03/07/10
This is our third year in a row that we have done a week long mission trip to Daytona Beach. The first two years was with Jesse, Kerrigan and I, this year Tracy has been added to the front lines. This year we confirmed when the most populace week of spring break. We arrived in Daytona Beach after 12 hours of driving to the mission. We were a bit tired and got settled. Praise the Lord for Kerrigan’s grandfather, Mr. Kelly who allows us to use his great condo just minutes from the beach every year. Jesse called to meet us out at the clubs after they got done eating. We waited for a bit and decided to go and meet them there. We noticed it was a bit slow, but walked around and noticed a lot of people at Aqua. We decided to set the preach up there. Kerrigan began and immediately we had lots of mockers and scoffers. The bouncer we see every year went and got his motorcycle parked it in front of us while revving it to try and drown out the preaching. But, the Lord led me to get my PA and hook it up in series with Kerrigan’s and we trumpted the gospel despite his wicked suppression of the same. I told him later he was no spring chicken and he would be facing my King soon and that my witness was true. We preached for over two hours, hundreds heard and mocked, some were under conviction, and we had some good one2one’s despite the devils who were acting lawlessly. There was lots of physical threats especially from the young military crowd whom we see every year and exhort them to stop their warmongering. One young man who got into my face a dozen times, finally calmed down enough for me to bring the truth to his mind and heart. He immediately left with his friends, praise the Lord for His Word. After a few hours of this we decided to call it a night. Unfortunately, we did not have a chance to meet up with Br. Jesse and Raven ministries.
More to come soon. Please pray for us, thank you.
John
03/08 a.m.
I awoke early for reading, prayer, and my usual walk on the beach. Daytona Beach has a great flat walking beach with nice firm sand. I really miss my bride and children during these times. It was a beautiful sunny day, with a light breeze I handed out a few dozen tracts and talked with a half dozen people. A few notable interactions I would ask you to pray for: 1. Ray who resides on the beach and I have seen him two years in a row at the same place. 2. Catherine who is the toll agent for the vehicles driving on the beach. Ray told me the same thing last year that he had been prayed for by the Christian racing club on many occasions. I kept bringing him back to the gospel and urging him unto repentance. He seems to believe he is saved and on the surface it seems so. But, he will throw out unbiblical thoughts so often he needs to seek the Truth in Christ. Catherine is a Roman Catholic by tradition but rejects many of the wicked practices of the church. I exhorted her to seek God while He may be found and not be satisfied with the teachings or assurances of men.
After returning to the condo, we decided to get going to the daytime preach. We almost always set up right behind the Beach Shoppes a beach mall of sorts that connects to the public parking lot in Daytona. We arrived at the public boardwalk about 11 am to find that the boardwalk was in the process of almost being completely renovated. The benches we usually stand on to get elevation to preach were gone! We had a hard time deciding where to preach. This is probably one of the most important decisions a preacher needs to make. We consider the following when making that decision:
- Where is the natural flow of people? 2. Where are the manmade or natural gateways through which people flow? 3. Wind direction and speed, which will cast or diminish your voice. 4. Is there anywhere for people to sit or congregate? 5. Are there any outdoor eating areas? 6. Are there any groups of people there already and why? 7. Is there any shade in which the listeners or preacher can take cover? 8. Are your listeners looking into the sun while you preach?
These are things we look for when making our decision to preach. Jesus went into a boat upon the water to preach to people. Why? He was providing some separation from himself and the people and the natural amplification of the water is amazing. We decided to preach in between our usual spot at a gateway from the plaza unto the boardwalk and some other elevation about 100 feet away. Tracy preached first, getting a few hecklers, for just over an hour. Then we decided to move closer to the gateway to illicit a better response from the people.
We should always be preaching for the glory of God and if He brings listeners to enjoin us, Hallelujah. We were not able to draw too many to engage us in discourse but people were hearing despite their suppression of God’s Word. Hundreds heard the truth whether they liked to hear from Jesus today or not. Often we are accused of pushing Jesus upon them by other professing Christians and the lost. Well, actually this is exactly what Christ commands us to do. What you have heard whispered in the ear, SHOUT from the housetops! We are to compel them to come in to the house of the Lord.
