It was a good, but short night. For some reason only 1 lane of I-30 was open so we sat in traffic for a good half an hour on the way down to Deep Ellum. Deep Ellum seemed a little dead, although there was a big crowd at one of the clubs.
*Anne, Dara, Daniel, and Jason*
Dara went with Anne, Daniel, and Jason. Dara has come once or twice in the past so she has a little familiarity with Deep Ellum. She and Anne were able to talk to a Pantheist name Jose. Here’s a summary of what he believed. He was a pantheist so he believed that everyone and everything is God. His beliefs were really conflicting, because he said that we’re all Gods, and Jesus, Mohammad, and Buddha were all good examples. The path to spiritual enlightenment was to feel less and less guilt. And Jesus was a good example of how to love. (Comment from Luke : If we’re all Gods, why does it matter if we feel guilt or not? Isn’t God the highest being that there is?). Hell to him was when we feel bad and our conscience is bothering us. (No afterlife, just re-incarnation) . So once you’re like Jesus (or one of the other good religious teachers) you have heaven on earth. To him, Jesus wasn’t really a person, but an entity. One of the biggest influences in his spiritual journey was his gay friend, who was the person “the most like Jesus” he had ever met. Anne asked him if he had a Bible, and he said no. He had a small amount of familiarity with the Bible, but said he got confused when he read it. So Anne gave him hers, and told him to read the red-lettered portions because those were the words of Jesus and he could find out what Jesus REALLY said and what he was REALLY like. (and not based on his gay friend). All in all, they talked to Jose about 40 minutes. Near the end of the conversation they asked if they could pray for him.
Jason and Daniel started a conversation with a couple of guys, but the guys had to leave halfway through it. There were not as many people down in Deep Ellum this week as some other weeks so neither of them got into any big conversations. Since Jason and Daniel went with Dara and Anne, they stayed in the vicinity while Dara and Anne were talking to Jose. They Handed out lots of tracts and got in some brief conversations. We trust that some good some good seeds have been planted.
*Spenser, Mrs Maclean, and Elizabeth *
Spenser had a great night handing out tracks and encouraging the recipients to read them. When his group, which consisted of Mrs MacLean, Elizabeth, and himself, would happen upon the unfortunate soul who would stop to talk to them, Spenser gave the Evangelism questionnaire. This questionnaire consists of two questions: “If you were to die today, would you go to heaven, or is that something that you are still working on?” and “If God were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven,’ what would you say?” They encountered three girls while they were walking down the street, one of whom lagged behind, so they picked her off. As they went through the evangelism explosion presentation, the girl understood that she was trusting in herself, but she didn’t pray the prayer of salvation because she had to catch up with her friends. Lizzie described her as more interested in the cares of this life than spiritual things, and that she was trying to act cool, and acting like she really wasn’t interested. They also talked to a couple of guys who were both raised in the church, but had developed their own sense of truth and of God. They didn’t want the tract because they were environmentalists and didn’t want the paper to be wasted on them because they would just throw it away. When confronted with sin, they were offended and felt as though they had been judged, so they ended up walking away. At that point, one of the guy’s girlfriends walked up and was very engaged in the conversation, and had questions that she genuinely wanted to know the answers to. Elizabeth was able to ask some questions to this lady, and actually engage her in conversation. (Yay Elizabeth!) Though the lady was a catholic, she had given up on the Catholic faith and instead had a “multifaceted” view of entrance into heaven. (All paths to heaven are valid.) Finally, in their last conversation on the way back to the Car, they encountered two young men that were high, who said they they were good people and had kept the Ten Commandments.
*Joel, Andrew, and Mark*
The night for Mark’s group started off with a bang after trying to talk to one guy, who flat out rejected the Gospel. Mark then talked to a Buddhist. The Buddhist guy respected Christianity and thought Jesus was a very good guy. However, Mark surmised that the Buddhist was very very confused in his beliefs. While Mark was talking to the Buddhist, Joel and Andrew were talking to a guy named James. James professed to be a Christian, but he had “got into drugs, and left God.” He wanted to come back to God but he doesn’t know how. James said he would e-mail Joel with more questions that he has. Joel described the whole night with the phrase “made me feel good inside." They also tried witnessing at Club One but they got the standard, “Now is not the time for us to hear the gospel” response. Mark saw the police Officer who had told him a few weeks ago that he needed a “religious permit” to be able to hand out tracts or share his faith. Mark wished him a happy Thanksgiving :) .
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Monday, November 05, 2007
A night of fishing
***Jason***
New people on the team tonight. I was staying with Joel Roberts for the weekend because his parents were out of town so he came, along with Joel Woodward who was spending the night at J.R.’s house. My current housemate Johnny, also came. There were 7 of us altogether.
We split up into teams, I went with the 2 Joels.
