New Team in Columbia, MO

[Susan Yarbrough]

Here at the Newman Center in Columbia, MO we have a team slowly getting off. We have been out as an SPSE team, but I did not know I was supposed to post the event on the calendar, and give a report about it.
I always feel like I am stepping out of the boat at the beginning of an outreach and I have to quit listening to all the waves of doubt that slosh in but once things get underway there is usually a wonderful response from people whose hearts our Lord is touching.
One person in particular presented an interesting interview after stopping to examine the rosaries. He was not belligerent, but aggressive in his responses about how he worshipped the sun. He said his name but it was a non-existent trick name and then he said his full name was……a long sentence which I don’t know if he made up or if he got it from a foreign language. He wanted a medallion and also a rosary. Conversation was a bit pointless because he seemed to go back and forth from deception to ridicule. I actually gave him two rosaries accidentally. He put them both on his head and the crosses were hanging on his forehead. I am quite sure he had heard and argued with other Christians before. Just as he was going to leave, I felt a surge of urgency for him and looking at the rosaries on his head, I reached toward them and asked Mary to bless them. He froze and stared at me for a moment. Then he grabbed my hand and squeezed it looking straight into my eyes, and quietly told me his real name. He then walked away, but I know something happened to him. In some respects, the conversation was not very effective. But the Holy Spirit touched him deep inside, I am sure.
Our team (consisting of just my husband and myself) finished up the day praying for other people, and having a long conversation with an ex-Catholic who was a Protestant. My husband is a Presbyterian pastor who converted to Catholicism recently so there was quite a bit of sharing. All good, all good!

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[kjsspei]

Ms. Yarbrough,
The encounter that you have described is quite unusual indeed. I can relate to your point about conversation being a bit pointless. It is a reality of life that truth has to be at the foundation of all human communication (to say nothing of trust). There can be no edifying conversation without it. In fact, it is for this reason why exorcists must be very careful in their ministry when dealing with the “father of lies” and his minions. I think you handled the situation well. Leaving these kinds of matters to Our Lady is never a bad thing!

[Ashton Mouton]

This is awesome, as the “Holy Spirit is the Evangelizer” and so we are necessary so that the Holy Spirit may work through us. Our yes answer to Jesus opens the door for powerful things to happen. I’m blessed to have been trained by the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate, a contemplative order of sisters who are also Catechist who visit families in Parishes and reach out to street children. Their Mother House is in Monroe, New York. They have been using door to door evangelism for over one hundred years. http://www.parishvisitorsisters.org. They are in Nigeria, and the Philippines as well.

[Author]

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