Ocean City Maryland
For the past 17 years, my family and I have taken a week out of the year to vacation in Ocean City, Maryland. I love almost everything there: the ocean, the sand, the arcades, the rides, the food, the boardwalk, and the people all make for an enjoyable week.
This year was a particularly interesting (and exciting!) year. I say that not because we rode some crazy rides, or because we were swept away by the crashing waves of the ocean. I say that because the week was filled with opportunity after opportunity to share Jesus Christ with hundreds of different people.
One thing you must know about Ocean City, Maryland is that (during the day at least) it is a fairly family oriented beach. You will not find people having sex on the public benches, doing drugs, or getting drunk (well, not usually during the day at least). However, once the sun goes down, a completely different group of people show up on the boardwalk. Often the groups change from mothers, fathers, and children to partying, sin loving teenagers.
For this reason, around 10:00-10:30 at night, my dad and I tried to always get out on the boardwalk to witness for a couple hours. These night witnessing sessions made for an encouraging and exciting experience! Below are a couple stories of the people we talked to during our night-walks.
Tracts: A $0.05 Ticket To Heaven
Like stated above, we always started the witnessing times with handing out tracts. I can not overemphasize how important tracts are to witnessing. Not only do they get the gospel into the hands of people who so desperately need it, but they help to get you out of your comfort zone when witnessing.
The thing that amazed me was how these small, five cent hand-outs continued to start conversations with people on the boardwalk. Numerous times after asking somebody, "Did you get one of these?" The person responded by asking, "Well what is it?" What a perfect opening to get into a conversation about eternity!
One night while we were out I went into a store on the boardwalk called Sunsations. While I was in there I saw one of the staff-members just standing around, so I walked over and handed him a tract. I continued to walk around the store for a couple of minutes. Suddenly, the same man I had just handed a tract to tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "What is this about?" He then stretched the tract out toward me. I then asked him, "If you died today, what do you think would be on the other side?" That started about a five minute conversation with that young man about Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, after a couple minutes he told me his manager was getting angry with him, and that he had to go. I told him to make sure he read the tract, he thanked me, then walked away. Isn't God faithful? All I did was hand the young man a tract, and he walked up to me and asked about the gospel!
Later in the week, after witnessing one night, my dad and I decided to start heading back to our hotel. It was late (after midnight), and we were both tired. I had absolutely no intention of getting into any more conversations, I would hand out a couple more tracts, but that would be it for the night. When we were only a couple of minutes from the hotel, I noticed that there were two teenage boys just sitting on the side of the boardwalk. One was talking on a cell phone, while the other was just sitting there waiting. I walked over and said the usual, "Hey did you get one of these?" And handed the young man a tract. He took it then asked, "What is this about?" I then introduced myself and chatted with Brooks a little bit. After a couple minutes I asked him, "Can I ask you an interesting question? What do you think happens when you die?" He began to tell me that he believed in heaven and hell. Just after he answered, his friend Matt hung up his cell phone and curiously looked at me and asked, "What is this about?" I asked him the same question I had asked Brooks only a minute earlier.
Forty minutes later, Matt bowed his head on the Ocean City, Maryland boardwalk, and accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. Afterwards, you could truly see a change in him. Isn't the God we serve great? I thought I was done talking for the night, but God had different plans for both my night, and for Matt's eternity. Brooks also said that night that he wanted to trust Jesus Christ as his Savior, but, just before he began to pray his cell phone rang, and he started to talk on his phone. I do not believe that phone call was a coincidence. Satan knew what was going on, and he was willing to do anything he could to prevent it. Afterwards, I encouraged Brooks to not let that phone call keep him from doing what he was about to do. I gave each of them my cell phone number, and told them to call if they had any questions. They both agreed and gave me theirs in return.
Please continue to pray that God would work on the hearts of the people in these stories, and to all the others who have heard the gospel. When it comes to witnessing, remember that there is no such thing as random chance or luck. There is only God's sovereign, almighty plan, which he is simply using us to fulfill.
I hope you have found this newsletter encouraging. We never know how God will use the seed we plant in our school, in a shopping mall, or on the Ocean City boardwalk, for His glory.