"And others save with fear, pulling
them out of the fire..."
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October 26, 2007 - I had already packed up my vehicle the night before in preparation for the monthly Flea Market at the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center (KFEC). The team has a booth there each month where we are able to hand out tracts and get to speak with non-Christians One-2-One. In addition, we give away books, CDs and DVDs to Christians and non-Christians alike. It's a great opportunity to spread the Gospel and we normally hand out over 1,000 tracts during the three-day weekend. The next morning I drove to the KFEC to set everything up. I arrived just before 7:00am to a line of vehicles waiting to get in the West Wing. I eventually made it to the entrance and received our booth assignment. One of the Stewart Promotions owners said that he had an extra half a booth "floating" in our aisle and decided to give it to us. That gave us a total of two booths for space! With 28 feet across we had plenty of room to put everything with lots of room to engage people in conversation. I quickly began to unload my vehicle as I had to be at work by 8:00am. I unloaded my vehicle and drove it out of the building to the parking lot and walked back inside. Within 40 minutes I had the booth setup with just enough time to make it to work. I was excited about lied ahead for this weekend! I left the campus just after noon and headed to the Flea Market. I immediately noticed coming in that the "Friday crowd" seemed to be larger than usual. I was right! I parked (in the "back 40"), prayed and headed into the West Wing to our booth in row "R". I put my bags down and was attempting to finish up the final touches of the booth, but was getting bombarded by people actually coming into the booth and asking about the materials we had out. I thought to myself, "I'm not finished setting everything out, BUT this is great!" We had about 1,500 "Creepy Cash" tracts left of the 5,000 that we ordered for the month of October and I began handing those out. Danny showed up to witness around 1:00pm and I decided to go grab us some lunch around 2:00pm. I drove to and went in to the local McDonald's and ordered a meal. While waiting on the meal I noticed a man that we had spoken with months before at the Flea Market that goes by "Couch", because he does upholstery work. He always has a red baseball cap on that says "Holy Spirt". I approached him and we began to talk. Actually, he began to talk...and talk...and talk. I could hardly get a word in edgewise and eventually came to the conclusion that mister "Couch" was utterly confused and believed in a very twisted concept that there was no hell because, as he said, "God would not lose one of them." Meanwhile, poor Danny was wondering where in the world I was and where his food was!!! Danny actually called me, which was my opportunity to break free. He was still trying to talk to me even after I told him that I had to go numerous times! I finally hopped in my car, went through the drive-thru to get Danny's food and was off. Danny and I continued to work the booth until about 6:30pm. We had already planned to meet later that evening at a local haunted house to hand out tracts. This is an opportunity for those who could not make it to the Flea Market to still have an opportunity to go out street witnessing with the rest of the team. I arrived at "The Morgue" haunted house on Baxter Avenue a few minutes after 8:00pm and waited around to see if anyone else from the team would show up. Danny was stuck in traffic and was a going to be a few minutes late. After 15 minutes of waiting I decided to head around to the back of "The Morgue". As you might recall from last week, the manager of "The Morgue", Jamie, had given us permission to hand out tracts to their patrons as they were leaving. I made my way down the wooden staircase and behind the tents that were setup over to the gated exit where a security guard was standing. I introduced myself to the security guard whose name was Pete and explained why I was there and what I was doing. He made a radio call to someone else and said nothing else to me. I found out that Pete considered himself a Christian, but did not feel the need to attend church. He proclaimed that he had Jesus, "right here in my heart". As the faux blood-soaked character chased people out of the exit with a chainless chainsaw, I was there to greet them with some "Creepy Cash". How nice! I still couldn't believe that we were able to stand there on their property and do this with their approval. What a great opportunity, especially considering that Pete told me that around 800 people go through the house a night! Danny showed up and I introduced him to Pete who seemed noticeably apprehensive about Danny's presence. It was almost as he was thinking, "How many more of you guys are going to show up?" Sure enough, not long after Danny was there, Jamie (manager) informed us that we would have