Stories from the Street: SPSE June Roundup

St. Paul Street Evangelization has 200+ active street ministry teams that evangelize in their local communities. The teams are located throughout the United States with others in Canada, Honduras, Japan, the Philippines, and Sweden. Teams evangelize at church events, festivals, farmer markets, shopping districts, local parks, or busy street corners. Some of these teams go out once a quarter, once a month, or even once a week. This stability allows them to build trust with the community. The teams report back on a regular basis, sometimes sharing stories and pictures of the fruit of their experiences. In June the SPSE team shared 22 of these experiences on their blog. Our evangelists talked to many people passing by their location. The conversations ranged from topics such as confession to whether all churches are the same. Evangelists often pray with people for particular needs and even help connect them to available Catholic charity organizations.

Blogged outing locations in June were Dallas, TX (4), Bloomington, IN (2), Plymouth, MI (2), Phoenix, AZ (2), Lincoln, NE (2), Decatur, GA, Frederick, MD, Austin, TX, Smyrna, GA, Detroit, MI, St. Paul, MN, Napa, CA, Akron, OH, Berkeley, CA, Gaithersburg, MD.

Here are some of our month’s highlights:

Dallas, TX: Each and every one of us is called to share our Catholic faith with others. In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that witness to the faith is necessary for salvation (paragraph 1816). But many times we forget this grave obligation, or are too shy to fulfill it when the required moment arises…

But it is not only about us. It is also about those whom we are called to evangelize. If nobody tells them about the new life that is in Christ, how will they enter into it? …

But it is not only about us and them, it is about Him – about Jesus. We need to share the faith – to evangelize – to non-believers and believers alike – so that God will be glorified in His Son Jesus Christ, and His body, the Church, will be built up in members and unity and faith and love.

For all these reasons, we do street evangelization. We set up, we pray, we greet people, and we share the Catholic faith.

Phoenix, AZ: Susan was approached by two Christian evangelists. One has written and published his own tract, and Susan accepted a copy. Louie is a former Catholic and David was a Pentecostal become Baptist. Susan, Louie and David found many things to agree upon, including our wish that all Christians were united. Susan is praying for a special intention of David’s (and hopes you will do the same). Sometimes finding common ground is the best we can do with people convicted enough to be doing the same thing we are – trying to win souls for Christ!

Dallas, TX: Gene had a forty-five minute to one hour conversation with this non-denominational gentleman who said he ministers to the homeless. The gentleman had many disagreements with Catholic doctrine. They covered many subjects including Papal Infallibility (which the man confused with impeccability), biblical interpretation, where the Bible came from, authority, etc. Evangelist Paul asked the man about biblical interpretation, and gave the example of the baptism of infants: A Baptist says, “No way.” A Presbyterian says, “Ok, but it’s merely symbolic.” An Episcopalian says, “It’s necessary and washes away sin.” Who’s right? They all read the same Bible. The man’s answer? … All of them! (Oh boy!) … When he finally had to leave, he was loaded down with CD’s, literature, and Gene’s contact information. Please pray for him!

Plymouth, MI: We had one lady named Diane who came up to ask us what we do, and after telling her, she revealed that she was a Catholic but had left the Catholic faith to be a part of the Assembly of God church. She told the team that she did a lot of evangelizing in her church, and said that she was surprised to see Catholics doing the same thing! Maisa told her, “Of course we Catholics evangelize – that is our mission as baptized Catholics!” Then she asked her why she left the Catholic Church. Diane told her it was because she found fellowship and activities at the Assembly of God church. Maisa said, “Well we have everything that the AOG has and more!!! Can I give you one good reason to come back to the Church? … the Eucharist!”

Decatur, GA: A young lady stopped at his offer of a rosary, and accepted one, together with a copy of the tract “How to Pray the Rosary.” David introduced himself. The young lady’s name was “China” (we have changed her name for the story). In response to his questions, China told David that she was Christian, but had not attended Church for a long time. She had that hurt, shameful look in her eyes when she told him this.

“Would you like me to pray with you?” David asked.

“Yes.”

David made the sign of the cross, saying, “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” He said, “Please give me your hand, while we pray.”

She took his hand.

“What would you like to pray for?”

“Peace in my life.”

David prayed, asking God to grant her peace, and to forgive them their sins and watch over them until the dawning of eternal life.

China walked away, seemingly grateful. About an hour later, she came back, from a different direction than that from which she had left. She stopped and asked David to please continue praying for her. David, for his part, was touched to the heart. He promised her he would pray for her, and, in fact, was happy to do so.

David could only hardly imagine what China’s life must be like. For China, you see, is not actually a ‘she.’ Please keep China in your prayers as well.

Frederick, MD: God truly blessed our new SPSE Frederick team! We began on a particularly chilly day in Frederick which caused a slower than usual amount of foot traffic. But, we were able to have a number of inspiring conversations with people.

I am always struck by the fact that a 2-minute conversation can change someone’s life. We are only called to plant those seeds of love and truth and leave the rest to the Holy Spirit to do what He wills.

We had people asking for prayers for addictions, grappling with the existence of God and suffering in the world, wanting to learn to pray the Rosary, and young people confused as to direction in life. We met a homeless man, Bill, who had an opportunity to be heard and prayed with. We also met a young family who had not been attending Church but were encouraged to come back to the sacraments and have their children baptized!

Austin, TX: On-the-spot conversions do not happen every time one of our teams hit the streets, but they do happen. When they happen, that is, when a sinner repents and gives (or re-gives) his life to Christ, we can be certain that the Holy Spirit has come in power, having prepared minds and hearts ahead of time, and that, as Our Lord says in the Gospel, the Angels are rejoicing in heaven at the event.

One of these on-the-spot conversions happened recently with the Austin, Texas team. Steve and Bernice met Joey, a baptized but non-practicing Catholic. He attended Holy Mass occasionally, but did not take the faith seriously. After some brief discussion, he wanted to know what real reason there was for him to take the faith more seriously. Steve responded by giving his personal testimony of converting from a life of sin to a life of Christian discipleship. The reason he converted? It was about salvation. Steve knew that God was offering him salvation from death and hell, the consequences of sin. At this, Joey started crying. He knew that God was offering salvation to him, too. And at length, he said that he wanted to give his life to Christ.

They quickly looked up confession times on a smart phone, and drove him to confession at a nearby Catholic parish – why waste time? Later on, he reported back to them via text message that he was forever grateful to have made an “awesome” confession and that he is starting a new life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t get any better than that, does it?

Praised be Jesus Christ! Nothing is more important than the salvation of souls. “What good is it to gain the whole world, and forfeit one’s soul?”

For more of these stories please visit http://streetevangelization.com/blog/

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