Pioneer Square...

I haven't posted in a very long time.  Work has kept me too busy & I haven't been out as much. But I did get down to Pioneer Square in Portland, Ore. last Friday,  Febuary 15. I arrived at 2:15pm which was just when    
Ron & Karen Rohman were leaving.  They have been doing street ministry for 30 years. As I started handing out tracts to passers by, a black gentleman by the name of James rode up on his bike, dismounted;  & then to my delight started to street preach.   I was glad not to be alone, as two giving the gospel is more the biblical way.  James was great, sharing his testimony, and also singing some Gospel songs acapella.  The Max train stops there, so many people waiting for the train couldn't help but hear the message.

About an hour later, I spotted yet another man showing up 1/2 block away, also handing out tracts.  I took a break to talk to him.  He apparently has a  church he leads out of his home.  He gave me one of the tracts he was handing out & I put it in my pocket to read later.

More people seem to be taking tracts these days, which is an encouraging sign.  To me however,  I wish more people that do street ministry would pay close attention to what they hand out.  Some tracts I read don't clearly give the message.  They present Jesus as a friend & helper (which He is) but sometimes only present Jesus as a way to make this life more fulfilling, without giving an eternal perspective. That's why I like the Billy Graham tract "Steps to Peace With God".  Jesus is presented as the only way to cross the bridge from here to eternity in Heaven.

I stayed at the Square fairly late, until 6:30pm.  There had been an ambulance parked a block away for awhile, and as I walked back to my car,  I saw what looked like someone's cherry coke spilled all over the sidewalk.  But then I realized the grim truth, that someone had been hurt & apparently the ambulance I had seen earlier, had done their job.  I don't know how the incident turned, but it *is* a reminder that no one knows when their time here on earth is up,  and I'm at least left with the  good feeling that a few more people were exposed to the truth of God that day,  and maybe God could have used  the seriousness of the accident
to get people's attention to seriously considering the brevity of life, and the choice we all have to make to be reconciled to God.