I’ve done a lot of witnessing at The Shops at Legacy over the last couple of years. There are some times in the past when it was a regular stop each week. Patterns have changed some in the last six months, so I had not been there to witness in probably six months.
The last time that we tried to open air preach at the Shops at Legacy was about 15 months ago. At that time myself and two others were told by the theater management and a security officer that we could not be there because it was “private property”. I did not think that was correct but we complied anyway and open air preached in another part of the metroplex that night.
Following that incident I had contacted the city and obtained a plat of the area so that I would know where the public property was. In addition, I had consulted an attorney as to how to handle the situation. Finally, having been to the Ambassador’s Academy in May, I had learned some things about dealing with management, security and police. In short, I knew the law and had the training about how to handle things at the Shops at Legacy. I’d even been out and done open air with Jon Speed a month ago at a similar location in Southlake. Yet, I had fear that showing up to open air at the Shops at Legacy was simply inviting the police to come. So, I had been waiting to go out there when I had someone with me.
Well, this weekend Duane Seaberg has been visiting. As we had been talking over the weekend about various places to go and open air preach, I mentioned this loction and my fear that it would involve dealing with the police. His response was, “let’s go!”
So, Tuesday night after dinner, Duane and I headed out to the Shops at Legacy. Using the platt, we examined three areas that we could set up. We opted for the third location (probably because we were there) at the south end of Bishop street, near the park.
We set up the box, prayed and then Duane got on the box first. He shared his testimony, about his wifes death and then preached the Law and the Gospel. I was video taping Duane’s open air. As I had expected, the police showed up! But, what I did not expect was that they simply drove past. WOW! What a relief. Duane finished his open air. Now it was my turn.
We decided to put the video camera on a wall so that we could capture anything that happened on tape and then free Duane up to distribute tracts. It was a day past Project Ezra did Matthew 11-12 and those passages were fresh on my mind from reading them and preaching on them over the weekend. I had wanted to do some dollar trivia to draw a crowd, but the crowd was fairly light. So, I decided that I’d give Matthew 11-12 one more try for this week. I got up on the box and read Matthew 11-12. Then I began to preach the Law and the Gospel. As I was preaching I saw another Police car coming down Bishop street right towards me. I knew I just had to keep preaching until told otherwise. But, after the police car stopped at the stop sign across the street, it proceeded to make a right hand turn. What happened next, shocked me. The Police Officer waved to me as he drove past! WOW, again! Another shock. The police knew we were here. Could hear what we were doing and left us alone. Praise God! Answered prayer!
As I continued to preach the Law and Gospel, I could see two teens that had been sitting and listening were now talking to Duane. A number of people were passing by the area where I was preaching. Some across the street at one of the restaurants were turned looking and listening. Some people on the street had stopped to listen. I continued to preach and went over the Gospel again. I called people to repentence several times. I had been expecting that Duane would wrap up his conversation and then I would finish and he would preach again. I noticed that Duane was still engaged in conversation. After 25 minutes of preaching, I was exhausted so drew to a close and got down from the box.
Duane was still speaking to the teens. I started handing out some tracts as people were passing by. Eventually I joined the conversation with Duane and the teens. They were both believers. One had recently rededicated her life to Christ. We gave them some tracts and told them about the tract club and encouraged them to join so that they could share their faith. Eventually, one of the moms showed up. She was not upset that we were talking to her daughters. She was also a believer and we gave her some tracts and information on the tract club too!
Finally, it was time to go. We packed up and were headed towards the car. As we crossed Bishop Street, I noticed that the waitress that had been listening was making a bee line to intercept us. Somehow I was expecting the worst. But, when we reached where she was, she said, “what church are you with?” We explained that we were representing Jesus Christ, had our own Evangelism ministry and happened to worship at two different churches. She said, that she appreciated our being out there and that the words that I shared from Matthew was exactly what she needed to hear. We shared some tracts and information on the tract club with her and offered her some encouraement in her walk with Christ.
We went home praising God that the Law and Gospel was preached. Believers in Christ were encouraged. And the lost heard the message of salvation. Now to go back and next time try one of the two other spots!
