Post by messengermicah on May 24, 2008 16:10:31 GMT -5
Monday May 19, 2008-Wright State University-Dayton, Ohio: This school has a policy where you are allowed a five hour a day maximum but must finish by 3:00 PM. Sister Elizabeth, Brother Rick and I arrived on campus around 10:40 AM. It was a sunny but cold and windy day (50’s).
I began preaching around 10:50 AM as it was the middle of a class break. I failed to get any crowd, so I stopped preaching at 11:00 AM as there seemed to be no students around.
Sister Elizabeth ran into a student she had talked to last year who was an obese homosexual. This year he was skin and bones and she believed he had contracted HIV. My wife was so burdened for this student, she became nauseous.
Brother Rick wanted to preach anyway so he began preaching. Soon after he began preaching, two students, one male the other a female approached Sister Elizabeth and I and began asking us questions.
They both claimed to be Christians, and the guy was with the Vineyard churches. After some conversation with them, I learned the girl was involved in fornication and drunkenness. The young man insisted this girl was “saved” anyhow.
I seemed to be able to make an impression on them, especially the girl as she became teary eyed several times. She continued to defend her behavior however, and claimed to be a Christian.
Each time the female would become concerned; the male would intervene and try to comfort the girl in her sin and rebellion against God instead of allowing “godly sorrow” to “work repentance to salvation”.
In the meantime, Brother Rick had gathered a fairly civil crowd of 30-40. He turned the preaching over to me around 12:00 noon.
From 12:00 to 1:00 PM the crowd built up to about 120-130. They were fairly civil for some time but soon became rowdy and unruly. A lesbian spit at me several times, a photographer stuffed a condom wrapper into my pocket several times, and several students came into my face.
The crowd last year at Wright State was generally unreceptive and hardened and it seemed to be similar this year. There is a large population of homosexuals on this campus as well as professing “christianette” hypocrites.
Around 1:00 PM the crowd of 130-140 closed in around me. The police were on hand but did nothing about this. However, when I moved through the crowd and attempted to stand upon the wall and preach (due to students crowding in upon me) the police officer was quick to make me step down.
The crowd accused me of running away from them so I stood and faced the crowd as they closed in around me. For the next forty minutes I preached, reproved, rebuked, answered questions, and handled hecklers. At 1:40 PM the crowd had settled down some and had at least backed up a few feet instead of being right in my face.
I turned the crowd over to Brother Rick and left the scene. I was concerned the crowd was so angry at me that they would try to ignore Brother Rick and continue to crowd around me. Brother Rick captured the attention of the crowd fairly quickly and continued preaching away.
I stayed away from the scene for some time and was approached by several students. One was a supposed Christian and the others were atheists. The atheists began to ask me questions and I began to answer them. The supposed Christian student even joined in on defending the faith to the atheists in the area of apologetics and did a good job.
However, later when it came to the more controversial, moral issues, like abortion, roles of men and women, etc. the supposed Christian began to mock me and take the side of the sinners against the Bible and myself.
Around 2:50 PM I returned to the scene of the preaching. Sister Elizabeth had been preaching for about 10 minutes to a heckling group of 25-40. Brother Rick was having a good conversation with a seemingly sincere student who claimed to be a Christian. He listened to everything Brother Rick said and did not argue or debate.
Sister Elizabeth ended the preaching around 3:10 PM and we began to leave the campus. There were no police present at this time.
Tuesday May 20, 2008-Wright State University-Dayton, Ohio: We arrived on campus around 10:40 AM. It was cool and sunny today.
I began preaching at 10:50 AM. Soon I had a few listeners and the crowd began to grow. Soon a young man came out playing a radio next to where I was preaching to drown me out. It was not loud enough to drown me out or keep the crowd from hearing but it did make it more difficult to preach and was a distraction at times.
The same young man also kept blowing an air horn near where I was preaching. The crowd grew to about 125-150 and was very rowdy. They began to move in close and crowd me. The young man kept blowing the air horn while I was preaching so I moved out from the crowd, faced them and continued preaching. At this point they were so riled up it was difficult to do much preaching to them. I turned the crowd over to Brother Rick at 12:10 PM.
A brother from a local church who is originally from Africa came out to join us. Brother Rick turned the preaching over to him. He did an excellent job of preaching from about 12:10 PM to about 12:40 PM.
During his preaching time the crowd thinned out to about 50 to 60 and became subdued. There were two groups on either side of him as he was preaching of about 25-30 and he preached right in the middle of them.
