Post by messengermicah on Apr 17, 2008 15:48:38 GMT -5
Sunday March 30, 2008-Conway , Arkansas : We attended church services in the local church where we were staying. In the morning service the pastor asked me to come to the platform and talk about our ministry. I gave my testimony, talked about our ministry and gave a very short message.
In the evening service, I was invited to the pulpit again and given liberty to obey God. I preached for about 40 minutes from Matthew 6:21-24 on “A Single Eye”. There was a good altar service after the message and everyone seemed blessed and stirred.
Monday March 31, 2008-University of Central Arkansas - Conway , Arkansas : It rained all day today. Sister Elizabeth and I drove to the campus and found the free speech area. It is on the steps of a chapel facing the student union. Everyone seemed so nice and polite to us. I could not help thinking how they would behave towards us the following day if they knew we would be preaching to them against their sin.
Tuesday April 1, 2008-University of Central Arkansas - Conway , Arkansas : I was warned by another campus preacher to be very careful on this campus. He had been arrested on their years ago and claimed the campus and the city has laws against preaching open air. I was ready not to go there, but after I spoke to another campus preacher who had preached there recently and had no problems. I sensed the leading of the Lord and the peace of God about coming to this University.
Due to the warnings I received, I proceeded with cautious. It turned out it was not all that easy for me to gain the attention of the students. The day was cold, overcast, and windy, which possibly contributed to this.
Finally, I gained a small crowd that continued to grow. Around 1:30 PM the crowd was slightly over 100. The police showed up and asked me to step down from the planter I was standing on. I moved from the steps to the planter because it was higher up and the students had begun to try to stand in front of me to keep me from being heard.
I had hardly noticed that speakers were being set up in the area and a large number of African American students had gathered in the area. Just after I had been asked to step down from the planter (about 1:30 PM ) loud gangster rap began to blast thunderously from the speakers. I immediately stopped preaching and did not attempt to compete with the noise. My crowd ran over to the speakers and I headed to the restroom.
Upon returning from the restroom, several students came up to question me. The music was so loud I could barely have a conversation with them. I told them I was heading inside the chapel and they were welcome to come and talk to me inside.
I went into the chapel and a handful of students followed me inside. Most of them were atheists and one was a non practicing Hindu. The atheists constantly fired questions at me to make God appear to be unjust. I defended and refuted their arguments. When this did not work they would try to criticize my Biblical method of preaching sin, righteousness, judgment, repentance, and faith.
The music had ended and we left the chapel around 2:40 PM . The area had now greatly cleared out although there were several dozen African American students hanging around the area. I tried to preach and get something going from 2:50 PM to 3:10 PM . One tall respectful student came over to ask me several questions and then left. After not gathering any listeners I decided to stop around 3:10 PM and call it a day.
Wednesday April 2, 2008-University of Central Arkansas-Conway , Arkansas : Another campus preacher (the one who had been arrested here) advised me to try to start preaching on this campus around 10:00 AM because by early afternoon most of the students leave.
Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around 9:50 AM . It was another cold, windy, and overcast day.
I began preaching just before 10:00 AM . There was a class break at this time and students were walking all over the green. I preached for about 10-15 minutes but failed to get a crowd.
Sister Elizabeth and I headed into the chapel to wait for the next class break. I began preaching again at 10:45 AM . Again it did not seem easy to gain the attention of the students but soon I did gather a small group. It gradually grew to 50-70 in the immediate vicinity with others standing and sitting all over the green listening.
For some time they were somewhat rowdy. They stood in my face, tried to block me, stuck sticks with air filled condoms in front of me, etc.
Soon the police showed up again. I was once again asked to step down from the planter and move back onto the chapel steps. I moved up to the planter again, because the students tried to stand in front of me and block me to keep me from being able to preach.
I continued preaching to the crowd of 40-70 until 1:00 PM . I then sat down, answered the students questions and taught the Bible for the next hour and 40 minutes to groups of 5-25.
