Free Bananas at the Evolution Conference

With close to 2,000 attendees from 38 countries, almost 1,200 talks, and 450 posters made by K-12 school children, the five-day-long Evolution 2014 Conference was an excellent opportunity for GGM to share the Gospel. There were some surprising things like the number of families with young children that were attending and the generally welcoming attitude of the conference-goers, along with their indifference.

  The Lord gave us the great idea to give away bananas while preaching outside the Convention Center. Each banana had a creation scripture reference written on it. (Revelation 4:11, Job 4:17, Isaiah 45:12, Proverbs 20:12 just to name a few of those written.) They were such a hit that in the end, almost 40 pounds of bananas were given away in Christ’s name. Heidi, a thoughtful conference attendee brought us large cups of ice water. When she handed the water to me as I preached, she commented “Don’t you think your nice voice would be better used doing something like helping sick children…instead of this?”

 I repeated to the people walking by and to the good number of people sitting on the wall listening, to what she said. I answered her, and them, saying that this was what we were doing: helping sick people – them. That they are in fact sick with a terminal disease called sin and that they need to seek the Great Physician – Jesus.

After about 30 minutes of preaching, a cop slowly drove by and parked within earshot. He sat in his car with the door open, listening for five or ten minutes. This was a great springboard to talk about how we are made in the image of God, that we have a soul, we are not just physical. One evidence of this is that we seek justice which is why we have judicial systems, courts, and police officers to enforce laws. No other creature on earth yearns for justice.

The officer got out and informed us that he had been called by conference goers. He informed me of the laws and told me that I wasn’t breaking any. He declined our offer of a banana.

 The preaching overall focused on Proverbs: the folly and sheer arrogance of man to choose to ignore the overwhelming evidence that we are all created. Life coming from non-life is not scientific. To say that order came from chaos is not science; it is in fact, faith. Anyone who is truly seeking knowledge and is intellectually honest could never conclude that nothing created everything. We explained that by ignoring the mathematical and scientific truths pointing to a Creator, they were demonstrating Romans 1:18-21. By suppressing the truth, they will become futile in their thinking and their hearts may become darkened if they haven’t already.

  Once again God was faithful and we rejoiced in what we thought was a successful venture in preaching the glorious Gospel. Many people heard the Gospel and appeared to be amused by it. They smiled, they laughed, and had their picture taken with the street preacher, but as it says in scripture, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

Please pray for Heidi and all those who heard the Gospel message that they would stop suppressing the truth and repent.

Go out and obey God’s command to be foolish for Him!