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September 26, 2011, University of Iowa
Rained out!
It is rare (usually only a couple of days a year) that my husband gets rained out. He admitted that he needed a rest. He was able to re-charge for four great days of ministry in Iowa. Read about it below-Sister Cindy
 SLOW START, FAST FINISH
September 27, 2011, University of Iowa
Today was the longest that I can remember that it has taken to draw a crowd. Throughout the afternoon we fired all of our big guns, Brother Jack, Gunnar, Sister Pat and I, without getting a gathering. Jack held a large banner and we had several signs, but students seemed indifferent to our admonitions. I thought that we were going to have to settle for students hearing a lot of gospel sound bites and for Sister Sandy passing out hundreds of Chick tracts, which still may have been the most evangelism done on this campus of 30,000 students since school started.
The ground seemed very hard which surprised me since I usually have large crowds at UI and there had been inquires about when I was coming to campus. One problem may have been that I showed up earlier than I had originally announced.
About 3:30, Gunnar said, "The Lord is about to soften them up."
 | | Gunner says, "The Lord is going to soften them up." |
There was a class break at 4:20 and I decided I would give it one last shot. I had returned to the car to get my "YOU DESERVE HELL" sign. I held up the warning signal and said, "The bad news is that you deserve Hell; the good news is that God offers you what you do not deserve: grace, mercy, forgiveness, and eternal life, if you will repent and follow Jesus."
An effeminate came skipping up beside me holding a sign which read:
F_ _ _ this guy.
He doesn't know you.
He may be right about me.
He tried to always have the arrow pointing at me. Anything that has to do with the F word makes these so called students still react with a junior high school mentality. They think that usage of the word is so cute, especially when directed towards anyone representing authority. Many stopped to take pictures which will be on their FB walls tonight. And the pictures will also be a record against them on Judgment Day. Soon three girls one of whom claimed to be a boy joined the effeminate with their own signs. Hence more cameras were flashing.
| | Guy with the nasty sign draws attention. |
Soon I had a crowd of 35 students. There were several ornery girls females in the crowd whom I rebuked. I repeatedly pointed to the rabble that Jesus was their only hope. After 45 minutes I turned the meeting over to Sister Pat. A female told Sister Pat, "You are sinning by telling us that we are going to Hell."
I challenged one wimpy boy, "Define love."
"Love is acceptance," he answered.
I inquired, "Does God accept everyone unconditionally?"
"God's love is unconditional," the wimp responded.
"The benefits of God's love is conditioned our responding to his love with repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ," I countered.
And on and on it went with him continuously speaking of the magic word, yet not have the faintest idea of what true love is. Later another wimp came up and we went through basically the same conversation. I have this conversation thousands and thousands of times over the decades.
| | Soon the nasty guy had helpers. |
| | "You are sinning by telling us that we are going to Hell," students. |
Meanwhile, Christians were telling me that I needed to tell everyone how much God loved them.
I told a girl, who was the daughter of a Lutheran pastor, "You are not a woman of your word. You were confirmed in the faith and made a public pronouncement that you would serve the Lord, but you are now denying him." She appeared to be under some conviction.
Gunnar, Jack and his wife had to return to Wisconsin at 5:30. Sister Pat and I stayed on campus until 6:45.
It pays to persevere. We started slow but we finished fast. I was glad that we did not drop out of the race at the third turn. We made the stretch run with great speed.
| | Sister Pat explains that because she loves them she warns them of hell. |
| | Iowa students photograph the signs with their cell phones. |
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BOLDNESS OR BRASHNESS?
September 28, 2011, University of Iowa
It was a lively crowd that gathered which included a few of the ornery females from yesterday. There were light showers at times which did not have any impact on the mob. The horde moved in on me so that I did not have much room to maneuver. The effeminate with the sign from yesterday was back with another sign today. He stayed too close to me for comfort. However, I did not consider him to be dangerous; to him it was all a lark. Three females were holding free hugs signs. I said, "They must be starving for affection."
| | Free hug ladies. |
| | Hugging ladies do not judge. |
Late in the afternoon for some reason the mass backed off and gave me more space. A Christian took center stage. He said, "I am a sinner like you and Christianity is not about condemnation." The students quieted down and wanted to hear what he had to say. However, I had heard enough from this sin excuser so I walked away from and sat beside Sister Pat who has several students gathered around her. The Christian kept the attention of my crowd longer than these types usually do. I have to commend him for his boldness or perhaps I should say brashness because he was out of order and had unsound but typical evangelical doctrine. Nevertheless, he was putting out some truth. I did hear him speak of Hell and Jesus as the way to God.
Within ten minutes students started drifting back to me where I was sitting on a bench. This was a more subdued assembly. I taught them for about 30 minutes until I had to dismiss myself since I had to make a 75 minute drive to Independence to speak at Calvary Evangelistic Center. They all wanted to know if I was coming back tomorrow. I said, "That is the plan."