to stand at the bottom of the exit stairs in the parking lot. He assured us that the traffic would still be funneled down to us, but we couldn't "stand up here." No problem. We moved down the stairs still thanking God for the opportunity to be able to hand out tracts. We stayed until just after 10:00pm and handed out all the tracts that we had brought with us (just over 300). We then headed to the Denny's on Eastern Parkway to grab a quick bite and discuss the day. Saturday, October 27, 2007 I arrived at the Flea Market at about 9:45pm, prayed and headed to the booth. Sylvester helped out in the booth from around 12:30pm - 3:00pm. He handed out lots of tracts and had some great One-2-One conversations. Matt (formerly on the "The Jude 23 Network" team) and his wife Laurie stopped by the booth as they were shopping the Flea Market to say hello. Danny and his son, Matt arrived a little after 4:00pm. I decided to leave at 5:30pm to go hang out with my family for the rest of the evening. Overall it was a great day. Simply put, just the opportunity to have a booth at the Flea Market and impact so many people's lives for Christ is absolutely amazing. Sunday, October 28, 2007 I arrived at the Flea Market after church, around 12:30pm. My initial conversation was with three ladies who read our banner that says, "Are you a good person? Take our simple test to find out and receive a free souvenir." All of the ladies, who had met each other at the Presbyterian church, said that they were good. I proceeded to ask them what standard that they were using to measure their goodness. As I proceeded to take them through the Law of the Lord to show them that they were, in fact, not "good" in the sight of God (just like everyone else on the planet) and was in need of God's forgiveness. We talked for about 45 minutes and had a great conversation. They all had an understanding of what God's version of "good" was and understood that they did not measure up. Of the issues that we discussed, the two main issues that stand out in my mind that they asked me "off topic" was unforgiveness and lesbianism. One lady said that she just could forgive some of the people in her life who had caused harm to her and her family. One of the other ladies said that her daughter was a lesbian. I directed them to Matthew 6:15 and Romans 1:24-27. I gave them each a "Are You Good Enough To Go To Heaven" tract and thanked them for stopping and talking with me. They thanked me and said they really appreciated my approach and the overall conversation. Danny arrived around 2:30pm and I went to change out of my "church clothes" (suit). When I got back from changing I noticed that Sylvester had arrived. The three of us continued through the afternoon until all of the "Creepy Cash" tracts had been distributed. We then continued to hand additional tracts for the remainder of the day. Around 4:45pm we began breaking everything down and loading it out to my vehicle. We loaded up my vehicle, prayed and headed home. While driving home I realized just how tired I was. I realized that the work of evangelism is just that...work. I guess that's why the Bible references Christians as "workers/laborers" for Him. It's not always a barrel of laughs when witnessing. In fact, many times it can be lonely and drain you. The wonderful thing is that God continues to give each of us strength and encouragement to continue in doing what He has called every Christian to do. The Call I arrived home and decided to wait to unpack the car. My youngest daughter and some of the neighborhood kids were outside playing football so I decided to jump in. We had been throwing the football around for about an hour when my wife came out onto our front porch holding the telephone high in the sky. I made my way towards her and she held the phone down at an angle and whispered, "It's someone calling from the tract." I excitedly grabbed the phone and said, "Hello?" A young man on the other end said that he was curious about the tract that he had received. Especially the part about how he was going to end up in hell. I found out that his name was Matt. Matt's demeanor was not initially very friendly, but I began to very gently explain by simply asking him if he believed in God. He did. Then I asked him if he believed in heaven and hell. He did. I then asked him if he thought he would go to heaven. He did. I asked him why he thought so. Yep, you guessed it, he considered himself to be good and God was good, so he would go. Well, you know the rest of the story. I took him through the Law and corrected his understanding of "good", to deserved punishment, to the cross and onto grace, repentance and faith. His demeanor changed and was much more friendly and interactive. I actually told him to re-read the tract now that he wasn't angry anymore. He did admit that what I had said made perfect sense and that the tract did, as well. I explained that it was okay for him to be angry. I told him that I preferred anger over apathy anyday! We talked