Saturday, March 16th marked another St. Patrick’s Day Parade Outreach in the books. The outreach went well, and I was quite pleased with the response.
As usual, the day started at Calvary Chapel Des Moines. As we sporadically arrived, we welcomed newcomers and those who never took part before. One of those newbies was Kasin, a gentleman who shockingly lives in my neighborhood that I had never met before. We had some great conversations and look forward to serving with him in the near future at the park that divides our homes.
At 9am I started my overview of Tactics in Defending the Faith, which felt disconnected because my notes got messed up in my tablet and I had not gotten much sleep in the past few days. Taking 6 weeks of notes and combining it into an hour-long sermonette wasn’t easy, but I realized my mistakes and will be better prepared for the next time.
10am rolled around and we walked to our positions at the start of the parade. Some of our group met us on the parade route, and others trickled in, bypassing the beginning and going to the end. Tony hit the skywalks by himself. It was nice to be within walking distance from the parade this year since they changed the parade route. I liked it better this year actually, and remided me of when Tony and I started sharing the gospel here 19 years ago.
Two Brothers
As my team passed out tracts we gave some to two brothers and their young sister. I was led to stop and talk to these two. After a few minutes sharing the bad news with them, the one decided to step out of the conversation, but left his brother, Colton, talking with us. He had some questions of his own.
I asked him if he believed he was a good person, to which he replied, “No,” but didn’t know why he felt that way. I started sharing the bad news taking him through God’s Moral Law, the 10 Commandments and he did fine, but didn’t know how to be forgiven of that. When I asked him what God did so that he could be forgiven, Colton didn’t know. I asked him where Jesus fit into that and he said, “Well, I don’t understand how Jesus can save me from anything being that He is dead and buried. How can He save anybody?” I was not shocked, because I asked if he goes to church he said, yes, and that he attends the largest Lutheran church on the west side of town. Every time I meet teens from that congregation, they are clueless when it comes to the gospel, and salvation.
I gave him the bad news and the good news, and pressed him to scan the QR code on the back of the tract which takes you to the following gospel presentation:
I also gave him the booklet, “Why Christianity” which contrasts the differences between the major religions and Christianity, pointing out my website on the back so he can contact me.
You really never know who you will meet that has never heard the gospel in their entire life, even living here in the United States. Looking over Colton’s shoulder I noticed mama bear watching closely, and smiling. Maybe this was an answer to her prayers.
It was a great day
Jon Neifert of Tulip Gospel Outreach, who led the outreach, purchased a few thousand St. Patrick’s Day tracts from Tract Planet, Tomorrow’s Forefathers, and other sources; not to mention Trillion Dollar Bills from Living Waters. All of them were a hit as usual with parade-goers. Upon walking back from the event, we saw not one tract on the ground. All were taken and hopefully read. As far as I know, we gave out several thousand tracts, and all the St. Patrick’s Day ones were gone.
We ended our time with most of us going back to the church and debriefing of our time on the street. Lots of us had good conversations on the side, and fed on the boldness of each other. Stay tuned for more opportunites for sharing the gospel in Des Moines at: https://pensandwrenches.com/home/outreach-events/
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