This past Friday the 28th Jeff, Lauren, and myself were able to go out preaching in downtown Dallas, both at the West End and in Deep Ellum.
It was the first night we were able to put our new t-shirts and our new banners to good use. One t-shirt reads "Freedom in Christ" on the front and "Turn and Live" on the back. The other t-shirt reads "Fear God" on the front and "Obey Christ" on the back. And our new banner reads "TURN to JESUS and LIVE" on the front and "REPENT and BELIEVE on JESUS" on the back.
We started in the West End of Dallas with some open air preaching.
There is a train station where lots of people gather and thousands must pass through a day. I preached first about death, sin, hell, and the cross.
After a little while a women named Rosa came to talk with me with tears in her eyes. She opened up her heart and shared some serious issues going on in her life. I listened a lot to her, gave her a few words, and then prayed for her. She said, "I know that you preach the truth because I can see it in your eyes!"
After I spoke to her LauRen went to speak with her. After they talked much Rosa said, "I want to start reading my bible. I want to give up my sin." And LauRen prayed with her. Rosa was already a Church goer, but was not a bible reader and was living in sin. It was very obvious by the many tears in her eyes that the Lord was deeply ministering to her this night.
Also while in the West End four Christian women saw our banner and saw us preaching and listened to us for awhile. Then they walked over and said they were VERY encouraged by the ministry. They wanted to know all about it, who we were, how we got started, etc etc. Then they prayed for us and also prayed for themselves saying that they were deeply convicted to start witnessing and to be bolder in their faith.
We then went to Deep Ellum for ministry. Deep Ellum is a very dark and demonic club and bar area. Women wear the most lustful of dress, there is the most fowl of music, you hear the most profane of language from men drinking the most intoxicating drink, with clubs full of sexual dancing and the streets full of every sort of evil known to man.
We were able to witness and preach to many people and in many places. Also out on the streets were two other groups from Churches witnessing and giving out tracts. Both them came up to us and encouraged us and said they were encouraged by what we were doing. They also said that our new banner gave them a lot of open doors to witness one2one because whenever they heard someone mention us they were able to jump into the conversation.
Honestly and humbly I would dare to say that most of the people in Deep Ellum probably knew we were there, knew why we were there, and knew who it was we were representing. That is an achievement that I don't believe could have been accomplished, because of the large amounts of people that go there, if it were not for the new t-shirts, banners, and open air preaching.
Praise God! I feel so blessed to have been turned on to all of these forms of evangelism at a young age. May many, MANY more be reached with the LIFE GIVING GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST before I die! |