I have been feeling led to do more than one on one witnessing and handing out tracts for quite some time now, so when I saw that there were still a few open spots left for the Super Bowl Outreach, I went to God in deep prayer about attending and I really sensed that I was supposed to go. This would be my introduction and initiation to open air preaching. Many of my evangelist "heroes" would be there such as Tony Miano, Mike Stockwell, Robert Gray, Andrew Rappaport, Bobby McCreery, and Bill Adams just to name a few. I knew this would be a great opportunity to learn from some very seasoned evangelists. It was that and so much more!
I do not want to bore you with every little detail, but the fellowship alone was simply amazing. I got to know so many precious brothers and sisters in Christ and it was phenomenal how you can just meet someone, but with this bond in Christ it feels like you have known each other your entire life! Its like a family reunion but with people you just met.
Anyway, we arrived on Thursday afternoon, listened to a great speaker, had dinner, fellowship, met with our team and team leader. My team leader was Andrew Rappaport of Striving for Eternity Ministries, which was awesome because I have followed his ministry and watched him preach on YouTube for quite some time. We had a great team and I knew that I would be learning a lot.
Friday was our first full day of ministry. Breakfast was at 7, followed by one hour of group prayer, then a couple of speakers, and then hit the streets. Our first spot to set up was in the French Quarter and before Mike Stockwell could even get up on the stool we had this guy run out from this restaurant across the street screaming and carrying on to "not do what your about to do!" Mike told him that he had no idea what we were about to do and the guy began ranting and starting dropping the F bombs. That's all it took for Stockwell!:) He told him that his mouth revealed the condition of his heart and he had to preach now.....and boy did he! It wasn't to long before more people were cursing us and then the police showed up. We had the legal paperwork already in hand to show that we had a right to be there, but the officer said we could not stay stationary and had to keep moving. So that's what we did. We split up into four teams and walked the streets preaching and handing out tracts. I also got to do my first "crosswalking" on Bourbon Street of all places!
We were blessed to have great hospitality from a small Assembly of God church who served us lunch and dinner while we were there. Mmmmm, gumbo!! They were so friendly and welcoming. After dinner the fun began. We found a great spot on the corner of Bourbon and New Orleans St. It was here that I got to do my first official open air! What a place to get initiated! I just prayed that God would use me...that He would speak threw me...that what came out of my mouth was honoring and glorifying to Him. It went very well and was encouraged by a guy who was, I suppose, listening from his bar stool came out when I was done, shook my hand and thanked me for the words I spoke. We just kept preaching one after the other until about 9 pm and handed out hundreds upon hundreds of tracts and also had several great one on one witnessing encounters. One particularly was very memorable that night with a young married homeless couple named Dillinger and Stevie. I shared the law and the Gospel with them both. Both expressed a deep sense of conviction of their sins and they thought being born again was getting baptized We had a great conversation and I explained everything thoroughly. I got them something to eat before we parted ways and I thanked them for taking the time to listen. I continue to pray for them.
By the end of the night I was simply exhausted! We were out about 9 hours total.
Saturday was essentially the same game plan as Friday. This time we had a great start right off the bat at Bourbon and Canal St. I got to preach about three times, handed out lots of tracts and had several more good one on one conversations. And for the second time, I had a guy come up to me after preaching and shook my hand, thanked me, said I gave him a lot to think about, and encouraged me to keep doing this. I thanked him for his words, turned around and when I looked back to talk to him and he was gone. I pray that God would use the foolishness of my preaching to bring him to genuine repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Basically the Gospel was continuously preached for about 9 hours! All Glory to God!
Sunday we had to get up even earlier and get out on the streets. This time we were on the other side of the street from where we were Saturday. We preached, handed out tracts, and had conversations for about half the day and then moved down to the Super Dome area before the game. It was crazy down there....so many people.
There are so many stories to tell and I will forever cherish this experience! First let me say that New Orleans is the most wicked dark place I have ever experienced. I can not put into words how spiritually volatile this place is. We definitely had our share of hecklers, being cursed at, spit on, beer thrown of folks, and flipped off more times than I could count. But that is to be expected when you are trying to shed light in such a dark place. But on the positive side we had many instances of people being open to the Gospel, many folks coming to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, several folks thanking us for being there and preaching. One of my favorite stories of the weekend came from Micheal Coughlin's team in which a guy from Chicago who was planning his suicide and came to New Orleans during Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl to live it up one last time before he took his own life. God had other plans for him! He heard the public proclamation of the Gospel, changed his mind, repented and put his trust in Christ right there. Glory to God! And then a cab driver told one team member that he had many people in his cab over the weekend that everywhere they went they couldn't get away from hearing about Jesus! How awesome is that!
Next year the Super Bowl is in New York area and the good Lord willing I will be there......will you?
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