Post by messengermicah on Feb 20, 2006 21:40:52 GMT -5
Elizabeth, Doug, John and Onica, Emmanuel and Veronica, along with myself left around 2:00 PM to preach at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. We arrived around 2:45 PM and walked to our destination across the street from the entrance. You have to pay to go in and we know they would not allow banners or signs inside. We set up at the five-point intersection of Cocowalk. There is an open air (no windows) Fat Tuesday?s bar there. There are also all kinds of shops along with street vendors who did not pay for a spot inside the arts festival. Of course no one is really interested in the art anyway it is just a good excuse for people to get drunk, party, and have illicit sex.
We set up near where people lined up in hordes to cross the intersection with police assistance. I put on the sandwich board sign, got on the step-up platform and started preaching. John and Doug held the banners. After a few minutes I started using our new bullhorn. A few minutes later a security officer told me I would have to leave. I asked her why and she told me ?because they don?t want you here.? I told her it was public property, and she told me she would have to tell the police if I did not move. I told her to tell the police and kept preaching. A few minutes later an officer came down from the steps of the Fat Tuesday?s bar and just sat there watching and listening. I kept on preaching. The security officer started talking to her but he did not do anything. As I was preaching he came over and told John that we were fine, we were on public property, and if we had any problems he?d be upstairs and let him know.
I preached from about 3:00 PM until about 3:50 PM and several people stopped to listen for a while, hundreds were passing by, and others in the nearby vicinity heard voluntarily or involuntarily. I was surprised no one stopped us from preaching on the bullhorn. The bar really cranked their music up much louder after I started preaching, but I could still be easily heard all down the block. The same group of Hare Krishna?s from the South Beach Arts Festival came by dancing around and chanting in their pajamas.
Emmanuel had to take his wife Veronica back to the van, because she is totally blind and all the noise made her nervous.
After I finished preaching, John wanted to move across the street. We moved across the street and John was getting some hecklers and people stopping, but then they needed to move an ambulance through the gate that we were preaching behind. We moved and an officer asked us if we would move across the street until he could find out if it was ok for us to be there. I did not talk to the officer because he approached John, and John agreed to go back across the street. John, Onica, Elizabeth, and myself headed back across the street. Doug was still on the other side of the street with the banner and said he was not moving because the Krishna?s had gone over there.
Later Doug reluctantly came over but told the officer he wanted clarification soon or he was heading back. We also ran into another brother in the Lord who was out there with a sandwich board, handing out tracts, and wearing a Jesus is Lord, Repent or Perish t-shirt. He was from Boston and told me how liberal it was there compared to Miami. The Jews for Jesus were also there handing out tracts, but they usually move away from us.
John set up again on the side of the street we originally started preaching on, and Doug and I held the banners. We were now further down from the Fat Tuesday?s bar but right next to where all the people would line up to cross the street assisted by police. Doug decided this was a better spot anyway than the spot across the street, but we did not like it when we saw a street performer in the spot they told us to leave from.
We were in a great spot right where we were though. John was getting a few people to stop and listen, and was coming up with great comebacks for the hecklers and mockers passing by. Onica preached, then Elizabeth preached. While Elizabeth was preaching, one man was kind of encouraging us, and then he started kind of preaching to the crowd. He then kept going on and on, and so Elizabeth told him if he wanted to preach to go get his own crowd and preach inside the arts festival because this was her crowd. That was a sound check because as soon as she said that the previously quiet group all responded as they were listening intently to every word.
We were beginning to break down the resistance and hardness of the crowds as the day wore on because more and more people were stopping to listen. Doug started preaching, after Elizabeth finished and probably had 15 to 20 people standing around listening in addition to the 30-40 that would line up right next to us every 10 minutes or so to cross the street.
Right about 5:00 PM, Doug gave me the bullhorn to take another turn at preaching. I preached from about 5:00 PM until about 5:50 PM and had a consistent audience of about 15 to 20 along with others listening from afar, and the 30-40 that would line up to cross the street right next to us assisted by police every 10 minutes or so. I had several young men listening and asking many questions. They were a motley looking bunch-Rastafarians, long hair, tattoos, etc. I could see that several were getting very convicted and were listening intently. Of course there were many mockers and hecklers, but I realized some were getting ripe for conversion so I was throwing out some hope a little more often than normal.
During this time one of our group told me to look and I looked over and saw our South Beach heckler, the Middle Eastern looking guy who always try to tell the police on us and get us in trouble. We were preaching right there with the bullhorn about 5 yards away from the police all afternoon long and the police left us alone. He knew he could do nothing and was miserable. He never acts up when police are around so he left.
I gave the bullhorn back to John around 5:50 PM and it was now getting darker. The crowds were getting rowdier and rowdier as the day wore on, but also more people were stopping to listen. A Rastafarian looking guy (he is not black but has dreadlocks) that John and I talked to last year at South Beach was right next to us handing out cards for a big techno concert coming up in a few weeks. He kept heckling John and I and getting more people to stop and listen. I thought I was finished for the day but around 6:10 PM John told the audience they needed a lesson on the ?Fear of the Lord? and gave me the bullhorn and told me to give them a lesson on the ?Fear of the Lord?.
I got on the platform, took the bullhorn and told them how they were not really there for the arts festival but just to get drunk, party, and engage in illicit sex. There were now about 25-30 standing around mocking, heckling, jeering, etc. I preached to them, answered their questions, accusations, etc. There were several lesbians asking questions, mocking, and taking pictures with us. The crowd was really rowdy at this point but there were several who were listening intently, and under conviction. I continued to rebuke and hammer the rebels with the Law, but also pointed them to Jesus the Savior from sin. The guy handing out the concert cards got ready to leave and I thanked him for helping us to get a crowd and he shook my hand and thanked us also, and said it was great to work together. I stopped preaching around 6:50 PM and we started heading back to the van. If the guy repents he will make an excellent tract distributor.
Emmanuel was down about half a block from us, with Veronica sitting in the van preaching on the sidewalk for about an hour and a half. He said he had many good one2ones, one2twos, and one2five or sixes in the process.
We all then headed to Cracker Barrel and saw the Oneness Pentecostals again.