Thursday April 3, 2008-Conway , Arkansas : I woke up in the morning sneezing and with a runny nose. I thought it was a cold. It was raining hard until 10:30 AM . I decided not to go to campus today because of these factors. Since it was wet and I thought it was a cold, I opted to rest. Thankfully, I was not getting a cold but it turned out to be spring allergies flaring up.
We attended a “revival” service at a church in Stuttgart with the pastor we were staying with and his family.
Friday April 4, 2008-Conway , Arkansas : Once again it rained until around 11:00 AM . It stopped some but remained overcast then began drizzling again around 12:30 PM . We did not go to campus due to the rain.
Again we attended the “revival” service in Stuttgart with the local pastor and his family.
Monday April 7, 2008-University of Central Arkansas - Conway , Arkansas : It was a beautiful spring day, clear, warm, sunny and breezy.
Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around 10:30 AM and I began preaching at 10:40 AM . I preached through the class break until 11:05 AM but gathered no crowd.
I went to the restroom in the student union and headed back to the platform steps. Two students followed me to talk to me. He had several questions for me concerning my message and method. I answered him from the Bible. This helped to gather a small group of listeners.
For some time I had several hecklers and this increased the size of the crowd greatly. For me it was a very strange day. The crowd was large but much spread out all over the yard between the student union and the chapel. It seemed there were several hundred people standing, sitting, and listening. The problem was they seemed to have very short attention spans, did not ask questions (or good questions), or did not ask any questions.
With the large masses standing far back, spread out and listening, I had several move in close to yell at me, heckle, or ask insincere questions that would require long difficult explanations that most of the crowd did not have the attention span, interest, or intelligence to listen to the responses.
After about an hour the large crowd had dwindled down to 25-30 who had moved in close to me. I continued teaching, preaching and answering their questions until around 2:00 PM .
I then sat down and taught the Bible and answered questions to small groups of 2-15 for the next two hours. I seemed to be making some progress with some of these. They conceded several points I had made where they were mistaken about what they believed and what the Bible taught. One young man professing to be a Christian who had been debating the Bible with me for about an hour told me I “convicted him of tolerating too much sin in his life.”
We left the campus around 4:00 PM .
Tuesday April 8, 2008-Conway , Arkansas : We had planned to go to the campus today but were rained out again. I have been rained out more in the last week than I have the entire time I have been full time campus preaching.
In the evening service, I was invited to the pulpit again and given liberty to obey God. I preached for about 40 minutes from Matthew 6:21-24 on “A Single Eye”. There was a good altar service after the message and everyone seemed blessed and stirred.
Monday March 31, 2008-University of Central Arkansas - Conway , Arkansas : It rained all day today. Sister Elizabeth and I drove to the campus and found the free speech area. It is on the steps of a chapel facing the student union. Everyone seemed so nice and polite to us. I could not help thinking how they would behave towards us the following day if they knew we would be preaching to them against their sin.
Tuesday April 1, 2008-University of Central Arkansas - Conway , Arkansas : I was warned by another campus preacher to be very careful on this campus. He had been arrested on their years ago and claimed the campus and the city has laws against preaching open air. I was ready not to go there, but after I spoke to another campus preacher who had preached there recently and had no problems. I sensed the leading of the Lord and the peace of God about coming to this University.
Due to the warnings I received, I proceeded with cautious. It turned out it was not all that easy for me to gain the attention of the students. The day was cold, overcast, and windy, which possibly contributed to this.
Finally, I gained a small crowd that continued to grow. Around 1:30 PM the crowd was slightly over 100. The police showed up and asked me to step down from the planter I was standing on. I moved from the steps to the planter because it was higher up and the students had begun to try to stand in front of me to keep me from being heard.
I had hardly noticed that speakers were being set up in the area and a large number of African American students had gathered in the area. Just after I had been asked to step down from the planter (about 1:30 PM ) loud gangster rap began to blast thunderously from the speakers. I immediately stopped preaching and did not attempt to compete with the noise. My crowd ran over to the speakers and I headed to the restroom.
Upon returning from the restroom, several students came up to question me. The music was so loud I could barely have a conversation with them. I told them I was heading inside the chapel and they were welcome to come and talk to me inside.
