"And others save with fear, pulling
them out of the fire..."
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April 28-30, 2006 - We were at the KY Fair and Expo Center at the Flea Market. A man named Robin repented on Sunday and decided to follow Christ. More to come! April 22, 2006 - Although we were very excited about the witnessing opportunities that Thunder Over Louisville was going to provide, this proved to be a very hectic day for everyone! I was just getting back from a field trip to northern Indiana with my oldest daughter. I had been on a bus for about five hours when we arrived in Louisville. My daughter and I dropped a family friend off at her house, I changed my clothes and then we headed over to meet at Eric's church, Farmdale Baptist Church, by 3:00pm. I hurried to make it to the church on time. Daniel had just gotten off of work at 2:00pm and Eric had just finished participating in a seminar at his church. We were waiting on one of Eric's friends, Steve, to arrive so we could leave. At about 3:45pm we prayed and headed downtown to Thunder. Eric and Steve went in his van, while Danny, Daniel, Matt, Emily and I went in Danny's Excursion. While following Eric in his van, we realized that parking was going to be a nightmare. Eric elected to park a number of blocks away for $10. We were stubborn and figured we could get closer. We maneuvered our way down to the Extreme Skate Park and found a good parking spot...for $20! (ouch) After parking we called Eric and told he and Steve to meet us at the Extreme Skate Park. We decided to setup for Open Air preaching. We use a Fender portable PA System with a wireless microphone that Danny owns. We also hook up the wired microphone for the audience. I forgot my Open Air step stool, so I had to resort to standing on the railing that surrounds the skate park. There were hundreds, if not over one thousand people in the skate park! We also video taped the Open Air using a really nice video camera ($3,000+) that Danny owns. (We hope to have the video posted soon!) After setting up, we began drawing a crowd using some trivia questions and giving away money. We didn't really have to draw too much of a crowd, because a crowd was already there! It was mainly to just to draw attention to what we were about to say and get gathered around. Needless to say, people flocked over to us when they saw that we were giving money away. After a few trivia questions, I asked if anyone would like to go for $5. April volunteered. We handed her the wired microphone and began going through the essence of the "Good Test" with her. As you probably already know, this is great because the whole Extreme Park gets to hear our conversation (The Gospel) and not just April. After finishing speaking with April, I asked her if there was anything keeping her from asking for forgiveness, repenting of his sins and putting his trust and faith in Jesus Christ before we departed company. She said that there wasn't, so I asked her if she would like to do just that and she said, "yes". I asked her to give the microphone to one of the hecklers (we had a few by this time) and go speak with Danny. Some of the crowd had dispersed after hearing that we were talking about Jesus. However, many people joined the crowd later as well. A dear young lady, I think her name was Victoria, heckled us in regards to Atheism, the Bible being false and the like. After using those items as a springboard to further preach the Gospel and asked her to turn the microphone over to another young lady who we will call Lisa. I went through the Good Test with Lisa and she, too, wanted to repent and put her faith in Jesus Christ. I directed her to Danny, too. A heckler came up behind me and climbed up on the railing with his beer and hung out with me for a while. He was pretty harmless and it was kind of funny. He only tried to take the microphone from me once. There were two other guys that were standing below me by the railing who, I think, from overhearing bits and pieces of their conversation, were planning to pull my feet off of the railing, causing me to have a bad fall. That never happened, thank God! We Open Aired a bit longer and then to talk with people One-2-One. I had Open Aired for about 1½ hours. There were a lot of people that we talked to who had lots of questions. We listened intently and then gave them the best Biblically-based answers we knew of. We then decided to move on towards Slugger Field. More to come... April 14, 2006 - I headed out to meet with Danny at our usual spot in the Highlands at 6:30pm. Daniel and Eric were unable to make it due to some personal commitments. Danny was running a little behind so I decided to park, turn on some Jars of Clay, read my Bible and pray until he got there. Danny showed up around 7:00pm along with his daughter Katie(14) and son Matthew(12). Matthew began showing me a few of his magic tricks, which were really cool! We use magic tricks in some situations to break the ice and also show that "seeing is