Category: Witnessing Stories

My dad went to Iowa City to witness to university students on Good Friday. He developed a four question plan to start conversations with the students. It worked pretty well! I just tagged along. Here’s what he did:

Walking up to people sitting on benches, he’d hand them a little paper called, “Good Friday or Bad Friday?”

As they took it curiously, he’d ask, “Is today Good Friday or Bad Friday?”

This broke the ice.

The he continued, “Can I ask you a couple Easter questions?”

Almost everyone agreed.

“What’s the Passover?” my dad then would ask.

Some people already knew, but most didn’t. This gave my dad the opportunity to share the story of the lamb’s blood on the door — a foreshadowing of the death of the Lamb of God (which we remember on Good Friday, and, hopefully, every day of the year).

“The third question is: ‘What is truth’?” my dad would continue. The students’ answers to this question would tell us a lot about them.

Dad would then explain that truth is “the standard by which all else is measured.” And … that ultimate standard would have to be the Creator Himself! (What/Who else could it be?) Jesus is the Creator. Jesus said that HE is the truth. One day we will all stand before that “Standard” to be judged.

This led us to the 4th question: “How good do you have to be to go to Heaven?”

We had a lot of interesting conversations. Some were more open than others, but most appreciated the talk.

I was reminded that having a PLAN to start conversations (such as a similar series of questions) is often very helpful. It gives confidence and keeps the conversation on the right subjects. Using a holiday makes it even more natural.

The next day we did something similar and used another question. We’d say, “Jesus, who rose from the dead, will someday judge the world. What can a person do to prepare for that day?” It’s a way to move from the topic of the resurrection to the topic of our urgent need to be saved.

I walked by this girl, Ann, who was sitting on a bench reading her marked-up, beat-up Bible. Good sign =) I thought. We hit it off right away, and I learned that she was involved in leadership with CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ). She’s passionate about evangelism and was telling me about the various ways they share the gospel. I was really grateful for the Lord’s hand in making our paths cross.

Simultaneously, my dad became friends with this young man from Albania and they had a long talk about the resurrection and the gospel.

Here are a few questions you could use in starting conversations with unbelievers about the Lord this weekend:

“Why do we call Friday ‘Good Friday’? Why not ‘Bad Friday’?”
“What was the primary reason Jesus died?”
“Who do you think was most responsible for crucifying Jesus?”
“Do you know of any evidence to prove that the resurrection of Jesus really happened?”

Also, if you’d like to print our “Evidence for the Resurrection” tract you are welcome to do so. Just print double sided, then cut in half and fold in thirds.

“Did you go to the parade Sunday?” I asked the bank teller this afternoon while she deposited a few checks for me.
“No, we didn’t,” she said, “But I was thinking we should have…”
She was very warm and chatty.

I told her, “We went, but not just to watch the parade — we went to talk to people about St Patrick. Hardly anyone knows who he really was.”
She agreed and replied, “He wasn’t Irish, he was exiled to Ireland, or something like that.”
“Yes! he was captured as a slave and brought there, and then he escaped, but then went back as a missionary…” I told her.

“Well the Irish really like him!” she stated.
“Yeah,” I smiled, “well apparently Ireland was really dark at that time, but Patrick brought the gospel, and started a bunch of churches, and the gospel changed Ireland so much they still remember him today.”
“Yeah, we looked him up,” she said, “and yes—it sounded like he was as a missionary. But there’s really not that much information about him.”
“Well, it was a long time ago,” I said, “but the other night my dad was reading some of his writings—it sounds kind of like the Bible,” I smiled.

“You know what you would like?” she told me, “the BIBLE series on the History channel… we were watching that the other day. It’s really great.”
“Yes, I’ve heard about it,” I said.
“You know what I thought as I was watching it?” She said. “There was so much violence! I mean, it seems like God really lightened up when he had a kid.”
I laughed. “Yeah. Well it shows the rebellion in humanity …and it was God’s plan unfolding because the world needs a Savior—”

After speaking of the violence in the world some more, she said, “Well, one day God is going to judge.”
“Yeah that’s true!” I agreed.
“So it just comes down to ‘Are you a good person?’” she said soberly.
“Okay, so since you just said that I have to give you this,” I said, pulling an Are You A Good Person gospel comic tract out of my purse and handing it to her. “It explains how we have ALL broken God’s laws and that’s why we need a Savior…”

She began flipping through it and saw a picture of the KKK, Hitler, etc. She commented, “You know, with these people that are the worst of the worst, you have to just think that there is even some good in them. You know, I hope Saddam Hussein took his boys into the back yard and played ball with them.”
“Well, maybe, but we have to realize that there is evil in each of our hearts,” I said, “and Heaven is a place of perfection…! It’s true that God will judge all the evil in the world, but the thing is: we aren’t exempt from that! We have evil in our hearts, too. A lot of people think that we can get to Heaven by being good but the truth is that we have to repent and trust the Savior—that’s what the Bible says.”