I went into the chapel and a handful of students followed me inside. Most of them were atheists and one was a non practicing Hindu. The atheists constantly fired questions at me to make God appear to be unjust. I defended and refuted their arguments. When this did not work they would try to criticize my Biblical method of preaching sin, righteousness, judgment, repentance, and faith.
The music had ended and we left the chapel around 2:40 PM . The area had now greatly cleared out although there were several dozen African American students hanging around the area. I tried to preach and get something going from 2:50 PM to 3:10 PM . One tall respectful student came over to ask me several questions and then left. After not gathering any listeners I decided to stop around 3:10 PM and call it a day.
Wednesday April 2, 2008-University of Central Arkansas-Conway , Arkansas : Another campus preacher (the one who had been arrested here) advised me to try to start preaching on this campus around 10:00 AM because by early afternoon most of the students leave.
Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around 9:50 AM . It was another cold, windy, and overcast day.
I began preaching just before 10:00 AM . There was a class break at this time and students were walking all over the green. I preached for about 10-15 minutes but failed to get a crowd.
Sister Elizabeth and I headed into the chapel to wait for the next class break. I began preaching again at 10:45 AM . Again it did not seem easy to gain the attention of the students but soon I did gather a small group. It gradually grew to 50-70 in the immediate vicinity with others standing and sitting all over the green listening.
For some time they were somewhat rowdy. They stood in my face, tried to block me, stuck sticks with air filled condoms in front of me, etc.
Soon the police showed up again. I was once again asked to step down from the planter and move back onto the chapel steps. I moved up to the planter again, because the students tried to stand in front of me and block me to keep me from being able to preach.
I continued preaching to the crowd of 40-70 until 1:00 PM . I then sat down, answered the students questions and taught the Bible for the next hour and 40 minutes to groups of 5-25.
Thursday April 3, 2008-Conway , Arkansas : I woke up in the morning sneezing and with a runny nose. I thought it was a cold. It was raining hard until 10:30 AM . I decided not to go to campus today because of these factors. Since it was wet and I thought it was a cold, I opted to rest. Thankfully, I was not getting a cold but it turned out to be spring allergies flaring up.
We attended a “revival” service at a church in Stuttgart with the pastor we were staying with and his family.
Friday April 4, 2008-Conway , Arkansas : Once again it rained until around 11:00 AM . It stopped some but remained overcast then began drizzling again around 12:30 PM . We did not go to campus due to the rain.
Again we attended the “revival” service in Stuttgart with the local pastor and his family.
Monday April 7, 2008-University of Central Arkansas - Conway , Arkansas : It was a beautiful spring day, clear, warm, sunny and breezy.
Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around 10:30 AM and I began preaching at 10:40 AM . I preached through the class break until 11:05 AM but gathered no crowd.
I went to the restroom in the student union and headed back to the platform steps. Two students followed me to talk to me. He had several questions for me concerning my message and method. I answered him from the Bible. This helped to gather a small group of listeners.
For some time I had several hecklers and this increased the size of the crowd greatly. For me it was a very strange day. The crowd was large but much spread out all over the yard between the student union and the chapel. It seemed there were several hundred people standing, sitting, and listening. The problem was they seemed to have very short attention spans, did not ask questions (or good questions), or did not ask any questions.
With the large masses standing far back, spread out and listening, I had several move in close to yell at me, heckle, or ask insincere questions that would require long difficult explanations that most of the crowd did not have the attention span, interest, or intelligence to listen to the responses.
After about an hour the large crowd had dwindled down to 25-30 who had moved in close to me. I continued teaching, preaching and answering their questions until around 2:00 PM .
I then sat down and taught the Bible and answered questions to small groups of 2-15 for the next two hours. I seemed to be making some progress with some of these. They conceded several points I had made where they were mistaken about what they believed and what the Bible taught. One young man professing to be a Christian who had been debating the Bible with me for about an hour told me I “convicted him of tolerating too much sin in his life.”
We left the campus around 4:00 PM .
Tuesday April 8, 2008-Conway , Arkansas : We had planned to go to the campus today but were rained out again. I have been rained out more in the last week than I have the entire time I have been full time campus preaching.