God Hates Mardi Gras! Feb 2010

Here is some of my testimony from my mission trip to New Orleans with Br. Tracy Bays:

We arrived to the Raven Ministries camp about 7pm on Friday the 12th of Feb, 2010 using the van loaned to us by Consuming Fire Fellowship, thanks Jeff!   We stayed on bunks in a large unfinished warehouse type of building.  About 150 men sleeping in the same area.  We got settled in, they had a prayer/organizational meeting. We were blessed to be offered to use a half mile hailer during the meeting.  We loaded up on buses and went to the French quarter from 10pm until 2am.  We met Jeremy who was leading a busload of people from Amarillo, TX  to the Mardi Gras.  He offered to let us ride in the very nice bus that had been leased by his church.  Problems in getting us in and out with the buses were difficult to maneuver.  Moving 300 people in the same direction safely is another issue Raven ministries had to deal with.  Many of the people we worked with from Raven were first timers on the streets.  Our shirts and banners were quite striking compared to what they were used to seeing at their churches.   This first night was just trying to get our bearings with the Quarter and with the people we would work with for the next four days.  We found a quieter area that did not have too much noise comparatively speaking.  I used the mic for the HM hailer with a banner, and Tracy stood about 15 feet away with the horn and camera.  This confused the sinners who thought Tracy was preaching and approached him and tried to harass him.  I would rebuke them and tell them that the preacher was behind them and to pick their fights with me not the guy holding the horn.  We met a couple of guys from the crossbearers and Brian OConnell who stated they would be going down to the quarter first thing Sat morning.

During our preaching Tracy was slapped in the face with beads and was thankful he wore safety glasses.

Saturday morning

We met up with Brian O’Connell and followed the Crossbearers down to the French Quarter to find  reasonable parking.  We got down to the around 11am and preached until 4pm.  We preached at Jackson square for a few hours and noticed that there was a huge crowd in an amphitheater across the street near the river.  We found some wicked street dancers delighting the crowds with their sinful routine.  They finished up and I began to preach for about 20 minutes down from the top of the amphitheater and saw lots of conviction from the groups of people that stayed and listened to the preaching.  We saw the CrytoGod preachers, Kevin, Bill, Gail, Steve, and Stephen by looking for banners down Bourbon St.  We met them, worked with them for a few hours then they explained they would be taking a break for dinner and returning out to the streets for the evening preach. We stood with them and did one2one’s before leaving around 4pm.  We returned to Raven camp about 5pm had a nice spaghetti and salad dinner.  We rested prayed and returned back out to the Frech Quarter  from 9:30 pm until 3am.

Saturday evening

We returned with Raven but departed from them to join the another team of street preachers; we found Ruben, JK, and Brian Cranford leading a group of godly men.  We found out that they were leaving the streets for the night having preached for over 12 hours.  I soberly realized Tracy and I were going to have to face these crowds with no bull horns, just banners, and by ourselves until 3am. We had thought to find the RAVEN team, and rejoin them. But, since we were already in a good spot, for foot traffic, and we had our banners we decided to stay where we were. We did one2one’s and some preaching, as we were able without amplification. We found a police barricade, and we held onto that to help restrict sinners from sneaking up on us, or crowding us in. This forced the traffic flow to go around us, and was very effective for the most part.  There were many  one2one’s that night. We decided to wrap it up, and look for our meeting spot. So we headed for Jackson Square to meet up with Raven around 1am. We were in spiritual battles, preaching, and witnessing the Gospel. It took us some time to find our way around, and also to organize everyone to the pick up point. So we made it back to base camp around 4am.  We had some PB&J sandwiches to finish out the day!