Kerrigan took over the preaching and we were able to get a few good sized crowds of a hundred or so. We see that hecklers or discourse with an atheist or drunkard will draw people to the preacher. Kerrigan has become an excellent apologist for the faith. He uses pre-suppositional apologetics to destroy the worldview of the lost and show it as foolishness. Open air preaching is God’s proven and approved method of evangelism, though the ‘church’ and the world hates to hear of it. I care not for the flatteries of men, but only the approval of my King.
Brothers Jesse, Troy, Scott, and some others from Raven Ministries International joined us for the work. Bro Jesse preached toward the sinners on the beach and stirred up a good crowd of 150 or so that a beach patrol officer came and advised us we could not use the PA and stir up a crowd to ‘rioting’. I explained that the law allows for religious speech amplified and that the police would have to control the crowd verses shutting down the preaching. He smiled, professed his Christianity, and left. Unfortunately, he did not stick around to enforce what we talked about.
I preached for a short while pleading with sinners to get right with God and trust the Savior. I used the band shell to catch my voice and amplify it into the mall area. It is very effective as the mall thoroughfare catches that preaching into all the restaurants and shops. We wrapped up and went home and had a great time of therapy in the hot tub at Kerrigan’s grandfather’s condo. They had just installed a brand new one that was deeper, hotter, and more air jets. It was just the prescription from the Lord for my weary bones. Preaching the gospel is not only spiritually draining but physically as well. We find that will we are in the middle of the battle, God supernaturally provides the strength. As soon as we leave the field our weaknesses are revealed. We had a nice Mexican chicken casserole that Angela had made. Our brides are so loving they made us nice casserole meals that they froze that we could have hot homemade meals all week long. I praise God for Nida and Angela!
03/08 p.m.
After dinner, we rested, prayed and went back out about 10 pm. Tracy started preaching across from Razzel’s with a half mile hailer. It was very loud and effective at piercing the loud music and hard hearts of the sinners that were lined up for the sin they were planning to do. We quickly came under a barrage of physical attacks by the ‘loving’ sinners who were so intolerant of our preaching and methods. The police had to be called and two men were charged and cited with battery. These police were great and really took charge of the situation. The half mile hailer that Raven let us borrow was ruined in the attack. We decided that two would return the hailer to the car and Jesse and I would stay out and preach at Aqua’s another club around the corner. Tracy and Kerrigan left and Jesse and I began to walk to the club, we did not make it 150 feet before we were surrounded by a group of venomous sinners who justified their sin, unrightly judged us, then hypocritically condemned our pleas for them to turn or burn. Some time later, Bro T and K returned and joined in what had become a fiasco. One very notable issue was a ‘Calvinist’ drunkard who assaulted all of us, many times, broke my camera, and stalked us back to our car. We did not return all the way of course, and he would not let Tracy leave. He became very vile and violent, and we called the police. They showed up in a few minutes, the perpetrator was there. The police put the spotlight on him, then told him twice to leave. We were astonished as we were telling them that was them man that assaulted all the while getting the sinner protection from the law. We asked them what they were doing and they stated they did not see anything, and if we were physically hurt. We replied no, but that we wanted to press charges. These police were so wicked we must report them to their supervisors. Where lawlessness abounds the hands of the sinner is strengthened.