We met a guy who was wheeling a trash can down the street. Gave him a tract “You are here” (http://www.livingwaters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=254 ) but he didn’t speak much English. He was originally from Mexico. Only able to talk to him briefly (in some rusty Spanish) because he said he had to work.
Skull Cane Man
Stopped and talked to a guy who was sitting outside one of the clothing Shops in one of those little foldout chairs.. Had a cane with him that had a skull on the end so I asked him why he chose that cane with the skull on it when he was “cane” shopping.. I think he said he liked skulls or something. After some small talk and finding out a little bit about him (He works as a web designer, has a family with two teenage girls. He was sitting outside the clothing shop cause his friend worked there, and he was also working on their website, and He went to a Catholic school when he was young.) I asked him what he thought was out there waiting for us after we die. Said he wasn’t sure, so I asked if he had any leanings toward anything. Said he had been studying some world religions, look at re-incarnation, etc. He said he believed in Heaven and Hell, but somehow everyone ended up going to heaven and he was going because God is forgiving. (He was really stuck on this idea for most of our conversation) Then he asked what I BELIEVED (with genuine interest) , so I explained what I believe (without using anything from the bible at that point), that there was a God because of creation, that in exploring world’s religions Christianity made extraordinary claims that no other religion made, that a personal God would by nature care about justice and righting the evil in the world even more than Man would, etc. Eventually asked him if he thought he was a good person and once he said he was, what he thought “Good” was. We went through the Ten Commandments, and he admitted to being a Liar, a Thief, an Adulterer and a Murder at heart according to God’s standards. He still thought he would go to Heaven if God judged him because God would forgive, so brought the analogy over to civil Law to demonstrate that a Good judge would not let Sin go unpunished. Explained that if the Bible was true and reliable, and there was stacks upon stacks upon stacks of evidence that it was, that God would not let the guilty go unpunished and that the Bible said that without the Shedding of Blood, there was NO remission of Sins. Said that this should make sense to us, even without the Bible’s testimony, because our conscience wouldn’t be able to get around it. Described how God took Sin incredibly seriously, demonstrated by the severity of the consequences that have come and will come to those have sinned and remain in their Sin to the point that they die in their sin. James (His name) became real quiet and couldn’t really look me in the eye at that point. He had to help close the clothing shop at that point, but I thanked him for talking and told him to check out for himself if what I was saying was true. (One the things he said was that the Bible had been corrupted and changed by Men. ) Praise God that a seed was planted and pray that God might cause it to grow.
Homeless Donna
A homeless Lady named Donna stopped us on the street and asked us for some money because she hadn’t eaten in a long time. None of us had any cash on us. She pleaded with us, and I told her that I was telling the truth that I didn’t have any cash on me, but If there was an ATM around, I could help her. There was a 7-11 around the corner so we went there. Her story was pretty tragic (She had been married with kids, her husband had left her, then she got re-married but that husband left her and took everything, and she became homeless because she didn’t know how to do anything besides be a housewife.) I bought her a hot dog and water, and while she was munching on that we talked a bit. I told her that we were Christians which is why we down there, to share the gospel. She said she could tell, which is why she came up and asked us for help. She said she was a Christian as well. Since 80% of the homeless people tell you they’re Christian, I asked her a question that I think every Christian should be able to answer. “What if I came to you as a Non-Christian friend, and said ‘I don’t see a need for God’s forgiveness’, what would you tell me?”. It’s always revealing to see what people say. It also gives us a chance to use the questions and objections that we always get from people, and see how another “professesing” Christian responds to the typical objections. She did ok. I asked her about the 10 comandments, being a good person, and led her through the commandments, and talked about God’s grace in Christ. Then I gave her some money, and she was so surprised and excited and said “This will buy me Breakfast and Lunch!” She was so happy and grateful and she gave all three of us a hug, and then got quite and very soberly admonished us to NEVER ever ever ever get involved with drugs because they would ruin our lives. I asked if we if we could pray for her, which we did.
**Mark**
Porn Man, the sequel. Mark saw the Porn man, who he talked to last week. Porn man didn’t want to talk this week. In fact he kinda ran away. However God seemed to arrange it so Mark and he crossed paths several times during the night. His conscience must have been bothered him, because he told Mark to get away. Yup, Jesus pretty much summed it up when he said “Light has come into the world, but men loved Darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Pray for the Porn Man. None of us are really any different, we ourselves were once lost and slaves to sin, and God came and forgave us and rescued us from the same.
Mark also talked to some guys who already “knew the Gospel”. Since they knew the Gospel already, Mark’s sharing it with them was annoying to them, even to the point where one of the guys got angry and essentially said “Get away from me”.