Sunday morning

We left early about 11am Sun morning by ourselves in order to get good parking in the Quarter.   We had determined that we would go to Jackson Sq. to preach and hopefully meet up with JK and that group of preachers.  Unfortunately, we did not secure parking and ended up paying $20 to park in about the same area we parked in the day before.  We proceeded to Jackson Square to preach.  We preached for a bit in front of all the tables of palm readers and witches.  As I crossed the square I heard a bullhorn siren and looked and noticed a bunch of banners flying behind a truck.  We joined Brian’s team of preachers, Steve, Larry Craft and Larry Keffer.  We preached with them for a few hours moving back and forth across the square.  We had some interactions with the police who were threatening to shut down our amplification if we did not move while we preached.  This is a new ordinance this year which is probably not constitutional.   We decided to go over to the amphitheater I had preached at the day before when the street dancers were done and cry aloud.   Brian offered to let Tracy use his huge bullhorn!  He started preaching during the intermission.  He preached on righteousness, rebuked sin, and basing his theme on dancing and singing. That the Bible encourages dancing and singing, as long as it is to glorify the Lord. Then he started to preach on the wickedness in the dance act, and how they only put so much in because it sells. That because of the wicked hearts of people, entertainment is also wicked. I was rebuking the dancers, and told them they should change their act to be Godly, instead of sinful. They didn’t like that, and they ran up the stairs, and started to attack us. One of the dancers lunged at Larry Craft, and he stepped back. Then he turned toward Tracy.  He was standing looking down, breathing heavy, and balling up his fists. The other dancers grabbed him and pulled him back down the stairs. Tracy continued to preach. Their routine was filled with inappropriate gestures, Racist humor, and just promoting of theft, murder, and sin, in general. Probably comparable to most TV programs. After, the preaching we decided to go back to Jackson Square to preach.

 

Sunday evening

We intended to meet all the street preachers teams at a church in the Frech Quarter.  We headed that way, asking directions as we went.  As we were enroute we intersected with them on the street and followed them back to the AOG church.  We fellowshiped there for some time and met Br. Ken there.  Then some went to the Zulu parade on Canal St. and the rest of us to Bourbon St with the CrytoGod team.  While we were heading out to preach we intersected with Br. Dick C. and spent the night preaching with them.  Lots of one2ones and tracting during this time.  One time I was preaching and a very angry Catholic woman threatened me because God the Holy Spirit was threatening her religion. I told here a godly woman was meek and quiet to which she went ballistic!  She and her husband came over physically grapping my bullhorn to try and rip the microphone off.  I held on and eventually they let go.  About five minutes later, the police came and escorted me off the street to explain that I was being charged with assault!  I had called out to Br. Kevin as I was escorted off and he found out that we had video of the entire event.  We explained this to the police who then explained it to the liars who were falsely accusing me.  They left and I pray they repented.   I have seen many pictures of myself witnessing to people I can’t even remember there were so many.

Monday morning

Tracy: We determined to get there earlier than the previous day as we did not want to pay the parking fees.  We were successful and parked about 50 yards beyond where we parked the day before.  We preached on Jackson square for a few hours.  We preached back and forth on the square using the buildings to trap our amplified voices and reflect them back unto the square with great effect.  We knew there would be a Praise and prayer rally from 2pm-4pm.  We determined that we would go there to admonish the Christians to preach and not pray on the street corners.  We took a break and decided to go back to the Baptist church which had given us water and sandwiches the day before.  I went to the van to retrieve Br. Doug’s banner from the van that we might give it to him.  John stayed and rested. While I went to the van to get the banner, I was passing out tracts along the way. A Yeshua only, oneness penecostal engaged me in a one2one.  I was in a hurry, since John was waiting, and we were trying to make it to the praise rally that was being conducted in public. John wanted to preach against what they were doing, since it was very unbiblical. So, this man was telling me all sorts of things. Because of experience with oneness teachings in the recent past, I knew exactly what to ask. He also denies the validity of the written New Testament. So, I told him he was demonic, and went on to get the banner. I quickly returned to the Vioux Carre Baptist church where John was waiting.

