Author: Pastor Steve Duffy
For last week’s equipping spotlight I shared about our experience at Morgan Creek park as “doers of the word” in some practical prayer, care, and share ways. I also noted that what we learned from that experience, including suggested changes from the students, would then be applied again this past week. This second time at Morgan Creek park included some new and welcomed experiences and even more learning in our journey to engage others in spiritual conversations.
First, head on back to last week’s blog to get the context of our Morgan Creek park adventures. And yes, we went to Morgan Creek right away and drove past Cherry Hill park! Our plan was basically the same, teams of two made up of Trash teams, Engage-invite teams, and Treat teams. This time when I asked who wanted to be on which teams, the outcome was a bit different than last week. Rather than most wanting to do trash, we had two pairs volunteer to be the treat teams and two pairs volunteer to be the engage-invite teams, that left 6 of us to pick up trash. That was an pleasant surprise to see students step into the more engaging team spots! That left me to pick up trash and pray for those teams that were doing more face to face activity.
Learning from last week, one of the biggest changes we made was our introduction when we talked with people. We introduced ourselves with our name, stating which church we were from, and that we were there to pick up trash around the park and invite their little ones over for an ice pop. That was a worthwhile change from last week, and it sparked some great conversations. A few notable and encouraging observations:
- People were still very appreciative of us picking up trash, although there was not near as much to pick up as last week. However, those using the park still took notice and our conclusion again is that caring for the space they use was an act of care towards them.
- One of the engage-invite teams invited a dad (Aldo) and his son (Silas) over for an ice pop. As he approached one of the treat teams he asked what church they attended since he picked up from the engage-invite team members that they were from a church youth group. As Silas was eating his pop ice, something was said in that conversation with Aldo and the response from the treat team members was, “well our youth pastor is right over there and can talk with you”. I was then directed to Aldo by our treat team members and had a 10 minute conversation with Aldo. I got to hear a bit of his story, including that he and his family moved to Iowa from California about 4 months ago and actually have been thinking about looking for a church home. I exchanged numbers with him and will be meeting him in a few weeks. It is clear through our conversation that he considers himself “spiritual” and “believes in God”. I look forward to continuing our conversation soon. I told the students to be praying for Aldo and that I would keep them updated. All of this through a chain of Stonebridge youth, inviting and handing out treats, and then engaging myself in further conversation. Pray for Aldo!
- One of the treat teams did not get as much activity, so they took it upon themselves to engage a teenage girl who was sitting at a nearby picnic table by herself. That was a courageous step! They had a brief conversation with her and learned a bit about what she was doing there. As we debriefed they determined that if that happens again that they will learn her name and possibly invite her into something further as she seemed to have some deeper issues and needs in that moment. Pray for this unnamed girl! (related note: I remember seeing this girl there last week, it seems this is her regular place to go to sit and process through her current life circumstances)
- Last, as I was picking up trash I met a grandmother sitting by herself at a picnic table, her name was Peggy. The trash clean-up and the invite for her grandkids to have a pop ice treat were very meaningful to her. She shared that she used to attend small town church south of Cedar Rapids and that she has felt for some time that she needs to get back into the routine of attending. I invited her to Stonebridge Church if she was open to exploring other places of worship since it was a challenging circumstance that moved her away from attending that small town church. Pray for Peggy!
We ended the night back in the youth room, sharing a treat amongst ourselves and debriefing again. There were some new suggestions given for what we might do differently next time. I’m imagining that it could be quite effective and a great learning experience to continue to do things like this, but extend them beyond Wednesday nights. The participation, learning experience, adapting to improve our prayer-care-share activities each time, and overall exercising together engaging others was a help to me and seemed to be to the students as well. How might you take our example the past few weeks and translate that into others in your life who do not know Jesus? Give something a try, doing so together, making it prayer-care-share in purpose, learning and building from each experience. And in doing so, being a “doer of the word”, see how the Lord develops those muscles of living out your faith by engaging others in this way, and trust Him in the outcomes. Who knows, maybe we’ll see Aldo and his family (wife Erica, stepson Nathanial, son Silas, daughter hazel) in the coming weeks at Stonebridge?!
