Post by messengermicah on Apr 8, 2006 12:14:11 GMT -5
South Beach: Joining me this week was the usual faithful group of Elizabeth, Doug, John and Onica, and Emmanuel. We arrived at South Beach around 3:40 PM and set up at the Coral Wall across from Wet Willie?s.
I began preaching in front of the Coral Wall on the step-up platform at around 4:00 PM. Actually before I even got on the platform we had a group of gangster rapper looking guys accusing us of judging, saying that we are sinning because we are judging, God forgives everybody, etc. Several of the guys were black, but a few were Hispanic, and one of the Hispanic guys was a persistent heckler. He was whiter than I am but persistently accused me of being a racist (I guess he was trying to fit in good with his black friends), saying that Jesus did not have blond hair and blue eyes (I have no idea where that came from because I never said that and I do not have blond hair or blue eyes myself), etc.
They did not like me telling them that Tupac, Biggie and others were in hell, and listening to gangster rap would send them to hell also. I told them gangster rap glamorizes violence, and illicit sex which are things that God condemns, and quoted them Romans 1:32 telling them they are taking pleasure in things that God hates. I told them they needed to stop following gangster rappers and start following Jesus Christ. I told them Jesus was somewhere between the whitest white person and the blackest black person in skin color. I told them what mattered was His blood was sinless, that God was no respecter of persons and would cast them into hell no matter their skin color was if they continued in sin and did not repent.
They turned up their rap music and all started performing lewd dancing, gyrating, etc. The good thing about preaching where I was is there is a tree in the middle and sidewalk all around, so whenever someone turns up the music on one side of me or does something else that is distracting I just turn around to the people on the other side and continue preaching. I preached here for about an hour (4:00 PM to 5:00 PM) to a group that usually numbered around 40 to 60. The listeners this week were not quite as large as last week and were more of a mixed group, unlike last week where it was almost all black. Our group seemed to think that this week?s crowd was more hostile.
The Hispanic guy continued to heckle me, walk up in my face, and try to intimidate me. One time he tried to step up on my platform at the same time I did, and I easily overpowered him and he fell off. I was not trying to overpower him, just simply trying to get back on the step-up platform. He then pushed on me, but did not knock me off the platform or hurt me at all. I let him know he was being videotaped and he needed to be careful.
At another time I was preaching, and a young white guy ran right into the side of me on purpose and knocked me off the platform. I got back on the platform and resumed preaching.
The other members of the group (Onica, Doug, John, Elizabeth and Emmanuel) continued preaching for the next two hours. The crowds fluctuated in number between 10 to 50. Onica preached with brokenness and tears and a young girl came up and seemed very convicted. Onica prayed with her and lead her to the Lord in repentance.
Several girls exposed themselves as Doug was preaching on the wall. There was a photographer there who was bragging about how he follows us around and tells the girls to expose themselves to us and he takes pictures.
We left the South Beach area after 7:00 PM and headed downtown to the Global Gathering Concert being held at Bicentennial Park.
Global Gathering-Bicentennial Park: This was some sort of techno concert. We arrived just before 8:00 PM as Doug dropped us off near the entrance on Biscayne Boulevard. Emmanuel and I set up the step-up platform on the side of the very wide entrance to the park, just off of Biscayne Boulevard. The other members of the team (Elizabeth, John and Onica) left for the restroom and took the video camera.
There used to be a sidewalk here but it appeared to have been removed for reconstruction. There were others standing around here handing out literature. The noise from the concert was tremendous. I stood on the platform and began preaching with the bullhorn, and almost as soon as I started I was approached by 4-5 police officers. I do not know exactly where they were all from because there were many different officers from different parts of the city assisting this event as evidenced by the police cars we saw outside.
The one officer told me I could not be there because I did not have a permit. I asked him was this not public property, to which he informed me I still needed a permit. I asked him why do I need a permit if it is public property, and he told me I could move down a block and preach if I wanted to but not right here. I continued to ask for an explanation from him, and he began to become angry and told me I had to move because he told me so.
At this point another officer told me he was a Christian and appreciated what we were doing, but told me I could not preach there but could move down a block and preach. I again asked what I was doing that was wrong, and the officer claiming to be a Christian told me I could not preach there because they needed to hear their police radios (Oh, right with all the noise from the concert how would my bullhorn affect that?).
At this point the other officer who was already upset told me, ?Well you can take his reason if you like it better or mine but either way you are going to move!? I had no one there filming me and did not want to take any chances so Emmanuel and I reluctantly began to move. I asked the other officers there about the people handing out literature, and they said, ?Don?t start that, just move!?
Emmanuel and I moved down the block and I preached on the large bullhorn to the concertgoers heading to and from the concert from 8:00 PM to 8:45 PM. I aimed the bullhorn at a large building under construction across the street and it just reverberated all up and down the street. Every word I would preach I could hear it echo down the street off the building.
After I finished, Emmanuel and John each took a turn preaching to the concertgoers and then we headed home.