Our most recent local mission trip was the Sonoma County Pride Parade held in Guerneville, CA.
This event takes place annually and draws hundreds of people from the local communities. The people who attend this event are there to celebrate homosexuality and gay rights in the public setting. This seemed like the perfect place to bring the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, because people in this environment are clearly not in fellowship with Him
We understand that His desire is that all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, so recognizing the opportunity of having many fish in a small pond was definitely exciting to a group of young evangelists. Our team of 4 met a couple hours before the event for prayer and exhortation in light of the extremely dangerous environment in which we were going to be placing ourselves. We then split up into two teams and stationed ourselves at opposite ends of the parade (about 2 blocks apart).
Our methods of outreach included gospel tract distribution, bible distribution, one-to-one conversations, and open-air preaching. The crowd was instantly hostile as we proclaimed Jesus Christ and the necessity of trusting in Him alone for salvation. Our team was blanketed and shoved around with a giant beach umbrella, spit upon, physically assaulted, and received many death threats…yes, death threats. There were several local police authorities near our position who told us that if the crowd got out of control that they couldn’t guarantee our safety! Nevertheless we were confident that the Lord had called us to this specific place.
We preached the gospel to about 500 people, handed out hundreds of gospel tracts, got in many interesting conversations, and invited many to church. Our team left overwhelmed with joy knowing that many people had been given the opportunity to hear about God’s love and gift of forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ.
Sharing the good news is perhaps one of the most exhilarating activities in this world, and I encourage all Christians to find their way to get the gospel out, whether it’s through a church invitation, being hospitable, talking to co-workers, giving out gospel tracts, supporting missionaries, praying for the lost, or going downtown and witnessing to the passersby.
Let us all be obedient to the great commission knowing that He, the Lord Jesus, is with us always, to the very end of the age.
In Christ,
Pastor Jim
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