Since Douglasville does not hold any public events in the winter, after the Christmas parade, we have gone a few months without doing any outreaches (though I wish I had planned to set up a table at the Beer and Wine festival last week!).  This Saturday was the launch of the 2025 concert series at the downtown amphitheater.  We found last year that these concerts are not the best events for outreach because few people are willing to pause and linger for a conversation on the way to the concert, and on their way out, they are often in a rush to get to their cards.  Still, it is the one regular community event that we have, and even just one meaningful evangelistic encounter makes it worthwhile.

Ekpen and I only gave out 15 rosaries, and these were mainly to women who were connected to black Protestant churches and are disposed to the offer of an object that will help them to pray.  Two of these mentioned wanting one to help teach their grandchildren to pray, so these are people who are scattering seeds of faith further.

Our best encounter was with a group of teenagers who were wandering aimlessly downtown out of curiosity, but not attending the concert.  The girl on the right, Jordan, was celebrating her 15th birthday.  She had no church background whatsoever and knew very little about Jesus.  Her friends, a brother and sister, had some connection with a large evangelical church and had both been baptized.  As I proclaimed the gospel to her and urged her to get baptized if she believed the message, I added, "Today is your birthday and could also be the beginning of you becoming re-born in Christ."  She seemed open to that, though was shy and quiet.  We closed by all singing Happy Birthday and she lit up with a smile.

This encounter reminded me of what this work of public evangelization is so important.  There are so many unchurched young people in our community who are growing up ignorant of Christ and unrooted in anything transcendent.  This makes them so much more vulnerable to being enslaved by the exploitative forces of this world especially when they are neglected at home and their lives are chaotic (none of them knew where they were going to high school next year since they expected to be moving, and it was clear they had no adult supervision).  Who will bring them to Jesus and His Church if we don't try?