on the tract. Her friend thought it was pretty funny. I was... well... not as impressed. Another gentleman, standing a few feet away saw the whole thing happen and asked me, with disgust:

"Why would anyone do that?"

"Because they hate God," I replied.

I could tell that my answer didn't satisfy the man. I think he was mostly insulted that anyone would do such a thing to a man who was obviously harmless (aka, me). I told the man not to pay any mind to the nonsense, that I had seen worse, and that I would no doubt, see worse in the future. Sad, but true.

On that downer note (it wasn't a good night), I'm off to bed. Good night, dear readers. Have a great and safe weekend in the Lord.

Dear saints, remember me in your prayers, I will be preaching the evening service this Lord's Day. God bless you all!

Rand

No Notes

2010-04-16T23:37:00.002-04:00

the beauty of God's creation...

Poor health and rain kept me off the streets of the market tonight... so sadly, there will be no Friday Night Notes.

Enjoy these pictures I've taken over the last few weeks:

Male and Female Golden-Eyes

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Flying Black-capped Chickadee

Male and Female Purple Finches

Male Cardinal

God bless you all, dear readers.

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-04-10T02:40:00.003-04:00

a sweetheart kind of night...

The insanity continues!!! Two weeks ago, I was street preaching with my full winter gear on in sub-zero degree weather. Last week, I was in a t-shirt during our evangelistic endeavour... it was a balmy 24C. It was 0C tonight. I actually had to contend with freezing rain during my first hour of evangelism. Like I said, insanity.

While the temperature was nasty, the people I preached to and offered Gospel tracts to were, for the most part, pretty kind. I got several kudos from believers who walked by, and even had a number of sinners take a tract and, get this, actually thanked me for it! I know... I almost fell over a couple of times!

There weren't too many one-on-one conversations tonight. I guess it was too cold and people just didn't want to chat outside for too long. I did speak with a young man who took a picture of me and my Bible sign; he was taking a night class in photography and asked me if he could take a few shots of me and my sign. He had the same SLR camera I own and we talked photography for awhile. I find it profitable sometimes to just talk and not try to force the conversation; it lets people know that, well, I'm normal (lol). I hope the Lord will use the pictures the young man took to save.

The mockers were still present. One young man came out of a pub and asked me to come in and have a beer with him. I respectfully declined. Another man offered to pay my "cover charge" if I wanted to enter a particularly ungodly night club in the midst of the marketplace. Reminded me of this portion of the John Bunyan's famous book, "The Pilgrim's Progress", where a seller of vanity mocks Christian and Faithful:

"One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriages of the men, to say unto them, "What will ye buy?"

Well, just like the characters in the classic book, I bought and continue to buy Truth, and have little time for the follies being sold in the market. I thank the Lord my God for his great work of grace in my life.

"Buy the truth, and sell it not, also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding" (Proverbs 23:23)

Lot of people took Bible tracts from me tonight. Just off the top of my head, I remember a bus driver, who actually rolled down the window of his bus and requested a tract; I remember a young man at a bus stop who pretty much ran after me to get a tract; and I was really pleased when a couple of street beggars took tracts from me tonight. Beggars are usually hostile toward us (they feel we get in the way of them making money), but not tonight. I was especially pleased with my sudden (and probably, temporary) popularity amongst the people since I was all my myself tonight. I again thank God for His hand of protection on me.

With that, I close this edition of the Friday Night Notes. Have a blessed weekend, dear readers. Don't forget to honour and keep the Lord's Day... it's a real blessing!

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-04-03T01:22:00.002-04:00

what a week... what a night...

What can I say? It's a crazy country I live in! Last week, I was freezing while giving out Bible tracts downtown (it was slightly under -10C). I had my gloves on, a toque and two jackets on. Tonight, pastor Tim and I preached the Gospel in a balmy 20C warm spring night. That's a 30 degree Celsius jump in a week! C-R-A-Z-Y!!!

Suffice to say, I didn't have my winter gear on.

