Post by messengermicah on Feb 16, 2009 16:16:25 GMT -5
Friday January 30, 2009-Valdosta State University-Valdosta, Georgia: Our good friend and fellow campus preacher Brother Rick had been preaching at Valdosta State University this week. I had never preached at this university in years past because another preacher had preached there fairly regularly. This other preacher is no longer on the road and to my knowledge no one else has decided to try and preach here even though it seems everyone decides to come and preach at the Florida schools this time of year.
FLORIDA PREACHER PILEUP
To avoid the “preacher pileup” in Florida at this time of year I decided to try preaching on this campus. When I first went on the road I was led of the Lord, to basically work a circuit of campuses on a regular basis instead of trying to preach all over the country. Florida was my home state and at that time no one I knew was preaching the Florida campuses on a regular basis. I began to work the Florida campuses on a regular basis and tried to preach on other campuses where no one else had been preaching.
I have never had a desire to go and preach where others are already laboring and working in the fields. There are so few of us preachers and so many fields of labor that need preachers and for that reason I have generally tried to avoid preaching in areas where others are already preaching. I wish other preachers would have this same vision and have tried to communicate this to them.
Brother Rick told me after I had already decided to preach at Valdosta State that he had already reserved the area for the week before I was planning on going there. It was interesting to me that one reason Brother Rick decided to go Valdosta State also was to avoid piling on top of other preachers also.
Sister Elizabeth and I had an appointment this morning to take our trailer in to have it looked at near Valdosta. We decided to accompany Brother Rick to the campus as he preached. He had a permit and our names were not on the permit so we did not preach.
We all drove together and Brother Rick began preaching around 12:25 PM. It was a cold, windy, yet sunny day. Even though Friday is a much slower day on this campus than normal days Brother Rick still gathered a crowd of 30-60 and preached until his permit expired at 3:00 PM. Sister Elizabeth and I had some good conversations on the sidelines.
Sunday February 1, 2009: Sister Elizabeth and I attended local church services in the church where we were staying. In the evening service I had the privilege of preaching. I preached for over an hour on “Advancing the Kingdom of God” from Matthew 6:10.
A TOWN FULL OF CHRUCH GOERS AND RELIGIOUS SPIRITS
Monday February 2, 2009-Valdosta State University-Valdosta, Georgia: It was in the high 50’s and low 60’s and very overcast this day. As Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on the campus around 11:45 AM the rain began to trickle down ever so slightly.
I began preaching in the free speech spot at 11:55 AM and soon gathered a small crowd of listeners. The crowd grew to around 100-120 and began to move closer to where I was preaching. Soon the rain began to come down a little harder than before and about half of the crowd left.
I continued preaching to the crowd that fluctuated from 30-70 for the remainder of the afternoon until my permit expired at 3:00 PM. The police on this campus did an excellent job of standing by and keeping the students from gathering on the preaching area. This is a great help because it keeps the students from getting too close, getting in your face and distracting from the preaching.
Even though the crowds were not that large it was still much more of a “slug out” style preaching with brief occasional times of question and answer teaching. In this Bible belt town full of church goers as well as everywhere else the students are so full of false ideas of God and the Bible yet think they know everything.
When I stopped preaching at 3:00 PM the crowd was angry and making threats. A police officer escorted us off campus and the students kept making comments that accused us of being afraid of them because of the police presence.
Tuesday February 3, 2009-Valdosta State University-Valdosta, Georgia: We received a phone call in the morning from the pastor of the church where we were staying informing us we had made the daily city newspaper. The newspaper had two front page photographs of me preaching accompanied by captions. The pictures and captions did not portray the preaching in a negative light as secular newspapers often do.
The weather today was much cooler than yesterday with a high of 54 but it was clear and sunny. I began preaching around 11:45 AM. Soon the crowd grew to around 150 and began to move in closer to where I was preaching. The police showed up again to keep an eye on things and did not interfere.
Throughout the afternoon the crowd size fluctuated from 30-120 and the preaching mode was generally like the day before with mostly “slug out” type of preaching through the heckling, yelling, mocking etc. with only occasional calmer times of question and answer teaching.
