Saturdays on the Square

One on One

Jon Lafayette speaks to Travis about things
of the Lord this last Saturday. Pray for Travis as he is seeking to know more about the Scriptures. He reads the Bible but has some confusion about Baptismal regeneration that was taught to him by Church of Christ international, which is a cult group that teaches this heresy.



People from Around the World.....



I offered this Muslim man a tract as he crossed the square with his family this past Saturday. I learned that he is a professor with the University of Yemen, in the area of Chemistry and Biology.

Omar Ahmad Bamaga is finishing his research project at OSU in a few weeks and then he will return to his country.
Omar did retain possession of the gospel tract. Pray that he will read it and consider the claims of the gospel of Christ.

This past Wednesday morning Daniel offered $20 to any one who could prove that they were a 'good person'. These two homeless boys stepped up to the challenge. The young man on the left listened intently to the gospel, even though his friend tried to draw him away...he stayed to hear the word. Pray for this young man that the seeds of life will take root and grow up into life eternal in Christ Jesus.
(To watch the video, click on the link to in the left margin.

Rainy Day in Portland

On the Wednesday morning the rain began to come down in earnest at about the time Daniel and I arrived at Pioneer Square. We knew from experiance that the crowds would be nil to none on a day like this, but we were determined to present ourselves to sanctify our turf with some spiritual activity for the day.

Answered Prayer

Our prayer for the day was that God would use us to touch one life He had marked for the kingdom of God, in spite of the weather! Over all the work of the day was to hand out liturature and to speak to people as we could.

Daniel stepped up at the Starbucks corner to address the people passing by and those waiting for the Max.

Click on the link in the left column to see what transpired. (Sorry the picture is turned on it's side)

A New Discovery

Did you know that there is a Jesus stone on the Pioneer Square?

Last Saturday, I made my way back toward the center of the square from Yamhill & Broadway; I looked down and saw this....

You will find it up near the SW corner. Oh, and when you find the spot....pray for God's Holy Spirit to reprove the world of Sin, and of Righteousness and of the judgment to come; and that in this place sinners will be drawn to the Cross of Christ for salvation by the preaching of His Word! Join with us, pray for Portland!

Saturday on the Streets of Portland

Saturday, March 22nd 2008




With Daniel having a sore throat most the week and in much pain with his back condition, he came with his walking stick to pray and do one on one ministry. Today was my semi-solo test in the preaching end of things as I needed to lead in the preaching for the day.

We first began at the 'Starbuck's Amphitheater' with a message on Easter and what does it mean. In general we began with the identity of the person of Christ (John 1:1-2, 14), the nature and sinfulness of man (Gen 1:1; 2:7; 1Thess 5:23;Rom 5:12), the work of the cross (Is 53:6,10-11) and the admonition to repent and believe (Acts 17:30; Rev 20:11-15). We commit the scriptures to memory to be ready at hand 'withersoever the Lord leads'!

(The picture above shows Preacher Jim on the 'stone medallion, preaching a few weeks ago)
Stopping the mouths of False Teachers

As soon as we had finished the first round of preaching, a 'brother' Uri collared an interested group of young people who listening attentively to the preaching. (Uri is a hard core pentecostal that preys on any soul that shows the least bit of interest in the gospel.) I perceived that these were Christian young people out doing ministry themselves. I felt constrained to answer Uri's false doctrine of tongues. He went away sulking and began to speak to another in our group, Holly, who was on the corner handing out tracts with Liz!

Lord Send Laborers into the Harvest
These young people were a little discouraged that the people were so cold to the gospel. No one wanted to take their Easter literature. They attend the Grace Slovak Baptist Church in Vancouver, WA on Mill Plain Blvd and Andresen. The young man in the right front of the picture is named Slovak.He was surprised that we preach the gospel every week in Portland. They offered to sing before or after the preaching in the weeks ahead.

Our prayer is that the Lord will raise up his saints to pray, support and to preach. May the unction of the Holy Spirit rest upon these young people to have a part in the preaching and the spreading of the gospel in Portland.


Moving up the BIG AMPHLITHEATER

I felt led of the Lord to preach from the center of the Square today. It took a while to get the courage up to open my mouth, but once I did the Lord's Spirit helped me greatly to preach to all the people on the square. Daniel walked around the square as the preaching continued and he verified that the preaching was clearly heard all around. It must of been quite novel to some as they were taking pictures, at least that is what Daniel said later. (When I'm preaching I see little more than 'men as trees walking!')
You can see people in the scene below as Daniel pans around, but the small phone video clips do not pick up the preaching.

Daniel Rises Up to take the Parting Shot!

I preached on the sidewalk just below the place you see in the picture below. Daniel had 'sanctified' this preaching station as 'holy ground' in the weeks prior to this and felt I must hold our ground that we have gained. Daniel compared the tracts to small flash lights that deminish the darkness little but heart felt preaching of the Word of God lights a great lantern that causes the darkness to flee away. I tarried on the sidewalk giving out tracts for sometime before I let loose with the gospel message on 'Jesus' Warnings of Hell' (Matt 10:28; 18:5-11) and closed out with the 'Great White Throne' and the Invitation of Romans 10:9-13

Daniel had been sick this week and was just coming along to assist with prayer and his presence; but He just could not remain silent the whole day! This was the parting shot as we were going to the car….a two minute shot, but people stopped to listen with wonder and disbelief of a clear voice crying out in the spiritual wilderness of Portland

(The black lady you see looking up, stopped to hear the Word, she was favorable to the message and wanted talk, but Daniel kept plowing the gospel plow.)

Meet us at Pioneer Square!

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

Meet us at the NW corner (By the Starbucks) of Pioneer Square at noon to pray, pass out tracts and to support the preaching of God's Word. Bring tracts if you have some you prefer or just come without, we will have plenty to supply everyone.

For those who can not come, please pray for God to grant his grace to ministers and hearers alike!

When Jesus sent out the 70 to preach it is recorded that they returned with rejoicing at what God had done through them. Jesus said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heavenw satan fall from heaven! Luke records the heart of our Lord with regard to the public proclamation of His Holy Word in verse 21.

Luke 10:21 (King James Version)

21In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.

A New Preacher Spreads Wings of Faith

During our time of ministry this past Saturday, the 15th of March, my son James David publicly proclaimed the gospel of our Lord. We were making our way back to the car from PSU. Daniel began to encourage Jim to read Psalm One on the corner of SW Yamhill and Broadway. The decision was made to launch at the 'little amphitheater'. Jim quoted the first Psalm as I was praying for the Spirit to give him wind under his wings of faith and let him soar a bit, and that he did, doing a fine work of exegesis on the text, preaching the moral requirements of the law and the provision of the cross. A lady on the sidewalk even added a hardy, "Amen" upon the conclusion of the proclamation!

Praise the Lord for his faithfulness to help us and use our simple obedience to fulfill His will.

A Change of Plans

Wednesday, 19^th of March

Today our plans were to preach on the PSU campus, but due to Daniel coming down with a bad sore throat I decided not to go down alone. I was out on the road when I received Daniel’s call so I use the time to do some other things that needed to be done.

Tracts - First, I stopped by the printers to arrange to print up a ‘Ten Commandments’ tract. We hope to do a run of a couple thousand to lower the cost and to raise the quality. The lowest price right now is about 18 cents per piece. I bought first rate, quality tracts from Ray Comfort’s ministry for 7 cents! To lower the price I may have to print 10,000. Please pray about this matter.

Pray for Brother Daniel’s return to full operational duty status!

I stopped by with some limes and ‘Emergen-C’ from Costco. It’s great for boosting the vitamin C and with a lime it’s perfect for what ails ‘ya’. We had a good time of discussing the work and parted with prayer for God to anoint us and those to are partaking in the work with compassion and boldness to hold forth the gospel.

Dear God rise up a company of young men to preach the Word of God with unction and compassion.

We are looking to Saturday the 22nd.

Regardless of Brother Daniel's condition, with the Lord’s help, we’ll meet at the NW corner (by Star Bucks), of the square at noon on Saturday. If you would like to join us meet us there. It is good to Email me or call to confirm that nothing unforeseen has occurred. Contact info is in the church directory. You may also reach me at jrlafay@gmail.com

OUR FAITHFUL BAND OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS

Saturday, the 15^th March

On Saturdays we like to meet at Pioneer Square at around noon. There was a good group of young people out with preachers on this wet, blustery day. It is always good to have a group with the guys who are doing the preaching for several reasons.

1. An attentive group listening to the preaching tends to ‘invite’ other people not with the believers to stop and listen.
2. It is a great opportunity for those in the crowd to speak to any one who would seem to have need of the gospel explained to them further
3. Also, strong young man watching your back side is a great comfort to the preacher that some ruffian does not catch him unawares.
4. But perhaps the greatest need is the co-workers praying for the word of God to have an eternal effect on the hearers.

Upon arriving we noticed that there was an unusually security and Police presence. We later discovered that there was scheduled for this very day an anti-war rally, more on that later.

In addition to having Daniel and myself present, there were two young men and a young lady in their twenties with one high schooler and her ten year old sister. The girls always do great handing out tracts. A rocker passed me by only to walk to next corner to receive a tract gladly from our ‘little gal’ offering a word of life. Care must be taken to pair up the children with a ‘guardian’, but the word is spread most effectively by these little soldiers. I would recommend though that a child must be a believer and understand what they are doing so that the decision to hand out tracts is theirs. This ten year old asked to come out when she beheld the example of one our young ladies in the church.

