Update 3.10.2012 - St. Patrick's Day Parade

The St. Patrick's Day parade most likely gives us the greatest number of people to minister to of any other single event in the year. The only one that comes close is the Hartford Marathon. Estimates are in the 30,000 range.

We had nine men in total today, and it was fortunate, too, that we had that many. We were able to work the parade route from both directions, and meet in the middle after a little over an hour.

Dave and a few of the guys set up two of our banners on the Trumble Street and Asylum Street intersection. Asylum is the strip where all the bars are, so you can get an idea of what kind of crowd is there.

After canvassing the whole parade route, we turned down a side street to cut over and meet the guys at the intersection with the banners.  What a sight when we turned onto Trumble Street and saw, above the crowd, the banner, clear and bold:  "CHRIST DIED FOR SIN-SINS-SINNERS!"  I wish I had a picture of it, but, alas, we were struck with technical difficulties in our photography department.

We met up with the guys at the banner and continued to preach and hand out tracts to passers-by until our supply of 2,500 St. Patrick's tracts were GONE!  We continued to pass out tracts found in our Bibles, coat pockets, and what-have-you until we were nearly emptied out!  Thankfully, preaching doesn't run out, so we continued to preach until the parade reached the intersection, and during breaks in the parade thereafter.  The preaching wasn't a big hit with the crowd.  We were shouted down by inebriated parade-goers, drowned out by street vendors blowing their air-horns, and cursed at by fathers walking with their children.  However, the Lord has told us, "And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear..." (Ezekiel 2:7)  And so we did.

Despite the type of crowd, there were still several people with whom we had a chance to discuss the gospel.  Thank the Lord for all the opportunities, venues and methods He has blessed us with to be able to publish the gospel:  preaching, tracts, one-on-one, banners... much has been given to us, and much will be required.  A special thanks to Pastor Getto for printing, cutting and folding the extra 2,000 full-color tracts, despite being under the weather.

Despite our lack of a camera this Saturday, the Lord saw fit to publish a picture of this ministry by a local blogger.  You can see a great shot of the banner on their latest blog post (the picture is at the bottom of the post):  Real Hartford Website.

UPDATE!  Interview with the street preachers published on YouTube: