This year marked the 22nd annual Combine Demolition Derby in the small farming town of Lind, in eastern WA. This event attracts crowds of up to 4,000 to the community of about 450 people. Instead of having a demo derby with old cars, they use combines! Yeah, that's right, combines! What a great opportunity to get the gospel into the hands of lost and dying people!
A fellow evangelist and I took the 1 hour trip into the boonies to the small middle-of-nowhere town to reach out to the people there with the gospel. To my delight, admission into the event was free, and there were people wandering around all over.
We started out handing out tracts, trying to keep a low profile while observing the situation to see what kind of security measures were in place before we became too bold.
At one point, there was a break in the action and the crowds swelled out of the bleachers and to the concession stands, and I saw my opportunity. I quickly ran to our vehicle and grabbed my ladder and amplifier. Then, when I was about to set up in a perfect place, crowd management services personnel came by and scared me off. They had no idea what I was about to do, and did not speak to me, but these were the same people who had shut me down just a few months ago in Tri-Cities at a hockey game.
I chickened out because I
didn't want to get booted too early.So, I just continued doing what I was doing, handing out tracts to random people.
Then, just before we left, I went up the bleachers, row by row, handing out wads of tracts saying,"Take one, pass them along, please." You should have seen it! People loved them. I was using the Giant Money tracts. I gave out hundreds of them like that! HA! I was wanting to do it all the while, but I was afraid of getting caught and being booted too soon. But it worked great! I just acted confident like a normal vendor and the security didn't say a word. Hee hee!
My buddy had great success handing out tracts as well. Marshall is a seasoned veteran of street witnessing who has a passion for contending for the truth of the gospel, especially concerning the cults. He is a valuable asset to any evangelism team. The new Obama Trillions (the bailout bill) are quite a hit, especially in rural America, where he is not exactly adored. Now that I know how big the event is, I will take a bigger team up next year and maybe get a little more bold. I really think the crowd management services were only there for alcohol monitoring. It was a really good atmosphere, so I'm hoping I can contact the organizers and get permission to preach next year.
Please pray for me. I attend a church of about 1000, and the pastors just asked me today to do an 8 week series on evangelism training. I'm really nervous. I have a lot I would like to go over, but I know that I may have to tread lightly to start out. I don't want to come on too heavy at first.
Also, there is one gentleman in particular who is very aggressively pursuing an alliance with me to combine our ministries, but I don't know him that well and am a little apprehensive about getting too involved right away. Please pray for me to have wisdom, discernment, and a gentle and loving touch when dealing with him and with my church. Thanks, brothers and sisters!
Next week, we'll be in Portland hitting the streets, and the following week we'll be in Spokane. If you can make it to either of these events, contact me. We'll see you on the streets!