Post by bullhornbob on Jan 21, 2008 22:00:18 GMT -5
2008 Preaching Reports – Week 2
University of North Florida
University of North Florida
Monday, January 14, 2008
We arrived at the University of North Florida around 12:30pm, but not without first hitting a few speed bumps. It seemed like the devil was trying real hard to discourage us from preaching today. First, we were running out of fuel while trying to find diesel fuel for the truck. Then we missed our exit to the campus along the freeway. Then there was construction on the freeway and we were unable to decipher the confusing detour signage. Eventually I recognized a road, and we were able to park and catch the campus shuttle to the main campus area.
We finally arrived on the free speech lawn, and I began to preach, drawing in a modest sized crowd right away. I must mention that there were fraternity recruitment tents set up throughout free speech lawn, and there was loud music playing. I preached repentance, faith in Jesus, and living biblically obedient, and also defended the bible against evolution and other false teachings for about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Evangelista then preached for about 20 minutes, and as the crowd quickly dwindled, she turned it back over to me.
A young lady approached me while Evangelista was preaching and stated that she appreciated us coming to her campus. She said that she was taking notes on all of the scriptures we quoted, and that she also recorded the students’ reactions to the preaching. She said that she was simply amazed, and couldn’t believe how the students were reacting, even though everything that we preached was biblical. She was obviously a Christian. Another young man at first seemed to oppose us, but after having a short conversation with him, he was very appreciative of our preaching. I patiently showed him from the scriptures that what we were doing was indeed biblical.
As we packed up to leave, there was an older gentleman and his wife who listened to us, and he thanked us for preaching. He was very encouraging and commented on how he had watched the reactions of some of the listeners, and noted the conviction of one particular young man who reasoned with me about science and the bible. His wife had left before we finished preaching, but he mentioned that she was a science professor at the university. She had commented on our knowledge of science and how that was a plus in dealing with these students. He said he was a Law Enforcement Officer, and as we exchanged our contact information, we asked him to please pray for us.
Also during the preaching, there was an older woman who openly affirmed our preaching, and stated out loud that the kids needed to listen up. This did help us out a bit, as there was a female heckler who said that we needed to stop judging everyone. She kept saying it over and over again, so the older lady took the young girl aside and began to talk with her. That calmed the young lady a bit, but she eventually returned, repeating the same thing over and over again.
As the sun was going down, it began to get much colder than it was earlier in the afternoon. We left UNF at about 4:00pm and took the shuttle back to our truck. We then made the 30 minute drive back to the RV park in North Jacksonville.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
We arrived on campus and began preaching at 11:30am today. I preached for an hour or so, but it seemed difficult to build up a crowd. Because the free speech area is a large, grassy area, there were still many students there listening to the preaching, as they would occasionally shout obnoxious comments towards us.
As Evangelista preached, she was able to gather and maintain the attention of a small crowd. She preached mainly on the sin of homosexuality, among other biblical topics, for about an hour, and then handed the crowd back over to me. The cold prevailed once again, as the crowd seemed to dwindle away rapidly.
The campus police showed up around 2:00pm stating that they had received complaints that the preaching was too loud, and that classes were being disrupted. They asked us to move, and we complied. A small group of hecklers followed us across the green to our new spot. But before we moved, a Christian girl approached us and asked us if we needed help carrying our personal items. We told her that we had it covered, and thanked her for her offer to help. She said that she had been listening to the preaching and was in agreement with everything we said. She also mentioned how she witnesses in her own personal way.
When we moved, a girl approached Evangelista and asked a few questions about being born again. She was able to share Jesus with her, give her a bible and a bible tract and told her that we would pray for her. Now she has to make the decision whether she wants Jesus to be the Lord of her life. A young man who also moved to the new spot with us overheard the end of Evangelista’s conversation, and asked if we could pray for him as well.
Besides preaching, we also hand out free bibles to those who are sincerely interested. A greater gift can no man give except his own life.