John: We then proceeded over the direction of the praise rally.  We preached practically everywhere we traveled as people were everywhere.   As we almost got to the P&P rally, I had a vendor begin to blow his whistle in my face and commanding me to move down the street.  I inserted my faithful purple earplugs, rebuked him sharply, and stood my ground.  He told me he was calling the police which I encouraged him to do.  He was so angry that he blew his spittle through his whistle in my face and I turned from him that I may receive his spit on the back of my head.  This went on for some 10-15 minutes, constantly blowing his whistle.  His face was a bright scarlet and we have great video of the same.  I noticed a brother in the Lord across the street who had a great sandwich board, whom I did not know.  He was nodding his head in agreement the whole time I preached.  When the Lord led us over to him we just hung out with him and some other local brothers who were encouraged by our preaching to the whistling sinner.  We handed out tracts and preached to the line at the Café du Mond a famous coffee shop.  We could see the P&P rally but really could not get to it for the crowds.  So we just stayed there for about an hour as the rally finished.  Our signs and banners were so effective to the multitudes.  After the P&P broke up we went to the French Market with the local brothers to check that venue out.  We departed there to return to the van to pick up warmer clothes and returned to the Baptist church to get the banner for Doug.

Mon evening

John: When Tracy returned from the restroom at the Baptist church, I was having conversations about the P&P rally.  It was a difficult conversation as the people I was talking with were trying to defend what they were doing and condemn open air preaching.  This was the same group that preached with Smiley faces for Jesus.  But, thankfully the Lord worked some peace between us.  We decided to go buy some sandwiches and eat them at the AOG. We then went to try and return Doug’s banner at the Assembly of God church, they were closed. Man, o man….we returned to the Baptist church, and stored the banner there and ate our sandwiches with mouths closed if that is possible.  We were actively ignoring all of their unbiblical conversations.  At this time, the devil sent two of his puppets from XXXchurch.com from the street into the fellowship of believers.  I was astonished the Baptists would be okay with this and that maybe they did not realize who they were or what they represented.

TRACY: We had finished our sandwiches when the XXXchurch guys walked by. They went straight to the back of the Church to a storeroom and began putting away some of their gear.   They were wearing black T shirts with hot pink rams horns on the front. Across that was XXXCHURCH.COM in bold letters. I had known about them previously. I had watched a youtube video of Michael Markley rebuking them in a Walmart parking lot. Then I had also checked out their website. They claim to be Christian. They say they are helping Christians with their Porn addictions. Of course, we know that real Christians don’t have porn addictions. Real Christians have victory in Christ Jesus. So, this organization puts on the appearance of a internet porn website. They even have a slogan “#1 Christian Porn site”. The Holy Spirit was convicting me as I sat there and watched them in the back room. I was trying to avoid doctrinal differences with the others that were down at Mardi Gras to preach the Gospel. This was completely different than just doctrinal differences. So, when they attempted to pass by me, to leave, I started to admonish them. I said, “Don’t you know that the Bible says to not put on any appearance of evil?” He then looked at me and said, “Well, maybe the bible says that, and maybe it doesn’t” I then started to preach at him. I don’t remember much of what I said, because I was in the Spirit. When I started to do this, other people started to try and rebuke me. When the attention was taken off of the man I was talking to, the XXXChurch guys left. So, I started preaching to the people in the Church. There was a man that said I was taking the Bible too literally, and that everything was completely subject to interpretation. Then I started to put my bullhorn on, and my sandwich board, in preparation for leaving as I preached. I knew we would soon be made to leave. This man then said “which judgment day?” looking at the sandwich bard I was wearing, which says ‘Are you ready for judgment day?’ I then called him out on his hypocrisy, by telling he wasn’t even a Christian. He doesn’t believe in the validity of God’s word, and thinks there is more than one judgment day. There is more than one judgment, but there is one day on which all judgment takes place. That’s when they started ushering us out the door. John was also preaching and rebuking them at the same time as me. I quickly grabbed Doug’s banner, and started toward to door. The last thing I remember saying as I approached the door was “You know your problem? You have a man centered Gospel, that’s your problem!” I said, “What you need is a God centered Gospel!” They denied it, as they made the holiness preachers leave their church building.

