Hawaii Witnessing (part 1)

We had a great week in Hawaii. We got to enjoy activities with the family by BBQing, snorkeling, hiking, zip-lining, making our way to waterfalls, got to see a black sand beach, we attended a Hawaiian Christian worship service and enjoyed a Christian based Luau (that we think was part of a YWAM organization). But we also were able to leave tracts at places we went, gave them to those who lead our tours and activities, and also we planned for spending one afternoon on the streets with a couple we met on through a Christian ministry.

On Thursday morning we put on our sun block, got ready, ate breakfast, sorted our tracts, and headed out to the place we were going to meet with Virgil and Rhonda in Kona, Hawaii. We found our way down the main strip on Ali'i (ah-lee-E) drive to a free parking area. We walked down to the church area where we met. The church is a place that the couple witnesses outside of regularly on Wednesday's as the huge cruise ships pull into the port a block from there and they tend to get a bunch of those people on this main road heading to the "sites" (this church is popular for historical things), and to the souvenir shops along the water front and to enjoy lunch at the restaurants on the street that have breezy window free buildings to enjoy the scenery and the wind to cool you down.

I contacted the couple on my cell and know they're there. I waited until we got out of the car before explaining to my nephew, who has never gone out with me to hand out tracts or talk to people about Jesus, that "we might run into people who do not want them, or they might yell or be mean, but it is only because they do not understand what we are trying to tell them about Jesus. So I told him not to feel bad if people act that way or if he see people behaving like that to anyone in our group." I didn't want to tell him this before we went or he would feel scared, so I just shared it as information for him to be aware of, once we got there. Especially since he has hardly ever been to church unless my mom brings him, though she has conversations with him about Jesus since he was young.

I walked toward the church with my parents and my 7 year old nephew, (who looks older than and is twice as tall as the others in his 1st grade class). I hoped I would recognize Virgil. As we got closer I realized he and his wife were indeed in front of the church, and were engaged in conversations already. Glory to God! Virgil had a cowboy hat on and a stack of tracts in his hand, she had some items in hers as well, and that is how I confirmed "they were them", lol.

We hung back until they were done with the conversations and then we all were introduced. We prayed over the things the Lord would use us for that day in reaching out to those who are not saved, giving us the words to share and thanked him for the opportunity to come together and reach the lost. Then we took some group photos before we started....

They showed us some tracts and materials they had there and offered that if we felt moved to share them with those we talked to we could. And they showed us a neat gospel tract post card that they published this year. I think it is a good one. Plus, whoever sends these in the mail, no one will ever know who sent it to them, so it shouldn't cause anyone to be afraid to reach others for Christ. Then they showed us the celebrity millions, which I had not seen before "in real life", and wondered if they would actually work. Would they be a stumbling block or would they be useful in reaching people? We'd find out.

My dad sat down to observe how we witnessed, as he has not participated in sharing tracts yet and is a little shy. It took me a couple years from learning WOTM material before I stepped out, so I am glad that they came along. The last few years in Los Vegas I have been unable to get them to come with me on the streets, to observe (and be there because there is safety in numbers, esp. in that town). My mom has handed out some tracts to children at VBS when she was a teacher in it at their Church. She then moved on to showing the curved tract to children in restaurants in the last few years whenever she felt bold enough to do it. They leave MDB's and other tracts at restaurants. Their favorite was the large Quarter tract Living Waters used to offer until this year. Well, I wondered if she was going to step out and hand tracts to people today. I wanted to pair them with Rhonda and Virgil so they could see how people minister in conversations, but we ended up doing all our own thing. Virgil went across the street and so did my nephew. He handed tracts out pretty boldly, even about 20 yards away from those who were coming. I don't know that anyone refused a tract from him. Kids are kind of cute that way, no one wants to hurt their feelings. Rhonda said the area is usually very hard to witness in and they are always encountering spiritual warfare there pretty intensely.

Rhonda and I stayed on the side of the church and my mom hung out near us by the church, (as a tourist pretending to be a tourist, lol). We handed out tracts and people took them. It was a little weird with the celebrity tracts whenever I tried using them. I had my own stash of tracts that I brought the LW (http://tinyurl.com/livingwaters) million dollar bill, a couple good person tracts from fellowshiptractleague.org, and the your moment of truth tract, (which are good to use because if you don't finish your conversation, they'll read it later and end up with all the things you wanted to tell them but they wouldn't listen too, and there is more information on the website the tract points to).

Virgil ended up in a good long conversation with a big guy across the street and he took a full sized Bible with him. I hope Virgil shares that encounter with us, because I overheard him telling Rhonda and my mom parts of it, as I passed out tracts a few feet away and tried to get conversations with people. Not a lot of people stopped to talk to us, but some did take tracts. Others didn't want them. When I used the celebrity bills people did not seem as interested in them as the million dollar bill. The Your Moment of Truth tracts (http://www.yourmomentoftruth.com/) worked pretty well and they enabled me to get a foot in the door to a conversation for a minute. However, regardless of the tract we used to snag them into a conversation most people kept walking cause they didnt want to talk to us about religious things. It was a little hard to get people into conversations with the celebrity bills than with the other tracts. I don't think I am going to offer them to people, even in my own area (Hollywood, CA). We handed tracts out to college age and older adults, and also to a few locals who might be homeless.

A Korean lady with a stroller and her little 2 year old boy walking next to her stopped to let me show the boy something neat. I held up the two curved tracts (http://tinyurl.com/livingwaters) asked him which one is bigger? He pointed to the pink one, then I switched them and looked at his mom for a split second and asked him again "which one is bigger?" he pointed to the blue one. I told him "they are both the same size. They just look like they are bigger." And then I said "you can have this for free to take home with you" and he took them and started running gleefully down the pathway while his mom was still surprised by the illusion and smiled at me while she chased after him. He was like the happiest kid ever, it was so cute!

(Two more parts to the witnessing in Hawaii can be found below....)



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