Tree Lighting

For the christmas season we decided to go out to a tree lighting ceremony in Lake Eola. The park had a 72ft christmas tree and a short musical showcase nearby with lots of vendors. The local news showed up to film the mayor turn on the christmas tree lights and people were in festive colors. The crowds were enormous and we had four of us (including kids) ready to share about the story of Christ to the people. We set up right between the local vendors and the giant christmas tree with our simple sign and split up in twos. Two people stayed with the sign passing out christmas colored rosaries and two of us wandered around the park to meet people.

I went out first with an evangelists and ran into another woman my age. I asked if she wanted a miraculous medal and at first she didn’t hear me and kept walking. I asked again and this time she turned and saw me holding a medal up to her. She was curious and asked about. When I told her it was about Mary and Jesus she replied that she didn’t “do that whole God thing” but that her girlfriend went to church. So I put away the medal and started talking to her about where she was from. She turned out to be a local college student and I was able to talk with her about the music I did and about how I loved seeing people react to the beauty that comes from art. We held a good conversation when her girlfriend showed up and I introduced the medal to her. She went to a local protestant church and accepted the medal, but walked away shortly afterwards. The first woman I had been talking to wanted to continue the conversation so I listened to her talk about her college experience and gave her my contact card to follow-up with her. The evangelist and I prayed silently together that they both may have open hearts to encounter Christ. 

I only walked a few steps farther when I came across an elderly black gentleman walking around by himself. His name was Mark and he accepted a medal. I asked him if he grew up with a faith background. He said he believed in God but hadn’t been to any church in a long time. So I told him about being catholic and entering into a community. I shared with him about how Christmas could be an incredible opportunity to draw back to the Lord. I pointed out the nativity scenes and how Jesus wanted us in a family a believers. I then asked if we could pray with him, which he accepted. We prayed over him to be filled with joy during the christmas season, to be blessed with friends and family that will help in grow closer to Christ, and that his heart would be open to building a relationship with the Father. He thanked us as we went on our way. 

As we walked back to the sign the other evangelists had a great conversation with a homeless woman nearby who was raised Episcopalian. She prayed with her and gave her a rosary and then we switched with the other two evangelists. 

The children of one of the evangelists held a prayer intentions book and gave out the billion dollar bills with the gospel on it. Apparently the children were so excited to hand it out that they gave it to other children unaccompanied by any adults. Those children who received the bills then brought a few more friends from the nearby playground again unaccompanied by adults and they all were very happy and ran away with the bills. While we try not to give out items without permission from the parents, the innocent children were so quick to receive the bills that we only prayed the parents would be open to letting them keep it. No parents ever came up to us regarding the bills either, so we trust that the Lord will work through the innocence of children.

I handed out a few rosaries standing by the sign while the tree began lighting up nearby. There was a woman who walked by with her two children to see the christmas tree. I offered her a rosary which she accepted and I asked her if she had ever prayed a rosary before. It turns out that she was familiar with it because she had catholic friends so I asked her more about her life. She said that she was studying to become a christian counselor and was trying to study the bible so she would be praying the rosary. She went to a non-denominational church that wasn’t close to downtown.  I asked if she ever had questions about Catholicism and she said that she never fully understood why Catholicism was so different from all the other churches. So I explained to her a bit of early church history and how the apostles were sent by Jesus Christ to build his church in various places. All the churches that the apostles established were part of one universal church and I explained to her that we have apostolic succession which shows that our authority can be traced back to the apostles. I then gave a brief summary of the beliefs of early christians since they did not yet have a bible established and how they worshiped as a community. I was able to explain a bit more about some of the sacraments of the Church and she was very interested. It was getting cold so I gave her one of all the pamphlets I had as well as my contact card so we could meet again if she had more questions. Her children left with some miraculous medals and they thanked us for our time.