It was a learning experience for those in the team as many was their first experience of evangelism in a very secular and liberal area. We thank the Lord for the seeds planted and are excited to see the results when we get to Heaven.

On Cinco de Mayo (May the Fifth) events downtown and in Old City(directly down from downtown) was very packed with drinking people all over. I prayed a lot about going. I never go unless the Holy Spirit directs and fills me to evangelize. Going in your own power is not wise. You don’t believe me, read Acts 19:11-20. The seven sons of Sceva demonstrate what occurs when you encounter the spiritual in your own strength. No more than I made a cell phone text to my Facebook, I had scores of people give me the “thumbs up like” on the post.

The Lord was definitely with me, I had some physical and spiritual strength to allow me to last from 8 to midnight. The first half of the night, I was on Market Square passing out tracts and reading the Scripture in front of Tomato Head.(pizza parlor). A couple of people stop to listen and continued on.

Then a young drunk girl approached me. She heard me read the Bible. Automatically, her defenses went up and challenged me as to why I was there among people drinking. She made the assumption I was there to make people feel like “poop” for drinking and getting drunk.

I informed her I come to Market Square on a regular basis and the purpose God led me to pass out tracts and read the Bible was to share the Gospel message and give people opportunity to repent and put their faith in Jesus.

I smelt liquor on her breath and I asked her straight up if she had been drinking. She admittedly said “yes” and proceed to get very hateful in her speech. I told her if she continued to be hateful, I was going to ignore her and continue to read the Bible. The Lord temporarily “shocked” her sober enough to apologize and wanted to talk with me. I shared with her the Gospel, until her very drunk and cussing boyfriend threaten me and her. He started cussing her and was going to assault her on the spot. Now this boy was twice my size.

Yet, I had the power of the Holy Spirit come upon me. I told the young man, “You will not talk nasty and grab the young woman like she was a dog.” The man looked at me and said, “You shut the %$#& up or I will lay you out!” Me: “You will not talk to me like that and if you lay a hand on me or this young lady I will raise my arm and the officers standing a few feet behind you will come over and take you to the “pokey”.
The young woman started to try to calm him down, but he got madder. He started to grab her and I gave him another warning to not grab her. She started to walk away, not before I gave her a Gospel tract. The man was about to grab the tract from her and tear it. I told him, “You will not take that tract from her.” He told me “I better shut up or he was going to lay me out.”

The young lady started to walk fast away from him. As she tried to get away from him, he started chasing her among the crowd. I saw them no more that evening.

Later, I went down to Old City on the corner of Jackson and Central. I passed out handfuls of tracts and read the Bible for all three bars on the corner to hear. I once again talked about the compassion of Christ through his death and resurrection as payment for our sins. I then read Romans 13:11-14. This passage talked about putting off the worldly desires and putting on Jesus Christ. I shared how we could not do both as it says in Matthew 6:24. If we tried to live in both areas, we are called by Jesus as “lukewarm” and he would vomit us out of his mouth(Revelation 3:15-16).

One Christian woman, Marilyn, approached me and thanked me for being bold in sharing my witness. She was down in the bar area because her daughter was a bartender in one of the local bars. I prayed for Marilyn before we parted ways.

A drunk girl approached me and lost her companions. She said they had her keys and cell phone. She was from Kingston(over an hour away from Knoxville). I told her she could stick with me until her friend came out of the bar. She was not allowed to enter the bar due to her drunken state. I was able to get the officer in front of the bar attention. Told him of the girls situation. After talking with him, I discovered he was one of the officers I met at my church.(We had a hostage training exercise at our church. He was one of the men in training for this exercise and I was a participant.) Soon the young lady’s friends came out and she was in the safety of her friends.

In this situation, I silently prayed for the young girl. She did not know the Knoxville area. Walking around drunk and not familiar with the area would have been dangerous for her. Many men could have kidnapped her or worse rape her. During our conversation, I told her I was a Christian Evangelist. She asked me to stay with her til she was in the safety of her friends.

