After the rain cleared up, I went to the intersection of Dover Center and Center Ridge in Westlake around 4:20 and stayed for about 50 minutes. The day started off good with a brief conversation with a young man named Philip. After giving him a tract and him asking me if I was Mormon, he told me that he had just got out of basic training and started reading the Bible. He told me he mentioned a few things out of the Bible to a few people and they wondered what had happened to him. He told me he just started believing in the Bible for once and started going to church. I told him to take a look at the tract and he said he would.
Another young man named Alex pulled up and told me his wife, who works nearby and told him about me with my cross. He told me that he attends a local church in Westlake called Church on the Rise. I talked to him for a few minutes and gave him a tract and a few other things.
After Alex left, I went back to the intersection and a woman crossing the street and on her phone saw me and started looking at my cross and telling whoever she was talking to on the phone about. She looked at it once and repeated what it said- "Are you ready and Mark something." Then she looked at it again and she said "Are you ready? Mark 1:15 and NeedGod.com" to the person on the phone.
She mentioned I was an evangelist and something about how I was probably promoting a very limited message. I told her, "You're right. Jesus said 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.' " She continued to rant about what I was doing called me a hypocrite among other things. She mentioned something that made me want to quote 1 Corinthians 1:18 (For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God), but I just kept my mouth shut instead of saying anything. I did not attempt to give her a tract.
I was called "freak" by someone passing by. Also, after the previous encounter, two people pulled up in a car in the parking lot behind me and were parked near me and I was getting a little nervous as they were there. They ended up leaving the parking lot and saying something to me, but I forget what it was exactly, but I think I remember hearing cursing.
A passenger in a car also took my picture as they were traveling west bound on Center Ridge, turning left onto Dover Center. I noticed a flash go off and the driver side window was up if I remember correctly- which will produce a lot of glare in their picture.
It is not my fault if any of these people get in an accident because they were trying to take my picture in traffic. If they want a picture of me that bad, they can park and come up to me. I still get the waves of approval, but I am seeing more hostility crop up. I think it is mostly the high school crowd. Someone also called the police on me yesterday saying I was making gestures.
I wonder if the lady who called you a hypocrite also thought you were judgmental? How is holding a cross being a hypocrite? It would be ironic if she did think you were being judgmental - she would have judged you as judgmental and a hypocrite!
ReplyDeleteIt does seem to be getting darker out there!