Preachers of the Streets

"Shout to the great crowd is what they do! Convincing people to turn away from all the evils. Bibles, they have. Banners, they got! People, they posses. Together, they untiringly utter again and again bout the ones who'll be saved and the ones who'll be not."

This is the scene in the downtown city of Cebu called COLON. Almost every night, every daylight, these people of whom personalities are not known by me, gathers in the later. Armed with their Bibles of life, posters and banners that picture out humans suffering in hell, they endlessly shout to everyone about the coming of our God. I think being tired in not part of their vocabulary by doing all of the shouts, standing in the middle of the downtown, holding those banners and posters the whole time they are there.

People cross the streets of COLON, some ignores them, and some listens to them. I would not deny that I deny them more than I listen to them. But just last night, the night before the posting of this article, when I cross the same street, the words of these people really get my attention and I come to think of how tiring their job was or shall we say profession. I can’t really recall those particular words, but it just got my mind thinking about what they do. I pity them. That was what I felt. And somehow, my heart felt like its being squeeze thinking about it. Thinking about the reality of what they are uttering, thinking about the people sacrificing their time and efforts just to be in that particular place to utter their words again.

I am not a very religious type of person, but I can recall, if my memory serves me well, that I heard from the Holy Bible that says, "If the people you are preaching to does not listen to your words, take your sandals and wipe your clothes of the dirt from that place and go..", well, these are not really the exact words, but these is what I can always recall when I see those people in the streets. Why are they convincing so much? Maybe their answers would be because they want to save many lives. That is the best answer indeed. But considering the fact that they are well inclined with the Bible, they should have read about those words that I mentioned above which makes us question again, "Why are they convincing so much?"

Can they really be saved? Can we really be saved? We might as well ask ourselves, "Am I saved?"