Post by messengermicah on Sept 26, 2008 14:23:26 GMT -5
Thursday September 18, 2008-George Mason University-Fairfax, Virginia: Brother Ross had a great day of preaching here the previous day (September 17) with crowds of about 200-240. We met up last night and decided to double team George Mason University.
Sister Elizabeth, Brother Ross and I arrived on campus around 11:30 AM and discovered the free speech area was taken up with all kinds of tables and vendors. This event obviously was not planned the day before. They were also playing loud music.
We decided to move down about 60 yards from the event and music between the fountain and the George Mason statue. Over by the statue there was a tall distinguished looking black man holding McCain-Palin signs and were being interviewed by cameras. I learned later the well known black conservative Walter Williams, is a professor at this university and believe this was him.
Brother Ross began preaching around 11:45 AM and soon drew a crowd of close to 100. They were listening good and asking good questions. One female student who seemed to be a lesbian and a wiccan sat down about 10 yards from Brother Ross and constantly beat on bongos and sang. Soon the students moved towards Ross and away from the bongo playing female. This same female greeted us when we arrived and told us if we preached we’d be arrested.
The police showed up immediately but left us alone. Brother Ross said the day before they had threatened to shut him down and repeatedly asked him to lower his voice and tried to censor his speech.
Most of the time Brother Ross was speaking the crowd was from 60-75. Around 1:00 PM he turned the crowd over to me.
I began preaching and gradually the crowd increased to about 175-180. I was being very careful and testing the waters because I did not want the police to try to stop us or think we were there just to create problems. The police turned out to be great this day and did not interfere.
One of our best hecklers this day was a blind, black guy named Mario who does a radio show and claims to be an oneness Pentecostal but lives in all kinds of sin. He heckled, asked good questions, and kept things going well.
The police only interfered one time but they were doing their job. The crowd had reached around 175-180 and were getting edgy. Around 1:40 PM I made a comment about muslim jihad terrorists and several muslim students jumped right in my face. The police made them move away and several students told most of the crowd to leave and not listen to me anymore.
Most of the crowd, I guess unable to think for themselves and be challenged on their belief system obeyed like blind robots following a cult leader walked away and left. The crowd was now down to about 25-40. I knew they would soon return.
The crowd gradually built back up to around 60-75 and at 2:05 PM I turned them back over to Brother Ross.
Brother Ross built the crowd back up to around 120-130. He challenged the blind, radio guy on his beliefs and finally he told Ross, “I don’t care how many scriptures you give me I know what I believe!”
We had planned on leaving around 2:30 PM to beat the traffic leaving the Fairfax area. I told Brother Ross it was 2:30 PM and we began to leave as several students followed us and continued asking us questions.
They seemed so disappointed we were not coming back. I was not planning on going back at that time, but over the weekend I believe the Lord dealt with me to return the following week and continue the work Brother Ross and I had began.
That evening Brother Ross and I attended a local church and I preached from Matthew 6:21-24 on “A Single Eye”.
Sunday September 21, 2008: We attended local church services where we were staying. I preached in the evening service on Matthew 6:21-24 on a “A Single Eye”.
Monday September 22, 2008-George Mason University-Fairfax, Virginia: Sister Elizabeth and I arrived later than we planned. I did not begin the open air meeting until around 12:35 PM. It was a beautiful clear, sunny day and not too hot.
There was a book fair going on this week next to the free speech area under a tent and they were using amplified sound. They were not disturbing me but I am sure I was disrupting their book fair because the acoustics were good where I was preaching and I was not far from them.
The crowd began to build up but around 1:00 PM a polite young man from the book fair approached me and said I was disturbing their fair. I decided to move down to the area where Brother Ross and I had preached last Thursday and continue preaching.
I moved down about 60 yards and some of the crowd followed. Soon the crowd increased up to around 100-120.
After some time the crowd began to close in around me. I jumped upon one of the benches where some of the students were sitting and listening to the preaching.
For the rest of the afternoon the crowd remained around 30-70. I continued preaching until 3:00 PM and then sat down and tried to answer questions.
The crowd was fairly rowdy and it was difficult to answer good questions because the hecklers would interrupt. After sitting on the bench and answering questions for about 30 minutes I left the area around 3:30 PM to use the restroom.
When I returned, I talked to one student for a while and soon a few others joined us. I answered their questions and we had a civil discussion until around 4:15 PM. Sister Elizabeth and I then left the campus.
Tuesday September 23, 2008-George Mason University-Fairfax, Virginia: Sister Elizabeth and I arrived around noon. It was another beautiful clear, sunny day. I approached the free speech area around 12:10 PM.
I was about to begin the open air meeting, when the same young man from the day before approached me and told me the book fair would be held all week. I walked down to the alternate area and let the officers know what my plans were due to the book fair. The officer in charge seemed to like me said it was fine.
I began preaching around 12:15 PM with a few students sitting around. For a short time just a handful of students sat around and listened but soon the crowd began to build.
The crowd grew to about 50-60 and soon several students stood next to me with cardboard posters they had made with Bible scriptures written on them. The crowd continued to grow as the students with the cardboard posters tried to block me from preaching.
As the students with the posters and the crowd closed in on me I jumped upon a bench and continued preaching. By now the crowd was well over 100. I continued preaching as the students with the posters continued to try to block me and keep me from preaching.
The crowd was now well over 200. I had to move to another bench because the students all crowded me in and were blocking me.
I stepped down from the bench, walked through the crowd to another bench, turned around, faced the crowd and continued preaching. The crowd was now around 300. I fired both Bible barrels at them and preached as hard, loud and fast as I could.
There were about 4 police officers on hand watching everything. Soon the Christians who had been opposing me for not preaching love and showing their love for me by blocking my first amendment rights and harassing me by following me around and blocking me formed a group to the side and began singing songs.
