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Yesterday the evangelism team and I were able to go out, once again, to the Dubuque Kennedy Mall (our favorite fishing spot) to do some cold turkey evangelism. Before we headed to the Mall we spent some time in prayer that God would open up hearts ahead of time, and that is exactly what He did. By the end of the evening every one of the ten people who went out with me was involved in some kind of exciting spiritual discussion.

Normally when we go into the Mall our policy is that each evangelist is on his or her own. We act like we don’t know each other and each one looks for someone to share the gospel with. I usually like to walk around the mall for the first 15 minutes or so, scoping things out, seeing where people are gathered at, what kind of people are there, and assessing who looks like they have time for a conversation.

It was extremely encouraging yesterday as I was going through my routine assessment of the situation and as I walked by my friend Mark who was speaking to a young man all I heard was him saying: “Jesus said?.” Immediately after that, I walked past Hanna who was talking to a group of 4 college students and all I heard in passing were the words: “The Bible says?.” Less than 30 seconds later I passed by Josh who had engaged in conversation with three middle-aged folks and he was saying “God has spoken to us in His word?” I didn’t hear anything else from these different conversations but it was inspiring to hear each one of these evangelists basing what he or she had to say on the Bible.

I got so excited I walked up to a group of 5 High-schoolers in the food court and asked them: “If I buy you guy’s some Cokes would you let me sit down with you and talk about spiritual things?” They looked at me incredulously and asked “Are you serious?” I said: “Yeah what kind of Pop do you guy’s like?” One said “Sprite” another said “Coke” another asked for a Pretzel and the other two didn’t need anything. I bought the stuff, we all sat down at a table and we had an awesome conversation for about 40 minutes and cost me less than $4. Pretty good deal!

I opened up my little Bible and read from 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9. These verses speak of Jesus bringing vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel. I treated it just like a home Bible study (mall bible study) and asked I just asked them questions about the text. Every one of those 17 year-olds participated enthusiastically as we talked about Judgment day, righteousness and the gospel. It was great fun and at the same time it was of great eternal value.

After a while these three guys and two girls all wanted to know who I was. They said: “This is crazy, no one just walks up to random people in the Mall and offers to buy them Cokes so he can talk about the Bible. Who are you?” I was able to say that “I’m just a guy who reads the Bible and has a personal relationship with the Living God through Jesus Christ.” In the end they acknowledged that they needed to start reading their Bibles and get right with God while there was still time. I didn’t want to force any hasty decisions so I directed them to a good church and left them all with some quality tracts.

When all ten of us evangelists met back at the van in the parking lot we were praising God and filled with joy as we related our different experiences. There’s nothing quite so exciting as going out with a group of eager Christians to share your faith with anyone that will listen.

-Micah Tuttle