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Diversity Weekend Apr09
Street Witnessing
Diversity Weekend
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
April 4, 2009
The spring "Diversity Weekend" was held in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We showed up on Saturday, April 4th to stand for God against the powers of darkness and to preach the gospel. Jim Carrol and his group, the Jericho Riders, Greg Marlin of Born of Him Ministries, along with various Christians came in to be with us at this event. They came in from different areas of Missouri, as well as Little Rock and Rogers, Arkansas (maybe even other places, I'm not sure). We thank God for all that came out with us.
NOTE: As of June 20, 2009, I am no longer a member of the Jericho Riders. God has me going in somewhat of a different direction in ministry than they are going. We still plan to attend street witnessing events together at times.
Something sad to mention, is that other than Kevin Thompson, NONE of the Christians that live in Eureka Springs or the surrounding areas came out to this event to stand with us. The churches in the area like their members to stay inside the walls of the church. They don't believe in going out to take a stand for God or to preach the gospel like Jesus commanded us, as Christians, to do. Please pray for them.
See the bottom of this newsletter to see the videos of this event.
Here's a pic of some of the Christians who came out
To view the pictures of this event, click here, or you can view them below.
Harry and I drove to Eureka Springs and arrived at 9:45am. We unloaded and set up the "Prayer Station" that we brought with us. The weather was warming up, but it was very windy. Even though it was windy, we still able to set out some Bibles and gospel tracts on the table to give away, but not as many as we hoped.
Brad Open Air Preaching
I want to thank all of you that have been praying for us and for this event. The crew setting up for the band and running the wiring for amplification told us that we needed to move the Prayer Station out of the Basin Park where we had it set up. He said it is against the law for it to be there. I told him that we'd move the Prayer Station, right after the police told me to do so. That didn't make him very happy.
The police arrived on their bicycles and told a few of us that we were not breaking the law and we didn't have to move our table. He said if anyone gives us any trouble, to call the police and he would come back down and let them know we were within our rights to have the Prayer Station set up in the park. The police asked us not to use amplification and not to be confrontational.
A little after we talked to the police, Eric Young, the "Special Events Director" for the City of Eureka Springs walked up to me. Here is a picture of him, he is the one in the center. Pastor Mark Kiser is on the left and Gregory Thompson is on the right.
Here is our conversation exactly:
Eric Young: Ummm, who is in charge of this?
Brad St. Clair: I am.
Eric: Okay, I'm gonna...I'm afraid you're gonna have to remove it out of the park.
Kevin Thompson: Actually, we don't.
Eric: Actually you do because I'm the Special Events Director for Eureka Springs, and I have a permit for the entire park from now until the end of...
Kevin: We talked to Parks and Recreation and he said we're fine...
Eric: Nope
Brad: We talked to the police, and he said if anybody has a problem with it to call him and then he'll...
Eric: I have a problem with it, let me go find him.
Brad: Okay, call the police.
Now, I could be wrong, but I didn't see Eric going up to any of the other tables that were set up and ask them to move, as there were others in the park area. He walked straight up to us and began the conversation above. I know a few of the guys talked to Eric throughout the afternoon and had good talks with him. We are praying for Eric.
As we were all gathered around in prayer, the police rode up and began talking with Eric. The police told him that we were not breaking the law. The policeman came by and told us that we needed to move the table back towards the wall about three feet, but other than that we were not breaking the law. Praise God. We decided to move it to the other side of the park due to the wind direction. It would also put us closer to where we would be open air preaching.
Everyone spread out and began passing out gospel tracts, both in the Basin Park and up and down the streets of Eureka Springs. Anytime God opened the door or led one of us to speak, we would have a one-2-one conversation with folks who were attending the Diversity Weekend.
Compared to last time I attended the Eureka Springs Diversity Weekend, this one was somewhat different. There were more outspoken homosexuals and homosexual supporters at this event. However, even though there were more outspoken individuals, it seemed more peaceful at times, and many of us were able to have calmer conversations with the people attending.
The Public Display of Affection (PDA) the homosexuals were planning to have in the Basin Park was scheduled to begin at noon. That is when they quickly kiss and take their picture as a group.
Around 11:20am, we set up a step stool to stand on when open air preaching at the front of the park. There were five or six of us that took turns preaching, one right after the other. This went on for approx. over an hour, then on and off throughout the afternoon.
As soon as we began open air preaching, the amplified music and singer started, which added to the noise. All this caused a good amount of the preaching not to be heard very far from where the preacher was. However, each person that stepped up to preach gave it their all. I thank God for each and every one.
Some of the preachers were able to get some of the crowd to answer questions while they were preaching. This makes for better listening when they are interactive with us.
As one of the guys was open air preaching, I heard a woman beginning to yell something from the other side of the park. She was either one of the homosexuals or homosexual supporters. She was standing on the wall and saying they are proud of who they are, etc. They cheered her on.
As I was up preaching, a man came and stood next to me with a small sign that he had written, "Don't feed the FUNDIES! Ignore them! Don't give them the attention they so desperately want!" Don, one of the Christians who came out, had a good witnessing conversation with him later in the afternoon.
Many of the times one of the Diversity Weekend supporters come up and got too close, or try to form a line in front of our open air preacher, or block him with signs, etc., the police walked over and asked them to move.
"Sparky", one of the leaders/coordinators of the Eureka Springs Diversity Weekends, walked up with his large rainbow colored umbrella and stood in front of our preacher, completely blocking him from the view of the crowds. The policeman came over and asked him to move (wearing the bicycle helmet).
The supporters of this "Diversity Weekend" keep calling the Christians who came out to witness, "haters". However, the police had to ask them on four or five occasions to move away from our open air preachers. They would come up and block the preacher with signs, an umbrella, forming a line in front of the preacher, blowing silly bubbles all around the preacher, or have their children burn incense close to us.
The message that all the open air preachers kept going back to, was that we've all broken God's Law. We are guilty before Him. We need to repent (turn from sin) and believe in Christ to be born-again. The Bible says that even if we keep the whole law, yet offend in one point, we are guilty of all. Jesus Christ died to take our punishment upon Himself. God loves you and doesn't want you to go to hell, but you are the one who has to decide. We will all stand before God on Judgment Day and have to answer before Him for everything we have ever thought, said, or have done.
I thank God for each Christian that came out to stand for God and preach and share the gospel. We also thank each person who prayed for us at this event.
May God bless you.
Brad
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