JOHN:  I was also convicted that the XXXchurch was having fellowship here and able to store their unbiblical banners and I began to pray.  I noticed that Br. Tracy engaged one of them as they walked by and he began to rebuke them.  I went to get my gear and noticed all the ‘church’ members siding with the XXX  guys.  We were beginning to have an open air meeting inside this little church!  The devil puppet made a quick exit out the door and a young man began to heckle Tracy.  I got my camera rolling and one of the pastor’s walked up and asked my what were my motives for filming what was happening.  I replied that the truth will be known this church supports the XXX church and that more importantly God was recording all of these events.  Someone went to get the head pastor who defended the XXXchurch and even proclaimed that he had worn a shirt of theirs the night before.  I rebuked him sharply about having fellowship with darkness.  Him and two other men began to angrily tell me that we were leaving.   I replied that since light has no fellowship with darkness we had no problem with that at all.  I was gathering our things and the first pastor told me, ‘We have given you shelter and food for the last two days and why are we responding this way?’  I told him we would not be needing that anymore as the Lord would provide for us.  We were then banished from the fellowship of the sinners, Hallelujah!

We then returned to the streets to preach with Cry to God preachers on Bourbon St for the rest of the evening.

Fat Tues morning

JOHN: We had to get ready very early and got up at 4:30am to pack and prepare.  We got all of our gear loaded up in the loaner van from CFF.  They called about 5:30 and picked us up at 6am to take us to the final parade on Canal st.  They go so early because of driving/parking problems on Fat Tuesday.  We had about 15 men from CFF with us and another bright, but cold morning in New Orleans.  We loaded out and headed down to the parade route.  We grabbed some chow at McD’s and handed out tracts and witnessed to the long lines.  We mustered up and assembled at a major intersection for the day’s work.  Br. Kevin and Leon and I decided to take a walk to JS, preaching while we went.  The PA was blasting out God’s word between the business buildings as we went.  Unfortunately, I did not discern the change to residential buildings when a woman police officer commanded me to shut up.  I did not see her at first and thought she was a sinner trying to stop the preaching.  Fortunately, I saw her authority before I responded with a rebuke.  I hung my head and responded, ‘yes ma’am’.  She rebuked me again, I said, ‘yes ma’am’. She rebuked me again, I said, ‘yes ma’am’.  ROFL, then we proceeded to JS to see all the foolishness going on there.  They had thousands of people wearing all manner of wicked costumes, so we preached to them sharply for about an hour and half.  One notable one2one I had with a normal looking fellow was a bisexual Christian pastor.  He stated that he struggles with his sin and believed he was born that way.  I am sure you know what I told him.  I spoke with him for over 15 minutes and he was very convicted and interested in the things I was saying.  I admonished him to seek God until the Holy Spirit lived in him.  One man whom I have seen in videos with a bull horn rebuking preachers with, ‘blah, blah, blah’ every year was there.  I went to him closely and bound him in Jesus’ name, then I admonished him about how foolish what he was doing appeared.  Why couldn’t he say something intelligent against the preachers?  He then shut his mouth and went across the square to preach his nonsense to the lost.  Br. Kevin, Leon, and myself decided to return to Canal st. after about an hour of this.  Many preachers had shown up by this time and I believed the Lord wanted us to spread the net.  We returned to Canal via Bourbon st preaching all the way and arrived back on Canal st. about noon.  The venue had dramatically changed with the parade going on and our CFF group still holding ground for the Lord.

