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Registered: 5 years, 11 months ago

• Lorain County, OH team leader • With SPSE since April 2019 Markus leads a team of 3 evangelists who evangelize at some of the large community events in their county. They often partner with the Vermilion, OH team to help out at each other’s events. The two teams worked together for their first joint outing at the August 2019 Lorain county fair where they had hundreds of conversations. The Lorain County and Vermilion teams evangelize together at a large local flea market on Saturdays - weather permitting. As the teams continue to grow, they hope to begin evangelizing at additional large community festivals. - What motivated you to start street evangelizing? Markus and his wife Mary Beth noticed a big decline in the faith of the 10th grade PSR students they taught over 15 years along with that of their parents. Beginning about 4-5 years before his retirement in January 2019, he began studying why this was happening, the New Evangelization, and what lay evangelization ministries were available. He chose SPSE because of their practical training, availability of supplies, and that you actually go out to where people are to share the Good News of Jesus and the Catholic faith. The team introduced a first-ever Catholic presence at the August 2019 Lorain County Fair where it had conversations with 400-500 people. It was assisted by the Vermilion, OH team, who was instrumental in helping the new team evangelize at the Lorain County Fair, which has one-week attendance of well over 100,000 people. The Lorain County team also assisted the Vermilion team with evangelizing at their community’s Fish and Woollybear festivals. - What role does the Blessed Sacrament play in evangelization? I’ve always thought of being before the blessed sacrament as MY spending time with Jesus. I never really understood before how Jesus personally ministers to people before him in the blessed sacrament until I took part in the Detroit, Michigan evangelization event during 2019 Immersion where we invited people to come into a church to light a votive candle and say a prayer. I saw with my own eyes how people were deeply touched by Him during that event. While looking from the church doorway back towards the altar, you could tell by the changes in body language and in some cases the tears that everyone was touched in some profound way by Jesus present in the Consecrated Host in the Monstrance on the altar. - Why attend SPSE Immersion? Participation in the June 2019 Immersion was one of the most profound spiritual experiences of my life. It confirmed that being part of SPSE is what the Lord wanted for me. The vision and enthusiasm of the SPSE leadership team and of the experienced SPSE evangelists and team leaders ignited a sincere interest in evangelization into a burning passion to share Jesus with others. Their example combined with the common worship experiences at Immersion also gave me an understanding of the personal spiritual life necessary to be an effective Catholic evangelist. If one were looking for one good reason to attend Immersion, it would be that you learn the basics of the practice and art of evangelization by actually practicing it with others who have real on-the-street experience. Immersion definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone, but helped me become more confident about going out to evangelize with a ‘can do with the Holy Spirit' attitude!

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