The Orange County Fairgrounds are heavily policed so there is little to do at the gates unless you can prevail upon the police to let you hold signs there for incoming traffic going in to the parking lot. Remember, Jesus is the immovable Rock of our salvation. The other option is to pay to park if you drove there and the cost of the admission fee. Buses might still park free if there are plenty of customers on board.
Once inside the fairgrounds, your
more effective tools for evangelism will be a godly attitude with: witnessing shirts, witnessing
hats, tracts, and for the bolder witnesses; signs to assemble once inside. Otherwise, you will
probably be told to leave them in your vehicle. Your sign handles have to be un'usable as a weapon
or they are considered illegal. Make them professionally done quotations from the written Word,
otherwise you run the risk of displeasing the Lord while embarrassing the Gospel. Keep all of
your receipts. They are legal documents in case you have to go to jail. Signs will work better
if you keep on the move in the fishbowl. If you stand in the face of someone's business, they
will call Security. The greater activities will take place Friday nights, Saturdays, and Sunday
afternoons between July l2th and July 28th. Be spiritual about it. You'll never win the lost if
you're not seriously concerned for their salvation.
The Grand Prix races are a party. There is flesh galore. Beauty queens. Their own brand of
cheer leaders. Rock bands. Party groups at hotels. Booze flows on the grounds.
As you can see from the air over the race track, there are multitudes in attendance. Some actually do come just for the race. Everyone is there motivated by pleasure seeking. You have to know in your heart they do not see anything wrong in it at all.
It certainly is legal to go to the racetrack. The gambling might not always be legal but they don't give a thought to it. Adultery and fornication are legal but morally wrong, and they don't give a thought to it. Getting drunk and stoned is common but there will be a lot of sober sinners coming in and going out of the gates.
You have to know they come for the party, for thrill seeking and will be insulted and turned
off if you condemn them in any way. Preaching parties requires a special reverence for God
as well as a sensitivity to the lost.
You are wasting your time passing out tracts. The lost as well as the saved have come to have fun. It is fun they are focused on. "It's one thing to have fun when your name is written in the Lamb's book of Life, it is another thing entirely to neglect your own soul." That is the kind of verbal line that you could use to get their attention going in and coming out. But you have to be ready to hear their replies with a hearing ear, for it is by hearing what they are really saying; that you will be able to take the temperature of the crowd and become effective.
You will not become a fisherman of men in a day. If you just started, concentrate on working the crowd intelligently. Analyze what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.
One on one witnessing is tough work. It is easier to proclaim a few solid lines to a crowd
to reach them all and watch carefully for any heart you may have touched. At all times you
should speak the truth in love.
In regard to the annual MARTIN
LUTHER KING parade on Martin Luther King Jr.
Boulevard in Los angeles, it is attended
primarily by black Americans and may be one of the
few opportunities to go in among
the black people with police present. It is primarily attended
by black Americans many of whom are good people.
But do not foolishly wander off into the allys and sidelines where a crowd of hoodlums could gang up on you, you have plenty of chances to win souls. Stay close to the inside of the parade route.
You might see protesters of some kind marching behind their politics. It is human nature to want to be seen. The politics of it is not always the motive. The Martin Luther King Jr. parade is not well organized and it seems like anyone can get in who shows up. So you will not have the crowds you would expect to find at the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena and you never know for sure who will be there parading.
Parades require skill especially for group witnessing. If you plan to try to use amplication there, you would be wise to obtain a copy of the city ordinance regarding sound levels.
Anyone using amplification can be sure they will look the police in the eye all along the parade route; and if you get past one you'll still have to wrestle your way past the others. A copy of the present ordinance and camcorders recording them are the things they respect the most as well as a firm response from you telling them you intend to talk to the crowd through the amp and not cause a disturbance.
Tracts and signs may work if they are done right, but real Gospel preaching is at its best vocally. If young blacks do object to your preaching, it may be best to keep on moving without responding to them. There is a good chance they might want to pick a fight which they know they would be sure to win in an all black crowd.
Remember the parade is all about Martin Luther King who
finished the job Abraham Lincoln started after multitudes
of whites died to free the slaves in the Civil War. Don't
be afraid to tell your black American audience they came
over in a different ship, but we are all in the same boat
now. As fellow Americans, we all need Jesus Christ as our
Saviour to teach us the way in his Light.
Knotts Berry Farm is a regular for street witnesses in Orange County, sometimes nightly and usually
on weekends; especially when there is a large crowd gathering at the amusement park for one reason or
another. The favorite witnessing spot is the South West corner of La Palma and Beach Blvd. in the city
of Buena Park right outside of the amusement park. You can expect to have Knotts Berry Farm Security
looking over your shoulders at times in an attempt to intimate you from witnessing and also with the
hope of catching you in some transgression so they call the real police in to run you off. But you can
expect some company from other Christians on that corner at times with their own brand of witnessing.
The general rule of thumb is: You do it your way, they'll do it theirs. The regulars are pretty touchy
about any criticism of their methods, so its best to leave them to it. Each fisherman gets to bring his
or her own kind of fishing rod. May God be with you.
Main Street in Huntington Beach is packed with people during the summer and is sometimes busy during
winter weekends. You can expect to find other witnesses there passing out tracts. There are police on
foot patrol there and of course, a lot of young women scantily dressed; wandering around trying to get
attention but not the kind you have to offer. Main Street can be very busy on weekend evenings too when
the nightclubs keep the crowds occupied. Remember, you're preaching their party. But you'll also find
many of the locals out strolling and they are accustomed to Christians pushing tracts at them, so there
you have it. If you don't want to witness alone, you'll probably find someone there who will welcome
your company soulwinning.
