Tulip Reach

In my sermon last week, I encouraged the congregation to pay attention to the tools God has given us and use them to serve Him. I gave out million dollar bill gospel tracts to everyone with the challenge to give one to someone by today.

Over the last three days, Tulip Time, a Dutch heritage celebration, has been held in Pella. On average, 150,000 people from all over Iowa and other states attend during the festival. A few months ago, another man from the area worked to organize an evangelism training time each morning of the event and then send out everyone to talk with tourists and hand out gospel tracts.

Friday's Group

I helped with it last year and worked to get the training and gathering location based at my church. On Thursday, there were about ten of us and each day increased to Saturday's total of around 30. We started the day at 9:00 and then by 10:30 spread out to the community.

My assistant got in some good walking exercise as we strolled around town. Most conversations I had were short, but productive. Friday, as we worked through a busy sidewalk, a man who I hadn't seen before noticed my t-shirt talked about creation. He excitedly came up and began talking with my assistant, another group member that was with us, and me. The 20 minute conversation covered a variety of topics and we learned he was a student at MIT and spoke six languages, English not being his first. He offered to buy us lunch and continue talking, but ended up unable to join us.

Before church, I had 400 tracts ready to give out. Now with the week complete, I'm down to less than 100 left. Days like these are in a way rejuvenating for me. Getting out and actively working, especially for Christ, makes me want to do more and remain busy.

Only God truly knows what my calendar will contain. Living the quad life, I can sometimes quickly lose momentum and energy. I pray that the work we were able to do will lead to eternal benefits and I will continue to serve and remain active in the coming months until winter returns.