Post by messengermicah on Nov 14, 2008 17:35:25 GMT -5
Monday November 3, 2008-University of Central Florida-Orlando, Florida: Sister Elizabeth and I met the Morrell’s at the University of Central Florida around 11:45 AM. I began preaching in the free speech area around 11:55 AM.
I slowly gathered a small group of listeners after some time. Soon the group of musicians who cannot seem to get their own crowd and cannot create any new music of their own (they try to sound like Bob Dylan and sing his songs) began to follow me around and play their music right next to me to drown me out. They interrupted me once last week also.
I continued to move away from them and the crowd would follow me, but then the “wannabee” musicians would come to where I was and play right next to me so no one could hear me. I figured they would give up after a while but never did. I also thought the crowd who kept following me to listen and ask questions would turn on them and tell them to be quiet. This they did at times but never really demanded they stop.
A student in a wheel chair began to ask questions and asked them to stop and they stopped. Soon others began to ask questions and ask them to stop singing. The crowd of 50-70 settled down some and I turned the preaching over to Brother Jesse around 1:30 PM.
I went in the library and took a break until around 2:00 PM. I did not want the students to gather around me on the sidelines and become a distraction to the preaching.
When I returned from the library and sat down around 2:00 PM the student in a wheelchair came to me and told me he wanted to interview me. He asked good questions and listened well. Soon others began to gather around, ask questions and listen. I had a very profitable time of sitting in the chair on the sidelines and answering questions for the next two hours to groups of 3-15. I really seemed to make some progress with some.
By 4:00 PM the Morrell’s had to leave to make an evening engagement. I was not able to watch Brother Jesse preach much but it seemed the singers harassed him by following him around for some time also.
Brother Jesse, Sister Krista, Sister Elizabeth and I were able to have some fellowship and conversation while eating ice cream for about 45 minutes after leaving the campus.
Tuesday November 4, 2008-Miami, Florida: Drove to Miami to vote against Obama. We had contacted Florida Atlantic University in advance to get permission to preach there all this week but never heard back from them. Since we did not hear back from them we decided to try to vote outside of Dade County and head north to preach at another campus.
We learned we had to vote in Dade County so we needed to drive to Miami and cast our votes against Obama and his socialist, racist, abortion supporting, homosexual agenda supporting policies from getting in the White House.
We called Florida Atlantic University and they gave us the ok to preach there from Wednesday November 5 to Friday November 7.
Wednesday November 5, 2008-Florida Atlantic University-Boca Raton, Florida: I was not really surprised Obama won but was somewhat discouraged due to the uncertainty of the future of this country with him being President. However, I learned there is life after Obama if we love and serve Jesus Christ!
I have preached as much at Florida Atlantic University as I have anywhere else in Florida campuses and we had our best day ever of preaching here today. I have never had crowds this consistently large and so rowdy on this campus.
Sister Elizabeth went to visit her family today but I was joined by my good friend and fellow laborer, Brother Doug who I spent 3 years preaching with in the Miami area. Doug was the one who accompanied me the first time I ever preached open air and he has remained very active in the open air ministry since I left Miami by continuing to preach at events like Mardi Gras, Fantasy Fest, the Democratic National Convention, and Weekend of Decadence.
My permit was to begin at 12 noon and we left Miami in plenty of time but ran into traffic on the way up. We arrived on campus around 12:30 PM and I had to go pick up the permit.
When I returned from getting the permit Doug had his banner hoisted and was talking to one student. I began preaching around 12:45 PM and immediately began to draw in a crowd.
After a few minutes a very cooperative police officer asked to see my permit and I showed it to him. I resumed preaching and the crowd continued to grow. Soon several officers were on the scene. The crowd seemed very edgy and several got in my face and threatened me with violence.
The police did an excellent job of keeping the crowd back. The crowd continued to grow and soon there were about 8 police officers on the scene. The police brought out several barricades and used yellow tape to make us a large pen to preach from and keep the crowd back.
The crowd was from 200-300 all afternoon long. They would periodically break into a chant of “Oba-ma-Oba-ma-Oba-ma”. I mocked their worship of Obama and told them they should be worshipping Jesus Christ and not a president who supports the murder of unborn babies, socialism, racism, and the homosexual agenda.
After preaching until about 2:35 PM I turned the crowd over to Brother Doug. Brother Doug did an excellent job of preaching, answering questions, handling the crowd, and maintaining the large crowd.
Brother Doug preached for about 45 minutes while I was engaged in small group conversations in the background of the large pen they set up for us.
