Sunday, August 19, 2007

FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE RED MILE!

FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE RED MILE!

Here in Alberta, most of the time I’ve been witnessing during the day. Often I spend Saturday afternoons downtown Calgary walking around and talking to people. While in Florida, I did spend some time out at night….Miami, West Palm Beach and Fort Myers Beach and found night witnessing works really well.

This past Friday night a friend Brent and I spent a few hours on the Red Mile in Calgary. The Red Mile (www.theredmile.ca …warning, I have not reviewed all the content on this site) is a stretch of 17th Avenue SW in Calgary, Alberta; stretching from Stampede Park (where the Calgary Flames NHL team plays) to 14th street SW…about 16 blocks long. This area is liberally populated with bars and restaurants and the scene for lots of nightlife and street celebrations when the Flames are winning during the annual play-off games.

Brent and I arrived around 7:30pm and began to walk up and down the Red Mile handing out tracts and talking to all sorts of people. We talked to men, women, successful and homeless. Some were sober while others…well…not so much.

Because of Calgary’s smoking bylaw, many folks end up standing outside the bars sucking on cigarettes. I got in an interesting conversation with one of these folks. Bart, a heavily tattooed young man grew-up Catholic but has rejected that religion. Bart immediately stated that he has been thinking about what he would face after death. Bart was unsure about the existence of God, but thought that when we die at least some kind of energy would remain. I showed him how the existence of God can be proven in less than a minute without using the Bible (not sure how…email me!). He started to mention evolution, but quickly agreed that it took much more faith to believe in that theory, as there was NO evidence at all. Turning to his conscience, we looked at his the Ten Commandments to see if he would be guilty on the Day of Judgment. We found that he is guilty and would be in big trouble…as of now Hell is where he is heading. Bart was concerned and thoughtful as I left him. Pray for Bart…pray for a strong conviction of sin and that God will give him the gift of Godly sorrow and a repentant heart.

We talked to lots more people…some for short times and others longer. One man, first-thing after handing him a tract, stated that he was going to Hell because he had committed sin he was not sorry for. I asked him what sin was…he looked at me funny and fired right back at me, “breaking the Ten Commandments”. I was incredulous…that is the answer that 100’s of ‘christians’ were unable to come up with and here this lost man has a clear understanding. I talked to he and his friends for a while. His friends were very hostile to the Gospel. Another man, Raymond, an Acadian from New Brunswick was an interesting chat…with some very skewed and complicated ideas about God. Quite a few people stated that they believed they were going to heaven, but had nothing even close to a biblical confession of faith…heartbreaking!

One of the bars had a large line-up on the sidewalk. I walked down the line handing out million dollar bill tracts and later walking the other way Free Ticked to Heaven tracts. The bar security people were freaking out and repeatedly telling me that I couldn’t do that…while I reasoned with them that the sidewalk was city property and kept handing out tracts. Fortunately, this country states that we have freedom of speech…though we may have to stand up for this at times.

I came home with a pulled muscle in my back. I don’t remember anything happening when I was out, but returning home late, I set down on the couch and began to feel the pain. The only thing I can think of is that I was crouched down for a time talking to Raymond, who was sitting on a small planter on a street corner. By Saturday morning, I was in enough pain that I had to be helped out of bed. Peculiar huh? I work on construction site, I’m okay…go battling forces of evil by preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I come home injured. Hmmm.

Glenn.

P.S. Check out our Gospel presentation site: www.greatnewscanada.com

WARN NOW OR WORK ON RELATIONSHIP?

WARN NOW OR WORK ON RELATIONSHIP?

What should you do? Is it better (or even right) to develop a stronger relationship with someone before talking to them about eternity or should you warn them of the coming Day of Judgment now?

Mid July this year, I hired a young man (Tyler) to work with me for a day. Tyler smiles easy and is quite pleasant to be around. At the end of the work day, I paid Tyler, handed him a Gospel tract and spoke to him briefly about eternity, warning him of death and the coming Judgment. Should I have done this then, or waited ‘till we had built a stronger friendship? What would you have done? Was I wrong? Could doing this turn Tyler off the Gospel?

Let me tell you the rest of the story. Friday I attended Tyler’s funeral. This past Monday Tyler was driving his semi-truck loaded with 40,000 of 300-degree asphalt oil down a steep grade near Drumheller Alberta…the truck was involved in a devastating crash, killing Tyler instantly. Now what was the right thing to have done? Did you give the same answer this time? Who do you know that needs to hear the Gospel…someone who could be dead by tomorrow? What should you do?

Glenn.