Post by Messenger Micah on Oct 24, 2005 2:38:41 GMT -5
Friday October 14-Goldfinger South: Our friends from the Philippines YMAM Missionary team led by Brother Mitch were visiting Miami for a few days and staying with John and Onica, and Elizabeth and myself. After church Elizabeth, Emmanuel, Brother Joey (Philippines), and myself went to preach at the Goldfinger South Strip Bar. We brought a banner and our small bullhorn, and each took turns preaching. While we were preaching, a van backed out towards us, got in front of us, and sped out, sending rocks flying our direction. The patrons came out and flashed us, and one guy came out and brought us all bottled water. We had a few good conversations with a guy walking down the sidewalk, and another guy who stopped and pulled up in his car to see what we were doing.
We came back to the car in the McDonald?s parking lot and preached a few minutes to the cars in the drive through and had some good conversations come out of it.
Saturday October 15-South Beach: The YWAM team was unable to join us to South Beach due to a prior engagement, but our usual team of Elizabeth, Doug, his son Dougie, John and Onica, and Emmanuel joined me in going to South Beach.
It was again a wet day, and slow by South Beach standards. We set up at 11th Street and Ocean Drive, preached to the passersby and headed towards the homosexual bar called the Palace. Our photographer friend Dean met us there to take pictures.
There was an African American guy dressed like a woman with a microphone, singing and dancing in front of the Palace when we arrived. We stood in front of the bar across the street with our banners, and the man dressed as a woman pointed at us and said, ?Uh, thou shalt not judge?I am an entertainer and I am blessed?.
It was not my idea to head to the Palace, so I was expecting someone else to preach, but when this homosexual did this I felt like David in 1 Samuel 17 and thought, ?Who is this uncircumcised homosexual that he should defy the armies of the living God!?? I started preaching from Acts 3:26, telling them they were not ?blessed? because to be blessed is to be turned away from your sin by Jesus, and if you are a homosexual you are not turned away from your sin.
Immediately, an angry woman ran over to me from the bar, telling me not to embarrass God like that. I ignored here and kept preaching. Two homosexuals stood in the middle of the street and gave each other a prolonged kiss. After about 10 minutes two police officers showed up, approached me, shook my hand, and told me they had a complaint. They were very friendly, asked me what was going on, they were responding to a complaint, and I had every right to do what I was doing. I was facing the bar as they were talking to me, and enjoyed my conversation with the officer, and made sure all the homosexuals saw the smile on my face as I conversed with the officer (pictures at www.pbase.com/lautermilch Repent or Perish).
The officers? left, I continued my message to the homosexuals, mainly from Genesis 1 and Romans 1. I had the attention of much of the bar, and about 20 stopped on the sidewalks to listen and watch.
We then moved down to the Clevelander Bar, where there seemed to be a lot of people watching inside the outdoor bar from the sidewalk. It turned out they were having a bikini contest inside the bar. I went over to the sidewalk to try to break up the party, but was unable to get the crowd?s attention. I was able to have a few good conversations, rebuking a professing ?Christian? couple that were living together, but were not married, watching the contest, and a young man saying he loved God (he did not-John 14:15), took a free bible from us.
During this time, John preached in the square at the intersection across from the Clevelander. A group of Christians from a Florida Assembly of God Bible school called The Masters Commission approached us, introduced themselves, and questioned us about our methods. We gave them Biblical explanations for the things we were doing. They gave us their opinions, but no scriptures, but we appreciated seeing young people out their feeding the homeless, and witnessing.
As we walked toward Lummus Park to preach there, a middle-aged woman wearing a bathing suit, smoking a cigarette, with here drunken daughter told me she was a believer. I told here she was not a believer if she was dressing in public the way she was dressed, and smoking cigarettes. Her and her daughter became irate with me with the daughter trying to physically attack me (pictures at www.pbase.com/lautermilch Repent or Perish).