The combination of the fine, warm weather and the fact that, being Good Friday, most people had the day off work today, brought tons of people to the marketplace. Lots and lots of people to preach the Gospel to. Pastor Tim and I both preached tonight (we're both getting over lung infections), and handed out a good number of tracts to sinners. I get the feeling we did better than usual tonight because it was Good Friday. That's not to say that everything was just peachy for us out there, but the general attitude towards our ministry was slightly more favorable tonight. The Lord use our efforts as He sees fit. To Him be glory and honour forever. Amen.

Pastor Tim and I both had conversations with a group of "Muslim" men, and both of us ended up walking away from the conversation after realizing it was a complete waste of time. We were, ultimately, being mocked. You'll notice that I put the word "Muslim" in quotation marks because the men were downtown chasing after sin, there was nothing spiritual about these men. I was told by these men that I needed to "open my mind" to their religion. I answered that I preferred keeping it well closed from their abominable practices.

A few minutes later I had a pleasant conversation with a woman named Rachel. She was at best an agnostic... she had some spiritual beliefs but they were pretty "new age". She asked how I came to be "such a religious guy". I explained to her that the Lord saved me, and that the practice of my faith wasn't mere religious liturgy, but rather, a natural response to the work of God in my life. She seemed really taken by my passion and joy in Christ. She said:

"You certainly seem happy!"

She took a Bible tract and thanked me to have shared my thoughts with her. I hope the Lord will start a work of grace in her life, even tonight!

It was about an hour after that conversation that a very drunk man, still holding a beer can in his hand walked up to me. The young man said he knew me. It took a couple of seconds, but I recognized him... it was Andy. In my teen years, I worked on a farm in the summertime; Andy's parents owned the farm. I watched Andy and his sister grow up, I even babysat them from time to time. I had hear that Andy had gone in a bad way... drugs... alcohol... and that, while he was a teenager!

This wasn't the first time I had seen Andy in the marketplace. Twice before I saw him, both times the company he kept mocked me to scorn, while Andy quietly walked away. This time, he was alone. This time, he didn't want to walk away. It was clear in our long conversation that Andy has come to realize that he had thoroughly messed up his life; and that he did it in record time. He is just 27 years-old. I could also tell that he felt a tremendous amount of guilt over how I had been treated in our last couple of meetings. He shook my hand a minimum of four times, and at one point, I think he wanted to hug me.

I made it clear to him that I held no grudge, and that I was genuinely concerned for him. That I was concerned for his very soul. I told him to stop drinking. I told him to call on me if he needed help. I gave him a Bible tract and asked him to come to church. He kept telling me that I was right, and that he was going to get in touch with me. I wanted to believe him, but I recognized that look on his face. The look of addiction. Do any of you know that look? I could just tell that for me to suggest he put away the booze and drugs, for him, it was like asking him to cut off his own legs.

I truly hope he does get in touch with me. I pray that he will come to church on the Lord's Day, but I'm not holding my breath. Call me a pessimist if you will, but I know that getting out of that kind of addiction requires a "Class A" miracle! The Lord has and does deliver those from time to time, but not too often. O that the Lord would deliver poor Andy tonight!

I have to say, going back to our street evangelism after my time with Andy wasn't easy. My heart was heavy. The Lord did help me though, and I carried on. Lots of souls read my Bible sign and lots of people took tracts from me in our last half-hour of evangelism.

I'll close the notes with this plain statement... after the mind-bending week I've just had, spiritually, I think it sums up what is in my heart: "Thank you, Lord, for saving me from my sin and folly, which would have ruined my life!"

Have a safe weekend, dear readers. Remember to honour the Lord's Day.

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-03-27T00:32:00.004-04:00

winter's last hit???

It's crazy that last week, I was out for our night of evangelism in a spring jacket, and tonight it was right back with the winter jacket, toque, gloves and boots. It was freezing out there! It only took 20 minutes for my fingers to freeze, and I shivered the whole two and a half hours I was out. A fellow believer said of me tonight: "You're pretty dedicated!"

