Dear fellow prayer partners and evangelists, 03-12-2008
Wow that was quite a weekend! Thank you for your prayers!
(David’s update)
Can God soften cold hard sinful hearts? Can God alter their well planned parties? Yes! For a start, God provided a hard cold rain to thin out the rebels Friday afternoon. That allowed us to warm up Friday with smaller crowds. I have to admit that it was hard to find conversations about the Lord in Daytona Beach for Bike Week, but God allowed each of us to have several conversations.
Praise the Lord for Sean Kelsey and Bart, the Missionary, they are such bold preachers. Saturday was cold and windy and we walked along street, witnessing to those we met. Then we set up on the corner of Atlantic and Main with the speaker loud enough to reach all four corners. And again we got into interesting conversations with these who wanted to share their thought about the preaching. Steven and Paul also shared some Bible verses with those passing by. Around sunset a group came by with a sign about Aliens. They translate that God’s name Elohim refers to space aliens. At the same time, the Bible Baptist group came around holding up valuable signs explaining the gospel and Bart was pointing to their signs and reading them out loud. That was fun! That gave me a chance to hang around with one of their leaders, Stephen, and learn a few fishing techniques from them and passing out tracts.
The best part was later, when Sean and Bart carried the speaker down Main Street. The crowds are just sheep; they didn’t have anything important to do. Some were taking pictures of motorcycles, while most people were just standing around or eating and drinking. God used our team to give them something interesting to think about. When Sean preached he asked people to raise their hand if they ever told a lie or stole anything…and I was surprised to see how many responses he got, we had a large audience. One clever listener across the street picked up a traffic cone several times as a megaphone and offered a brief and humorous confession. Each time Sean closed his message with an invitation to talk with one of these pastors and several people did come over for a brief conversation. A few times during the message, several motorcycles realized we were preaching and their response was to rev up their engines, and that drew a few laughs and applause.
In our travels down Main Street we came across more blessed street preachers. Some of them were carrying big signs with the gospel message and others had a speaker system. We had great fellowship as we shared experiences.
This has already been a fun and blessed year and we thank each of you, our brethren, for your part.
(Paul’s update)
I drove over to Daytona with Bart and Sean in Sean's convertible. We arrived around 2:30 PM.
The funniest opportunity to preach was right after Sean, Bart, and I arrived in Daytona and parked on the fourth level of the parking garage. When we went over to the side wall of the fourth level we found ourselves overlooking the Daytona Lagoon, a water theme park, that had been turned into "The Rat's Hole", a hangout spot for bikers and loud music. We set our amplifier on the wall overlooking "The Rat's Hole", and Sean gave a brief greeting to the crowd to see if they could hear us. The funny thing was that after Sean gave his greeting, they turned down the music a bunch for us, not knowing who was trying to speak. A minute later, Sean greeted the crowd a second time and introduced ourselves. Then they turned off the music completely, and Bart preached to them for a few minutes. I was surprised that our amplifier was able to carry such volume, and the people down below were really surprised and it took them a few minutes to figure out where the preaching was coming from. Sean and I were kind of hiding back and laughing. It was a little unusual, I must agree, but it was quite funny and it appeared to be very effective! We went from there down to the boardwalk along the beach.
The most outstanding conversation of the day was with Brandon, who was probably in his mid-thirties. He told Bart and I that he grew up in Church of Christ, and that his brothers and uncle and dad and grandpa were pastors and evangelists and deacons. So he kept telling us that he already knew everything that we were telling him. He pretty much left with that thought after a few minutes. But then he came back a few minutes later and said that he did appreciate what we were doing, which gave us another chance to talk to him. This time we really challenged him on why he is playing with his life this way, when he knows he is away from God. We could tell that he was feeling convicted but still wasn't deciding to do anything about it. So to end the conversation, I read him I John 1:5-9, which he tried to interrupt saying he had already heard, but I insisted on it, so he allowed me to read it to him. With that we left him to do some thinking, and I trust that God can get his attention.
After that we talked with four bikers for probably ten minutes and got to share a lot of truths with them that seemed to be causing them to think. They were just about to get on their bikes and leave, so one guy already had a strange mask on that covered his face and small goggles. He took them off after a couple of minutes so we could talk to him. One of them went to church regularly and apparently had been trying to get his friends to come. They took into great consideration our warnings to repent and draw near to God, and they were all listening intently and responding positively to our message. I trust that they will not just give head-service, but that they will carry on to do something about what they heard.