not always believing". We had some quick fun and showed each other our magic tricks for a few minutes. We then gathered up our tracts, prayed and decided to head out. We didn't even get out of the parking lot before I was able to stop and talk with Lori and her husband and son. They listened intently as I asked them some very important questions about spiritual matters. Meanwhile, Danny and his crew were handing out tracts and doing some One-2-One a slight distance from me. When I asked Lori's group if God cared about right and wrong, they said, "no". I then asked them if they thought God would punish sin. Lori's 10-12 year old son whispered, "Say no, God won't punish sin." That kind of took me by surprise. Here was a young kid who had already been infiltrated with moral relativism and a false concept of God. As I probed further in our conversation I found out that Lori was into an Eastern religion/philosophy "buffet". She believed all would go to heaven or maybe come back as something else (reincarnation). While she said that she did believe in God, she said that she did not believe in the concept of Hell. I told her that God was a God of justice and that he would make sure those that had not received justice here, would receive it after they die. That we would all have to give an account unto God when we die. Lori seemed to have a made up mind until I asked her why she believed what she believed. This perplexed look came upon her face and she that she wasn't sure. I told her that she has done what many others do on a day-to-day basis. She has committed the oldest sin in the book...idolatry...the second Commandment. She wasn't sure what she believed so she had shaped a god to suit herself to appease her conscience. This was the god that would allow her to lay her head on a pillow at night and let her feel comfortable with herself. I told her that three and half pounds of brain matter could not figure it all out and we must go to the source of Truth. God and the Bible. I told her to investigate the claims that Jesus made to see if what I was telling her was true. I told them that there was nothing more important than their eternal salvation, thanked them for their time, gave them the I.Q. Test tract and some other tracts and walked over to Danny. After a quick summarization of the One-2-One experience, Danny pointed to a group across the street at Ear X-Tacy and said that he knew one of the "kids" in the group and that I should go over there and One-2-One with him. We crossed the street and I approached the group by myself. I asked if anyone wanted to help me with an I.Q. Test and about ten people immediately flocked around me. As I was asking questions, curse words went flying. It's a good thing Danny and his kids didn't join me, but stayed off to the side handing out tracts and talking to others One-2-One. As I was talking to the group, the very guy that Danny wanted me to talk to said, "Hey, weren't you preaching on the sidewalk last Fall?" I said that I was and he said, "Remember me??? I'm Nacho!" I said, "Yes!" Although I don't think Nacho was mentioned by name until Five Alive he originally heckled me on October 14, 2005 when I was Open Airing in front of Ear X-Tacy. I asked the group if any of them considered themselves to be a good person and Joe, who was standing to my immediate right, raised his hand. Joe was an unusual looking fellow. He was covered with tattoos. Joe had his right eyebrow shaved and a "scribbily" looking tattoo in its place. He also had tattoos around the earlobe piercings. He had an earring in his nose and a tribal looking "indentation" above his left eye traveling down to the mid-jaw area. This is the kind of guy that would probably never darken the doorstep of a church because he would immediately get the eye-popping "what are you doing here?" gazes. As I went through the Law with Joe (and the whole group) the attempts to drag me down rabbit holes were overwhelming. They were machine-gunning questions at me left and right. I felt that I could not control this group of ten or so people and I was about to jump up on the wall at Ear X-Tacy and start Open Airing. I answered one of the questions to appease the crowd. As I went to get back on the subject, Joe had walked away. He told me that when he didn't like what he was hearing in any situation he would walk away as not to do or say something rude. I called him back over and continued. The authority and trustworthiness of the Bible tended to be the hot-button issue for everyone as I was finishing going through the Law, the cross, forgiveness, repentance, grace and mercy with the group. I don't know why, but when I asked them who the first President of the United States was and asked them how they knew that for sure, it scattered them. I don't know if it was their pride painting them into a corner because they knew that they were exercising faith by believing what was written in their history books and by believing what their teachers had taught them. Two young men (15-16yrs) stuck around and I talked with them further. They seemed to be hungry for truth! They were asking me all kinds of questions when Austin walked up and interrupted our conversation. He asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was having a conversation with these two guys. Hey told me that he suspected that I was "witnessing" to them and I should just leave them alone. He then professed with his own tongue that he was a moral relativist and went into a tirade about Indians, slaves and Christopher Columbus...interjecting cuss words wherever he deemed necessary. After he took a breath I told him that he made an absolute statement whenever he approached us by saying that he was a moral relativist. He didn't like that too much and proceed to drop a couple of "F" bombs on me. He continued to tell me that I should just get the "#$%@" out of here and to leave these "kids" (as he put it) alone. I told him that I served nine years in the United States Marine Corps to protect everyone's First Amendment right to talk to people freely on the sidewalks and other public areas of our country and I wasn't going anywhere. I turned to the two young men and asked them if I had offended them or was bothering them. One of them said, "No, and as a matter of fact I'm interested in what he (me) has had to say and I want to talk to him more." YES!!! That was a very refreshing response and Austin didn't really know how to respond. I guess he thought everyone would just jump on the moral relativist bandwagon. I asked Austin if he considered himself to be a good person and he said that he was. He said that he used to be a Christian and a youth leader in the church. He now worked with youth and did lots of great things in the community and if there was a heaven he would definitely go before I would. However, Austin said he was an Atheist and when you go in the ground you are just "absorbed back into the ecosystem." I attempted to take Austin through the Law about three or four times, but he would not let me get a word in edgewise. At one point he stopped to take a breath so I figured I'd go for it and said, "Austin, unless you repent, you will perish" (Jesus said this in Luke 13) His face got very twisted and his body contorted as he said, "I will perish and then I will come back and kill your God!" Whoa! I just kind of grinned and thought to myself, "Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess..." Ironically enough I was not mad at Austin at all. I even told him that I am concerned about him and care about him. That's why I was out there on the streets. I asked him, "How would it be for me to say that I really believed what the Bible said about people perishing without Christ, but not be out here talking to these two young men?" It would be a whole lot easier to sit back on a padded pew with nice heating and air conditioning and going to church social functions. Would I really believe OR would I just not care about the eternity of others? Hey said, "I'll give you credit for that, but blah, blah, blah" as he continued to vomit all over me spiritually. Austin finally decided to leave and warned the young men about me one more time before he left. He would not take any of my "Christian Propaganda" (tracts) as he was leaving. The two young men stayed and talked with me for another fifteen minutes or so. I gave them some tracts and linked back up with Danny. I found it very interesting that Austin was so worried about me talking to people about Jesus when he was coming up and spewing his beliefs all over us. Wasn't he doing the same thing that he was accusing me of doing? Of course he was! The Holy Spirit really helped me out a lot in that situation. There were so many occasions where I wanted to get in the "flesh" and I didn't. I tried to remain calm, listen and love Austin. I noticed as Austin was leaving that two of his friends were waiting on him. For some reason I didn't get the impressions that they were too pleased with Austin. Maybe they heard Austin verbally abuse me, laugh at me out loud and display physically aggressive body language toward me? Remember, sometimes we impact the people who are on the fringes of the conversation more than the people we are directly talking to. We're praying for Austin! Although I felt like I had been in a spiritual wrestling match, I was primed and ready to witness more. However, we decided to wrap it up due to time and family commitments. I thank God for another exciting opportunity to preach His Word and reach out to the lost! April 7, 2006 - The initial weather forecast for the day was bleak. However, after keeping an eye on the local weather radar all day the storms seemed as if they were moving north and missing Louisville. At 5:30pm all was well and appeared as if it would stay that way for the rest of the evening so we decided to go ahead hit the streets. Daniel met me at my house at 6:00pm and we left to meet Danny in the Highlands by Ear X-Tacy. We all three met, gathered our tract together, prayed and headed down the sidewalk. As we were about to pass a tattoo parlor called "Twisted Images" Nate came riding by on his bicycle and we flagged him down to see if he would help us out with the I.Q. Test. I quickly began to ask him a few of the questions which peaked his interest and he stopped to talk with us. He could only name one commandment. "Thou shalt not murder", he said. I asked him if there was a God and he immediately said, "No." I proceeded with the usual logical, critical thinkers concepts like:
