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Ahwatukee

Country: United States
State or province: Arizona

Team Leader
Phil Brandis
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Surprized by a Russion Lestovka Prayer Rope

May 21, 2023

SPSE Team Photo

Thanks be to God for another great day outside the Iron Wood library in Ahwatukee. Also a big thanks to Rogelio Donos for coming out to help evangelize today. Rogelio and I were first greeted by Jacob and his 3 year old son. His son picked out a rosary and Jacob showed us his beautiful Lestovka leather prayer rope. I had never seen a Lestovka before, as you can see in the photo it sort of looks like a rosary. Jacob explained, it is a leather pray rope that comes from Russian heritage and is mainly prayed using the Jesus Prayer. Jacob was Catholic from the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, also known as the Byzantine Catholic Church. It was a blessing to meet another Catholic from a different rite.

We also spoke with Amanda who had 2 daughters with her and one of them wanted a rosary. As the daughter was selecting a rosary, Amanda shared with us that she did not go to church, but that one of her daughters sometimes did. As we were still talking, Amanda nonchalantly reached over and picked up a, Why Be Catholic brochure. We also gave her The Good News brochure and a miraculous metal. It was inspiring to watch the Holy Spirit at work.

We also met with Rich, a former Baptist seminarian. He shared with us that he had a collection of Bibles and was curious as to what Bible we had with us. Rogelio was able to carry on a conversation with Rich about several of the early Church fathers, on which he was quite knowledgeable on this subject.

We also met Adriana, a Catholic grandmother who was bringing her grandson to the Con-Fusion 2023: Weird and Wild West event, that was taking place at the library. Her grandson was excited to attend, and had crafted some very creative goggles for the event. He was drawn to our table of colorful rosary's and selected one on his way into the event. What was touching was, after coming out of the library, he came back to our table and wanted to pick-out another rosary to give to his father. We also gave him and his grandmother Adriana a couple of miraculous metals to hand out to their family and friends.

Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ for a great day!

First Ahwatukee outing on the memorial of Our Lady of Fatima

May 14, 2023

Through God's grace, our Ahwatukee team was able to make our first outing on Saturday 5/13/2023, on the memorial of Our Lady of Fatima. Thanks to Mark Porter for joining this team, we were able to setup right outside of the Ahwatukee Iron Wood library for the first time.

We stayed for 2 hours and were able to give away a couple of rosary's and a couple of miraculous metals. It was a joy to see the smiling faces of those people who received our gifts. It was also great to receive many types and colors of rosary's from the St Paul Street Evangelization store, as part of the team start up kit. The variety of rosary's makes for a great display presentation, and brings joy to people in being able to pick out a unique hand made rosary.

As we were almost ready to leave for the day we were approached by Niles, a Christian that loved to read his Bible, who thanked us for sharing the Good News. He shared with us that many years ago when he was a child, a Catholic priest told him it was a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday, and also that no one outside the Catholic Church could be saved. Unfortunately the priest did not explain the 3 conditions necessary to make up a mortal sin, or the many other factors that go into the statement about no salvation outside of the Catholic Church. This truth, though incompletely explained, had bothered Niles for many years. He finally came to the conclusion that the priest had lied to him. We explained to him that the priest did not do a good job of explaining, what he was trying to convey. The gentlemen wore a nice cross and was also an evangelist himself. He gave us a small laminated card that he passes out to evangelize. The card had a poem titled, "For A Brighter Life" by Harold F. Mohn, also it quoted Isaiah 40:8, "The grass withers, the flowers fades, But the word of our God stands forever". He took 2 miraculous metals, one for himself and one for a friend of his. I hope to meet this gentlemen again sometime, to give him a fuller explanation about what the priest said to him many years ago, that he never forgot about.

Also in the first blog, I want to say that I am very thankful for being able to be part of the Tempe, Arizona SPSE team. It was very helpful to be able to learn street evangelization from Sean Kelly and his team. Sean was very supportive and helpful to me in starting this Ahwatukee team, and I am very thankful for his assistance and encouragement.

SPSE Team Photo