After we tried a few more conversations, Bart was ready to go to the streets and preach. So we went to the corner of Main Street and Atlantic Avenue and set up our amplifier. Then while Bart started preaching, Sean and I traveled slowly around the four corners of that intersection to see if they could hear us above the roar of motorcycles and to see the reaction of the crowd. It was audible above the motorcycles, and there were a lot of people listening in to hear him preach. Someone commented that they were surprised that they could hear Bart above all of the noise. When we got back over to Bart's corner, another man came over to tell me to let Bart know that the people were hearing us. For the next little while, I just stood near Bart and listened intently to the preaching to set an example for the crowd to follow, which many of them did! I also interacted with a number of people when they had something to say. It was very interesting! After about an hour and a half, I went across Main Street to join James and Carrie from the Bible Baptist team that we know from Downtown Orlando on Saturday nights! I spent a while talking with James and then began handing out my "What if... I'm pretending" tracts. They were well received; probably about two-thirds of the people that I offered them to accepted them.
The most unique story from my night was with three young ladies on my corner who were sarcastically criticizing Bart's preaching. I went beside them and handed them the "What if... I'm pretending" tracts, which they accepted. And then this was one of their reactions, which I could overhear as I continued handing them out nearby: "O great, as if we weren't feeling convicted enough by the preaching, then some guy comes up to us and hands us some thing that says 'what if I'm pretending'. It's like, do you think God might be trying to tell us something." I didn't feel comfortable trying to start up a conversation with them, since I didn't have anyone who would join me, but I figured God would keep communicating His message to them somehow. I spent the rest of the night shivering from the cold (apparently it got into the forties or low fifties and the wind was piercing) and watching the crowd mostly. I also spent a bunch of time with our friends from Bible Baptist before they left and one other group of believers who were down there later that night preaching and talking with people. We got home around 2AM that night with a lot of stories, a lot of seeds planted, a lot of hearts convicted of sin, and very likely a few souls won into the kingdom of God after the Holy Spirit spends some time working that seed into their hearts! It was an outstanding night in preaching the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven!
Your friends and fellow laborers in the harvest,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul
Wow that was quite a weekend! Thank you for your prayers!
(David’s update)
Can God soften cold hard sinful hearts? Can God alter their well planned parties? Yes! For a start, God provided a hard cold rain to thin out the rebels Friday afternoon. That allowed us to warm up Friday with smaller crowds. I have to admit that it was hard to find conversations about the Lord in Daytona Beach for Bike Week, but God allowed each of us to have several conversations.
Praise the Lord for Sean Kelsey and Bart, the Missionary, they are such bold preachers. Saturday was cold and windy and we walked along street, witnessing to those we met. Then we set up on the corner of Atlantic and Main with the speaker loud enough to reach all four corners. And again we got into interesting conversations with these who wanted to share their thought about the preaching. Steven and Paul also shared some Bible verses with those passing by. Around sunset a group came by with a sign about Aliens. They translate that God’s name Elohim refers to space aliens. At the same time, the Bible Baptist group came around holding up valuable signs explaining the gospel and Bart was pointing to their signs and reading them out loud. That was fun! That gave me a chance to hang around with one of their leaders, Stephen, and learn a few fishing techniques from them and passing out tracts.
The best part was later, when Sean and Bart carried the speaker down Main Street. The crowds are just sheep; they didn’t have anything important to do. Some were taking pictures of motorcycles, while most people were just standing around or eating and drinking. God used our team to give them something interesting to think about. When Sean preached he asked people to raise their hand if they ever told a lie or stole anything…and I was surprised to see how many responses he got, we had a large audience. One clever listener across the street picked up a traffic cone several times as a megaphone and offered a brief and humorous confession. Each time Sean closed his message with an invitation to talk with one of these pastors and several people did come over for a brief conversation. A few times during the message, several motorcycles realized we were preaching and their response was to rev up their engines, and that drew a few laughs and applause.
In our travels down Main Street we came across more blessed street preachers. Some of them were carrying big signs with the gospel message and others had a speaker system. We had great fellowship as we shared experiences.
This has already been a fun and blessed year and we thank each of you, our brethren, for your part.
(Paul’s update)
I drove over to Daytona with Bart and Sean in Sean's convertible. We arrived around 2:30 PM.