03/09 pm
We met Jesse and family on the boardwalk about 2pm preaching from the small public park on the boardwalk in beachside of the Hilton hotel. Kerrigan preached for awhile and we did not stir much interest and decided to move back our usual gateway in Daytona. We got there and Kerrigan led off the day and gathered a good sized crowd of 150 or more. He used three proud, drunk, wicked men to draw interest in the preaching. They continually talked of their masturbation even in front of women and children, they were wicked. They boasted that they had drawn the crowd, Kerrigan then corrected them saying that God used them for our purposes. After Jesse preached, I got an opportunity to lift up God’s word to the people. I had one young man who was very focused on my ‘no porn’ button and asked if he could have the same. I told him if he was a nice sinner, at the end of the day I would give it to him. This dialogue with him enabled me to get some good interaction and discussion going about moral issues. We love to proclaim the truths of the Bible in this type of venue. Most get quiet and they will begin to raise their hands, if someone interrupts or gets rude I will not speak with them anymore. This helps to control the crowd and keeps them from machine gunning the preacher with questions. Many times it seems that they don’t want the answer. Though at other times I believe they get excited and are trying to engage their minds with many concepts they have never heard before, either in home, school, or their churches. While beach preaching we do lots of reproving of immodest dressing of the women and their strings that they call clothing. 1 Tim 2:9-10
After I preached I had some great interaction with a young man who was under heavy conviction about his sin. He was a Roman Catholic who did not like Christian judgment. I explained some verses and asked that he write or call me. As the day was winding down, Jesse asked if we could have dinner together. I am so appreciative of time with the Morrell’s getting to talk with them and hang out with their cute baby, Elizabeth.
03/09 pm
We left and went to Pizza Hut for dinner meeting with Bro Jesse, Krista, and Elizabeth. We were even heckled inside Pizza Hut from sinners who had heard preaching earlier this day. Hallelujah, we got to preach to them again! They began by laughing and making snide comments about the Bible after they were done eating. This escalated and we ignored them while we ate our food. We finished our meal and I went to pay the cashier, they began asking us questions and pointing out that one of them was attending Mt. Dora Bible College here in FL. Kerrigan gave him a great verse about coming out from amongst them and touching no unclean thing. I believe it was just the right scripture prescription for this young man. He was one of the chief mockers during the daytime preaching. We departed exhorting many in the restaurant to get right with our Lord.
We went to file a complaint against the two unlawful police officers from the night before after our meal. We went to the beach station and talked with a Lt. Pera and Sgt. Webber, they were very accommodating and assured us our protections. It was a really good interaction with them and we decided we would not want to either press a complaint against their officers or the young man that assaulted us the night before. We understand their forces are overwhelmed during this time of sin assaulting their fine city and desired to save them some work with all the paperwork and documentation. This seemed to really change their countenance and I believe garnered favor with them. I had sent our PinPoint Evangelism pre event letter to the Police Chief and the Mayor the Friday before we left. I am so thankful that we did as this document is instrumental in assuring our civil rights are protected. We returned to the condo, for a bit of rest and recuperation before hitting the streets earlier than we have in the past.
Earlier in the day, we had seen a plane flying a banner about a ‘Girls Gone Wild’ event across the intercoastal waterway at the Coliseum. We talked about it and decided just to go to Razzles early and call it a night after a few hours. We got there preached to a few but realized that the event over the bridge was taking away all the sinners. We decided to flex our plans and go over there. When we turned the corner to the Coliseum, was I ever thankful we did go. There was a two lines of hundreds with police stationed in one lane of the street. We got set up on the median across from them and began to lift up our Savior. Of course, when you have group of people that are obviously planning on sinning when you start hitting them with God’s Word they get a bit upset. We all took turns preaching with a few sinners coming to speak with us one2one. Kerrigan was dealing with two young men and one of them spit in his face. Kerrigan went, got the police and they quickly arrested him! That was really a great demonstration of law enforcement for the rest of the crowd. We took turns showing them the truths of the Bible and the madness they were in by opposing God. About 1 am a fight broke out amongst the sinners and the police had a dozen officers there in just a few minutes. Very well coordinated and the perpetrator was quickly tazered, cuffed and the crowd quelled. We decided to flee the mayhem and get Jesse back to his truck near Razzle’s. As we approached we saw the Raven group was about our Father’s business with a ten-mile hailer. Now, in the preaching business most everyone knows about a powerful little amplifier called the ‘half-mile’ hailer. This horn that Brother Troy owns, has a 2.5 foot horn attached to a powerful amp. This wonderful instrument is then mounted on a seven foot extra heavy duty mount. It is absolutely beautiful to hear God’s Word being trumpeted above the chaos of the world’s noise. I got really excited and Tracy and I decided to come back out after dropping off Kerrigan at the condo. We returned and decided we would not carry bullhorns or banners, no need with the set up Raven had installed there in front of Razzle’s. We grabbed a bunch of tracts and headed up there. We did small groups most the rest of the night having great interactions with lots of drunkards of which I used to be a ‘chief’. One of the young preachers got into a personal discussion while on the microphone so I decided I would ask if I could give the Mega-horn a try. It was truly an awesome instrument to proclaim the beauty and majesty of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you Lord!
