Wow... talk about a good evening to preach!  I commented to Jim and Rodney last night that next to salvation, there is no greater "high" in my life than having the privilege of preaching the word of God to the masses.  It doesn't matter if I get spit on, threatened, screamed at, heckled, jeered, laughed at or "amened"... when the Holy Spirit begins to work through you, it's AWESOME!  I can honestly say that I can't think of a better way of dying than preaching the gospel to the lost... what a way to go...

We started the evening around 6pm-ish.  The Reds had just won their game and about 40K people were making their way to wherever they were going.  Mass crowds = mass opportunity to preach.  We went over to a bridge that the majority of fans were crossing to get to their cars.  On the bridge was a pillar about 2 feet high... a perfect platform to preach from!  So, Jim and Rodney began handing out 100's of tracts and I hopped up on my build-in, cement soapbox and began proclaiming the gospel to the crowd's surprise.  I was able to preach continually for about 15-20 minutes to crowds of people... wall-to-wall people.  15-20K people walked right up to the first Church of the pavement.  Some mocked, some listened, and some thanked me.  Praise God!

After that we made our way to the Blues Festival.  The crowd was sporadic but we found a place to hand out more tracts.  As the people walked by in crowds of 15-20, I preached the message of the gospel to them.  This lasted for about an hour.  We took a break until 10:30pm... we learned that the crowds were to let out at around 11pm.  So, we went back to the bridges and fired up the haler.  By 11:15pm we had consistent crowds of 100's walking past us until 1am.  We tag-team-preached until the end.  Approximately 10-15K people heard the Word of God preached last night. 

An interesting note was that allot of people were "amening" us.  It seemed as if the majority of these people were Christians... or they thought they were.  There is an issue, though.  They way these women were dressed was not modest at all.  How can a born-again Christian dress (or undress) that way?  The music they were listening to was 100% ungodly and worldly.  How can born-again Christians feast on worldly, fleshly music?  There is something horribly wrong with this.  James tells us that friendship with the world is enmity with God and that whosoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of God.  God help the American churches... they are lukewarm at best....  :(     

We headed to Columbus for one of the nations largest 4th of July festivals.  I have never been to one of these but Jim and Rodney experienced the "boom" 15 years ago (or so).  It turned out to be a great place to preach the gospel!

When we arrived at the event, we walked around handing out tracts and sharing one on one.  We found a woman that claimed to be a witch that taught us that there are many ways to God.  Since the Jesus proclaimed to be the only way to heaven and since Jesus is neither a lunatic nor liar, we quickly admonished her in a more excellent way.  She stated that the Christian God is too narrow and shewed us away.  God is narrow-minded and judgmental and some day, if she doesn't repent and believe, she will find that out the hard way.

To our pleasure, we found a street preacher preaching on a corner using a bull-horn.  Having never been to Columbus outreach, I was wondering how the police would respond to us preaching in public.  It turns out that this brother had been preaching on Columbus streets for nearly 30 years and had paved the way for street preachers in that town.  Praise God! 

When the brother was finished preaching, we fired up the haler and began tag-team preaching for about 2 hours.  We got a pretty quiet response except for one guy in particular.  He came up to us and screamed that we should be healing people like Jesus did.  The Bible teaches us that God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save them which believe.  The biggest healing anyone can find is the healing of a lost sinner's soul.  I think this guy was under conviction and wanted to shut us up.... but it didn't work.  :)

Once the fireworks began, we shut down the haler and geared up for the mass exodus that was about to take place.  After the last firework  exploded, hundreds of thousands of people made there way to their cars.  There were literally over 150 people passing us each second.  We figured that we had the privilege to preach to approximately 150K-200k PEOPLE!  We exhorted the crowds to:

• repent and believe the gospel
• put their faith in action
• stop playing church
  
• consider the brevity of life
• etc, etc, etc

This was a great outreach.  The Word of God was proclaimed to 200K people at least.  Pray that the people that heart the Word would yield to the Holy Spirit's drawing. 

There were two events in the Cincinnati area that we really wanted to target this summer: Mayfest and Taste of Cincinnati.  Due to health conditions of me and Jim, neither of us could do the "Taste."  But that didn't stop us from preaching our hearts out at Mayfest. 