The funniest opportunity to preach was right after Sean, Bart, and I arrived in Daytona and parked on the fourth level of the parking garage. When we went over to the side wall of the fourth level we found ourselves overlooking the Daytona Lagoon, a water theme park, that had been turned into "The Rat's Hole", a hangout spot for bikers and loud music. We set our amplifier on the wall overlooking "The Rat's Hole", and Sean gave a brief greeting to the crowd to see if they could hear us. The funny thing was that after Sean gave his greeting, they turned down the music a bunch for us, not knowing who was trying to speak. A minute later, Sean greeted the crowd a second time and introduced ourselves. Then they turned off the music completely, and Bart preached to them for a few minutes. I was surprised that our amplifier was able to carry such volume, and the people down below were really surprised and it took them a few minutes to figure out where the preaching was coming from. Sean and I were kind of hiding back and laughing. It was a little unusual, I must agree, but it was quite funny and it appeared to be very effective! We went from there down to the boardwalk along the beach.
The most outstanding conversation of the day was with Brandon, who was probably in his mid-thirties. He told Bart and I that he grew up in Church of Christ, and that his brothers and uncle and dad and grandpa were pastors and evangelists and deacons. So he kept telling us that he already knew everything that we were telling him. He pretty much left with that thought after a few minutes. But then he came back a few minutes later and said that he did appreciate what we were doing, which gave us another chance to talk to him. This time we really challenged him on why he is playing with his life this way, when he knows he is away from God. We could tell that he was feeling convicted but still wasn't deciding to do anything about it. So to end the conversation, I read him I John 1:5-9, which he tried to interrupt saying he had already heard, but I insisted on it, so he allowed me to read it to him. With that we left him to do some thinking, and I trust that God can get his attention.
After that we talked with four bikers for probably ten minutes and got to share a lot of truths with them that seemed to be causing them to think. They were just about to get on their bikes and leave, so one guy already had a strange mask on that covered his face and small goggles. He took them off after a couple of minutes so we could talk to him. One of them went to church regularly and apparently had been trying to get his friends to come. They took into great consideration our warnings to repent and draw near to God, and they were all listening intently and responding positively to our message. I trust that they will not just give head-service, but that they will carry on to do something about what they heard.
After we tried a few more conversations, Bart was ready to go to the streets and preach. So we went to the corner of Main Street and Atlantic Avenue and set up our amplifier. Then while Bart started preaching, Sean and I traveled slowly around the four corners of that intersection to see if they could hear us above the roar of motorcycles and to see the reaction of the crowd. It was audible above the motorcycles, and there were a lot of people listening in to hear him preach. Someone commented that they were surprised that they could hear Bart above all of the noise. When we got back over to Bart's corner, another man came over to tell me to let Bart know that the people were hearing us. For the next little while, I just stood near Bart and listened intently to the preaching to set an example for the crowd to follow, which many of them did! I also interacted with a number of people when they had something to say. It was very interesting! After about an hour and a half, I went across Main Street to join James and Carrie from the Bible Baptist team that we know from Downtown Orlando on Saturday nights! I spent a while talking with James and then began handing out my "What if... I'm pretending" tracts. They were well received; probably about two-thirds of the people that I offered them to accepted them.
The most unique story from my night was with three young ladies on my corner who were sarcastically criticizing Bart's preaching. I went beside them and handed them the "What if... I'm pretending" tracts, which they accepted. And then this was one of their reactions, which I could overhear as I continued handing them out nearby: "O great, as if we weren't feeling convicted enough by the preaching, then some guy comes up to us and hands us some thing that says 'what if I'm pretending'. It's like, do you think God might be trying to tell us something." I didn't feel comfortable trying to start up a conversation with them, since I didn't have anyone who would join me, but I figured God would keep communicating His message to them somehow. I spent the rest of the night shivering from the cold (apparently it got into the forties or low fifties and the wind was piercing) and watching the crowd mostly. I also spent a bunch of time with our friends from Bible Baptist before they left and one other group of believers who were down there later that night preaching and talking with people. We got home around 2AM that night with a lot of stories, a lot of seeds planted, a lot of hearts convicted of sin, and very likely a few souls won into the kingdom of God after the Holy Spirit spends some time working that seed into their hearts! It was an outstanding night in preaching the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven!
Your friends and fellow laborers in the harvest,
David, Barbara, Steven and Paul
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