Around 2:25 PM, I sat down in my chair hoping this would seem less combative and confrontational to the crowd and they might settle down some. I think it helped some but not much.
I continued preaching and answering questions until my permit expired around 3:00 PM. I still had around 75 listeners when I left the platform.
As I left the platform a very overweight guy who wears a shirt that says “Jesus loves porn stars” and tries to look like a “bad boy biker type” jumped on the platform to placate the convicted hearers. This was very frustrating to me after having preached for so long and making much headway in destroying their excuses for living in daily rebellion against a Holy God. Unfortunately, there was not much I could do.
Surprisingly to me several in the crowd came over to me and told me they appreciated my preaching and agreed with much of what I was saying. I was able to answer some of their questions and objections about “the method” as a group of about 20 gathered around to listen.
We were very happy the local pastor where we were staying came out to join us on the campus and witnessed on the sidelines. He greatly enjoyed the experience and appreciated our ministry.
Wednesday February 4, 2009-Valdosta, Georgia: I had no permit to preach at Valdosta State today so I could not preach there. I had planned to make the two hour drive over to Tallahassee, Florida to preach at Florida State this day but the high temperature of the day was supposed to be in the high 40’s with strong winds.
By noon the temperature was still below 40 and windy although it was clear and sunny. I decided not to make the long drive to Tallahassee due to the cold weather. It would be difficult to get much going on such a cold day and it would be four hours of driving round trip.
That evening I preached for over 1 hour in a church on “Advancing the Kingdom of God”. The temperature dropped down to 19 degrees during the night.
Thursday February 5, 2009-Valdosta, Georgia: I again had no permit to preach at Valdosta State University. The temperature was a little warmer today than the day before but not as windy.
We decided not to make the two hour drive to Florida State University due to the long drive and the cold weather. Brother Rick joined us for some fellowship in the late afternoon.
Friday February 6, 2009-Valdosta State University-Valdosta, Georgia: The weather was in the low 60’s today. The previous Friday as we accompanied Brother Rick on campus we observed there were not as many students or classes going on as a regular day so I was somewhat expecting smaller crowds than we had on Monday and Tuesday.
I wore my sandwich board sign to help get the attention of the students since I thought it would be slower. I stepped on the Langdale Hall platform around 11:45 AM and immediately students began heckling me.
I began preaching around 11:50 AM and it did not take long to get a crowd. To my pleasant surprise the crowd size was very similar to the crowd size on Monday ranging from 30-100 all afternoon.
It was the same “slug out” type of preaching as earlier in the week with times of calmer question and answer sessions.
The police were on hand most of the day to keep the students off the platform, away from me, and keep order. I believe the crowds would have been much rowdier if not for the constant presence of the police.
Towards the end of the afternoon a student kept telling me I was overweight, so I must not eat healthy and that was as bad as smoking. As this student kept insinuating I was in bad shape, I challenged him to a pushup contest. He would not take up my challenge but a tall slender African American male student who had been claiming to be a Christian all afternoon but opposing the holiness preaching proudly accepted the challenge.
The roared with glee as the student stepped up and did 43 very sloppy pushups (not going all the way down or all the way up). He barely was able to do the last three.
I got down and did 42 very smooth pushups and could easily have done a few more. I could not remember how many the student did except that it was over 40. I thought it actually worked to my advantage that I did one less than he did and made it look as if I let him win.
Either way, I made the point to the crowd that I was not as fat, old, and out of shape as they were trying to make me out to be. For the last 15-20 minutes of the preaching the crowd was much more subdued and attentive as it seemed I had earned some respect due to the pushup contest.
My permit expired at 3:00 PM and as I left the platform several students gathered around me to talk and ask questions. Many of these were the professing Christians or the atheists. I continued talking to them until 3:45 PM as one of the police officers stood by and listened. I asked the officer if he wanted me to leave and he replied “No, I am just listening”. I believe this officer either was a Christian and agreed with the preaching or believed we were preaching the truth, and the Lord was dealing with his soul. He had a Middle Eastern last name.