First Friday 08-03-12

Last Friday, we went to Chick Fil A to check out the protesters, and found a few supporters as well. We met a nice lady named Joy, and Tom asked her if she was a good person. She answered, “No, but she knows Who is.” We talked with her for a while. She had been there for breakfast, lunch and dinner, talking with anyone who was interested.

We also saw a couple of families that Tom knew from a church he used to go to. We gave them invitations to the upcoming Way Of The Master crash course.

After that, we headed out to Roosevelt and 3rd for First Friday.

I spoke with three girls went through the Good Person Test (GPT), but they just didn’t seem to care, too busy with the things of the world to worry about the future. I pray that changes before it is too late for them.

I did some Open Air, and Kaley and Lindsey stopped to go through the test. They were attentive and listened, then we got a pancake mix guy. Ha, I hadn’t seen one of these guys in a while, they come up to interrupt by yelling, “You ain’t got no pancake mix!” over and over again. I told him I didn’t like pancakes, and someone else told him there was a Safeway down the street. I continued with Kaley and Lindsey, explaining the Gospel and their need for a Savior.

Another couple came by, they wanted a glow stick but were unwilling to go through the GPT because they just wanted it for their kid. They were not willing to do what they had to in order to get it, so they left.

Marcus was doing some OA, and there was a kid with a skateboard and a couple of girls hanging around. They were giving him a hard time, saying that they thought a lying thief would still be a good person. Tom was standing to the side, and said, “Well, I want this, so I’m just going to take it.” He grabbed the kids skateboard and started walking off. Shock gave way to anger across the kids face as he ran after Tom, who had stopped a few steps away. He explained that he was simply making a point that a thief would not be considered to be a good person, and I think he really got the point across.

Pray for the lost, that the Lord works in their hearts, convicting them of their sins and drawing them to Himself for their salvation and for His glory alone. And pray for more workers in the harvest field (Luke 10:2).

Soli Deo Gloria

First Friday 04-06-12 Good Friday

My wife and I took the kids with us out to First Friday in downtown Phoenix to hand out some tracts and evangelize. There were a lot of people out there, and the kids handed out tons of tracts. One person dropped one of the tracts our six year old had handed him. She wasn’t about to let that go, she went over and said, “Excuse me, you dropped this.”

Here's a couple of pics when there was a little break in the crowd.   Many times you couldn't even see the people on the other side of the sidewalk - it gets very crowded out there.

McKayla recited the Ten Commandments on the speaker system a couple of times, and Tom stayed busy taking people through the Good Person Test for glow sticks. Keith (from my current class) came out to see how things go on First Fridays, and we saw a lot of other believers out proclaiming the Gospel as well.

Please pray for the lost, that God would convict them of their sin and draw them to Himself for their salvation and His glory. And if you are a believer, make some time to be obedient to the Great Commission. God doesn’t need us, but what a privilege to be used for His holy purpose in saving people. There is no greater honor.

Luke 10:2
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First Friday 06-03-11

We took our 8 year old daughter out with us to First Friday. She loves going, but we don't make it out there very often. She took advantage of the time and handed out tons of tracts. She also got on the box a couple of times to recite the Ten Commandments.

A young kid and his girlfriend stopped by to ask me for proof of God's existence, I gave him the analogy that a building is proof that there is a builder and a painting itself is the proof that there was a painter, so creation is obvious proof that there was a Creator, but he didn't want to accept any "lame analagies." Basically, he had no answer to this simple way of proving God's existence, so he simply rejects it. But he's left without excuse (Rom 1:20). May the Lord work in his heart and bring him to salvation.

A woman named Teresa went through the Good Person Test, after a couple of trivia questions. She was a believer, but explaining the Law and the need for a Savior seemed to make more sense to her.

A couple of our atheists came out and set up a video camera in front of us. They said they were trying out a new camera and hung around for a while before moving on to another location. Interesting that they decided to film us, I'm thinking they want to get their own critique ready for further opposition to the street preaching.
We were only out there for a couple of hours, but it was very busy. We distributed a lot of tracts and talked with a lot of people.

Soli Deo Gloria

First Friday 11-05-10

You'll have to push the pause button on the music player on the right in order to listen to the Ten Commandments being given by 8-year old McKayla in the video below.



We passed out tons of tracts and had some great conversations with people who were walking by. McKayla handed out tracts faster than I could keep up. May the Lord be glorified in all that we do.

Soli Deo Gloria

First Friday 07-03-10

First Fridays bring crowds of people to downtown Phoenix on the first Friday of every month to check out art vendors and musicians. Wherever there are crowds, it's a good place to witness to people. This month (as well as next month), there were no vendors as they seem to be planning on reworking First Fridays. But the crowds were still there and so were we.

Tom, Alan and I met Anne, Leigh and Joe downtown and we passed out tons of tracts. Tom thought of the idea to bring cold bottles of water and offer them to people who could give the correct answer a simple question, "Are you good enough to get into heaven?" Of course, this usually runs into further questions and discussion and we were able to witness to a lot of people in this way.


After a little while, our friendly neighborhood atheists showed up with a bullhorn and some of their "Anti-tracts." They put these together themselves and pass them out in an attempt to counter our evangelism efforts. They take Scripture out of context and mock it, but I find more of their anti-tracts tossed on the ground at the end of the night than our Christian tracts.

We talked to a lot of people, I'll just touch on a couple of them here.
I discussed the Gospel with a guy in a dress, but couldn't quite get through to him. He believed that it was all about love, and that all religions are the same, as is popularly taught today. He claimed to be a Christian and eventually went on his way.

Tom had just finished an Open Air and a girl came up and asked what we were talking about. He explained it to her and she wanted to hear more. Her name was Frida and she listened intently to the entire message. We gave her some tracts to take with her, and I also gave her a CD of Hell's Best Kept Secret and True and False Conversions (available to listen to freely at LivingWaters.com ).

Later we talked to a young man named Israel and a couple of his friends. They seemed interested and took some tracts with them when they left.

Alan gathered a crowd for some Open Air preaching, taking them through the law then grace of the Gospel.

 














We talked to a young wolf - very cool costume, the mouth even moved when she spoke. She kept saying that "we don't get what we deserve". I wasn't sure exactly what she meant by that, and tried to get some clarification. I said, "Some people get what they deserve", but she disagreed. I asked her if everyone would get into heaven then, and she just repeated that no one gets what they deserve.

It was difficult to understand her through the mask, though, and I couldn't really get anywhere. We talked to her for a little while and she claimed to be a Christian as she left us.

Over all, it was a great night of sharing the Gospel.

Soli Deo Gloria