Hello Dwayna,Please forgive my lack up updates since October. I purpose to do better this year, reporting at least every couple months so you can rejoice with us and let people know how to pray for Boulder. We set up the table on the day before Halloween, twice in November, and three times in December, plus today, January 15th. Every time I'm amazed at how many people stop to talk, and at their spiritual hunger. In October we offered special tracts geared for Halloween, and starting two days after Thanksgiving we passed out tracts with a Christmas theme. People regularly take the booklets, New Testaments, and apologetics flyers. Today a skeptical homeless man who said he had "dispensed with that" when I asked his name, picked up a Bible to search for I Corinthians. I found it for him, then he said, "Somewhere in here is some really good stuff", and I suggested chapter 13. When he found it he said, "That's it!" and started reading, "Although I speak with tongues of men and of angels but have not love..." for 5 or 6 verses. He took a pocket New Testament with him.
On December 11th, a group of about 15 of us sang traditional Christmas carols for about an hour, to the smiles of passersby. A couple of people stopped and sang with us, including a man who regularly comes to the mall and makes balloon animals for children. He was a very likeable person and said he was a Messianic Jew. I wasn't so sure he was a believer after hearing him talk about the "energy" in all living things, but he took some materials. After the caroling, one Jewish young man argued with us for about 20 minutes in the cold, slipping into Hebrew frequently, stating there was no need for a human sacrifice (Jesus) because God would never ask for that. A street musician named Johnny told me when he was 19 someone approached him and asked, "What is your life's purpose?" He didn't know but explained that he wanted to find out more and had "followed the path" of Universalism since that time. It's so important for us to be in the public square offering the truth in the face of so many false religions seeking converts.
What has really increased the traffic to our table is the "Intelligence Test" banner that Scott has been setting up since December. People stop to take the test and laugh at the trick questions. When they get to "How many of the 10 commandments can you name?", we get the chance to learn their spiritual background and witness to the One who took the punishment we deserve (death and hell) for breaking those commandments, offering us the gift of eternal life. They browse the table and take literature with them. One teen today, Tracy, said she didn't get the whole thing about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. We talked for several minutes about sin and a holy God who punishes those who break his moral law, but she still felt it wasn't clear. Then she asked whether making deals with the devil meant for sure you would go to hell, since she has sometimes said "I'd give my soul to the devil if I could have XYZ." I told her the devil wants you to believe that a contract with him is binding, but he is the father of lies, the great deceiver, and Jesus can still save her no matter what sin she has committed or what deals she has made: "All authority has been given me in heaven and on earth..." She thanked me for that since she had been worried. Pray for that young woman - she is so close to meeting Jesus.
It is such a privilege and so exciting to engage non-believers in conversation and see with spiritual eyes the Holy Spirit working in them as we talk. Christians' fears of talking "religion" to people are unfounded (another lie from the devil). Many people are very open and willing to give it serious thought. The table gives them a comfortable place to explore the claims of the Bible and have their thinking challenged. Thank you for all the great materials we can offer free to those who walk in darkness, so they can see the Light.
Fight the good fight!
Patty