TRACY: I stayed with Brother Britt’s group. I stood next to Wesley, and Jude. Two of the younger men. I had the sandwich board that I had been using on previous days, and also my bullhorn. Brother Britt preached first. Then two more fairly young preached. Tim is only 16! It really encourages me to see such young men preaching the Gospel at Mardi Gras, on Fat Tuesday! They preach a very powerful Gospel. Preaching holiness, God’s wrath upon sinners, and the only way Jesus Christ! I preached at times in between the other preachers, when the Spirit moved me. We would preach awhile, then pass out tracts. We all either had banners, or sandwich boards. We were passing out the ‘Got fruit’ tracts that were customized for their fellowship, and also the ‘Who Dat?’ tracts that Brother Britt designed specifically for this outreach. He said we started the day with around 3000 Got ‘Fruit tracts’, and 5000 ‘Who Dat?’ tracts. So out of 8000 tracts, we had maybe 2000 left over. Basically we had a completely full backpack of tracts, at the beginning, and by the end of the day the backpack was about 80% empty! They really seemed to accept the ‘Who Dat?’ tracts. They were going very fast! Some people would throw them on the ground, only to be picked up by other people that walked by. I was also witnessing one2one, as people walked by. One man was asking me about demon possession. At first I thought he was saying either he himself was possessed, or someone he knew. He was a local to New Orleans, and it was hard to understand his Creole accent. It turned out it was his apartment that was possessed. Or, maybe something in his apartment. I had remembered that John had told me of a verse that demons could inhabit inanimate objects, like idols, or something. I had not had a chance to research that yet, so instead of denying his problem, I saw it as an opportunity to preach to him. I explained that even if, I did cast the demons out, unless he started living a holy life before God, they would return 7 times worse than before. Which is in Matthew 12:43-44. He didn’t like my solution to his problem, so he kept trying to explain his situation. I’m not sure if it was his wife, or girlfriend, but a women asked him if he asked me to rid them of their demon. Then I explained to her that unless you deal with your sin, and submit to the Lord, you cannot have the Holy Spirit within you. I told them about repentance and submission to Jesus. I also explained that if I simply cast out their demon, it would just return with 7 more. That they would just be in even worse shape. They were approaching their demonic problem like someone would deal with rats, or roaches. They just wanted an exterminator! So, I used the opportunity to confront them with the Gospel, and that they need to be born again, and get themselves right with God. Otherwise, nothing can be done. I hope they considered what I had told them. The big problem they have isn’t the demon, it’s the sin in their life! Another encounter was with a young woman. She was professing to be a Christian, and also partaking of the wicked celebration of Mardi Gras. I explained that unless she truly repents, of her sin, she is not a Christian at all. I showed her the many verses that explain this. She was holding to Original sin, and as a result, that we could never stop sinning. When I showed her what the Bible said, she started to cry, and she walked away convicted in her sin. Her friends yelled at me, saying I should be ashamed of myself, for making her cry. I then said, “I only told her the truth” they were consoling her in her sin, instead of telling her the truth. Of course, they also don’t know the truth. Meaning they also don’t know Jesus. They, like many people who claim to be Christian, follow the widely publicized antichrist, as taught in the visible church. There were many more one2one’s. It was great to see other preachers out there with us rebuking the crowd, and preaching the Gospel. Truth, righteousness, and holiness. Praise the Lord!

JOHN: After returning I had seen Br. Charlie with a few others moving through the crowds preaching.  I asked Br. Jeff if he would join me on an excursion.  We went to another area where there was a bus stop and the Lord turned me to a large ladder.  Beyond the ladder there were thousands of people and no parade!  I approached the owner of the ladder to request permission to preach from the ladder.  He vehemently denied my request.  I asked if he was a Christian, he said yes!  I rebuked him.  I went to the next ladder, I asked if the owner was a Christian, he said yes, I asked for the ladder, he denied, I rebuked Him for denying the opportunity for thousands to hear the trumpet call of repentance.  We backed off and began to witness one2one occasionally preaching to the crowds where there was no parade noise.  The floats reminded me of idols the multitudes would raise their hands to in adoration.  We got into a discussion with a man who claimed to be a Christian, denying we can live holy.  He got angry and threatened Jeff and burst his can of beer all over us.  Shortly after this a demon possessed woman made horns and charged me like a bull hitting me from the side like  a NFL fullback.  She then snarled out some wickedness, backed up 15 feet and charged Jeff almost knocking him over also.  We rebuked her and I went to get the police as she slipped back into the crowds.  {Police interaction}

After leaving about 3pm, we ate at Cracker Barrel enjoyed fellowship.  We stayed Wed and rested in MS, attended their Wed night fellowship.  Leaving this loving fellowship of believers was difficult not only for us but for my wife and children also.  We left early am Thurs to return home to KY.

Praise the Lord for 10-12 hour days crying aloud for the gospel of Jesus Christ and for the lost to humble themselves and receive His mercy, Hallelujah!