Bloomington, IN. Here is a recent report from Father Ignatius, FFI.

Since the spirit of holy rivalry first blew through St. Paul Street Evangelization, Steve Dawson and I have sought to continually surpass one another in zeal for souls and the glory of God. So what happens when two rivals have the chance to work together? More souls, more glory.

The past couple of weeks I have had the privilege and the joy of accompanying Steve to work with various teams, take part in training, meet radio people, etc. One evening while on the road, we were looking for a place to have dinner. We tried one, but the waiting list was incredibly long. We tried a second, and the same thing. And a third: that too, had a very long wait. So we decided to pray to Our Lady and ask her to find us a place to eat. Lo and behold, the next place we stopped had room for us and Steve, good soul that he is, wasted no time and offered a Miraculous Medal to the hostess before we even sat down. She cheerfully accepted. In the meantime, my religious habit caught the attention of some of the staff. “I think there is a monk at my table!” exclaimed our waitress to the others. This began an entire evening of restaurant evangelization. At the time, we happened to be the only table that our waitress had to tend to and at a certain point, she even pulled up a chair and just sat down to talk to us. She was a non-Catholic Christian, fine young lady, who had questions, seemed genuinely open, and finished the night with a Miraculous Medal and a “Made for More” book. When all was said and done, we gave away about 8 medals, two books, and, after searching the internet on Steve’s phone, recommended a local parish to a fallen-away Catholic.

About a week later, when we were on the road again, we again needed to find a place to have dinner. This time, we prayed first: “Hail Mary, full of grace…” We quickly pulled into a nice little diner. Our waitress was pregnant and upset because her unborn baby was having health difficulties. We asked if we could pray with her for that and she was very pleased. With a first-class relic of St. Paul and his intercession, we begged the Almighty to bring healing to her baby and peace to her own soul. The waitress was grateful for our prayers and felt much relieved. After the meal, we ended up giving Miraculous Medals to the entire staff and then, there was a real miracle.

One of the workers, who already received a medal, came outside behind the restaurant and Steve went over to talk to him and found out that it had been 22 yrs. since his last confession. Steve said, “Do you want to go to confession right now? Father is over there in the car. Go to confession!” And after the manner of Ven. Fulton Sheen, Steve urged him on towards the car that I was waiting in, which then, in a moment, became a confessional. Steve later said that he could see tears of contrition through the car window.

Allow us to praise you, O Most Holy Virgin, through such a noble rivalry!

Praised be Jesus Christ! Do you know that when you joyfully bear witness to the good news of salvation, the Holy Spirit will be with you? Did you know that He can accomplish great things through you, even miracles? Pray devoutly and zealously to God for grace and guidance, and consider getting involved as a street evangelist! You won’t regret it!