Banners For Bait

As we started to set up the booth Friday night, we got onlookers right away. In fact before we were finished Ed approached Jeff to ask about the “Good Person Test”.

“What is it?” he asked.

Jeff responded with the first question, “Do you consider yourself a good person?”
Before Jeff was done taking him through the series of questions, Ed was claiming to be a ‘born-again Christian’. He smelled heavily of alcohol as he handed me his cup of beer to throw away. When Jeff began to talk to him again he blurted out, “Yeah, I’ve murdered seven people!” Although Jeff tried to keep the conversation going, Ed told him that he was a drinker and he was headed to a bar. He walked away toward his destination.

Dennis walked down the street handing out Million Dollar Bills and asking people to step up to take the test. Diana waited at the end of the block and handed each person who would take one, a tract. At one point she had many people around her and all she needed was a box!

Savannah and Taylor, two teen-aged girls were curious enough to come up. After taking them through the test I could see concern in Taylor’s eyes. Savannah was smug in the fact that she ‘went to church’. As I talked to them Savannah got a phone call. I told her I would be finished in less than a minute so if she could wait that would be great. She did. After speaking to them I gave them the pick of any of the ‘prizes’ on the table. We had a great array of MDB’s and Giant Money as well as 10 Commandment Coins along with a great number of other tracts. They both chose Giant Money. As they walked away I prayed that Satan would not snatch away the seed that had been planted. I love to talk to kids. Most of the time they are really curious.

Axle and Zandra were a couple of teenagers who came up to test themselves. They both listened very carefully and answered honestly, although a little reluctantly. Zandra stated that she was an agnostic. After going through the test, they both admitted to being concerned about their destination. I told them both what God has done so that they do not have to spend eternity in Hell. They both gladly took Mark Cahill’s book “One Heartbeat Away”. Over her shoulder Zandra smiled and said they both love to read! I will continue to pray for you both Zandra-I think you will find that book enlightening.

Kyle was dressed in black from head to toe. He even had on black nail polish. I asked if he was Goth but he said no. Chris was his younger brother, tagging alongside. When I took them through the test they were both very honest and also very surprised to find they were criminals in God’s eyes. They also both had a head knowledge of Jesus but weren’t really sure why He came. Many people will say that ‘He came to forgive the sins of the world’ as if this is the panacea for sin. I explained to these brothers that Jesus came to pay their penalty-so that God would have a reason to dismiss their case. I told them that in order to claim that payment they must repent of their sin and trust in Jesus alone. I asked them if this made sense to them. They nodded and said, “Yes.” I gave them a Cahill book to share between them.

Having this booth downtown affords a great opportunity to speak in depth to many people. It also serves as a great training tool for people who need to sharpen their skills. Dayna and Steve have just graduated from the Basic Course and they took turns taking many, many people through the Good Person test. It’s sort of a trial by fire. The banners do the work of gathering the people in. By the time the night is over you have had many great conversations, thereby planting much precious seed.

Luke 14:22, 23 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

Fishing In a Barrel

I don’t even know where to start with this story…there were so many good encounters. Actually there were over 30 GOOD encounters. The reason I know this is that during set up I had a pad of paper on the table as so that I could make a note of what we had and what we needed for next time. After the first young man came up I wrote his name down so I would remember it when I prayed for him. I guess other people wrote on it during the night, because there was a long list of names at the end of the night with comments like, "hard to see his mother dying-will think about it" and "hates us-very angry!". Also one that read, "Daniel-came to Christ 2/13/09-Praise God!".

Dennis and I decided not long ago to order some of the banners from Living Waters. We procured a booth space at a downtown festival and started setting up the tent we got from Sam’s. We also got some blue LED lights since it was going to be a night time event. I will warn you now-there are no great pictures of the crowds. No one had time to take any!

As the Lord would have it we got a space directly in front of one of the most popular restaurants downtown. We were really excited about it!! From the very moment we started attaching those beautiful banners to the sides of our tent we felt the atmosphere changing. The bigger than life question ‘Are You A Good Person’ seemed to be too much to swallow. We were about 10’ from the outdoor diners. Some people even stopped eating! The Friday Fest was slated to start at 6pm but people began right away to approach the booth. This picture was taken before the event ever started.

As we were setting tracts on the table our first ‘guest’ decided to ‘try his luck’ at taking our test. For most of the night people were actually lined up 2 and 3 deep to take the Good Person test!

We had various reactions: people got mad and stomped away-mostly people who claimed to be Christians; others walked away troubled. Some walked away in thought only to return later. One man wanted to pray while standing at the booth!!!

A young man named Troy was troubled and walked away thinking after we talked. About an hour later I heard Jonathan say, “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Jennifer.” When I turned around I saw Troy standing there with Jonathan. Troy was asking for ‘about a hundred Million Dollar Bills’ so he could hand them out! I pulled him aside and told Troy it was a nice thing to do but that it would not get him into Heaven. I asked him what he was going to do with the message on them. We talked a bit more and I asked him why he wasn’t sitting down talking with the Lord. He told me that he “didn’t want to have a nervous breakdown, right here.” He told me that his car had broken down beside the highway earlier that very day. He said, “A man came along and saved my life-I almost got run over by a car!” I said it was the grace of God that saved him that day because if he would have died he would have woken up in Hell! He reached into his pocket and tried to give me a big handful of change. I refused-thinking it was all he had. He said it wasn’t but I told him that he should go home and talk to God right now. I saw him walk away-Dennis saw him crying as he walked.

Students from a recent class came and we put them in the booth to administer the test. They got a great chance to administer this test as people walked up and asked to take it!! As a prize we gave out tracts!! Their choice. No one left without tracts and they were asking for them. They would walk up and say, “What do I have to do to get one of those?” while pointing to the Giant Money tracts or a 10 Commandment Coin.

Groups of people would walk up together to watch one of them take the test-it was easy to speak to them all at once.

Our new pastor, John Forsythe was such a blessing as he administered his ‘sobriety test’ using the Red and Blue tracts. He told them if they were sober they should look the same!! It was a hoot! He also got an opportunity to talk with a young Hare Krishna who was shocked to learn a few things about Jesus that he had never known.
Everyone who was there was blessed and all agreed that we have never ever experienced a night of evangelism like that one.

Luke 5:4-9 And as He stopped speaking, He said to Simon, Launch out into the deep and let your nets down for a haul. And answering, Simon said to Him, Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing. Yet at Your word I will let down the net. And doing this, they enclosed a great multitude of fish. And their net was being torn. And they signaled the partners, those in the other boat, to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they were sinking.
Luk 5:8 And seeing, Simon Peter fell at the knees of Jesus, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the haul of fish which they had taken...


It was the closest experience we will ever have to fishing in a barrel! If you'd like to try it-get them here