Members of the team took turns preaching on the Lummus Park sign for about an hour and 45 minutes. With the exception of my wife & myself everyone preached there. I held the banner, witnessed to some who stopped to listen and ask questions, and talked to Dean while the others preached. Dean is very knowledgeable about free speech issues, and about Christianity.
After it began to get dark, we left the Lummus Park sign to put our wagon and banners away, and began looking for some good street corners to preach at.
We were walking down Washington looking for a good corner, when two guys walked by me saying something about how Jesus would be mad at them for what they did today in a joking way. I made a comment to them, and they got upset, and got up in my face. They kept on walking and crossed the intersection. I kept walking, and they began telling me to cross the street. Since that was the direction I was headed anyway, I crossed the intersection, and a group of them surrounded me. (At first I thought they were homosexuals, but Doug told me they were football fans from Boston). I held my ground and exhorted them to repent or perish. They started to walk away from me again. As they walked past a homeless person they told me, ?You can give him some money with some of your OFFERINGS!? (I get no offerings and work a secular job). I told them, ?Oh, we will give him some food (we give out food to the homeless- Matthew 25.), but you can give up your beer drinking (he had a beer in his hand) and your selfish lifestyle and give him a donation yourself.? This really set the guy off, and about 10 very angry guys immediately surrounded me, right up in my face, bumping me, pointing in my face, and threatening me. I thought I was going to get decked, but held my ground, and they left me again.
We walked about a half block further, and I decided to preach at the corner of 12th Street and Washington. As soon as I started, a young homosexual Caucasian guy who owned a store came out, yelling at me to get out of there. I refused and continued preaching. A quarter of a block down was the grand opening of an ?Erotica Art Museum? and there was a good size crowd standing outside waiting to get in who could all hear me. This group and the storeowner created quite a stir, and many people were stopping to listen and watch. I only was able to preach for about 10 minutes before three officers on bicycles stopped me. The head officer was very respectful, told me I was not doing any thing wrong except my volume was violating the 100-foot law. I have heard this from many officers on South Beach and this seems to be the only problem they have with us. I had a good conversation with the officer, got his card, and Doug came by and picked us up in the van.
On the way home, we drove by a local Burger King and saw a group of about 15 to 20 teenagers hanging out. We pulled into the parking lot, and I got out and started preaching to them. This led to several great conversations with many of the young people.
Monday October 17-American Airlines Area-Rolling Stones Concert: Elizabeth, John and Onica, and myself arrived at the American Airlines Arena around 6:30 PM. We put up both banners and I started preaching on the sidewalk outside the Arena. After about 10 minutes, we were asked to move by the security and police. I asked the police officer if I could speak to his superior officer, because I was getting different stories from different officers about where we were allowed to preach, and where we were not allowed to preach.
While we waited we went across the street where they would allow us to preach and split into two groups. Elizabeth and I took one point on the sidewalk with a banner, while John and Onica took another point on the sidewalk with the other banner. From about 6:45 until 8:30 PM we preached to groups of 25 to 50 every few minutes as they left the parking lot and entered into the concert.
I saw a guy with a t-shirt that looked almost exactly like my shirt that says, ?Stop sinning?, only his said, ?Stop snitching?. He was a heavy set, Hispanic, gangster type. I told him he must ?stop sinning?, and the guy became furious, ran up in my face, pointing at me. An officer witnessed this and moved him away.
John said one guy who was dressed like one of the rolling stones band members slapped his bullhorn several times.
Our photographer friend Dean has posted more pictures on the website at www.pbase.com/lautermilch (Repent or Perish). There are pictures of the police stopping me in front of the homosexual bar, the homosexuals kissing, the irate woman, John preaching at the square, many crowd shots, witnessing shots, and many shots of us preaching the following week (October 22). Please view photos with Wet Willie?s Bar Balcony, 8th Street, and storeowner (Caucasian homosexual) with K.I.S.S. (Knights in Satan?s Service) tee shirt on the sidewalk. Report will follow.