Mardi Gras, Prattville Style

No I did not dress up in my Mardi Gras Jester outfit, but we did hit the streets for the parade dressed in casual apparel. We were armed with 5,000 tracts and I had three others show up to help in the endeavor. I've got to give a BIG thanks out to Phillip Baker, Carolyn Scott and Rafael Ray. Thank you guys for giving up a beautiful Saturday afternoon to go out and present the Gospel to a dying world. We met at the rendezvous point 45 minutes before the parade started. We split up the tracts among ourselves and we were off. Myself, my wife Marla and our two kids were on one side of the parade route and everybody else on the other side (Rafael was late, but better late than never ... just joking :-) ). The Million Dollar Bills went like hot cakes. We got about 1/2 way through the parade route, then the parade caught up to us. By the time we got 3/4 of the way through, the parade was finished and people were dispersing. A couple of times when I asked, "Did you get your million dollars yet?", they said, "I got one at the Christmas Parade". I asked, "Did you read the back?". And one person replied, "no". I told him, "That's the best part!!". I gave him another one and told him to read the message when he got home (the parade had wound down by then and he was heading home).

As I was headed back to the van, ready to call it a day, I got a call on my cellphone from Phillip. He was on his way back too and he saw a "block party" going on with a band, blow up slides for the kids, food and souvenirs. PERFECT place to open-air!! So I grabbed my little red wagon (I was carrying the tracts in it) and headed over to the spot Phillip was talking about. Phillip went through out the crowd and handed out tracts while I set up my stool to open-air. I'm still a novice at open-air preaching, but I do the best I can. (I do realize now that I need a sound system, I was loosing my voice trying to talk over the crowd noise) I drew a little crowd, so my kids gave them tracts as the people stood and listened. We had a few hecklers yell profanities too, but all in all it was pretty tame.

I wasn't sure how many tracts we had handed out, so when I got home I did inventory. We had handed out over 2,000 tracts!! That by far is the largest single effort I have been a part of locally. (The 500 in Atlanta blows that number away, but I'm only counting local stuff) It was a great day of fellowship and witnessing. I hope everyone joins with me in prayer for those who heard the Gospel today. Pray that God works on their hearts and maybe a seed was planted that God can grow.

Next Week....Millbrook's Mardi Gras Parade...maybe if nothing comes up.