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Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 1:13)

Friday Night Notes

Saturday, October 27, 2012
fairly quiet...


It was a pretty depressing day at work, so I was thankful tonight's evangelistic effort was, for the most part, quiet.  My workplace was hit with a second round of lay-offs, and a number of my colleagues were affected.  A real bummer.

As you can see by the attached picture, while our night of evangelism was quieter than past weeks, I still had to pick up our Bible signs off the ground a number of times.  Tolerance for God's Word has never been so low.  Another bummer.

Pastor Tim was particularly blessed with one-on-one conversations tonight.  He dealt with a couple of young men who recently emigrated from South Sudan, and had a long conversation with three young ladies of Middle-Eastern descent.  None of them were Muslim, and were quite pleased with Pastor Tim's answers to their questions.  One of them, named "Sandy", took Pastor Tim phone number and said she would like to have more questions answered concerning the Gospel.  I hope and pray she does call on us!

The only significant conversation I had tonight was with a student that worked in my lab over the summer, and we didn't talk about the Gospel, we talked "shop".  It was clear the young man was uncomfortable being seen with me and my big Bible sign, so I didn't keep him too long.  It's quite disappointing, really.  I mean, I like the lad, I really do, but he lacks a great deal of character.  Last summer, he told me that his parents were Christians, and that while living in Saudi Arabia, they lived in constant fear of persecution.  He told me a friend of the family was tortured terribly for being a Christian.  All those experiences, seeing active faith in the people around him, and on Friday night, he's with the downtown party-goers, knowingly ignoring the good Way, in favour of the broad road.

On my way back home after our night of evangelism, I met up with Brother Layton and his crew (the Open-Air Campaigners), who were also calling it a night.  Layton seemed beat up some, but was soldiering on.  I don't have much time for Brother Layton's doctrinal stand, but that man's my hero nonetheless.  He is suffering from a rare and difficult illness... his wife is also quite ill... and yet he labours on, striving to bring back to the Lord double talents.  The Lord bless him abundantly.

I have a conference to attend tomorrow, so I better call it a night and head for bed now.  It's been quite a week, and I'm pretty glad it's over.  The Lord's Day will be a sweet day.

God bless you, dear readers.


Rand


Friday Night Notes

Saturday, October 20, 2012
a few ups... lots of downs...


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remember us in your prayers, dear saints.


Rand


No Notes

Saturday, October 13, 2012
some recovery time...

I wasn't able to make it out to the market last night for our customary night of evangelism.  I've been feeling under the weather the last few days and needed some rest.  I believe Pastor Tim made it out and "held the fort"!

Have a good Lord's Day everyone,

Rand


No Notes

Saturday, October 06, 2012
much better company on this Friday night...

Pastor Tim, Brother Rod, myself and our wives were out of town last night.  We all attended a marriage enrichment seminar at Calvary Baptist Church.  It was a sweet time of fellowship.

God bless you, dear readers... and to all my Canadian brothers and sisters-in-the-Lord, have a blessed Thanksgiving weekend.

Rand