“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” So was the theme verse for Team State Street this past Saturday. The standard Friday night ministry to Madison’s State Street was replaced with Word on the Street, an afternoon consisting of live sacred music, gift card giveaways, and so much more.

Several MBBC students and faculty made the trek to a bustling downtown Madison to unload instruments, tables, soda, sound equipment, and tracts. The event took place at the westernmost end of State Street at ‘Concrete Park’. Several students brought their band instruments, and sang while the others spread throughout the streets to discuss the gospel with pedestrians. Team State Street presented the Savior’s marvelous message to many people Saturday, while countless others received tracts that illustrated salvation step by step.

The Lord made His power and strength evident in everything that happened that day; may His name be praised for it all! Six people made sincere professions of faith in front of Team State Street members. The group handed out well over two hundred clear gospel tracts to people up and down the street. The lure of ‘free soda’ and ‘gift card giveaways’ brought many young college students Concrete Park while others were just curious to know what was going on. A clear gospel tract accompanied nearly every can of soda handed out to passers by. The Lord truly provided numerous opportunities for His message to be proclaimed to the world.

Tim Miller was able to sit down with a Buddhist, and listen to everything the man had to say about his belief system. After shared his own beliefs, he graciously allowed Tim to share his own heart and testimony. Tim gave testimony to the group about his conversation with this man. “After having listened to his testimony and whatever he believed; he was willing, the entire time, to listen to the whole gospel presentation…That’s what we come out to do; share the gospel, and expect Him [God] to work. I just praise Him for giving the opportunity to share.”

God provided so many extraordinary situations to witness. The Team found such an encouragement in hearing the testimony of fellow believers in Madison, completely unrelated to Maranatha or the State Street Society. One young woman heard the sacred music from her apartment window a few blocks away. She came and talked to several of the Team members, relaying how refreshing it was to hear good Christian music once again. Such stories kept the attitude elevated on Saturday.

Dave Marriott handed out $5.00 gift cards to Chipotle to those who answered trivia questions correctly. After each question, the Team was able to ask them about their eternal destiny. Everyone was offered the true hope of Jesus Christ. Such a great opportunity was gained each time someone came to the booth to compete for the gift card.

The Team gave Bibles to several Chinese citizens to take back to their homeland. Several Maranatha students were also able to freely share the plan of salvation to this group of people who had never heard it before. Dave Marriot provided testimony to the group at the end of the day after talking to these few Chinese officials. “To see them all walk away with Bibles, and the look on their faces when they heard that Jesus died for Chinese people too was just incredible!”

The Team would also like to extend a special thanks to Dr. Saxon and Mr. Komis from the Bible faculty for graciously joining the Team and helping at the ‘Bible Answer Man’ booth. Their sacrifice of time was a blessing to the Team, and they were both able to answer the debates and questions of many. Dr. Saxon joined two other team members in a discussion with several Islamic. God allowed His plan of salvation to be clearly laid out for people who denied everything Jesus stood for on this earth. Despite the falsity of mans’ righteous attempts, God’s truth is always proclaimed.

“We bowed our heads, I prayed the sinners prayer, and I said, ‘If you did pray that prayer and that was the desire of your heart simply announce that by raising you hands.’ One by one, all four of their hands raised up.” This was Ben Lavicka’s testimony of just a part of God’s amazing work through Saturday’s Word on the Street. When asked what made Word on the Street a success, Pete Prusak replied, “because of all of the prayer that went into it by so many! I got two text messages just on the way down that said people were praying for us.”
--Josh Horneck