Post by messengermicah on May 16, 2009 12:13:44 GMT -5
Sunday May 3, 2009-Columbus, Ohio: Sister Elizabeth and I attended local church services where we were staying. I preached for over one hour in the evening service from Matthew 6:10 on “Advancing the Kingdom of God”.
Monday May 4, 2009-Otterbein College-Columbus, Ohio: After driving all day Saturday from Virginia to Columbus I decided not to make the 90 minute drive down to Athens to preach at Ohio University but chose to preach at nearby Otterbein College in Columbus. Another factor in this decision was it was forecast to rain all day. Early in the morning it was very overcast but by the time we headed for campus it had cleared up.
By the time Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on Otterbein campus it was a sunny day in the high 60’s. Unfortunately, on the way to campus I made a wrong turn and we ended up arriving a little later than we wanted to.
I began preaching on the public sidewalk in front of the student union at 12:15 PM. We had several good days of preaching here last May even though I was issued a trespass warning for using the restrooms on the school property.
I immediately began to gather a crowd that continued growing. The crowd grew to around 50-60 and most were sitting on the steps in front of the student union listening intently. For some reason I had a difficult time preaching early on as my voice kept giving me trouble. As usual, someone came out and began mowing the grass across the street on a large loud, riding lawnmower. Last year, the man mowed the same piece of grass each day we preached.
JESUS LOVES PEOPLE IN HELL
As the crowd continued growing they were playful and rowdy and times. One young man who claimed to be a Christian tried to steal the crowd by standing in front of me and preaching about how Jesus died for their sins and loves everyone. I let the crowd know hell is full of people Jesus died for (Matthew 23:33, 25:30, 25:41) but they did not love Jesus (John 14:15, 1 John 5:3). I also repeatedly explained God’s conditional forgiveness (Luke 13:3,5, Proverbs 28:13, 1 John 1:7) and explained how Jesus died to save us from sinning (Acts 3:26, 1 John 3:5, Galatians 1:4, Titus 2:14, Matthew 1:21), rather than saving us in our sins.
Many in the crowd began to form a line next to the young man who tried to steal the crowd. They turned their backs to me, joined hands and the homosexuals, atheists, drunkards, fornicators, revelers, pot smokers, and “sinning” christianettes all joined in a prayer I am sure God ignored (Psalm 66:18, 1 Peter 3:12, John 9:31, 1 John 3:22, Proverbs 28:9).
The crowd continued growing to around 75-90. I preached until around 2:00 PM and then turned the crowd of 50-60 over to Sister Elizabeth. She did an excellent job of maintaining the crowd size, answering questions and preaching until around 2:50 PM. I seemed to be making some progress with some of the students on the sidelines. Sister Elizabeth called on me again around 2:50 PM and I preached and answered questions until 3:40 PM when I ran out of water. The crowd size remained from 30-60 throughout the rest of the afternoon.
Sister Elizabeth preached and answered questions for a few minutes while I took a restroom break. I returned around 3:45 PM and I sat down in the chair and tried to answer questions. This went well for some time but at times I would stand up and begin preaching again. I preached until around 4:10 PM and left the students under conviction with the Sword of the Spirit in their heart (Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 45:5). We continued having conversations with small groups of students until around 4:30 PM. I had a good conversation with the young man who tried to steal the crowd by preaching in front of me. He seemed to be a student of the scriptures and said he would study up on the things I told him.
FAVOR WITH THE POLICE
Before we left the head of security came up and introduced himself and thanked us for following all the rules and exercising our first amendment rights the proper way. We thank God for giving us favor with the security as opposed to last year when they tried to order us to leave and gave me a trespass for using the school restroom.
Tuesday May 5, 2009-Ohio University-Athens, Ohio: The weather was supposed to be good today (no rain) so Sister Elizabeth and I made the 90 minute drive down to Athens to preach at Ohio University.