Sister Sandy, who passes out the Chick tracts, had joined us. So I left Sister Pat with her and they continued ministering until 6:30.
| | Sister Sandy passed out hundreds of tracts. |
| | Sister Pat proclaiming the truth at Iowa. |
| | Sister Pat preaches to large crowd. |
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CONFRONTATION WITH POLICE
September 29, 2011, University of Iowa
Since Tuesday we have had no problem drawing a crowd. Students are stirred but not as angry as they were at Oshkosh. I was preaching to a quiet crowd when two policemen arrived and called me aside. One of them informed me that I could not speak on university property without permission. I lectured him on first amendment rights. I informed him I have been speaking on this campus almost annually for three decades and the university does not require a permit. I informed him that university property was public property. He kept insisting that it was not public but university property. I finally walked away from him and sat on the wall holding my sign and facing the students; he informed me that I could not walk away from an investigation. But he did not do anything. After about 10 minutes with no one leaving and some more even gathering, the other policeman returned my driver's license and informed me that his captain informed him that there was nothing they could do keep me from speaking. They stayed around for another hour or so observing. It turned out well because the students were quite subdued. I spoke until 2 PM when I called on Sister Pat.
| | Policeman tries to stop Bro. Jed. |
| | The police chief told the officers that Bro. Jed could continue. |
While she was speaking, the effeminate who has been harassing me with his sign the last two days, sat down next to me and asked, "Why do you do this?"
"I am motivated by the love of God," I answered.
He seemed more sober than the last two days. But he finally walked over to where Pat was preaching and told everyone to leave. They did leave; however, when I took over I immediately gathered a new crowd.
Later, a few other homosexuals talked to me on the sidelines. One said that he admired what I do and my willingness to take a stand. He listened as I taught him that he is not a homosexual; but he is a man. He concluded, "I have to go to class but thank you for coming to campus.
When I preached another stint, a creep got in my face for 30 minutes and softly repeated over and over, "Please leave our campus." He was very annoying but I am used to speaking under aggravating circumstance and I did not miss a beat. Finally, I jumped up on a wall, which neutralized him since he could not get in front of me. He stood by my side and continued muttering, but finally ran out of gas. I was somewhat concerned that he might try to push me off the wall since he seemed unstable. But I considered that the circumstances justified the risk.
| | Creepy guy gets in Bro. Jed's face. |
| | Creepy guy follows Bro. Jed on the wall. |
We preached until 5:30 I exhorted the students that they needed to learn to exercise some self-control. Many of them are too far gone to be able to do this independently of the power of the Holy Spirit.
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WE ARE THE SCUM OF THE EARTH
September 30, 2011, University of Iowa
While Sister Pat was preaching, a female evangelical sat down beside me to find out what I believe. Eventually, the question of living free from sin came up, as it usually does. She ended up defending sin while I opposed it. Now she would deny that she was defending sin; however, if it is true that we cannot help but sin, then the sinner has a defense. And if sinners can't help but sin then Christians have no grounds to rebuke them, which is why so few evangelicals will condemn sin. She finally had to leave and asked, "I pray a lot; do you have any requests."
"Please pray that my message of sanctification will penetrate your heart and that you will live holy," I requested. She agreed to pray about my teaching.
A fellow who had been listening to the conversation asked, "How can you come out every day and throw yourself to the wolves like this?"
I answered, "I emulate John Wesley. I come to campus daily and light myself on fire and the campus comes out to watch me burn. I know that I am right, which gives me the confidence to face down the pack of wolves."
He then prayed a strong prayer of support for me.
Earlier a girl told me that I needed to talk to her Presbyterian pastor and learn how to build relationships with the students. I explained, "I am not fulfilling the office of pastor I am an itinerate evangelist going from campus to campus warning the students to 'flee from the wrath to come.' I do not have the time to build relationships."
Paul sarcastically wrote, "For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. . . being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: Being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day."-1 Cor 4:9-14
An apostle is one who has been sent forth into the world. Daily we make spectacles out of ourselves. Today was our final day on campus. I believe that I can fairly say that we gave most of the campus the opportunity to hear the Truth and see the Truth in action. We made Christianity the major issue on campus. I like the way the NIV translates 1 Cor 4:14 "We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world-right up to this moment."
| | Another large crowd gathers today. |
We are also a spectacle unto angels. In my view much of what is going on in the churches and on the Christian media is boring compared to our daily fights against the mad wolves. We put the angels on alert because we place ourselves in danger every day; for us to survive we need the help and intervention of the angelic hosts every day. The police came out today and told Sister Pat that they had reports that we were being threatened and pushed. Actually, no one pushed me but one fellow was being so verbally abusive that a number of students even told him that he was out of order. On Tuesday a student said that we would be killed if it wasn't for the law.
From 3:30 to 4:30 we had less than 20 listeners but at the end several of these unbelievers, some of whom had been hecklers, commended us for our stand and for our courage.
| | Listeners! |
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