Post by messengermicah on May 24, 2008 15:35:41 GMT -5
Monday May 12, 2008-Otterbein College-Columbus, Ohio: The weather was supposed to be rainy again today so we decided against driving down to Athens and returned to Otterbein in Columbus. We were staying fairly close to this campus so getting rained out was not a big deal.
It was not raining when we arrived, but was overcast, cold, and very windy. Brother Rick began preaching around 11:50 AM. He had some students stop and interact at certain times but was not able to get a crowd going. While he was preaching, Brother Cope (Brother Jed’s preaching partner) arrived on campus. We did not know he would be here today but it was good to see him again.
Around 12:25 PM Brother Rick turned the preaching over to Brother Cope. He was not able to get anything going either. Brother Rick went and got his banner and set it up to help draw attention. Still no crowd, but we all had conversations.
It was still very cold (in the low 50’s), overcast and windy. Around 1:30 PM Brother Cope told me to give it a try. It turned out to be just the right timing. As soon as I began preaching the sun began to come through the clouds, and about 8-10 students walked up and sat down on the steps to listen and ask questions. Soon the crowd grew to 30-40.
One female student tried to steal my gallon of water and grabbed the cap off of it. While I was preaching she shoved it in my mouth. The maintenance man began to mow the same lawn he mowed on Friday in order to try to drown out the preaching.
I preached to the crowd until 2:30 PM and then turned it over to Brother Cope. I did not see any security around; otherwise I would have asked permission to use the restroom inside the student union. I went inside to use the restroom and when I came out a group of students sitting at a table called me over to talk with them. After a few minutes the school security arrived and asked to talk to me.
They wrote me out a trespass warning for being on the property. The students who had called me over to talk to them stood up for me but the security wrote me the warning anyway. If I set foot on the college property again, I would be arrested. I wondered where these security officers were when the girl stole my water and shoved the cap into my mouth. I knew they were biased against the Bible preaching and it would be wiser to have the Lord defend me.
Brother Cope preached until 3:00 PM and then turned it over to Sister Elizabeth. This school seemed to really enjoy Sister Elizabeth’s preaching. They were calling for her to preach while I was preaching also. She preached until around 3:30 PM and then turned it over to Brother Rick.
Brother Rick finished out the day’s preaching by preaching until about 4:55 PM. The crowd dwindled down to about 8-10 for the last 30 minutes. The sun did not stay out very long and the day remained cold, windy, and overcast.
While Brother Rick was preaching a girl who had sternly opposed me last week stopped and asked if I remembered her. I responded yes. The girl then proceeded with tears in her eyes, that even though she did not agree with us she really respected us and wanted us to know. She was another atheist who acknowledged that if the Bible was true, Christians should be doing what we are doing, believing the way we believe, and living the way we are living.
Brother Cope, Brother Rick, Sister Elizabeth and I all had dinner together and had great fellowship and conversation.
Tuesday May 13, 2008-Ohio University-Athens, Ohio: After several days of rain forecasted, we were finally able to return to this campus. Brother Rick opened up the preaching around 11:50 AM.
He soon gathered a group of 15-20 listeners. Loud drums were being played from another area of the campus and could be heard in the background as Brother Rick preached. The campus had the drums and flags to commemorate international day.
One young man continued to constantly heckle Brother Rick, take off his shirt, dance sensually, bump Rick, etc. We informed the young man, he was being filmed and he shortly began to change his behavior.
Brother Rick gathered a crowd of about 30-40 and then turned the preaching over to me around 1:10 PM. I preached to a very calm, civil crowd that asked good questions and listened well. The crowd grew to 50-60 while I preached. I preached until around 2:50 PM and then turned the crowd over to Sister Elizabeth.
Sister Elizabeth continued preaching until around 4:00 PM and then turned the preaching over to Brother Rick. By the time Brother Rick took over the crowd was down to around 30-40. Several times while Brother Rick was preaching, cars pulled up and blasted their radios to drown out the preaching.
I was involved in a discussion with a few students, and a handful of students followed my wife to her chair after she stopped preaching.
Brother Rick’s crowd was down to about 15-20 around 5:00 PM. At that time a student who had been taking pictures and video each day of our preaching began to play clips of the project he had been working on. It was too loud for Brother Rick to preach over so he began to look at the video the student had been working on. He called me over to watch. We watched the video and then headed back around 5:30 PM.
We were all surprised to learn the young man taking all the pictures was a homosexual and the young man sitting next to him while he was playing the video project was his boyfriend.
We again met up with Brother Cope for dinner and had great fellowship and conversation. He has been preaching on campuses since 1976.
Wednesday May 14, 2008-Ohio State University-Columbus, Ohio: It was forecasted to rain all day today. Brother Rick, Sister Elizabeth and I decided to head to Ohio State University and say hello to Brother Jed, Sister Cindy, and Brother Cope. If we were rained out maybe we could all have lunch together.
We arrived around noon and the weather was cold, drizzling and overcast. Sister Cindy began preaching and gathered a few listeners. Brother Jed preached some and built up the crowd to about 10-20. Brother Jed, Sister Cindy, Brother Cope and Brother Rick all took turns preaching until around 3:00 PM.
I had no intention of preaching this day, but just to visit with the other preachers. Brother Jed’s book, “Who Will Rise Up?” had a great influence on me and God used that book to call me into the campus ministry.
Even though I did not preach, I had some good conversations with several students on the sidelines. At 3:00 PM it began to rain harder and Brother Rick, Sister Elizabeth and I left.
Thursday May 15, 2008-Ohio University-Athens, Ohio: The weather had forecast rain again today, but it seemed to be clearing up in the morning. We decided to head down to Athens for a final day of preaching there. We had to attend to some business on the way down and got lost. We arrived on the Ohio University campus around 12:40 PM. I began preaching around 12:50 PM.
After some time I gathered a group of 25-30 listeners. Again the students were civil, receptive and asked good questions. The crowd continued to build up slowly. I continued preaching until 2:30 PM. By then the crowd was around 50-60.
I turned the crowd over to Brother Rick. Brother Rick preached from 2:30 PM to about 4:00 PM. I took a restroom break after I finished preaching and when I returned, Sister Elizabeth had a small group of students around her. We had some productive conversations with some of these students.
Brother Rick turned the preaching over to Sister Elizabeth around 4:00 PM. Sister Elizabeth managed to gather an attentive group of 10-15 homosexuals in addition to the other listeners. They sat right in front of her the majority of the time she was preaching.
We began to leave around 5:00 PM. As we began to leave we continued to have conversation and dialogue with the students who were listening.
One female student who claims to be a bisexual had vehemently opposed us last year came out each day we were there, listened, asked questions and made comments for hours. She seemed to have gained an appreciation and respect for us. She walked with us part of the way as we were leaving and seemed to consider us as friends. We are remaining in contact with her.
Friday May 16, 2008: It was a cold, wet and rainy morning. Brother Rick had to head back to be with his family for the weekend. We did not go on campus today mainly because of the bad weather and Friday being a slow day on most campuses.