Despite the frigid conditions, all and all, it was a pretty laid back night of preaching. I was the only evangelist downtown tonight (pastor Tim is away visiting family), and I only preached for 20 minutes; I spent the rest of my time handing out Bible tracts. I kept preaching to minimum since I'm still on the mend from a nasty bronchitis... I really need to get my vocal chords back into top shape for Sunday, as I will be preaching both the morning and evening services this Lord's Day.

I gave out a good number of tracts and had a good conversation with a young man and his son. He professed faith in Christ, but it later came out that he was a Romanist. He didn't need any convincing that Romanism was dead religion, so I encouraged him to come worship and learn with us on Sunday. He took a pamphlet with our address on it, and wished me well. I hope the Lord will use the literature I gave him to save both him and his family.

I spent so much time tonight offering tracts to sinners... it was strange to have so much quiet time. It was good to have time to pray, carefully considering the task at hand, and how it all fit in my spiritual conversation. One prayer led to another, one spiritual thought to another... by the time I left the area where I was handing out tracts, I was filled with thankfulness and praise to God for everything He had done for me. My salvation in Christ, my precious wife, my beautiful children, my Christian family, my friends and colleagues, all the temporal blessings one can possibly imagine... etc... etc.

Don't get me wrong... it's good to preach the Gospel of Christ; but sometimes, a little quiet does the soul some good.

Shortly before leaving for the night, I had a truly sad conversation with one of the regular street musicians. The poor soul is a drug addict and an alcoholic, his life, like that of his peers, is a total mess. This man usually doesn't have much time for us preachers, but tonight he wanted to talk. What is in parenthesis were my thoughts, I never uttered a word:

Musician: "Hey man, I'm going through a rough time right now, you pray for me, okay?"

Rand: "Okay, I will. What's the problem, my friend."

Musician: "Well, you know Gerry, the short guy who usually pans near me out here? Well, he died last week."

Rand: "I'm really sorry to hear that, man. How old was he?

Musician: "He was only 48 years old. His liver just gave out. He had Lupus, you know? That's what killed him."

Rand: (Perhaps Lupus had a role in his death, but all those liters of alcohol and all those grams of drugs probably did more to finish off your poor friend.)

Musician: "But it's okay. I know that he was saved, and that he's doing good now."

Rand: (No, my poor friend. I don't think he was and I don't think he's doing to well right now either.)

Musician: "I guess I should be happy. At least he's not suffering anymore. It's just that it's tough for me, I have to go on without my buddy."

Rand: (Oh dear... how can I show you that your belief has no grounds in reality. I feel your pain, dear friend, but you are walking the same path, and are headed towards the exact destruction your friend faced and is facing.) "Tell me, my friend, how old a guy are you?"

Musician: "I'm 34 years old."

Rand: "My goodness, you're younger than me!"

Musician: "Yeah, well, I'll be seeing ya! Bye!"

The way our conversation ended doesn't translate too well into text; you kind of had to be there. You see, I asked him how old a guy he was because I wanted to convince him that if his friend died at 48, he might not have too much time left to make his life right with God. When he told me his age, I was shocked, because if you saw a picture of me, and then looked at a picture of him, you wouldn't guess for a second that I was older. Drugs have a nasty effect on a person's body. Anyway, he quickly ended our conversation because he knew where I was going, and he didn't want to hear it. He just wanted to hear me agree with his assessment, and comfort him in his sins. When he didn't get what he wanted, he left. What sad misery.

That's it for the Notes for tonight. Remember me in prayer, dear saints. It'll be a busy enough weekend for me. Remember pastor Tim also, for travel mercies as he is driving a long ways to visit family.

God bless you all, dear readers,

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-03-20T02:55:00.002-04:00

two, mostly quiet preachers...

What a strange night of... well... I don't know if I should even call it "street preaching". It was definitely a night of evangelism, but very little preaching got done.

