Post by Messenger Micah on Dec 1, 2005 21:38:28 GMT -5
Bicentennial Park-The Big Bang Concert: Joining me this week was Elizabeth, John and Onica, Travis (out of town from Bible College), my friend Flavio (from the central Florida area visiting for Thanksgiving), and Donna (a member from the congregation we attend).
There was a large concert event called ?The Big Bang? going on at Bicentennial Park downtown, which advertised as having 60 different DJ?s. It seemed to be mostly ?Techno? music. We headed there first before going to South Beach.
We set up our banners and headed for the park entrance but were immediately blocked by security and police, telling us we could not enter the park because it had been rented by the concert people and was therefore private for this day. Since we had already paid for two hours of parking, we set up with our banners on the sidewalk near the entrance and began preaching.
I stood on the platform, began preaching without any voice amplification, and was able to preach for about twenty minutes to several young men from Europe, as well as the concertgoers.
The other members of the group (Elizabeth, Onica, John, Travis, and Donna) took turns preaching with the small bullhorn. Since it was a narrow sidewalk it was difficult for people to stop and listen, so we decided to aim the bullhorn at the building across the street and let the preaching reverberate up and down the street. There was a good amount of foot traffic going to and fro from the concert.
After the group took turns preaching, I took a turn on the bullhorn and preached for about 30 minutes. At this point our time on the parking meter had run out, so we packed up and headed for South Beach.
South Beach: We arrived at South Beach and headed to the corner of 12th and Washington across from the Popshop in front of the vacant building. Elizabeth got up on the platform and started preaching. Several homosexual ?couples? walked by holding hands and kissing in front of us. Elizabeth rebuked them and they came back, and started heckling, arguing, accusing us of being narrow-minded, etc. This attracted several other listeners, as well as the homosexual ?couples? (I think 3). Things were pretty heated for a while and they finally left.
Homosexuals do not have any truth to stand on to defend their perverted lifestyle so they often start insulting and then leave.
John then got on the platform and started preaching. After about five minutes a police officer pulled up and said we had to move, because he had three calls that we were making a disturbance, people were about to attack us, and there was going to be a fight. This was obviously a lie called in by the homosexuals to get us to stop preaching. We told the officer as he could see there was no disturbance; nobody was about to fight, etc. We also had all of this on film. He told us if people were threatening to attack us we had to move to another spot. I pressed my case a while, but reluctantly complied and we moved down to the corner of 14th Street and Washington.
Travis got on the platform and preached for a while, and then I preached. I preached for about 15 minutes, and an older black man, a Pastor from Delaware dressed in a suit, along with a younger black man, his Associate Pastor stopped and began listening. The Pastor was very supportive and continually gave me ?Amen?s!? They were out handing out tracts and witnessing. A drunkard also came up and started heckling. Then three or four young white guys came up and started heckling, yelling at me, telling me I was no one to judge, etc. This drew several other listeners. I did not perceive these guys as having a tendency to get violent, but the Pastor stood in front of me and had the rest of the male team join him.
One heckler became very loud and demonstrative, and his friend began to pull him back, and then all of a sudden he acted as if he really wanted to get at me. They pulled him away for a while and then he later returned. The Pastor wanted Donna to take some pictures of the group around me while I continued preaching. There was also a couple in a car behind me who had stopped to listen to the preaching. They wanted me to know about John 3:16, and so I preached about how we needed to love and obey God, or we would end up in hell.
I found out after I finished preaching that the Associate did not agree with my preaching and had left. While I was preaching I could see him praying with several women.
I preached here for a total of about 50 minutes, and then we headed north, with Lincoln Road Mall as our destination.
As we walked and preached to the foot traffic, we approached the wicked Club Madonna, with the pornographic video screens on the sidewalk. One of the strippers was sitting outside on a chair along with several of the bouncers, as well as the manager guy who threatened to call the police and take Dean the photographer?s camera away a few weeks ago.
I told them all how disappointed I was that after all the preaching I had given them, they were still working in this wicked place, and still not saved. I had only planned to make a few passing remarks, rebuke them, preach to them for a few minutes and move on. However, as I rebuked them and preached to them, people started stopping, listening, and asking questions. The stripper, bouncers, and manager also made comments back, and interacted. I preached, answered questions, and dialogued with them for about 20-25 minutes. The stripper was very convicted, as we could see her eyes tear up, and she covered herself up.
With only about 40 minutes left on our parking meter, we headed for the corner of 11th Street and Ocean Drive. Onica preached here first, and then John. John was doing a good job, preaching a straight law/gospel message and got several hecklers, and people stopping to listen. Just as John was wrapping up, and we were getting ready to leave, we met up with Dean the photographer and several of his friends. They did not photograph us because we had to leave, but the site with the photographs is back up at www.pbase.com/lautermilch/repent