My first day of SPSE’s in-person training at Light the Fire in Detroit was the day after my youngest son’s funeral (and the same day I received in the mail my bishop’s letter approving SPSE for my diocese). My son, Micah Philip, was killed in a car accident on June 22. How directly I felt life’s brevity and the urgency for evangelizing!

About three weeks prior, May 25^th of 2022, Micah had driven straight from Billings, MT to our home in Grand Rapids, MI, to spend a night, unannounced. My wife and I hadn’t seen him for two years. He came back to us with a radically changed spirit from when he left home two years prior. Micah told me that a Christian couple shared the Gospel with him and helped him when he was homeless; he said ‘they were the real deal’. After praying with them, Micah lost all desire for alcohol—he had been an alcoholic for over ten years. He remained sober since, about five months before his passing. How I would love for a grieving couple to say of me, as I say of the couple that shared Jesus’ transformative power with my precious son, “perhaps I won’t meet in this life whoever led my child to salvation—but I thank God that they evangelized!”

Having been estranged from Micah for two years, we received him back that brief visit last May as our prodigal son. Before this visit he would hardly countenance a positive word toward Jesus or Christianity. Substantiating his newness of life in Christ, we received his written testimony the same day we received his remains. Indeed, Jesus brings newness of life! https://birgittaville.com/micah/

Using a simple, friendly, and proven approach, Saint Paul Street Evangelization motivates, trains, and directs its members in introducing others to Christ and his Church. Their experienced and knowledgeable directors have assembled quality online and hard copy training materials for you to assemble your own evangelization team. https://evangelizationschool.com/

Practicing the Great Commission, telling Jesus’ good news of redemption from bondage and eternal death, is a spiritual discipline practiced along one’s path toward saintliness, right along with attending Mass, going to confession, reading the Bible, praying the Rosary and the Breviary….

Changing lives through the Gospel, one person at a time, it seems to me, is far more effective in changing society as well, than is trying to convince nonbelievers to vote soundly. “Politics is downstream from culture.” Without “a religious and moral people” electing God-fearing candidates and shaping culture, America is doomed. Evangelizing, then, precedes political activism.

Here is a list of my first-season activities with SPSE; but without articulating the touching encounters they hold: – Light the Fire, Detroit. – Kent County Youth Fair. – Art Prize. – Memorial Day at Soldier’s Park. – and the Rosary Rally in front of the Grand Rapids Cathedral.

Events were promoted in the Sacred Heart of Jesus parish bulletin, and my priest made two announcements from the ambo. The Sacred Heart RCIA director made an announcement at our monthly Authenticum lecture. As the former chapter captain of the Church Militant Grand Rapids Resistance group, I announced SPSE events several times on our social media page, Slack. Mainly, engagement came from my wife’s St. Mary’s prayer group in Lowell, MI. The turnout was low, though.

People are busy or overwhelmed by navigating our increasingly perplexing and evil times. Some are timid. Perhaps others believe that evangelizing is a Protestant thing. Only a fringe, I hope, are simply unconcerned for the lost. Whatever the reason, my first season had a slow start. With my supportive parish priests and our engaged RCIA director, I plan to hold an information/recruitment table at Sacred Heart once a month this winter. Beginning next spring the newly formed team will evangelize the first and/or last Saturday each month following Mass.