This made perfect, logical sense to Nate. I had not used the Bible or faith to prove the existence of God. Nate began to backslide. He readily admitted that he should probably not be called an Atheist, but an Agnostic. Nate knew that there must be something, but was unsure. I asked him why he believed what he believed. He said that he didn't know. I asked him to hypothetically consider that there was the God of the Bible and took him through the Law. He realized that if there was a God, he would be guilty on the Day of Judgment. I asked him what he would do. He said he would simply ask for forgiveness and God would let him "in". I gave the "robbing a store, stand in front of the judge, I'm sorry so please let me go, the judge is good and just so he must see justice served" analogy and that made sense to him as well. I told him that forgiveness alone would not save him from the judge's wrath. What would he do? He said he did not know. I then told him about Jesus and the cross. The mercy, love, grace and forgiveness of God. That if he would ask for forgiveness, repent and place his faith and trust in Jesus, the Law would be satisfied and he would go free (Heaven) and would not be under the Law anymore, but walking in the unmerited favor of God (grace). Nate said that he still wasn't sure if he believed. I quickly mentioned that the Bible could be historically, archaeologically and prophetically proven and used the example of the Dead Sea scrolls. I told him to consider what we talked about and that he should investigate the claims of the Bible for himself. He said that he did have a Bible. I also told him to make sure to know why he believes what he believes. If not, he is gambling with his very soul in all of eternity. I told him that there was nothing more important than his eternal salvation, so please consider what we had discussed. We gave him the I.Q. Test Survey, The Atheist Test and Science Confirms the Bible tracts, shook his hand and thanked him for taking the time to talk to us. We noticed the skies getting dark and a shift in the weather as we continued down the sidewalk. We handed out tracts along the way and got a few rejections for One-2-One until we had the opportunity to speak with Chuck. Chuck was just coming back from McDonalds when we stopped him and handed him a $1,000 bill tract. He asked what it was for and we said that we were asking people a "big money" question..."Will you go to heaven?" Chuck said that he wasn't sure. I asked him if he considered himself to be a good person. He said that he thought that he was. I then established the Ten Commandments as the standard and asked him if he had kept them. He said that he had for the most part. I went through the Law with Chuck and he said that he would be found guilty on the Day of Judgment and that God would send him to Hell. I asked if that concerned him. He said that it did, it really did! I asked him if he knew what Jesus did so he did not have to go to Hell, but spend eternity in Heaven. He told me that Jesus had died on the cross. I told him that there was so much more. I took him through the Gospel, tying it in with the Law so the cross would make sense. I asked him if there was anything keeping him from asking for forgiveness, repenting of his sins and putting his trust and faith in Jesus Christ before we departed company. He said there was nothing, so I asked him if he would like to pray to do this things now. A storm was brewing in the sky as we stepped off to the side of the sidewalk. Danny had been handing out tracts to passers-by while we were doing One-2-One. I called for Danny to come over and pray with us. Daniel, Danny, Chuck and I joined hands. Chuck prayed first and then we prayed with him. I asked him about church and he said that he had not been to church in 10 years. He did say that he knew of some local churches he could attend. We encouraged him to possibly go to the church he went to 10 years ago or go to a Bible believing, Jesus Christ preaching protestant church. We let him know that he is always welcome to attend one of our churches. The rain began to fall as we gave him a copy of Save Yourself Some Pain, a Million Dollar Bill and a copy of Hell's Best Kept Secret. We also got his contact information. I didn't want to rush away from Chuck for some reason although it was raining. I was rejoicing inside knowing that Chuck had been saved from an eternal Hell and would be in Heaven whenever the Lord decided Chuck's time on this