Here are some more stories continuing from the first day:
We had a couple who came up to us after seeing the medals on the table. I began speaking with the husband who informed me that his wife was raised catholic and that he attended a local baptist church. He was trying to stay active in the church but he had also been falling away from the local church. I shared with him about the rosary and how he could use his bible to meditate on the life of Jesus. By keeping a consistent prayer life, I shared with him that he could have the strength to continue his relationship with Jesus and enter into a community of believers with freedom. His wife mentioned to another evangelist their family was in the midst of crisis with cancer and that her hand was in pain. We asked to pray with her, to which she accepted and asked the Holy Spirit to bring healing into her life. She felt better with her hand, and thanked us because she had much more peace. We gave her a Reasons to Return pamphlet and a bulletin for the local cathedral mass times as they thanked us and left.
As we were sitting at the table near the end of the festival there was a young man who came up to our table a bit desperately and started looking through and taking a few resources. We looked a bit puzzled and started to welcome him to our table. One evangelist asked him how his day was going and he admitted that he was having a pretty bad day. The two evangelists offered to pray with him and he immediately accepted and stood still so that they could pray over him. They spent a good minute or two praying with this young man, Mark, who almost started tearing up with them. He was very thankful and felt at peace. He told us that he had lost his phone and that he needed to have more faith in his life. We shared with him about our faith as Catholics and told him that he was welcome to continue reaching out to us for any more questions. We told him about the story of St Anthony and how our brothers and sisters in heaven are cheering us on in our present day. He took quite a few resources and gave us a hug as he left.
The next day was much cooler (Bless the Lord) as we setup again. We encountered quite a lot more catholics who were coming out of mass including some of our friends. They were very happy to see us out with a table representing our faith and took pamphlets on the ministry to learn more about what we do locally. The spanish materials went by fast as many hispanic families joyfully came to our table and became excited to see how local catholics were evangelizing in the area.
One woman was walking by and was interested in receiving a rosary. I told her that she was welcome to take anything from our table since all of our resources were free. She told me that she was raised catholic, to which I asked if she attended any local parishes. She said that she was no longer practicing and that she didn’t agree with some of the things the Church proclaimed. I asked if she could explain a little bit and that I would gladly listen to what she thought, to which she opened up about her childhood younger brother who passed away after two days old. She said she couldn’t believe that the Church was cold enough to not allow him to have a catholic funeral. She did not agree with the fact that her younger brother could go through purgatory either since he was only two days old. She seemed very sad sharing and I knew it was a deep wound that she had felt for a long time so I began to comfort her and tell her how incredible God’s love was for her and her brother. I just continued to ask the Holy Spirit to guide me in my words, and I gently explained to her the reality of our souls as proclaimed by Jesus Christ. I explained how God is merciful to all, and how Catholic funerals were created out of reverence to the bodies of those who had been baptized. Because of the great gift of the sacrament of Baptism, we are cleansed of all of our sins, including what is known as Original sin. This mark of Original sin was serious because it separates us from God, which is why Christ was sent into the world to free us and be with God again for eternity. While the Church could not “officially” proclaim that her younger brother was saved due to original sin (he was not baptized since he was so young), the Church recognizes that God is not bound to his sacraments and we are called to pray for the souls of our loved ones in confidence that God is merciful. However, it was true that her brother probably went through purgatory, not out of the sins he committed as a baby who was two days old which probably wasn’t possible, but as a cleansing from original sin that would last only a moment as he could be reunited with God for eternity. I could tell that she was listening attentively so I gently offered to pray with her for her little brother as a means of thanksgiving for his life to which she accepted. I prayed with her in thanksgiving for the beautiful life of her brother and the love that God has poured out into her life and I ended with asking the Holy Spirit to come and heal any wounds and comfort all sorrow. She had tears in her eyes as she thanked me and I gave her a few materials to take with her as she went on her way.
We had a young man who walked up directly to the tent and started asking some questions about our faith. While the other evangelists were talking to him, his girlfriend came over and I began to talk with her. I asked her if she had any faith, and she mentioned that she was spiritual but did not have any particular religion she followed. I asked her if she ever considered Christianity or if she was raised in any certain religion. She told me that she believed in God but that she did not see any one religion as the only correct religion. So I started to share with her about what God had done through his son Jesus when her friend came over. I reintroduced myself and asked her friend if she had any faith. Her friend mentioned believing in God and being raised in a Christian home. I started sharing my testimony on how my faith had really pulled me up through difficult times and she admitted receiving a lot of peace when she prayed. She began to open up about how fruitful her prayer time was because she felt peace and order in her life and became animated in sharing about the goodness that God had to offer. I was a bit surprised but joyful that she was sharing her witness in front of her friend (God knows what He’s doing!) and then they had to get going so I gave them my contact information to reach out if they wanted to continue the conversation.
We had a prayer intentions booklet out on our table. Even a sweet little girl decided to write in the book her intentions.
One of the last encounters we had near the end of the festival was a beautiful African American family strolling along. I offered the elderly woman a rosary, and she accepted in very curiously. As I explained to her how to pray the rosary, I offered her and her family the free resources we had out on the table. She began giving rosaries to her grandchildren to take for prayer and asking about the organization. I shared with her that we were a catholic ministry in the area sharing about our faith with people. She told us that she wasn’t catholic but that her parents had enrolled her in a catholic elementary school where the nuns take her to pray. She still remembered half of the Hail Mary and how nice the nuns were to her. The woman, Cathy, told us that she was excited to pray the rosary. Her daughter asked about a CD I left on the table by Fr Mike Schimtz called “Could God love someone like me?” I told her she was free to take it as well as anything on the table because it was all free. She proceeded to take one of every single pamphlet! Cathy saw a Divine Mercy card and mentioned that she had heard that song on the radio where they say “have mercy on us and on the whole world.” We told her that it was actually a Catholic prayer and gave her the card with the instructions to pray it with the rosary beads. We also told her the story of St Faustina and that there was a movie coming up in December where the whole family could watch the story of Faustina, which we wrote down for her on the catholic audio card. We asked Cathy if she needed prayers for anything and she asked us to pray for many of her family members in the US. We prayed with her right there and then and the family left with a good amount of resources.
We wrapped up our event in thanksgiving for the many people we encountered throughout the weekend. We met over a hundred people for our first festival in Orlando and will continue to pray for all the people we encounter.