Pastor Tim is giving his vocal cords another 2 weeks to completely recover from that nasty infection that plagued more than a month ago. So the actual street preaching was up to me again tonight. Thing is, around lunch time today, I started coughing. Nothing serious, but a nagging, incessant cough nonetheless. By the time 7pm came around, I was getting worried. My throat felt swollen and I could definitely see how it was going to cramp my preaching ability. By the grace of God (and probably a bit of my own obstinence), I managed to preach the Gospel for about an hour; the first hour pastor Tim and I spent in the market.

Then my voice was completely extinguished. I could hardly even speak softly with souls that came to talk to me. I was a bit annoyed... okay, I was really annoyed... but we were still able to give out Bible literature and hold up our Bible signs in a very busy marketplace. Thousands of souls read our signs and a fair number of sinners took some literature with them. The Lord use our efforts as He sees fit. To Him be the glory.

There are nights when a preacher really feels and sees the spiritual war taking place in our fallen world. Tonight was one such night for me. Unable to speak, I was able to just quietly consider the state of the lost all around me. To get a sense of life in, as John Bunyan put it, the City of Destruction. It's a city filled with revelry, folly, vanity, hopelessness and desperateness. I sometimes wish I could shake people out of their state of spiritual death, yell out to wake them from their slumber of death... but I know better. So I continued on doing the one thing that save men out of destruction: evangelism and prayer. Basically, I looked to God to do what He willed.

A man called me a hypocrite tonight. I was walking across a street corner with my Bible sign and he yelled from his car: "You're a hypocrite Bible-man!" I few thoughts came into my mind. I didn't say anything. I couldn't say anything. My first thought was: "Why, yes, yes I am. In more ways than one, I am a hypocrite." My second thought was: "I wonder if my accuser is innocent of this sin?"

Moments later, a woman at the back of a very long limousine rolled down the window just to blaspheme the Name of Christ. "F%$# Jesus!" she screamed repeatedly. This sad sight reminded me of an incident that took place at my workplace a few years ago. An irritable and backbiting co-worker of mine came into the lab I was working in to complain about another workmate. Trying to keep the peace and not wanting to be guilty of gossip, I just let the person curse and insult our co-worker without interjecting anything, or joining in any way. That was a wise move. Our colleague was just behind one of our instruments, he had walked in quietly, none of us had heard him come in. I'll always remember the look of embarrassment and culpability on the gossips face when she was found out.

Can you imagine what that poor woman will feel like when she realizes that the Lord was there present, as she cursed His Holy Name?

I dealt with a young man for several minutes tonight. Never got his name. I wish I could have conversed with him more easily/effectively, but well, you know... . I don't know if any good will come of our small chat, but we covered a number of topics concerning the faith and he was definitely respectful of my positions. Hope the Lord will do something good in the man's life.

That's the Notes for tonight, dear readers. I have a busy weekend ahead. Please pray for me. I need good health for the coming weeks. I need the Holy Spirit to help me prepare a few sermons. I need the Lord to give me courage and strength... the market can be a very intimidating place when it gets busy in the spring/summer seasons.

Good night, dear saints.

Rand

No Notes

2010-03-13T02:42:00.002-05:00

spoke too soon...

I've been telling people lately how smooth this winter season had been on me and my family this year. No one got sick with a cold or flu.

I've been down with a cold for the better part of this week.

'Nuff said...

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-03-06T01:23:00.003-05:00

alot of work... alot of preaching...

I'm looking forward to Pastor Tim's complete recovery from the nasty infection that's been plaguing him for last few weeks... 'cause preaching for hours is exhausting! I am thankful that the good preacher has been well enough to accompany me for our usual night of street evangelism; there is safety in numbers. There were several instances tonight in which I feared things could degenerate quickly, but the Lord protected us and gave us a smooth night of evangelism. Praise Him!

Things were kept from going awry on a number of occasion by the presence and activities of a massive number of police patrolling the marketplace. We sometimes go through our 3 hours of evangelism without seeing one single police officer, but not tonight. The good men/women in uniform were out in full-force and kept drunkards/revellers in check. They even had a highway checkpoint tonight, looking to put a stop to drunk drivers.