Mark’s experience most of the night with the people who he talked with was the “Right now is not a good time.” Vibe. It’s a typical response. Thinking about Death, Eternity, God, having their conscience stirred, is not what they came down to Deep Ellum to experience. “We’re just here to have a good time…we don’t really want to hear about that right now. ” We realize, however, that we are fishing for men, and fish don’t always, (actually they rarely) jump in the boat out of their own volition. On a side note, Living Waters makes a great tract for giving people who don’t want to think about or face the stark facts that they will one day die, and they don’t know when that days is, and should consider eternity and what’s on the other side now, not later. You know, the kind of people who say they will get right with God on their deathbed, or they will repent later. (http://www.livingwaters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=251&Category_Code= )
**Joel and Joel**
I (Jason) am wiriting a third hand report so if I’m a little off on the details, Joel or Joel can straighten it all out. While I was talking to skull-cane man Joel and Joel had a conversation with a guy with a Catholic background. He was disillusioned with the Catholic church, because of all the bad things that have happened within the Church in recent times. They discussed a little bit about going through a priest vs going through God. He was interested in spiritual things and was going to think about some of the stuff that Joel and Joel brought up.
**Anne and Johnny**
Anne was able to reconnect with Odie(Club Owner) and Matthew (parking attendant), both people whom she has witnessed to in the past. She told me that Odie wasn’t doing so well, but she was able to talk to him for a long time tonight. Johnny got to talk and pray with several people. I don’t have more details about their experience, sorry about that, but I wanted to get this report out.
New people on the team tonight. I was staying with Joel Roberts for the weekend because his parents were out of town so he came, along with Joel Woodward who was spending the night at J.R.’s house. My current housemate Johnny, also came. There were 7 of us altogether.
We split up into teams, I went with the 2 Joels.
We met a guy who was wheeling a trash can down the street. Gave him a tract “You are here” (http://www.livingwaters.co
Skull Cane Man
Stopped and talked to a guy who was sitting outside one of the clothing Shops in one of those little foldout chairs.. Had a cane with him that had a skull on the end so I asked him why he chose that cane with the skull on it when he was “cane” shopping.. I think he said he liked skulls or something. After some small talk and finding out a little bit about him (He works as a web designer, has a family with two teenage girls. He was sitting outside the clothing shop cause his friend worked there, and he was also working on their website, and He went to a Catholic school when he was young.) I asked him what he thought was out there waiting for us after we die. Said he wasn’t sure, so I asked if he had any leanings toward anything. Said he had been studying some world religions, look at re-incarnation, etc. He said he believed in Heaven and Hell, but somehow everyone ended up going to heaven and he was going because God is forgiving. (He was really stuck on this idea for most of our conversation) Then he asked what I BELIEVED (with genuine interest) , so I explained what I believe (without using anything from the bible at that point), that there was a God because of creation, that in exploring world’s religions Christianity made extraordinary claims that no other religion made, that a personal God would by nature care about justice and righting the evil in the world even more than Man would, etc. Eventually asked him if he thought he was a good person and once he said he was, what he thought “Good” was. We went through the Ten Commandments, and he admitted to being a Liar, a Thief, an Adulterer and a Murder at heart according to God’s standards. He still thought he would go to Heaven if God judged him because God would forgive, so brought the analogy over to civil Law to demonstrate that a Good judge would not let Sin go unpunished. Explained that if the Bible was true and reliable, and there was stacks upon stacks upon stacks of evidence that it was, that God would not let the guilty go unpunished and that the Bible said that without the Shedding of Blood, there was NO remission of Sins. Said that this should make sense to us, even without the Bible’s testimony, because our conscience wouldn’t be able to get around it. Described how God took Sin incredibly seriously, demonstrated by the severity of the consequences that have come and will come to those have sinned and remain in their Sin to the point that they die in their sin. James (His name) became real quiet and couldn’t really look me in the eye at that point. He had to help close the clothing shop at that point, but I thanked him for talking and told him to check out for himself if what I was saying was true. (One the things he said was that the Bible had been corrupted and changed by Men. ) Praise God that a seed was planted and pray that God might cause it to grow.
