SPSE’s National Director, Steve Dawson, joined the San Diego team as they evangelized on the Ocean Beach Municipal Pier. According to Steve, in the short time the team was out, they “talked with dozens — if not hundreds — of people and had lots of fun” doing so.
An example of a conversation they had was with a woman named “Genevieve”, a fallen-away Catholic who had started attending the services of a non-Catholic Christian denomination. But then she saw the SPSE team and felt drawn to them by curiosity.
Steve and the other evangelists engaged her in a friendly conversation in which they were able to explain to her WHY she should come back to the Catholic Faith. They focused mainly on two points: 1) that the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ Himself (see Mt. 16:18–19), and 2) how the writings of the Early Church Fathers would quickly show her that the Church was recognizably Catholic all the way back to the first and second centuries.
Genevieve found this tremendously exciting and gladly accepted the books and pamphlets offered her by the team. She told them she would talk with her husband (also a fallen-away Catholic) when she got home about their coming back to the Catholic Church. She also said that she felt it was God’s Providence that the SPSE team happened to be there at the same time she was.
Please pray for Genevieve and her husband as they journey back to full participation in the sacramental life of the Catholic Church. And, this was just ONE of the many amazing encounters the evangelists were able to have that day! What would have happened to this woman and her husband if Catholics hadn’t been willing to go out and make the Church visible that day?
If you’re not already a member of an active team, please pray about getting involved. Any Catholic with a loving heart can do this. It’s easy and it’s fun, and SPSE has the resources to help you quickly get started. What are you waiting for?