Saturday, June 28, 2008

At the mall.

We hit the mall last Tuesday.

I hate that place...but there are so many lost people to talk to!

I prayed my witnessing prayer as we approached the mall. "Lord God, bring me to, or bring to me the people you want me to share the Gospel with. Open the doors to eternal conversations and provide me the words to show them your love through the Gospel."

We made a bathroom stop by the food court.

A few minutes earlier we had walked by three teenage kids, I couldn't remember that much about them but that I couldn't figure out if one of them was a boy or a girl and that they all had a bunch of face piercings and wild spiky colored hair. I thought..."That would be an interesting crew to talk to...", but the timing wasn't quite right.

I was waiting at a table for the girls to finish up their bathroom trek...when what do I see? The same three "motley" kids sitting down at a table about 20ft from me. They were not eating, just sitting. I was just waiting for the girls. Perfect time to walk up and talk...right? I could hear the Holy Spirit telling me to "Go."...I could almost feel the push in my back. But I just sat there wimping out. This lasted a few minutes. I kept glancing over at them knowing I should get my butt over there and TALK to them.

Guess what? God answered my prayer in spite of myself. Remember I had prayed "Lord God, bring me to, or bring to me..."

After a few minutes...the same kid that I had wondered a few minutes ago if it was a boy or a girl...stands up from the table in the crowded food court, walks over to ME and says "Hey man....ummmm.....do you have a dollar to spare so my friends and I can buy something to eat?"

He walks over to ME? God is pretty amazing. That prayer has gotten me into more conversations than I can remember.

I stand up, shake off the fear as I realize..."Keith...you moron...if this isn't real life flesh and blood God prompting you to SPEAK, nothing is!". What would he have done next...have someone announce over the Public Address system "Keith...GO TALK TO THEM!" ?

I said..."Well...actually, I'll buy all of you lunch if that would be cool."

So we walk over to their table and I ask them what they want...we all walk over to Taco Bell together, get them set for lunch and stand there in front of Taco Bell talking about the Gospel. I got to a point where for some odd reason I started fumbling over my words...in perfect timing, my awesome wife walks up, introduces her self and picks up the ball and totally runs with it - and we finished up the conversation with them together.

Can you pray for Angel, Dom and the oddest named boy that I've ever heard, can't remember the name but he said it was Japanese. They're all two years out of high school and just as lost and wandering as you can imagine. Middle of the day on a Tuesday...nothing better to do than hang out at the mall...