Rocky River Drive and Lorain Road in Kamm's Corner (Cleveland) - St. Patrick's Day

For St. Patrick's Day, I joined John (an elder at my church) at the intersection of Rocky River Drive and Lorain Road in Kamm's Corner (Cleveland) for St. Patrick's Day. It was bright and sunny all day with temps in the upper 50's (possibly even 60 at some point). John and I were out from 12:15 to 5:00, aside from my bathroom break, and I have a sunburn to prove it (I didn't even think about getting sunburn in the winter, but it can and does happen!). Around 4:00, Beth, who goes to our church, and her two daughters, also showed up.

We stood diagonally across from P.J. McIntyre's Irish Pub. Also nearby were several other bars, including Panini's, West Park Station, and The Public House- all which appeared to be packed. This is a panoramic shot showing the P.J. McIntyre's on the left side of the photo and Panini's is the three story building on the right:



Here is a closer shot of P.J. McIntyre's. This is around 12:45, and the place only got busier as the day progressed:



Here's a shot my pastor took while driving by. You can see John on the left in a yellow sweatshirt and me with a backpack on, right next to the light pole.



John had a sign that said "NeedGod.com" while I had my cross. John and I were handing out Big Money tracts, and when Beth and her two daughters arrived, she had St. Patrick's Day Millions which we started to pass out. I would say about 60% of the people accepted the tracts.

We didn't have too many one on one conversations because everyone was out to party, but we had a few. After a good while, a guy came across the street and wanted to know what our signs were about. John talked to him and told me that he had been a Christian and was even involved in ministry work, but had backslid. John asked me if I thought he ever was a Christian, and I told him that I tend to think that he never slid forward- that he was a tare among the wheat.

A man came up to me and started asking me what I thought about the Torah and the Koran. Then he asked me what I thought about Islam and asked me if I hate them. At this point he started cursing about Islam. He had a shirt on that said "Infidel" and what appeared to be Arabic writing on it. I wasn't sure where it was going to go, but he ended up leaving.

One women, who appeared to be drunk, rubbed up against me on my right side and said, "Jesus loves you." Then I felt someone else on my left side and one of them asked, "Do you think Jesus would do this?" One of them replied, "I think He would." Apparently they got a picture with me and cross, but I was so startled I failed to even realize it.

One woman crossing the street at one point was interested in the cross and asked what she should do if she didn't have Internet access. I didn't end up getting a tract to her or her friend at that moment, but shortly thereafter I went back to my car to drop something off. It turned out the path I followed to return to my car was also their path. I heard the one woman calling out "Mark!" and I heard her friend say "She was looking for you." I ended up giving her and her friend both a tract. One of them said "I'm a good Catholic. I go to church every Sunday." I didn't go into it with them, just told them to read the tracts.

Getting closer to 5 o'clock, a man waiting to cross the street appeared to have a problem with what we were doing. I can't remember exactly what he said, but I do remember him asking, "If there is a God, why is He letting the Pope close down St. Pat's?" St. Pat's is a Catholic church in the area where we were that is due to close soon. Beth told him maybe he should pray about it- I wasn't going to even go into a Catholicism debate.

I am not sure how many tracts were handed out today, but I would say easily over 100, if not 200. There were quite a few people screaming "NeedGod.com" as they drove by (most likely drunk), loud enough for a lot of people to hear it.