Homeless Donna
A homeless Lady named Donna stopped us on the street and asked us for some money because she hadn’t eaten in a long time. None of us had any cash on us. She pleaded with us, and I told her that I was telling the truth that I didn’t have any cash on me, but If there was an ATM around, I could help her. There was a 7-11 around the corner so we went there. Her story was pretty tragic (She had been married with kids, her husband had left her, then she got re-married but that husband left her and took everything, and she became homeless because she didn’t know how to do anything besides be a housewife.) I bought her a hot dog and water, and while she was munching on that we talked a bit. I told her that we were Christians which is why we down there, to share the gospel. She said she could tell, which is why she came up and asked us for help. She said she was a Christian as well. Since 80% of the homeless people tell you they’re Christian, I asked her a question that I think every Christian should be able to answer. “What if I came to you as a Non-Christian friend, and said ‘I don’t see a need for God’s forgiveness’, what would you tell me?”. It’s always revealing to see what people say. It also gives us a chance to use the questions and objections that we always get from people, and see how another “professesing” Christian responds to the typical objections. She did ok. I asked her about the 10 comandments, being a good person, and led her through the commandments, and talked about God’s grace in Christ. Then I gave her some money, and she was so surprised and excited and said “This will buy me Breakfast and Lunch!” She was so happy and grateful and she gave all three of us a hug, and then got quite and very soberly admonished us to NEVER ever ever ever get involved with drugs because they would ruin our lives. I asked if we if we could pray for her, which we did.
**Mark**
Porn Man, the sequel. Mark saw the Porn man, who he talked to last week. Porn man didn’t want to talk this week. In fact he kinda ran away. However God seemed to arrange it so Mark and he crossed paths several times during the night. His conscience must have been bothered him, because he told Mark to get away. Yup, Jesus pretty much summed it up when he said “Light has come into the world, but men loved Darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Pray for the Porn Man. None of us are really any different, we ourselves were once lost and slaves to sin, and God came and forgave us and rescued us from the same.
Mark also talked to some guys who already “knew the Gospel”. Since they knew the Gospel already, Mark’s sharing it with them was annoying to them, even to the point where one of the guys got angry and essentially said “Get away from me”.
Mark’s experience most of the night with the people who he talked with was the “Right now is not a good time.” Vibe. It’s a typical response. Thinking about Death, Eternity, God, having their conscience stirred, is not what they came down to Deep Ellum to experience. “We’re just here to have a good time…we don’t really want to hear about that right now. ” We realize, however, that we are fishing for men, and fish don’t always, (actually they rarely) jump in the boat out of their own volition. On a side note, Living Waters makes a great tract for giving people who don’t want to think about or face the stark facts that they will one day die, and they don’t know when that days is, and should consider eternity and what’s on the other side now, not later. You know, the kind of people who say they will get right with God on their deathbed, or they will repent later. (http://www.livingwaters.co
**Joel and Joel**
I (Jason) am wiriting a third hand report so if I’m a little off on the details, Joel or Joel can straighten it all out. While I was talking to skull-cane man Joel and Joel had a conversation with a guy with a Catholic background. He was disillusioned with the Catholic church, because of all the bad things that have happened within the Church in recent times. They discussed a little bit about going through a priest vs going through God. He was interested in spiritual things and was going to think about some of the stuff that Joel and Joel brought up.
**Anne and Johnny**
Anne was able to reconnect with Odie(Club Owner) and Matthew (parking attendant), both people whom she has witnessed to in the past. She told me that Odie wasn’t doing so well, but she was able to talk to him for a long time tonight. Johnny got to talk and pray with several people. I don’t have more details about their experience, sorry about that, but I wanted to get this report out.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Here's a report from last night. You can read reports from Luke, Mark, and Myself (Jason) below Thanks for your prayers!
**Mark**
Rebuked the Porn man. He was sinning and is damned to hell if he doesn’t change. (Note from Jason: This guy was handing out porn on the streets!)
Talked to another guy who had to run, but I was able to fit in the whole message. That he was going to hell and he needed Jesus because I knew he was because of the way he answered the questions I asked concerning salvation.
Talked to Oedie, manager of Club Hush told me how Deep Ellum was closing down.
Went to club one and witnessed Sodom and Gomorrah on the other side of a black fence.
Saw that William was no longer at his normal hot dog stand. Another man had replaced him either temporarily or permanently.
**Luke**
Talked to Tom, (Tom is a parking lot attendant who we’ve grown to know over the years) Tom passed the news on to us that Deep Ellum was in the midst of a lot of change and many of the clubs were closing down and were slated to be replaced by restaurants)
While Jason was talking with the another parking lot attendant (here after mentioned) further down the street, I talked with people passing by and prayed with a few that were Chrisitians and encouraged them (We talked about how when Jesus went to the Temple when he was 12 it demonstrated from very early on that he knew he was God.)
One of the clubs was having a Halloween party so there were lots of interesting people in strange costumes to talk to . I tried passing out tracts to the people standing in Line but that wasn’t well received. So while Jason was talking to the bouncer, I talked to the “watcher”. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was “watching”. He said that he really didn’t want to talk about Jesus at that point in time. I asked him when a “good time” would be, and he said that was a very good question! Thought provoking at least. I mentioned that my World view centers around Jesus Christ and so for me, all the time is a good time to talk about it because he’s the center (He’s the Lord) of my world. I asked him if he thought that world view was incorrect. Then I asked him what He thought the True world view was . He responded with something along the lines that everyone creates their own reality. I tried to make the point that Truth is defined by what’s real, not by people creating it. At the end of the conversation he mentioned that this had been a real good conversation. Please pray that God would grow the seed that was planted.
