It was a somewhat chilly autumn day when our small group of evangelists went out to Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park. We took up our familiar spot by the foot bridge, and this time interactions with passersby took a few interesting turns.

This was the very first time we had ever received a negative and antagonistic comment from a passerby. A young man approached us, and upon seeing our “Catholic Truth” sign, said in an angry tone “So, are you talking about the child abusers today?” Then he immediately began walking away from us. We were caught off guard by the comment, and the only response I could get out in time was “No, but I hope you have a blessed day. God bless you.” He responded “Oh,” and kept walking away from us.

After that negative encounter, we thought we might have another similarly negative encounter when another young man was very quickly approaching us. He saw our sign and table from a distance and yelled in a somewhat antagonistic tone something like “Oh! They’re here! I need to talk to them!” As he moved quickly towards us, he came close enough to actually read our sign and see that we were handing out rosaries. He then quickly stopped in his tracks and asked “Oh, are you guys Catholic? Just normal Catholics?” Again, in shock, I managed to say “Yup, just normal Catholics.” He immediately became as friendly as could be towards us (he must’ve thought we are some other group that he did not have a good rapport with). He was a Protestant, but it turns out that some of his friends are Catholics. He accepted a rosary and a pamphlet on how to pray it, and he said he was going to talk with his Catholic friends about our evangelization efforts that very evening. He wished us all the best in it.

A family from Ghana next approached our table, and they very happily accepted rosaries and other pamphlets. The father of the family said that he had many Catholic friends back in Ghana, but that he and his family are Pentecostal. They were very happy to learn more about the rosary from us.

There were a few other brief encounters with others, including Protestants and fallen-away Catholics who were all very friendly towards us. They all accepted rosaries and pamphlets from us, and we encouraged them to consider learning more about the Catholic faith.

Overall, it was a very good day of evangelizing, despite the chilly weather! But may the warmth of Christ fill the hearts of all we encountered, even those whose hearts have been hardened.