Harvest Festival

Saturday Morning Clayton Harvest Festival in Clayton, NC

It is 730 am my wife and I are in Clayton, NC setting up a booth on the streets for the Clayton Harvest Festival. John and Roger soon showed up and were helping set up, the tent, table, tracts, bibles and books... Before the morning began we were in prayer for what God would have us do today, for the divine appoints for the lost and saved, to be an encouragement for believers and a light for the lost. The crowds started to build slowly. We spoke with some Catholics (they just happened to have a booth set up about 50 feet away from us), pastors, believers, unbelievers; some were encouraged by our presence.
Kim Input: Bill and the rest of the group had stepped out of the booth to talk to people and pass out tracts. I was sitting there quietly...clutching my coffee cup and trying to stay warm. Then I felt God speak to my heart, "Are you going to just sit there holding your coffee cup or are you going to get up and do something?" At first I wanted to look around to see if He was referring to someone else....but I knew he was speaking to me. So I put down my cup, picked up a few tracts and stepped out from under the "safety" of the tent. I stood there a minute or two clutching the tract just like the coffee cup but then I did it...I actually handed someone a tract and I didn't run! And he actually said "thank you"! After that, it wasn't as hard and as the crowd picked up, the easier it became. It's amazing how God works through us...even when we aren't willing at first. But when He asks you to do something...you'll know it!

As we were passing out tracts and talking to people I heard a voice from my right that sounded familiar (my wife) she was passing out tracts. She took a step and broke the next barrier. Set up: she had left tracts at places before but had not passed out a tract to an individual, without running away (the tract and run). So here she was standing ground and passing out tracts, it truly caught me off guard and immediately praised God, that she was able to take the next step. Never ceased to be amazed.

Later that morning, Jim Thompson showed up with a group of 6 or 7 that had been going through the training course with him. And this was their chance to break some barriers they had. They set themselves up in the midst of the crowd's main walkway and started passing out tracts, doing one-2-ones, did some intelligence tests, and had some very good interactions.

Scott McKay and his family showed up a little later and set up for some open air across the road from the Booth and quickly drew a crowd with some trivia for cash and had an individual go through the good person test. Was up for about 30 minutes and some folks stopped over at the booth afterwards where we had more discussions.

Roger had his first impromptu open air. There was a group of 13 teens standing close by and I gave him a pink and blue, and some quick pointers. He went over and went through the pink and blue and some gave him a goofy look, but he kept on and then had a couple engaged in the good person test while the rest listened (he had one fidgeting; getting convicted). They thanked him and moved on after he gave them tracts. I asked him how it felt to do an open air; he looked at me as if to say what you are talking about. I told him that what the just did was an open air, you had one to 2 engaged but the group whole group was listening, that is open air... more people means more volume in your voice. You don't have to draw a crowd, God can give you a crowd, and you took advantage of it, amen.

John was also encourage with some great one-2ones that challenged him, some receptive others not so receptive, but he did not shy away. Both John and Roger are relatively new to going out like this, but looked seasoned. We gave out about 10 to 15 bibles, 20 way of the master books, and 15 one heart beat away books, as well equipping other Christians with tracts and challenging them to give to someone they know. We had some Christians we encountered that wanted to give us back the tracts to give them to someone who is not saved, and we challenged them to give to someone they know. All in all was a truly awesome amazing day in service of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.