We both parked pretty far from the event partly because we weren't sure where it was and partly to stay out of traffic.  We asked several people for direction and received several different answers.  But, God was faithful and led us to witness to several people on the way out to the event.  One guy that Jim spent quite a bit of time with was Cowboy and his girlfriend.  They both claimed to be saved.  In fact, Girlfriend claimed to be a minister, a Dr. and she claimed to have been the wife of the 3 richest men in Houston, TX.  (????)  As Jim spoke with her more, he was led to ask her if she ever experienced demonic activity and she said, "all the time."  He narrowed it down and asked her if she ever experienced lying spirits and she affirmed that she did, "all the time."  Talk about strange!  Now, as a practice, we don't go out of our way to search out demons behind every bush and tree.  It's rather rare to find someone with this type of demonic activity... but this lady was really 'out-there.' 

While Jim was witnessing to Cowboy and girlfriend, I was able to share with a quiet lady that was sitting on the side of a building.  She used to be a JW and now was nothing.  She obviously was hurt by this cult and was very confused.  I let her know that she still has to answer to God for her sins when she dies and pointed her to the savior.  I later learned that she had grown up in the Nazarene church and I admonished her to seek out a Nazarene church to fellowship in.  

After a while we made our way over to the event where we handed out tracts for about 30-40 minutes.  We were stopped by the police because we didn't have a permit to be a vendor.  Jim argued our case for a little bit (regarding our 1st and 14th amendment rights) but the cop was adamant that we leave the event area and set up camp behind the barricades.  So I asked the officer that if we complied, would we have any problems preaching the gospel over the haler from behind the barricade?  He said that we could "crank it up as loud as we wanted" if we complied.  SO WE DID...

I was up first and began preaching about God's grace... until we were stopped by another officer.  The first officer that gave us permission to be there came over and cleared everything up from that point forward and we had no problems with the law from then on.  In fact, the cops actually protected us from that point forward. 

So, I got back on the mic and preached that just because you call yourself a Christian it doesn't make you one.  I preached for quite some time, calling out sin, calling Covington to repentance, and pointing them to the grace that Christ offered on the cross. 

Jim was next and he preached for about an hour.  His topics ranged from God's mercy and grace to his wrath and judgment.  We both agree to preach the full counsel of God.  While he was preaching, several came up and we were able to minister to people, admonishing them to get right with God.

I had another opportunity to preach after Jim and felt a great liberty to really preach against the milk-toast gospel that is so prevalent in this sin-sodden Cincinnati area.  As I was breaking up the fallow ground, one guy in particular was really heckling me pretty bad (which I consider a blessing).  Hecklers bring crowds so this is a good thing.  He said, "what about abortion?"  I answered, "abortion is WRONG!  It's a sin to murder innocent people.  Shame on you for supporting killing innocent people!"  He then said, "what about homosexuality?"  I responded, "it's a SIN!  God didn't make man to lie with man as with a woman.  It's unnatural.  If all the homosexuals all went to an island to live, they would cease to exist after that generation.  God didn't make it that way."  Another heckler was getter real riled up and was screaming at us that we were RETARDS and STUPID.  That's ok.  If that's the extent of persecution we received at this event, we did pretty good.

I was preaching about God's law, expounding on his holy 10 commandments when 3 business ladies came up and mentioned that they broke God's laws on a regular basis.  I told them to repent and put their faith in Christ.  They asked me if I ever broke God's laws and I had to tell them, "yes, I've broken his laws.  But, I've repented and given my heart to Jesus.  My desire NOW is to walk in righteousness, not drink iniquity like it's water."  Once you are born again, your desires change.  No longer to you make excuses for your sins.  You STOP SINNING and you awake unto righteousness.  No longer do you seek to appease the flesh but you seek to please the Father. 

Another blessed outreach.  It's too bad we couldn't do the Taste of Cincinnati.  My appendix had to be taken out so there was no way I could be there which grieves me.  There is nobody out here doing this in the area of the country.  We are it.  If we don't warn the wicked, who will?  If we don't proclaim the truth in the streets, who will?  God help us!!!      

Wow!  Where do I start?  This was allot like a mini-Mardi Gras.  Where we were at we mostly saw 20-somethings hopped-up on beer.  The lewdness and mockery was overwhelming.  These poor souls need Jesus in their lives in a bad way.  They fill their emptiness with alcohol, drugs, and sex only to find themselves empty again.

One of the first confrontations was from a guy that screamed, "Shut up RETARD!!" every time we attempted to preach.  Since we had a 1/2 mile haler and he didn't, we outlasted him easily.  This guy was sharing with us that there is NO God and that we were retards for preaching.  He will have a rude awakening on judgment day if he doesn't repent and believe.  Some day he will repent and believe... It's going to happen on judgment day or sooner.  That's a guarantee. 

The next guy we encountered was a college student that asked me why my God is better than all the others.  I told him that Jesus is the only one that dealt with sin.  He is the only one that is still alive.  And, all the other gods are false gods.  If I remember correctly, I think I also mentioned that Mohammad was a child molester.  
We had Catholics come up to us in droves.  Apparently they didn't like it when we preached that Mary is not the co-redeemer.  When we mentioned that they must be born again, they thought they already were when they were baptized as an infant.  John 3:3 was expounded and some heard the true gospel presented to them for the first time.

We were appalled when a youth pastor from one of the largest churches in Cincinnati came up to us and was complaining about our preaching.  He asked us how many people we saved.  Our answer.... "0".  We can't save anyone.  That is a work of God, not us.  We warn of judgment and point to the cross.  The Holy Spirit does the rest.  :)  Anyhow, this joker was talking with Bro. Jim and in talking about the Holy Spirit, he said, "f-ing Holy Spirit...." ?????  He used the f-word in reference to the Holy Spirit!  A YOUTH PASTOR???  He then proceeded to tell us that he can live any way he wants to and he is still saved.  We attempted to correct this guy's doctrine using scripture but he wouldn't even look at the Bible.  Jim and I both rebuked this guy openly and let him know that he was a sorry excuse for a minister of the gospel.  I also felt lead to let him know that according to his actions, he was not saved.  Needless to say, he wasn't too happy with the conversation but... the truth hurts sometimes.
   
All in all, this was a fruitful outreach.  We preached to 1000's if not 10's of 1000's.  They have been given the gospel.  They have been warned of judgment day.  There is no excuse for them.  Keep them in prayer as the word of God does it's work. 

dg

If you have never been to a Hillbilly days, its one of the most polite crowds ever.  No alcohol is sold so everyone was pretty much acting like humans.  In that area of the country, the gospel is respected and the preacher is revered so we didn't get much mockery... although we encountered some.  To our surprise, we were the only street-preachers there.  There was a church there handing out free water.  But we were the only ones preaching God's grace and wrath to the masses.  100K + people and we were it...  ?? 

We prayerfully walked through the crowds and settled on a side street to set up the haler.  A couple of cops looked us over but none bothered us.  Perhaps we were left alone because we didn't set up on the main drag. 

What stood out to us right away was the religious spirit that exuded from the crowds.  They had a mouth that drew near God but their hearts were far from him.  Perhaps this Freemason sponsored event was why we were sensing this.  They believe that there are many ways to the same God... if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you in Manhattan. 

We began preaching and it appeared that not much was happening.  People really wouldn't acknowledge us.  We would get an occasional 'amen', but that was about it.  However, God's word does not come back void.  One lady we'll call "Almost" with her boyfriend Gary were struck by the message.  Apparently, Almost used to be a Christian and turned her back on God due to a tragedy in her life.  God used us to really woo her back.  Some of the things we said were confirmed by her when she said, "it's funny you said that, just yesterday I heard that..."... God was dealing with her through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

One kid came up to us as we were preaching and asked us what gave us the right to say the things we were saying.... I guess he meant preach.  I told his we are commanded to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  He was disturbed by the gospel which, the Bible tells us, is a stumbling block to some.

"Nobody's listening - shut the h*ll up" was the response we received from another person while I was preaching.  "That's what we are trying to do... preach the hell out of you."  In fact, unless this poor deceived soul repents and believes the gospel, he is on a collision course with eternal torment.  Keep him in prayer. 

I had a personal "first" during this outreach.  A guy walked by and shared his flatus with us as I was preaching.  Let's face it, virtually every Grandpa (that I know of ) has had his grand-child pull his finger and the grandkids think it's great.  However, to assault a preacher with this vulgarity is mockery at it's worst.  He has no regard for the Word of God nor the preacher. 

All in all, it was a good event.  We'll be back next year.

I found on Friday night that there was going to be a party in Cincinnati Saturday.  It had something to do with a huge goat and beer... so me a Jim were in!  Where there is beer and goats, there has GOT to be sinners in need of a savior!

We cruised by the Bockfest area early and didn't find many partiers so we decided to start the evening at Fountain Square.  The first decent conversation we had was with the parking-lot-attendant-dude (we'll call him Dude).  He was all over the map - Jesus smoked weed, the Bible isn't literal, if you don't believe that he Bible is literal you are on the way to hell...etc.  Dude claimed to be a Christian but his favorite past-times involve lusting after women, smoking refer, and using the Lord's name in vain (we experienced that first hand).  Uh... according to the Bible, this dude is NOT a Christian.  We asked him if he has ever been "born-again" and he responded with a, "WHAT'S THAT?" 

