Saturday 09-25-10

It was pretty busy on Mill Ave tonight, and we distributed a lot of tracts.

A man named Alec and a couple of friends stopped, and Phil and I talked to them for a while. I took Alec through part of the Good Person Test and it seemed to make sense to him. They asked some questions and we had a good discussion.
I found out later that they were LDS, which I didn’t discern from the conversation. I guess that’s because they weren’t saying too much about what they thought or believed, but were asking questions and listening to what we were telling them. Seeds planted, I pray that they will go home and search the Scriptures as the Bereans did to find out the truth and not be caught up in something that is not true.

Three Native Americans stopped while I was doing some OA Trivia. They had been out drinking and wanted to know what the answer to the trivia question was. I gave it to them and we went through a couple of other ones. Two of them were laughing and having a good time, while the third, a big guy who seemed pretty drunk, stood close and stared at me as if he wanted to knock me off of the stool.

When I went into the Good Person Test, Mileno and Sharon admitted to lying, but after that Sharon wouldn’t admit to anything else. Mileno also admitted to stealing and using the Lord’s name in vain, while the third guy seemed to continue waiting for the opportunity to smack me. He made a couple of incoherent statements that sounded like he was trying to start a fight, but I wasn’t really sure what he was talking about, so I continued through the GPT.

Sharon asked what if they didn’t believe in an afterlife, and I explained that our belief isn’t what makes something true, but the object of our faith is what needs to be considered. She didn’t really want to get into a serious conversation, but Mileno said that he agreed with what I was saying.
They decided to head off to get something to eat, but the third guy stayed. I talked to him for a bit and found that his name is Bernard. (I heard Mileno call him “Junior” once as well).

Bernard seemed to be relaxing a bit and I found that he had been in the Marines. He said that he had done some “bad things to people” and I explained to him that there is forgiveness available through Jesus Christ. I never found out exactly what he had done, but a couple of times in our conversations, I noticed a tear in his eye. I took him through the Gospel and told him he needed to pray to God for forgiveness, after repenting and trusting in Christ alone. I told him that I would keep him in prayer and he asked me to pray with him there on the street, so I did.

He still hung around for a while more, and seemed to want to talk, so I went through it again with him, unsure of how much had penetrated the influence of alcohol. His friends finally came back and I gave them some tracts before they headed out. Please keep Bernard and his two friends in prayer.