Friday Night Notes

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

Labels: Friday evangelism

No Notes

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

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

Labels: Friday evangelism

No Notes

work... work... work...

I wasn't able to go out preaching tonight. I was stuck at work, trying to fix an instrument that just wouldn't behave.

I finally fixed the problem, but it required nearly 5 hours of overtime.

'Till next week, dear readers.


Rand

Canada Day

as well as it could go... under the circumstances...

And that ladies and gentlemen, marks the end of another Canada Day street preaching endeavour. I'm thank the Lord that He gave me the ability and will to go out there a proclaim the Gospel of Jesus for a good 7-8 hours; that said, I'm really glad that's over.

While our weekly street preaching endeavours can be seen as "end-of-the-week, final pushes", our customary day of evangelism on Canada Day (Canada's version of the 4th of July) is more like an 8-hour marathon. No breaks, no distractions, just preaching the Gospel and handing out Gospel tracts all day. I thank God for his sustaining hand on us today, and that He undoubtedly, as He did for Job, set a hedge around us. Today was a safe and unhindered day of street preaching.

We had to deal with all sorts of weather, but thing never really got out of hand. There was a nasty little wind that made it difficult for us to walk around with our Gospel signs, but again, the Lord strengthened and helped us. It also rained twice this afternoon, but on both occasions, the rain only lasted a few minutes. My tracts hardly got wet. Thanks be to God.

We didn't have too many one-on-one conversations with the lost today. Don't really know why, just turned out that way I guess. I had a long conversations with a gang of ungodly young people. They did their best to portray me as an idiot, but I kept my cool and answered their folly calmly and intelligently. They eventually got tired of wickedness and left. Interesting thing happened after however: one of the young men in the group separated from the gang and walked back to me...

"Excuse me, sir. I just wanted to apologize for how my friends treated you. It wasn't right and I didn't like it."

"That's alright," I replied, "don't worry about it. I would, however, like to share the following warning, my friend. It's worthy on serious consideration..."

"What's that?" the young man inquired.

"Evil company corrupt good manners," I replied.

The young man agreed with assessment and promised he would not allow himself to become so wicked and vile. I hope he's right. The Lord be merciful to him.

It was just pastor Tim and I out there today representing our church so we probably didn't hand out as many Bible tracts as we have in the past (when there was 4-6 of us), but we did hand out a fair number nonetheless. People from all walks of life would read the Bible signs we were carrying (you can see a couple of them in the above picture), and then would take a tract from us if they were at all interested in the Gospel. I was surprised to see just how many souls extended their hands to us after reading our signs, desiring some literature. The Lord use His Word as He sees fit.

On a couple of occasions, Christians came by to encourage us, though to be honest, many of them ended up either annoying me or disappointing me. You see, a number of the believers who came by to see me today weren't doing any type of evangelism, despite the hundreds of thousands of lost souls surrounding them. The bulk of them were downtown to go to worldly shows and concerts; quite literally, out playing with the world. It boggles my mind how a fellow brother or sister-in-the-Lord can walk by those who are labouring for the Gospel sakes and continue on their way to vanity and sin. I had one brother tell me that what I was doing was "bang-on", "awesome", and "of the Lord"... yet, when I suggested that believers everywhere were commanded to "go out into the world and preach the Gospel", the response I got was on par with "what are you crazy!" and "not for me!".

Another thing somewhat downed me today. As we were making our way home this evening, pastor Tim said something like: "well, things went about as well as they could go." I know what he meant and I probably shouldn't read anything into it, but I can't help but find it terribly disappointing that after 8 hours of evangelism, with little to no signs of salvation of sanctification to report, that we should conclude that "things went about as well as they could go." We were kept safe. Yes. We were allowed to preach unhindered. Yes. Those are good things, I acknowledge it. But I think you all understand, my brothers and sisters-in-the-Lord, I would put up with a lot of aggravation and hardship to be used of the Lord in the salvation of men, the revival of His church, the awakening of my community/city/country. I wish that "us doing well" was more than just "we didn't get clocked or fined today."

Well... I trust the Lord was magnified and exalted by our efforts today. To Him be the glory, honour and majesty, forever and ever. Amen.

I don't think I'll be going out preaching tomorrow night, I have a number of things to take care of at home. If I do go however, I'll be sure to post my usual Friday Night Notes.

Have a blessed weekend and a glorious Lord's Day, dear readers...


Rand

Labels: Friday evangelism