Frightening Fridays (Week 3, Part 2)

Please see Frightening Fridays (Week 3, part 1) for the lead in to this post.

Before I start this story, please understand my time leading up to these Friday nights is spent in prayer, and I have friends and family members praying for me as well.

I had made up my mind to stop by the newly built skatepark in our community to engage in some evangelism on Friday night. I had no idea how to go about this task. Before arriving at the park I filled a small cooler with pop (soda for those of you who aren't from Minnesota) and bottled water. When I arrived at the park, I had to hike about a quarter of a mile from the parking lot to reach the skatepark section (with my cooler slung over one shoulder and my purse full of tracts over the other). When I arrived at the skatepark, I felt very out of place. There were about 20 kids (boys and young men, all male) rolling around on skates, skateboards, and bikes. A few kids recognized me from my visit to the park (before the skatepark section was built) a couple weeks ago. I had witnessed to four of the boys the night of that visit. When they recognized me they started yelling out, "Hey, it's that church lady. I recognize her. She talks about God." (This did not help my nerves). Despite that greeting (if you can call it that) no one came up to me or even near me. So, I sat down on a rather large rock (feeling extremely conspicuous and out of place), observed the action, contemplated what to do next, and prayed.

After about five minutes of sitting on the rock, watching, thinking, and praying, I stood up on the rock and said at the top of my lungs, "Hello boys. Tonight I'm giving out a free pop or water with every gospel tract I hand out. If this interests you, come on over and talk to me." When I said that, every biker, skater, and skateboarder stopped. There was silence for about 15 seconds. Then one bold, rather indifferent-sounding young man broke the silence with these words, "No thanks. I'm good." Several young men echoed his sentiment, the action resumed, and everyone went back to whatever they were doing before I stood up on the rock. (I'm thinking at this point, "I just stood up on a rock and yelled something out to total strangers to no avail, now what do I do?) About 1 minute passed, and boys started coming up to me and asking for pop and gospel tracts. I was able to engage two young men in a give-and-take conversation about the gospel, and I had conversations with several other boys about the Bible, who created the earth, and the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead. I gave out at least 12 cans of pop, and each can of pop accompanied a gospel tract. Many seeds were planted. I can tell several of these young men are curious about the gospel message, and I think they will be watching to see if I am consistent in showing up to talk to them about it.

Hmmm, another lesson learned. God uses even the chickens and the uncool.