She thanked me told me she would definitely look over the good person comic.

This lady obviously doesn’t realize that Jesus is the Creator who has always existed. God didn’t “have a kid” – rather He “sent His Son”. And God is merciful and always has been. When Jesus died for us evil people, that shows how merciful God truly is.

Please pray that this bank teller would be convicted of sin and trust in Jesus. She (like many other Americans) likes the Bible, grew up Catholic, has Bible knowledge and, I believe, some fear of God. But what she obviously does not have is an understanding of Christ’s offer of cleansing from sin and guarantee of eternal life for those who come to Him.

Recently some friends and I went to a local college to share the gospel with students who were walking around outside. We were pleasantly surprised how friendly and open to discussion the students were!

If you’d like, you can listen in on a conversation our friend Brad had with a student name Austin. I edited it down because it was a pretty long conversation. Please pray that Austin will place his faith in Christ! We left him with a Begin book, which I highly recommend giving to unbelievers.

Often we think that people will be uninterested, when that is simply not true! The people we talked with at the college truly appreciated the conversations about spiritual things and were grateful that we stopped them to talk. I only wish we could have talked to all 17,000+ students … [smile] (I.e. we need to pray for more laborers unto the harvest!!!)

Yesterday afternoon Sarah and I went out to eat for her birthday.

Our waiter was very friendly.

After we paid, as our server was about to walk away, I said, “Oh, wait—we have something for you.”

He came back and I handed him a “Good Person Comic”. I try to give waiters gospel tracts in person now rather than just leaving it on the table. It’s more personal and it often opens a door for conversation.

He stood there for a second looking at it and muttered something…. which I can’t remember. It wasn’t exactly unfriendly, but it prompted me to ask, “Do you get many of those in here?”

“Oh yeah—all the time,” he said.

“Really? So can I just ask you something—do you notice a difference in how much people tip when they give these out?”

“Yeah, it’s lower.”

“Really?” we asked.

“Do you think people think of the tract as part of the tip?!” Sarah asked.

“Yeah, it seems like they do,” he affirmed.

“That’s really sad.”

“You know the coolest one of those we’ve seen?” he lit up and laughed, “There were these cards with insects on the front. They were like baseball cards, but with insects! That was so cool,” he said.

We nodded and smiled, wondering if those were from us. Later that day, Sarah remembered being at that same restaurant with my grandparents a few weeks previously and leaving several insect animal card tracts. So we were glad to hear they were well received. (They almost always are. If you’re interested, see these “Creation Cards” [smile])

Our waiter also shared a story with us of his conversation with some people who were pushy about their beliefs and aggravated him.

“Well, different people have different motives,” we mentioned.

He agreed.

“For us,” we said, “we pass these out everywhere—and it’s not because we are trying to get people to our church or anything — it’s just because we believe it’s the truth. And for us, if we didn’t share it, it would be kind of like knowing the cure for cancer and not saying anything.”

“Yeah, that’s a good perspective to have,” he said.

Our waiter yesterday was not the only one who has told me that “people who leave tracts tip less.” I remember one waitress who told me she dislikes Sunday afternoons because of all the stingy Christians. And I’ve heard similar reports from other sources as well. Of course, it isn’t true across the board, and I’m sure servers who are already antagonistic towards Christianity are extra sensitive to this and may exaggerate the statistics they share. But whatever the case may be, if we are going to be imitators of God (Eph. 5:1), we must be generous!

Please do not read this and be discouraged about giving tracts to servers! Just remember to tip well with your tract.

Here are a few other suggestions:
1) Try to get to know your waiter/waitress. If we are friendly and enjoyable to serve, it lays a great foundation for then sharing about the Lord.
2) Try handing them a tract in person instead of leaving it on the table. Even better, give them something bigger like a DVD or book.
3) Pray for them even before you arrive at the restaurant.

I had prayed yesterday morning that we would be able to witness to our waiter at lunch. Although the talk with him wasn’t what I was expecting, I think it was beneficial. I think the gentle explanation with the tract was what that guy needed at that time.

Well… our fall travels have begun!

This pic was taken a few hours ago in the Des Moines airport and now we’re in the Minneapolis airport. More leaders will be joining us in Alaska later tonight. The first Bright Lights conferences starts this weekend.

One especially neat contact from today: a man helped us carry luggage down some stairs because the escalator was broken. Afterward Sarah gave him a tract and he said “Thanks–I’ll read it on my next flight.” Sarah had explained to him how we were headed to Alaska to run a Christian conference for young ladies. He told her, “Yeah, I gathered that from your conversation in the airport.”

You see, Lilly had been sharing with me about favorite authors, some articles from Spurgeon that had really blessed her about loving the Lord, etc. We didn’t realize this man was listening, but it was a good reminder to us that there are often more opportunities than we know because there are many ears around us all the time. 🙂