Post by messengermicah on May 10, 2008 13:42:19 GMT -5
Monday April 21, 2008-Auburn University-Auburn, Alabama: I was somewhat apprehensive about returning to this university. I had a great week last February (2007) but was kicked off campus by police and administration the on the last day.
I had gotten very sick with a fever on Saturday evening and was in bed until 4:00 PM Sunday. I managed to make it to evening church service. I was invited to preach but declined because of physical weakness.
I felt much better by Monday morning but still felt somewhat achy and weak. I was not planning on trying to preach but just to sign up for Tuesday through Thursday at Auburn University. This university now has 3 days per week 3 hour each day limit policy.
I went to the appropriate office and let them know I wanted a permit. The woman in charge immediately told me the area was being used this week. She then clarified it was being used on Thursday and Friday. I asked about Tuesday and Wednesday. She said Tuesday was fine but after a long delay told me I could not have Wednesday.
I did not think she was being honest with me so I asked her what event was taking place. She would not tell me which made me more suspicious. She obviously remembered me from last year because during our conversation she said, “You are Brother Micah right?”
She also informed me I would not be allowed to stand upon the short wall on the free speech area I used last year because they did not want me to get hurt and try to sue the school. They wanted me to sign a waiver.
I was also given the ok to preach this day but decided against it because of several factors. 1) I was still achy and weak from the day before. 2) From being ill I did not think I was spiritually prepared for the battle ahead. 3) We did not bring my voice recorder or the video camera both which were desperately needed after being kicked off the campus last year.
I left her office without signing the waiver because she had not received it yet. I was told I could sign it tomorrow.
One very interesting thing I noticed. Apparently after last year’s preaching, the school attempted to discourage students from gathering in the free speech area by planting all kinds of flowers and plants in the area where the students would gather.
One way of measuring how effective and influential something is, is from how much opposition it receives and how hard people fight to stop it.
Tuesday April 22, 2008-Auburn University-Auburn, Alabama: On Tuesday morning, Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around 10:30 AM. I went to the appropriate office to sign the waiver and ask for a schedule printout so I could be sure they were not lying to me about Wednesday.
The woman in charge refused to give me a copy of the schedule and told me “I told my supervisor you wanted the area and he told me to tell you the area was taken.”
When I read the waiver it basically made it sound like if the students beat the life out of me, crippled me for life, flattened my tires, keyed my vehicle, kidnapped my wife while the police sat around and watched that I would agree not to sue the school.
I went outside and made a few phone calls. The advice I was given told me to ask them if I could just sign and agree not to stand on the wall. I was also told they did not necessarily have to show me the schedule just because I asked to see it.
I went back inside and the woman introduced me to her supervisor who turned out to be a seemingly cooperative and helpful guy. They agreed to “waive the waiver” and just let me sign and agree not to stand on the wall.
GREAT DAY OF PREACHING: I began preaching around 11:50 AM. I soon gathered a small crowd of 20 that quickly grew to 50-60. Surprisingly to me, several students sat in the grass area in front of me and began to ask good questions. The crowd dropped back for a short time to 30-40 and from there just continued to grow gradually to 200-250 by 1:00 PM.
Soon I noticed the police on hand. They stayed on hand all day but never bothered me at all. They as well as the majority of the students seemed to thoroughly enjoy the whole event.
This was definitely one of the most civil crowds of that size that I have had. Some of this was probably due to the police presence (5 officers I believe).
The crowd size remained 200-250 until around 2:15 PM. Later in the afternoon they did gradually move in closer but never crowded me. Many in the crowd sat in the grass, asked good questions, and listened carefully. It seemed most of the crowd were hanging on every word. After the first half hour of preaching, I rarely had to preach over someone else yelling at me. Most in the crowd stayed all day. Many just listened intently all day, never heckled, or never asked a question.
A student with a microphone had been standing in the crowd for some time. He was from a rock radio station and wanted me to make an announcement for the station.
By 3:00 PM the crowd had moved in closer but was now around 100-130. It was disappointing to tell the students, I would not be able to return the next day.
My permit had expired but the officers did not have a problem with us hanging around and talking to the students. One student wanted to meet us later that evening to talk to us.
We talked to some of the students hanging around until around 3:30 PM and then left the campus.
We met the student at an ice cream place around 5:40 PM. He bought us ice cream and we talked for about an hour and a half. He really did not oppose us but seemed to just want to talk about theology. He was a very sincere 5 point Calvinist but was not able to defend with scripture what he believed very well (Hey what Calvinist can?). We had a good discussion and I hope it did not overwhelm him. I think I made him rethink some of what he believed.
Wednesday April 23, 2008: Sister Elizabeth and I left around 9:15 AM. My plan was to reserve the Auburn free speech area for Monday (4-28) and then make the 45 minute drive to Columbus State University in Columbus Georgia and try to preach there.
On the way to the office I had a good conversation with a student who had listened to me preaching the day before. Thankfully, I was able to reserve the area for Monday.
By the time I left Auburn University it was already 10:30 AM. That meant it was already 11:30 AM in Georgia. I thought, I could still start around 12:45 PM and have a decent day.
Driving to Columbus I missed my turn and ended up lost. I also learned from another preacher who used to preach there you need to sign up first. I realized I was not going to get to preach today, but I could at least find the university, locate the visitors’ parking, find the free speech area, and sign up for tomorrow.