03/10 am
Awoke to a beautiful sunny day that the Lord has made, and we were glad in it! We were a bit wearied as we got back very late the night before about 3am. Kerrigan had to take care of some business on the internet at McDonald’s wi-fi network. He and I went there and praise the Lord as he worked He brought in hundreds of young people for breakfast. I had a great time passing out tracts talking with a few people. Of course they all admired my ‘Turn or Burn’ shirt with it’s bright fluorescent yellow color. I like to ‘highlight’ God’s Word. We finished up there and returned to condo to prepare for the day. We got to the boardwalk and noticed many of the young people had migrated down the beach to a large hotel about 300 yards from our usual position. We preached for a few hours with small crowds gathering. A man named Dan, that we met the day before, showed up with his homeless friend Luke. They are YHWH/Yehoshua believers, they engaged Tracy and I about these issues. We explained that we were there to preach not to discuss these types of doctrines. I let them know that I have studied this issue for about a year, and am willing to discuss this but not on the mission field. They consumed about an hour of our precious preaching time disputing these false teachings. I admonished them to start preaching if they believed they had the truth. I don’t really want them to preach this nonsense but I also know that by challenging them to take these things to the lost, hopefully they will be shown by the Holy Spirit of their errors. We moved down the beach to where all the sinners had migrated and decided to take the banners and bullhorn on the beach. This was great as we found that we now were hitting the mark turning the beach upside down for a period of time. I prayed as we walked that the Lord would protect us physically, especially from the dozens of footballs that were ‘innocently’ thrown to try and hit us. Praise the Lord none of us got hit. I picked up one ball and walked down the beach with it looking back to see who the owner was, but no one followed. I rolled the ball back to the general area and the coward came out of the crowd to retrieve his ball. There were some young Catholic girls dressed in strings that decided they would tell us how to preach, Kerrigan rebuked them sharply and they returned to their vainglory of sun tanning. We decided to go back up to the board walk and I began to lift up my voice asking the students which schools they attended. There were a dozen students from WKU, where we regularly preach two to three times a semester. Of course, they complain but many of them have begun to take a friendly attitude towards us. They hate the preaching but deep down they know that we care for them. I believe that our preaching though it may be fiery has lots of God’s love demonstrated and His grace manifested throughout. There was a older man named Lenny who had joined us, he has been in touch with Kerrigan about open air preaching. He seemed very reserved but I asked him if he would help me hold another bull horn in series that God’s Word would go forth with greater intensity. After I was done preaching I asked him if he would have a go, encouraging him that God would fill his mouth with His Word. He hesitated. But, praise the Lord, he decided to obey God in this matter. I was very encouraged to see Lenny take this step of faith. God did fill his mouth with the truths from the Bible. I don’t think many Christians realize that by studying we are storing up His Word in our hearts. God’s will is that His Word go forth in power by the Holy Spirit within us. When we obey Him this way it strengthens our faith in most every area. Jesse preached for a bit and drew a hostile crowd of a dozen or so students which would have turned into a good meeting if we had not run out of time. We had to get back as Kerrigan had some dinner plans that he had made. I got a message from the Assistant City Attorney stating