The St. Patrick’s Day Parade outreach in Des Moines, Iowa, proved to be a great opportunity for outreach and fellowship this year, as a dedicated group of believers came together with a unified purpose: to share the message of the Gospel. Zoom training sessions that equipped them with the tools to engage parade-goers effectively. Armed with Gospel tracts and an eagerness to converse, volunteers set out to connect with people of Des Moines. The event not only allowed for fruitful conversations but also fostered a deep sense of kinship among those involved, as they shared in the joy of serving Christ and spreading His love in the heart of Des Moines.
The night before the outreach, my wife and I took about 300 St. Patrick’s Day tracts from Tomorrow’s Forefathers and put stickers on them that points to my article on Pens And Wrenches about the history of St. Patrick and his Christian confession. The stickers were generated from my Dymo label printer I use for my eBay store: Frank’s Random Stuff Emporium. These labels are great because they are very detailed, weatherproof, and stick like glue. Plus, they are so cheap to make. I was able to get 16 labels on one sheet of 4 in x 6 in large shipping label. I’m planning on making this a usual practice to point to the website and for corrospondance with those who want to know more.
I arrived at Calvary Chapel Des Moines and prepared donuts and coffee. Jon Neifert from Tulip Gospel Outreach and I set up the room with tracts and got the television ready for the teaching on Relativism from Jonathan Noyes of Stand to Reason. Soon people started showing up. It was cool to see more new faces to the program than in previous years–especially ones from where I reside in Ankeny. The teaching over Zoom was flawless. The video and audio was amazingly clear. Noyes was able to understand and answer questions from the group with no problems, and I know the teaching impacted many in the room.
Meeting at the Brenton Skate Rink at the start of the parade was a short walk from the church and made it really easy to get set up. My group went ahead to the middle of the parade route and worked our way to the end. I was able to pass out all my 300 labeled tracts along with about 50 more.
Bruce “The Almighty” Atheist
Towards the end of the parade route I came across a man standing alone wearing a very sharp gold shamrock vest. I gave him a tract and told him it was a short history of St. Patrick and plus the article that I wrote. He proceeded to tell me he used to be Catholic, which I can relate to, and then asked which history was the information taken from. I said there was a video attached, and two letters written in his own words (translated in English) which documents much of the history, taking only the facts from these two documents. But, I said I could be wrong and he should check it out and let me know if I needed to change anything.
“It’s all B.S.”
During our talk he said he was an atheist now, and thought the whole idea of a supernatural being running everything and creating all of what we see was total “B.S.”, but when I asked him how you get something from absolutely nothing over time, he didn’t have any thoughts on that. When I asked him if he ever read the Bible, he said it was a B.S. book, but never took the time to read it, to which I responded, “How would you know if you never even looked at it? It’s actually a love-letter written to us. Trust me, I thought it was written by aliens, but when I actually read it for myself, I soon discovered it was something much different.”
I’ve got my parachute right here.
I went on to say, “Imagine you are on a plane and the stewardess came by with a look of horror on her face and said, ‘We lost both engines and the plane is going down, take this parachute, it will save you.’ You notice that it is incredibly quiet in the plane and you can’t hear the engines, just the sound of wind outside. You notice that not everyone has a parachute, and some are strapping them on, and some are fastening their seatbelts tighter.”
“But I have my parachute, I’m good, its in my hand,” Bruce said.
“It’s not going to do much good in your hand.”
“Sure it is,” he said. “I have it right here.”
I went on to say, “Then suddnely the stewardess yells instructions on how to jump, when to pull the cord, and how to land. Then she opens the door. What do you do?”
Bruce said, “I’m good, I have my parachute in my hand!”
I said, “Bruce, when you to jump, that parachute will leave your hands so fast. Even if you managed to hang on, by the time you pull that ripcord, your arms will be ripped from their sockets. The only reason you’re not puting on the parachute correctly is that you don’t believe gravity exists because you can’t see it, despite all the evidences for it (you’re in an airplane rapidly decending to the earth). When you put on the Lord Jesus Christ like you do a parachute by faith–correctly and tightly, and jump out into eternity and pull the ripcord, you have faith that He will save you from death. And just like a parachute, you don’t have a hold of Him–He has a hold of YOU!”
Would you worship Him?
We talked for several minutes. He was very friendly (which most atheists are) and listened to what I had to say without interrupting, which I apprecieted. But before we shook hands and went our seperate ways, I asked him one last question: “If I could prove to your satisfaction that God exists, would you worship Him?” What do you think he said?
“%&*# no, I wouldn’t worship that!”
You see, it’s not about evidence. That’s why apologists like Dr. William Lane Craig are losing the fight, trying to appeal to the atheist intellect like trying to prove gravity or oxygen. The apostle Paul said in Romans 1:18-20: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, sho supress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. Since the creation of the world His invisable atrributes are clearly seen…and they are without excuse.”
When I look at a building, I know there was a builder; when I look at a painting, I know there was a painter. God has shown everyone clearly what could be known of Himself to us so that we would worship and serve Him. I don’t need “faith” to believe in a painter because I can see the clear evidence. They just don’t want Him; and that’s exactly what they will get for all eternity.
Pray for Bruce and those who received tracts and talked with us that God would open their hearts to receive the gospel today (Acts 16:14).
Pens & Wrenches 
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