August 1999

 

 

Dear Saints,

 

As I prepare for my 17th consecutive year of full time campus evangelism, I look back over the past semester and several events stand out in my mind.  The most personally satisfying event took place at Edison Community College in Fort Myers, Florida.

 

Bro. John and Sister Ellen Duncan and I descended upon E.C.C. one hot Tuesday afternoon.  To my knowledge, it was the first time that anyone, including myself, had ever preached on that campus.  I started the meeting, I preached for only 45 minutes until I was drenched in sweat.  I turned the ravenous crowd over to Bro. John.  I walked around the Student Union, so as to not draw the crowd away from Bro. John, when a student approached and wanted to talk to me.  We walked around to an entrance where once inside we bought something to drink.  We sat outside in an enclosed patio to finish our drinks and noticed that the crowd was quite subdued and attentive to Bro. John’s preaching.

 

Bro. John then called for me, puzzled at the rather short time span that he had been out there preaching, I hesitatingly made my way out to Bro. John.  As I moved closer I could see some Deputy Sheriffs in the crowd, then all of a sudden they moved in on Bro. John.  When I was about 20 feet away, the Deputies had Bro. John doubled over with his hands behind his back and was placing handcuffs on his wrists.  Astonished, I stated, "John, you have been a bad boy," for I knew that this was Bro. John’s first arrest, “What did you do?” I asked.

 

Tyrants, is too nice of a term for those Deputies.  They threatened to steal my tape player.  They detained Bro. John in their police cruiser for several hours in a parking lot while they frantically searched for a charge.  During these two hours we were both given a written notice that we were banned from campus.  Once the Deputy left the campus to transport Bro. John downtown, the Deputy cursed Bro. John like a dog all the way down to the jail.

 

That night we phoned an Attorney friend of ours, Jim Elsman, who just so happened to be flying to Fort Myers that very next morning on unrelated business.  Praise The Lord!  Not only had God personally arranged an Attorney for us, but, as we later found out, this Attorney had been arrested a couple of years prior on E.C.C.'s satellite campus in Naples, FL.  Mr. Elsman had been arrested in Naples while he was preaching with some other Christians.  Once the Naples campus found out that they had arrested an Attorney, they dropped all charges and allowed them to continue their preaching.  This emboldened Mr. Elsman so much that he made arrangements with the Executive Vice President of E.C.C. to preach on the Fort Myers campus as well.  When he arrived the Executive Vice President rolled out the red carpet for the Attorney/Preacher.

 

Guess whom Barrister Elsman contacted that next day?  You got it, his ole buddy, the Executive Vice President of E.C.C.  The E.V.P. told our Attorney that he personally witnessed Bro. John’s arrest and that he did not witness a disturbance of any kind.  The E.V.P. also informed our attorney that it was an individual student who called the police on his cell phone and made the complaint.

 

So, the next day, we went back to campus for a show down.  This day Attorney James Elsman, who brought a black judges robe and a gavel, accompanied John and me.  We held a mock trial in which I played the Prosecuting Attorney and I charged the students with high crimes and treason against a holy God.  Judge Elsman asked the students how they plead to the charge of sin.  In one accord they all cried, “guilty!!”  Judge Elsman found them guilty based on their own testimony.  He would slam the gavel down and cry, “Order in the Court.”  The angry mob grew more and more hostile as conviction gripped their hearts by the Judge’s incessant cry of, “Guilty, Guilty!!!”

 

To top it all off, when the Deputy Sheriffs arrived, the Executive Vice President took them aside and warned them that the crazy man in the long black robe was a lawyer.  The Deputies just stood back and watched us preach.  Mr. Elsman walked over to the Deputies and defiantly asked them, “Do you guys have a problem?”  To which they answered, “No, no problem at all.”

 

Oh, it was great!!!  Never had I ever returned to a campus that soon after an arrest, especially with a written letter banning us from campus that was being dangled over our heads by hostile Deputies.  What satisfaction!!!  The charges against Bro. John was eventually dropped.

 

We thank you for your love and prayers.

 

Brother Jim - Sister Bonnie - Aaron - Gabrielle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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