Post by messengermicah on Sept 21, 2009 17:51:49 GMT -5
Wednesday September 16, 2009-University of Maryland-College Park, Maryland: Sister Elizabeth and I packed up the truck to make the drive over to University of Maryland. I was planning on preaching here for a few days and we were going to try to stay overnight near the University if possible.
It was very overcast all morning and the forecast said it was supposed to rain. It took about two hours of driving with a little bit of traffic to arrive on the University around noon. By the time we parked and began heading to the student union it was around 12:30 PM and still overcast.
I had heard from others who had preached here in the past that this university requires you to sign in before preaching then you are allowed to preach the same day. The lady I signed up with was very helpful and nice. She informed me I would not be able to use the area on Friday (September 18) as it was already reserved the entire day by other groups.
WHAT’S OBAMA GOT TO DO WITH IT?
I had also heard President Obama was supposed to make an appearance and a speech at this school on Thursday (September 17). I was asked in the office if I was here because President Obama was coming. I told them I was here to preach the Bible and not talk about Obama although his name comes up from time to time as well as many other issues during a day of Bible preaching on an American University Campuses.
I asked why that mattered. I was then told if I was there because of Obama then I needed police clearance to speak. By the time I got my permit for Wednesday and Thursday (September 16-17) and found the free speech amphitheater it was around 1:25 PM.
By now the weather had cleared up some and around 15-25 students were already sitting around the amphitheater area. I put on my sandwich board and began preaching around 1:30 PM.
The crowd grew fairly quickly and steadily to around 175-225 and remained that way all afternoon long. I thoroughly enjoyed my time of preaching here as for the most part the crowd sat in the amphitheater area, asked good questions and seemed to listen fairly well to my answers although as a whole they did not like the answers.
ROWDY CROWD MORE PLAYFUL THAN MEAN
The crowd became fairly rowdy at times and I had lots of hecklers but through all of this the crowd remained somewhat civil. Many of the hecklers were somewhat reasonable and the rowdy crowd was more on the playful side than the mean side.
The crowd had a good number of atheists, homosexuals, professing “christianettes” hypocrites who claim to love God but sin all the time also, feminists, communists, as well as the usual drunkards, fornicators, and pot smokers found on the college campuses of America. As usual all these united against the Bible preacher and each had their own questions and objections that were shot down by the Sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17) and the Hammer of Truth (Jeremiah 23:29).
I preached until around 3:30 PM and stopped with a crowd of around 200 or more. I then walked over and took a seat as many in the crowd left but many also came and crowded around me to ask questions.
MAN’S IDEAS CARRY MORE WEIGHT THAN BIBLE
Although most did not like my answers most of the students seemed to at least be somewhat reasonable and listen. All of their excuses to keep living in sin and all of their objections to not submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ were thoroughly refuted by the Bible. Unfortunately, here as most other places most students have been so indoctrinated by unbiblical ideas such as “you will always be a sinner even though you are saved”, “you can’t stop sinning it is impossible”, “God always forgives as long as you just confess Jesus as your Savior”, etc. that no matter how many scriptures you give them to show them they are believing a lie many still trust in their man made idea instead of the truth of the Bible (Mark 7:13).
DEBATE WITH RELIGIOUS LEADER
One student really wanted to set up a debate between myself and someone who was a supposed religious leader (such as a pastor, priest, rabbi, etc) and wanted to know when I was returning. I told him I was returning tomorrow. He told me I should not return tomorrow because it was supposed to rain all day and President Barack Obama was going to be on campus for most of the day. The traffic would be jammed for hours before President Obama’s appearance.
As I prepared to depart around 4:15 PM, a black male student who I noticed listening intently in the crowd during the day told the remaining listeners that what I was telling them was true and I was right. This seemed to drive the conviction deeper into the hearts of the students as no one seemed to try to oppose him.
Sister Elizabeth and I hurried back to where we parked as our parking permit would expire around 4:25 PM.
I had not previously considered the traffic situation on the way to the university the following day. With the USA President making an appearance in the D.C. area traffic was sure to be very slow. I had found no place to spend the night in the area and it was supposed to rain the next day anyway. With all this in mind Sister Elizabeth and made the almost two hour drive back to where we were lodging. We plan on preaching here again in the near future.