Airplane Evangelism

Mom had her first airplane witnessing encounter!

She was thinking on the plane for a way to be a way to talk to the lady next to her about the gospel. I told her that since people talk about where they’re from, where they’re going, plans they have, stuff about life and family, that she’d be able to say that she does graphic designing for Christian materials, and be able to give a tract to the person she spoke to. Well….she said she planned to do just that. I told her it was very easy to do, and it flowed in the course of a regular conversation.


Cindy sat between her husband and my mom on the plane. Dad was in a different seating area, as they couldn’t get seats next to each other. I think in the future this is a good idea for Christians. Divide and conquer! Lol.

Mom was able to talk to them about an hour before the flight. They had to fill out the customs form when on the plane they got to Hawaii. She wanted to chat with the wife, and so she asked the husband if she was filling out a portion of the form correctly. He showed her what she needed to know and thanked him. A few minutes later the guy said something to her, and then his wife Cindy started talking to mom. The wife switched seats with her husband so mom and her could talk for a little bit. Cindy and mom talked about where they were from, ancestry; which turns out to be almost the same. How they had never been to this island, they talked about what they did. By doing this, mom got a chance (which she hoped to do) to slip in there that she does graphic art work for me on Christian websites and tracts. She wanted to bring up the gospel so she shared this with the lady. Cindy asked what kind of software she uses. Mom says its old software and she has no training for graphic art work or animation, but enjoys doing it. Cindy said her mother also does graphic art, but has training from college for it, and it's her full time job. This is neat that God set THIS lady next to my mom! So Mom was able to discuss some of those things with her, and then learned that Cindy and her husband go to church. Mom doesn’t know if they are saved, but she was able to give Cindy one of my gospel tracts and encouraged Cindy to check out the website as well. She also offered for Cindy to contact her to talk in the future. So we’ll see how that goes.

Cindy’s husband joined the conversation and they talked about snorkeling and stuff. Mom shared some things about locations in the area that are good (and bad) spots, that we knew from last year’s experience. She told them there are new things on the island that she learned about as well; Some things aren’t there anymore, some cost a lot now, and others have changed. Mom told him she always checks things like that online so she knows ahead of time when they return to places they like to travel what they can and can’t do this time.


When mom left the plane, she left tracts on a couple of seats for passengers getting off or the flight staff to get.


I was so proud of her for doing her best to share the gospel. Mom is very shy around strangers, but is outgoing around family. This was a real step of faith for her. Last year in Hawaii I was able to get her and my dad to go street evangelizing with some Christians I know who witness in Kona every week. We all went out and even my young nephew was participating by handing out tracts. She was shut down a few times during that afternoon, and we shared that information in the Hawaii post (click here to read).  She also has spoken to people at her small church whenever witnessing conversations comes up in Sunday School, and she has offered really good tips that encouraged the ones she spoke to. I first shared biblical evangelism material with her at Christmas 2005, and after reading the information and watching videos about it she agreed it was the real gospel, and stopped using modern evangelism methods and materials that are not biblical. She tracted places but not people. Then after a few visits (a yearly thing) when we went as a family to Los Vegas, for vacation at their time share, I was finally able to get them to go out one early evening and hand out tracts near a popular tourist attraction on the strip. Since then she hasn’t gone out, until last year in Hawaii. She does tract regularly wherever she goes, but this was the first time she talked to someone on an airplane about the gospel. She has beat me on that one! Haha. Well, it has never worked out for me to be able to do that; circumstances and the people around me on the planes have prevented it. Though, on hindsight….I could have done like Kirk Cameron and tracted the whole plane on the way to my seat. Perhaps I’ll do that next time I fly somewhere. I rarely fly anywhere, but I’ll have to keep it in mind next time I do!


So I’m exited that she did this, and hopeful that she’ll try for a gospel conversation on the return flight home.


Note: You don’t have to follow a specific method to sharing the gospel. What you include in the gospel is important, but how you get to the gospel conversation can vary. You simply have a conversation and swing naturally from the conversation to spiritual things. This is another example of that. For more examples, read more of the blogs here.

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Mission: Street Fishin (Hawaii)

Mission: Street Fishin in Kona, Hawaii 

We hope you will enjoy it and be blessed by it. 

As Bible believing, Born Again Christians we share the gospel with those who are not saved. Our mission as believers is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ EVERYWHERE we go, to whomever will listen, to reason with people using the truth and the authority of God’s word. We sometimes find ourselves in the most challenging of locations locally ... on the streets in our area or while traveling abroad. Our mission field is in our own area, but we are to share the gospel on the highways and byways as we travel through life. 

