Post by Messenger Micah on Jan 19, 2006 19:31:00 GMT -5
Bayside Freedom Torch: We found out about a rally by the local National Organization of Women (N.O.W.) chapter to protest Supreme Court Nominee Alito. We ordered two large signs of aborted babies, and John and I stayed up until past midnight on Friday making frames for them along with our beautiful wives, who looked on as we did the carpentry.
Joining me to preach at the protest were Elizabeth, John and Onica, Doug, his son Dougey, Keith (Messianic believer who knew Holy Hubert), and sister Wendy from our local church. Sister Wendy already had her own sign made many months ago in obedience to God?s dealing with her (pictures at www.pbase.com/lautermilch/alito).
We arrived at about 3:00 PM (the scheduled start time), and I had been to the police station the week before to let them know we were coming. They gave the Alito protestor?s one side of the Freedom Torch area and the other side to our group. The police and the citizen?s group helping them did an excellent job.
We had ordered a larger bullhorn but it did not arrive on time. Fortunately, Keith brought along his large, loud bullhorn, however I think he had not changed the batteries since the days he was preaching with Holy Hubert back in the sixties. Our signs made quite a stir with them, but they had a band set up with a sound system and our bullhorn could not be heard. Doug took off to get some new batteries.
They were not allowed on our side and we were not allowed on their side. It was too bad we had a delay with the bullhorn because every line from the band?s song could have been preached from, ?don?t let anyone judge you?you don?t need to feel any guilt?you have a right to choose for yourself?? At this point no one was complaining about us not being able to be heard. They did complain about us being allowed to bring our scripture banners with poles.
After a short time Doug arrived with the new batteries and John put them in. At this point the battle was turned decidedly in our direction. In fact, if I could say it humbly we were very successful in shutting down the whole thing. John immediately started preaching on the bullhorn and it was drowning out all of their speakers. They all began to complain, get irate, and cry that it was not right for us to have a bullhorn.
John, Doug, and I all took a few turns preaching and they were not enjoying it at all. You could see how difficult it was for the speakers to maintain their concentration, and for the audience to concentrate on what they were saying. The second turn I took to preach a guy got up and I could hear him say he was a Christian, a minister, we are all sinners, etc. and I really let him have it preaching what about what a true Christian was as opposed to a false professor.
When we arrived they probably had about 100 to 125 people out, but as the afternoon wore on the numbers dwindled. The rally was originally scheduled to last until 6 PM, but they ended around 5:15 PM.
We saw the ?peace loving?, God hating war protestors standing for abortion with their ?Thou shalt not kill!? t-shirts on display, pounding their fists and gritting their teeth at us. One woman who is a ?big wig? in the Women in Black, a war protester got so angry she assaulted one of the photographers, and he pressed charges. She was arrested. Another ?big wig? tried to go after Dean and verbally assaulted him. Of course this made them look bad, and we learned they had to have a meeting afterwards to try to improve their image after the incident.
A young girl who seemed to be of Haitian descent named, Fabienne who had come to the park to read her Bible, spotted us and joined us joined us all afternoon. Praise God!
The rally was held on one of the busiest streets in Miami so in addition to the 100-200 abortionists and war protesters, many other pedestrians and cars going by saw the signs and heard the preaching. All the protestors went home with the scriptures ringing in their ears. I was able to hear the bullhorn from way down the street. Dean said he was amazed we were allowed to use the bullhorn and the poles on the banners, and had never known any other group who was allowed to do this.
Dean told us the pictures of the aborted babies made quite a stir on his site. Other photographers who are asked to critique artistic value such as color, lighting, etc. could not separate the dead babies images. Photographers had to be reminded it is photojournalism and not whether you agree or disagree with abortion.
Keith had to head home but the rest of us headed for South Beach.
South Beach-Lincoln Road Mall: When we arrived at Lincoln Road it was dark and cold for Miami (in the 50?s). We set up across the street from the Lincoln Road Theater and Doug started preaching. There were a lot of people walking by, and a few stopped to listen, others stopped to talk with those of us who were not preaching. John, Onica, and Elizabeth all took turns preaching and the same pattern followed.
I began preaching at around 8:20 PM, and the pattern continued of a few people stopping to listen, and a few others talking to other members of the team. After about half an hour of preaching I had a few more people begin to stop, and the listeners fluctuated between about 15-30 for the rest of the preaching. I had some hecklers, some questions, and at a few points it was a little rowdy for Lincoln Road standards but no police interference. I finished preaching around 9:10 PM. and we headed home.