Everyday Evangelism - The Christmas Parade - Encouragement for Believers to Preach the Gospel

   There were six of us yesterday who did the parade in downtown Winter Park. There were challenges, but overall, everything went smoothly. We were not actually in the parade though. We were on the side lines passing out Gospel tracts that were in the form of postcards that the recipient could use to send to a faraway relative or friend. I brought along 30 beach balls, 10 maracas (see side picture) and 10 flying discs with Bible verses or a Gospel message on them. We ran out of tracts, which was rare and all the toys were easily gone. Please pray for those who received the toys and tracts, that they would be responsive to the Gospel.
   Most of the people actually were very open to receiving the tracts. There were a few on the ground or in the trash. After this many years of doing this activity, I'm sure that many of these people received a tract from us before. As a matter of fact, when Sean, our parade evangelism director started doing this, I was at the parade and received a tract from them!
  I did meet one such person. I gave a tract to a woman and she informed me that she knew what it was and said, "I just love what you all are doing." I have to wonder how many people we actually are affecting when we give out these tracts. I think it can be just as valuable for a Christian believer to see what we are doing and be challenged to go do the same (not being in a parade necessarily, but living a life that openly promotes the Gospel).
   So the word of God has been received by a couple of thousand of people and God can do wonderful things with that. Some might come to Christ and have a vital ministry. Others could be saved and become evangelists. Some might end up in another country having a serious impact in that country for the kingdom of God. But some could already be believers who would now be stirred up to tell the world about the Gospel.
   So our work of evangelism is at least two-fold. It can reach the lost and God can save them as they hear His word, and it can challenge believers to communicate the Gospel. God can and will do amazing things as we tell the Gospel to others.