Origin Into Schools – UC Davis
Paul Kaiser November 22nd, 2009
I was thankful to God when Bart McCurdy called and explained to me that Tony “The Law Man” Miano had requested that I head up a team for the Origin Into Schools project on the University of California Davis Campus. !
Living Waters Ministries had a list of more than 50 US, Canadian, and European Campuses and was gathering funding for over 190,000 copies of newly published Ray Comfort Edition of Darwin’s “Origin of Species” to be distributed on Wednesday November 18th, 2009.
Our job was to pass out 2000 books at UC Davis and there was no way I was going to pass that opportunity up! So we began building a team: Joey “The Landmarker” Jaco, John VonDoloski, Ryan “Brother RC” Dozier, Robert “Plus Robert” Hornak, Matt “The Hammer” Schuller, James Stillwell, and myself would be the final group that actually made it to the campus.
A few weeks prior to Nov. 18th the first truckload of books arrived! Brother RC and I were excited to get them in the garage and the first person to get a copy hot off the press was the FedEx Driver! After a little discussion we learned that he was a Christian and that he was excited to hear what we had in store for the books.
Well the day finally arrived and we loaded up my van and Bro. Matt’s truck with boxes. We arrived on campus at the early hour of 7:30 AM, loaded up with the first round of boxes and headed out to pass out the books. We set up a few random stations around the student union and began our work.
We didn’t know it at the time but in God’s providence we set up right in front of the main University bus stop and we were able to distribute the books at a rapid pace! Matt, Robert and James took the outer area and Brother RC, John and Joey set up in a central location on the other side of the union. I stuck to roaming between the various locations and making sure the stations were stocked with books.
It was then that Matt came up with a great way to distribute the books. As students poured out of buses you could hear him saying, “Get your free copy of the 150th Anniversary Edition of Darwin’s Origin of Species. Think logically and rationally, it contains an opposing viewpoint examine it and decide for yourself.” We owe a great deal of grattitude to Matt as he was passing out books like crazy and clearly it was he who handed out the most.
“Plus Robert”, another “Reformed Think Tank” host, was at the opposite intersection making light work of the book distribution as well saying, “Get you free copy of Darwin’s Origin of Species… No need to buy it at the bookstore.”
Pastor John VonDoloski, Liberty Baptist Church, Medford Oregon, joined us on the campus and he diligently worked a station by the campus bookstore. It was great to see him get excited about being part of the outreach and we look forward to hearing more from him and some of the local evangelism he will be doing back at home in Medford. Word on the street is that a new “sign guy” was born and he will be getting a Gospel Banner once he gets back home to Medford.
One thing of note was the way we were first received on campus. Now as many of you know when going out to tract and do one-2-ones we often get a lot of rejection but today was different. When people would finally see what we were passing out we would receive many compliments and words of encouragement. It was very strange to hear things like, “I’m so glad you are doing this.” Oh what a breath of fresh air, at first I thought you were a crazy Christian handing out New Testaments!” And my personal favorite, “I wish we had more rational people out here like you guys! Thank you so much for being here!”
It was amazing to see how the attitudes of people are different when they thought we were not Christian. Now keep in mind these are the ones who boast about being “open minded and tolerant” but today we got an insiders view on how they really think.
Things were going well but as the morning progressed the opposition to the work began to increase. It was at about 10:00 AM when I received a phone call from Brother RC, “Hey there is a girl over here making a Darwin sign!” She happened to be the leader of the on campus Agnostic and Atheist Group and they had been expecting us and were prepared to do battle!
The group grew quickly over the next 30 minutes and they were mobilized and ready to protest! They had signs, stickers, flyers, and a polemic to the introduction from www.dontdissdarwin.com: “Why Ray Comfort Is Wrong”. They began setting up right next to our stations in the central campus and as people received the books they also received their materials. This quickly made it increasingly difficult for the team to pass out books and their signs were effective in causing more and more people to reject.
By now they were in full strength and had made about 4 or 5 signs. They were not overly agressive however they were creating quite a little stir and they thought they were making a mockery of our efforts. Little did the know that not only were we there to pass out books but we were prepared to start a campus meeting at the major class change. However with a ready made crowd what more could we ask for. It was time to head back to the car for the banners and sandwich boards!
At this point we shifted gears and set up for a campus meeting and I started off the preaching. The rest grabbed the Cross, Banners and Sandwich boards… No sooner than we set up we all had conversations going due to the great buzz the Atheists had started!
It’s at times like these that I thank God for His Sovereignty! A few years ago if we would have been meet with this much resistance we might not have been able to endure it but today God in His mercy has raised us up to be a strong team of evangelists who are equipped for anything that might come our way on a campus.
I started off by preaching on Creation. “Good afternoon UC Davis! Somebody told me that I could find some Hardcore Darwinists here, some Atheists, some Agnostics, and some Open Minded Free Thinkers here. I’d like to talk to you today and do a comparision of Worldviews. You see I believe in the beginning GOD!” I continued by preaching on sin, repentance and God’s law written on the hearts of men! I used my new sandwich board as a springboard to address various different sins and proclaimed the truth of God’s justice.
Our first heckler was a liberal muslim who wanted to debate at first that we serve the same God and then the Trinity. We reasoned that he truly doesn’t believe in the God of the Bible. I asked, “so you believe Christ is God, the Father is God and the Holy Spirit is God” and to this he quickly went on to the question of do I believe my God has died!”
