Our session started off typically.

A large, extended Catholic family, some visiting from out of town, seemed like they were going to pass us by until one man came to the table. Then, little by little, encouraging each other and calling each other to the table, most of them picked out a Rosary. The father of the local part of the family was very appreciative of our public presence with the Rosary. The father of the visiting family affirmed the importance of visibly faithful adults in young people’s lives. Pray that this family remains united in faith, hope and love, and that all Catholic families take such joy in their faith.

Then, still early in the session, a group of 5 people on big-wheeled bicycles stopped right in front of the table. The lead guy, “Dan”, asked, “What makes the Catholic Church different from Protestant denominations?” E. Chuck moved forward to engage in conversation. As it turns out, Dan did not want to listen to complete answers but was looking for points to refute, shout down, and argue about. His wife, two adult sons, and daughter-in-law were all well-versed in their version of faith and shrugged off any Bible verse contradicting their ideas as being “taken out of context”. In short, they were faith-alone, Bible-alone, once-saved-always-saved, dispensationalist Protestants. They stayed for most of the session and did very little listening. But, fortunately, there were two evangelists to engage with Dan and family (see below for e. Nancy’s report on her perhaps more fruitful interactions with Dan’s wife) while the other two team members continued to give away Rosaries and cover us in prayer. Dan said he has cancer and has less than a year to live. Please pray for Dan and his family, that their ears be opened to hear the truth and their hearts be softened toward the Catholic Church, and pray for healing for Dan.

To go back to the beginning of the “Dan encounter”, Dan’s adult children moved forward  and positioned their bicycles so they were blocking our table completely. When e. Lucy asked them to move, they ignored her. Later, they became interested in something Dan and e. Chuck were saying, and then did move around to the other side of the group.

Meanwhile, e. Lucy and e. James quietly and peacefully offered Rosaries to other passersby. A gratifying number of them squeezed their way around the bicycles to reach the table and get a Rosary and its pamphlet on how to pray it.

But, back to the verbal fracas: What happened between e. Nancy and Dan’s wife? (Keep in mind that this is e. Nancy's first encounter as a Catholic street evangelist!)

The lady first wanted to know, “if Catholics worship Jesus” and “is He our Lord and Savior?” The evangelist assured her that Jesus is the reason for everything we do, His sacrifice on the Cross was everything. She told our visitor, “By His stripes we are healed”, and they agreed that OT prophecy was completely amazing. The woman was knowledgeable about the OT, said “The OT is the NT concealed and the NT was the OT revealed”, perhaps not knowing that she was quoting St. Augustine. However, when e. Nancy asserted that Mary is the New Eve and the Ark of The New Covenant, our visitor was hesitant to consider this.

Of course, she wanted to know if we worshiped Mary and had idols. She asked about praying to Mary. E. Nancy pointed out that our visitor had her beautiful children with her, and that no one wants them to succeed more than she does. Similarly, Mary the Mother of God wants Jesus’ mission to succeed, that is, that all of us get to Heaven. The evangelist went on to say that we are Mary’s children, too, and we ask her to pray for us. That seemed to make sense to our visitor.

Then she wanted to know about Confession. E. Nancy told her that we absolutely confess to Jesus, that the priest is there as Jesus’ representative. She went on to describe what a merciful gift Confession is, and asked our visitor why would she not want to do this? She replied, “It would be embarrassing.” The evangelist responded, “Exactly. It’s the opportunity for humility.”

Then our visitor wanted to know if you “could be saved if you never confessed Christ as your Savior?” The evangelist responded, “That is for God to decide, not us.” But our visitor seemed to think that, for this reason, one could be not saved. So, e. Nancy said, “Maybe a person isn’t in a place to hear about Jesus. Maybe bad Christians made a person turn against Jesus. Maybe they were mentally ill. Anyway, it would never be for us to decide. God is Mercy and we leave that to God.” She acted like this was news?!

At this point the lady’s husband had been yelling at e. Chuck for close to an hour, which wears on one. So, e. Nancy switched from answering questions to asking them. In reply, our visitor told the evangelist that she was baptized in the name of the Trinity. So, e. Nancy assured her that when she became Catholic, she wouldn’t have to be baptized again. Our visitor just laughed, because she didn’t know that being baptized in Jesus’ name only was a problem. She then said baptism was “an outward sign of inward grace”. The evangelist told her that that’s exactly what we believed about our Sacraments. Then she asked our visitor where they went to church and why. (None of us had heard of that particular community.)

