For those who are interested in the story:

Evangelism Boot Camp in Dallas
Oct 13-17, 2004

These past few days I have had the honor to labor with a large amount of street preachers in Dallas. www.thegreatnews.com put on a Evangelism Boot Camp with people from all over the world.

One of the best parts about this trip was being able to Fellowship with great Christians. I stayed with Brad Snow ( www.snowmedia.com ) with a new friend of mine, Brian Bomar ( www.baldpreachers.net ) and others. It was absolutely wonderful to be able to fellowship with such likeminded believers. Let me break down the entire trip to you:

Wednesday: I found Brads house and then went to the hotel to meet everyone else. I was also able to meet Andy Lapkin with Transfired Ministries( www.transfired.org ) That night I prayed for some time with Brad and Brian about the weekend.

Thursday: This day was training day. We meet at Christ For the Nations for a day of seminars. It started with Darrel Rundus, Director of The Great News Network, giving a sermon entitled "A Better Way to Worship". The best form of worship is obedience. Because God commands that all Christians everywhere witness to the lost, one of the best ways to worship is through evangelism. After this message Ray Comfort spoke with an associate of his, Emeal Zywayne. I had the honor of speaking with Ray and also praying with him before he spoke. We also had a very powerful and anointed message from Pastor Randy Jones who was once head of Outreach for Christ For the Nations. He also started as a street preacher and still has the fire shut up in his bones! All of these messages plus all the breaks lasted a full day.

Friday: Our first day of ministry! We all went to the state fair for one-on-one, to give out tracts, and to preach open-air. There were so many people! In no time at all we had given out hundreds and hundreds of tracts. Unfortinately it didn't last long before we ran into opposition from the police. Levi Williams, assistant to the Cheif of Police of Dallas, had informed us before we went that we were well within our rights to talk to people, give out tracts, and even to preach open-air. Unfortinately not all the cops knew this. First they told us that we couldn't give out tracts but that we could talk to people and if we wanted to preach open-air we had to go outside the gates. When we went outside the gates different cops told us that we couldn't even give out tracts so we had to go accross the street. We gave out hundreds of tracts across the street. Eventually we had permission from the police station to go back across the street and so we did some open-air preaching there.

That night I took a team to Deep Ellum. It was crazy. The hecklers were pretty wild and some actually violent and the cops gave us a hard time. I noticed at first that mostly everyone in the crowd was with us so I asked them all to leave and that left me with no crowd but still atleast allowed me to see what we needed to do.

After a while of preaching the cops came up to me and said "So, did you get the permit that they told you you needed last weekend?" I said "Oh no, they didn't say I needed a permit. That sound box is battery powered so I don't plug it into the city anywhere. You don't need a permit for that. Last weekend they told me I couldn't block the side walks so I am making sure that the crowd stands on the other side of the side walk to leave the middle open. I even asked people to move if I felt they were blocking the side walk." THey really wanted me to leave but didn't know what to say so one cop said "Well that wire (for the hecklers mic) there in the middle of the sidewalk, you are responsible if somebody trips and falls." I said "If somebody really wants to sue me for that then that is fine. I'll take that risk."

One heckler wanted to beat me up but rather then beating me up he throw my easle about 20 feet. The cops came and took him away but later released him only to allow him to beat up some other kid and actually knock him completely out. A different man wanted to see how I would react if he poured beer all over me. When all I said was "God Bless you" he got very angry and throw the glass bottle at me. It luckily shattered at my feet and didn't hurt anybody.

I had the privledge of preaching with Brian Bomar that night. This man has the fire of God shut up in his bones. He could really preach up a storm. He preached against the flesh. He preached against sin. And he preached against the world. It was hot and heavy but it was real! John Wesley said that when you preach men should either get angry or get converted, if that does not happen then you are not called to be a preacher. Those are the only two reactions anyone could possibly have after listening to this man preach. I hope to labor with him many more times in the future.

Saturday: By the time we arrived at the gates of the state fair everyone had been kicked out of the fair and even moved back across the street. One man, Josh, was so filled with the fire of God that he couldn't hold it back so he rolled up a peice of paper and preached from across the street to everyone waiting to get in. Others then took turns but they were lossing their voices quickly. Then Brad Snow remembered that I had left my little sound box in his car so he went and got that and they used it to preach. When I arrived I broke out the BIG sound box and we set that up to preach. Eventually the guys from the fair gave in and said that we can come back across the street to preach, so long as we don't use sound. So that is what we did.

It was so awesome to see so many people preaching the truth open-air. I actually tried not to do that much preaching just because I preach so often but very rarely get to just listen to other street preachers. I went around and used Brad Snows camera to take alot alot alot of pictures of all of them. We had huge crowds and they were gentle crowds too. That day people were saved and one man even kneed on the sidewalk in front of everyone with his five little boys and prayed with tears to get saved. It was a powerful sight.

That night once again we went to Deep Ellum. It was not as crazy as the night before but it was still powerful. I primarily watched as other people preached open-air. One man, Rev Jim, was my favorite. He was a bit older then everyone else so he could get away with saying certain things that he said. I really do believe God used him mightily that night. It was wonderful!

Sunday: This day was graduation day. We all said our good byes and went home. Darrel Rundus invited me to be a leader at the next boot camp in LA in January. I'm excited about that.

So many things happened this trip, this was just the rough, short version of it. The stories I could tell from this adventure alone are many.

I thank God for answering prayers of thrusting forth laborers, more and more, speaking truth and the saving Gospel.

Your testimony is so encouraging and challenging, thank you for sharing!

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Jina

It is wonderful to hear the results you are having in Dallas. It is very encouraging. I long to see the day where God blesses the efforts we are making here in the Charlotte area in such a way. If you ever come to the Charlotte, NC area, let me know, I'd love for my team to labor with you.

I'll probably be posting about the ministry we had at UNCC today within the next couple days as well..

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Jimmy H