Clearwater, FL. Two men living far apart, speaking different languages, can still enjoy each other’s company and bless each other if they share a common purpose in doing God’s work. Take, for example, St. Andre Bessette and Blessed Fr. Solanus Casey. These two holy men met in Detroit in 1935. Both had the job of porter (doorkeeper), and both had hordes of people visiting for advice, prayer, and perhaps even miracles. They were each from different cultures–one from Canada where French was spoken, and the other from America where English was the main language. Neither of them spoke the other’s language, so the meeting was short, but each blessed the other in the one language they both knew: Latin. Today’s story features two men both seeking to spread the gospel. Both are from different places in America…the fast-paced world of Chicago, versus the slow-paced, beautiful weather of Clearwater, FL. But they both shared the common purpose of evangelization. And let’s hope they’ll both one day be saints in heaven too!
Click here to read more stories from our Tampa team
The following report comes from evangelist Bill and our Tampa, FL:
This past June, I attended Immersion 2019, an evangelization training event put on by the home office of SPSE in Detroit. For me, the best part of the program was meeting and interacting with fellow evangelists from around the country. One of my favorites was Mark, from Chicago.
Mark recently had reason to be in Florida and he just had to see what Sunshine State evangelization was like. And he loved it! But even more, he inspired us. We met at Clearwater Beach on a Monday just before noon. It was a gorgeous day with enough breeze and cloud cover to allow us to stay for hours. Mark was blown away by all the interactions we had. I guess people on vacation at the beach are more friendly than people going to work in Chicago. Go figure.
Mark then started to do a healing prayer. We were talking to a young couple and Mark asks the young man what’s wrong. He says I’m trying to stop smoking. So Mark asks if we can heal him, and once we received permission, we started praying. He asks the guy if he feels anything; he says no. Mark says that it takes time and we get back to praying. After a few minutes, the young man starts coughing like crazy. By the time we finished, he was so thankful. He admitted something good happened to him. He threw away his lighter if that means anything.
We also prayed over a young girl who had epilepsy and had many great conversations with people from PA, NC, FL, GA, OH, IL and more. Mark – you’re welcome to join the Tampa Chapter of SPSE anytime!
Praised be Jesus Christ! When two people from different cultures still have a common purpose, even if they don’t speak the same language, they can still have a grace-filled experience as we saw in today’s story.