that they had gotten the correspondence from PinPoint Evangelism. He further stated that the city believed that we would need a permit to continue our amplification work. I read through the city laws a few times and our legal letter to the city in preparation for my discussion with him. I called him and had a very cordial conversation with him. We agreed that we still have the right to amplification but I understood the concern of disturbing residences that are about two blocks away outside the commercial district we are preaching. I would find out later, he did not communicate this change to his subordinates in his chain of command. I had invited Jesse and his family over for dinner and we had a great time of fellowship consuming another fine meal that Angela had made. We rested for at bit waiting for Kerrigan to return. We got back on the streets about 10 pm stationing ourselves across from Razzel’s. Immediately the police grabbed Jesse by the arm to cite him for using amplification without any warning at all. We spoke with Sgt. Mayes in depth and finally to his Lt. and we convinced them that we wanted to cooperate with them and obey the law. I called the city attorney, who promised us favor but did not send out another email concerning our situation. This took about 45 minutes of our precious time there on the streets. We had known a new shift was taking over and expected we may have some transition trouble. I asked the guys to start praying the Lord would break through this Sgt’s resistance to the work. Praise the Lord, He delivered us through another trial. It is very important to understand how we should deal with the police, watching your tone, presumptions, body language, etc. Some police officers can be very prideful at times and if you get on their hit list it is hard to get favor with them now or in the future. We got back to the preaching for about ½ an hour and the Raven crew showed up with their tower of power 10 mile hailer I described earlier. I debriefed them about what had happened with us. As we talked I realized that the police were probably trying to bully us into not using the small 7 watt amplifiers that we have. The Raven horn is 50 watts with a very large horn which concentrates the sound signal for long range penetration into the noise of the world. The young man Jared did not seem the least bit concerned, he explained that they go through this all the time but the district police chief gives them favor, and they would not have a problem. Sure enough, his testimony was true about what the police would do. It was great having the Word of God clearly preached to thousands as the passed through this wide gate to hell called Razzell’s. I asked Tracy if he would like to tract the line with me, which he did. We had dozens of great conversations with lots of sinners. I even had a group of five Irish men get out of line, I hoped to go home and repent. About 1 am we called it a night and retired for some rest from the battle for souls.
03/11 am
We awoke to severe rain and winds. I began to pray the Lord would break the weather. I found out later in the morning that Daytona and surrounding areas were under a tornado watch. Bummer, but God is in charge and as I meditated upon the weather I realized the Lord was giving us some rest from the battle. So, we relaxed and prayed that we would be able to get out to the battle that night. Kerrigan and I went to McDonald’s to check our email, I spoke to one of the worker’s there and she became very animated about us ‘judging’ everyone. She stated that her cousin was a Christian preacher and a crack head. Well, I tried to show her 1 John 2:3-4 and she stiffened her neck concerning his spiritual condition. The Lord was really working on her, as I went to the bathroom I heard her talking with a co-worker about God. Then when I returned I overheard her talking to a group of customers about God. Unfortunately, she was defending sin instead of the gospel of Christ.
