9/11 - UAB vs UGA September 11, 2021, Sanford Stadium, Athens, GA 

The crowd for the first home game of the 2021 UGA football season seemed to be back to pre-pandemic numbers. Rich Suplita, Scott and Hud Phillips and myself arrived 3 hours before kick-off and set up where the foot traffic from the bridge and from the Tate Center converged. Our messages, although they vary, are ultimately, “repent and be redeemed to God through repentance and faith in Christ!” 

After we prayed Rich began the preaching, challenging the fans to consider the future, turn from sin and trust Jesus. “None of us are adding days to our lives. We are all future dead people. Your life is but a vapor.” 

As Rich finished, Scott was up preaching. “Death is swallowed up in victory, oh death where is your victory, oh death where is your sting. Because Jesus sets us free, we live for the Glory of God!”

After Scott, I had the privilege of preaching for a while as the crowd grew even more at the gate, encouraging them to be redeemed to their Creator through repentance and faith and for those who profess to be Christians to examine themselves by 1 John to see if they are in fact true followers of Christ and asking the question, do you love Jesus more than your Georgia Bulldog?

As one man was preaching the other 3 were giving away Gospel tracts, with several hundred being given away. We had several other Christians come by and give us encouraging words along with one or two drive bys with snarky comments or telling us we were #1 (with the middle finger). 

God gave us great weather and many souls to preach to! We were very blessed! 

Until All Hear! 

Alex 

**Video from Alex at the game:

9/18 - USC vs UGA Saturday, September 18, 2021

We had a beautiful day at Sanford Stadium! With a 7:00 PM kick-off, we didn’t arrive at the stadium until a little after 4:00 PM.  We had to wait on the Tuba section to finish with their performance before we could set up.

After we set up and with a moderate crowd Jamie Smith began the preaching as the rest of us got settled in to pass out Gospel Tracts. John was up next and although he preached a solid Gospel message a gentleman came up to Scott and myself telling us John wasn’t preaching a complete message.

His complaint was that we needed to be telling people they had to “make Jesus Lord of their life”. What?

Now I hope he meant they needed to acknowledge and submit to HIs Lordship but as the conversation went on it was obvious that was not what he meant.

He was of the belief that Jesus was only Lord of your life when you made Him so. Scott spoke with the man for a while to no avail and the man finally went on his way.

Later Scott was hit by a projectile (a bag of something) from inside the stadium. I suppose they did not approve of his preaching but were not brave enough to come and discuss it face to face. 

Before Scott Preached Rich took the mic with Scott finishing off the day a few minutes before Kick- Off.

Although there was a little push back and a little heckling there were several believers that came and gave encouragement throughout the day.

Some assume because there are those who oppose the open air proclamation of the Gospel that we are doing it wrong.

If that is the determining factor, what should we do about those who encourage us and are actually glad we are there? Doesn’t that affirm we are doing it right?

The point is, we do not judge our efforts and style, for lack of a better word, based on the naysayer, or the encouragement. We judge it based on God’s word.

We gave away several hundred Gospel tracts and preached the Gospel for about 3 hours to hundreds if not thousands.

The field truly is white(maybe red in our case) for the harvest!

10/2 - Arkansas vs UGA, Saturday October 2, 2021

We arrived at Sanford Stadium about 3 hours prior to Kick-off. Seeing “College GameDay” had a booth set up right under the scoreboard and not wanting to interfere in any way with that we adjusted our preaching location to the other side of gate 2. While we were farther away from the bridge, it ended up being an excellent spot that we may take advantage of for other games. It actually placed us on higher ground and allowed our gear to be set up so we did not take up any of the sidewalk.

After we prayed Rich lead off the preaching as Scott, Hud, and I offered Gospel tracts to the passing fans. Rich did an excellent job, as usual, of laying out the perfection of Jesus and the fallen state of man. After he finished I preached from 1 John and compelled folks, as Rich did to repent and trust Christ for the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Scott finished off the day preaching and exhorting fans to have communion with God.

