46 Houses, 26 answered doors, 14 gospel conversations... all in 1.5 hours!
Our family evangelizes five nights a week for about an hour, starting 1 hour before sunset. This has been our routine for several months now. As we have increased our frequency in hitting the streets, we have been having more and more great conversations.
Typical Night in the Neighborhood - God Seems to Be Turning Up the Volume
It is hard to describe a typical night in the neighborhoods. Obviously all neighborhoods are different. We can get a different response depending on socio-economic factors. This doesn’t matter to us because we are continually searching for souls to encourage in the faith.
Lately though it seems like we are having many more conversations every night. It seems like God is turning up the volume and drawing more hearts to him. We are finding more people open to talk about faith and to be stirred to live their lives for Christ. This is only God’s doing, and it is wonderful to see.
This is the LORD's doing, and it is wonderful to see.
When we go outreaching we partner up. Since there are seven in our family, I, Ryan am typically alone.
Just to give you an idea of what we have been seeing most every night, I have compiled a list of conversations from a single night.
We went outreaching on December 23rd. Josh and Bekah were together. Jakin and Grace were together, and Laura was partnered with Jude.
We were out for about 1.5 hours and we knocked on 46 doors. 26 doors answered doors, 14 gospel conversations… all in 1.5 hours!
Josh & Bekah
They had about 8 people open doors this night. One was a Lutheran pastor who wasn’t interested in talking because he had people coming over soon, two different houses were kids answered the door, one house with an older gentleman that was nice, but didn’t want to talk because some family had just come into town. There was also a girl that they had a decent conversation with and briefly encouraged her to read her Bible. They also had two longer, more fruitful conversations.
Miguel
Josh and I (Bekah) met a Christian man named Miguel. The conversation was entirely in Spanish, and he was encouraged that we were there. He’s very active in his faith, and he reads his bible daily. Although the conversation was brief, we motivated him to live fully for God and not just let God be a Sunday thing.
Amon
We talked to a young man named Amon. He’s a Catholic but he doesn’t attend church regularly. He reads his bible daily, although he faces challenges with his family. We were able to encourage him to continue reading his bible and dig deeper in his faith despite his challenges.
Jakin & Grace
They too had about 8 people open doors this night. One guy was eating dinner celebrating his mother’s 87th birthday. One was an older Spanish speaking lady who has a hard time hearing. One was a Catholic couple (Alex and his wife) who were considering praying, but didn’t know what to think of it because they generally pray by themselves and at church. There was also a lady too busy to talk. There was also one young man that we had met before at a High School football game but was not interested in talking.
Austin
We met Austin and prayed a general prayer for him and his family. Austin grew up Lutheran, but he admitted that he hasn’t gone to church for a long while now. After discussing the importance of church, I mentioned how our relationship with God is the most important. Austin mentioned that he does read the Bible, but he only does so when he is going through something hard or is feeling bad. He admitted that this was probably not a good thing.
I spent the next couple minutes encouraging him to read the Bible more, and I reminded him about the nature of the relationship that God wants with us. God wants us to love him with all of our heart, and he is a very passionate and jealous God. Austin was appreciative of the time that we took to talk with him, and he thanked us for praying for him.
Michael
We talked with Michael for a little bit. I was expecting this conversation to last no more than 10 seconds, but I was wrong. We asked Michael if we could pray for him, and he answered, “No. Sorry to be rude, but we already pray, and we do our own thing.” He told us that he doesn’t go to any church. I responded by telling him a little about us. I told him that we are just a family out here and that our goal isn’t to promote a church.
He softened when we told him what we were about, and we managed to talk a little more with him. He felt comfortable telling us what he believes. He believes in the Bible, but he dislikes the churches because of the hypocrisy he sees. He doesn’t trust that they can teach him correctly what the Bible says.
Michael also had some strange beliefs about God. He said that God made a mistake when he allowed humans to have free will. He mentioned that there are a lot of things that should never happen. According to him, this is a big mistake.
I was able to give my opinion. I told him that there are a lot of things that we might not understand. Ultimately, though, God knows what he is doing, and everything is for his glory. I said that it isn’t right to say that God made a mistake. He listened to what I was saying, and I hope he gives it some more thought.
At the end, we gave him our paper with our phone number on it, and he thanked us for stopping by.
Laura & Jude
They had three really long conversations. It seemed they got a conversation at every door.
Bonnie
We talked to a woman named Bonnie. She goes to a local church that we had visited previously, and she became more friendly because we knew the congregation. We had the opportunity to encourage her, and motivate her in her faith.
Charlie
We talked to a man named Charlie. We asked him if he needed prayer, and he replied, “Good luck with that!”. Charlie is believes in “something out there controlling things”. He is a fearsome military guy, and has hate for everyone (and practically all humanity). He hates his neighbors, who are Muslims. He hates the LDS church, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the LGBTQIA+ awareness in this country. He’s the kind of guy who tries to stump you with questions, but the Lord gave us great wisdom to answer his questions enough that he couldn’t refute the answers we gave him. His heart was significantly softened by the end of the conversation, and we stirred him to go to God throughout the conversation.
Kayla
We knock on the door and a woman answers and wants prayer for her coworker. She had been wanting to pray for her coworker but didn’t know how to. She asks if we can come back in 10 minutes. So, we knock again after 10 minutes and talk to Kayla, the other woman’s coworker. She needed prayer for her family. Her grandma has Alzheimer’s disease and her memory loss has been hard for Kayla’s family. Kayla was a quiet, but receptive person, and I don’t think she had heard the gospel before. We were able to tell her about Christ, and we gave her a Bible.
Ryan
I had 7 doors that answered this night. One lady that’s Orthodox and says she reads the Bible and prays by herself. Another man who basically said he had knowledge and understood it all and no interest in talking.
Cathy
Cathy who asked that I pray for peace. Peace in the world and peace in her life. It was a short conversation but I was able to share the gospel and encourage her to go after God. Our relationship needs to be a relationship and you can’t have a relationship without talking to God and without him talking to you through the Bible.
Theresa
Theresa was outside her house talking to an older man with some disabilities. I approached her and introduced myself as a Christian praying for people. She gladly took prayer for the older man’s brother who was in the hospital. I then asked her if she had faith in God. She said she did. I then proceeded to encourage her and to check her understanding of the Gospel.
One way I like to do this is to ask if they were to die today and God asked them why he should let them in to heaven. Based on the persons response I can get an understanding of their understanding of what Christ did on the cross and also to know how to encourage them.
Beatrice
I was walking up to her house just as the garage door was opening. This lady was on her way out to the vehicle in the driveway. She seemed startled that I was there. I mentioned who I was and what I was doing. She said she was a Christian too.
I asked how I could pray for her and then proceeded to pray. I then shared a brief testimony of what God is doing in our lives and the mission he has set before us in sharing the Good News.
She was super encouraged and said we should come to her church. After she mentioned the church name I told her that we were there and mentioned the names of people we knew there.
She was very encouraged and may join us in knocking on doors.
Patrick
When I knocked on Patrick’s door and announced who I was and why I was there. He paused and said that we can all use prayer. He mentioned what he needed prayer for and we proceeded to pray.
We then got into a long conversation about faith. I also shared our testimony. We even talked about our time in Escondido, CA and he mentioned that is where he was born.
In the middle of the time, he also asked to pray for his homeless son that keeps going alcohol.
Patrick was very encouraged by the conversation and also by what we are doing by evangelizing door-to-door.
Donna
This was a short conversation with her. I did pray for her. She recently had knee replacement surgery and really wanted her knee to heal.
I took a couple of minutes to encourage her to go after God. I left her some verses and my phone number if she needed any more prayer in the future.