03/11 pm
We got out to Razzle’s about 9pm and the crowds were out! It was obvious to me that they did not like being cooped up all day and were juiced for a night of revelry. I began the preach using my truth horn to hit the sinners ears, hearts and minds with God’s truths. I preached for about an hour while Tracy was doing some one2one work and Kerrigan was recording. I gave my horn to Kerrigan after I got done in order to go drop my sweatshirt off at the car as it had gotten very warm. I retrieved my sandwich board and proceeded to return. As I got back to the clubs, I was lead to speak to a few women about their salvation. One girl named Whitney came under such heavy conviction about her sin she began to cry. She explained that she had been born again when she was younger and that she knew she was not living right. I pleaded with her to return to salvation in Christ, to come out from amongst the wicked. I spoke with them about ten minutes and realized I needed to get back to the workers. I turned around and there was Kerrigan and Tracy they had come to check on me. I praise God for fellow warriors for the Lord who look out for the safety and well being of the others. What a bond there is between the laborers of the Lord’s white harvest field! We returned to a street corner right next to Razzle’s which has lot’s of traffic between bars and we are able to strike up pretty good conversations. There was a group of young people that stopped because they did not like Tracy’s sandwich board. One of the young women began to curse Tracy, trying to kick him in the shins. Tracy was kind of dodging the blows and she became frustrated with that, slapping him in the face. I was trying to get my camera out, when her boyfriend slapped Tracy in the face twice! I was flustered as my camera had gotten caught in my pocket and I got it out just in time to video them fleeing the scene of their crimes. After this I noticed a young man who was sitting down on one of the rocks near the corner. He was incredulous that people treated us this way, saying he had never seen anything like it. He explained later that he had called his mother and was explaining everything to her. He kept repeating, ‘I have never seen anything like this, they hate God’s Word.’ I realized he was under conviction about why he had come down there two nights in a row. He disappeared into the night, I pray to go and seek God. Raven had set up their tower of power to preach the gospel, which of course stirred up the crowds. They could not escape the torment of having to listen to the truths Jesus taught without shame. Tracy, Kerrigan and I hit the lines with tracts again. I noticed lots were being thrown down, so I have started to conserve the few hundred that I have left for people I talk with who seem sincere or are at least sober. I did notice something else, after 3 and ½ days of hard preaching even some of the lost were thanking us and encouraging us to keep doing what we were doing. Isn’t that ironic? They will disregard the gospel tract and their salvation; and then thank us in the same conversation. We decided to call it a night about 12:30 am and headed back to the condo. Praise the Lord, he had held off the rain that was predicted by men to show up at 11 pm. I found out after I returned that one of the young preachers, Jesse, that was there on the streets had just been converted last year. He was listening to our preaching while in line at Razzell’s then he went home and confessed his sin and trusted Jesus Christ as His Savior. Hallelujah! All heaven rejoices when one sinner repents. I had met him in Mardi Gras last month. Though I did not hear this story from him. I knew he was very zealous, especially for preaching Jesus and Him crucified. This was such an encouragement to me. We often are discouraged by so many professing Christ asking, “How many people have you seen saved by your methods?” My reply is, ‘This is God’s primary method of evangelism. How many have been saved by your methods of hanging out with them while they sin?”
03/12 am
We awoke to another rainy overcast day, got some good prayer and studying.
I decided that the weather was not going to stop God’s Word being preached today. As Tracy and I got there a young man, told me, ‘Hey it’s raining today, why don’t you guys take a break?’ This only fueled my zeal for his soul, I replied, “You won’t get a day off in hell, why should we take a day off because of some rain?’ This reply left him speechless and he walked off shaking his head. A young woman behind me said, ‘That was rude.’ I told her many truths from the Bible seem rude.’ The carnal mind accepts not the teachings of my Master. We went to the boardwalk and I began to preach with my voice bouncing off all the hundreds of patios of the major hotel chains here on the beach. With the light rainfall the beach was very quiet except God’s Word was booming. There were many hundreds within the mall and I am sure listening in their rooms. We had a sinner come and confirm he could not relax in his hotel room because of the preaching penetrating his room. Praise the Lord! We also found out that tomorrow there would be a big BET event in the band shell from 2-4pm. That’s great. We will be able to preach to the crowds before the event when we plan to leave at 2pm to return home to our loved ones. We returned to the condo, for rest, prayer, dinner, and preparations for the night of preaching ahead.
