Rookie On the Box!

Today was my weekly trip to Lakewood Park for some open-air preaching. I was sooo blessed to have a team of two others from church come and join me today! I know there are many in churches where they get no support and nobody to go witnessing with them. I praise God for faithful laborers who stand beside me.

It was a beautiful sunny day and there were a few more people there today than what we had last week. We set up "shop" right in the middle of the park, as we have before. The thought was, stay in the middle, and try and reach both sides of the park at once. That isn't going to work - especially when city workers are there mowing the lawn as they were today! Maybe next week we will set up on one end of the park, preach, then do the same on the other side of the park.

Nevertheless, I got up and tried to give away Beanie Babies (which were graciously donated to the "cause") using trivia, but merely got blank looks from those passing by. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, I just launched into preaching, using the recent news of the sad deaths of three celebrities as my "springboard." After I preached for a bit, my friend Mark (who was with me) got up and read all of Matthew 5. This was his very first time up on the box! Praise God! When he was done, I got up and said a few more things before closing. I would say at least 20-30 in total could hear the preaching and reading of the Word.

While we were doing this, the third member of our team - our lady soldier - had gone over to the playground area, which was beyond the sound of our voices. She handed out 15-20 tracts over there. Praise God for this faithful foot soldier!!

As we were packing up out stuff, a mother with two boys came over asking for the Obama dollars because "everyone over there was talking about them" - praise God! I started to try and engage the mother in a conversation, but she started walking away. I should have just come out and asked her for a few minutes to talk more. Well, I guess there will always be learning times of what I should have done! We also gave a couple tracts to a family passing by, but they weren't up for talking.

I know we need to be patient, as this type of activity is very foreign to people around here. But we will faithfully go each Friday, unless there is something else going on, to preach to as many as we can before the snow comes in November (December would work for me, though - or January, etc....!).

Each time I go out, I do a little more than the previous time. But each time I got out, I leave thinking of about 10 different things I should have done differently or ways I should have been more persistent in a conversation. I guess that's part of the learning process. In the area of open-air preaching, I still feel like a baby learning how to walk. But one step at a time - for the glory of God!