Joshua: The Street Evangelist

“I have to go,” he states, as he stands outside the door with his backpack and a large brown paper shopping bag with handles in his hands, “I have to prepare for war on sin!”

“Okay then,” I said, standing in the doorway, “Do you have that Guardian Angel on your shoulder?” He nods. “And do you have the Holy Spirit in your gut?” He nods again. “All right then,” I said with an approving wink. Joshua smiles and nods again as he walks off on to his mission to serve God’s Word among the sinners.

Joshua is a street evangelist. He spreads the gospel to those in need of Spiritual healing. He walks among many enemies, yet his faith gives him strength among those who desire to persecute him. His faith never diminishes. The Holy Bible is his beacon light and Jesus Christ is his rock.

The changing society of America with the evils that harbor among us makes Joshua’s work something which is not easily accepted. Yet he continues despite the forces of evil which he encounters on a daily basis. Satin wanders in his path throwing every obstacle and destructive means that he can in front of him in order to prevent Joshua from converting sinners to Christians.

If you want to heal sinners, then you must go where sinners are.

For Joshua, those sinners are often among the casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada. On the famous Las Vegas Strip, and downtown on Fremont Street along the Fremont Street Experience, he finds sinners in a never-ending flood of lost souls pushing through the gates of hell. Gamblers, homosexuals, prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics, wayward souls of many fallen forms of worldly belong.

Often he works alone, and recruits those he can along the way to help him in his works.

I met Josh about a year and a half ago, during my first tour of homelessness. At that time Josh had been preaching among the homeless. His evangelistic work helped guide many lost souls among the homeless toward salvation. Josh was one of many people who helped me survive on the streets, showing me the way to instrumental means of providing for myself and teaching me where to find the things I needed in order to survive street life.

Everyday, Josh and others would help feed the homeless in the City’s Frank Wright Park, and Josh would say a prayer for us as we all held hands in a unbroken circle before our food was served.

Josh is a former school teacher. He became homeless by choice and for over five years he has lived on the streets among the homeless and taught God’s Word to the needy souls. He traveled many western states preaching the gospel among the homeless and needy until one day he arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada. Once in Las Vegas, Sin City, he dug his roots into Hell’s front door.

Hell’s gates are wide open and the path is wide for those who desire to go there. Las Vegas with its huge homeless population became a battle ground for Joshua to work as a street evangelist. After traveling the western states, his calling was directed here, in Las Vegas to work for God mending the lost souls and healing those in spiritual needs.

Joshua is homeless and preaching. Homeless by choice, living among those he sought to help. His work is monumental. He never runs out of lost souls needing his guidance to salvation, be it spiritual or simply of directions toward earthly survival.

Last year Joshua spent more time offering spiritual guidance to the homeless and needy than he does now. He has shifted his work closer to the root of the problem, among the casino corridors. Although he still continues to offer directions for the homeless, he concentrates his efforts among the masses knocking on Hell’s front door along Sin City’s gambling halls.

The life of Joshua has not been an easy one. Many times he has been arrested and has been jailed for his street evangelism. Like many homeless people, his arrest and jailing is not uncommon in a town hostile to homelessness and fundamental American principles. No police action or political force has yet silenced him. He continues to conduct his work in the face of adversaries. It is God’s will.

Joshua not only takes his faith to the streets, he also takes his faith directly to City Hall and faces the Mayor Oscar Goodman, with challenges of truths. He is a regular voice at Las Vegas City Council meetings and he makes it known to the Mayor under public record, as he looks into the eye of evil, his position of taking a stance against wrong doings of the city.

He is one voice defending the homeless, voicing the injustice the city has brought against the homeless population of Las Vegas. Under the leadership of Mayor Oscar Goodman, one who’s hostile voice and position has earned him the title of the meanest mayor in America and Las Vegas, the meanest city in America toward the homeless, Joshua continually reminds the mayor of the sins of the city.

Joshua’s relentless presents at City Hall has seemed to work, in toning down Goodman’s outspoken public remarks against the city's poor. Or so it seems.

Goodman is not as vocal as he once was with his public remarks denouncing homeless people. His leadership, his position of power, sets a public position and opinion on homelessness. When a mayor is hostile toward the homeless population that sets a public image that is molded into the fabric of the opinions of citizens who reside there. Joshua has seemed to damper that evil public outburst of Oscar Goodman at least to some degree.

As Joshua continually reminds the mayor of the many sins the city under his leadership is endorsing, the mayor certainly must give thought to the fact that his evil words will not go unmissed among the righteous. The sins of the city shall be constantly in the face of the mayor during public meetings, thanks to Joshua and others who take a stance against human injustice. The mayor chooses his words to the public much more carefully now than he once did. Or so it seems.

I don’t always agree with what Josh says or does in the face of evil, but I do endorse his conviction. The Boss is Joshua’s Shepherd, not I. Satin, the serpent, is our common enemy. The sinful iniquities of the sinners as they obey Satin and reject God are our common denominator. We each work in different ways to serve the Master.

Josh is just one person of many who I have met along the way during my tour of homelessness in Las Vegas. Our paths have crossed, like many others have, as Jesus Christ guided me down the roads where I was educated on the perils of homelessness.

Jesus Christ is the most phenomenal of teachers.

Be it among the homeless or be it along the Streets of Evil, or at City Hall confronting the mayor, the former school teacher continues to teach children—the Children of God.

“And he said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

-- 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 KJV

Thank you for joining me. God Bless You.

And always remember, JESUS LOVES YOU!

River

Las Vegas, Nevada

Tags: Jesus Christ, God, Christianity, Sin, Sinners, Las Vegas, Street Evangelist, Homelessness,

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