It was getting towards the midnight hour and I became very tired(spiritually and physically). I prayed before I headed home. I thanked the Lord for the opportunities he gave me to be a servant and share Jesus with the people.

The Lord has been good and he has given me multiple opportunities to share the Gospel and hand out Gospel tracts. In Knoxville, Tennessee this past weekend was a Festival on Gay street(downtown area). It was the end of the festival, yet I had multiple encounters to handout Gospel tracts. One guy asked me what I was handing out. I told him it was a Gospel tract. He thanked me and I continued to handout Gospel tracts unhindered.
I moved down to “Old City” area of Downtown. I handed out more Gospel tracts. I stopped at the busy intersection of Central and Jackson. I stood on one corner for a while and handed out Gospel tracts in front of a Hanna’s Cafe(bar). There were people above me at the bar sitting in the outdoor area. So I decided to move to the corner which had an abandoned bar. I faced the other three corners which had bars open for business. A few bar hoppers came by me and I was able to pass out a few more tracts. Then after a while I opened my Bible and shared Scripture as the Lord led me to share. At one point a small breeze made me lose my place. So the Lord supernaturally gave me the ability to recite the portion of Scripture from memory.
One drunk guy came up to me from a bar and very obnoxiously asked me what I was talking about. I just told him the Love and Compassion of Jesus. He cursed me as he continued on in his drunken stupor.
I continued explaining from Scripture how God has compassion. I used Scriptures such as Romans 13:11-14 on “putting off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” Then I shared Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters…” I proclaimed if anyone tonight desiring to repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus, they must do as scripture states. I explained the definition of the word, repentance.
One young man approached me and asked what I was reading. I told him which passage I was reading. He asked me on my style of evangelism. He told me of other street evangelists he had encountered. He said I did not fit the typical “conservative, KJV, bullhorn yelling” evangelist. I was in shorts and a t-shirt with a theme from the movie “Back to the Future.” I did not put down another man’s evangelism style. I was not going down the rabbit trail of evangelism styles, but went back to the Scriptures of Salvation thru Jesus Christ. He asked me which church I attended then shook my hand and went on his way.

As I went back to where I was parked(thanks to a church family member for letting me use their Jeep.) I was parked a few cars down from a SUV which had the “COEXIST” bumper sticker as a host of other bumper-stickers putting down the Christian faith. I have a stack of “COEXIST” gospel tracts. Now the tract does NOT endorse “COEXIST”, but explains what the Bible says about Jesus being the only way to Heaven, NOT all roads going to heaven.
Until next time,
Tractman

I did not address any issue or start spouting off what happens to homosexuals. I just kept reading the verses in Isaiah 53 and all the Gospel accounts about how Jesus took our punishment and the wrath of God for the sins we have and will ever commit. I then quoted other relevant scripture about repentance and putting your faith in God.

The lesbians tried to get a rise out of me and provoke me to say something mean. NOPE! I just gave them the HOPE of Jesus Christ.

I was able to encourage some believers which came to enjoy the beautiful weather downtown. One family was down to meet their son in college. They were from the North Carolina area. Their little six-year old boy listened to me and was smart and able to understand what I said. He goes to a private Christian school. He is definitely saved and knows the implications of the Gospel message. He shared with me about people on the “broad road” and the people on the “narrow road.” I had met me a mini-John Baptist. He knows what repentance and faith in Christ is all about.

On Saturday, I went to the Old part of downtown around the bars. I overheard someone say….”That guy is back again and he is going up and down this whole bar section, he isn’t going to let up.” Another college guy gave me a “shoulder check” to knock me off my stool as I read the Word of God. Eventually, one guy my age came up to me and asked me to read a portion of Scripture. He told me the scripture I read was the one he heard at his friend funeral back during the beginning of spring. His friend was the UT Swim coach and was a strong Christian. He thanked me for reading the scripture and it encouraged him. I prayed for him as he walked away. As I went back out to my car, I placed a couple of Chick tracts car windshields.(

I love evangelizing and pray for the lost in Knoxville. Especially the bar crowd and UT students.