It's been an interesting last couple of days. On Wednesday nite, Patty and I went over to Oakridge Mall to help man/run the "God Talk" kiosk that Hillside Church was helping run this past week. It is a kiosk in the mall that a guy in San Jose is renting to have a spot where shoppers can come ask questions about God. Different churches come help run the kiosk so Patty and I decided to help out. We were both a little apprehensive in doing this style of evangelism but they needed help.
So for 3 hours we tried to engage people in conversation about anything actually. We had candy set out on the counter (free of course), in hopes of bringing people over to the kiosk to talk. Tried to make a lot of eye contact and say friendly hellos. It was actually harder than I thought to get people to stop. There was a survey we could use to help start spiritual conversations since it asked questions about attending church, believing in God, and being sure about going to heaven.
Patty had a nice conversation with one high school girl who attended church with her parents but was not involved in any other way with church kids. She admitted she makes bad choices while her father was standing there! She shared that she hoped she'd go to heaven. Patty told her that we all make mistakes/bad choices (that's human) and encouraged her to get involved with other kids her own age at the church. Good friends could help her make good choices.
I had a talk with a father who engaged me with some questions about a pastor at a church he used to attend. But when I asked him questions about what he is involved in now, he left the kiosk.
One of the other guys in the booth was able to talk to a young man for 30 minutes or so about God. He was an atheist and it seemed they had a very good conversation that was positive.
Supposedly 50 plus people made commitments to follow Jesus during the week that Hillside Church was there. But what now? There was encouragement to attend a church and learn more. There will be followup letters going out but something is missing here. There is no personal contact, a relationship of someone coming alongside and leading them to the next level. I guess Jesus and his disciples did this kind of thing; met people, asked them to follow Him and then Jesus and His disciples would leave town. Very interesting.
I compare all of this to what happened Friday (last) night. We went to a babtism held at church by the spanish church, Iglesia Libre. A couple was getting babtised that lives in our neighborhood and their kids are involved in the Center. I guess because of their kids being involved in the Center and some things going on in their lives (the mom was dealing with cancer), God was tugging on their hearts. A few of the people from the Iglesis Libre came alongside them in their time of need and the couple decided to follow Jesus and trust Him during this time of struggle. The whole family now is involved in the spanish church and the parents publicly confessed their beliefs last nite. This is how a church should work. Christians pouring their lives into relationships with others and the Spirit moves and uses others to also come alongside to change peoples lives!
Here is the family. We had pictures from the babtism but they didn't turn out well.
I am not so excited about the first method I talked about above, but God can use many different ways to reach people to hear the message that HE loves them and we all need to be obedient and ready to share that love to all!
P.S. A couple of kids from the hood wanted to go last night so we took them with us. Also Betty (Director at the Center) picked up one of the single moms in the hood and took her and her 6 year old little boy and a freind of his with her to the baptism. All of them were exposed to the good news and to a church of people who love the Lord and show it!
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