The NRV team had one more chance to street evangelize this summer, so we spent time in the sun and the rain in downtown Blacksburg, VA. Given it was the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe on 14 August---who is a famed proponent of the Miraculous Medal---we decided to pass out some ourselves! I ran into two people I knew, and both accepted medals. A pair of teen boys on bikes also stopped by. One kid had a swollen and mildly bleeding gash from falling off the bicycle. I gave him a miraculous medal, made the sign of the cross over the bashed shin with another miraculous medal, commanded the shin to be healed in the holy name of Jesus, and encouraged him to consider the faith if the shin does not bruise (trusting Our Lady and Christ to work a small miracle for the lad).

We had 2 interesting older men stop by as well. One of them initially refused to shake my fellow evangelist Carter's hand, perhaps because of some weird Protestant superstition about Catholics. Carter eventually got the handshake and had a decent, brief conversation. The other man asked what denomination we were, then lectured us about how all denominations claim the truth and are essentially the same. I offered to talk about Truth, but he made an excuse and began biking away. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, I called after him, "Beware relativism!" He laughed and shook his head without turning around, but I prayed he was convicted. Overall, we probably passed out 10 miraculous medals and a handful of pamphlets.

I will miss evangelizing in this region. God bless the NRV with more Catholic evangelists! St. Max Kolbe, pray for us!!