Talked to another guy, Mike. He grew up in the baptist church. He had a thurough knowledge of the Word of God. He had definitely paid attention in Church when he was young, but he had stopped going in 9th grade. Although he was very knowledgeable about the bible, he had a callousness towards sin that became apparent in the conversation.( although he didn’t come right out and say that) Certain things that used to bother him no longer bothered him, especially in reference to how he dealt with the opposite sex. Because of his church background, Mike did agree that there was definite right and wrong. He even asked the question at one point whether it was wrong for him to go into the club. (We often answer this kind of question by saying it all comes down to your motive, and there’s probably only one reason to be in an atmosphere like that, and that’s if your intention is to share the gospel with everyone there. ) Please pray for Mike, that God would soften his heart and grow the seeds that were planted in his youth.
**Jason**
Parking attendant dude (I can’t recall his name at this point, but he's different than the Tom mentioned above) and I had a chat. People from our group have talked to him several times in the past. It seems like he knows many facts about the bible and the church and Christianity and has an interest in spiritual things, but at the same time he remains spiritually dead. Luke and I were talking about it afterwards and agreed that it was really hard to gauge where he was spiritually. He mentioned that he had been thinking a lot about re-incarnation and pondering if that was possible. Since he was familiar with the Bible, I asked him what he thought about the verse from Hebrews, where it says “For it is appointed unto man ONCE to die and after this the Judgement.” We didn’t really get to discuss that further because a stream of cars appeared at the point and he had to attend to them.
Then when were were down outside of the club where the halloween party was going on, I talked to one of the bouncers that they had hired for the night. It was kind of obvious that they had hired him for the night because he was older and didn’t look like a regular bouncer. . He was bouncing just for the night, because they needed extra people because of the Halloween party the club was having. I was really struggling swinging any of my conversations to spiritual things, so I prayed and asked God to lead my to someone where that would occur. Lo and behold he answered my prayer above and beyond what I had asked, because I was making small talk to the Bouncer, and HE brought up stuff about heaven and hell, and HE brought up the Ten commandments, which kind of blew me away, because it's not usually the case that someone brings up those things. At one point I asked him what he thought the purpose of life was, and he didn’t really have a clear answer. His basic philosophy was “you live a good life, then you’ll be accepted by God. All you have to do is ask for forgiveness and you’re good to go with God because none of us are perfect” I asked him how bad does someone have to be to be sent to hell? Did he think God was angry sin? What was the purpose of the ten commandments? (since he had brought it up) He maintained that he wasn’t perfect and God wasn’t expecting perfection. (I immediately thought about the verse where Jesus said “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect”). So I told him that in 1 10 year period in the United States 200,000 murders were committed, and only 100, 000 had been brought to justice so far. Was that something God cared about? I pointed out that if we were made in God’s image and we have a passion for justice demonstrated by how much time and money and resources people will spend seeking out Justice, then how much more would a perfect God who created us have a passion for Justice! I had started asking him whether he thought he was a good person, and quized him on several of the Ten Commandments, but unfortunately at this point he was distracted because he was manning the exit door and a ton of people were coming out, and then he disappeared inside the Club for a break. I didn’t have another chance to talk to him, but I was able to leave him with a curved illusion tract, and told him that it had more information about what I had been talking about.
I then approached a big group of people that had just come out of the club and were hanging out on the street. I showed several of them the curved illusion tract and they loved it, so I gave them each one, and this one girl was really open to talking. She seemed a little bothered about something and said something along the lines of “I really need to get out of here, it’s bad in that club with the drugs and the drinking and stuff.” I was intriuged at why she said that so I asked her if she had a religious background, and she definitely had a church background and was very open. I told her that we came up to Deep Ellum almost every weekend to share our faith. She said she attended a church, and mentioned having read Rick Warren’s book “The purpose driven life”. Whenever I meet someone who professes to be a Christian, one of the questions I usually ask is how they would respond to a friend if a friend told them “I just don’t see a need for God’s forgiveness, I think I’m good with the 'Man upstairs' already" She was like, 'wow' that’s a good question. She was really thinking hard about it. I then answered my own question by sharing my testimony describing how I grew up in a Christian home and my parents were missionaries in an organization that did Bible Translation. They spent 20 years to translate the bible for 3000 for people in a langauge group most people have never heard. I personally came to the point while attending a CHRISTIAN COLLEGE where I realized I didn’t have even the slightest desire to read the Bible for even 5 minutes a day. For the first time in my life I really asked some honest questions about what this book said, but even more important, why I didn’t have a desire to read it if it was so important that my parents and so many others would dedicate their lives to the truth they believed was inside it’s pages. I had to face the question that if this Book was true what did that mean for me? And then shortly after that I heard a sermon were the preacher (Ray Comfort ) was talking about the ten commandments (The Message was called “Hell’s Best Kept Secret) and I was very convicted by it, by the fact that under God’s standard of the 10 commandments, I was a liar, thief, and adulterer at heart, and I realized if I died at the very point in time, it would be just of good God, if he existed, to send me to hell. I had been convinced I was a Christian because of my upbringing., but knew at that point that without God’s Grace and Mercy I would go straight to hell. I realized that the Word of God was true and Jesus really meant what he said when he said “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven.” She basically responded saying, “Wow that really answers the initial question you asked me.” She was so open and seemed very impacted and agreed with me that so many people didn’t see sin the way God saw sin, and that "by the commandment, sin became exceedingly sinful" as the scriptures say. One of the things she had mentioned earlier was that people took God’s grace for granted. And after our conversation she was even more convinced of that. She was really deep in thought at the end of the conversation, and I was very encouraged when she said that what we were doing was a good thing, and said “Keep coming here and talking to people about these things.” Please pray that God would continue to reveal himself to her!
