Saturday in Five Points

This last Saturday, we were able to explore a different avenue of ministry--the Calvary Chapel Lexington team went to Five Points! There was scheduled a "festival" in Five Points, but it was not well attended, as other events in Five Points usually are. The truth of the matter was that it was an event to bring people down to the local shops, a "savings event." Shops along the 600 block had "games" along the sidewalk, to draw people in from the malls and back into the downtown area. I expected at least a small crowd, but hardly anyone came downtown. The guy in the dunking booty really got off fairly easy.

Many of the shops are not your standard fare--probably because the Five Points area is the University of South Carolina's "party central." Beside an overabundance of sleazy bars, there are a few specialty shops. Among the few traditional clothing stores one can find a bakery that specializes in making dog treats, a cigar and wine store, and a used book store.

I stopped into a tee shirt shop that specializes in tee shirts that I will not describe--but they did have some nice, shiny hookah's on display! I stopped in another shop known as Natty Vibes (Natural Vibrations), a local Rastafarian shop--a little smokey from burning incense, throbbing with the beat of reggae and pictures of Bob Marley at every turn. I find a hint of irony in all the Bob Marley memorabalia that his last words to his son, Ziggy, were "money can't buy life." I wanted to talk with the girl behind the counter, but she seemed to happy doing other things--a bit too happy.



Throughout the bulk of our time, I wanted the team members to have their own conversations with people, and they did a great job. Tim talked for a few minutes with a Gamecock bedecked man, who seemed much "happier" now than he was early when we saw him--a few fumes betrayed his influence. Tim did a great job taking the fellow through the law, but his wall of pride was too high (as I'm sure his mind was too) to really hear the gospel.



Earlier, Tim met a small group on the corner and gave them each a Million Dollar Bill. They were not interested in talking about spiritual matters, and all but one kept the bills. I noticed one guy who took special care to fold the bill and put it carefully into his pocket after he read it.

David snagged these skateboarders, but they showed a divided interest. Few wanted to go on down the street, but David held the attention of a couple of guys a little longer as he took them through the law and made his way to the gospel. A couple of guys tried to lead the group away, but I stepped in and asked them their opinion about what they were hearing. One guy told me he heard it all the time in Myrtle Beach and "believed it." I pressed him for what he believed, but he got more agitated and wanted to leave. Eventually, they did leave, but not without some Million Dollar Bills.

When we first arrived, we had not been on the street seven minutes when I saw this young man across the street. As we made our way up the walk, he crossed and practically came right to us. How providential! As he passed, I handed him a tract and asked, "didja get one of these?" He stopped and looked at it--no he had not.

He seemed pleased to receive the tract and wanted to know who we were "with"; that is, what church were we from. We told him. He told us about his church.

I asked if he thought he was a "Good Person," to which he replied to the affirmative. I asked him what standard he was using to come to that conclusion. He spoke for a while (this guy liked to talk!) about what he thought about himself, and vacillated that maybe he was not as good a person as he thought. What about the Ten Commandments--had he thought of looking at that as a standard? No, he had not.

We went through a few and as we did, one could not help but notice that this guy really liked to rationalize things--he talked and talked. He talked so much about this and that that it is difficult to reconstruct the conversation here. As he talked, Steve and Tim listened, I prayed (I hope Steve and Tim were doing the same). After he got out what he wanted to say, I took him back to the point-at-hand and held him personally responsible as we considered how sin offends God. The young man knew some Bible verses and was familiar with key terms, but when it came down to it, he began to realize that intellictual consent does not equal salvation. He needed to be cleansed from sin.

After I gave a brief testimony and taking him down the Romans Road, I finally asked, "is there any reason why you could not right now, today, repent and confess your sins to God and ask Him to save you?" He looked around for a moment and, quite honestly, surprised me when he said, "I don't want to do it right here." I began to think and pray about what to say next--not wanting to force the matter, but wanted to stress the urgency. I noticed that he was strangely quiet and even his face began to look different. Suddenly he said, "let's do it over there" and motioned to a sidewalk off to the side of a restaraunt.

We moved over to the sidewalk against the building where the young man repented of his sin and gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. As he prayed, a car pulled into the lot and of all the places they could have parked, they parked directly across from us--four guys standing with heads bowed, talking to God.

Wow. What a day--Praise God!