Fist Fight, Mental Illness, and Open Hearts

Here are a few items I’d like people to pray for from yesterday in the subways:

1. A fist fight!: Aaron was sharing the gospel and there was a large crowd listening attentively. All of a sudden, a man sitting on the floor a ways away starts yelling foul insults and profanities at Aaron. I can’t write all that he said. Among other things, he called Aaron a “pedophile,” a “pervert,” a “sicko.” He yelled at Aaron to “shut the **** up” and that nobody wants to here the **** that he’s saying. He told Aaron, “If you say one more word, just one more word, I’m going to come over there and kick your ***.” (There’s a photo of the man below.)

   Aaron ignored him and kept talking about Jesus to the people who wanted to hear.

   When the man yelled again that nobody is interested, a woman in the crowd yelled at him, “Shut up! I want to hear what this guy (Aaron) has to say!” And then the man and woman started swearing at each other! Ironically, the woman told him to “Shut the **** up because this man (Aaron) is sharing the Word of God so show him some ****ing respect!”

   The man got up and came right over to Aaron and continued to swear at him. (I caught some of this on video and it’s available below.) But when the man called the woman a swear, her boyfriend went over to the man and punched him repeatedly in the head! That got the crowd to scatter, including us! I don’t know the names of any of the people involved, but please keep them in prayer. Especially the heckler who started the whole thing. He needs prayer for his anger and his hatred towards God. I feel compassion for him.

2. Gerry with Mental Illness: I was handing out gospel tracts when an older man named Gerry told me that I’m not respecting my mother. He was very loud because, in his own words, he was not just talking to me, but to “everyone here.” He asked me if I knew who the “mother of mothers” is? I responded, “Eve?” He told me “no” and said that “Mother Earth” is out mother and we’re not kind to her.

   At first I thought he was just into New Age Religion, and I shared Romans chapter 1 with him that we’re to worship the Creator, not the Creation. He rattled off that the creation is God. I’m God. He’s God. Everyone is God. This is typical New Age thinking.

   But then he got more extreme, and more socially awkward. He spit as he talked and got really close to me. He got louder and louder and even raised his fists a few times. He said we’ve hurt our “Mother” by cutting down trees and mining minerals and killing animals. He said that I can’t prove that the earth doesn’t have a soul and that we need to bury all our gold to give it back to our “Mother.”

   He claimed to be a Baptist minister, that he has read the Bible, and that he’s an angel. At this point I realized that he wasn’t merely New Age, but mentally ill. I saw that he had a medical bracelet on.

   I did make a mistake, and I regret this. I told Gerry that he and I can talk again after he’s sober. I shouldn’t have said that. That wasn’t loving of me. And he became enraged! He said everyone there were witnesses that I blasphemed him and he’s going to sue me. He tried to rush into me, but Aaron got in the way and deflected him and talked with him. Then the train came and he was off.

   I regret making the sober comment, because it was unnecessary and he was already very upset before I said it. Please keep Gerry in your prayers.

3. Francis: A man in his 20’s came up to me speaking Spanish. I said, “No hablo espanol.” He said, “No hablo ingles.” So I gave my limited Spanish a go. He looked sad. He said, “Me llamo Frances.” I said, “Me llamo Mark.” He looked down and said a sentence, and all I got out of it was “mi familia.” (My family.) I thought he wanted money for his family. Normally I don’t give money out, but there was a sincere sadness about him, so I offered him a dollar.

   Frances said “no.” He didn’t want my money. Then he spoke again and the words I got were “mi corazon” (my heart) and “mi familia” (my family).

   I said, “Do you want me to pray for your heart for your family?” and he said, “si” (yes).

   I said, “Frances, I promise I will pray for you, your heart, and your family.”

   He walked away with a Spanish gospel tract and said “gracias!”

   I thought about this. Here’s a guy, a stranger, and he’s having issues with his wife or kids or someone in his family, and he sees me, who he doesn’t even know, but sees that I’m handing out literature about Jesus, and asks me to pray for him and his heart. That’s so sweet and sad at the same time. Sad because maybe he has nobody else to confide in spiritually.

   And THIS IS WHY WE GO TO THE SUBWAYS because God has us reach people who don’t come to church.

   Please please lift up Frances in your prayers. He was given the Word of God. Pray that the Holy Spirit will use that in his life and in the life of his family.

4. Ebony: Aaron had a long talk with Ebony, a young lady pictured below. Ebony had a Christian upbringing, but didn’t know the basics of the gospel. She talked for quite some time with Aaron, and missed a few trains to keep talking with him.

5. John: John is an older Hispanic man I spoke with with what little Spanish I know. I gave him a gospel booklet in Spanish and he was very happy and responded with “Amen” when I told him “Dios te bendiga” (God bless you)! He shook my hand and thanked me for giving him the literature to read. Such a blessing!!!

6. A Group of Christians: The stop we were on is one of the ways to get to the airport, so there’s a lot of people with luggage waiting for their train. There was a family with HUGE smiles listening to us preach. They thanked us for sharing the word and told us they’d pray for us. They asked us for some gospel tracts so that they could give them out. I love being able to be an encouragement to other Christians.

7. Elizabeth, a 4-Year-Old: On our way back to our office in Dorchester, (a suburb of Boston), there was a beautiful 4-year-old girl walking with her parents up the stairs of the train station. Her parents had to be about 20 or 21. And they were yelling and swearing at little Elizabeth.

   “Hurry your butt up Elizabeth!” “Stop taking so ****ing long!” “Don’t pull this **** again Elizabeth!” And Elizabeth started to cry. And she cried and cried while her mom grabbed her by the arm to pull her up the stairs and get her to move as fast as the mom and dad could walk.

   I teared up. And I was so sad for Elizabeth. What are her chances? At such a young age receiving such venom from the people who God gave her to nurture her.

   It’s amazing to me that God sees all the “Elizabeths” in the world being mistreated. Oh how it must break His heart! And that makes me want to preach the gospel all the more because the gospel of Jesus Christ, not legislation, changes hearts!

So you can see it was quite a day of ministry indeed!!!

Here are some photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/102024819319825275847/201301FistFightsAndOpenHearts

Here’s a video that shows Aaron preaching and the man cussing him out. I didn’t get much because I thought he was going to throw my camera, but I got a little of it.

Please pray for the gospel seeds planted!

Thank you for your prayers, notes of encouragement, and financial support. God is up to exciting things and it’s an honor to partner with you in the gospel of Jesus Christ!!!

all for Jesus,

Mark