You did WHAT? To who??

Street Evangelism.....and we're not talking handing out food to homeless people, we're talking walking up to people and telling the good news of Jesus Christ! You're probably thinking terrifying thoughts right now and so were we, but after the past 2 days it's not nearly as terrifying. We went out yesterday afternoon with the MTIers (Mission Training Institute) and basically just watched and learned. I was paired with Rachel and we went out with Phil Harris, who was actually our speaker this week so it was extra-scary because we were with the teacher!!! Steve went out with Rachael and Dave was their MTI partner. Between Steve and I, we both had really different experiences, so I'll tell you mine and then I'll get Steve to tell you his....... this is the whole group of us who were sent out yesterday and today!!Jo's Experience: So our mission was door-to-door evangelism. I had total mixed feelings about it, but it turned out to be very non-invasive and quite lovely. And I kind of figured that if the JW's get lots of people that way why can't Christ?? We drove around for the first while just praying and seeing where we would be led. We ended up in Aldergrove in a neighbourhood filled with townhouse complexes. We had Ross Road Community Church flyers with tracts inside them and we went door to door asking people if they would like one and then if they'd be interested in answering a short questionnaire on the spiritual feelings of the neighbourhood. From their answers, Phil would segue into the gospel message. So the very first house we started at was a family who were mormons. He had been one for 4 years but his wife had been one since she was a kid. Therefore, we got a 45 second run down on everything they believe and Phil talked through it a little bit with her until she got pushy and then we left. The second lady we met had 30 cats in her townhouse and 200 more in shelters in the area. Phil explained the gospel to her but she couldn't understand how God is good and loving if he lets so many cats die...especially when people shoot them in the face with bee bee guns. So that conversation was done as well. Another lady was really interested and we went through the whole salvation message with her, got her number and gave her numbers of people she could call when she was ready to take the next step, so that was really cool. Spent pretty much the whole day around the one complex. Today was Rachel's and my crack at it. We were SO nervous going in to it, but I studied my 5 point gospel message last night and in the end, never even got to use it. Disappointing!! We started the same way, driving around praying and ended up again in Aldergrove. We started on some townhouses that we had seen yesterday. The very first lady at the very first house pretty much shouted at me, so it was off to a great start!! And the rest of the day was really no better. Talked to a few people, left tracts with people. We encountered a lot of rejection today all the way across the board...it could have been discouraging but at the end of the day we were still full of joy! We met one lady who said she's pagan, and we prayed for her because she's been sick for 3 days. She wasn't comfortable answering our questions but was happy that we prayed for her and hopefully God will turn that into something amazing! And some people were just really excited about the church information so that was great to see as well.

Steve's Experience: So we went on a tangent of not knowing what to do. Both days we started by just praying and going through some local news papers. After prayer from the community and guidance, we headed for walks. Day one we walked around a slummy area, but it was cold outside so we only talked to one guy and didn't get to spirituality. So we headed to Timmy's for a hot one. It was here we once again were too scared to talk to anyone, so we chatted and prayed a bit. We then decided to try some door to door at a local trailor park. There the first house we went to was a lady with three teenage daughters whom she was the stepmother of. She made this sound like it was a tough road and told us they didn't really go to church. So we chitchatted a bit and offered her some info on a local church. We even offered prayer but she declined. This was a bit of a boost since the rest of the day seemed to be somewhat unproductive. We visited a few more houses, with the last being the home of a JW. This man was quite obviously miss guided and had some physical illnesses. He took it upon himself to instead convert us. We quickly gave him our info and bolted. Day one was a learning experience which set us up for today. So day two we prayed again then walked around a local park but had not much luck there. Our guide Dave talked to a lady for a bit but I was off trying to find my own prey. No luck so we went to the mall looking and praying for oportunities there. Once again my fear got the best of me and I didn't talk to anyone, while Dave once again did. I tried sitting on a bench for about half an hour but no one sat beside me, which was my plan to talk to them after the sitting commenced. So now we were short on time and hadn't really done alot so we decided to try door to door again. Once again door one we knocked on was fruitful. This time I was doing all the talking, which was realitively simple since this was a sweet little old lady by the name of Maria. She originally came from the molotschna colonies in present day Ukraine. This as some of you know is where alot of mennonite background has spurred from and three out of four of Jo's grandparents were born there. She also spoke Russian which I am studying for Ukraine. We talked a bit and then prayed for her and her familly which had some ailments and a grandson on with YWAM. She was awesome so I tried my luck at a few more, with minimal success. Two people accused me of soliciting even when I said I didn't want any money. This was pretty much it, nothing too exciting. Just a bit of practice, prayer, and a sweet old lady who me and Jo might see if we can visit.