for at least 45 minutes and I was able to answer a few more of his questions. I told him, "Matt, I know this sounds weird, but I really enjoyed speaking with you and would love to buy you lunch one day if you are willing." He said that sounded great to him and that he would love to talk more outside of a church setting. I told him that he could either call back or drop me an EMail letting me know if he wanted to do lunch, but I wouldn't "bug" him. He said that he was definitely interested and would send me an EMail soon. October 19, 2007 - I picked Sylvester up at 5:45pm and we headed down to our usual spot in the Highlands in front of Ear X-Tacy. We sat in my car and prayed before we got out. We got the table with tracts, books, CDs and DVDs set up along with our coffin "display". I had to leave about 6:45pm to attend a special dinner that my youngest daughter's youth group was hosting at our church from 7pm-8pm so I was hoping that someone else would show so Sylvester wouldn't be by himself. Well, sure enough, Danny showed up just after 6:30pm! We all started handing out tracts to passersby. I left around 6:45pm and was back to join the team by 8:15pm. While I was gone Jerry had showed up. There were a few One-2-Ones going on, but I could tell that the pedestrian traffic was slower than usual. Considering that it was "slow", I brought up the idea to head down to 4th Street LIVE! We packed everything up and jumped into Jerry's car and headed downtown. On the way, we listened to a One-2-Two that Jerry had recorded earlier that evening on his IPod. It was a great conversation! We parked, the four or us got out of the car and prayed. No sooner than we finished praying a man walked by and I handed him some "Creepy Cash". We began to talk as we walked down the sidewalk. As I was about to round the corner I noticed that he needed to go in a different direction so we stopped and talked for a few more minutes on the corner. I told him my name and asked for his. His name was Esau. After having a conversation with him about the Gospel, we shook hands and parted ways as I told him to please consider what we talked about, because there was nothing more important than his eteranl salvation. As Sylvester and I turned from the conversation with Esau, I noticed a tall, slender man waiting on us. He had said that "those guys" (Jerry and Danny) had told him to speak with us because I had a "food card". I pulled out one of the McDonald's Arch Card that I had in my pocket and gave it to him. (We give out Arch Cards to the homeless or those that ask for money instead of cash so we know that they will get a meal instead of using the cash for other purposes.) Sylvester and I introduced ourselves and found out this man's name was David. We began to speak to David about the Lord and David immediately let us know that he was a Baptist and that he was on his way to heaven. As I got a bit closer to David, I noticed the strong smell of alcohol on his breath and began to obviously question the sincerity of his walk. I probed a bit deeper, but David was sticking to his "story". He seemed to have all the Christian lingo down, but externally (and spiritually), David was having trouble convincing us. We never alluded to the fact that we didn't think he was a Christian, however. After talking a few more minutes, I asked David if we could pray for him. He obliged, so we did. During my prayer I mentioned that David did confess Jesus as his Lord and Savior so who was I to question his salvation. I petitioned the Lord to show David if there was anything that he needed to deal with and to lay it at the foot of the blood-stained cross. To simply "give up and let Jesus take over." We proceeded down the sidewalk toward 4th Street LIVE! Again, I was surprised that there was not as many people out this evening. We were all wondering, "Man, where's everyone at? Did the rapture occur and we missed it!?!" Sylvester and I stood on one corner and handed out tracts as Jerry and Danny did on the other. I then proposed that we travel about a mile or two over to the Extreme Skate Park. We headed back to the car and drove over to the Skate Park barking like dogs all the way. Um, yeah, let me explain that one. Jerry had his dog's training collar (to prevent it from barking too much) in the back seat and it would "go off" (high-pitch audible) whenever a loud noise was made. So Jerry and I were barking to get it to go off. Yep, that's one for the history books. ANYWAYS! We arrived at the Skate Park and, YES, there were people! We made our way around the Skate Park handing out the "Creepy Cash" to everyone in the park. As I passed one group of teens I heard one of them make an "off-color" remark about Jesus so I whipped around and asked who had mentioned Jesus. No one owned up to it, but it was a great ice breaker! I asked them what they thought about Jesus, God, heaven, hell, etc. There were about six guys on their bikes and I got six different opinions. As I began to press them a bit about "why they believe what they believe", Dan piped up and said that he did believe in God, but just thought that everyone should do what was right as far as they were concerned and that God (whoever/whatever that was) would do the "right thing" in the end. Ahhh, Relativism at its finest! I used some examples of how relativism doesn't work and how their must be absolute truth and then, as Mark True would say, took him "straight to the Law". Don saw himself as lost and in trouble with God on the Day of Judgment. Problem: He had "tried" Christianity before and it just didn't work for him. He didn't get the things promised him (love, joy, everlasting contentment, happiness and no problems). Don had never repented. Why? Because no one had ever taken the time to explain to him why he needed to repent. I was dealing with a bitter "backslider" who might not have ever slidden forward in the first place. His "spiritual ears" had been sliced off and he was deaf to any warnings that I was trying to give him. We talked for about 45 minutes. I thanked him for listening and told him to please consider what we talked about. I mentioned the website and phone number on the tract if he had any further questions. We shook hands and I turned towards Danny and Jerry who were waiting on me. Sylvester had been in a One-2-One earlier with a young man that I'm sure went well. Hey, doesn't every conversation in which the Gospel is given a "good" conversation. As we were leaving, Jerry began a witnessing conversation with four or five teens on bikes near the railing. Sylvester slipped over to listen in on the conversation as Danny and I watched from a distance. Jerry finished the conversation and we headed back to the car. As we were walking a young man with stretched out ear-lobes rode over to Jerry and said, "Hey, man, I just wanted to apologize for being such an a** earlier." Apparently, Jerry and this young man had an earlier encounter this evening. I thought, "Wow, that's great!" Jerry stopped and talked with the young man for about 5 minutes or so. We will never know this side of heaven what sort of impact Jerry made on that young man and others he spoke with that evening. We hopped back in the car and headed for our last stop, "The Morgue". We arrived and squeezed into a tight parking spot in the parking lot across the street from the Morgue. We handed out a few tracts and headed across the street. The Morgue has a unique issue when it comes to us (you know the guys handing out tracts in front of their location). The building is adjacent to the sidewalk and if their line gets long enough it snakes onto the public sidewalk. Last year when we were filming we had a slight run-in with them, but explained our rights and they left us alone. This year...I was on the phone (trying to call Mark) so Jerry got to handle it when their security admonished us for handing out tracts on the sidewalk. Their claim was that people were taking the "Creepy Cash" up to the window to use it as some sort of discount and that we were confusing the customers. When Jerry told them that it was within our rights to do this, the owner and a police officer came over. Jerry further explained our rights, but the police officer said that we should just "leave the area". The owner began commenting that he really liked the tracts and thought they were "cute" and it was a great idea. He said, "As a matter of fact, if you all want to go around to the back parking lot and hand them out to everyone as they leave, that's fine with me." Mind you he said this in front of the police officer. We said, "No problem and thanks." We decided to leave and come back next Friday after the Flea Market. We hopped back in the car and Jerry took us back to our vehicles in the Highlands. We then decided to go to Steak N' Shake on Bardstown road to grab a quick bite and talk about our evening. I pulled into Steak N' Shake and got out of my car. I noticed that two females had just passed me so I said, "Hey, did you get one of these?" as I extended some "Creepy Cash" to them. They both took them and I explained that they were Gospel tracts and it had an important message on the back. They both got this excited look on their face and said that they were Christians and attended Boyce. I pointed to Danny as he walked up and told them that he attended there as well as that guy over there (Jerry). We chit-chatted for a moment and then noticed that there was a table full of their friends inside that were wondering what was going on. I thought for a moment and then told her, "They probably think that I'm trying to ask you out or something!" I said, "Quick, act like we are exchanging numbers!" We did so and she looked through the glass at the table and they were like, "What's up with that?" We all proceeded to walk inside and they joined their table of friends as we waited on a table. We heard them "Open Air-ing" at the table (they were reading the tract out loud!). We handed multiple people tracts while we waited for our table. We