Friday Night Streets

It has been a while since we blogged one of our outreaches. Trying to get in the swing of things after the move has been difficult, however, we are back on the saddle again.

Last night we went down to the "Band Shell" and the boardwalk to do some ministering. It didn't take long for us to be engaged in conversation by two men... Brian and Keith. Brian, once he found out what we were all about, initially did not want to hear what we had to say. Keith on the other hand was agreeing with everything we said. Until...

Somewhere during our conversation, something was said that struck Brian, and he became very attentive and very inquisitive, whereas Keith became very rude and no longer agreeable. Brian had given his entire life to working for the Coast Guard and saving people's lives. He saw what we were doing, and what we have done (our occupations), as much less important than what he had done. Pastor Don Dykes was able to minister to Brian, while Lucy and I kept Keith busy, so he would stop interrupting Pastor Don's conversation. We left the conversation with Keith still hostile, and Brian still not able to understand the difference between a physical salvation and a spiritual one, but he was very apologetic for his friend.

As we were walking along the boardwalk we were stopped by a group of young people, of which all but one claimed to be Christians. As we talked with them, one by one, the self proclaimed Christians began to walk away, but the unbeliever "Beka," stayed to listen. We gave her a lot to think about and left her our card so she could call us anytime with questions, or just to talk. As we were walking back to the truck to head over to Seabreeze to catch up with Mike and Little Troy, Pastor Don made a very insightful comment. He said, "Have you noticed tonight that every time we engaged someone and they called themselves Christians (those that supposedly have ears to hear), they did not want to hear what we had to say (2 Timothy 4), but those who did not claim Christ (those who did not have ears to hear), listened, talked, asked questions, and received the Word of God readily. The sad thing is that most of the church has been indoctrinated with so much false doctrine, they are not willing to listen to the real Word of God.

After catching up with Mike & Little Troy, we went back to the boardwalk because Seabreeze was dead. No one was out. Once we got back to the boardwalk, we ran into Shaw. Shaw is a 44 year old man who is hurting inside greatly. Back when he was getting ready to go to college, while he was at the top of his game, just when he got a scholarship to play for the Georgia Bulldogs, during one of his visits home to see family, a hit and run driver ended his football career. All of these years he has not been able to understand where God was during all of that. He couldn't understand how God could allow a good kid, a church kid, one who always helped other people, how God could allow his dreams to be stolen from him. All he kept talking about was his kids who, 3 out of 4 were on their way to being big sports stars in the college arena. He was trying to live his dream through his children and that was all that mattered to him.

At one moment he walked away in anger because the Word was beginning to pierce his heart and he didn't like it. Lucy was the only one he was willing to talk to after that. So she ministered to him, Pastor Don, Little Troy and I ministered to two young ladies who were with Shaw. Both of these young ladies claimed to be Christians. We offered to pray for them and Shaw. After the prayer, we found out that they were drinking, but when we had come up they were convicted and they poured out their drinks. The conviction of the Holy Spirit was all over them to the point that one of them could not even look us in the eye. Their conviction gave them a new outlook on their walk with Christ. We gave them our card and told them to call us anytime. Shaw left wanting to get together with us later to talk some more, when he hadn't been drinking. Pray that Shaw call us and that we have an opportunity to minister to him again. Amen!


Friday nights will be our night on the streets in Daytona, while other teams take care of different nights of the week. We are looking forward to all that God is going to do. Amen!

PS