**Mark**
Rebuked the Porn man. He was sinning and is damned to hell if he doesn’t change. (Note from Jason: This guy was handing out porn on the streets!)
Talked to another guy who had to run, but I was able to fit in the whole message. That he was going to hell and he needed Jesus because I knew he was because of the way he answered the questions I asked concerning salvation.
Talked to Oedie, manager of Club Hush told me how Deep Ellum was closing down.
Went to club one and witnessed Sodom and Gomorrah on the other side of a black fence.
Saw that William was no longer at his normal hot dog stand. Another man had replaced him either temporarily or permanently.
**Luke**
Talked to Tom, (Tom is a parking lot attendant who we’ve grown to know over the years) Tom passed the news on to us that Deep Ellum was in the midst of a lot of change and many of the clubs were closing down and were slated to be replaced by restaurants)
While Jason was talking with the another parking lot attendant (here after mentioned) further down the street, I talked with people passing by and prayed with a few that were Chrisitians and encouraged them (We talked about how when Jesus went to the Temple when he was 12 it demonstrated from very early on that he knew he was God.)
One of the clubs was having a Halloween party so there were lots of interesting people in strange costumes to talk to . I tried passing out tracts to the people standing in Line but that wasn’t well received. So while Jason was talking to the bouncer, I talked to the “watcher”. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was “watching”. He said that he really didn’t want to talk about Jesus at that point in time. I asked him when a “good time” would be, and he said that was a very good question! Thought provoking at least. I mentioned that my World view centers around Jesus Christ and so for me, all the time is a good time to talk about it because he’s the center (He’s the Lord) of my world. I asked him if he thought that world view was incorrect. Then I asked him what He thought the True world view was . He responded with something along the lines that everyone creates their own reality. I tried to make the point that Truth is defined by what’s real, not by people creating it. At the end of the conversation he mentioned that this had been a real good conversation. Please pray that God would grow the seed that was planted.
Talked to another guy, Mike. He grew up in the baptist church. He had a thurough knowledge of the Word of God. He had definitely paid attention in Church when he was young, but he had stopped going in 9th grade. Although he was very knowledgeable about the bible, he had a callousness towards sin that became apparent in the conversation.( although he didn’t come right out and say that) Certain things that used to bother him no longer bothered him, especially in reference to how he dealt with the opposite sex. Because of his church background, Mike did agree that there was definite right and wrong. He even asked the question at one point whether it was wrong for him to go into the club. (We often answer this kind of question by saying it all comes down to your motive, and there’s probably only one reason to be in an atmosphere like that, and that’s if your intention is to share the gospel with everyone there. ) Please pray for Mike, that God would soften his heart and grow the seeds that were planted in his youth.
**Jason**
Parking attendant dude (I can’t recall his name at this point, but he's different than the Tom mentioned above) and I had a chat. People from our group have talked to him several times in the past. It seems like he knows many facts about the bible and the church and Christianity and has an interest in spiritual things, but at the same time he remains spiritually dead. Luke and I were talking about it afterwards and agreed that it was really hard to gauge where he was spiritually. He mentioned that he had been thinking a lot about re-incarnation and pondering if that was possible. Since he was familiar with the Bible, I asked him what he thought about the verse from Hebrews, where it says “For it is appointed unto man ONCE to die and after this the Judgement.” We didn’t really get to discuss that further because a stream of cars appeared at the point and he had to attend to them.