My wife told me at the end of the day how one of the girls who held a sign wore a miniskirt with her midriff showing and the rest of the females had very tight jeans on.
As the crowd swarmed all over me they totally ignored this group once they moved away from me.
As I continued to preach to the large crowd, a young man who seemed to mean well kept interrupting me and trying to preach to the crowd by giving his testimony. I think he actually agreed with me on much of what I was preaching. I allowed him to go on for some time but he should not have tried to take over the preaching and he went on too long. The crowd began to leave as he rambled on. I tried to take over again a few times but he would always interrupt me. Soon I moved back to another bench and the crowd followed me. The crowd was still a large one (around 150) but not as large as before.
Once I moved and the crowd followed me he stopped preaching and came where I was. Soon the crowd was building back up again to over 200. I continued preaching until 2:35 PM and tried to sit down and talk the students. After a few minutes, I stood back up and continued preaching until 3:00 PM and announced I was returning the next day.
After I stopped preaching and stepped down I had a very good conversation with several sincere students and a few muslims. We were having a good conversation and then several hecklers from the day before came up. The crowd grew to around 30-40 and I answered questions until about 4:00 PM.
An African American girl who had been listening intently all week, talking to my wife much, and had recently bought a new Bible was waiting to ask me some questions. Sister Elizabeth and I talked to her until around 5:00 PM. She asked many good questions, is sincerely seeking the truth and showed brokenness, conviction and sincerity. Please pray for her.
Wednesday September 24, 2008-George Mason University-Fairfax, Virginia: Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around 11:45 AM and I began preaching at noon.
Once again I began preaching outside the normal free speech area because the book fair was going on right next to the free speech spot. I began about 50-60 yards down between the George Mason statue and the waterfalls. There are a few benches here and some shade.
It was a little slow at first but soon a heckler ran up to me and began to ask questions. The crowd began to build and soon was up to 50-75. As time went on the crowd continued to grow to around 175-200.
Several police were on hand again. Soon the crowd began to close in around me and try to block me from speaking. Another heckler showed up with a radio and began blasting it behind me.
I jumped upon a bench and tried to continue preaching but the hecklers again blocked me and blasted the radio next to me. I changed locations 2-3 times and the hecklers with the radio continued to block and blast the radio next to me.
I was surprised the police allowed them to follow me all around like that. Then I decided to ask the guy with the radio for his permit to have amplified sound. He told me, he did not have a permit and did not need one.
With the officer listening to all of this I then announced I was going to begin preaching with a bullhorn since no permit was needed for amplified sound.
The officer then said “He is right, that is fair-you need to turn off that radio!” At this point the officers also made the hecklers stop standing up next to me and blocking me from preaching as I had tried to move away from them continuously.
The crowd was pretty rowdy and angry at this point but now I could preach without being blocked or competing with the radio. I stood upon a bench and faced the crowd and continued preaching and answering questions for some time.
The crowd was now down to around 60-120. I had promised a muslim student the day before that we would have a debate around 2:00 PM. I continued preaching and answering questions until around 2:15 PM and then announced the debate.
I walked to the restroom and came back. The blind black guy with the radio show (Mario) had recently showed up to videotape the preaching, and ask me questions. He volunteered to moderate the debate.
Around 50-75 students came around to listen to the debate. The muslim guy had always been very respectful to me and had prepared a list of questions to ask me. He began by asking me where in the Bible Jesus ever claimed to be divine.
I told the crowd in Exodus 3:14 God told Moses to tell them “I AM” sent him and then in John 8:58 Jesus said “before Abraham was I AM”. The Jews then took up stones to stone Him because they knew He was referring to Himself as being God.
I also told them Jesus constantly referred to Himself as the Son of Man and read the crowd Daniel 7:13-14 where the Son of Man is referred to and given Divine attributes. I pointed out the Jews understood exactly what Jesus was saying when He made reference to Himself as “The Son of Man”.
I also quoted Matthew 1:23, Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah 7:14, John 1:1, 14, 1Timothy 3:16, Jude 25, 1 John 5:20.
At this point the blind, black radio host whose name is, Mario began to moderate the debate. He would ask both of us questions and give us a limited time to respond.
I do not know why this guy wanted to debate me. I did not have to make him look bad because he did it himself. The crowd could hardly hear him, much of the time he was quoting the Koran in Arabic, and he was constantly stumped as to how to answer. I was able to answer all of the questions I was given immediately, loudly and clearly.
The muslim who had been so nice to me ended up cursing at the blind, black radio host Mario.
During the debate the crowd had grown to over 100 and they began asking me questions. I continued preaching and answering questions until 3:00 PM. I tried to leave at 3:00 PM but was surrounded by students still wanting answers.
One student who heckled me had a video camera on me and asked me several good questions about evangelism and my method. I gave long, detailed biblical answers and the students gathered around listened well and began to understand.
For the next half hour we had a good discussion time of questions and answers and I seemed to have earned their respect and was really making progress.
One homosexual student who had been heckling me every day got so mad he spit in my face and stormed off. The students seemed shocked and embarrassed. Another student walked by and threatened to bring a gang of his fraternity brothers and assault me.
The police called me over and told me they had caught the young man who spit in my face and did I want to press charges. I said no. The police had been very helpful and cooperative, not trying to censore me and only interfering when necessary.
At 3:30 PM I had already stayed half an hour longer than I had planned to. I was supposed to preach that evening in a church several hours away and I needed to beat the traffic out of Fairfax.
We left the campus around 3:30 PM. Among those in the group asking questions when we left was the black female student we had been talking to the day before until 5:00 PM.
We left thanking God and rejoicing for the work God was doing at this campus.
That evening I preached in a church for about one hour on “Advancing the Kingdom of God”.