What do you make of it all?

There I was today, sitting on the sidewalk sipping my long mach and waiting for my friend to arrive when suddenly the music cranked up and a ‘dramatic production’ began about 40 meters up the street, just outside Cosmo Kebabs.

I had seen this group of people lurking around and wondered if maybe a drug deal was going down or if a fight wad about to start. This is my ‘office’ so I come here often (2-3 days a week) and have never seen street theatre before or any kind of buskers/entertainers. (You can see them just up the street in the pic below)

However as I watched the drama unfold I realised that it was a re-enactment of the crucifixion.

The girls from the cafe came out to watch and after they had mumbled ‘oh Christians’ they went back in. The guy at Sweetlips mocked, his mate laughed and others simply walked past non-plussed.

Following the 5 min theatre there was a 15 minute sermon, the actual content of which I couldn’t catch, but the gist I knew fairly well.

From there the people stood around for a while before the preacher began to roam the street looking for people to speak with. Silly me, sitting in my usual spot on the sidewalk. I was an easy target.

As he approached I looked down, but it didn’t deter him.

He began a conversation and asked what I thought of their presentation. Not up for ‘faking it’ I let him know I was fairly familiar with what he was on about. He told me he was with a mission team from a ‘base’ in East Perth and these people were in training to be missonaries.

He asked me how I felt it went.

I didn’t tell him. Instead I asked him how he felt it went.

‘Not so flash here.’ he said. ‘It works better in Nepal.’

And the question going thru my mind was?…

I dunno. Am I too sensitive or do street preachers feel like a relic of a bygone generation and a Christendom era, or should we still have these guys on the loose?

I am thinking of ringing them tomorrow to offer my reflections on the whole thing, as one whose job it is to train other in mission to the first world. Or maybe I should just look away…watch shaft in divx

Has anyone else read Tim Winton’s novel The Turning?

I read the title chapter again this afternoon. It really is one of the most raw, brutal and yet inspiring stories of the gospel I have ever come across. Winton is amazing!

If you haven’t read Winton’s stuff, especially that chapter(‘The Turning’) then do yourself a favour, grab the book and get into it. It is one of the most powerful and believable conversion stories I have read in a long time.

Goosebumps.

(Don’t read it if you are easily offended by ‘f words’, graphic sexual activity and abusive behaviour, but if you can handle the reality of life for many people then you will find it an amazing story)