Sebastian, FL
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The following report comes to us from team leader Peter with our team in Sebastian, FL:
Miriam and Elita both stopped at our table in front of the Sebastian library at the same time. They didn’t know each other, but both happened to attend nearby Our Lady of Guadalupe mission church. We all had a spirit filled discussion, and they each took literature and sacramentals for family members.
Mike stopped, and told us he was a nondenominational Christian. He was spirit filled, and professed love and service to God and those he meets on a daily basis. However, he didn’t belong to a church, and didn’t see a need to attend one. He never found one that satisfied him, and felt he’d just be judged there. So he modeled himself after Jesus who went off by himself to pray and walked around ministering to people. We thanked him for that, but pointed out that Jesus started a church for us to belong to, and we received our early faith and the Bible from a church. We said there are those in church that need people like him to strengthen them in their faith. He said he went into a nearby Catholic church many years ago to pray after a friend died. When he asked a priest if it was OK, the priest asked if he was Catholic. When he said no, the priest said he couldn’t come in. We were shocked to hear that, told him that shouldn’t have happened, and apologized for it. We invited him to St. Sebastian, told about the great stained glass windows, and invited him to attend the Lenten parish mission that night. He seemed to accept what we said, and he gave one of us a Matthew Kelly book, Holy Moments.
Next we met Cindy, a Catholic, and Fernando, a Pentecostal, previously from Puerto Rico and Miami-Dade County. We had a spirit-filled discussion, and after learning they weren’t attending church, encouraged them to attend St. Sebastian. We provided a card with all local Mass times, told them about the Lenten mission that night, and also about the charismatic prayer group at St. Helen. They were very receptive to everything.
Praise be Jesus Christ!