As we reasoned together and I mixed in with my apologetics the glory of the Cross the class change occured and the crowd instantly grew around us. He seemed to be a fairly devout Muslim but when asked if infidels should be put to death his liberalism came out.
I encouraged him to flee from idolatry and flee to the Cross casting himself upon the mercy of God! Now the crowd was beginning to be a little more agressive and the Atheists found it cute to make a sign for me so I wouldn’t feel left out!
I used their signs as springboards and addressed many issues regarding science, Evolution, and Absolutes.
Now the next heckler I had was a “Roman Catholic Lesbian”. The Lord has really had me burdened with her for the last few days. She proclaimed that she was able to love God and her girlfriend at the same time. When I told her that she was not a Christian she charged up to me and I thought for sure I was going to get slapped but I stood fast and continued to preach the grace of God toward sinners.
She remained in the crowd for the greater portion of the afternoon and made a sign in response to mine. I pray that the Lord will open her heart!
Now it was time for Brother RC to preach! When he took over the crowd he quickly established how God is the ultimate authority and that absolutes are derived from Him. Just then the Police arrived and questioned us regarding a preacher that was on the campus the day before. From some of the stories told to us by the resident campus group this “preacher” had said much that was counter to Biblical truth.
Brother RC continued to reason with many and preached the death, burial and resurrection of Christ to a fairly large crowd. He reasoned regarding the “mind/brain” delima and reduced many arguments to their logical conclusions all the while proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom!
The other brothers had many great one-2-one encounters while we preached and Robert received some encouragement from another guy who sometimes preaches during his breaks betweek class.
Bro. Joey was a great help by engaging those who stood by and worked the camera for us (due to recent campus preacher attacks it is very important that we keep audio and video recording equipment going at all times). James was also hard at it holding one of the banners high and had an opportunity to share the Gospel via video interview with the campus newspaper.
As the preaching progressed the books kept getting passed out. Robert manned the boxes and many continued to come up for books for the next 3 hrs. Although many did keep and read the books there were those who could not contain themselves.
It is amazing how we will be accused of intolerance and being closed minded but if you will note it was us who had been willing to have the readers make a decision for themselves. As some ripped pages from the books I rebuked and stated that this was close minded, intolerant and was equivilent to a modern day book burning and censorship. Shame on you UC Davis!
When all was said and done we had passed out over 1500 books and God was glorified in the open air! We spent about 10 hours on campus that day and many heard the Gospel!
We look forward to participating in Living Water’s next big outreach! May God be glorified from the efforts of everyone involved across the country!
We have about 500 books left and are currently planning an outreach to Yuba Community College!
Soli Deo Gloria!
“It was amazing to see how the attitudes of people are different when they thought we were not Christian.”
Because they didn’t know who Ray Comfort was? You deceived them. Congratulations on getting compliments under false pretenses.
It would have been wonderful if you would leave your name but Anonymous you are clearly mistaken. Not once did I deceive anyone but clearly told them the name of the ministry we were with, what the book contained and that we were Christians handing out the book… Now those were the looks that you should have seen.
The campus was fully aware that we were coming and it was unfortunate that many assumed that we were non-christians. The attitudes of many are a testimony to what the Bible teaches about the hearts of men.
By the way… I don’t know you so are you being deceptive?
Paul is back to blogging! Looks like you brothers had quite a campus meeting! Thank God for the opportunity the Lord gave you to engage students on topics of logic, science & apologetics, as well as preaching the Word of God: Creation and the entirety of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you guys and your ministry.
Paul, you’re so silly! Thanks for coming to UC Davis!
Jenny,
Thanks for adding me as a friend on facebook…. I look forward to “reasoning” with you guys again in the near future!
Your blog post was an entertaining read and you provided us with an entertaining afternoon. Thanks for coming to our university.
Praise God! It appears that this distribution at UC Davis turned out well and even though the atheists provided strong opposition, God used it for His honor and glory. That’s awesome that the law and the gospel was also proclaimed in the open air.
James,
I look forward to being on campus again with you guys in the future and pray that the next time we meet that the effectual call of God will meet with the preaching and you will be converted!
Ahem…um..yeah. that “lies people believe” sign is a lie all itself, and I can prove it. “for GOD so loved the WORLD…” not part, but the whole. just a bunch of hyped up overly critical evangelists cannot disprove the FACT of the Bible. If you think God doesn’t love everyone, you clearly A) haven’t heard the phrase “hate the sin, love the sinner” or B) have lost your way. he would not have wasted his son’s precious blood to save so few as your movement seems to believe. take care, brothers and sisters, not to use God to justify YOUR HATE, for it is not your place to judge the world any more than it is for you to rule the universe or tell the stars to shine.
P.S: the probable reason why people thought you were a non-christian organization is because your campaign lacks the element of love. the Bible goes into great detail about how we are to love our neighbors. you’re yelling at them aggressively like you’re out herding cattle, and putting your half-truth signs in their faces. that’s why the unbelieving world rejects you. Also, if you intend to call me a coward by pointing out that this clearly is not my last name, do feel free to email me. I’m not afraid, but I don’t take kindly to sharing my information with everyone under the sun. Forgive me, brothers, but I find your methods inadequate.
my email is mygollygravy@gmail.com