Fruits of Labor

Many of you know I have commited myself to a skate park in hamilton mill. Its just a great place to go. I was able to go out last week and I get nervouse, so I have a habit of sitting on a bench and reading some scripture before I preach or evangelize. As I was heading toward a bench, a voice called out "Hey, do you have any million dollar bills?" I looked and there was a 10 year old kid, and I didn't have any, but I told him I got somthing better. I gave him a gospel of John and told him to put it in his pocket and take it out and read every so often, he skated away.

I then read some scripture on the bench to focus my attention on the Lord, and I decided to open air. I had to get a bottle of water, my throat gets very dry. I went to get a water and Taj (a young black man) said "hey, can I borrow a dollar?" I was going to give it to him, but I shot back "Borrow, when are you going to give it back?" He said "Next time I see you." I replied "You don't even know me dude." He said something that really got to me, he said "Yeah I do know you, youre the preacher man." He knew me, he knew I come and talk to people about Christ, after all this time and energy thinking no one is listening and no one cares, he knows me. I bought him chips and a coke and offered a tract, I began talking about spiritual things and we sat down and I got my bible out. Taj was a classic american. Grew up in a "christian home" with bible on his shelves and DIDN'T know the main message of the Bible. I began to explain God creating the world and us for his glory, then sin, etc. He started fidgeting alot after the Law, he wasn't comfortable. I got to hell and explained it and asked him if there was a way of escape from the wrath of God, would you want to know about it? He said no. I was heart broken and asked why. He said he deserves to be in hell becuase of his sin and if God just let him go that wouldn't be right. AMEN. He understood Gods justice. I gave him the good news of Christ and focused heavily on the fact that it is Just and how God is both Just and the Justifier of many. He wasn't ready to repent, but he was still fidgeting, but listening. He was startled, praise God.

Saturday night, I got the privelege of taking a soldier out witnessing at the skate park, and it was fantastic, 2 stories really stick out. One is about a young man named Keithon. I have handed him tons of tracts, he is there skating all the time, but we've never chatted much. I actually got in a conversation with him by asking why people don't wear helmets and he responded that many don't, becuase they know how to fall. We chatted a few minutes and I swung to the spiritual and he really sincerely opened up to me. He is post modern to the bone. I took him through some analogies to show the absurdity of post modern thinking and began talking about truth. I have a new general definintion for truth. truth is the acknowledgement and acceptance of facts based in reality. You cant just recognize truth, you must believe it. Truth must be based on facts, real facts and I explained to him the claims of Jesus are the same way. I used apologetics for the proof of the Bible and our chat was cut short, but gave him a summary of the gospel and gave him my card and challenged him to email me and I would send him all the evidence for the Bible he could ever dream of. He hasn't ofcourse, but I really pray he will.

I finally got to open air, and its a passion of mine and I don't get to do it much. I began by reading romans 1 becuase there was a fight that broke out resulting in cops showing up and then went into to romans 3. I open aired a typical Law/Grace message,and there were about 4 loafing around and listening, but afterward I had the privelege to sit with one of those young men and explain the Law and the Gospel to him and speak with him about His need to repent. It was incredible.

God has really blessed me by opening these doors, and I'm so thankful my commitment to this park has begun to pay off. At a recent Christian concert a young man that Keith and I witnessed to about a year ago said he had since repented and trusted Christ. I wish I had more time to commit, and I have this Idea to do a bible study in the park (or any park where there is people) for christians, but if you do it in the park open air style other people are bound to come and listen for minute. Baby is coming so that is my main focus now, hmmmm, how can I let the wife let me go saturday night this week.