When 19-year-old A.J. Herrmann starts street preaching Saturday nights in Mobile, Ala., he usually starts with a Bible verse.

Often it's from the book of John, a passage that calls Jesus "the way, the truth, and the life." Sometimes it's from 1 Timothy, which speaks of Jesus as the one mediator between God and men.

Herrmann, a 2002 graduate of Century High School, attends Florida's Pensacola Bible Institute evenings, while working days and nights for a company called PCS, which sells for the New York Times.

But on Saturday nights until midnight or later, Herrmann is part of a street preaching team that works the crowds in Mobile, about an hour from Pensacola. Some people warm to him, others shut him down. He doesn't take rejection personally, he said. There's another quote from Jesus that says that the world will hate his followers as it hated him.

"It's my job to preach the gospel and put the word out," Herrmann said. "However it's received, I trust the Lord to deal with that accordingly."

Herrmann became a Christian in July of 2000. The pastor at Open Door Baptist Church, Spencer Baker, came with Herrmann on his first street preaching, which was on Good Friday on Rosser Avenue in downtown Bismarck.

"It was really exciting; it opened my eyes up," he said. "I got a lot of different responses. A lot of people were pleased, smiled and gave me the thumbs up. Others rolled up their car windows.

"The experience helped me grow a lot in my personal walk. To see the reality (of the Bible); it's alive and very powerful."

Herrmann loves North Dakota. His whole family is here, including parents Terry and Kathy Herrmann and sisters, Amanda and Amy.

But during his senior year of high school, he said, "God showed me Pensacola was the place I was to go to."

Pensacola, on Florida's western panhandle, is far away. But Kathy Herrmann said the family is proud of A.J. and knows he is in God's hands. "The peace of the Lord just radiates from him, shines out of him," she said. "Sometimes he brings me to tears, through his selflessness."

He's been going to Mobile every week since mid-October. Sometimes, like last week's Mardi Gras, thousands of people mill the street where he preaches, "a line full of bars and people partying, who never get a chance to hear the gospel."

Herrmann preaches whatever the Lord lays on his heart, he said. "The Lord has given me the boldness. I could not do this on my own.

"Here I was, a guy from North Dakota. The first time I was real scared, it was such a different place. The Lord, he got me through it. I gave all the glory to him.

"Some of the people we have seen every week are starting to turn around." From a first cold response, they've started listening, he said.

After three years, Herrmann will earn a bachelor of divinity degree. So far, God hasn't revealed anything specific for his future, Herrmann said.

"But I do love North Dakota. There are a lot of small towns without churches. I'd maybe like to spend some more time in Bismarck and help out my pastor."

(Reach Karen Herzog at 250-8267 or krherzog@ndonline.com.)