First Outing

His Feet on the Street (HFOTS) evangelism team had it's first outing Saturday afternoon at a major movie complex in Cumming, Georgia. We passed out close to two hundred tracts and had conversations with about 16 folks ranging from teenagers to the elderly.

My main goal for the group during the time period we had was to get as many tracts as possible into hands and share Law and Gospel with as many folks who would listen.

The most popular tract we handed out was the Million Dollar Bill tract. Whether just handing out the tract as you walk by people or using it to intentionally start a conversation, it's as easy as this;

"Hey, how are you? Did you get one of these?"

Almost 100% of the time people will gladly take the MDB and some even say, "Thanks".

I arrived a little earlier than the rest of the group so I took out a 100/pack of MDB's and set off walking around the complex just handing out tracts without starting any conversations. I quickly ran out of tracts and headed back to the car to get more when the rest of the gang arrived.

Our small group of five prayed together and then broke up into a team of two and a team of three and set off in opposite directions to cover the large complex.

My team (The team of three) quickly spotted a group of four teenagers sitting and hanging out in front of the movie theater. I gave each one of them a MDB and asked the million dollar question; "If you all were to die today, do you know for sure where you would spend eternity?"

It seems each one of them had a different answer.

"I hope Heaven"

"I don't know"

"I believe in reincarnation"

"I'm not sure"

I took them through the Law and made sure they understood what sin was. They all admitted to breaking God's Law. After telling them that it is appointed man once to die and then the Judgment, I asked them what they would say to God when standing before Him. One girl said that she would ask for forgiveness. I told her it would be too late for that. I gave her the analogy of standing before a judge after she had committed serious crimes and then asking the judge for forgiveness. I told her that the judge would say that she should be sorry, but he would have to sentence her based on the crimes she committed and give her what she deserved; justice.

After explaining to them that the just consequence of sinning against a holy and righteous God was hell, I told them that they did not have to go there. I magnified God's amazing grace through the Gospel and asked them what kept them from repenting of their sins and putting their trust in Jesus Christ today?

After I was finished talking one of the boy's innocently asked me, "What if I don't believe in hell?"

I told him just because someone doesn't believe in something it doesn't make it untrue. I told him that if I were to jump off that building across the street proclaiming I didn't believe in the law of gravity, my disbelief of the law of gravity would have no effect on the law itself; I would still hit the ground no matter how much I protested gravity didn't exist.

We left that group after giving them all another tract called, "Are you good enough to go to Heaven" and looked for some more folks to talk to.

The next conversation found us with a couple elderly gentlemen who were waiting on a bench for their wives to finish shopping. After handing them a MDB and asking the million dollar question, one of the men told me point blank that he was going to hell when he died.

After handing out thousands of tracts and having hundreds of conversations over the last five years, that was the first time anyone ever said that to me and meant it.

I was dumb struck for a moment but recovered and asked why? Why did he think he was going to hell when he died?

He said he was going to hell because he had done a lot of bad things in his life. I asked him if it concerned him that he would spend eternity in hell? He kind of blew it off as if he didn't care, so I described hell to him based on what God's Word has to say about it. He told me he knew all that and he's been through all this before. I asked him what had he been through before?

Basically he told me that he had went to several churches over the years when his wife was sick. He said in a round about way that he blamed God for letting his first wife die.

This man was hurting inside and God was an easy target for his pain. I touched briefly on sin and laid out God's marvelous grace through His Son Jesus Christ. I told him he didn't have to go to hell and asked him to fully consider what we talked about today. We shook hands and went on our way.

I can't remember all the details during that conversation but the Holy Spirit helped me through it. It had to be the toughest witnessing encounter I have ever had.

Our other team witnessed to groups of teenagers and found them to be totally receptive to Law and grace. I hope to be able to get their conversations accounts posted here this week.

Please pray for those we talked to and those who received the Gospel tracts. May God use the witnessing and the tracts to accomplish his perfect will.

BTW - I brought a camera to take some pic's of us witnessing but left the camera in the car...D'oh!