Wednesday evening was the second part of the Spring Missions Project. It involved a walk up and down Oakland Rd. in Spindale, NC, with the same signs from Sunday evening. Honestly, the whole day was an adventure! Where do we start but- the beginning! I received a call at mid-morning from another former Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) member telling me that there had been an announcement on the local radio station about an open invitation to the public for a meeting at WOFF. The speakers would be two Holocaust survivors. After I got over the IRONY and blatant HYPOCRISY of WOFF prohibiting their members from listening to the radio and then USING the radio to announce their meeting, I began to make plans. How about something worse; that WOFF would be the place of a meeting for two folks that came through the hellish times in Hitler’s Germany which started out with many of the same prohibition of personal freedoms and restraints that Jane Whaley uses on her people- TODAY? It took me a while to adjust to the WOFF-zone that was playing out before me.
Nonetheless, I made plans to launch part 2 of the Spring Missions Project. It was exciting just thinking of the possibilities! So, I arrived at the chosen hour and began my walk, this time with no hat or sunglasses. The weather turned out to be cloudy but wonderful! At first, I was at a loss as to why Wayne Hall did not fire up his camera and video the 2nd walk? Then it came to me that with the public invited, WOFF would not want several of the security to be seen out front filming a man expressing his opinion and walking up and down Oakland Rd. Why, that would look like they were overly concerned. They could not show that to the general public!
The first reactions on this walk were more positive than Sunday. Several folks were blowing horns and giving me the thumbs-up! It was encouraging. Some folks would circle around a few times to make sure they were reading both signs. It was a positive time. Some stopped to ask for my phone number and just to say they liked the sign. Then I saw him, Josh Farmer, driving by real slow with his cell phone enmeshed into his ear. No concern, at least they knew I was there and the cameras would soon begin rolling from a distance. All was set to not be too obvious, where visitors to WOFF would easily notice the camera crew. Was that sneaky? I made sure to show myself friendly and waved as often as I could, facing the camera(s).