Tyler Junior College

Our time spent at Tyler Junior College was of a different nature than normal. Last year, Jesse Morrell and Jeff Olver of Open Air Outreach were arrested for preaching and banned from campus, and so we headed for TJC aware of the consequences that might follow. Brother Miles started the day off preaching, and it wasn't even 15 minutes until the police arrived on the scene.

Having been given the order to leave campus, we negotiated with them to allow us a trip to the administration office to obtain permission to preach. This was grudgingly granted. Miles and I spoke with an administrator who told us that we needed to be sponsored by a student group in order for us to be allowed free speech. This is totally unconstitutional! However, we decided to play their game and headed for the Baptist Student Association to gain sponsorship.

Needless to say, the Baptist Student Association were not willing to sponsor us after hearing that we are open air preachers; they take the more "relational" approach.

Nor did the Wesley Foundation want anything to do with us. I asked the leader of the Foundation what exactly they did. His answer... "We bake cookies". I'm sure John Wesley would be proud.

Having attempted to gain sponsorship from the Christian organizations on campus and failed, we were not about to simply leave campus. After all, the Mormons were walking around proselytizing unhindered... We headed back for the administrator.

When we walked back into the office, they told us that the chief administrator was going to see us, so Miles and I entered the office of Mr. Fred Peters. He sat us down and straightway said to us, "I'm giving you the authority to preach on campus." Surprised, we asked again, and inquired if this was also valid for any future meetings, and he noddded his head! Open Air Outreach had just busted the closed door at Tyler Junior College wide open!

The funny thing was, when we started preaching, the police showed up and commanded us to stop. We told them we had permission from Mr. Peters but they didn't believe us. So they hauled us up to Fred's office and stormed in through the door expecting to see us busted. You should have seen the look on their faces when they heard the chief tell them he had given us permission!

The meetings were great afterwards. Many people heard the gospel and many Christians were fired up for the Lord. Praise God!

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." (Revelation 14:6-7)

University of North Texas

While in Texas we teamed up with Jesse Morrell and Jeff Olver, the other members of Open Air Outreach, and hit a few campuses together. UNT received our message well, with a good sized crowd and plenty of inquisitive students. The day ended with about 30 students hearing a straightforward gospel message.

Brother Jeffrey Olver witnessing one on one with a UNT student.

"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:18-20)

Garden Valley Cemetery

Being in Garden Valley, Texas, the home of Leonard Ravenhill, and Keith Green, I decided to take a visit to the graveyard and pay my respect to these two dear saints. Here's a picture of me next to Keith Green's tombstone, my favorite music artist:

And here is me at Leonard Ravenhill's grave, my favorite preacher:

It was an honor to be there, and I am truly blessed.

University of Arkansas, Little Rock

Once again, huge crowds gathered to hear the gospel being preached in the open air; crowds made up of every type of person under the sun: athiests, agnostics, Christians, buddhists, Muslims, Hindus... skeptics, socialists, homosexuals, fornicators, drunkards, blasphemers... the people came. It just so happened that the day we arrived at UALR was National Coming Out Day, or the day the homosexuals came out in force. The meeting basically got rolling when a shameless sodomite challenged Miles to a public debate and pulled out a his reasons why homosexuality was acceptable on a sheet of paper in defense of his sinful practise. The man claimed to be a Christian and attempted to use the Bible to justify his sin. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." (Romans 1:22) Being in the Bible belt, it was refreshing to see about half the crowd disapprove of this man, where in other areas we would see entire crowds cheer and applaude any such opposer.

The whole campus was in a stir; lots of debate, lots of questions, lots of emotion... people searching the Bible for answers... God was definitely at work.

The man in the picture above was about to attack me but was restrained by an administrator and a police officer. "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." (John 7:7)

Watch a video from this campus here.

Praise God for the seed that was planted and the fruit we saw at these meetings! Charles Spurgeon once called evangelism "that most royal employment." There is nothing greater than to lift up the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ against the world, the flesh and the devil. May the Lord raise up more laborers to fight the battle for lost souls and to reap in the harvest of these desperate last days.

"When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him." (Isaiah 59:19)

New Audio Added

University of Central Arkansas

I know it's been a while since I've posted any audio, but brother Josh Parsley was able to record a section of the meeting at UCA last week. The file can be located in the download section.