Weekly Update 6/27 to 7/3/16 & This Week’s Outreaches

Wednesday – Downtown San Jose – We stayed close to home last Wednesday, and Tim, Gino and I headed downtown. It was a bit slow, but as with any large city, there are always people out and about. We started handing out tracts near the main city library. We also read scripture and preached. Lots of tracts went out, and a number of people stopped to listen, though we didn’t draw a crowd. Then I preached with the small sketch board near a Light Rail station on 2^nd street. Gino had a good conversations with a couple of young Muslim men, and Tim and I spoke with Andre, a gentleman we had met at the Home Church/Meet the Challenge homeless outreach a week earlier. We were able to encourage him and pray for him. Please keep him in your prayers. He’s staying in a shelter now, but is working on getting an apartment.

Friday – First Fridays in Campbell – Judy and I went to the First Fridays event in downtown Campbell, near our church. It seemed particularly busy this month, and we were able to hand many tracts out. I had a particularly good conversation with Ashley, a young woman who was heading to dinner with her friends. After receiving a tract she had her friends go ahead, and talked to me for about 45 minutes. She was very thankful afterwards, saying I had opened her eyes on a lot of issues. I also invited her to come to church. Please pray that she does.

Saturday – Pacific Ave in Santa Cruz – Santa Cruz remains one of my favorite spots to preach, largely due to the colorful characters we see there, and the crowds that they can draw. But over the last few months the city has been trying to crack down on free expression, not due to us, but due to the large number of street performers and artists. They have designated free expression areas, which is problematic, but thankfully they have designated many of them, and we were able to find a good spot near an intersection. The law is something we may have to fight at some point, but for now, we’ll see how things pan out. On the plus side, even while trying to enforce the new regulations, the police have been very polite and professional.

I was only able to give two sketches on Saturday, largely because after the first one, I got into a very long conversation with a young man named Kale (might be a street name). He was a bit hard to pin down on his beliefs (I think partially on purpose), and was a skeptic, but was also very intelligent, and very polite. He said he believed in God, but thought God was leading him away from true Christian belief. He also recycled many of the standard skeptic and atheist arguments, some, by his own admission, not because he believed them, but because he wanted to hear my response. I gave him answers, but also tried to push him on issues of sin and eternity. He believed in the hereafter, but was not concerned with eternal consequences or hell. Please pray for him, and that we meet again soon.

This Week’s Outreaches
Pleasanton Street Party Outreach – Wednesday, July 6^th, 6PM to 9PM

San Jose Downtown Outreach – Friday, July 8^th, 6:30PM to 9:30PM

Campbell Second Saturdays Outreach – Saturday, July 9^th, 1PM to 5PM