We had a great week of meetings here two years ago with large rowdy crowds. In spite of the rowdiness and even hostility of the crowd at times we knew we were making great progress. Last year preaching here we had crowds that were not as large but very civil and receptive. The students up here in Ohio seem to be much less familiar with the Bible than students down South but are much more philosophical. Even though they tend to be more liberal they seem to understand the concept of free speech better than most students down South.
I began preaching on the public sidewalk in front of the statue around 12:30 PM. Unfortunately, the lawn was being mowed right in the spot where I began preaching so this was somewhat of a hindrance for some time. I kept on preaching and a few students here and there would stop and listen for a few minutes and then leave.
Finally, the lawnmower got far enough away where it was no longer a hindrance. For some time I had small groups of 5-10 mostly listening with an occasional question or comment. It seemed every time a few more students would show up a few more would leave.
Gradually the crowd continued to grow and was very civil and attentive. I had relatively few questions as the students just listened as I preached and taught. The crowd gradually grew to around 40-50 and at 2:20 PM I turned the preaching over to Sister Elizabeth.
A REASONABLE CALVINIST?
Sister Elizabeth did an excellent job of preaching, answering questions and the crowd grew to around 60-70. I only had one student approach me on the sidelines and he was a very reasonable and sincere 5 point Calvinist who seemed to have a good understanding of what we were trying to accomplish by our preaching.
TOLERANT HOMOSEXUALS?
As Sister Elizabeth continued preaching the crowd moved in very close and sat down in the grass in front of her. They were like school children listening to a teacher tell a story and she had them eating out of her hand. I made the observation that this school seems to have the nicest most tolerant homosexuals I have seen anywhere. The crowd sitting in front of Sister Elizabeth was about 40-50 and many were homosexuals, lesbians and bisexuals. For some reason they seem to genuinely like us and God has given us a real love for them.
Sister Elizabeth continued preaching until 3:30 PM and then turned the crowd back over to me. As I began answering questions and preaching the crowd gradually thinned down to around 15-20. I stopped preaching around 4:30 PM so we could head back to Columbus. Sister Elizabeth and I continued talking to small groups of students until 5:00 PM. One student I was talking with was a very reasonable bisexual female who asked many good questions while I was preaching and listened carefully to my answers.
Wednesday May 6, 2009-Ohio State University-Columbus, Ohio: It was supposed to rain again today so we did not try to drive down to Athens but drove to nearby Ohio State University. I had only preached here one time before two years ago. Usually when I have been in this area other preachers have been preaching on this campus and I focused on Ohio University and Otterbein College.
Sister Elizabeth, Brother Rick and I drove over to Ohio State University to meet with Bro Cope (veteran campus preacher who began preaching on campuses in 1977). We arrived on campus around 11:40 AM before Bro Cope arrived. Brother Rick had preached here several hours the day before. He invited me to begin the preaching.
I began preaching around 11:50 AM and almost immediately gathered a few listeners. Soon a small group of 20-25 began to gather, listen and ask questions. There were a few drops of rain falling here and there when I began preaching. I preached just over one hour and the rain was starting to come down a little more than when I began. I turned the preaching over to Bro Cope around 12:55 PM.
RAINED OUT
He preached for some time and after around 30 minutes it began to rain harder and many in the crowd dispersed. By 2:00 PM it was raining hard enough to rain us out of preaching as almost all but a few students had left.
We left the campus around 2:00 PM in the rain.
That evening I preached in the church where we were staying for over one hour from Judges 2:6-13 on “A Gospel of Power”.
Thursday May 7, 2009-Ohio State University-Columbus, Ohio: It was forecast to rain again today and was very overcast in the morning. I wanted to try to preach at Athens today but because of the weather situation I decided against it. Brother Rick had to head home the night before and would be arriving back between 12:00 noon and 1:00 PM. We decided to wait for him and drive together to preach at Ohio State University.
Another reason, we decided upon Ohio State University was Bro Cope had been invited by the chair person of the Students for Free Thought organization to their 7:00 PM meeting on campus. Most of these students are atheists.
Brother Rick, Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around 1:30 PM. Bro Cope was there preaching but had not been able to get much going. The sun had just started coming out as we arrived.
