Two Weekends

I apologize for not posting this earlier. My access to the Internet is limited until the 20th.

On Saturday, the 8th, Mike and I headed up to Auburn, picking David up on the way, for the "Good Ol' Days" Grand Parade, in downtown Auburn. It was a pretty small parade, but the three of us still handed out about 1,000 Darwin Millions.

The sign-guys were out in force as well. We kept our distance for the most part. One tried to hand a tract to David, saying, "Evolution is a theorytale for grown-ups", to which Dave replied, "I agree!", and handed him a Darwin Million. Mike felt led to try and reason with them about the unreasonableness of their message, (especially their signs). They wouldn't hear it.

After dropping Dave off to help out with a family event, it was still pretty early in the day, so Mike and I decided to head up to Kent Station for a while. We got there at 4:00, but we didn't leave the car until 5:00. We prayed, and sought the scriptures for an hour before heading out. The effect was amazing!

We ended up staying until after 11:00 that night. During that time, we passed out tracts and preached. Had many people come up and ask us questions. I participated in Project Ezra, reading Revelation 19-21, and using it as a springboard for the gospel.

A man came up to Mike and I asking about homosexuality, and whether the Bible condemns it as a sin or not. He turned out to be a professing Catholic. However, he was very receptive. Mike took him through the Law, and the Gospel. He was visibly convicted, and thanked us for taking the time to talk with him.

Once, when Mike was preaching, a young lady came up and stood a few feet away from him for a few moments before launching into a string of expletives. Her mother came over to try and convince her to let it go, but Mike's preaching ended up touching a nerve with her as well, and soon they were both shouting at him. Some of what the girl was saying had "Christian" overtones, so Mike asked her point blank if she professed Christianity. She forcefully responded, "No!" and her mother added, "And it's thanks to people like you that she never will be!"

One of the thing the mother said hit home with me. She insisted that "Jesus never condemned anyone but the religious leaders; he always spoke gently, and kindly." It was clear that her image of Christ was not the same as the Bible. That spurred me on to preach, when Mike was done, about who Jesus really was, and what he really said, quoting directly from the Sermon on the Mount.

On Saturday the 15th, Mike and I went to Seattle. We heard Hempfest was going on down at the waterfront, but we didn't really want to be in the middle of all the action, with such massive crowds and copious amounts of weed being smoked. Instead, we went as close as we dared, where there was a lot of foot-traffic, and passed out tracts to those coming and going.

We found that most people took the tracts from us, but as soon as they found out what they were, many of them simply dropped them on the sidewalk. Usually we have a few people take our tracts, and toss them on the street, but this was just crazy! After a couple hours, Mike and I decided to head to our favorite fishing hole at Westlake Mall.

We walked the whole way; something like 12 blocks. When we arrived, the sheer number of people astounded us. It was a sea of people! To top it off, there was a concert event in the park across the street. "Street Praise"... No doubt it was some church's idea of outreach. Although it may have been motivated by good intentions, it failed to present ANY coherent gospel, and was marked by theologically bankrupt songs. In the end, it only succeeded in making it difficult to hear our preaching.

Nonetheless, we preached until 6:00, and passed out as many tracts as we could. Not as many people took them as did down near Hempfest, but I also didn't see a single tract discarded on the sidewalk. I pray that God used us to reach souls.

Looking forward to heading up to the Tacoma Mall this Wednesday, and keeping up with the news a little better as well.