03/12 pm
We decided to get out early as we figured the students would be out early as they had been cooped up all day also. We were wrong because it was very slow until about 09:30, I guess maybe they were exhausted from a week of harming themselves with drunken revelry and late nights. Things did start to pick up while Tracy was preaching and he got some hecklers who were ‘Christians’ that were ignorant of God’s Word. This is so common in America that no one seems to know which way is up or down. We worked this particular street corner then moved across from Razzle’s as the line to preach had formed. We took up our positions and Jesse preached for a bit. Handing out tracts had really become almost fruitless as so many had already received, they did not desire, or they threw them away. But, this was Friday night there were some local faces we had not seen during the week so I persisted. We had a tow truck that began to heckle us with it’s alarm system. The driver had posted his truck right behind our preaching then would turn the alarm on anytime Jesse would speak. Suppression of the truth, this is the motto of the enemies of God. We decided to move down the street a bit to get away from the noise and get a good angle on the crowd. This worked well, and the driver got frustrated and left, Hallelujah! Tracy took over the preaching for a bit, and Raven came and set up the tower of power where we had just been. They began to preach, and Tracy and I went to work the lines with tracts. Most, maybe 90% refused the offer of mercy from Jesus Christ presented on the tracts. I took Kerrigan and Tracy back to the condo, I had decided to return to the work with Raven until they or the sinners called it a night. I got back out there and as I arrived it was a downpour, but praise the Lord he stopped it before I got out of my car and we did not have rain again the rest of the night. Bro Jesse had left for the night while we were gone also. I worked one2one and small groups for the rest of the night preaching one last time on that wonderful instrument of God’s proclamation. I believe Troy had that horn custom built for Bike Week. The sinners had a very serious fight break out while I was preaching with someone getting hit over the head with a bottle multiple times. I stopped preaching and waited patiently while the police and emt’s cleared the carnage. What a great springboard to speak on murderous intentions of the heart, which had been so clearly demonstrated before us in front of the club. I did this for about 45 minutes then they could stand it no longer and came and surrounded me and the horn stand, hanging on it and me. I tried everything I knew to get them to stop and the police were just not participating in my protection so I choose to stop preaching and let them wander away into the night. I turned the preaching over to a young preacher named Troy who is very gentle in his speaking with the sinners, even this did not help calm them down. So they decided to pack up the horn before it was damaged. Praise the Lord for Raven Ministries, they are faithful most every night to get out there with someone being a witness for the Lord Jesus who is worthy to receive souls for His glory. About 3:30am I thought I better get going as I would have an early morning and a few hours of preaching on the beach before we were to leave.
03/13 am
We awoke before Kerrigan and Tracy about 08:30 am. I am a pretty early riser having served in the Navy for 20 years working sometimes 14-16 hours a day and sleeping for a few hours. I woke Bro Tracy and we began to get packed and clean the condo for our departure. We got everything ship shape and out to the car just before 11am which was our plan. We arrived at the boardwalk to find the BET event at the band shell had been completely set up and was just awaiting the 2pm start time. We decided to take a walk on the beach with Tracy preaching first. We had a nice preach walk with many heckling us as we proclaimed God’s truths. Kerrigan preached for awhile, the sinners will ‘innocently’ throw footballs and Frisbees at us while we do this work. Kerrigan got hit in the leg and Tracy almost in the head. Of course the sinners think this is great fun, but it won’t be funny on judgment day if they will not repent. We got back over to the band shell area and noticed a line of people lining up for the BET event so Kerrigan began to preach to the line to much consternation of the wicked. He worked there for about ten minutes when the Beach patrol showed up with a noise ordinance which does not allow amplifiers. There were exemptions on the bottom of this particular law but they would not get them for me. They explained that it would be okay if we went to the boardwalk as that was city jurisdiction. Kerrigan and Tracy went up and I attempted to deal with him some more asking him to call his Lt. which he did. He showed up I explained our positions and he agreed we could use it as long as it was not heard over 50 feet. At this point I realized that Kerrigan and Tracy had a good meeting going and I wanted to get up there to get some good photos. I thanked them and the beach patrol left. I got up to the boardwalk with Kerrigan crying aloud to them for quite some time. I preached next talking about the wickedness of gangster rap, drugs, fornication, and drunkenness. These were the primary sins these students were living in. I wanted to make it personal and ensure they knew their crimes were an offense to God. Exposing sin and testifying about the justice and love of God are very important issues that the Christian must address to the lawless. Jay and Paula Gilbert of Sin is a Choice ministries showed up. We had a few brief minutes of fellowship before we left and they would take over where we left off the proclamations. We wrapped up for the day heading back to our car. Praise God we got to see Jesse and Krista as God coordinated our meeting just before we left. Then we prayed up and began our 12 hour journey back to our beloved families and Kentucky.