So when we were on a trip to Hawaii we ensured that we would have the opportunity to reach out to the vacationers and the locals with the gospel, through prior arrangements with local believers. Hawaii is not a place like Heaven, the quality of life of those living on the island has many who live in tree houses, in cars, or are simply homeless facing just as much poverty, addiction, and heartache as people in other places in the United States and around the world. No place on earth is free of the consequences of sin! 

The group we met with usually witness at this location in downtown Kona because so many people stop for a port visit via cruise ships during the middle of the week. However, the day we were there the cruise ships had already visited for the week. So we talked to people who were vacationing nearby or who were locals. We also ran into some YWAM people and got an opportunity to talk to a few of these people about the biblical gospel and our commission by Christ to share the gospel with people, not just do good deeds. 

We do good deeds because of Christ in our life, and we share that information with those we help, so they know why we do it. It’s for the sake of the gospel because of our gratitude and love towards Jesus Christ for saving us from our sins and God’s coming wrath upon all who die without Christ Jesus as their God and Savior. So we have a divine appointment during that charity or deeds to share the gospel with those people and represent Christ not just as a lifestyle witness, but also verbally. For Scripture rightly says that they can not know the gospel unless someone tells them, and they can not hear it unless someone goes out to do that. 

We were compelled to reach the lost while we were in Hawaii, because we know that 160,000 people die every day in this world and we couldn’t imagine not sharing the gospel that can and will save them from the wrath of God and eternal Hell. We know many who were there when we were, were walking down the streets unaware of whether that day or week or month was their last on this Earth. We did not want them to step into eternity without knowing their need for Christ and know how to be saved. Every individual has an appointed lifespan determined by God, and they have an appointed day in which they will be Judged if they leave this earth while they are still unforgiven sinners (Hebrews 9:27) and none know when their last day on earth will be. 

Therefore, as long as we're able to talk and others are able to hear, we will continue to share the gospel, glorify the Lord and reach souls for Christ. We are on a mission...to spread the Word to as many as we can wherever God takes us during our time on this earth. And we count it a privilege to share this message of salvation and this evangelism vlog with you. It is all to glorify the Lord, encourage the Saints in Christ, and to reach the lost while there is still time. 

If you do not know the Lord as your Personal Savior, or you profess Christ as your Lord but want to make sure you are correctly saved and will go to Heaven when you die or the Lord returns to take Christians to Heaven, please visit this website today. Get right with God today, sort it out now, because tomorrow is not guaranteed. Need God. com

Street Evangelism Hawaii Part 1 

Street Evangelism Hawaii Part 2

Street Evangelism Hawaii Part 3 

Labels: #evangelism, #gospel, #Gospel Tracts, #Hawaii, #mission trip, #Witnessing 

Published: July 6, 2009

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 a couple of believers 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 them on my cell they had arrived already. 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, and he might not understand various reasons why people might be hostile towards God and Jesus. Though she has conversations with him about Jesus since he was young. And we had shared a gospel children's book with him, so maybe he might understand it a little bit. But he wanted to come with us, and that would be a good experience for him. 

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).  As we got closer to the meet up place I saw them in front of the church, and they were engaged in conversations already. Glory to God!  He 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. 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 in public yet and is a little introverted. It took me a couple years from learning WOTM material before I stepped out, so I am just glad that they came along, even just to watch and see how conversations happen in real life.

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 do leave MDB's and other tracts at restaurants. Their favorite was the large Quarter sized tract Living Waters made.

Well, I wondered if she was going to step out and hand tracts to people today. I wanted to pair them with the couple, mom with her, and dad with him, so they could see how people minister in conversations, but we ended up doing all our own thing.

The guy 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 our direction. 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.

The lady said the area is usually very hard to witness in and they are always encountering spiritual warfare there pretty intensely; which Mom would later find out to be true. She 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 living waters 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 share with them, and there is more information on the website the tract points to).

The guy 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 he shares that encounter with us, because I overheard him telling the lady and my mom parts of it, as I passed out tracts a few feet away while trying to start conversations with people. Not a lot of people stopped to talk to us, but some did take tracts. Others didn't want them.

The Your Moment of Truth tracts 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 start a conversation most people walked away not wanting 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. People did not seem as interested in them as the million dollar bill. I don't think I am going to offer them to people, even in my own area (Hollywood, CA). But maybe because it was Hawaii instead of Hollywood blvd the other tracts worked better.

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 & 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....

part 2 

Witnessing in Hawaii (part 2)

In Part one of our Hawaii witnessing blog… I shared how we got to Hawaii, and pre-arranged to meet with local believers there, to share the gospel in the main touristy area.