WALKING THROUGH THE PROTESTERS

We had purposed in our heart to walk to the PSU campus free speech zone before the day was done to gather there for prayer for the campus. The PSU campus is about four blocks as the crow flies from the square. On our way there we walk through a crowd protesting the ‘Church of Scientology’. I doubt that there was a believer in the crowd. They see this cult as violating man’s freedom of will by using behavior and mind control techniques. Now there is no problem with man violating the Creators truly sovereign will!

We came in contact with the peace crowd as we approached the campus park area. Loud rock music blared out, with a base drum beat that reminded Daniel of ‘war drums’ of some wild uncivilized society. As we made our way south through the crowd our ‘little trouper’ was handing out “School Shootings – The common Denominator” tracts as she went. There were at least 40 plus tracts handed out just walking through the people.

NO ONE SPEAKS FOR THE SLAUGHTERED INNOCENTS

The grass area around the free speech area was covered with little white flags signifying the Iraqi lives supposedly lost due to the war. Forgotten are the 35 million little babies that have been slaughtered since Roe v Wade. They wonder why there is no peace. We have not seen any thing yet. In the Old Testament we read of God raising up the nations around Israel to judge them for their sins. Over the course of our walk through that area we saw everything from save the whales to “peace starts with your dinner plate”, try vegetarianism! Of all the ism and schisms represented there we did not see anyone speaking up for the children. This is the ‘sin of Manassah’ who filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, of which God said, “I can not forgive this sin”. That is a sobering word from the Lord!

PRAY FOR THE PREACHING OF GOD’S WORD ON PSU CAMPUS

The rain began pouring down as we joined hand to pray on the brick ‘free speech’ platform. Jesus stood up in the last days of the feast and cried out, “Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water!” As the great river flowed out from the high garden of God in Eden so may the Spirit of Christ go forth onto this campus to call sinners to repentance and Christians to the battle! As we finished praying around, the blanket of dark rainy gave way to a beam of light that surrounded us on the raise pavement where we stood. May the Spirit of Christ break forth from that place to the glory of God!

Pray for us, as it is our intention to go to PSU to preach this Wednesday the 19^th at around noon. We hope to make the campus a regular preaching station in the future.

Angels Unawares/ Teacher Reviles the Truth of Creator

Wednesday, the 12th of March 08.

I heard from Daniel that he was planning to go into Portland to preach and evangelize alone and so I asked my work mate to cover my 12 hour work responsibility to allow me to able to accompany my good brother to the city.

Daniel began preaching on the corner of Yamhill and Broadway. I manned the corner and passed out tracts. After a half hour or so, Daniel suggested that we return to the small ample theater adjacent to the Starbucks because of the back ground noise being high at our present position.

As we made our way over towards our new digs We noticed an elderly gentleman standing in the center of the square silently, his frame was slight and his sweatshirt hung loosely on his shoulders. The words on the front of his sweatshirt read, “I stood at the Empty tomb, Jesus has Risen!” I said to Daniel,” Is that guy going to preach or what”? We slowly made our way to the center of the square where the old man stood still with his arms down at his side, his palms turned slightly open. Daniel approached the man and engaged him in conversation. We introduce ourselves all around. His name is Alfred. Alfred is 87 years old and comes down to the square on Wednesdays at 12:00 to 1:00 to pray for Portland! As we were parting I asked him to pray for us. He immediately reached out to gently touch our arms and prayed the blessing of the Lord on our efforts in speaking and publishing the gospel of Christ. His prayer was offered up with a true earnest unction of a man led of the Spirit. I could not help but to see the Lord’s hand in this wonderful event. As I sat listening to Daniel preach, I looked back to where the old man had been…he was gone.

There were school children at the square throughout the morning. One of the favorite things to do at the square is to stand on the ‘round stone’ in the ample theater and hear how your voice resounds back to your ears when you speak. The children were lined up to make little noises and words at the encouragement of their teachers. Between groups I took the spot and began to preach the truth of God as our creator, the fall of man, the certainty of Judgment by the righteous judge, Jesus Christ, at which time a teacher to my side and reviled me for preaching in the presence of children. He vehemently pronounced, “That this is a school field trip that they should be forced to hear such ‘crap’!” A leader of another group of a dozen or more children allowed them to stay and hear the message of the cross and how they could have assurance of sins forgiven! Praise God for Christian teachers. This illus trates just how ‘tolerant’ these secular teachers are of anything having to do with Christ. Truly the carnal mind is an enemy of God, it is not subject to the law of God, and neither indeed can be!