Last night was Friday. Last Sunday someone had a bright idea. Let’s do another outreach in the park. These are always a ‘little’ stressful for me. Go meet random people in a public area and talk to them about Jesus. So easy, yet so difficult (what if the person ______?). Then I heard the next part, we would do a drama (gulp), and then I would preach (double gulp). Yeah, great idea. I have ‘preached’ three times before, and it was to a small crowd in a church. A group of people that at least are there to hear preaching, even if what I have to say isn’t totally what their itchy ears want. The other part is, all the other public things we have done, other people have done the tough stuff, and I have ‘just’ prayed and walked around the crowd.
So we practiced a drama about freedom, and I played the Jesus part. This drama is to music, and I can’t even clap to a beat, and I am supposed to know the cues according to the music. We taught the dramas to the youth here, and by yesterday I was off the hook, but I am now ready to actually do a drama. I look so dumb as Jesus. Chubby and awkward. Flat footed, big head, goatee and a wiffle. OK, enough. I will go where God calls.
As the kids were doing the drama, a few of the guys that hang around the park, I won’t say vagrants, but ummm… I don’t know a better word, went up and surrounded some of the kids and Diego who was M.C.ing. A lot of drunk guys hang around the park, and I see these guys there all the time, but they always look like they are up to something. When they went right up and surrounded the group, I said oh great, and ran up. I figured if these guys got crazy, I didn’t want to miss out on the excitement. But the guys just stood there for a while, and then walked back down. They sat on a bench, and even when everything was done, they still looked like they were up to something, but not really doing anything. I mentioned that to Linnea, and she said when they headed up to the group she prayed their mouths shut.
The jovenes, or youth, did their drama, and their were a couple hundred people gathered around. The drama was great, then I opened my mouth.
I had spent all morning preparing, and was really feeling pretty good about the words. I was confident that the words were what God wanted me to share. I was less nervous and more ready to go, the good adrenaline, when you are in the zone and have your game face on. I wasn’t sitting and feeling like I was going to puke, the way I always felt before it was my turn to bat in my short baseball career (I never figured out the dang curveball and by my last season was totally defeated, besides, I was fifteen and hadn’t hit puberty). It was more the way I felt before football games. Knowing that I was entering a battle, feeling aggressive and ready to go. I was ready!
I have just discovered I like to run my mouth. Some of the things I say make me cringe. Being able to share my opinion like this is fun. If I am in a battle for people’s lives, the only way I know how to battle is full speed ahead. Swing hard, swing fast, swing often. Sitting and absorbing punches is not very effective in a fight. The worst beatings I have ever taken is when I was being defensive, so if I am going to speak, I guess I want to tear it up. Expand the kingdom violently.
I began speaking, which is basically reading from my notebook a sentence at a time. Then wait for Diego to translate. If I think of anything to add, I put it in and expand on it. While Diego translates, sometimes I listen to see how he says it, and other times I think of other things to say. As I was speaking, the sun was warm on my right shoulder. And I spoke. I watched people leave. I watched people laughing and shaking their heads. The park was right in front of the big catholic church, and a huge crowd swarmed outside. I kept speaking. I will put the words on the next blog. By the time I was done speaking, the crowd had gotten pretty small. I handed the mic over to Diego and he did a call, and no one went forward. So we went and talked to people, and by the end of the night at least two people had asked Jesus to take over, and a few more prayed for God’s will in their lives.
So this was an exciting night for me, another step out in to what seems to be a pretty crazy life.