Throughout the day, students would come up and mention how our preaching has been the main topic of conversation and teaching in their communications classes, and that we were actually part of their homework assignments. This would explain the young lady taking notes yesterday.
We left at 3:00pm, as it seemed the temperature was dropping rapidly again. We decided to stop at the library to use the internet access and warm up a bit. Before we left our RV for the campus today, we were able to secure parking at one of the local churches. A quick glance at Google maps would provide me a route to the church, and I could then survey the parking lot for a place to park the RV tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
We arrived at the local church this morning a bit later than we had originally planned, due to inclement weather. As the rain continued, it became clear that we would have to wait until tomorrow to preach on campus again.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
We arrived on campus at 11:30am and I immediately began to preach. A young man who is active in evangelism on this campus was there waiting for us today. He is very sincere, and actually is planning on doing open-air preaching on campus with his friend in the near future. This is always very encouraging for us. Meanwhile, there were a handful of listeners off and on, and after about an hour I turned the crowd over to Evangelista. As she taught and preached the bible, a large crowd began to form. Evangelista preached on the sin of fornication, biblical repentance, and faith in Jesus Christ. Our young friend bid us farewell, and Evangelista seemed to have the best crowd of the week.
Suddenly, a very irate young man approached her, got right in her face and began to scream “what are you doing, woman?!” He said that he was a Christian and part of a campus ministry, and what we were doing was totally wrong. As he continued to yell and scream with bible in hand, another young student joined in. I am amazed at how angry and raging these young people become, misquoting scriptures with red-faced fury. These two could not have been older than 18 or 19.
After a few minutes I had heard enough, so I stepped in and told Evangelista that I needed to take over. I suggested that she take the young man aside and attempt to reason with him. As I began to rebuke the false converts for defending sin (we figured out that it was indeed a group of students from a “campus ministry”), they all formed a crowd just down the sidewalk and began consoling one another in their attempts to shut us down. I demanded that they give me just one verse from the Bible that says Christians have to sin, or that would even refute that Christians are freed from the bondage of sin.
Not one of them answered my challenge, but they had plenty to say about us condemning everyone, mentioning hell fire, confronting sin, etc, etc. This is fruit of the false teachings so prevalent in most of today’s churches.
As for the irate young man, he refused to receive instruction, even though Evangelista shared I Corinthians 1 with him concerning the foolishness of preaching. He said that what we were preaching were “hellfire messages like the preachers of the old days.” As Evangelista attempted to show him Mark 9:43-48, he told her that “you shouldn’t preach like that!” and “I hear all the rumors going around campus about you preachers!” Very interesting. He will listen to all the rumors on campus, but will not listen to Bible truth.
He wouldn’t listen to me either. So, as I continued to reprove the sin defending campus group, a girl approached him and said that they needed to leave. Another young man came from behind me and tried to grab my camera and slammed the viewer shut, turning it off. The irate student came back a few times, and stood there listening while I continued to preach. I was able to at least calm him down a bit, while another student was actually in agreement with most of my points. He also tried to reason with the campus group, and eventually they all left in frustration.
Some time later, the affirming student returned with his entire class to listen for a short time. Towards the end of the day, a young man approached Evangelista and said that he really enjoyed the preaching. This is always encouraging, especially after the “campus christians” gave us such a hard time. She preached a second time for about 40 minutes, and had a great discussion with a young man who said that he was a Christian, but was still in bondage to cigarettes, among other vices. He seemed to have a lot of good questions, but he was unwilling to change.
We left at 4:30pm, and as we walked to catch the shuttle, we discussed the huge variety of reactions we get from this preaching ministry. Our intent was to return tomorrow, but we had promised to vacate our spot at the church by Friday.
Friday, January 18, 2008
We spent this day traveling from Jacksonville to Tallahassee, and securing a spot to park at another local church. Next week, the Lord willing, we will preach at Florida State University.
PLEASE PRAY FOR US EACH DAY AS WE PREACH ON CAMPUSES THIS SEMESTER.
WE ARE MAKING AN IMPACT ON THIS GENERATION!