Post by messengermicah on May 16, 2008 14:44:16 GMT -5
Sunday May 4, 2008: Attended services of church where we were staying. Brother Rick B. met us here in the afternoon. We are planning to preach together this week at Ohio University. I was invited to preach the evening service. I preached for about 45 minutes on Matthew 6:21-24 on “A Single Eye”.
Monday May 5, 2008-Ohio University-Athens, Ohio: On leaving Columbus to make the drive down to Athens, we encountered several difficulties that delayed us along the way. We had planned to begin preaching around 11:45 AM, but ended up arriving around 12:35 PM.
Brother Jesse Morrell, Sister Elizabeth and I had a great week of preaching here last year and I was looking forward to preaching here again. We were informed this university is private so we have to preach on the public sidewalk while the students gather in the green along the sidewalk.
Brother Rick opened up the preaching around 12:45 PM. It took a little time, but soon he gathered a crowd of about 50-60 students. Most of the crowd was calm, sitting and asking questions.
He turned the crowd over to Sister Elizabeth around 2:10 PM. Sister Elizabeth preached as well as I have ever heard her preach and did an excellent job of handling the crowd and built the crowd up to about 80-90.
Sister Elizabeth handed the crowd over to me around 2:50 PM. I tried to keep the crowd calm and just answer questions for some time. Soon the crowd began to become a little rowdy.
I was grabbed from behind and sprayed with water several times. A hypocrite tried to steal the crowd by walking up with his Bible and commanding me to be quiet. When I would not cooperate with him and allow him to take over, he went onto the green and stood on top of a garbage can and the preacherette, gave his sermonette, for christianettes, to build a churchette.
It was something along the lines of “God loves you all, and Jesus works for me but if that does not work for you then that is ok.” The crowd screamed for me to allow him to speak but I would give no place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27). They gathered around him as he stood on top of the garbage can and applauded him. I congratulated him on being a false prophet (Luke 6:26). He seemed to be jealous about all the cameras gathered around us taking pictures.
This school has a large photojournalism school, so it is not at all unusual to have cameras snapping all around as one preaches here. Last year we were invited to photo shoots by the students to take pictures of us.
I went on the grass and rebuked him sharply. A police officer then told me, I was fine on the sidewalk but not to go on the grass. I agreed.
I shot holes through everything the hypocrite said and quoted Bible verses that contradicted what he was saying. After a few minutes he stepped down from the garbage can frustrated.
The crowd which was now around 120-130 was again gathered around me and listening. I continued preaching until 4:30 PM and turned the crowd back over to Brother Rick. Since, I had not preached since last Monday my voice a little weak.
Brother Rick preached from 4:30 PM to about 6:00 PM. At the end of the meeting the crowd was about 40 and were calmer, asking good questions and listening. I also had some excellent conversations along the sidelines with small groups of 1-8. We left the campus and headed for the vehicle around 6:15 PM.
Tuesday May 6, 2008-Ohio University-Athens, Ohio: Brother Rick, Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around noon. Again we had excellent weather today. There was a picture inside one of the newspapers of myself and a heckler from the day before.
I began preaching around 12:10 PM. I soon gathered a crowd of 30-40. The crowd was very receptive, civil, and asked good questions. I continued preaching until 2:00 PM. Most of the time I preached the crowd stayed around 40-50, but just before I turned it over it began to build to about 70-80.
After I finished preaching, I was asked to do an interview by a female student. I sat on the civil war statue while she asked me questions with her camera rolling.
Sister Elizabeth took over the preaching and the crowd continued to build to about 110-120. She continued preaching until 3:00 PM and then turned the crowd over to Brother Rick.
Brother Rick finished out the day of preaching by preaching from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM to a crowd of around 80-90. The students continued to remain civil, ask good questions and listen attentively. They pleaded for us to stay and were happy to hear we were returning the next day.
We left the campus early (around 4:00 PM) to head to a church service near Dayton that evening.
Wednesday May 7, 2008-Ohio University-Athens, Ohio: Brother Rick, Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around 11:30 AM. As we approached the free speech area we noticed there was a man there holding a preaching banner. I recognized the man as being Brother John M. whom I had met briefly last September while preaching at North Carolina Chapel Hill. Right after that his preaching partner, Brother Kerrigan showed up and they began preaching around 11:50 AM.
Brother Kerrigan did an excellent job of preaching, answering questions and building a crowd of about 60-70. He preached for about one hour and then turned the preaching over to Brother John M.
Brother John M. began preaching around 12:50 PM and the crowd continued to build for the next hour to around 110-120. The crowd remained very civil, attentive, and asked good questions.
Around 2:00 PM Brother John M. asked Brother Kerrigan to address the question of a student. Brother Kerrigan continued preaching until around 2:20 PM, and by now the crowd seemed to be around 130-140. He then turned the preaching over to Brother Rick.
Brother Rick preached from about 2:20 PM until 3:45 PM and maintained the crowd size to about 110-130.
There was a muscular African American man on hand listening with his wife and family. He repeatedly made statements like, “They are false prophets…These are Bush’s people…They are out here judging everyone…They are turning people off to God…”
His “wife” was dressed with a turban and they professed to be muslims. I called him to the side and began to tell him what the Bible said about some of the comments he kept making. I seemed to be making progress with him but then his wife came on the scene. She was much more contentious and verbose than he was. I had an intense discussion with them until brother Rick called on me to preach around 3:45 PM.
A few minutes after I began preaching, Brother John M. and Brother Kerrigan left. It had become fairly overcast and a few drops of rain would fall and some of the students would leave the crowd and head for cover. I continued preaching but the crowd size dwindled from 120 to about 75.
