Bill Adams – Confederations Cup Report – Friday June 19th

Entry from Bill Adams:

Friday there were no games so went to downtown Johannesburg all day.  Normally as you enter a new area you drive around looking for the “right” spot.  A location that has heavy foot traffic & is in the center of an area.

By God’s grace Gary drove us to the exact location in Joburg that fit this description.  In fact, a parking spot opened as we approached it & on Friday there were few if any parking spots available downtown.

The location was at the corner of the South Africa Supreme Court building.  There was plenty of space on the corner, it’s always good to have space because you don’t want to encroach on people’s daily routine any more than necessary.  And there were plenty of people.  The day’s business brought many people across our path & refugees from Zimbabwe were there too & able to listen.

So the three of us, Gary, Thomas & I, hopped out of the car & began preaching, distributing tracts & talking with people.

Normally when you begin preaching in a business day environment it takes a little time for people to respond.  They seem to have to get used to your presence & then some listen while others walk up to talk.

Thomas & Gary have shown expertise in getting a crowd of 5 – 10 people around them as they preach & teach.  And today was no exception.

I, quite frankly, see the behavior of the people as spiritually based (we are temples of the Holy Spirit or some other spirit, but temples of spirits nonetheless) & prefer to preach on in an attempt to break the spiritual power over them.

The refugees were in a hopeless place.  They fled Zimbabwe looking for work & of course there was seemingly no work for them in Joburg.  It’s heart breaking that men, made in the image of God, sit idly waiting for something or someone to help.  Where is the determination that marks so many other men?  Why would they give up?  The hope of our hearts which pushes on onward is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  They needed Christ in their hearts.  So I preached on.

The Methodist church down the street was housing 2,500 of them.  I’m sure there was some source of food for their bodies but they needed food for their soul:  Christ in their hearts. So I preached on.  Men don’t need more information they need the Holy Spirit to convict them of their sin & to convert them.  So I preached on.

Paul said I wasn’t sent to baptize but to preach the Gospel.

We were there until about dark.