Post by messengermicah on Jun 2, 2008 13:44:18 GMT -5
Wednesday May 21, 2008-University of “Sin-sin-nati”-Cincinnati, Ohio: We had a great week of preaching on this campus last year with large, rowdy and sometimes hostile crowds and were looking forward to preaching here again.
It was a sunny, breezy day and the weather had begun to warm up some, but was still a little cool out.
Brother Rick began preaching at exactly 12:00 noon. He gathered a small group of 15-20 and then turned it over to Sister Elizabeth around 12:25 PM.
Sister Elizabeth preached until about 1:10 PM and built the crowd up to about 50-60. Brother Rick told me to take over because he was engaged in a good conversation with a few students.
I began preaching at 1:10 PM and the crowd quickly built up to about 275. After about 40 minutes of preaching the large crowd began to move in close to me. Usually the meeting is going well with good questions, attentive students and a growing crowd and students who are involved in anti-God, pagan groups come out and try to sabotage the meeting. They come out and disrupt and stir everything up and then try to blame us for causing trouble on the campus.
Brother Rick came out and told them they had to back up and keep a distance of 10 feet away from me. The students complied for some time and even inquired if he was my attorney.
The conviction in the crowd was great but many were very rowdy. This year as well as last year the students were spreading and believing the rumor that we go to schools to get people mad so they will hit us and then we sue them.
Although this is a flagrant lie with not one once of proof, many of the students are ready to believe this lie. This is because our message deeply convicts them and they must either admit we are right, they are in trouble with God and must repent or try to discredit us. Usually they choose the latter.
With Brother Rick keeping the students at a distance away from me I tried to calm the crowd down. The crowd size dropped from 275 to about 50-70. When they had settled down some I turned the crowd over to Brother Rick at 2:15 PM.
Brother Rick did an excellent job of preaching, building up and controlling the touchy crowd. The crowd grew to about 100. All the students seemed so angry at us because they wanted to believe we were scam artists trying to get them to hit us so we could sue the school and make big money.
One student brazenly told me, “We have documented evidence that you have all these lawsuits against schools!” I then asked him to go and provide the evidence if it was documented and he has it. He then asked me “What is your name?”
This is the kind of foolishness we are dealing with many times. Students do not even know our name and claim they have documented evidence of what we did because someone told them it was true.
I left the free speech lawn for some time after I stopped preaching because the crowd seemed so angry at me and I thought they would follow me to the sidelines.
I took a walk and ran into a student from the school newspaper who was writing a story on us. He seemed very honest and professional. We sat down inside a building and did an interview. He had a muslim name and claimed to be a muslim.
As I walked on the sidewalk, students would curse me as they walked by. It seemed the students were poisoned by the rumor that we sue schools to make money. Most students have not met genuine people that love them so they become suspicious and imagine we will use them like the god of this world, their peers and unfortunately some of their relatives.
After the interview I made my way back to the area where we were preaching. Brother Rick had the crowd under control and they seemed fairly civil. When I arrived some of the students came over to harass me, but I ignored them and they eventually walked away.
I had a few good conversations with some serious truth seekers while sitting on the sidelines. Some students began to gather around Sister Elizabeth and soon Brother Rick’s crowd left and came around us. This was around 3:00 PM.
Sister Elizabeth went to the free speech lawn and began to preach. Most of the students followed her but some remained back to taunt, harass, provoke and jeer Brother Rick and myself.
They kept accusing us of being con artists. Soon, I began to have a very good conversation with several of the black students who realized I was preaching the Bible. They kept the rest of the crowd under control and acting civil because they wanted to hear what I had to say. They asked me all kinds of questions and I responded with what the Bible said.
Around 4:00 PM I took over the preaching from Sister Elizabeth. I was surrounded by students so I could not tell what size crowd she was preaching to but I would estimate it was from 25-60.
The students I was having the good conversations with followed me to the free speech lawn and we continued where we left off. The crowd was about 40-50 when I started. Whenever someone would heckle or become unreasonable the black students would make them behave and listen.
I preached from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM. It was a very profitable time of teaching the Bible and answering questions although by 5:00 PM the crowd was down to about 5-10. I seemed to have gotten a breakthrough though by gaining the ear, respect and confidence of the handful of black students.
We left the campus and drove back to a local church where we were staying the night. I had the opportunity to preach for about 15 minutes in the service on “The Power of God to Win Souls”.
Thursday May 22, 2008-University of Cincinnati-Cincinnati, Ohio: We arrived on campus today at 11:35 AM and Sister Elizabeth began preaching at 11:45 AM. It was another sunny day and much warmer than the day before.
Sister Elizabeth built the crowd up to about 60-65 and turned it over to Brother Rick at 12:45 PM. A fraternity student had begun to disrupt my wife during the open air meeting. This student was on the lawn helping the sorority sisters raise money (throw water balloons at girls for charity). The sign they posted had a sexual insinuation.
After Sister Elizabeth turned the crowd over to Brother Rick I left the area for some time. Students kept coming up and accusing me of suing schools, students, being a scam artist, etc. I did not want the students gathered around me during the preaching so I took a walk.
Brother Rick built the crowd up to about 175-200. The crowd was attentive, receptive, and fairly well behaved (except for the perverted fraternity guy who striped to his underwear). He danced, lay on the lawn, and pranced all around Brother Rick. Brother Rick looked as if he could have preached to that crowd all day long. He turned the crowd over to me around 2:00 PM.
The crowd kept trying to rile me up but I remained calm and preached straight to them and answered their questions. Some of the crowd left but then built up again.
I was able to do some very effective preaching for about an hour and 15 minutes. The crowd grew to about 250. Many were sitting in the grass, keeping their distance, asking good questions and listening fairly well, although I could tell they were getting very convicted and angry. I knew it was a matter of time before something would happen.
Around 3:15 PM the crowd began to move in all around me. Many of the students sat down in the grass close around me and were probably sincere seekers of truth. However all around them was a huge crowd of angry hecklers, yelling, threatening and making false accusations.
I tried to preach and answer questions for about 15 minutes, but they became more and more rowdy. At 3:30 PM I walked through the crowd and went to the sidelines. I believe this can be a very effective way to bring conviction on the students at times. They seem to realize how vile they have become that the preacher is not even going to try to preach to them any longer (Matthew 7:6, Acts 13:46).
I could accomplish nothing with the crowd acting the way they were and it would have been just a matter of time before trouble started.
On the sidelines we did an interview with students with a camera until 4:00 PM and then left the campus. In another local church Brother Rick and I both had the opportunity to preach. I again preached for about 15 minutes on “The Power of God to Win Souls”.