Post by messengermicah on Apr 8, 2006 12:36:26 GMT -5
South Beach: We had a few new soldiers join us this week. Emmanuel preaches on the bus everyday as he rides to and from work and wherever else he needs to go. A young girl named, Wendy heard him preaching on the bus and was blessed and impressed. Emmanuel talked to her and she wanted to join us to preach at South Beach. As we were getting ready to leave she asked if her brother could also come. Her brother?s name was Kelvin and they both joined the usual crew of Elizabeth, Doug, John and Onica, Emmanuel and myself. We explained to them in the van exactly what and how we preach so they knew what to expect.
I had contacted the local news team of Channel 7 investigative reporter and attorney
Help me Howard about our arrests. They were immediately interested in the story and had already done an interview with Elizabeth and myself. We showed them the video and the police reports. Today the cameraman, Johnny was to meet us at South Beach to film me preaching. The story is to air this coming Monday (April 10) at 10:00 PM and again on Tuesday (April 11) at 6:00 PM.
We arrived at South Beach in front of Wet Willie?s around 3:30 PM and set up. We walked over to the wall area where we were going to preach and waited for Johnny the cameraman. He arrived around 3:45 PM. I was already witnessing to some guys sitting around the area. I said hello to Johnny and his girlfriend. He put a microphone on me and began filming. I stepped up on the step-up platform and began preaching around 3:50 PM.
The area was not real crowded by South Beach Spring Break standards but there were about 25-30 people in the near vicinity of where I was preaching. I was able to get their attention and interest right away. I had several hecklers and one guy that I rebuked for his wicked gangster rap music stood behind me and turned up the music. Since I purposely set my platform in the middle of the area by the tree on the sidewalk area, I just turned my back to him and continued preaching to the people on the other side of me.
Johnny filmed my wife and I for about 20 minutes like he said he would and then took off the microphone, shook my hand and left. About 10-15 minutes after Johnny left the crowd built up to about 50-60 attentive listeners. There were a lot of hecklers and mockers who asked some good questions, even if they were insincere. I could see many listening intently with conviction on their faces.
Two of my hecklers were the black, fitness buff homosexual that is a regular out there and has heckled us before (see old pictures at www.pbase.com/lautermilch/repent), and his boyfriend (?). We really believe that God is dealing with this homosexual man. He and his boy friend stood listening and asking questions for about 35-40 minutes along with the crowd of about 50-60. He was much subdued from previous days and was actually very civil. It is a shame that most of the established church always wants to see instant fruit and does not seem to understand the scripture ?So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God? (Romans 10:17), as it pertains to salvation. Most only see this scripture as pertaining to healing or prosperity, or faith to get out of a problem. It takes time sometimes for sinners to get enough light and understanding to destroy the lies and excuses they have made and often this occurs over a period of time. Most churches do not seem to understand that salvation requires knowledge and that knowledge is in the Word of God.
I was accused of the group as trying to preach the ?everlasting gospel? as most of them did not think my sermon would end. It took me a long time to get the crowd built up and so I continued until I needed to stop. I have noticed that sometimes when we change preachers the crowd seems to disperse some.
A homeless man named ?J.C.? who we have given food and clothes to, and witnessed to many times rode up on his bicycle. J.C. claims to have been raised by Christians and said they used to beat him, so he is against Christianity but has some knowledge of it. He is also a veteran. J.C. began to play ?Amazing Grace? on his harmonica. Suddenly, J.C. was the man for the crowd. Everyone wanted to hear J.C. play his harmonica since it would interfere with the preaching.
Later I thought of how ironic this was. Most of these people have probably seen J.C. many times on the beach and never even given him the time of day. Now, suddenly because he is interfering with the preaching everyone wants J.C. around. We have fed him many times and given him clothes and he is interfering with us-gratitude. Anyway, at this time I decided to turn the crowd over to Onica around 5:00 PM. The crowd had accused me of being a racist because I preached against ganster rap music, and a sexist, so I asked a dark skinned woman to preach next to destroy their excuses.
Onica, Doug, Emmanuel and John all took turns preaching to crowds of about 25 to 40 people.
I took a walk to use the restroom and had several good conversations with small groups of people as I went and ended up being gone for about 40 minutes.
When I came back to the group I saw my wife Elizabeth preaching on the platform in the square across from Wet Willie?s to an attentive crowd of about 15-20. It looked like they were eating out of her hand.
Emmanuel, John, and Doug also took turns preaching here for short periods of time. We asked Wendy if she would like to preach and she did an excellent job preaching with brokenness and tears the whole way through. Her brother also did an excellent job, faithfully holding the banner and witnessing all day without ever complaining at all.
We headed downtown for the Ultra techno concert around 7:00 PM.
Bicentennial Park-Ultra Techno Concert: We arrived here around 7:30 PM and took turns preaching on the bullhorn. I preached from around 8:00 PM to 8:35 PM. Kelvin took a turn preaching in Spanish and did an outstanding job (my wife told me because I am not fluent in Spanish). Wendy also took another turn preaching. We continued taking turns preaching until around 9:30 PM and headed home.