Exploring the Scene at Mill Ave. in Tempe

In Hind Sight

Oh, how I wish now that I would have had more presence of mind to ask my son Isaac (11) to turn on the video camera last night.

Isaac and I went down to Mill Avenue in Tempe for a late night witnessing opportunity and to scope out the scene for our planned fishing spot for the upcoming Way of the Master Crash Course that we will be offering at our church in Black Canyon City, Arizona. Oct. 18th & 25th 2008.

Mill Ave. is quite a drive for us, a 130 mile round trip, but it was worth it.

We met a handful of other street evangelists there, and got the lay of the land so to speak before heading out on our own to see what people God had planned for us to talk to. I won't bore you with the parking details, other than to say that it took us almost an hour to find a place to park and walk to the spot on Mill where our friends were set up with a table and tracts and Bibles. Our friends were handing out free water bottles with tracts as labels.

The Divine Appointments

Isaac and I first met a young man standing in front of a the Greek restaurant. I handed him a tract and asked him what he thought would happen after he dies. He wasn't really sure and said that he had a Catholic background. I was able to take him through the Law and the Gospel before we had to let him go.

We then had an interesting conversation with a muslim man. I think he told me he was 26 years old and he was with a young catholic girl. After telling me about Islam, and how it is a religion of peace I launched into the Law, and had him agreeing that there is none that is good including him, but I think now looking back that he was still self-righteous. I have to admit that speaking with him was the most difficult conversation of the night as I found it hard to keep coming back to the Law... he kept wanting to talk about the positive aspects of Islam (in his mind) and to show the things that Judaism and Christianity and Islam all have in common. We left him and he thanked us and promised me that although he did not own a Bible, that he would purchase one and read it from cover to cover. I hope he is a man of his word.

We then spoke with some pierced, lustful young college men, and a homeless guy asking for money, before the best part of the evening for me happened.

The Best Part

After walking a couple of blocks down to the big corner where the atheists were hashing it out with the street preachers microphones and amps and all, we were sort of listening to the banter, and handing out tracts to people as they would pass by.

Two middle ages ladies nicely dressed with roses cradled in their arms were about to pass us by, when I offered each of them a Million Dollar Bill tract. They stopped and were inquisitive as I explained that they were actually Gospel tracts, and that there was a million dollar question on the back. After finding out a little about each of them and what they thought about the afterlife, I was able to share with Angel and Christina the entire Law and Gospel for about 30-40 minutes.

While Angel was attentive through the whole conversation, it was Christina who was really visibly hit by the Word of God. She was on more than one occasion almost brought to tears. Both women have families and children and the analogies of giving up children to save others whether righteous or not really hit home... (hurt her heart) ... as Christina explained it.

As we wish would happen in every witnessing encounter, but sadly happens all too infrequently, Christina was really hit with the reality of her destiny and the inevitable fact that she was not right with God and would spend eternity in Hell if she were to die in that condition. She also saw and explained the bitterness that had taken root in her heart as a result of someone in her life mistreating her, and how it was keeping her up at night and her husband was noticing how it was affecting her visibly. She clearly wanted to be rid of the admitted hatred, but was honest in saying that it was consuming her.

I shared with her the Gospel and she seemed so grateful, and relieved to know that there was good news. How I wish everyone I had spoken with last night had had that reaction.

Anyway, to keep this short, she was repentant, and really wanted to find a church near her that she could go to. I gave her our church number and encouraged her to call me on Monday so I could get her hooked up with a good church near her.

Glory to The King

Thank you Jesus, for answering my prayer for bringing Christina and Angel who were 2 souls who were open to the gospel and ripe for the harvest, and thank you for allowing me to serve you my God and my King!

Be encouraged saints, our great God reigns.