After about 45 minutes, Brother Doug began to move closer to the crowd and talk and answer questions to individual students instead of preaching to the large crowd. This of course caused the crowd size to diminish some. However, I felt we had preached to them hard for almost 3 solid hours and it was profitable to have group discussions and answer questions for the remainder of the day. Brother Doug told me later he wanted me to begin preaching again but I was having such profitable discussions on the sidelines that I thought I should continue to water the seeds we had planted from the hard preaching.
Brother Doug and I continued to have small group discussions from inside the pen with students gathered on the outside and answer questions until after 4:30 PM. One of the last conversations I had this day was with a student who grew up Jewish and had been a recovering alcoholic. He asked many excellent and sincere questions and listened well.
After Brother Doug and I left the campus and stopped to eat on the way home near the school we ran into this same Jewish student in the restaurant. We invited him to eat with us and continued the discussion we began on campus. Praise the Lord for this!
Thursday November 6, 2008-Florida Atlantic University-Boca Raton, Florida: Sister Elizabeth, Brother Doug, and I arrived on campus just after 12 noon. We walked into the pen set up the day before and the students were already waiting for us with hand made poster boards condemning us and promoting homosexuality.
I began preaching at 12:20 PM and immediately a crowd gathered and began hurling questions, accusations, threats, etc. About 8 police officers were also on hand waiting for us.
As the crowd quickly grew to over 200 again Brother Martin showed up with his own banner and preaching shirt on. We met Brother Martin on this campus in January 2007 and he credits our preaching being used to convert him. Praise the Lord!
Brother Martin has been on fire ever since our visit there back in January of 2007 and has been a fearless preacher of righteousness ever since. He preaches by himself at night downtown in the party district of his area on a weekly basis.
There is also another student we met on this campus who is very supportive of our preaching who was not when we first met him. The crowd was every bit as large and rowdy as the day before. Again they would periodically begin chanting “Oba-ma, Oba-ma, Oba-ma”. They would repeatedly knock down the barricades, take off the clothes, dance, gyrate, simulate sex acts, homosexuals and lesbians would kiss, etc.
I continued preaching until 1:40 PM. One hypocrite was accusing us of not preaching correctly and accusing us of just turning people off to the Lord and never getting anyone saved. Brother Martin was standing behind me holding his banner and lifted his hand indicating he was saved by hearing preaching like we were doing. At that point I turned the preaching over to Brother Martin and took his banner.
Brother Martin preached for about 20 minutes and turned the crowd over to Brother Doug. Brother Doug only preached for about 15 minutes and then called me back out to preach again. It was very hot out and the crowd was so large and rowdy that it took a lot of effort to preach.
I preached a few minutes and made a few comments and then called on Sister Elizabeth to preach around 2:20 PM. Sister Elizabeth preached until 2:45 PM and then I took another turn of preaching.
The crowd was now around 100 and I figured the day was winding down so I would try to have a calm question and answer session. However, after about 15-20 minutes the crowd grew to 300 range and rowdy again. They were very rowdy at times but other times they would remain quiet and listen while I preached and answered questions.
I continued preaching to around 3:45 PM and then turned the crowd back over to Brother Doug. Brother Doug preached for about 30 minutes and maintained the crowd size but then began to answer questions and talk to smaller groups of students. For the remainder of the day, Brother Doug, Brother Martin, his cousin Charlie, Sister Elizabeth and I remained inside the pen and answered questions from small groups of students standing outside the yellow tape while the police stood by.
At 5:00 PM the police reminded us our permit had expired. They had done an excellent job and so we packed up and left the campus.
Friday November 7, 2008-Florida Atlantic University-Boca Raton, Florida: Sister Elizabeth and I left Miami in plenty of time but we ran into traffic on the way up. By the time I arrived in the free speech area it was around 12:40 PM.
The police were on hand waiting for us and our pen made of barricades and yellow tape was still there. The size of the pen had been reduced to about half the size. This was probably due to the police realizing there are not nearly as many classes or as many students on campus on Friday.
I began preaching inside the pen around 12:45 PM and after a few minutes a crowd gathered around the pen and began to hurl accusations, chant “Oba-ma”, play music to drown me out, etc.
The crowd was not as large as the previous two days but was usually around 40-120. For over the next two hours I preached and answered questions as the crowd raged, chanted for Obama, played music, showed up in devil costumes, winged demons, etc.
Later in the afternoon the students turned the radio off. Once again there were about 8 police officers on hand.
I continued preaching until 3:00 PM and stopped the meeting in order to beat the traffic and head back to Miami.