There were alot of people in the market... I surely preached to the Gospel to thousands of souls. Both pastor Tim and I gave out a good number of Bible tracts and several souls stopped to read our Bible signs (two of the four we brought with us is in the picture above). Another good thing to mention is Pastor Tim having a very lengthy conversation with a young lady who was in serious need of Biblical counselling. Pastor Tim said, without going into detail, that the young lady was in a very bad situation, but he felt the conversation was quite profitable. The Lord use His Word in the lives of the lost as He sees fit. May He be glorified in us and in the people we ministered to.

As always, however, there was plenty of nonsense which we had to endure; and much of it was quite grievous. One man took one of our tracts and then yelled out: "My hand! My hand! It's burning!" He then threw the tract to the ground and left whilst laughing at us to scorn. A short time after that a woman walked up to me and started reading my John 3:36 sign; she made it up to "he who believes not" and then turned back saying: "It's too long...". A young man later did the exact same as this woman, except he said: "Well, I don't believe." As he walked away, I finished the verse for him: "...shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him." The Lord have mercy.

The level of lewdness, the blasphemy and profanity was quite disturbing out there tonight. How I look forward to the day when all of it will be put away! Even so, come Lord Jesus.

On that note, I'll close this street preaching report. It's late and I need some rest.

Have a blessed weekend, dear readers. Enjoy the Lord's Day.

Rand

Friday Night Notes

2010-02-27T01:32:00.003-05:00

a much busier night...

Last week I couldn't hand out a Bible track to save my life! This week I was handing them out steady from 7:30pm to 10:30pm. I think I gave out 3-4 tracts last week; I probably handed out 10-12 times that amount in the first half of our street preaching endeavour. It's hard to figure... just how different things can be from one week to the next.

Pastor Tim was still recuperating from the lung infection that had stricken him a couple of weeks ago, so preaching duties were handled by "Your's Truly" for another week. Pastor Tim did come out with me, but limited his activities to Gospel tract distribution, and speaking with any soul willing to hear something of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I preached the Gospel for at least 2/3 of the total time we spent evangelizing. It was quite a task. I don't know if any of you have tried to preaching for that long... it's quite wearying. I had a few souls come with questions. Like the two young men who wanted to know how I defined "faith" (a word that comes up often in my preaching). I gave the young men the Biblical definition of faith, as written in Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen." Then I explained how the faith of Jesus Christ was a gift from God and should they receive it, this faith would radically change their lives. I encouraged the men to read the Bible, that it was able to make them wise unto salvation.

A few scorners and mockers put in their usual jabs. One man claiming that God was "dead" (to which I answered: "We'll see about that..."), and a woman later pridefully asserted that she didn't, nor would ever believe the Scriptures (to which I answered: "Oh... I guarantee you... you will... one day, you will). Despite this folly, I thanked and continue to thank the Lord my God that for a number of weeks/months now, no one has threatened us with any violence, nor has anyone aggressively tried to obstruct our preaching. I'm not being melodramatic, pastor Tim and I have, on a number of occasions, have found ourselves in some pretty nasty situations.

When 9:30pm rolled around, pastor Tim and I were certain that the streets of the market would empty out. That was the start time for the Olympic hockey matchup between Team Canada and Team Slovakia; yes, hockey is a really big deal in the Great White North. While there were more people in bars and pubs to watch the game than on the streets, we were pleasantly surprised to find that there were plenty of souls still around that we could share the Gospel with. So we kept going for another hour. Ever so often, we'd here the people in the pubs cheer, so we knew Team Canada was fairing rather well (they ended up winning 3-2).

Before calling it a night, I had a chance to preach and offer tracts to men that work in the same building I work in. I don't know the men very well, but no doubt, they knew who I was. They did their best to ignore my preaching and turned down my offer of Gospel tracts. As they walked away, I could see them mumbling and gossiping amongst themselves. The Lord have mercy on them.

With that, dear readers, I close this edition of the Friday Night Notes. I need some sleep. I will preaching the evening service this coming Lord's Day, so please pray for me, dear saints of God.

Have a blessed weekend everyone,

Rand