Gone Fishin' - for Larrys and Marys

I have blogged in the recent past about how I have felt very compelled in the recent year or so to be actively engaged in personal evangelism. For the past…maybe 8 months or so…I have been involved in visitation at church. That is every Tuesday. Although that does occasionally lead to salvation-related conversations, it often involved just visiting people who have visited the church, etc. This is fine and everything, but I am interested mostly in the evangelistic part.

I have been watching a evangelism training series by Ray Comfort, a renown personal evangelist in California, and I noticed one of his methods he advocates. He related it to fishermen having their “favorite fishing spots”. He suggested that we, as Christians, have favorite fishing spots too. He goes out to an outdoor mall area, and engages people in conversations there. So I was trying to think of an area where I could go….my own “fishing spot”. We don’t have a mall nearby, so I found the nearest thing…Wal-mart.

So the other day I scouted it out, looking to see how I could work it. At first it didn’t look very promising, because unlike a mall, where people often “cruise around”, the people in Wal-mart seemed to be more busy looking into their purchases. But then I found the golden Wal-mart nugget. The in-store McDonalds. Our Wal-mart has a McDonalds, and not only that…but unlike most McD’s, where people hurriedly eat and run…at the Wal-mart one, a lot of people just chill; especially men waiting on their wives. Also, early in the morning there is an abundance of old people sippin’ their coffee and chatting. This was the fishin’ hole I’d been looking for.

So I decided that at least once a week I will head to my fishing spot and try to engage someone with the Gospel. Today was my first day.

So, after doing some work on the garage, I took a showered, put on some decent looking clothes, asked God for His help and blessing, and then trucked it over to Wal-mart.

I walked in feeling excited, but a bit strange. I mean…here I was at Wal-mart, but not to buy anything. I of course had to check out McDonalds, but didn’t want to look too obvious, so I had to pretend to look at some clothes nearby, while I scanned the area to look for a suitable target. They had to look like they’d be in a position to talk, and have an empty table next to them.

I saw a guy, probably mid to late 30’s. Mustache. Looked like a good opportunity. So I made my way in to Ronald’s house, and waited in line to buy a cup of coffee. While I was waiting, the guy got up and left…so I started look around for plan B. Mr. Plan B was sitting by himself in the corner…just sitting there with a cup of coffee on the table. So I got my coffee, and went and sat down at the table next to him.

He was an older fella. Probably about 60 – 65. Bald. Heavy. Thick glasses. And had 2 teeth on the bottom, one of them pointed, and both of them yellow.

He and the other older folks who were in the corner, probably wondered what a 20-something was doing coming and sitting down in the middle of them. I tried opening with some friendly conversation. There was a mother with a toddler nearby, and I mentioned to the man that I had a son about that age. …his response……..nothing….not even a nod.

Ok, I thought,…not exactly a good start. An older woman nearby started chatting about how she used to baby-sit, but was too absent minded now. She was talking freely, but Mr. Plan B wasn’t saying a word. I didn’t know if he was just quiet, …unfriendly….mute…or what. But even after saying something else to him….I got a big 0. I started to think to myself…”oh well, at least I tried.”

I tried again, mentioning that it looked like we might get some more rain.

This time I got a response. The man…slowly and with a country accent…told me it was supposed to rain on and off all day. We began to talk about a couple of things…and then when I noticed him listening to a group of men’s conversation about church at nearby tables, I mentioned to him that there sure was a lot of churches around here. He agreed. I told him that I went to church at Bethlehem in Clarkesville. He said that he went to the Torch. (A Church of God church).

Then I felt a bit of a release, but I didn’t want to quit there, because there are a lot of people who go to church who aren’t Christians.

We talked more and I talked about the Gospel with him, and found out that he seemed to indeed be a Christian and even talked with me about something he had been praying about. But he did mention how he had felt like nobody cared if he went to his church, and had visited some other places. When you looked at him, he didn’t exactly look like someone you’d be attracted to. Old, heavy-set man, thick-glasses, 2 yellow bottom teeth. But we have to remember, that very man is the apple of God’s eye, and was reason enough to send Jesus to Earth. So he told how he felt like God told him, that even though no one else may know he was there, God knew. And so he still went.

I told him, I wasn’t trying to pull him away from his church, but if he ever did visit around again, to come visit us at Bethlehem. He seemed genuinely touched that someone was singling him out to talk with and invite to visit their church. And about visiting, he nodded his head, and then said, “I might just surprise you.”

I told him I had to go, but I introduced myself and asked his name. “Larry”, he said. I told him to find me if he ever came to visit our church. And with that I left.

It wasn’t a salvation decision. But it was a good talk with a man who probably didn’t think most people would care to talk to him.

I look forward to going back soon, and seeing what fish I get next. But I thought I’d share my first experience at my new McDonald’s Fishing Hole.