First divine encounter.  Two lady caregivers and a mentally disabled young man.  He was so happy to see us.  One lady very aware that there was a God, her sinful state and her need for Him but not sure of her Salvation.  The other, most (pessimistic).  Did not understand how the bible could be totally true after, as she called it, “so many different translations”.  (Editors Note: It’s true there are many translations of the Bible! Some are in English, some in German, some in Arabic, some in Chinese, etc.)

In an effort to ease her mind on that issue we reminded her that the word of God was written by men inspired by God.  Sure there were translations but the true meaning had not been lost.  Not sure whether she totally received that.  We further explained that God says in the bible that without faith it is impossible to please Him. She also sadly believed that hell was here on earth.  We shared with her some of the bibles descriptions of hell. One went away smiling and thankful as we shared the whole Gospel, filling in parts that had not been clear to her before.  The other, we’re not so sure.  We’re praying God’s hand is still in her life.

We were so blessed to come upon Amir and Danyell.  Amir was a black muslim.  Very surprised he was so receptive and wanted to hear what we had to say.  Danyell was very shy to admit her sin.   Amir owned up without a hesitation.  He to was eager to share what he knew about repentance.  He seemed to believe that repentance was all that was necessary to gain heaven.  We tried to help him to understand that putting your trust in Christ death on the cross was a necessary step also. We were able to share the entire Gospel. They both said they understood, thanked us and we said our fair wells.  Melissa was excited and confident that he (they) got it, I was not so sure.  Again, we are praying God will do a work in his (their) hearts.

Next, we came upon Darryl, Joshua and a young ladies name that escapes me.  Darryl did not know if he would go to heaven, the young lady went back and forth and Joshua just said “no, I’m not going to heaven”.  After much conversation especially with the young lady who spent much time in and around the church and was proud to share the lingo she knew, but did not really know how to be sure of her salvation but based it on asking God to forgive her over and over again…we finally shared that now while you are living you can know for sure.  Thus, we shared the Gospel.  Separation was sweet to see, especially for the young men to hear something they had not heard before and the young lady to hear that there was a way off the merry go round if she really wanted it.

We gave tracts to a group of students which included one Jehovah witness which again I was surprised she took it but I guess she just didn’t know better.  We are praying that they read, think, meditate and receive the Word!

One young couple received tracts, but the gentleman had grown up in church and was turned off by it and as he said, “everything about it”.  The young lady said that she would wait until she died to find out if she went to heaven or hell and with that I told her then it would be to late, now is the time to make that decision.  They kindly thanked us and agreed to take the tracts.  I must say, it was sad to see how turned off the young man was about religion as a whole even though we submitted we weren’t offering religion but a relationship. (Editors Note: Amen!) We speculated on what happened but he was not to eager to share.  God bless their confused souls.

Our last encounter was one for the books.  Young man and two young ladies who looked like college students out having a little picnic.  They were very receptive…little did we know that he was the spokesperson for the group.  He had very grand ideas about how everything was about love and he loved everybody and everything and everything was interconnected and heaven was here on earth.  And we truly let him talk way to long.  But after everything was said and done, he stopped challenging us, we were able to share the Gospel, and they took our tracts and thanked us.  Melissa said she believed he was a young hippie who believed in pantheism.  All and all a very full evening. Nancy and Melissa.