After expounding on John 3 and sharing our testimonies, we left Dude because he had to get back to work.  Pray for this man that God open his eyes and that he sees how lost he really is.

The next guy we had an engaging conversation with was Addict.  Addict helped guide me as I was parallel parking my car and then promptly asked us for money.  Contrary to popular opinion, street preachers usually don't make much money but what we had be gave him... JESUS!  Addict shared with us that he's addicted to crack.  We talked for quite a while on how Jesus can deliver him from that awful drug.  Once again, we shared on being born again.  I told him that asking a sinner to stop sinning is like asking a dog to quit wagging his tail.  A transformation is required... being born again.  We were able to pray with Addict.  Keep him in your prayers.

That pretty much sums up our Bockfest outing.  We went to where the party was and the crowds were all in-doors on private property.  We were hoping to do a little preaching but found ourselves looking for a crowd to preach to.  We could have made moments to preach but we both think that the fear of man got the best of us.  Pray for us that the Holy Spirit anoint us with boldness to proclaim the gospel in the face of sin.

Here is what God gave me last night as I was about to go to bed (regarding fear):

-      Fear is the absence of faith

-          If you don’t believe you can, you can’t

-          If you don’t believe you will, you won’t

-          Perfect faith does anything

-          Perfect fear does nothing

-          Because of fear, potential never germinates into actual

-          Because of faith, actual always germinates from potential

-          Men full of faith harness fear and train it into zeal

-          Men full of fear put to pasture faith and run from it in timidity.

-          The root of fear is selfishness

-          The root of faith is love.

Wow... what can I say?  The videos pretty much sum up our outreach.  We did have an opportunity to do quite a bit of one-on-one witnessing while there.  Our small group managed to pray with 5-6 people to accept Christ as their Lord.  We pray that they earnestly seek the Lord as if their soul depended on it. 

It was interesting that God used each of us to bring forth the full counsel of God.  One brother would preach on God's wrath and another would preach on his mercy and grace.  One would clearly define sin and another would clearly lay out the way out of sin. 

The mockery and bitterness toward the gospel was beyond belief.  It's quite sad to see our nation's youth given over to sexual perversion and drunkenness.  When you kick God out of the public schools and replace him with a message of evolution, this is what you get.  We, as a nation, are reaping what we sowed.

All in all, this mission trip was a spiritual blessing.  If you ever get a chance to attend one of these outreaches, DO IT!  It will change you forever.  It will embolden you to stand up for righteousness and the gospel.   

The Govt Mule concert was the primary reason we were downtown this week.  Where there is a crowd, there are people that need Jesus.  Arriving early allowed us to take our time walking over to the theater.  We managed to speak with several people at the bus stops and a few at Fountain Square.  [I changed up the names partly because I can't remember everyone's name and partly to ensure their privacy]

We were walking by the bus stop handing out our 'hell' tract exclaiming "it may be cold here, but it's real hot where this guy is..." in reference to the guy that is burning in the lake of fire.  One guy in particular that we spoke with was Agreeable Al.  As I shared my testimony and talked about the wages of sin, all Al could do was agree with everything we said.  I even used an illustration of what true repentance is... changing your mind and actions.  He agreed.  We didn't have the time to really figure out what was going on with Al because his bus came.  But he did receive the word of God.  When you share the truth of the Word of God with people, they will either agree, refuse to talk with you, or disagree.  All three of these types of people are either right with God or not right with God.  So, don't be fooled by a person that says... "I'm saved" or "I believe"... the devil believes, and trembles.  The question is... have you repented and believed the gospel?

Crowds began to gather around Taft Theater so we made our way over to see who God had for us to speak with.  One of the first guys we had the opportunity to speak with was Drunk Catholic Guy (DCG).  DCG was in his early 20's and had a history of partying from his college days.  As he was outside talking with whoever, he asked me and Jim what we were selling.  I gave him a tract and told him we were talking with people about what happens when they die.  He took a step back and said, "alright, you have 5 minutes to give me your best sales pitch."  SALES PITCH?  I told him that there is no pitch... it's simple; if you aren't born again you won't go to heaven.  He went on to tell me that he prays every night, he went to catholic school as a kid and that he is a good person.  I let him know that drunkards won't inherit the kingdom of heaven according to I Cor 6:9.  He didn't believe me so I opened the word and let him read it for himself.  Before he left me, I told him that if I were him, I'd be worried about what happens to me when I die.  Drunkards, fornicators, homosexuals, idolaters, adulterers, etc won't inherit the kingdom of heaven.  He asked me if thought that he would go to hell for eternity for being a sinner.  I told him that according to the scripture, there is no way for him to make it into heaven unless he repents and believes the gospel.  He left shaking my hand and disagreeing with me.  He did have 2 tracts in his pocket so I pray that he read them when he sobered up.

