Sunday 13th of November 2011
After church, a few of us did what has been labelled “Evax” - and no, this is not a new vaccination. It is a time slot dedicated to street evangelism so that seeds of the truth of Christ are planted into people’s hearts and people are brought closer to knowing God. So one sunny afternoon eight people from Hope Frankston went to see what the Holy Spirit was doing in the local streets.
Hannah and Sarah Renshaw went to the beach where people come from around Melbourne. There, the girls met an African from Ghana called Ishmael aka “Ish”. Sarah was at first a little intimidated by Ish who was big, muscular, and wearing black, however Hannah was quick to initiate conversation. It turns out that Ish was a Christian from Narre Warren and used to go to church back in Africa but had dropped off in Australia. The girls passed him a small flyer with Hope Frankston’s details and encouraged him to come to church. Ish saw from our photo that we are quite a multicultural church and the girls encouraged him to represent Africa in Hope Frankston. We have not seen him yet, but hopefully Ish has begun to reconnect with a church.
Elsewhere, Kallie and Stephen meandered around the streets of down-town Frankston and were able to strike up some conversations and attracting attention. One of the conversations was with two year 9 girls, who did not know about Jesus. Stephen was quick to set these two young girls straight while the girls politely listened. The conversation ended with the passing of a tract. Stephen also attracted the attention of some folks in their golden years, which Kallie pointed out that not many people (except for the oldies) dress like Stephen – vest, tweed pattern, and tan leather vintage-looking shoes – though Stephen, manages to pull it off. I’m sure that this brought them some joy.
Meanwhile, Kelly and Kien went looking for people at Balwyn Park where people were having parties. There were a few people who were somewhat solitude which provided an opportunity for Kelly and Kien to make conversation. One guy was a man a dog watching his three kids on the playground. Conversation was a little difficult as the man’s concentration was on his children; however a small friendly conversation took place. The other person was a man sitting by himself, who was not particularly interested in Christianity per se but was open to conversation which sounded rather philosophical and hopefully got the guy thinking.
Phil and I drove and walked around Frankston Heights Primary School where church is held. At first we prayed and drove around to get a spiritual sense of the area. I felt that this part of Frankston was pretty much closed spiritually. So we parked the car near church and walked around praying. Besides the people going from their front door to the curb to add to their hard rubbish collection, there was hardly anyone around.
Phil and I did however run into two people on our walk. We introduced our names, explained that we were from a local church, and asked if they wanted prayer. Both declined our offer. The first guy was friendly, smiled, and said “not for me.” The second person, a lady, said similarly declined.
My experience of going out on evangelism events is that sometimes people do not want to be approached. Sometimes an area is dry spiritually, so you pray for the Spirit to penetrate the place. Other times the people might not be “ripe” or ready to hear the message. Sometimes God just wants you to get a sense of the place.
I have found E-vax to be a great way not only to connect Hope to the Streets but also a safe way to practice evangelising. After all, you’re not thrown into the deep end by yourself, you get to take someone with you. And after going out on the streets and listening to the other’s testimonies it sounds like there is a lot of work yet to be done here in Frankston.
- Sarah Maynard
No comments:
Post a Comment