Outreach in the Public Square...

I was recently able to team up with a new evangelism partner, who also goes to my church. Interestingly,  the opportunity came by way of God coordinating circumstances in answer to prayer:

It happened that one week ago, I had mentioned my outreaches in our Sunday morning prayer group, opening it up for anyone interested to team up and go out, talking to folks about Jesus & salvation.  I no sooner had left the building after the meeting,  that a fellow named Tim struck up a conversation as we walked to our cars.  Without me mentioning anything about  my conversation about outreach in the prayer meeting,  Tim brought up the topic, mentioning his heart to reach out to the community with the message of Salvation.

This was obviously the Lord's timing! So, yesterday, after church, we had our first outreach.  After meeting up at Wendy's,  we prayed & started out down at Marine park.  Tim struck up a conversation with a Russian family, near the Kaiser viewing tower, who did happen to be christian.  We talked with the husband, Oleg,  for some time.  Even just having dialog with fellow christians in a public setting, I think, helps encourage us to be more open about our own faith outside the four walls of church.

From there,  we went along the promenade at the Marine park beachfront, which was more populated than the beach.  Our general idea was to chat up someone, hoping for an opening to have an easy segue to talk about faith.  We noticed many folks walking their dogs, and it's really easy to complement someone's pet, and start talking.   We wound up talking with a lady named Jeanette, who was walking her poodle, for about 20 minutes.  Managing by the grace of God to steer the conversation to spiritual  matters, Jeanette responded that she was a believer but didn't attend church.  (Unfortunately, too many people these days are turned off by  church, which makes it easy to be drawn even further away from spiritual matters.)  She also mentioned she was on a juice fast for health reasons,  and as Tim mentioned he was interested in  learning more about it, she gave her contact info for future follow-up.

(This brings up an interesting difference in evangelism approach between Tim and myself.  I'm more into directly jumping into dialog leading to giving the Gospel immediately, whereas Tim's approach is more subtle & friendship-oriented to building on a relationship & following up with discussion on the Gospel as he feels the Holy Spirit lead.  We are definitely not all  "cookie cutter" Christians doing it the exact same way.  God made us all individuals,  and many approaches to giving the Gospel lead to results as we try our best to yield to God working through us.)

Finally,  we drove back to Wendy's, discussing the outreach. As we talked in the parking lot, a young black man (maybe late teens?) walked up asking for a dollar for food.  Immediately, I offered a dollar, along with a bible tract, making the statement that along with food, maybe he could use some spiritual nourishment.  In talking to "Wakim",  he said he was raised in the church, although, like Jeanette, did not seem to be following as closely as he ought.  We also offered to pray for Wakim, and his girlfriend, Tyler.  Normally, I'd never presume to know the sincerity of anyone receiving prayer, who was *also* accepting money for food, but something interesting happened, after prayer.

Tim had mentioned to him that it was no coincidence, no accident, but rather the Lord's timing, that he had approached *us* just as we were in a discussion about approaching *others* with the gospel.  Wakim really seemed to accept that. And when Tim took out his wallet to offer the kid a few more dollars for the "cause",  Wakim turned it down!  He said no thanks, commenting how he really appreciated our talk with him & prayer for God's guidance in his life.   This is the beautiful thing about outreach. When we just show up, God can & will work through us, showing God's love to others.