University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Day 1

from the outside, today seemed to be just the same as every other day preaching this semester, but for me, i perceived something noticeably different. we are at the university of nebraska this week, omaha monday and today, lincoln campus tuesday and thursday. so today at the lincoln campus, we had the usual hecklers with the usual arguments with the usual “i eat christians for breakfast” attitudes. nothing too exciting.

throughout the course of the day, though, i had some interesting conversations. one with a self-proclaimed “militant atheist” who indignantly stated that he hated me due to my faith, how lovely. another who kept interjecting with “you believe” after every claim that i made, how obnoxious. but two conversations that struck me in a positively were with two christian girls, the first was mallory. earlier, she approached tom in the middle of a fantastic discussion he was having with a group of inquisitive, she had an honest question about his methods, but unfortunately it came across with that “do you really think Jesus would be doing this” demeanor. sensing confusion on her part, i went over to clarify things and chat with her. a few minutes into our conversation she began to weep as she explained that she was so burdened for the lost and so thankful that tom’s preaching was done in an effective manner. we exchanged contact information and prayed together before she left with a huge smile on her face. about half and hour later, another young girl, amber, walked up to me asking if i knew tom, and began to repeat the exact same thing mallory had said earlier. as she went on about how thankful she was for tom’s preaching, her eyes became soft as tears of joy came down her cheeks.

in both of these interactions, it struck me how deeply these two yearned for Him to be proclaimed on their campus, apparently something that isn’t done too often here in nebraska. to see their level of appreciation, to the point of tears, i have a deepened sense of honor and privilege knowing how valuable our message is. to think that the Lord of Israel has left us with such a weighty and holy responsibility is quite humbling, yet how emboldening to grasp the power of our Assistance in the Holy Spirit. the Lord is moving on these campuses, in a mighty way. on monday, rory whitney, rick’s brother, was continually pointing out people in the omaha crowd who were saved within the last year through tom’s preaching. person after person heard what tom had to say on campus which triggered a series of events leading to the beginning of their regeneration. i honestly couldn’t believe what he was telling me, i had no idea that the Lord had been working that much. and people say open-air preaching is out of date.