he audience gasped as the unique carving on the platform suddenly sparkled with brilliant color. If the unexpected beauty diverted their minds from the practical applications which Evangelist Gannon had made as he deftly carved a fruit basket from a huge chunk of ice, they were now brought back by his pointed question. “Are you a fruit basket? full of fruit? an empty fruit basket? or not even a fruit basket at all?” As a chef in country clubs and hotel resorts, carving ice into beautiful figures as decorative pieces for buffet dinners was just part qf Larry Gannon’s job. But who ever heard of an ice carving being used to present the gospel? Certainly not Larry Gannon. “ I never would allow anyone to come within a mile of me while I did my ice carving,” he recalls. But since Larry received Christ as Saviour and yielded his life to Him he has found that God often does the unusual. One day a teacher in a Juvenile Hall in Imperial, California asked Larry to do an ice carving for her cook ing class?W- a class composed of boys interested in becom ing professional cooks. Seeing in this an opportunity to witness, not only to the boys but also to officers of the school and to board members, he looked to the Lord for special understanding. The result was an unusual object lesson and the salvation of one of the boys. He gave his next “ Sermon in Ice” at a Youth for Christ Rally in Phoenix, Arizona. The Lord blessed mightily this new presentation of the gospel, and soon Evangelist Gannon had more opportunities than he could handle. Across the United States he traveled, preaching and carv ing ice in youth rallies and in churches; he did it once before a large crowd out of doors in- a -housing, unit. Standing in front of an audience beside a Block of ice, a little more than half as high as himself, Mr. Gannon introduces the ice as a cool character. (Picture 1) “ Outwardly,” he explains, “ this person appears to be a real candidate for heaven. He is clean looking and smooth. But the Bible says that man looks upon the out ward appearance but God looks upon the heart.” He points out the unclean portion at the heart of the ice and remarks that this is where impurities gather as the ice is manufactured. He compares the impure heart of ice to the human heart: “ deceitful . . . and desperately wicked.”
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