20060204 - Evan Johnston, of Tampa, reads from his Bible while
preaching along 7th Avenue in Ybor City on Friday night. Every Friday
and Saturday night, the scene outside Ybor City's Seventh Avenue is
the same: club-hopping teenagers, drunk twentysomethings, half-naked
women -- and Bible-toting, scripture-shouting Christians. For the last
year, street evangelists with the Tampa-based Biblical Research Center
have paced this entertainment district preaching and teaching. Most
visitors to Ybor ignore them. Others hurl four-letter words or spit at
them. Few leave saved. They say the people who frequent Ybor are
hungry. Spiritually hungry. From 11 p.m. until 2 a.m., evangelists try
to feed them. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