finally got seated and had a great time just talking and enjoying each others company. After I took Sylvester home and got home myself it was after midnight! We had a great time and got to share the Gospel as well. God is good! October 17, 2007 - Today I can say that I may have gotten just a slight taste of what Jesus was feeling when He looked out over Jerusalem and said that he longed to gather them together, but they were not willing (Luke 13:34-35) I had the privilege to be on the University of Louisville campus today from 11:00am - 2:00pm. I hurriedly set our folding table up with the usual tracts, books, DVDs etc. I also set up the coffin with the skulls that "rope" off the front of the coffin. Because Halloween is just around the corner it drew a lot of attention, but I had other intentions for setting up the coffin...to get people to think about death. What will happen after they die? What's next? I was armed with over 1,000 tracts although I only handed out about 600. The "Creepy Cash" went like hotcakes! As I looked up the Student Activities center not long after I set up, I noticed huge streams of people coming down the ramp towards me. It wasn't long before the wide sidewalk was filled should-to-should with people. Since I was alone I decided I was going to go for volume and try to get the message of the Gospel into as many hands as possible. Of course, when you're out there you just can't help but get into One-2-One conversations. I probably personally communicated the Gospel to about six different groups of people. I'm sure I could have talked to more people on a One-2-One level, but there were just so many people, I had to try to get a tract in each of their hands! Everything was going fine until I looked up and noticed two Mormons with sign boards looking for someplace to set up. I thought, "great, just great, I've got to deal with the Mormons again!" I noticed that they went over the InterFaith center (which is across the sidewalk from me) to ask if they could setup in their lawn. I guess they were denied, because they came back a few minutes later and began setting up two easels right next to me (about 10 literal feet) near the corner. I was in a One-2-One while they were setting up. After I finished talking, I glanced over and they said, "Hey, how's it going?" I smiled and and waved back and continued to hand out tracts. The Mormon's had two easels with poster boards of planets and they were asking people to stop by and see their demonstration. "It only takes about 9 minutes", they would say. Their "schtick", as I'll call it, was asking people, "Do you ever wonder where you were before you were born? Would you like to know?" I responded by handing people tracts that heard their line by saying, "It's what's going to happen to you after you die that really matters." I still couldn't believe the Mormons had "camped out" so close to me. I could plainly hear every word of their conversations... Mike broke from the pack of people on the sidewalk and approached the table. He asked me what I was doing. I explained and he then proceeded to ask what "those guys over there" were doing. I said, "Well, they're a cult that is propagating false teaching to the university students." He gave me an interesting look and walked over to the Mormons and began to speak with them. I proceeded to step back out onto the sidewalk and distribute tracts. Mike came back over towards the table and I, too, went back over to speak with Mike. He asked me why I considered the Mormons a cult. I proceeded to explain that I know that the term "cult" could be applied to a lot of groups, but "you know what I mean". I began to speak of some of the absolute wacky things that Mormons ascribe to (Jesus and Satan being brothers, post-death proxy baptism, God has a physical form, Golden Tablets in a hillside, False Prophet Joseph Smith - no temple built in MO to this day, etc. MORE) I said, "Well, do you have a Christian background?" His reply..."Well, I've been a Mormon for 19 years." OOPS!! My response, "So you don't have a Christian background." Of course, he replies, "Well, I am a Christian." Okay, you know I had to pull out the infamous response of, "Mike, go to any Christian bookstore and look in the cult section and you will find books on Mormonism." His response..."Well, um." I continued to speak with Mike, but found myself being more concerned and gentle. He seemed to really be listening the more we talked. I asked him if he had kept the "Word of Wisdom". He immediately said, "Yes", but then said, "no...I haven't." I asked him if he had been perfect as prescribed in Matthew 5:48. He said that he hadn't. I said, "Doesn't that carry a heavy burden and price upon your back each day knowing that you must live up to a certain standard of works in order to be saved?" He replied sheepishly, "Yes, it does." I told him that God does not want that for him. That God's "yoke was easy and His burden was light". I gave him the "3 minutes to live" scenario. He stammered