June 2004

Dear Saints,

The 2004 spring semester ended with a bang. My thirteen year old son Aaron finished his home schooling in early May and joined me for a two week father/son preaching tour to the "Kentucky Derby" in Louisville, Ky. and two campuses in Ohio.

At the "Kentucky Derby" we met up with Donnie and Candra Morris, Mark Hines and family, Ruben Israel, and Fred Bishop and gang

At Ohio State University we walked onto OSU’s famed "oval" where we found about five hundred students spending their afternoon in the sun. We were pleasantly surprised to find an old acquaintance, campus/street preacher David Tripp preaching to the students. It had been at least ten years since I had seen David. David turned the crowd over to me for the rest of the afternoon. As I informed you in our last newsletter, it seems that, at present, God is stirring the heart of the Jews. Aaron and I had some very serious conversations with several Jews. One in particular stated that she was an orthodox Jew. She was dressed very modestly and could intelligently defend her religious views and lifestyle with refreshing articulation. The Jews that we talked to expressed relief in our preaching and kindred spirits. It may be that some of the Jews are realizing that outside of their own Jewish communities the ones that they can count on most for consistent international friendship and support are we Christians. I did my best to encourage this sincere Jewish girl to continue in her search of the scriptures, she took to Aaron and me so much that she brought us a nice lunch on the following day.

After the first day of preaching at OSU, a male student bought us a bite to eat in the cafeteria while another male student tagged along to talk. The tag along student told us how that, just a few years previously, he had been saved from a lifestyle of homosexuality. He stated that he had not been molested as a child but had started out with "soft porn" which eventually led him into hard core pornography and homosexuality.

Aaron and I experienced one of my best campus meetings of the year while at Oberlin College. The crowds consistently numbered between 100-200 students. Although Oberlin College’s student body consists of approximately 1/3 Jews, 1/3 Homos and 1/3 heathen we encountered a most subdued and respectful crowd as they sat on the lawn in Tappan Park for up to 6 hours each day. Aaron and I were invited to dinner at a co-op house one evening. We were taken out to eat by two other students and one Jewish tag along another evening. After dinner, the Jewish student who was tagging along took us on a tour of Oberlin College’s state of the art music/recording department. A female student bought Aaron some lunch on his birthday, May the 13^th. We were both personally invited by a female music student to attend a classical/religious music recital in Charles Finney Chapel where many graduates have been and hope to be first chair in a professional orchestra someday.  A special thanks to sister Alice Ratti and brother Kurt Haas for joining me at Oberlin.

The grand finale came during the last week of May at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. As a result of all the media coverage that I received last March from the Boston Globe, the Washington Post and Reuters for my preaching in Boston, Mass. during the homo marriage legislative debate, a German Television Network contacted me in order to film a documentary on me. On the Friday afternoon before Memorial Day, a German reporterette and a camera man flew from New York City in order to film and interview me at Wright State in Dayton, Oh. I was also joined that day by Jeff Roberts, Dan & Lydia Duane, Jon Robertson, Kevin Mayberry, Kimberly Pierson, Sonjia Koogler, Jeff Bostwick, Mitchell Bostwick, Michelle Bostwick, Tayvona Moore, Justin Casey, Steve Davis, and Karen Wilmoth. The crowd was more subdued that day as they often times had a television camera in their faces for close ups. After the three hours of preaching and about an hour of personal interviews the German reporterette and camera man took me out to dinner. The German reporterette told us that she had never heard nor seen such preaching in her 40+ years of life. She said that Germany has hate crime laws which limit preachers on what they can say regarding certain topics such as homosexuality. We had a great time that day and I am thankful that God allowed me to not only witness to the reporterette and camera man but also to the country of Germany when they air the documentary in July.

We also preached for the third straight year at the Tulsa, Ok. homo parade. This year I was joined by Adam Bishop, Trever Metheny, Shawn Smith, Ira Roberts, Gary & Laura Bowman and Jeremy Reed.

We thank you for your love and prayers,

Brother Jim, Sister Bonnie, Aaron, Gabrielle, and Arielle