Saturday in Five Points

Wednesday of last week began a new turn of events in the lives of the Wilson family. Wednesday night my mother fell and broke her knee-cap in two. She was unable to leave the emergency room due to her overall weak upper body, high blood sugar and high blood pressure, so she was admitted to the hospital and await surgery, which occurred on Friday. A long stay over the weekend ended with her being transferred to an assisted living facility where she will now stay for what seems to be permanently.

I was anticipating getting back into a "normal" routine, so we had Bible study and prayer on Saturday in preparation for an evening in Five Points. As soon as we got downtown, my cell phone rang with a call that delivered me back to the hospital where my wife and I stayed until 2:30 a.m. with my mother--her blood sugar was sky-high again. I did not make our evangelism outing, but Tim and Joe went anyway. What follows is Tim's report--since he wrote it, he gave me permission to post this as "guest blogger":

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We had some good conversations, but no decisions for Christ.

Joe and I first came upon a couple homeless guys, a bar owner (next to Quizno's) and a college or high school kid. Gave them all tracks and started talking. Of course one of homeless guys talked the most, but the bar owner, who was quite humble, was very open to the law and gospel. We talked for quite some time with all of them, then one the the homeless guys and the young kid split. The bar owner knew he needed to make some changes in his life (try to stop drinking) and was thankful we stopped by. He seemed to really understand what we told him.

A while later we talked to a couple college girls who were taking a smoke break from working at Yesterdays. One of the girls said she taught 5th grade Sunday School at her church. The other wanted to be more spiritual and was an English major at USC. We made it thru the law and repentance and gospel and the one who taught Sunday School had to get back to work. Of course she was guilty of breaking the law, but she knew most of the answers to our questions and didn't seem to concerned. The other girls stayed with us a few more minutes. She was definitely affected by the law. Then she had to get back to work and we gave her a pocket testament. She said her Grandmother would be happy we were talking to her and of course we responded, "your Grandmother is probably praying for you." She was appreciative and went back to work.

Then we found a group of kids in the parking lot behind Groucho's. Joe took one and I took one. The rest scattered. After a few minutes Joe's kid left with some of his friends. My kid, a Catholic (like you said, probably in high school), was very convicted by the law [I had warned our team to be aware of small knots of teens in Five Points. My experience has found that these teens are usually Catholic]-- he was sweating, wiping his brow, fidgeting, could not take his eye off me, and knew he was guilty and had a problem. I went thru the gospel with him and then the rest of his friends came outside jumped in their car and off he went. I did manage to give him a pocket testament before he got in the car. I hope the law ruined the rest of his night. If anyone is going to give their life to Christ, it will be that kid. [We pray it is, Tim!]

We walked around a little more, and ran into Loraine and Kathy at the fountain [friends of Columbia International University]. They told a bit about their time up in Asheville -- Wow that sounds like a possibility next year! [I'll hold you to that, Tim!] I kept talking with them while Joe went and had a good conversation with another Catholic young man. Then five Ana-Baptists showed up and told us that the King James is the ONLY Bible to use and that CIU didn't teach the blood of Christ anymore, etc, etc. Kathy had a heated discusion with the Kingpin for quite some time. We left shortly after that.

[Thanks for that report, Tim! Joe, keep up the good work!]

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As I sat there in the emergency room with my mom, I fussed about how I was not able to go to Five Points that night and worried about Tim and Joe the whole time--they've never shared the gospel in that setting before. I was reminded in my spirit of Jesus teaching then sending the disciples--He did not worry about His men--they were given authority to go! I found assurance in remembering this was God's work and in God's time, He would put His men and women in the right place at the right time. God is so faithful!

Waddya need me for? You guys keep up the good work!