Halloween 2026 · Cary, NC

My wife Judy hadn’t even had a sip of coffee when she was struck as if by lightning with an idea from the Holy Spirit: a Halloween evangelization outing reminding people what All Hallows’ Eve is really about. Now, that first cup is practically sacred in our house, and Judy isn’t usually the one volunteering to go out! Evangelization can really stress her out at times, and “Lord, send me!” still felt a little beyond reach, so she’d been starting with an honest prayer: “Lord, help me to desire evangelization.” Apparently, He was listening. Be careful what you pray for. You just might get it!

She woke around 6:50, and within twenty minutes she had drafted a Halloween Gospel card and blasted it to our street evangelization group. You can see both sides below: the front connected Halloween to All Saints’ Day and invited people to St. Michael’s for Mass; the back proclaimed Jesus’ victory over sin and death. My favorite part: “Death no longer has the last word”! On a holiday surrounded by images of death, we had some very good and very necessary news to share.

Of course, having a draft and having something to hand out are two different things. We spent the morning furiously gathering cardstock, printing, and laminating, racing to turn that inspiration into an actual outing before the afternoon slipped away. In just a few hours, we made a little over 200 cards! Judy had bought a new color printer for school earlier that week, and afterward she said it felt as though the Lord had been setting her up without her knowing it. Watching everything come together, I could see why.

Thankfully, other people on our team were just as crazy as we were and joined us at the last minute. Greg and I headed out with Beth, my seven-year-old daughter and an absolute fireball of an evangelist, while Jan and Judy teamed up with our six-year-old son Eli, another budding preacher of the Word. With costumes everywhere and people already primed to accept things from strangers, Halloween had handed us a pretty natural opening!

Greg, Beth, and I handed out about thirty cards, which I felt great about. Then there were Jan and Judy, who more than doubled that! But what delighted me most wasn’t the number. My wife, who normally felt anxious about approaching strangers, was handing out card after card and genuinely enjoying herself. The Lord hadn’t just given her an assignment. He’d given her a way into it that she loved.

Their conversations included discussing Scripture with Jehovah’s Witnesses and meeting a Catholic family grieving someone who had very recently died. Jan and Judy prayed with a family member, and that encounter especially stays with me. We’d spent the morning making cards proclaiming Christ’s victory over death; that afternoon, they were bringing that hope to people carrying the immediate sorrow of a loss. Please keep that family in your prayers.

About a hundred cards went out that afternoon. We divided the rest among ourselves, Greg, Jan, and the Swannacks for the evening, and by the time trick-or-treating was over, only a few of the cards we’d made remained. An outing we hadn’t even imagined at breakfast had borne more fruit than almost any of our carefully planned events.

And Judy? Even the people who declined hadn’t spoiled the experience. She’d had fun! I got to watch her move from asking for the desire to evangelize to discovering the joy of actually doing it, all in one wonderfully unexpected day. That’s what I hope you hear in this story. You don’t have to begin with fearless enthusiasm or a bold “Send me!” Judy began by asking the Lord to help her want to go, and He met her there. You can start there too.

Just be warned: He might answer before you’ve had your coffee.