Street Evangelism - Park Central Square - Springfield, MO - 7/28/23

 

Street Evangelism - 7/28/23

Park Central Square

Springfield, MO

 

I haven’t been out street witnessing very often over the last several years. Occasionally, I’d go to downtown areas, either in the Kansas City area where we lived for awhile, or a couple of times after moving back to the Springfield, Missouri area.

 

God has been moving me towards going out and doing street evangelism again on a more consistent basis. I don’t exactly know yet what form this will take, but you have to start somewhere. I’ve learned over the years that if you wait until all conditions are perfect in something you want to do, you will never get around to doing it! Just start it and adjust as you go.

 

Since I don’t have a team to go street witnessing with, I contacted my previous witnessing buddy, Dennis Vance, and asked him. He currently isn’t going out as often, due to medical issues he is facing, but his team still is. He connected me with them.

 

I met up with Michael and Anand, and his three children at the meeting location in downtown Springfield, MO. We prayed together and then started on our witnessing adventures.

 

There is still road and sidewalk construction going on. We started walking up both sides of the street towards Park Central Square, passing out gospel tracts to those who would take them.

 

After reaching the Square, we turned left and walked down another street on the sidewalk. We were passing out tracts to people along the way. Some would take the gospel tracts and others would not.

 

Anand’s young girls were great when handing out a tract to someone and saying, “Would you like a gospel tract?” Sometimes people would say yes and other times they would say no. It didn’t seem to bother them when they were told no, they would just move on to the next person. We can take a lesson from them. Don’t get hung up on the person rejecting to take a gospel tract. Forget it and move on.

 

I handed a million dollar bill gospel tract to a lady on the sidewalk. After walking about 30 feet, a young lady came walking fast behind me and said, “Excuse me, can I have one of those also?” Sure, and I hand her a gospel tract. It’s always fun when someone tracks you down and asks for a tract. See what I did there? ;-)

 

When we got back to Park Central Square, Michael and I walked in to see what was going on. They had multiple bongo type drums that were being played. There was someone playing with fire, swinging it around on ropes and sticks. People were sitting around listening to the drumming and chatting.

 

My go-to method of street evangelism was to start off by trying to hand a gospel tract to someone, then start a conversation if they took it or appeared interested. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that way. I still love it, and it is effective in certain areas.

 

However, in the downtown Springfield area, that has been done for years to people, and I think they have their shields up to that type of approach. Many times they say, “No thanks” when you go to hand them anything, even if you tell them it’s a gospel tract.

 

So, I decided to try a different approach. A more personable one, to see what would happen. It was successful.

 

Michael and I started walking up to people. I would say hello and let them know that we were out asking if we can pray for them or for someone they know that is having a difficult time with something. Almost everyone is either going through difficult times or knows someone who is. When you show you care enough to ask, and then offer to pray, many people will allow it.

 

The first couple we came up to was Diamond and Blue. Diamond was 3 months pregnant and had Eczema. It was getting inflamed and itched. We prayed for her eczema and her baby, and that God would show them he loved them. We handed them gospel tracts and they thanked us.

 

We walked up to a lady named Carol. I sat down next to her and asked if she had anything we can pray with her about. She said we could pray for her to find a house, as she didn’t have a place to live right now. We did pray for this. She said she goes to a local church. We gave her a gospel tract.

 

We walked up to these two guys, who said they were both named Jay. When asked if there was anything to pray with them about, they said no. I asked if there was anyone else we could pray for, Jay said we could pray for his dad. He didn’t give any details, but said, “God knows”. We handed them gospel tracts, we fist bumped and they thanked us.

 

We walked away from them and stood talking and looking around. There were two guys behind us, sitting down on the steps. He spoke up and told us hello. He started the conversation, so we walked over and I sat next to Neill, and his buddy was named Joshua.

 

After a bit, I asked if we can pray for them. Neill said we can pray for him, as he currently has bladder cancer and other cancer and is undergoing treatment. We prayed for him.

 

Michael then started talking with them, specifically directed towards Neill, and shared a little about his life and told them part of his testimony. They seemed glad to hear it and talked like they believed in God, but struggle and said it’s tough. Joshua didn’t say much, but he was very nice and polite to us. While Michael was talking, another guy came up and sat down and started listening. Michael gave them gospel tracts and we walked away.

 

We walked up to a coffee shop and went in and ordered drinks. We all sat around and got to know each other better, and told witnessing stories. It was good fellowship.

 

We then walked around some more and passed out a few more tracts, and headed home.

 

We didn’t verbally share the gospel much tonight, but we did pass out gospel tracts and had caring conversations with people and prayed for them. This is sharing the love of Jesus with them

 

Brad St. Clair