Friday Night Notes

a good night...


Well, the first official day of summer didn't disappoint.  It's been a cool, wet spring in my little part of the world; and that kept a lot of people away from the market and the downtown core on Friday evenings.  Tonight it was warm and dry, and thousands of souls were walking the streets of the marketplace, and God's messengers were at their post.  Brothers Paul and Denis of Emmanuel Baptist Church manned a street corner, Brother Layton and his Open-Air Campaigners were at their usual spot near the mall, and Pastor Tim and I were at our post in the heart of the market.

We handed out a lot of tracts tonight, and I've had 4-5 one-on-one conversations with sinners and I have to say that all of them seemed profitable.  At least three of the souls I dealt with insisted on shaking my hand before leaving (always a good thing... better than a slap or an punch!).  No one tried to smash our Bible signs, and no one attempted to hinder our work.  Praise God!

One of the souls I dealt with was a young man named Matthew.  He said he was an agnostic, but that he had "a lot of respect" for religion.  We spoke of the Scriptures and I encouraged him to study God's Word.  I briefly shared the Gospel with him and I think I surprised him with the reasonableness of my positions.  Before leaving, he took one of by Bible tracts, shook my hand and thanked me to have taken the time to answer his questions.

I also spoke to an atheist named Kevin; a young man obviously under the influence of alcohol.  He had questions, and he was quite respectful, but the bottom line was this: he had no faith.  So, if he remembers any of conversation tomorrow morning, he'll be a little less stupid when it comes to Christian doctrine, but he really didn't have any time for the mere concept of God.  That said, Kevin never mocked or belittled my answers.  He also took a tract and shook my hand before leaving.  The Lord open his eyes, that he may see that the Lord is good.

The only way things could have been better tonight is if the Lord had dramatically saved someone right there, on the spot.  I couldn't believe just how many souls accepted Gospel literature, and/or wanted to talk about the Way.  The Lord gave me ability to answer the questions that were directed at me and on more than one occasion, I could tell that my answers resonated with the people I dealt with.  I hope and pray that the Lord will use our work tonight to save and sanctify His lost sheep.

May He be glorified, now and forever.

Amen.


Rand

No Notes

rained out...

It's been raining steady for two days!  Nothing major, but it did keep Pastor Tim and I from going to the market for some open-air evangelism.

Have a blessed weekend, dear readers.


Rand

Two Friday Night Notes!

two-for-one...

First off, I apologize for the lack of blogging the last two weeks.  Friday May 24th, after coming back from a two hour night of evangelism, I sat at my desk and turned on my computer to write a summary of our activities, but found that we were without internet access.  Even our phones were out; we were completely cut off.  Turned out that Bell Canada had been "fixing" some of our neighbourhood's phone lines, and had inadvertently switched us off.

The following Saturday and Sunday were booked solid, so I never got around to writing the summary notes.

This past Friday, Pastor Tim and I were out 'till 11pm.  By the time I left his house, it was 11:30pm, and by the time I made it home, it was near 1:00am.  It had already been a long week at work, so when I got home, I had a small dinner, and went straight to bed; and like the week before, Saturday and Sunday zipped by with little by way of free time.

Which brings us to Sunday night, midnight to be precise, and I am determined to write a quick version of the "Friday Night Notes" for the last two weeks.

The traffic has been far heavier the last couple of weeks in the market.  With summer weather comes outdoor patios at every pub and restaurants in the marketplace, and people pack every chair.  It's sad to see the number of people, especially young people, heading to the pubs but the increase in traffic means more souls get to hear us preaching the Gospel of Life.

We've dealt with all manner of souls lately.  So-called "Jehovah's Witnesses", Muslims, Romanists, Atheists to name a few.  All of them coming with trick questions, trying to snare us in some contradiction or error, like the Pharisees and scribes did to the Lord Jesus Christ two millennia ago.  The more things change, the more they remain the same I suppose.  The outcome of these exchanges are usually quite in line with what one would read in Scripture as well: mockery, anger, sadness, and occasionally confusion.

For example, Pastor Tim dealt with a Romanist who did her best to defend the practice of praying to the "Virgin Mary".  Pastor asked the woman whether Mary was in Heaven, when the woman answered with an affirmative, Pastor Tim then asked: "Well, how can she hear your prayers?  God can hear your prayers because he's everywhere, filling all in all.  Is this true of Mary?  Is Mary a god, or is she a human woman?"  This really perplexed the poor woman who claimed that her priest would surely have a good answer to this problem.  Good luck to him!

One thing that has been missing in our nights of evangelism of late is serious opposition; something we are quite thankful for.  We are steadily mocked, and I had a young man threaten me last Friday night, but it was nothing serious really.  I'm either experienced enough now to not be alarmed by the occasional troublemaker, or perhaps the caliber of troublemaker has dropped the last couple of years.  Either way, I thank the Lord my God.

Another thing I am thankful for is the new parking garage attendant that works in the building right behind our preaching spot.  Collin, the last fellow who worked there, was quite favourable to us and even visited our church on a few occasions.  Well, the new guy is a Pentecostal fellow, and while I don't care much for the doctrinal errors of Pentecostalism, he is also quite favourable to our efforts.  He has even helped us get rid of those who would hinder our evangelism on a couple of occasions.  The Lord bless and help him.

With that, I will close these notes and God-willing, I'll be right back next Friday!

Have a blessed week, dear readers...

Rand