After handing out tracts for a while I saw three girls coming down the pathway. Two were preoccupied, with one having an ipod zombie-ing her out, the other was fidgeting with things in her hands, and the third one was not incapacitated so when they came by I had three MDB’s in my hand to give to them. One thing I like to do is to have two different kinds of tracts with me so that when I hand them out, their friends get a different design then they do, so it occupies them for a few minutes when they walk away. I handed them to her and told her they were million dollar bills and there was one for each of her friends there too. They walked away and Rhonda and I talked for a minute awaiting others to come by. The girls came back after reading them, and said they were “giving them back to me, because they were theology students and didn’t want them”. I told her “Oh, well there is good information on the back that they should at least consider” and I said something else to that effect as well. They didn’t want them. When they walked away I was perplexed as to why I was unable to move into a spiritual discussion with them. Perhaps the Holy Spirit was telling me not to continue. They were closed to the conversation, and I think they think they are “good to go with God” and are closed minded right now. When they walked away I told Rhonda that I originally though they came over as those who think they are intellectual because they go to college, and I thought they said they were “Philosophy majors” but really they said “Theology majors”. I couldn’t believe I made that error. Though I was glad to say what I did in hindsight, because both unsaved Philosophy and unsaved Theology students still need to be saved. 

 It was hot out, and Rhonda and I talked about how thankful we are for the trees that were there to shade us (between the walk way and the street). We then walked over to the other side of the street and Virgil traded places with us. I had hoped Virgil would get my dad to stand next to him, but he was so close to Virgil anyway, he could still hear any conversations. It might take a while for him to move into conversations with people, because he is really introverted.  Mom has come out of her shell a little more, he hasn't yet. I think he had a good time there though, and the experience. But I hope one day he will get a little bit bolder. 

 Rhonda and I stood on the other side of the street and not many people came by at all, so we decided to split up the group (there were too many of us there in one place anyway), and we headed down the (land based) board walk. I grabbed some tracts and caught up with Rhonda. We went over to a shop there and she got coffee and I got a lemonade drink. When I paid for the drink I told the guy I would put this (a million dollar bill tract) in the jar but he was right there so I handed it to him. We chatted for a minute and then I left to catch up with Rhonda. 

She had walked over to a couple and was starting to hand them a 10 commandment coin (tract item). And we found out they were from Egypt. Since YWAM (Youth With a Mission [that’s not about the gospel]) has a university kind of school thing nearby we assumed they were visiting to go there for a training course. I realized they had Egyptian Bible’s open and were studying something because there were papers or notebooks around them. We told them we go out on the streets to share the gospel with people and we hand them gospel tracts to start conversations. She gave them a couple million dollar bill and your moment of truth tracts. They took them and said they would keep one and give the duplicates away. We encouraged them to do so. We talked for a minute and then went on our way. 

 When we were almost leaving the boardwalk we ran into two girls at the corner retail shack (its an open air one with no windows). One worked there and the other one was shopping. I handed them a YMOT tract and we talked about the tv show your moment of truth for a minute. I shared with her about the girl on there who answered the question “are you a good person” wrong. Her conscience told her she was not a good person, though she thought she was. Because of that belief she lost everything. The information in the tract tells us that we are not good people and that if we think we are we will lose everything when we stand before God, that we will lose our soul and end up in Hell, but that Jesus did something for us so we don’t have to go to hell. They agreed about that and thanked us for talking with them. 

We went back past our group and down the waterway path and ran into a homeless looking Rastafarian guy (a colorful character with a few missing teeth) came by us holding a ukulele (guitar). Rhonda offered him a tract and the guy told us he believed in God. He stopped for a minute and we attempted to strike up a conversation with him and ended up asking him about his ukulele. He said he plays “backyard style” which means he just strums on it. So we asked him to play something and he strummed a little. I told him he “played really well.” I also mentioned that it appears one “doesn’t need to know how to play that instrument to make beautiful music” (it truly is beautiful). Then he asked us which church we go to. Rhonda told him where she goes and I told him I am here on vacation and go to a church in Los Angeles, California. So he then broke out in song with the ukulele paying “Amazing Grace”. And Rhonda started humming and singing along so I joined in and then before I knew it she was recording us singing. I’m not sure if you will find that popping up on Utube, but if you do… forgive my voice it’s just a joyful noise box. 

Short Video Clip of bits and pieces of the outing :)

We also spoke to a Hawaiian native on the street who then talked to us briefly too, cause he was sitting near where we talked to a homeless guy. I had given him a gospel tract earlier to take with him as he seemed in a hurry at the time. 

