Evangelism Escapades: Downtown Craziness Part 1

By the grace of God I was able to go out preaching to el Centro 4 times last week, and also today, Sunday.

Tuesday secret black ops mission with Giancarlo. Juan Manuel joined us as well (second picture below, on the right). He's been recently coming to our Sunday meetings and Bible studies. In the photo directly below, you can also see Adrian (center) approaching me. He has also been coming to our meetings.

Before open air preaching the above drunk man came up to me. We had talked with him before, several times. He came in the exact same manner that he comes to us everytime we see him: intoxicated, not remembering us in the least bit, babbling incoherencies, and asking for prayer. Voy a morir, he told me once again. And once again, I answered that what he said was very true, he surely would die...one day. I tried to share the Gospel with him but he looked at me with a blank stare and seemed not to register anything I was saying. When I offered to give him a free Gospel of John, holding it out in front of him, he reacted the way a vampire would upon seeing a cross. Very frightened, he dropped his backpack and started to cautiously walk backwards, away from us. I told him to come back, and he eventually did. Upon his request, we prayed for him, but he would not let us lay hands on him. He took out a 50 Peso bill and tried to give it to me several times, for no reason whatsoever, but I refused to accept it. He left a little while later, but when I started to open-air preach he came back and stood right in front of me. By all outward appearances, he still seemed to not understand anything that was being said. He would repeatedly stand in front of me, then walk away, and then come back again to listen. After I finished preaching he approached me again, and I pleaded with him to get right with the Lord and for the second time offered to give him the Gospel of John. This time he reacted in a more horrified manner--he started to cry, begging me not to "kill" him. He even raised his fists in the air and came towards me, trying to beat me up! I gave up trying to reason with this demonized man. Shortly after that he left.

 

The above is a picture from Saturday. From left, an unconverted man who often listens to us preach, and brothers Artemio, Juan, Josef, Giancarlo and Maurilio. Artemio, Juan and Maurilio are regular evangelists in Centro.

It was a usual night for us, with many people stopping to hear the Gospel as it was being preached. Before we left an inebriated man approached Josef, and like the drunkard from the Tuesday he began to speak incoherent babble. He was unreasonable and refused to leave. In the end we left him and went home.