Reaching the Marketplace for Jesus

Daughter of the King

This weekend at our church (Granite Baptist Church in Glen Burnie, MD) we had an awesome answer to prayer. And a special thanx to my Greek class for praying for a Spirit filled weekend and God's blessing on our efforts! 

We had a big evangelism outreach called "Pack a Pew" Sunday. It was pretty much a misnomer since it covered the whole weekend. On Saturday we had a carnival on the church property for the bus kids and all the kids in the neighborhood – several hundred children and parents showed up to play games, jump in the moon bounce, pet animals in the petting zoo and ride the ponies. Then, on Sunday, we did "pack the pews". We crammed 654 people into our auditorium (we usually seat about 450) – 15 of them accepted Christ as their Savior at the end of the service. 

At the carnival we set up three different evangelism venues. In order for the people to get tickets to the pony ride, the moon bounce or (even) to get a hot dog they had to stop by one of these and listen to a gospel presentation. We had a street evangelist that did chalk art, we had a puppet show and (the one I helped with) the colored beads. We used colored beads (gold for heaven, dark for sin, red for the blood of Christ, white for sins forgiven, green for Christian growth) to present the gospel. In all, over 150 people prayed on Saturday to ask Christ to save them. 

In particular, I remember one young lady (a teenager) that I led to Christ. At the booth with the beads we set up several little stations with one chair facing three or four other chairs. Then, when people came in to listen to the gospel, one soul winner could talk to as many as four people at a time. This particular time two people came in to sit down – an older (grandmotherish) black lady and a teenaged girl (not related to each other). It turned out (though I didn't know it at the time) that the older lady (Mrs. Jones) was the mother of one of the women that my wife goes soul winning with. She knew who I was but I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know her. 

Anyway, I started off by asking them how they liked the carnival and were they having fun. Then I told them that I always like to ask a question before I talk about the story of the beads. I asked them if they were 100% sure that, if they should die, they would go to heaven. 

Mrs. Jones said definitely and the teenage girl said that, actually, she wasn't sure. I then asked Mrs. Jones if she was standing at the gates of heaven and God asked her why He should let her into His kingdom, what she would say. She gave me her testimony and told me how she had accepted Jesus as her Savior at a young age.  

I then asked the young lady if she would like to have that kind of confidence. She said yes and I was able to show her the Romans' Road through the beads and lead her to Christ.  

One of the things I've noticed with some people I talk to is the change in their facial expressions as you quote the Bible to them. Sometimes you can see the Holy Spirit working right in front of you. It's a real reminder that you are not there alone – that you present the gospel but God is there to convince them of the truth of the gospel. After she bowed her head to pray and I went through some assurance verses then Mrs. Jones jumped up, grabbed the girl, gave her a big squeeze and said, welcome to the family! She told the young lady that she was a princess now since she was a daughter of the King. The girl went away with the biggest smile on her face.