There was a large festival called Fiesta in the Park in Lake Eola which started on All Soul’s Day. We set up our first tent for the festival with everything we had. It was very hot and we had two people giving out rosaries while the others watched the tables. While many people stopped at the table to take some of the materials we had to offer, we had quite a few enjoyable conversations with people about Catholicism. Below are only a few of the stories from the first day:
The first hour of the day I passed out a rosary to a woman who was very interested in the background story. I asked her what church she went to and she mentioned she was from out of town but could not find a church to go to since she was Maronite. I asked her a little bit about it and then began explaining to her that there were many rites within the Catholic Church and that she was welcome to attend any parish in the area for mass. I explained to her the liturgical history and traditions of how different rites came about and gave her a local parish bulletin as well as some pamphlets to take if she wanted to learn more.
In the morning I passed out a miraculous medal to a woman who was very interested in Our Lady. I gave her the background story and she was very excited to receive the medal. I asked this woman named Catherine about her faith and she told me she was Anglican which was close to Catholicism. I began talking with her about the mass and she mentioned that she had been to a Catholic Mass before. I was explaining to her that the Catholic Church had been established by Jesus and she did recognize that the Anglican Church had split from Rome. So I invited her to take a rosary as well as any other pamphlets that she would like. She thanked us for being kind and continued walking along.
A man came by the table who was Methodist and after explaining the rosary to him was excited to learn how to pray it. He also took with him some other pamphlets on Catholicism as well. We had quite a few Methodists who were interested in the rosary throughout the day and took some materials with them.
We met a couple who stopped by our table to see what we had. Engaging them, I learned that the woman would sometimes try going to St James and her husband attended a small church nearby. Luckily we had a few bulletins from the cathedral and we were able to provide them to her and other people who were interested in mass times.
I later met a young woman named Kelly who was curious when I offered her a rosary. I asked if she knew what a rosary was, to which she replied that she was raised catholic. She was not practicing her faith anymore but she admitted that she received peace when she prayed. We gave her information on young adult groups in the area as well as sharing our testimony with her about how our faith had played a vital role in our lives. She thanked us and took a lot of resources with her to read.
It became incredibly hot into the afternoon so we tried to persevere the best we could through the heat by taking turns passing out rosaries. Finally around 1pm I told my team we would take an hour break from passing out rosaries and eat, rest, and pray for the hour. Sure enough, God continued to send people our way. There was a lady we prayed with that we thought she had mistaken us for the baptist tent. She came running up saying she wanted to talk with the pastor looking man because she needed prayers. Instead of correcting her, we told her we would be willing to pray with her. Afterwards she was very thankful and we told her a bit about our faith as well as the miraculous medal which she happily wore around her neck for the rest of the festival. We learned that she was raised in a baptist church and that she was trying to keep her faith going but she had fallen away. She was another vendor with a table out and she continuously kept coming back just to talk with us. I thought it was great even if she had mistaken us for the baptist tent (or so we assumed). Near the end of the festival she came up to me to get a miraculous medal for her sister who also wanted one. She asked me if the pastor would come back the next day so she could talk to him. I told her that we didn’t have a pastor with us, but that the Baptist tent was around the corner and perhaps she saw their pastor. She said she saw him earlier at our tent which was why she came to us and that he was standing right behind us in the middle of the table looking down as though we were talking to him (we were actually praying at that time). She described him wearing all black with a priestly collar (she didn’t really know that but she described it) and he was dark-skinned and that he was a preacher looking guy. He had a bit of facial hair as well as dark hair on his head. She said he had been looking down as though in conversation with us and then he looked up and made direct eye contact intentionally looking straight at her and then looking back down. I told her she was describing a priest and that we didn’t have any priest with us or any man that looked like that all day. She gasped and said she saw him standing right behind us as we were sitting down and she really wanted to talk with him….She couldn’t believe it! I got goosebumps and took the opportunity to share with her that we were celebrating All Soul’s Day and how the saints in heaven can sometimes come to us to get our attention. She was incredibly joyful with us the next day and her sister was also very shocked at the entire event. At the end of the festival I was able to share some more resources and contact information to continue the conversation with them if they wanted it.
God showed up in powerful ways on the first day of the festival! More stories will be coming soon.
*All names recorded in Orlando stories have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals