Philadelphia - Lower Bucks County

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State or province: Pennsylvania

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Nancy Hoyt
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• Street Evangelization at Frankford Hospital on Saturday, November 26, 2022

• Ambler Farmer's Market July 30th, 2022

• July 9th 2022, Sister Cities Park sidewalk Philadelphia

• Downtown with the Deacons and more! June 18th 2022

• Campbell Park, Port Richmond, Philadelphia on Saturday, 21 May 2022

Labor Day Weekend – Made in America on the Parkway 9-1-2018

September 19, 2019

(NH) Rich and Nancy went downtown on Saturday morning to find the Parkway streets closed off for the Labor Day weekend Made in America concert. This concert features many current pop stars and the street evangelization mission here felt like a good opportunity to meet with some concert-goers, in addition to the usual tourist and homeless population normally encountered at this location. We were on the early side so would likely only meet the early birds to the concert.

After sezzztting up on the sidewalk, we were blessed to speak and pray with a few homeless men. In a short time, a man came up and asked if we had been there around last summer. We said yes we had and did we meet him before? He seemed familiar, but not entirely. He said his name was Donald and that we had prayed with him last summer. Well that was all it took to realize that Our Lord was smiling on us especially this day, reminding us that though we do not frequently know the fruit of our efforts done out of love for Him, that He is there, He is listening, and He is moving in people’s lives all of the time, and He is allowing our little works to bring others to Himself. This Donald was the same man who had come back to us last year to let us know the way that God was working in his life ever since we first prayed with him and gave him a rosary (i.e., april-30th-logan-square-center-city-philly). He appeared healthy and well dressed. We exclaimed how good it was to see him again and that we did remember him and wasn’t it a black rosary that we gave him? Yes it was, and Donald happily relayed that his life continues to go well with his job and that he has gotten back together with his girlfriend Mary and that she goes to Mass at the cathedral frequently. Later Donald brought Mary over to meet us for us to all pray together; he had relayed that we were the people he had told Mary about who prayed with him last year when he was not doing well. We lift up Donald and Mary to Our Lord and ask for His continued great blessings and grace in their lives!

A bit later on a young family from Ontario came by, husband and wife and 3 beautiful little girls. They were on their way to visit family and were stopping in Philly to see the sights. The kids were so happy to be out and about and on vacation and were very pleased to receive miraculous medals. We spoke of how Mary was on the medal and that was Jesus’ mommy and she carried Him in her tummy and took great care of Jesus just like their mom did with them. We told them that they can ask Mary, Jesus mommy, to help them when they need it, just like they could ask their own mom. The 7 year old pointed to the crucifix on our prayer station sign and asked if it hurt. We told them yes, that it did, and the little one particularly wanted to know if Jesus’ hands hurt from those nails. We said yes for certain. Next question was “then why did He do that?” Oh from the mouths of babes, we should have these girls helping us evangelists along all of the time! We told the little girls of the love that Jesus has for them and for us and for mommy and daddy and for everyone in the world. We told them He died for us because He loves us, to take our sins that we couldn’t get rid of, so we could someday go to heaven. The eldest exclaimed how happy she was that she was going to be getting baptized soon. The parents told us about how mom was raised Catholic and that the girls would be going to Catholic school soon, but the father was raised as LDS. Dad was very open to talking about the Catholic faith and mom accepted a Rediscover Catholicism book and we recommended that she consider trying to get back to practicing the faith with her family.

As the morning went on, more people came by who were going to the concert. Several of the young folks were surprisingly open to receiving blessed medals or rosaries with instructions on how to pray. The ones who stopped to pray with us asked for prayers for safety at the festival for themselves and everyone going. One thing must be said about the youth of today, they frequently exhibit social concern for others in their prayer requests and it is so heartening to be allowed to lift them up.

Please remember the following intentions in your own prayers:

Michael – for his health

Rafael – for his work

William – for his life needs

Donald – for continued blessings on his job and his relationship with his girlfriend

Mary – to avoid sin of envy and be relieved of jealous feelings

Steven – to find shelter and care for his basic needs

Christian – to get a job, to receive help for his basic needs, and to be able to save money to return to Ghana

Laura – for everyone who needs prayers

Mark – to know God at work in his life

Vincent – gives praise to God for this day, for him to know God in his day every day

Ontario Family – to grow in love of Christ and His Church and for safe travels

Brianna – for her safety and the safety of all concert goers

Khalil – a West Chester U student, for his successful school year in psychology

Emily and baby Evy – for husband/dad Matt deployed overseas and for the safety, health and love of the family

Casfa family – for good health and safety

Raul – for his shelter and material needs

Buddy – for the safety and good health of himself and for all on the parkway this weekend

For the many concert goers who accepted sacramentals, to continue to soften their hearts and open their minds to the Lord at work in their lives.