and said he didn't have enough time to answer "theologically". I continued to let him know that I was dying. I went ahead and let him off of the hook and shared the rest of the Gospel with him. We ended up having a great conversation, he even actually picked up the "Intelligent Design vs. Evolution" (with the DVD) off the table and asked if he could have it. "Absolutely!", I said. Hopefully he will read the tract, read the book and watch the DVD and God will open his eyes to the truth. It was blazing outside. I had rained just enough to make it somewhat steamy outside and I could tell that I was getting blasted by the sun on my forehead. I continued to hand out tracts. At many points throughout the time I was there, I couldn't keep up with the volume of students. While passing out tracts, I would occasionally notice an interesting sight. Students would run out the the BSU with Bible in hand and go over to the Mormons. Then, I noticed that they would go back into the BSU and then come back out. "Strange", I thought to myself. I decided to listen to see what they were saying to the Mormons for a moment. Unfortunately, the Christians would ask a question and the Mormons would give some heretical answer and begin to expound more on their doctrine. All I saw were perplexed faces with no sign of Biblical reasoning with Mormons. "Oh, well." I sighed and continued to hand out more tracts. Throughout the course of the day and I had been overhearing the Mormons pollute the air with their blatantly non-Biblical rhetoric. Up until this point I had remained quiet and just silently prayed and handed out tracts. I heard one of the "elders" say to one of the people that they were talking to, "...and it is with the authority of the Joseph Smith that we know these things to be true..." (I'm paraphrasing, but it was something to that effect) At that precise moment I could no longer remain silent. I moved the coffin off of the Open Air stepstool and positioned the stool next to the table. I reached down and grabbed the "SOBE" textbook (just in case) and stepped up into the Open Air. With a loud boom I proclaimed, "Can I please get everyone's attention for a moment. I would like to take just a few moments to address the issue of Mormonism." The Mormons whipped around and looked at me with an, "Oh, no, here he goes again!" look on their face. (Please keep in mind that Jerry Dorris and I had personally spoke to, reasoned with and witnessed to these same Mormons months earlier. I had also Open Aired on the topic of Mormonism in their presence a few months back.) Immediately, a scantily-clad female who was talking with the Mormons (amongst the Christians) shrieked at me and said, "No, don't do this. I am trying to talk to them." I disregarded her plea and proclaimed that I "could no long stand idly by". I continued to expose some of the sub-surface teachings of the Mormon church. I think the fact that I was elevated and speaking so loudly (not yelling, mind you) that it caused many to stop and listen. I must say that there was never more than maybe 10 people at a time stopping to listen during the time that I was talking. Suddenly, a Christian from the group came over to me and said, "Stop what you are doing! You are turning them into victims! People are sympathizing with them." Unfazed by his comments (yes, unfortunately it was coming from a Christian), I pressed on in regards to Mormonism for a few more minutes and then moved into preaching the Gospel. I looked at my watch and noticed that I had about ten minutes left on the Free Speech Area permit (2:00pm) and decided to step down. I handed out the rest of the tracts that I had on my person and began to break everything down and load it into my car. I was hot, drenched in sweat and thirsty. I felt spiritually drained as if I had been in a battle. As I was grabbing the last of the items and loading them into my car I noticed that there were still a couple of Christians that I recognized from before talking with the Mormons. I decided to listen in. I walked over to the small group and stood behind a student. One of the "elders" was explaining something about, "if you take the two sticks that are mentioned in Ezekiel..." (The Bible and the "Stick of Joseph"/Book of Mormon) YEESH! (Let me get out of here before I smacked by the lightning that's about to come down) I shook my head in utter disbelief that people would even stand around and listen to the silliness that was being said and walked away. I have decided that I am going to make up a poster board that lists some basic fundamental "wacky" teachings of the Mormon church so I can just point people to it when we are on campus in the future. Last thought...while I was driving home I thought about the "sea of faces" that I saw on campus and wondered where each one would spend eternity. My thoughts also turned to the two Mormons. Oh, God, save them! Read accounts from other members of The Jude 23 Network!!!
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