Deep in Deep Ellum (pics added)

Street Preaching Stories: gotta love them! Deep inside Deep Ellum (pictures will be added to my site soon) [image][img align=left]http://thm-br1r2.search.vip.scd.yahoo.com/image/93382216[/img]As my friend would put it, we went out to pick a fight with the devil. I was able to take a team of eleven people to Deep Ellum in Dallas to give out literature, talk to people, and preach open-air old fashion style. We had the privledge of teaming up with three amazing men from The Great News Network (thegreatnews.com) while we were down there, men from Christ for the Nations who hung around us for awhile, and about five more guys from Teen Mania showed up. We had a lot of people show up! The Lord is building an army and I feel deeply humbled that He is using me to help lead it. I still believe we haven't seen anything yet compared to what we will soon see in the future. There is a massive movement of street preachers coming, and we will turn the world upside down.When we first tried to set up on a side walk a man came out of his store and told us we could not be there. We didn't even start yet and we recieved opposition as usual. It used to take time for the cops or someone else to bother us, now they jump on us before we even begin! Once we explained to him that we had the right to be there he called the police. A few cops came but after we spoke with them for awhile they called for others. Eleven police officers showed up! Apparently a group of teenagers who want to preach the gospel is such a large threat that a grand total of eleven police officers have to come!!I had never seen more cops come from street preachers before. You don't get eleven police officers to come even when a fight breaks out, but they come for preachers!! Although every time I go out now the police hassle me, it usually doesn't take that many! Although it was our right to be there, they showed us a place we could go where we wouldn't be bothered. Although at the moment there wasn't too many people around we decided to try some open-air preaching anyways. I started and had a few people come over. One girl went through the "good" test with me and after some time of ministering she ended up feeling so bad that she ran away. I didn't mean to have that happen but it is expected sometimes. Darrel Rundus who was filming actually went after her and spoke to her which I was very grateful for. As the night carried on the club accross the street had a great deal of people waiting outside of it. Although we have some people walking by on our side, I thought it would be best to cross the street and preach. I took my portable sound box, my big bible display, and went. After maybe ten minutes of pouring my heart out to the people the battery died for my small PA system and there was no way my voice could compete with the music. I got some of the guys and we moved the big PA system accross the street. The line outside the club was there for hours so everyone took turns preaching. We had one guy preach open-air to the crowd for the very first time. Another guy named Brad had men throwing things at him and even trying to rip the microphone out of his hands. I recieved a heckler that professed to be a christian who told me this was not the most effective way to reach the lost. I asked him what he was doing out here. He said he was going to go to the clubs tonight and then wake up for church tommorow. He said all this as he smoked his cigarette. When I asked him what the most effective way to reach the lost was he replied "WWJD". I said "ok then, what brand of cigarettes would Jesus smoke? Obviously you think you are more effective reaching the lost dispite your hypocricy, so which type of cigarrete would Jesus smoke?" He never answered the question.While we were outside the club preaching, a team went out and talked to people one-on-one and gave out tracts, and across the street other guys were preaching and talking to people. Everytime I looked across the street there was a nice size crowd of listeners listening to whoever was sharing. By the end of the night we ended up moved everything across the street outside the club. Once again the cops tried to make us move, I refused because we already had moved so much and they couldn't do anything. They just said "fine" and walked away. To recap it was an amazing night. We had huge encounters with the police, wild hecklers, convicted sinners, young christians taking a stand for their faith for the very first time, and the smile of God upon us the entire time.

Hey thanks so much for the encouragment! THe ministry was so awesome and I can't wait to see what the Lord is going to do on those streets in the future. I also was somewhat reserved when it came to street preaching but the more I studied the bible and the more I studied history the more I realized that it is Gods way. He has chosen "the foolishness of preaching". Our aim is to put people in the fork of the road so they have to choose which road they will travel on. We want to draw the line in the sand. As Paul said in Col. 1:28 "Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." I want to encourage all of us to cast the net of the word of God into the world and then watch God move.

Brother Jesse,oh man! a most precious annointing on you Praise God!! Let me know when you want to come out to L.A. to preach. We'll get ya a place to bunk and some righteous Christian fellowship.Neil Giuntoli(hope you still got my email)

hey thanks alot you guys! Lately I've had so many people say they would be willing to host me for a few days if I came to their area. I've been praying about hitting the road with a team of guys in a custom done van to travel and preach. It appears that it wouldn't be too hard to map out an itinerary due to the amount of people who said they would take us in. It seems very much possible, so we will see what happens.

I am so blessed and encouraged by what you are doing! I am reminded of one of the most amazing and humbling experiences i have ever had so far on my walk with God. I was visiting an aunt last year with my husband and two children. When we arrived i had to stop in town for something. Walking up to the town center i found myself contemplating the spiritual state of the area (it's full of new age cults and having lived in an area saturated by the new age movement you can often feel it, discern it). I was then brought round by what i thought was some kind of comotion in the street. As we approached it turned out to be a lone man open air preaching. For the first time ever as a christian my heart just lept when i realised he was a brother preaching the gospel. All i wanted to do was introduce myself and some how encourage him. So i asked if my husband would go on without me and i stood and listened to what this brother had to say. Well by now my spirit was so stirred within me i had never before experienced it before so strongly! When he stopped for a moment (i think he only stopped because there must of been some look of wonder on my face) i took the opportunity to say hello. We shared for a while and i asked him all about the area and how often he did this and if he was always on his own. When i met up with my husband i felt a sense of sadness that i should go back and help this brother. When i met up with my husband we headed back towards the preacher and i saw him surrounded by a big group of teens. I can't remember how it happened but i asked my husband to wait as i walked up towards this group. What happened next was AMAZING for me personally, it was like the holy spirit just took over. In the natural i could never have answered the questions these lads were asking. Every question they asked a reply came flowing. It just wasn't me doing the talking. My heart was pounding!! I then felt it put in my spirit to give one of these young boys my bible. I felt so drawn to this one particular lad. He was genuine in his questions and when i gave him my bible the other boys for some reason had nothing left to say and just gathered round to see what was in this little book i had given out. The young boy who i gave the bible to then went on to ask why i highlighted certain passages which gave me another opportunity to explain the word. It truely was an experience. We got a lot of abuse thats for sure but it was so worth it. It's like that doesn't matter when your so full of the spirit. You just want to go on talking about Christ and nothing else mattered. I thank God that he used me and that i feel confident that when the moment arises he will pour out his spirit to enable me to witness, something up until then i had always feared. I know we need to find other ways to reach out to the lost but i feel now that nothing is so effective as open air preaching. If we would only come together in prayer and revive this form of witnessing i think we would see results.Thank you brother Jesse, you are an encouragement.

Wow thats awesome! What state was that in? Do you remember what that mans name might have been?

Yup! It was in the UK :-) And the brothers name is Joseph. From what i remember without looking it up the young boys name is Matthew. The town is called Chippenham and sits very closely to stonehenge where pagens gather every year for the summer solest (not sure how to spell that last word :-o ).

You can check out all the photos at my xanga site: www.xanga.com/lazarus1719Darrel Rundus and I speaking to the police.Open-air preaching with a heckler. This man professed to be a christian and yet smoked cigs and was going to the clubs. He also said he was going to wake up for church.My friend Jeff preaching open-airDarrel Rundus praying with a girl for salvation!Some one-on-one evangelism