The Texas Rangers made it back to the World Series for the second consecutive time. I missed the outreaches at last years World Series due to being out of town. This year we made it out to games 4 and 5.
The game 4 outreach started about an hour before the first pitch. We
Todd, Carl, Duane and Tom
parked about a mile away and then took a cab to the stadium (to save time walking). This gave us the opportunity to share the Gospel with the cab driver!
When we reached the stadium, we set up at the exact spot with the Arlington Police and Rangers Security had told us to go last time we were out there. Nonetheless, as I handed out the first tract, we were immediately told by Rangers Security that we could not do that because we were on Rangers property. I explained that we were on a public sidewalk and had clearance from the head of Rangers Security, Arlington PD and a letter from our attorney. We stayed within six feet of the street like we had been instructed before. It took a little time to work everything out with APD and the Security, but ultimately we were allowed to preach with the amplifier and distribute Gospel tracts.
For Game 5, we proceeded to the opposite corner of the stadium from
Carl, Wally, Duane and Tom
where we were for Game 4. We had already evangelized the other three corners of the ballpark on various other occassions throughout the season. We arrived about three hours before first pitch and there was already a solid flow of traffic. After handing out tracts for 10 or 20 minutes, I went up to one of the police officers that was working traffic for that corner and asked where the best place to stand to preach would be. We agreed on a spot and we set up and started preaching the Gospel in the open air. We pretty much had someone preaching the Gospel for three straight hours while the other three of us handed out Gospel tracts. We took turns preaching.
We were met with some jeers. But also some Christians provided some encouragement. One of those was the senior pastor of a large church in the area!
If you want to do an outreach at your local sporting event, it is good to know something about the public property around the stadium. Each location has some different rules and restrictions. Some places require a permit for amplification, some don’t. Some college campuses may have some requirements for permits to be on campus. The best thing is to check out the venue where you want to go. By doing some legwork in advance you can have a successful outreach while working with the law enforcement.
As one example of that, at Game 5, the office asked us to not block her view of the other officer as they were working the traffic. So by merely staying to one side or the other, they were able to fulfill their duties and we were able to share the Gospel.
There are more pictures from the outreaches online for game 4 and game 5.