Then when were were down outside of the club where the halloween party was going on, I talked to one of the bouncers that they had hired for the night. It was kind of obvious that they had hired him for the night because he was older and didn’t look like a regular bouncer. . He was bouncing just for the night, because they needed extra people because of the Halloween party the club was having. I was really struggling swinging any of my conversations to spiritual things, so I prayed and asked God to lead my to someone where that would occur. Lo and behold he answered my prayer above and beyond what I had asked, because I was making small talk to the Bouncer, and HE brought up stuff about heaven and hell, and HE brought up the Ten commandments, which kind of blew me away, because it's not usually the case that someone brings up those things. At one point I asked him what he thought the purpose of life was, and he didn’t really have a clear answer. His basic philosophy was “you live a good life, then you’ll be accepted by God. All you have to do is ask for forgiveness and you’re good to go with God because none of us are perfect” I asked him how bad does someone have to be to be sent to hell? Did he think God was angry sin? What was the purpose of the ten commandments? (since he had brought it up) He maintained that he wasn’t perfect and God wasn’t expecting perfection. (I immediately thought about the verse where Jesus said “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect”). So I told him that in 1 10 year period in the United States 200,000 murders were committed, and only 100, 000 had been brought to justice so far. Was that something God cared about? I pointed out that if we were made in God’s image and we have a passion for justice demonstrated by how much time and money and resources people will spend seeking out Justice, then how much more would a perfect God who created us have a passion for Justice! I had started asking him whether he thought he was a good person, and quized him on several of the Ten Commandments, but unfortunately at this point he was distracted because he was manning the exit door and a ton of people were coming out, and then he disappeared inside the Club for a break. I didn’t have another chance to talk to him, but I was able to leave him with a curved illusion tract, and told him that it had more information about what I had been talking about.
I then approached a big group of people that had just come out of the club and were hanging out on the street. I showed several of them the curved illusion tract and they loved it, so I gave them each one, and this one girl was really open to talking. She seemed a little bothered about something and said something along the lines of “I really need to get out of here, it’s bad in that club with the drugs and the drinking and stuff.” I was intriuged at why she said that so I asked her if she had a religious background, and she definitely had a church background and was very open. I told her that we came up to Deep Ellum almost every weekend to share our faith. She said she attended a church, and mentioned having read Rick Warren’s book “The purpose driven life”. Whenever I meet someone who professes to be a Christian, one of the questions I usually ask is how they would respond to a friend if a friend told them “I just don’t see a need for God’s forgiveness, I think I’m good with the 'Man upstairs' already" She was like, 'wow' that’s a good question. She was really thinking hard about it. I then answered my own question by sharing my testimony describing how I grew up in a Christian home and my parents were missionaries in an organization that did Bible Translation. They spent 20 years to translate the bible for 3000 for people in a langauge group most people have never heard. I personally came to the point while attending a CHRISTIAN COLLEGE where I realized I didn’t have even the slightest desire to read the Bible for even 5 minutes a day. For the first time in my life I really asked some honest questions about what this book said, but even more important, why I didn’t have a desire to read it if it was so important that my parents and so many others would dedicate their lives to the truth they believed was inside it’s pages. I had to face the question that if this Book was true what did that mean for me? And then shortly after that I heard a sermon were the preacher (Ray Comfort ) was talking about the ten commandments (The Message was called “Hell’s Best Kept Secret) and I was very convicted by it, by the fact that under God’s standard of the 10 commandments, I was a liar, thief, and adulterer at heart, and I realized if I died at the very point in time, it would be just of good God, if he existed, to send me to hell. I had been convinced I was a Christian because of my upbringing., but knew at that point that without God’s Grace and Mercy I would go straight to hell. I realized that the Word of God was true and Jesus really meant what he said when he said “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven.” She basically responded saying, “Wow that really answers the initial question you asked me.” She was so open and seemed very impacted and agreed with me that so many people didn’t see sin the way God saw sin, and that "by the commandment, sin became exceedingly sinful" as the scriptures say. One of the things she had mentioned earlier was that people took God’s grace for granted. And after our conversation she was even more convinced of that. She was really deep in thought at the end of the conversation, and I was very encouraged when she said that what we were doing was a good thing, and said “Keep coming here and talking to people about these things.” Please pray that God would continue to reveal himself to her!
Monday, May 07, 2007
The long and short of it
Here's a couple of conversations from back in December.
I ran into Larry when he tried to sell me some flowers. I was able to witness to him for a few minutes, but then he came under conviction and disappeared into the club, which cut our conversation short.
2006-12-08 Larry
Jason and Brandon were hanging out on the street and since I had the same name it was easy to get in a conversation. Brandon was somewhat drunk, but very amicable. He had a Catholic background and theologically he agreed with everything that I said, however the fact that he was drunk and his favorite adjectives were four letter words (unedited in this audio) was pretty inconsistent with his profession of faith. This was a fantastic conversation. My dialouge with Jason gets a little sidetracked occasionally when Brandon decides to talk, but the whole conversation is definitely worth a listen.