planet was up. The rain continued to fall as we hugged Chuck and crossed the street to get out of the rain. We picked up the pace as the tornado sirens had began to wail. We ran (jogged is more like it!) down to the QDobe Mexican Grill. We sat down at a table and began to receive calls from our loved ones letting us know that there were tornado warnings for the area. We wiped the raindrops from our brow and found a table. I immediately spotted a gentlemen next to us reading what I thought to be a Bible. I approached him and asked him what he was reading. With a strong accent, he responded by saying that it was an English book and that he had been teaching himself English for 6 years. I asked if I could sit at his table and introduced myself. His name was Adalberto. He told me that he was from Cuba and that he had been in the United States for about twelve years, was working at Paul's Fruit Market and living with his mother. I told him what we were doing in the Highlands and asked him if he had a Christian background. He said that he had been a Catholic since he was born. I asked him if he would consider himself to be a good person. If you've read any of these blogs before you know the whole of the rest of the conversation. He said that he had repented and was trusting in Jesus. Danny handed me a copy of Kirk Cameron's Soundly Saved and I gave it to Adalberto. He asked me what denomination that Kirk Cameron was. I told him that I was not sure, but that didn't matter. The teaching was Biblical. I told him that the denomination a man belongs to is not as important as whether or not what he speaks is the Biblical truth. I told him about the Bereans in the Bible. How they would constantly analyze what Paul said to make sure that it lined up with the Scriptures. I told him not to take any man's word, but to only take God's word. I told him that if any man told him something that was not Biblical, he should discard it. We also began to talk about walking by faith and not by sight. I showed him a magic trick called the Magic Stop-Light Cards to show that seeing is not always believing. I eventually showed him how to do the trick and gave the trick to him. I showed him and gave him the Curved Illusion tract, the I.Q. Test tract and one of our cards. I got his contact information and plan on contacting him for lunch one day. Talking with Adalberto really opened my eyes to how fortunate we are in this country and the opportunities and freedoms that we have been given in the United States of America. March 31-April 2, 2006 - We were at Kentucky Fair and Expo Center Flea Market with a booth! This Report will be a bit different due to the overwhelming opportunities to hand out tracts and witness. We did more One-2-One witnessing than any of us can keep track of! We estimate that we handed out almost 3,000 tracts. We did a lot of "tract bombing" (where you simply hand out a tract to passers-by...Eric's terminology!) and One-2-One when we could get people's attention to stop at our booth. We were using different methods to get people to stop. We had the Open Air flip chart which had portions of the I.Q. test. Many people would stop to try to answer the questions. We would then strike up a conversation and swing to the spiritual by giving them the "Good Test". We also were asking people if they would like to try an I.Q. Test/Survey. Lots of people tried it, had fun and were told the Good News all at the same time. We were able to give (we did not sell anything at the booth) many Christians Biblical evangelizing equipping tools like books, audio CDs and DVDs. So many seeds were planted, watered, fertilized and even harvested! Brittany and Melissa stopped by our booth to take the I.Q. Test and found the grace, mercy and love of Jesus Christ! After asking them if they would consider themselves to be a "good person", we went through the Law and then to the cross of Calvary. They saw a need of God's forgiveness so I proceeded to ask them, "Is there anything that would keep you from walking away from me without asking forgiveness, repenting of your sins and putting your faith in Jesus Christ so you would know that are going to Heaven and not Hell when you die?" They both said, "No." We stepped off to the side and they prayed a prayer of repentance and then I prayed with them. They both said that they had family members who went to church regularly and would attend with them. We gave them some information and got their contact information from them. We sent them both a letter of encouragement and called them within the week. We left a message for Melissa and got a chance to speak with Brittany. Brittany said that she was in church on Sunday and had been reading her Bible. I told her that if she needed anything just to call us or drop us an EMail. God is good! By the way, someone blessed us on two different occasions with a financial gift that will allow us to be at the Flea Market again next month! See you there!
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