As usual, we pray before we make our monthly, early morning drive with our faithful truck loaded, ready for our Jackson St. ‘Table" set-up in Harlingen, Texas. We pray, because we have no idea who the Lord will guide to our table.The day started with a middle-aged man, quickly browsing through the materials and taking a NKJV Bible. He also took our last table copy of Not My Child by Linda Harvey. I wondered what he was thinking when he chose that book.
It’s so fun to have several of the regular vendors greet us as we arrive. We watched Spanish-speaking ‘Ida’ set up her little table (with no protective canopy). It didn’t take long for her to spot us and come with tears in her eyes, as she shared some family problemas. We struggled intently to try and understand what she so desperately wanted to convey. At last, I think we got most of the picture.
A teacher spotted our CBH booklets and asked if we knew how to get the “Keys for Kids” series. The “Sample Copy” gave her all the details. I showed her one of our last copies of “31 Days of Quotes” by Dwayna, and she was eager to start sharing a-verse-a-day to her classroom kids.
Curt visited with a young lady whose boss is Muslim. She took the materials we had on that subject as well as a few Jehovah's Witnesses and occult printouts.
Remember Leo that we wrote about, with such a desire to learn? Leo didn’t show today, but a young 9 year old fellow stopped by the table. Like Leo, Dante was intrigued by everything (free) on the table, including a “Kids Bible”, ‘Keys for Kids 12 day devotional, “Hey Kids” and a couple of CBH kids’ tracts. Hopefully, we’ll see both Leo and Dante again. Dante’s parents own a new store here on Jackson St., so the odds are excellent we’ll see him again (and his mom). He also took a copy of Knowing Aslan. As we were preparing to leave today, Dante’s mom came over to express her surprise over Dante’s interest in the Bible he had taken. She said she was Catholic, but that she was having her son attend a ‘Christian’ school and was OK with him reading materials from our table.
Our day was cut short as a pretty hefty storm forced many vendors to leave. We uncovered our materials from the first storm and debated what to do; a neighboring vendor said another downpour was on its way.
In between storms, a ‘return-fellow’ stopped to say, "Hello," and he was interested in Spanish materials, especially for kids. I was glad we had the series of three CBH booklets “Tesoros para Ninos” (Spanish version of Keys for Kids).
As we started to pack-up, another fellow checked out what was left on the table and took several tracts on different religions. He didn’t appear eager to talk, but seemed interested in the materials.
As he finished picking out the materials he wanted, we saw some other dark clouds quickly approaching. We left our tarp with Ida (who only had red and black bags covering her little table) and felt we made a wise decision to leave.
Though we were on Jackson St. only for a short time today, many materials were taken, and we pray they will be used to God’s glory.
Relying on Him as “He Directs Our Paths” (Prov. 16:9),
Curt and Janie
Curt and Janie Rolf - Rio Grande Valley
