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This report comes to us from team leader Dave with our team in Berkeley, CA:
Two evangelists (Rita and I) had a booth at the Pinole Car show, which resumed this year after missing last year to COVID. It was well attended, and we connected with many people. We met a lady who was coming out of a tough time in her life. She had a 6-year-old girl with her and shared how she’s coming back to her faith and really wanted to start reading the Bible. She wanted a recommendation for which one to get. I happened to have a Bible that I’d been carrying for street evangelizing for a long time and never used. I was going to show her the title, but decided it’d be better to just give it to her. She was very moved and grateful. I also gave her the Lectio Divina pamphlet. She took a Rosary along with a manual. She felt like divine providence was at work.
We met another woman who had many questions. She asked the questions in a spirit of genuine curiosity and eagerness. We spoke to her about avoiding churches that are “Bible only” based since that leads to splits and that they lack true authority. When I shared with her the fact that I’d gained great spiritual insights from praying the Rosary, she said, “Like what?” I said, for instance, the fact that Jesus is fully God and fully human. She took Rosaries and pamphlets for her whole family. One young lady working at a food booth across from us who had a Rosary and an instruction pamphlet promptly opened it up, sat down and boldly read out loud the Apostle’s Creed. One woman had her 12-year-old daughter with her who hadn’t received first communion yet and expressed a desire to get her into classes. I gave her the Eucharist and Confession pamphlets and briefly talked to her about how the two work together. Rita’s comment after all was done: “I’m always surprised at how much I think I get more out of the ministry than the people we encounter do; it is just such an honor to be there to experience people being able to ask questions and grow as we discuss the faith with them.”
Praised be Jesus Christ!