Grace Notes

As I exited a building yesterday afternoon I turned and saw a man sitting against the wall eating his lunch in the sunshine.
“Hi!” I said and smiled, a little startled to see him there.
“Hi!” he replied, surprised by my greeting.
I kept walking.
You know, that man didn’t look too busy, I realized, I think he’d read something if I gave it to him. I walked back and handed him a little tract called “Something to Think About.”
“Here’s something for you to read when you finish eating your lunch,” I told him.
“Thank you!” he said.
I turned to leave.
“Now wait,” he asked, “what is this?”
“It’s a Christian gospel tract,” I said. “I like it because it clearly explains things that we all need to be thinking about.”
“Oh, okay!” he replied. He was fine with that.
“Have a good day!” he told me.

I am recounting this little story to illustrate a few points about passing out tracts.

1) It’s very helpful to be confident to be upfront about what we are handing people—a gospel tract. People like it when we are honest and call it what it is. If we act timid and shy, they’ll feel uncomfortable too.

2) I think young people (especially girls) have an advantage when it comes to passing out tracts because people aren’t intimidated by them. What I mean is this: if my dad would have gone up and given this man the tract, he may not have reacted as warmly. But if a girl cheerfully greets someone and gives them a tract, they almost always receive it. In fact, sometimes it makes their day! But it is also important to be wise about who you talk with and be safe.

So, girls, we have the responsibility to do what we can do and to do it well. And to do it faithfully.

A few weeks ago, I was walking near our town square with a 15-year-old friend. I saw a girl smoking by the side of the street and thought of giving her a tract but didn’t. Before I knew it, my friend had pulled out a tract and given it to her. And then my friend, (Rachel, from a missionary family who was staying with us for a few days) continued to give out tracts to everyone we passed on the street. I was impressed! No one was annoyed or offended…instead they all responded well and thanked her for the tracts.

I think Satan tries to decieve Christians into thinking that people will be offended if given a tract. Some may be, but most are not.

Sidewalks are public property. You can pass out anything you want. In this country of increasing darkness, let’s learn to take advantage of every opportunity!

It was late at night when my dad and I stopped at this gas station. (We were on our way home from the Bible Quizzing event.) We walked in and the only one we saw inside was the worker sweeping the floor.

“Hello,” I greeted him as I walked in.
“Hey there,” he said and smiled.
“How are you?” I asked casually.
“Oh, I’m doing fine, thanks,” he replied.
“Is it okay if we use your restroom?” my dad asked.
“Sure, we’re open ‘til eleven!” he replied.
“Ok, thanks!” we said.

As we were leaving, he was standing behind the counter. We greeted him again and I pulled a dinosaur pamphlet out of my purse.
“Here’s something for you to read,” I explained, “We don’t think we came from monkeys…”
He smiled and nodded.
“We think we were created, by God, for a reason. But often people only hear one side of the debate and public schools only teach evolution…” I said.
He commented and agreed.
“…So we are trying to teach the other side,” I said. “And, you know, there is a lot of evidence for design and a Creator. Dinosaurs are one of them,” I mentioned, glancing at the pamphlet I had just laid on his counter. “The Bible actually talks about dinosaurs and there’s evidence that they didn’t live so long ago—but that they lived during the same time as man,” I said.
“Really?” he exclaimed as he raised his eyebrows.
“Yeah, archeologists have actually found fossils of dinosaur bones with blood vessels still preserved in them—which shows us that they couldn’t have been millions of years old like some people say,” I said.

My dad joined the conversation and added, “And, you know, all over the world there are legends of dragons. And they all describe similar things. That’s because those were dinosaurs.”
That made sense to the cashier. He nodded in agreement.
We said a few more things and then left.
“I’m going to read this little booklet!” the cashier warmly told us as we walked out.

Note-
Question: When did this “witnessing encounter” begin? It didn’t begin when we gave him the tract. It began when we walked in and gave him a warm friendly greeting and that opened a door for us to easily converse with him again as we were leaving. It was a good reminder for me to purpose to be friendly everywhere I go.