While I was talking with DCG, Jim began speaking with DCW (Drunk Catholic Woman).  She informed him that she was a good person.  Jim quickly said, "no you aren't."  She was a little taken back by this but Jim elaborated by telling here that there is none good, no not one.  All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.  He asked her if she ever stole anything and she agreed that she had.  That makes her a thief and it only takes one sin to make you a sinner.  Jim was able to give her a tract as well and our prayer is that she finds the tract when she is sober and realizes the error of her ways and repents.

Right around this time Jim and I began to preach one-liners as we handed out the tracts.  "Repent and believe!"  "Turn to Christ before it's too late!"  A scalper (buys tickets and resells them) spoke out and said that nobody goes to hell.  Hell is only for satan.  That was enough for me to begin preaching.  I let him know that hell is not only for satan, but it's for the disobedient.  It's for those that aren't born-again.  I told the crowd that the unrighteous will NOT inherit the kingdom of God (basically preached I Cor 6:9).  I didn't preach long but it was a break-through for me because I haven't preached in the streets for 18 or 19 years.  Jim preached a little message as well.   

Overall it was a great evening.  The temperature was about 18F so it was a little nippy and we had to get out of the cold at least once.  But God blessed and we were greatly encouraged.  It's amazing how God designed us and nature.  Unless we exercise our muscles and break them down, they won't grow.  Unless we stretch our tendons to the point of pain, they won't allow maximum motion.  Unless a kernel of wheat dies, you can't grow more.  Unless we stretch and push ourselves to obey the calling in our lives, we will never accomplish anything for the kingdom of God.  He is awesome!

dg

As we were making our way through the downtown area, we stumbled into a crowd of homeless people that were being fed by a dear brother in the Lord.  It turns out that this brother feeds and ministers to the homeless at Washington park every Saturday from 4:30pm - finished.  He also has a sound system that he "fires up" to preach the gospel once it warms up outside.  We were invited to join him which we will gladly take him up on that offer.

We then headed to Fountain Square to encourage people to forsake their sins and accept the Lord as their savior.  The first guy the Lord sent us to was Greg.  I handed him a tract and asked him if he ever considered what happens when he dies.  He told me that he has been thinking allot about this topic lately since he, literally, just got out of detox.  He had his bag in hand and was waiting for a bus from the detox center to his Dad's house... talk about God's providence!!  This is what happens when you pray before you witness!  Anyhow, Greg told us that Jesus is exactly what he needs.  Jim and I encouraged him to repent of his sins and turn to the Lord.  We told him that God can cleanse his heart and will empower him to overcome the temptation of alcohol.  We prayed with him before he had to catch him bus.  Pray that God continues to draw him to repentance.

We handed out several more tracts - most were receptive.  One guy, in particular, was standing out in the crowd?  Why?  Well... there was a crowd of about 30 people that Jim and I were thinking of preaching to and Jim handed this guy a tract for some reason?  Another moment where the Holy Spirit guides you to do something at a particular time for a particular reason.  The light turned green, the crowd crossed the street and the guy that Jim handed the tract to asked us why we handed him the tract.  I told him that we've been handing these out to people all over town and we just happened to give him one.  Then I asked him if he has been considering if he would go to heaven or hell when he dies... amazingly, he has been thinking about hell lately.  It turns out he attends church but isn't living a Christian lifestyle.  We reminded him of the consequences of sin and encouraged him to repent.  He told me that he has committed some BIG sins.  I let him know that when you repent from your sins and ask for forgiveness, Jesus casts your sins as far as the east is from the west.  You can have the weight of your sins REMOVED by Christ.  We prayed with him before he had to catch his bus too... recurring theme, huh.  Keep this guy in prayer (I can't remember his name). 

Lastly, we met several homeless.  Some claimed to be Christians on one side of their mouth while using the Lord's name in vain on the other.  Obviously NOT serving God.  But we did find a couple of guys that have absolutely nothing in earthly possessions but have everything is heavenly possessions.  Jim and I were greatly encouraged when speaking with these brothers.  Pray that God makes a way for them to get out of the streets.  He is our provider.