Silver Springs, MD. Many out there doubt God’s perfect timing or struggle believing in His unfathomable love. If only they knew of today’s story. The following report comes to us from evangelist Toni and our Silver Springs, MD team. A young woman (“Jenny”) approached our table at a recent outing and accepted a rosary and a Miraculous Medal. I shared with her the love of Jesus and the truth of the Catholic faith. She put the Miraculous Medal on immediately and listened intently to what I was sharing. She had no real knowledge of who Jesus really is. Her mother is a Jehovah’s Witness, and she was never baptized. I asked her if she was JW, but she said: “No, I don’t like them.” Although she attended Kingdom Hall services sometimes, she felt they were too pushy and wanted nothing to do with them.
The following report comes to us from Br. John and our Society of Evangelists in Warren, MI:
We exchanged contact information, and I offered to attend Mass with her (weekday or Sunday) and would meet her at any Catholic Church she’d liked. I also mentioned that there were classes (Jenny is 18 yrs. old) for people who are interested in learning more about the Catholic Church (RCIA), and she said she was interested. She works in Silver Spring, but lives near Burtonsville where my parish is! That Sunday I picked her up for Mass (she doesn’t drive). She said she really enjoyed it, and how different it was from Kingdom Hall services. After that, Jenny began RCIA classes at my parish and has come every week. I also invited her to a Catholic Women’s group I attend on Thursday mornings, called TASTE, where we attend Mass, pray, sing and listen to speakers who talk about faith issues and living the Catholic faith in today’s world. She has come with me every week for a month now and has even changed her work schedule so that she can attend. There are religious sisters, The Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara, who babysit the children for the mothers who attend TASTE. Jenny was very interested in learning more about them. While my husband and I went to Greece on pilgrimage, another woman drove Jenny to TASTE, and while we were gone, she introduced herself to the Sisters and they invited her over for pizza with them (which they do monthly). She told me about this when I returned from my trip and said that she truly enjoyed it and was hoping to do it again next month. She was very impressed with the Sisters and their joy. Since then, my husband and I invited her to a play about the life of Venerable Augustus Tolton at our parish recently, and she really enjoyed it (as did we!) We continue to take her to Mass (Sundays and some weekdays) as her schedule allows and ordered her a subscription to Magnificat.
It never ceases to amaze me at how generous God is to his children and that He’d call Jenny to our SPSE table (and that she lives just 5 min. from me!) But what’s even more amazing is that just the other night, when I was driving her home from RCIA, she shared with me that just two weeks before we met, she’d decided that God wasn’t fair in asking people to live a perfect life without helping them and that she was going to become a Satanist (she had just joined a satanic email list, which she has since removed herself from). We must never underestimate the importance of evangelization, and it really hit me last Friday when I received a text from Jenny that read, “I almost feel like if it wasn’t for you and the Church, I wouldn’t know God, and that’s kinda scary.”
Praised be Jesus Christ! Please keep Jenny and our Silver Springs team in your prayers.