Post by Messenger Micah on Aug 14, 2005 19:22:16 GMT -5
Saturday July 30-South Beach: My wife Elizabeth, Doug, John and his wife Onica, Emmanuel and myself headed out to South Beach with the rain pouring down. We prayed for the rain to stop and as we arrived it stopped. We set up the banners and began moving down the Beach toward 5th street.
As we walked down toward the strip bar called Teasers, Elizabeth, Onica and Doug began witnessing to a group of three African American girls who had come from the beach. I had moved down ahead of the group but I could hear one of the girls screaming and yelling at Elizabeth and Doug. Emmanuel, John, and myself had already begun to stand with banners in front of Teasers when Elizabeth, Onica, Doug, and the 3 girls they were witnessing to came to where we were. People were gathering to read the banners and we were not preaching but engaging them in conversation across the street. Some people had come out from the balconies of the 3rd and last floors to engage us, tell us not to judge, Jesus is love, etc.
I made a comment to the girl who was doing all the screaming and she went off on me. She was cursing, dressed provocatively, and claiming to be a Christian. The woman was so enraged; Elizabeth said she thought the woman would hit me. I kept telling her what the Word of God said. The crowd increased to about 40 people standing around watching and listening. We did not ?preach? at this spot because we have had so many warnings recently from the police saying we are disturbing the peace, interfering with businesses, and our voices cannot exceed 100 feet (yards?), etc. We did engage the audience in conversation, show them the banners, and proclaim (preach) some scriptures to them. I had some good dialogue with the people who came out from their rooms to the balconies on the 3rd and last floors. (The next day at church one of the musicians from the Spanish church told us he saw us on South Beach and we did a good job. He works as a valet at the hotel next to Teasers.)
We moved down the Beach toward the front of Wet Willie?s and stood with the banners. I rebuked the bar with a few scriptures and we moved down. We continued moving down the beach, and stood in front of all the large bars on Ocean Drive such as Mango?s and the Clevelander.
We moved down to the Lummus Park sign and each took a turn preaching. I finished by preaching for an hour and we headed home at about 9:45 PM. Leaving the area we passed by the bars, strip clubs, and hotels. I was rebuking and preaching on the bullhorn. We were passing by a club with a large group of African Americans outside, and as I was preaching I heard a woman yell, ?Hey, you remember me?!? It was the same woman who was cursing me in front of Teasers.
Thursday August 4-Goldfinger South: Brother Emmanuel went to preach in front of the strip bar Goldfinger South by himself at 7:15 PM. I received a phone call from him about 9:00 PM asking me to give him a ride home.
He was very stirred about the evening. He told me 3 girls and a guy came out and one of the girls made a comment to him. He rebuked them and they became angry. They got in a truck and sped out in the dirt and rocks, trying to hit him with the rocks. The dirt and rocks ruined his book bag but he was not hurt at all.
A great thing about preaching at Goldfinger is it is located on the busiest street in Miami (US 1).
Saturday August 6-Psychic fair at Coral Castle: This was our first outreach to the psychic fair. Elizabeth, John and Onica, and my friend Richard joined me. Richard had joined me when I first began preaching open air but had never preached open air himself. We arrived around 12 noon and set up the banners on the sidewalk of US 1 right outside of the Coral Castle. There was only a fence separating us from the ?psychics?. Richard started off the preaching (his first open air). We started without the bullhorn, but soon began using our small bullhorn. Everyone took turns preaching except myself until about 1:20 PM. Much of this time I was holding a banner and having a good conversation with a young African American guy who was walking by.
I began preaching around 1:20 PM and the police were called around 1:30 PM (we were told). The employees of the fair came out to take pictures of me and shortly after this, the police showed up. I continued preaching while the police looked on. They did not stop me. I never spoke to the policeman except when we were leaving to say goodbye and to thank him. I was told the ?psychics? complained they could not hear the tour guide inside. I stopped preaching at 2:00 PM because we wanted to get to South Beach.
South Beach: Joining me were Elizabeth, Doug, John and Onica, and Emmanuel. We parked near Wet Willie?s and set up the banners. We went to the coral wall directly across from Wet Willie?s and Doug preached. The wall is probably about 40 yards from the sidewalk, so it is far enough away from the bar where the police cannot say we are disturbing the peace or interfering with business. Before 7 PM there are usually good crowds of people around the wall coming back from the beach, or just hanging out.
We then moved closer to the street to a tree stump and a bunch of bikers were hanging around by the sidewalk. I thought this was a good spot to preach, as it was far enough away from the bar, yet close enough where there were still a lot of hearers. Emmanuel preached here while Doug and I held the banners.
The group moved down to Teasers and were holding up the banners and rebuking the patrons when I noticed there were about 40 to 50 people around the coral wall behind us. I suggested we go there and preach. I got up on the wall and started preaching. The hecklers came out right away; arrogant college evolutionists, drunken, cigarette smoking professing Christians, thugs, and verbose females. There was a consistent crowd of about 40 to 50 in the immediate vicinity most of the time, with more around the sidewalk and street. Much of the Word of God was proclaimed there.
We walked toward the opposite end of the beach toward The Clevelander and Lummus Park. As John began to stand on the Lummus Park wall and preach the rain began to come down in buckets.
At our pizza, fellowship, debriefing afterwards, Emmanuel mentioned he wanted to go preach at Goldfinger South after we finished eating. I agreed if the weather permitted.
Goldfinger South: Elizabeth, Emmanuel, and myself went and positioned ourselves on US 1 across from the strip bar Goldfinger South and preached there for about an hour with the small bullhorn (10:45 to 11:45 PM). We saw people pull up in their cars, hear the preaching, and turn around and go home.
During Elizabeth?s preaching the bouncers went inside to get others to come out and listen