2006-12-08 Jason and Brandon
I ran into Larry when he tried to sell me some flowers. I was able to witness to him for a few minutes, but then he came under conviction and disappeared into the club, which cut our conversation short.
2006-12-08 Larry
Jason and Brandon were hanging out on the street and since I had the same name it was easy to get in a conversation. Brandon was somewhat drunk, but very amicable. He had a Catholic background and theologically he agreed with everything that I said, however the fact that he was drunk and his favorite adjectives were four letter words (unedited in this audio) was pretty inconsistent with his profession of faith. This was a fantastic conversation. My dialouge with Jason gets a little sidetracked occasionally when Brandon decides to talk, but the whole conversation is definitely worth a listen.
2006-12-08 Jason and Brandon
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Audio is coming
I've decided to transition most of my posts from the writing medium to the audio medium. As a result, the blog has really been neglected lately. It's taking me some timeget a system down to edit and post the audio files amidst all the other busyness. The next several posts will be audio from the last several months, as I get it edited, all the way back to December of last year. Hopefully this will get things caught up and we will start doing weekly updates again.
Here's a conversation I had with a gentlemen named Reggie who was a bouncer outside one of the bars. The audio quality is pretty weak, but this was a very interesting conversation with someone who professed to be a Christian.
2006-12-08 Reggie
Here's a conversation I had with a gentlemen named Reggie who was a bouncer outside one of the bars. The audio quality is pretty weak, but this was a very interesting conversation with someone who professed to be a Christian.
2006-12-08 Reggie
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Ice
It's been a long time since we've posted. I wish I could say that there was a really good reason like my house burned down and I didn't have a computer, But alas I have no such reason. We have missed going out to Deep Ellum to witness and share our faith alot in the last couple of months, mostly because different people were sick, or two or three people in our group weren't able to go. The times that we did go, none of us wrote about it in the blog.
Tonight, Dallas is in the midst of a potential ice storm. It's not likely many people will be out partying or clubbing in Deep Ellum, and with the potential of 1/2 to 1 inch of ice we've opted to stay home. This gives me a good opportunity to catch up on the blog.
On one of the recent witnessing trips, I was able to capture some audio of some of my conversations with people, which I'm going to post here.
Tony asked us for money so that he could go to the shelter. I ended up giving him some money but not before we presented the truth to him.
2006-12-01 B Tony - Final.mp3
The second clip is a conversation with a group of people outside a club. The audio is a little distorted during the first two minutes because of the loud music booming from the club we were outside of. The guy I was primarily talking to was named Ray. Just a warning, Ray was colorful with his language, and this clip is not censored. (I haven't figured out an efficient way to do that yet.)
2006-12-01 C Ray.mp3
The next two clips are of the same conversation, with a Lady named Toni. This was a very intriguing conversation. Tony seemed as though she was oh so close to having the truth, but I perceived she still seemed to be trusting in her own works.
2006-12-01 D Toni Part 1.mp3
2006-12-01 D Toni Part 2.mp3
Jim and Catherine were husband and wife and homeless and asked for some help. This was my favorite conversation of the night. They were SO open. Jim had recently started reading the bible, and it was obvious that God was opening up his heart.
2006-12-01 E Jim and Catherine.mp3
Tonight, Dallas is in the midst of a potential ice storm. It's not likely many people will be out partying or clubbing in Deep Ellum, and with the potential of 1/2 to 1 inch of ice we've opted to stay home. This gives me a good opportunity to catch up on the blog.
On one of the recent witnessing trips, I was able to capture some audio of some of my conversations with people, which I'm going to post here.
Tony asked us for money so that he could go to the shelter. I ended up giving him some money but not before we presented the truth to him.
2006-12-01 B Tony - Final.mp3
The second clip is a conversation with a group of people outside a club. The audio is a little distorted during the first two minutes because of the loud music booming from the club we were outside of. The guy I was primarily talking to was named Ray. Just a warning, Ray was colorful with his language, and this clip is not censored. (I haven't figured out an efficient way to do that yet.)
2006-12-01 C Ray.mp3
The next two clips are of the same conversation, with a Lady named Toni. This was a very intriguing conversation. Tony seemed as though she was oh so close to having the truth, but I perceived she still seemed to be trusting in her own works.
2006-12-01 D Toni Part 1.mp3
2006-12-01 D Toni Part 2.mp3
Jim and Catherine were husband and wife and homeless and asked for some help. This was my favorite conversation of the night. They were SO open. Jim had recently started reading the bible, and it was obvious that God was opening up his heart.
2006-12-01 E Jim and Catherine.mp3
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