Post by Messenger Micah on Jan 25, 2006 21:46:05 GMT -5
Sunday January 15-Art Deco Festival/South Beach: We decided to head to South Beach again on this day due to the festival and all the people out there. We had to get an early start because Doug had to go to a Gideons meeting at 7:30 PM. Elizabeth, Doug, John and Onica, Emmanuel and myself arrived on South Beach later than we wanted to around 3:00 PM. It was another cold day but not as cold as the day before.
As we were walking towards Ocean Drive on 12th Street where the Palace homosexual bar is I was preaching to the people as we passed by. Some African American gangster looking types asked me who did I think I was to tell people how to live. I started preaching to them and responding with the Word of God and more people stopped to listen. The guys continued to yell back and try to scare me but I continued speaking the truth. They actually admitted what I was saying was the truth and then the guy who was the most vocal asked me why he was the only one I was talking to. I told him I started out preaching to everyone in general but he was the only one who responded. They started to walk away still yelling back, making excuses, trying to find fault with me, what I was doing, and etc. but admitting what I said was the truth.
The rest of the group had reached Ocean Drive and Emmanuel and I caught up to them. As we walked up with our banners, sandwich board sign, t-shirts, wagon, many on the crowded street started stopping and staring at us. We set up right away in front of the Victor hotel across from the Palace Bar. The hotel manager asked me if I would mind not preaching on the sidewalk and preach in the street. I said that was fine.
I stood up on the platform in the street, started preaching and immediately people began stopping and listening attentively. It was quite different than the night before when only a few would stop. I preached here for a solid hour from 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM. At times the crowd of attentive listeners was probably around 70 with many others on the outside. I had some good help a few times such as a 10 foot tall Carmen Miranda on stilts come up and fall down when I said something about God?s judgment. Another middle age looking guy came up with his dog, and was dancing right in front of me. He started pulling up his pant leg and pointing for the dog to get on his leg. The dog kept trying to pull away from the area. For most of the hour I just straight preached (hardly any questions, hecklers, or interference) and the crowd just stood and listened.
Towards the end I had some homosexuals come up and start kissing. At that point I was able to effectively refute the lie of homosexuality to an attentive crowd. I was surprised at how well behaved the crowd was. We had some come up and encourage us, and I saw others nodding with approval in the crowd. All this took place right across the street from the Palace homosexual bar with its rainbow flag flying.
Also towards the end, I was able to answer effectively many questions such as judging, love, etc. Again I was surprised at how attentive and well behaved the crowd was (see pictures at www.pbase.lautermilch/spsbaf).
We then moved down to the square by the Versace Mansion. As we were getting ready, here came the Hare Krishna?s again. They were kind of staying in this spot. At this point a tall police officer came up, shook my hand and told me, ?I know you guys are here to preach, and that is fine, but can you guys move down some and we are going to get them to move down also, so you can both do what you want.? I told him we would move down. He was very polite and seemed to be trying to help us.
We set up about halfway between the Versace Mansion and the Clevelander. There were several street performers on the street this day, most of them being the usuals from Lincoln Road (mime, statute lady, others).
As we were about to set up some guy comes up to me and tells me he is the event coordinator and we have to wait until the other show down the street is finished. I assured him we would not interfere with that and were going to begin. He became furious and started calling the police. I knew the police had told me they had no problem with us, they just wanted us to move away from the Krishna?s.
Doug got up on the platform on the side of the street across from the vendor?s and started preaching. He was able to gather a nice crowd of 20 to 30 at times. He also had a few good hecklers. The event coordinator guy was furious and was complaining to the police but they did not stop us. After Doug preached for about 20 minutes we moved down.
We noticed that a few of the street performers had sound systems and the Krishna?s had a bullhorn so John went to get the new bullhorn we ordered.
We then set up in the Square across from the Clevelander in the street. John was preaching using the bullhorn. John had some good hecklers also and had a few of the same ones Doug had (the bald headed guy). A young Hispanic guy, who was out witnessing, carrying his bible, also joined us, saw us and joined us.
John was able to get a crowd that neared probably 100 at times. He had a few very silly hecklers and more of a question and answer session with the crowd than I did.
I don?t know for sure but I would estimate John preached for about 30 minutes and Doug told me it was 5:30 PM and he needed to go to his Gideons meeting (the Gideons were having a Miami Blitz of Bible distribution that week).
I walked over to the tall officer who had approached me earlier, thanked him, and let him know we were going to be leaving. He told me he would keep an eye on us as we left.
We packed up and as we waited for Doug to bring the van, Emmanuel and I walked up and down the street with him preaching on the bullhorn.
We drove with Doug to the meeting, as he did not have time to take us home and get back in time. While he was in the meeting we had a Bible study in the hotel lobby and talked to some of the Gideons.
After the meeting we all headed to Cracker Barrel. Mickey, Naomi, and baby Ezekiel had come down from Georgia and accompanied us. Mickey & Naomi were faithful to come out with us in our early days of open air preaching.
Emmanuel preached a mini-sermon in the Cracker Barrel after we ate (better to do this after you eat so you don?t get thrown out before you eat-especially if you are hungry). They did not know it but they were preaching to a room full of Oneness Pentecostals. We had a pretty good debate/conversation with them.
As we were leaving John and Onica had the opportunity to reap a soul by leading one of the Cracker Barrel employees to repentance and faith in the Savior (Acts 20:21).