I love the your moment of truth tract because is great for situations like that! Whether you talk to them, only get part of a conversation with them, or just hand it to them…it has the complete gospel in it. (link)

So the young guy spoke to us a few minutes but we didn’t get anywhere in the conversation. At least he had the tract I gave him from earlier. He was with his mom who was next to us weaving baskets from palm leaves, as she sells them for a living. 

 Tune in next time for the rest of the witnessing trip… you don’t want to miss it!

Part 3 

Hawaii Evangelism pt 3

Witnessing in Hawaii, the Conclusion....

Rhonda and I walked on and ran into a mother and daughter sitting on a curb outside a shaved ice store. They were waiting for her husband to come out with their cool snack. It was pretty hot out. I walked up to her and offered them each a regular million dollar bill tract and told them it was free.

I asked the mom if she had a religious background. She said yes, catholic. And I told her the back of the million dollar bill asks an important question. Will you go to heaven when you die. I asked if she could name any of the 10 commandments. She said she couldn’t think of any. I told her I’m sure she could remember at least one. (I tried to get her motivated to talk with me). She said she couldn’t, and she really didn’t want to talk to me about religious things. It’s a personal thing for her.

I shared we are out today talking with people, because we know its important to make sure we know where we are going when we die. She was adamantly in her attitude, not really nice, and kind of non responsive (I could tell she did not want to talk). She wasn’t rude or mean, just in a weird way just not wanting to talk. Her preteen daughter was sitting with her and so, I tried to encourage her to read the back of the million dollar bill because its important. I felt like that was a swing and a miss. At least they had the tract, that is the great thing about it. The gospel does the work it is meant to do, by the power of God. So when they read it, hopefully what I was trying to say, would make sense after she read the tract.

We went back to our meeting spot with the group and attempted to give out a few other tracts. Some college age guys took some from me, a few younger girls, and a couple who were walking by.

When the couple was approaching, I wanted to call him a bit closer to us, and then my nephew reached out and offered the Million dollar bill tract. The lady nicely asked him what it was. He looked at me for a second and wasnt sure what to say or do, so he quickly flipped it over and showed her the text on the back. And read he it right out to her “the million dollar question: Will you go to heaven when you die?” She said yes and then they and I talked a minute.

She said her and her husband go to a church down the road from here [so they are locals] and that they know people at YWAM. We talked for about 10 minutes. We shared with them that we are on vacation and are out with a local couple who witness there to the locals and those who come off of the cruise lines. We told them how we share the gospel and etc. It was a nice conversation.

While we were with the others when witnessing (safety first), at one point a creepy older homeless guy (white but very tan, with long blond dreadlocks) came our way. We decided to try to talk to him briefly, to at least hand a tract, he was just not interested in talking. Then I spoke to another native Hawaiian lady who also appeared homeless and had a local friend with her. Most of the people there are Hawaiian natives, white, or tourists.

Later on we packed up and headed back to meet up with the rest of our family. I’m sure we were out for about 3 hours and that was a pretty long time for my parents’ first street “outing.” And I was glad to hear that my mom had been handing out tracts in the walkway in front of the church. After we got back to the resort, she told me she had the hardest people come past her when the other lady and I had shortly walked down the boardwalk.

She said she handed out to a few people as they were walking by and they took the tract and didn’t stop, others turned their face and snubbed her or would not only refuse the tract, (either thinking it was cult material or because they were anti-Christian), but they would also speak rudely to her or say “No” in a very mean way. She tried to hand a large 100 dollar bill to a mother of a couple young children who were walking by, offering it as “play money” and the mother grabbed her little children by the arm and dragged them away as she firmly said in a rude and aggressively way “NO!” Her kids didn’t understand and she treated her children badly because of her (the mom’s) behavior.

My mom told the believer she was teamed up with at the moment that she couldn’t understand how the mother would react that way since the kids can’t even read. When she told me, I mentioned that there could be many reasons; It could be due to a situation in her life where she is mad at God right now, had a pushy family member or someone else she knows try to get her to church, or she had a bad experience with someone who professed to be a Christian and ended up causing her to walk away from spiritual things. No one knows but God, and at least my mom tried. She did her part to share the gospel, even after several people treated her like that.

After we returned home from Hawaii the ones who lived there and joined up with us to share the gospel, had went back to see if the Egyptian couple was still there, so they could talk to them, and encourage them. They were there, and they had a great conversation! The very next day they ran into that couple in a local store and had mentioned to the witnessing couple that they were greatly encouraged by all of us to share the gospel. That was an encouragement to us because we’ve found it’s rare to get a YWAM’er interested in sharing the gospel. I look forward to hearing about their witnessing encounters from this outing too.

Praise God for all the opportunities we had to talk to people, and hand out tracts.