Boise

Country: United States
State or province: Idaho

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Lucy Stamm
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Still Plenty of Visitors - 2023-09-03

September 10, 2023

We set up in a slightly different spot, but had no lack of visitors. So, thank you again for your prayers for the Boise Catholic street evangelization effort.

It was raining slightly when we arrived, and a heavy cloud cover remained throughout the session. However, the rain itself stopped as we began setting up, and the ground soon dried. And so, the pedestrians came out.

A semi-annual regional gathering of a pseudo-Biblical sect was meeting in the sports arena. They had set up pamphlet racks in “our spot”, so we moved up the north spoke of the business park to a sheltered area near the parking garage elevator. One passerby asked if we were part of the sports-arena group. “No!” we let him know. A great number of the attendees seemed to be descendants from a people who had traditionally been Catholic. May God lead them out of error and back to the Church that He founded!

An apparently economically challenged family went by, including several young children. The dad made a rude-sounding remark as they passed, but one young girl, maybe 6 or 8 years old, looked longingly at the Rosaries. A few moments later, she came running back to get one “for a friend”. May God grant healing and salvation to her and her whole family!

At least four groups of Catholics went by, proclaiming they had attended Mass earlier and had lots of Rosaries at home. We asked them to pray it “once for us out here”. Most of them happily agreed. May God keep them all faithful!

A group of three teenage boys stopped for Rosaries. The one e. Lucy spoke with said he was already familiar with the devotion. We encouraged them to actually pray it.

“Thelma” and “Oswald”, a Catholic couple from a far-eastern country seemed startled by e. Lucy’s offer of a Rosary, and asked if we were Catholic. They were much relieved to find out we were, and stayed to chat. They were in town for their daughter’s reception, and had attended Mass the previous night. They were happy, though, to receive a copy of our map to area parishes because they were daily Mass attendees. They told of intense persecution in their home country, where only 2% of the people are Christian (though over half of those are Catholic). Still, at little more than 1% of the population, Catholics are rare. Though Thelma and Oswald feel safe in their hometown, they said the persecution of Christians and churches in the more rural provinces is “very bad”, and they asked for our prayers. Please pray for Christians in all countries where our brothers and sisters in Christ are persecuted, often with deadly violence.

Some non-Catholic Christians stopped. We explained the Rosary devotion as a good way to grow closer to Jesus Christ, using the beads to time their meditations on scenes from His life. They each chose one.

A non-Catholic Christian young adult stopped. He was sporting a silver cross over his black t-shirt. He declined receiving a Rosary, but thanked us for being there.

“Michele”, the lady who usually is pushing a dog in a stroller, and a friend stopped to chat. She has picked up Rosaries on several occasions to give to friends. The friend with her said she had been given a purple one. They then talked about the friends to whom she had passed Rosaries, especially one in ill health. They wondered, out loud, what else they could give her to encourage her, mentioning as an aside that they had given her a bracelet of “healing crystals”. Pray that they stick with reliance on the one true God. Lord, have mercy on Michele and her friends.

No sign of “Justin”. However, we were also not set up in our usual spot, which is located along his typical trajectory.

Altogether, on this Labor Day weekend, we gave away 15-20 Rosaries, and 2 maps to area parishes.

Please pray for us again today? Ask God to send people to us with hearts prepared to perceive their need for Our Savior Jesus Christ and His Holy Catholic Church, and that much good fruit for His Kingdom comes of today’s efforts.

We have permission to set up when we don’t interfere with groups who have rented the business park circle, so, we graciously relinquished “our spot” for the session. God, though, still sent plenty of people past our new location, including many attendees of the non-Christian sect. So thank you again for your prayers and other support for this apostolate. In turn, may God protect and greatly bless you and all those you love!

“Go with the strength you have” (Judg 6:14).