Fresno City College

Fresno is known for being one of the roughest cities in California, and our experience there only proved this assessment to be true. There's really only one word I can think of to describe our day spent at the City College: madness.

While Evan decided to sit out this one, Miles and I (accompanied with brother Steven Barry), drove to the college in the heart of the inner city. After choosing our spot in the center of campus, we waited until the class change began then ripped open the banner and started preaching. It didn't take Miles one minute before he had a crowd amassed around him, and the chaos slowly began.

The first wave of attack consisted of the "we're up-to-no-good" crowd; the sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll guys who sadly don't exercise their brains enough. Their objections come in the form of: "Jesus made wine!" and "God made weed!" and "ONLY the Dark Side speaks in absolutes!"

Next it was the campus Christians with their technicolor Bibles shouting out their purpose driven accusations. "Thou shalt not judge!" and "Jesus never talked about hell!" and "You're turning people off!" Believe me, after 40 campuses, this gets old.

Then a U.P.C. student stood up and started preaching his version of Acts 2:38, followed by two witches singing their mantras and screaming "Burn all Bibles!" who were followed by a man with no teeth reading out loud the gospel of John. Everybody was shouting at the same time and the crowd had grown to fill one entire side of the central courtyard! Obviously Fresno City College had never seen a preacher before.

Finally, after we could bear it no more, Miles and I ducked out of the crowd and ran to the other side of the courtyard to shift the momentum of the meeting, which worked. The people followed us over to hear what we had to say. However, it was only a few minutes before the police arrived on the scene and closed everything down. Someone must have called 9-1-1 because we nearly had a riot.

So that was our day at Fresno City College; a total of 45 minutes of sheer madness. Although between blasts of venom and shrieks of incoherency, we did manage to preach the Word of God to the students. May God use whatever little seed was sown.

"And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the whole city was filled with confusion: and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theater... Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together... And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defense unto the people. But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians." (Acts 19:28-34)

"But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." (Acts 20:24)

California State University, Fresno

The west coast is an interesting place. People are liberal, "tolerant" and politically correct, to the point of being hopelessly apathetic or downright hateful. So it was with California State University, Fresno. We arrived to preach while students flocked from class to class, and we threw out our nets. At first it was very slow to gather in a crowd and start a good meeting. Most students out here are too afraid to voice any opinion or stand up for what they believe, but eventually we caught some people to talk with.

"Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things." (Proverbs 8:1-6)

Talking with some people who had serious questions about the Bible.

By the end of the day many heard the gospel preached and the Word of God declared, but it was still very sad to see so many others slip past untouched, their minds conditioned to reject God and ignore His judgments. May the Lord raise up labourers to help plow the field and break up the fallow ground.

Dear friends, please lift us up in prayer during this time; specifically for a door of utterance to be opened unto us to speak boldly on these colleges without snares and setbacks (lately, police have been making things difficult). We want the Word to get out to as many people as possible, with as little hindrance as possible. Pray also that the hearts of the students would hunger after righteousness and that their ears would be open to receive the truth. Pray also that the birds would not snatch away the seeds that are sown. And above all else: May Jesus Christ be magnified! Amen.

God bless, saints.
-Eli

California State University, Bakersfield

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San Diego State University

San Diego State University was really the first campus of this half of the tour, since our time in Las Vegas was spent mainly on the streets rather than in the world of academia. We had the great privilege of sharing this time with three excellent brothers: Steven Barry of Alpha Omega Outreach, Greg Gordon of Sermonindex, and Leon Brown of Evangelism Team; which was wonderful fellowship and a blessing to my heart. In all, we preached at SDSU for four very intense days.

Day one, Greg, Steve and I arrived on campus late in the afternoon and handed out tracts while Miles and Evan were helping some people who had car trouble. We spend a considerable amount of time in prayer for the following days ahead, that God would shake the campus and defend the honor of His holy Name.

The next day proved wild. Evan began preaching and in a short while had about 50 students crowded all around him, yelling and mocking. I got up to preach and soon there were two Rastafarian guys causing a lot of disturbance, trying to steal the crowds attention away from us (unfortunately these two men continued to come out to our meetings daily and disrupt the preaching of the Word... the devil at work). However, we continued on and though the crowd itself became divided, still many students heard the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ and we saw a lot of conviction.

Brother Greg speaking one-on-one with a student.

At one point when Evan was preaching, a student came forward smoking marijuana and blew it in his face.

I spoke with several people in particular who I believe came under true conviction of sin. One young man, a European student, discussed with me God and morality for about half and hour and finally came to a place where he had no grounds to stand upon his atheistic beliefs and acknowledged his difficult predicament. He immediately became anxious and walked away. Another young man, not actually a student but a sort of drifting hippie, talked with me for a while about his faith, for his parents were strong Christians and had raised him to be so, but he had walked away. At the end of our conversation he said, "Maybe I'm that prodigal son." All of us had awesome one-on-ones like this.

I believe our time spent at SDSU was not in vain according to our prayers. It saddens me to see so many young people totally blind and walking in darkness, full of sin and carelessness, but it is very encouraging when "the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." (Matthew 4:16) May God raise up laborers to bring in the harvest in these perilous last days.

Praise the Lord Jesus Christ! Bless His Name forever and ever! Dear saints, please pray for me during this difficult trip... the work is great, the battle is fierce, the devil is roaring like a lion, millions and millions are going to hell, and without the power of the Holy Spirit we can do nothing. Pray for us that we would be filled overflowing with love, joy and peace; lighthouses in the billowing storm.

Firstfruits of Second Semester

Greetings, brothers and sisters, in the name of the Lord Jesus.

I apologize for the wait in receiving an update from me, dear friends; these last few weeks have been very busy and we have not had much access to the internet, but have been living quite regularly out of the van. Lord willing the site will be updated much more frequently from now on. To give you an update on what we've been up to:

I reunited with Miles in Los Angeles on the 13th, and we spent the first few days with brother Andrew Strom, preaching with him and a wonderful group of saints in the place known as "Skid Row", the worst homeless location in America. There were thousands of homeless people destitute in the most filthy and neglected section of L.A. It was a real eye-opener and life changing experience.

Following this, Miles and I headed south to meet up with Evan, and then the three of us drove to Las Vegas, Nevada, or "Sin City", to preach at UNLV. There we found out that another ministry called The Great News Network was there preaching, and we joined them in their outreaches. I had the privilege to watch Ray Comfort preach open air; the founder of Living Waters and Way of the Master. We also preached downtown Las Vegas, which was in itself an overwhelming experience. Las Vegas is not called Sin City for nothing. It is disturbing just how wicked that place truly is. Prostitution is legal in Las Vegas, and thousands upon thousands of people visit Vegas to indulge their sinful desires in gambling, drunkenness and immorality. Darkness covers that place...

We then headed to San Diego and continue on in our journey. I have many pictures and videos to upload so be sure to keep frequenting the website and message board. Above all, saints, please continue to pray for us as we fight the battle on the front lines of this generation: the battle is fierce and our adversary is ruthless, but "through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies." (Psalm 108:13) I miss you all very much. Continue in the grace of God, and may this year be full of victory and growth for each of us as we steadfastly look unto Jesus, our King, our Saviour, our God.