On this Friday night I met up with Ryan, Nathaniel and Mike on the corner of College and Clayton.
It’s encouraging to see new faces out sharing the Gospel! It’s been Bobby, Peter, Scott and Alex, for the most part, for the last 6 years.
When we arrived, Tuba Man was by the tree on our corner but as soon as we walked over to the pulpit
(the fire hydrant we preach beside) he picked up and moved down to the planter a little farther down.
I thought that was very kind of him so I went down and put a couple of bucks in his cup. He played and we preached and it worked out well.
The night started with us giving Gospel tracts to folks and a couple of conversations sprouted out of that.
Nathaniel preached first and had a couple people stop and talk with him. He has a nice approachable demeanor, which is a good thing in this type of ministry.
While he preached, Ryan, Mike and myself gave folks Gospel Tracts and tried to strike up conversations. At one point, as I was standing beside a group of
kids waiting to cross the street, one of them said, “There’s a time and a place for everything!”. I replied, “all times and all places are right for the Gospel.” Another young man looked at the kid and said, “He’s right!” and the kid agreed and said, “Yeah, you’re right.” Usually when this type of encounter occurs, these people are part of what Bobby calls the “But nation”. You know, those who say things like, “I appreciate what you’re doing, but…”, which is followed by some unbiblical reasoning as to why the sidewalk in Athens is not the right place to evangelize. You can see why their response was a pleasant surprise.
I got to preach after Nathaniel. We gave away more tracts and there were a few other conversations before we left about 1:30 am.
Ryan had a good conversation with a man he had spoken to 3 weeks earlier. I cannot remember the man’s name but please pray for him.
We also saw the new Police Chief walking around and got to talk with him. He said he tried to come downtown at least twice a week and walk around. Seemed like a really nice guy and I was really impressed that he was out there with his troops! You can’t lead from the rear!
It was a pretty calm, normal night. Many people heard the Gospel with many others receiving Gospel Tracts. Pray for Athens!
Until All Hear!
Stories From the Streets 