Bro Cope preached until around 1:45 PM and then turned the preaching over to Brother Rick. Brother Rick changed locations and soon gathered a handful of listeners. The group slowly grew to around 15-20. After an hour he called on me to preach but I deferred to Bro Cope.
Bro Cope preached from 2:45 PM until around 3:35 PM and turned the crowd of 20-25 over to me.
Brother Rick and Bro Cope both had times of civil question and answer teaching sessions.
I began preaching around 3:35 PM and some left at first but gradually the crowd grew to around 30-35. I preached until 4:40 PM and then called on Sister Elizabeth to preach.
She preached to the crowd of 25-30 until around 5:40 PM.
INVADING THE STUDENTS FOR FREE THOUGHT MEETING
We then all walked across the street to eat something and then headed to the Students for Free Thought meeting. We do not know why they call themselves by this name as Brother Rick observed that all of them think the same way. We had some good discussion and interaction with them and they seemed to genuinely appreciate us coming. Most of these students are atheists, agnostics, anti-Christ or skeptics.
We left the campus around 9:45 PM.
Friday May 8, 2009-Otterbein College-Columbus, Ohio: I wanted to try to preach today at Ohio University down in Athens but the forecast was predicting rain again. We decided to head over to Otterbein College and preach there since it was in Columbus and if we got rained out it would not be as big of a deal as making a long trip.
FROM OPPOSER TO SUPPORTER
It was overcast and drizzling some on the way over. Sister Elizabeth, Brother Rick, and I arrived on campus around 11:55 AM. Brother Rick began preaching around noon and soon gathered a crowd of 20-25. He had a good atheist heckler at one point but a female student who firmly opposed us last year but this year seemed supportive and appreciative walked up to him and told him how stupid he looked. This seemed to zap the hecklers zeal and he left soon after. Brother Rick turned the preaching over to Bro Cope around 12:50 PM.
Bro Cope preached from 12:50 PM to around 1:30 PM to a crowd of 25-30. The crowd had been standing further back than the nearby steps in front of us but near the end of Bro’s preaching session several of the students came up and sat down on the steps in front of the preaching spot. The students had also not been interacting with the preachers much up to this time but now began to ask a few more questions. I believed now the atmosphere was right for a good day of preaching.
Bro turned the preaching over to me around 1:30 PM. Due to the groundwork laid by the other preachers it was relatively easy to build the crowd up some, get the students interacting more, and get them sitting up close to the preaching spot on the steps in front of us. The crowd grew to around 50-60. I preached until around 2:35 PM and turned the preaching over to Sister Elizabeth.
Sister Elizabeth preached to the crowd of 50-60 until around 3:25 PM and then turned the preaching over to Brother Rick.
GOD DEALS WITH FOOTBALL COACH TO GIVE TESTIMONY
Brother Rick preached from 3:25 PM to 4:05 PM to the crowd of 50-60. Around 4:05 PM a coach from the Otterbein football team asked to talk to me on the side. With tears in his eyes he told me something to the effect of “I feel so called of God to tell the students my testimony of how the Lord saved me but I am scared to death. I am trusting that God will give me the right words to say.”
We have to be careful for phonies and people who would like to get up and contradict everything we are preaching, etc. but I believed this man was genuine. I had a peace about him and a good witness in my spirit. I walked over and told Brother Rick.
From this time on the crowd began to gradually thin out. Brother Rick preached until around 4:25 PM. The coach then walked up to the remaining 15-20 students and though obviously nervous but very sincerely gave a short testimony. The students listened intently and applauded him as he walked away.
Bro Cope closed the day’s preaching with a few concluding remarks to the students around 4:30 PM.
While Brother Rick was preaching the last session of the day Bro Cope, Sister Elizabeth and I all seemed to have very productive conversations on the sidelines. I had a great discussion with a male homosexual who seemed to be seeking deliverance but seemed to have bought into the lie he was born that way.
From 4:30 PM to 5:00 PM we had a good discussion with a young man who was raised in a strict fundamentalist Baptist background.