Our visitor then got detailed about distinctions in justification vs sanctification. But we’re not versed in detailed knowledge of their theology, so e. Nancy kept with, “We are saved by Grace”, that Jesus does it all, but we do not believe in once saved, always saved.

Nancy asked her, “Why do Protestants think that Catholics believe they are saved by works?” She replied that that’s what they are taught. She then agreed we need evidence that we are Christians, that we can’t show up at our Final Judgement with empty hands or bury our talent and expect Jesus to be happy with us. The evangelist explained that we can never save ourselves, but it’s both/and, we are saved by grace AND we should help the widows and orphans, in other words, we should serve God.

Then e. Nancy went over the Rosary brochure with her, that it is focused on stories from the Gospel about Jesus. She was familiar with how stained glass windows told the Bible stories for people back in the days when so many couldn’t read. So, the evangelist noted that the Rosary correlates to that same concept. She then asked our visitor if she wanted to take the brochure with her, but she glanced at her husband and said, “no.” E. Nancy then assured her that it’s all online.

Our visitor then wanted to know if we believed in the rapture. E. Nancy told her it sounded like Jesus was coming 3 times and we don’t believe that. Our visitor tried to explain it, but we’re not sure it made sense to her either.

Toward the end, our visitor started telling a story about 3 red heifers and how when they are sacrificed, the Jewish temple will be rebuilt and 7 years of tribulation will start. She was really invested in this. E. Nancy told her that was not part of anything she’s heard of, that Jesus didn’t know the end of the world and we don’t either. So, we don’t focus on that, we focus on the Passion of Christ and what that means for us. But by then our intrepid evangelist was weary and mostly just listened to the crazy-sounding story.

Throughout the encounter, e. Nancy tried hard to find commonality and encourage her questioning. She told our visitor what a lovely family she had, she congratulated her on raising them in the church, that it’s not easy to get 4 kids to church, and so on. She was a very nice lady but the interaction was exhausting and quite disjointed.

Then, immediately after the “Dan encounter” ended, e. James was called into similar action:

A 20ish young man stopped to talk. His name, “Devonte”, had been tattooed on his bare chest. Ominously, his opening remark was the same as Dan’s: “What makes the Catholic Church different from Protestant denominations?” But this very friendly man seemed genuinely curious. He told us he was Christian. Then he listened as e. James answered his question by explaining about why the Catholic Church is the one true church, papal succession, the Eucharist and other Sacraments. Then Devonte brought up a “conspiracy myth” he had heard about church “stealing money/riches” and hoarding enormous wealth. E. James dispelled that theory and gave him something new to think about. Devonte ended up selecting a Rosary and accepting its pamphlet, and he thanked us before taking his leave. Please pray for Devonte that he will continue seeking Truth.

In between, there were the other encounters, mostly responded to by e. Lucy and e. James. Please send up a prayer for each of these people?

A multi-generational Hispanic group was one of the first groups to squeeze between the bicycles to get Rosaries. The grandmother accepted the Rosary pamphlet in Spanish.

A young-adult woman showed interest in receiving a Rosary, and the man with her followed her lead. She was familiar with the Rosary, but the man was not Christian. He listened with interest to the description of the Rosary meditations as a way to encounter and get to know Jesus Christ. He also accepted our last copy of the Good News/kerygma pamphlet.

Later, when another man came for a Rosary and also admitted to not believing in Christ, the evangelist made do with encouraging the man to use the Rosary prayer itself to get to know Him and His great love.

Three dark-haired teenage boys said, “We’re Christian”. Then, when they found out that the Rosary is Christ-centered, they happily selected Rosaries and accepted how-to-pray pamphlets.

One member out of a group of four freshmen college girls stated, “I’m Catholic!” She then gladly chose a Rosary and took the pamphlet. Her friends, though, kept their distance and looked on skeptically.

“Roger” was a big 30-something guy, wearing orange sunglasses. He is Catholic, from a nearby state, but here in Boise for a temporary job. He chatted a bit, happily accepted our “Welcome to Boise” and chose a Rosary and pamphlet.

A 50ish grey-haired man in shorts said he “didn’t know about the Rosary”. He then politely listened to how it was connected to the Gospel and Christ’s life. He chose a Rosary took the pamphlet.

Despite our table being blocked for much of the session by the loudly antagonistic group, we were still able to give away 20-25 Rosaries and its pamphlet (one in Spanish), and a copy of the Good News/kerygma pamphlet.

Often, when God calls someone new to our team, their first street evangelization session is a "trial by fire". So, thank you for your prayers! In turn, may God protect and bless you and all those you love!

“Go with the strength you have” (Judg 6:14).