Adventures in Evangelism

My day started unlike I planed. I had been excited about going out to share the gospel all week, but now that Saturday was here, I was tired and no longer felt like going. I woke up around 9 AM to my non-alarming cell phone alarm. The battery had died due to me leaving the the music player on. Assuming that I had missed Ron's call, and that he left without me, I took solace in the fact that I could go back to sleep. Even now as I write this, I am not sure why I called Ron. After calling Ron and realizing that he too had been running late, the realization that I had to get out of my cozy bed became more evident. Finally presumption became fact when Ron - in typical side bar fashion - said..."I will be there in a few minutes." Now I was sure that my peace would be disrupted, and I would have to get out of bed. I prayed after getting out of bed. Two things I know to be true: 1. you can't go out witnessing without God, as the Lord himself said..."without me you can do nothing." 2. you can't go out witnessing if your heart isn't in it. I prayed before meeting up with Ron, and the Lord graciously dealt with my heart. Besides being motivated to tell of the worth and fame of Christ (and instinctively knowing that I primarily did this to an audience of one - namely God himself), I will not tell more of my talk with God. Ron and I arrived at Pennsylvania Avenue around 10 AM.

Pennsylvania Avenue is considered one of the worst places in Baltimore city, and if I knew we were going there - and going with only one other person - I might have opted to stay home. Nevertheless I was now there with Ron. I asked if we could pray in the car, but Ron wanted to pray outside. "Actually" he said, "do you mind if we pray outside?" My initial hope was to pray in private, but something about standing for Christ in the mist of people made me excited, and I looked forward to praying outside. Ron and I prayed, and the Lord took pity and blessed our prayer. There was a market close to where we parked. Outside was hot and humid, and there were people everywhere. I've always liked being in the mist of people, and this time was no different. For a short while, I was reminded of New York City. Manhattan, actually. Inside the market was a lot smaller than what the outside view of the building suggested. There were a lot of different stores in the market; some selling clothes, some food, some appliances, etc. As we walked around the market, and as we exited on the opposite side from which we entered, we met a man named Kevin. Kevin was a short and sickly looking black man. He had most of his upper teeth missing, and the ones at the bottom were noticeably brown. As Kevin stumbled into the door we exited, Ron and I decided to follow him back in. Talking to Kevin was interesting. My heart quickly began to break for him as I listened to his story. He was only 34 years old, but looked to be in his mid to late 40's.

Though I couldn't help feel sorry for Kevin, and though I wanted very much for God to work in him in that instant (kind of like what God did through Paul for Lydia), I was continually humbled and somewhat convicted by my reoccurring hope that he wouldn't spit on me, or even touch me. Not long after having that hopeful though, Kevin would put his hand on my shoulder and then shake my hand. In and instant I felt dirty on my whole right side, but for the sake of the gospel I resolved not to be reclusive. As I spoke to Kevin, another man would come into the door to which we moments ago entered. Interrupting my talk he asked..."Do men go to hell if they do wrong?" Ron answered saying yes. He asked another question pertaining to the gospel, and Ron asked me to explain the answer to him. As I began to talk, the tall and scrappy-looking black man pulled out a small knife, and began to sharpen what seemed to be an already sharp and pointed piece of wood. With his eyes squarely fixed on me, I begun to feel nervous. This man seem to not even blink as I spoke. Many thoughts raced through my head as I spoke. "God is sovereign, Terrence. He who said to the waters, 'you may come here and no further,' holds your life. I am invincible unless God permits this man to do me harm." Those were my Christian thoughts. I also had some natural ones: "If he lunges at me, maybe I can block him if I do this," and "maybe I can push Ron in front of me since Ron is way bigger than I am." I had an outer body experience talking to that man. I saw and heard myself talking, but I am not certain of what I was saying. As he spoke, still with knife in hand, I kept moving to the left of Ron (slowly as to not excite him), hoping and praying that he would not try anything. Even now, I am not even sure whether he was trying to intimidate me, or if he was really going to physically harm me.

Ron took over the conversation - and I am sure he did this because I was no longer speaking sensibly, I was so afraid - and I would once again turn my attention back to Kevin; though now my back would be against the wall. For the rest of the day my back would face a wall, and I would make sure that no one was behind me. Kevin interrupted my talk to ask for some money. But rather than giving him money, I would later buy him something to eat. Ron's conversation was interrupted by the man who would say, "I am a Muslim, and I don't agree with you. I have to go!" Prior to saying that, and before speaking to me, he mentioned that he was a Christian minister. Ron, Kevin, and I, left the back of the market and walked to the front where there was a fast food store. We bought Kevin some food and proceeded to look for more people to talk with. As we walked away from Kevin, he would hop after us in a kid-like fashion, and thank us for the food. Unexpectedly, he once again shook my hand, and the familiar feeling of being covered in germs would plague my mind. At that point I resolved to keep my left hand in my pocket. That would be the hand I used to scratch my throbbing and itchy right hand and face.

To be Continued...

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