Brother Rick began preaching again around 12:40 PM to the crowd of 50-60. The crowd built up some to about 90-100. One student showed up with a guitar and played a few songs while Brother Rick was preaching.
At one point Brother Rick borrowed his guitar and sang a song on the perils of sin to the crowd. They seemed to enjoy this. Brother Rick turned the preaching over to Sister Elizabeth around 1:25 PM.
The crowd was around 50-60 again when Sister Elizabeth took over. She only preached for about 15 minutes and then turned the crowd over to me at 1:40 PM.
As soon as I took over the students joined together in singing several choruses of “It’s the End of the World as we know it”. I waited until they were finished singing and then began preaching.
The crowd seemed to quickly grow to about 150 and once again became very rowdy and incensed. Several in the crowd would walk right up to me and stand in my face. Everywhere I moved they would move and follow me around. I continued preaching.
As Brother Rick and Sister Elizabeth tried to capture it on the camera the students would stand in their way and block them. One student who had been in fierce opposition to the preaching began to draw a pentagram three feet in front of where I was preaching.
The crowd seemed incensed, riotous and diabolical. I put my feet on top of the pentagram the student was drawing. This drawing was a distraction to the crowd, and the student had moved into my space where I was preaching to draw it.
When I put my feet on the pentagram my foot touched his hand slightly. He made a big deal out of this and called the police. Many in the crowd were so angry they went along with the story.
I continued preaching until the police arrived at 2:20 PM. The student told the police officers that I deliberately charged him and stepped on his hand. Several in the crowd stood up for us and told the officers I did no such thing and only barely touched his hand accidentally.
The officer was very polite, seemed to like me and believed I did not do what I was accused of. He gave me a trespass warning and said I could probably have it lifted if I talked to the Director of Student Judicial Services.
There is an organized group of pagan students in the crowd who seemed to work together to get us off the campus. While I was being given the trespass warning the African brother preached to the remaining crowd for another 15-20 minutes.
After I received the trespass warning, I was taunted and jeered by many students as we left the campus.
Friday May 23, 2008-Wright State University-Dayton, Ohio: We spent the last two days preaching at the University of Cincinnati to large rowdy crowds. I made an appointment on Wednesday to talk to the Director of Student Judicial Services at Wright State. The appointment was for 10:00 AM on Friday.
I went to the appointment at 10:00 AM and explained what had happened. He lifted the trespass warning and gave me a paper signed by him to prove the trespass had been lifted.
He told me I had a right to free speech without people crowding in on me and not allowing me to speak and if that happened again, I should call the police immediately.
Last year when we preached here the police had set up a square pen of barricades for us to preach inside of. This would keep the students back from us at a reasonable distance. Brother Rick requested to have the barricades set up again.
We walked over to the free speech area in the drizzle. I put on my raincoat and began preaching at 11:20 AM. I wanted to make a statement to the students that their foul play did not work and their plan to have us removed had not worked.
In the rain I gathered a handful of students (5-10). Brother Jed Smock showed up just about noon. At 12:05 PM I turned the preaching over to Brother Rick. While Brother Rick preached, I had a conversation with a catholic student. During this time Brother Rick turned the preaching over to Brother Jed around 12:40 PM.
By now the student who had called the police on me had showed up. He called the police again and was telling all his friends I was going to be arrested. While talking to the Catholic student the policemen came up behind me and said, “Mr. Armstrong we understand you have been banned from this campus!”
I told them “No sir, I was not banned, I received a trespass warning but I went and talked to Mr. (Director of Student Judicial Services) and he lifted the trespass.” I handed the officer the paper and they read it carefully.
After he read the paper the officers were friendly to me and we had a good conversation. The student who had called the police was visibly frustrated and shaken up. He continued to talk to the police officers and try to find another reason for them to give us a hard time but it did not happen. He soon left the scene.
Brother Jed preached to about 1:20 PM and then turned it over to Sister Elizabeth. Sister Elizabeth only preached a few minutes and then called on me. I was glad to preach to and show the group of students who had me removed that their plan had not worked.
I preached until 1:45 PM to a small group of 10-15 in the drizzle. We then turned the preaching over to Brother Jed and left to make an appointment.
We were thankful to have the trespass removed and be able to return to preaching at this university.
Brother Rick was invited on a call in rock and roll radio program on Saturday night from 7 PM to 9 PM. Thank God for more opportunities to preach the Gospel through the airwaves.