We had great foot traffic all morning but as kick-off neared the crowd was probably as large as I have ever seen it. We had fellow believers stop by with encouraging words as well as a Deputy who stopped to tell us she appreciated us being there.  As usual, we had those who scoffed and said nasty things, which is to be expected. Hud did an excellent job of passing out tracts and giving his dad(Scott) a time check when we neared kick-off time.

I pray the Father was pleased with our efforts. May He draw many to Himself through the ministry at Sanford Stadium! The field is truly white for the harvest!

10/16 - Kentucky vs UGA Saturday, Oct 16, 2021

I was unable to attend the outreach at Sanford Stadium on this day, due to a family emergency.

However, Scott and Rich who are both faithful evangelists at the UGA games did. They arrived as usual about 3 hours before kick off, setting up at the usual location on the north end of the bridge. Scott and Rich both preached the Gospel as thousands of fans walked by or stood around nearby waiting for kick off. I am thankful for these faithful men who have been evangelizing in the Athens area for many years. Please pray for Athens and those who come in contact with the Gospel of Jesus Christ! May God save souls and grant revival to the Classic City.

11/6 - Missouri vs UGA Game Summary

Why are they doing that at a Bulldog game?

I heard a man say that as Mike was preaching outside Sanford Stadium today.

Everyone reading this probably knows the answer to that, so I will not elaborate. It was just funny, from my perspective. I was thinking, “Why aren’t more people out doing this?” 

We arrived and began preaching about 2 hours prior to kick-off, with Mike leading us off as I distributed Gospel Tracts. I did not count the number of tracts that went out but I probably gave away 40-50. I wasn’t being real aggressive with them but was just holding them out, greeting people, while letting them take them if they wanted to. There were several people that went out of their way to come over and get one. One of my favorite things that happened today was seeing this young guy stop and read the Gospel Tract I had given him.

As Mike was preaching, a man and another person, who appeared to be his son, came up to me and thanked us for being there and told me to tell Mike he appreciated his preaching and said he was praying for us. The man said he had been giving out tracts and asked me if he could have a few of mine. I gave him a stack and he immediately walked across the street and began giving them away. 

As I was preaching a man walked over to Mike and said, “I’m witnessing by taking this tract from you.” Not sure that is witnessing but at least he was making the effort to do something. At least he didn’t come over and tell us we were doing it wrong. :) 

We had a good day with hundreds, maybe thousands hearing the Gospel. Many got snippets as they walked by but as it grew closer to game time the crowd backed up at the gate and we had a captive audience, which allowed us to preach to them a more complete Gospel message. 

The Lord truly blessed us today! May He be glorified through our efforts and we pray many come to know Him!

Until All Hear!

Alex

11/20 - Charleston So vs UGA

This was it! The last home football game for the University of Georgia in 2021. 

On this day Scott, Hud, Rich, and I comprised the evangelistic team at the stadium. There was a good crowd but appeared to be a little off from previous games. Maybe it was the cooler weather or the fact that there was absolutely no way it wasn’t going to be a blowout, but it was definitely smaller. Another observation Scott made was the number of folks there with normal street clothes on. Typically almost everyone is dressed in their UGA garb but at this game that wasn’t the case.

Scott led us off as the others passed out Gospel tracts. The most memorable event of the day happened as Scott was preaching. A little boy stopped and asked Scott a question and Scott was able to encourage the young man. Nothing is more precious than when a child stops to take interest in eternal matters, as this little man did.

After Scott, Rich preached a wonderful apologetics message, challenging the fans to reason out historical events to see that Jesus is God, that He did come in the flesh, was crucified, and rose from the dead, proving He was who He said he was. I was blessed to close out the day. I began in Genesis explaining how the Creation narrative was the simple and best answer to the question, where did we come from?

Hundreds were exposed to the Gospel, as we closed out yet another football season of evangelism. Doesn’t seem like that could be possible. I’m not sure why the season felt like it went by so fast. Maybe it’s because I am getting older, or maybe it’s just the way the home games fell this year. Either way, that game wrapped up our 13th football season at Sanford Stadium in Athens. I pray God gives us 13 more!  Until All Hear!