The students continued to be attentive, civil, and receptive. Brother Rick had to preach at a local church an hour and half away so we needed to leave around 5:00 PM. I stopped preaching to an attentive crowd of about 75 and left around 4:45 PM.
The students looked forward to our return the next day and we looked forward to returning for the remainder of the week but were not able to do so. The weather was forecasting rain for the next few days. Instead of making the hour and half drive down to Athens, Ohio and taking a chance on getting rained out, we decided to preach the following Thursday (May 8), Friday (May 9) and Monday (May 12) at Otterbein College which was only 30 minutes from where we were staying. Because of the proximity it would be no big deal if we got rained out there.
Thursday May 8, 2008-Otterbein College-Columbus, Ohio: It had been raining the night before and was forecast to rain throughout the day today. Due to the rain, we decided not to make the hour and a half drive down to Athens but make the short drive over to local Otterbein College (a private Wesleyan College). This way, if we were rained out it would not have been a poor use of fuel and time.
Sister Elizabeth, Brother Rick and I arrived on campus just before noon. This is a private school so the speaking area is the public sidewalk in front of the student union. Brother Rick told me to start off the preaching. I began preaching around 12:05 PM with the rain slightly drizzling.
Shortly a small crowd formed that continued to grow. Cars on the road would constantly drive by beeping their horns. The crowd grew to about 100-110. They were somewhat rowdy with students getting up in my face, making threats and following me as I preached.
Around 12:55 PM a man with a radio asked to talk to me. The man said he was the head of security and was constantly receiving calls threatening to do violence to us. He wanted us to stop preaching for the day and leave. Brother Rick asked if we could let things cool off and then begin preaching again. The security officer agreed.
I really did not understand why the officer was making such a big deal out of the crowd situation. Sure they were somewhat rowdy, but I did not think they were on the verge of violence.
We waited in the drizzle for about 10-15 minutes while most of the crowd dispersed. A handful of students continued sitting on the steps in front of the school union in the drizzling rain waiting for us to begin again. I began talking with the students who were sitting on the steps and immediately the crowd began to build up again.
Soon the crowd was back up to 70-80 again but was much more subdued. Two security officers showed up to keep an eye on things. Around 1:50 PM I turned the crowd over to Brother Rick.
A small group formed around me to ask questions while Brother Rick was preaching. I could not observe much of what was happening while Brother Rick was preaching because of the small group around me asking questions.
Brother Rick turned the crowd over to Sister Elizabeth around 2:30 PM. Sister Elizabeth really captured the attention of the students as soon as she began preaching, and the group around me left to go listen to her. The crowd grew to around 110-120 around Sister Elizabeth. She did a good job answering questions, handling the crowds, preaching and refuting arguments.
Around 3:20 PM one of the security officers came and told me the crowd was beginning to get out of hand again and wanted us to take a break. I asked Sister Elizabeth to stop preaching so the crowd could settle down.
One reason I agreed to this so easily, was I knew the crowd would gather around us. We had a chair and our belongings under a tree on the public sidewalk. As soon as I stopped Sister Elizabeth, the majority of the crowd came right over to us under the tree and we began to answer their questions.
I was surrounded by 30-60 students, Sister Elizabeth and Brother Rick also had students gathered around them. This is a very liberal campus with a large homosexual population.
The security officer stood right next to me for about 45 minutes and then left. I was able to make some progress with many of the students. Some of them seemed to be very sincere in trying to understand our message.
It was still slightly drizzling around 4:30 PM when we decided to call it a day.
Friday May 9, 2008-Otterbein College-Columbus, Ohio: Brother Rick was not able to join us today as he needed to go home for a few days to take care of some personal business.
I was planning to head over to Ohio University today, but decided against it. The students there gather in the grassy area and sit down. The rain had stopped, but the ground was still wet and the sky was overcast. This would stop the water from drying, and hinder the students from sitting in the grass to listen.
I did not want to make the hour and half drive and not have a good day due to the wet grass. We decided to return again to Otterbein College.
Sister Elizabeth and I were joined today by the pastor of the local church where we were staying. We arrived on campus around 11:45 AM and I began preaching at 11:50 AM.
It was much more difficult to get a crowd today. It was around 12:20 PM to 12:30 PM before a crowd formed. Eventually the crowd grew to about 100-110.
The security officer who stopped me yesterday came up to me while I was preaching and asked me where I wanted the security bill to be sent to. He then threatened to charge me $37 for each hour I preached in order to have security on hand. I pretty much ignored this threat and continued preaching. Shortly after that, he and another security officer left and did not return for the rest of the day.
At first the crowd was very rowdy with everyone shouting, threatening, cursing, etc. but soon they settled down and began to sit on the steps. I think the school administration had the maintenance crew mow the grass while I was preaching to drown out my voice. This constant noise certainly made preaching more difficult for me but I could still be heard clearly by the crowd and no one left.
I continued preaching until 2:45 PM and then turned the crowd over to Sister Elizabeth. Sister Elizabeth preached until about 3:55 PM and then turned them back over to me. I had some excellent conversations with small groups of students while I sat on the sidelines.
By now the crowd had dropped down to about 30-40. I preached until about 5:00 PM and had some pretty good question and answer sessions. Many of the students listened intently and asked good questions. I finished out the day by giving my testimony.
At 5:00 PM I turned the crowd over to the local pastor we were staying with. The crowd was now down to 20-25. He did an excellent job of answering questions and listening to the students for the next hour. Pastors usually are not as confrontational as we are and tend to be more diplomatic with the students than we are. This works well at the end of a day of preaching. It is a blessing, great help and support to us to have them come out with us.
Pastor M. had many effective conversations throughout the entire day of preaching. He was shocked at how open the students are about their sins, the vileness of their sins, and how prevalent their sin is. He continued preaching until 6:00 PM. We had an excellent day.