We arrived on Columbus State University around 1:00 PM. They were having some big event with many young children, games, rides, and loud music. We went in and got a permit to use the speech area the next day. We then headed back to Alabama. I was surprised at how easy it was to sign up there.
Thursday April 24, 2008-Columbus State University-Columbus, Georgia: Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around 11:15 AM. The free speech spot is a bench under a tree in front of the police station and behind the parking lot.
I stopped a police officer and showed him my permit. I did not want to get stopped by police asking to see my permit once I had gotten started. He made a copy of my permit and let the rest of the police know.
This was another campus that seemed to be over 50% black. I began preaching around 11:50 AM and it did not take long to get a crowd. The crowd built up quickly to 50-60 and continued building until it reached about 100-120. For the first hour and half the crowd was fairly civil and listened well.
There was an African American man from the student affairs who was standing next to me for a good while. He was obviously a homosexual and tried several times to tell me what I could say and what I could not say. To his credit he did seem to try to be somewhat fair as he made the students back up several feet from me to give me space.
He did not like me comparing the behavior of homosexuals to “drug addicts” by saying they are both addicted or slaves to their sin. He also told me I could not tell a girl she was obviously not a Christian because of the way she was dressed.
Eventually he left. Around this time, a black female student who was supposedly a Christian kept telling everyone to go away and not listen to me anymore. She showed her hypocrisy and great Bible expertise by telling everyone I was a false prophet and he is not supposed to judge (isn’t labeling someone a false prophet making a judgment?).
Like mindless robots blindly following their cult leader’s every command many in the crowd began to leave. I told them not to “drink the Kool-Aid”, they reminded me of the group in Texas, “she may tell you to walk off a cliff”, etc.
Many left for a few minutes but came right back. A white female student and several of her friends sat down in front of me in a prayer posture with their backs to me and began to repeat the “Lord’s prayer” over and over again. I continued preaching and answering questions. Another white female threw her water on me.
After some time this girl and her friends began to lead the crowd in chanting loudly the “Lord’s prayer”. They kept this up for some time but soon stopped. The girl continued mindlessly repeating the “Lord’s prayer”.
About 2:40 PM, I decided to sit on the bench and talk to some of the students. Some were sincere and asked good questions but I could not get far with them because so many hypocrites, hecklers, and perverts would interrupt.
As a whole the black male students listened well and were respectful throughout the day. The white students treated me far worse than the black students. They blew cigarettes in my face, put out cigarette butts on my shoes, cursed me, slandered me, etc.
Two of the students from student affairs asked me if I was interested in having a sit down discussion inside a room with microphones next week. I said yes and would call them.
After an hour of trying to reason with the students and have a civil discussion I could see the majority were too angry and unreasonable to make any progress. Someone brought out some supposed printout from the internet of “all the school’s I have sued” after someone hit me.
Of course, there is not an ounce of truth in this, but it gives them a good excuse to discredit everything I have said. They are never able to give me any names or details of any of these supposed incidents, yet there are sure of it nonetheless.
Sister Elizabeth had a good size group of students around her most of the day. At 3:30 PM I left my contentious, angry group and went to where she was and said it was time to go.
As I walked away, several of the students walked with me continuing to insult, curse, and slander. A police officer came to where we were and offered to escort us to our vehicle safely. We thanked him but told him we were going to take the long way around and find our way back to our vehicle.
Sunday April 27, 2008: Attended church services where we were staying. I had the privilege of preaching in the evening service. I preached from Matthew 6:21-24 on “A Single Eye”.
Monday April 28, 2008-Auburn University-Auburn, Alabama: It was overcast when Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus. I began preaching around 11:50 AM.
After I began preaching the weather improved, the sun came out and it ended up being a very nice spring day. The crowd gradually built up until it reached 300 or more and remained that size for some time.
Although the crowd was larger today they were not as well behaved or receptive as last Tuesday’s. The police were on hand all afternoon.
The crowd was more contentious and the hypocrites were out in full force. The crowd closed in much sooner than the crowd on Tuesday. As the crowd closed in around 1:15 PM to 1:30 PM the crowd decreased to the 120-150 range.
The Bible toting/quoting hypocrites who were the most vocal in the crowd openly admitted to sins in their life that seemed to surprise the listening crowd. There is no way the crowd could take them seriously as Christians even though they did not like my message of repentance and holiness.
At one point, I was interrupted by a student blasting a radio with a corny hit song from the late 80’s right next to me. I was unable to be heard by the majority of the crowd. Since I had to reserve the area in advance, I asked Sister Elizabeth to tell the police. Thankfully, the police took care of it and I continued.
I continued to earnestly contend with the hypocrites for the faith (Jude 3), while they earnestly contended it did not matter how a person lived as long as they had “accepted Jesus as their Savior” (Titus 1:16, 1 John 2:3-4, 1 John 2:6, 1 John 3:6, 1 John 3:8, 1 John 3:9, 1 John 5:18, 1 Peter 4:1-2, Hebrews 5:9, Matthew 7:21, Matthew 7:23, Luke 6:46, Acts 26:20, Hebrews 12:14, Luke 3:8, Matthew 3:8, Luke 13:3, Titus 2:11-12, John 8:34, Romans 6:16).
At 3:00 PM I stopped preaching as my permit had expired. I left the free speech green and stood on the sidewalk and immediately began to be surrounded by a small group asking questions. I talked to them for a few minutes but then the officer told the crowd my permit had expired for the day.
That evening we began heading towards Ohio.