Christmas Light Evangelism

Every year at Christmas time we go out and look at all the Christmas lights in town. There are some pretty elaborate exhibits out there. At some of the larger ones, people park their cars and get out to walk around and look. In the past there have been rather large crowds at some of the houses. I started to think that maybe we can combine our annual family tradition and witnessing together. I said, "This year we're taking tracts with us." I told the kids to grab some Million Dollar Bill tracts and lets go!!

We road around looking at all the different houses decked out with lights. Some people really go out of their way decorating their houses for Christmas. If people would only use a fraction of that time and money witnessing to the lost then imagine the impact that could be made for Christ. As we looked on after another house, we got closer and closer to one of the bigger exhibits. This one exhibit has tons of lights and man dressed up like Santa Claus. Of course we don't do Santa, but my daughter wanted to go up to Santa. Not do beg for presents BUT to GIVE him a Million Dollar Bill!! I can't tell you how proud I was of her. We handed out about 20 or so tracts there. That was a huge let down from last year. The crowds were slimmer than last year. The owners kept eyeing these crazy people handing out the fake money, so we decided to go to the next place. But, not before I gave the owners Million Dollar bills first. Then we were off to the next big light show.

As we rode around we noticed that there didn't seem to be as many houses with lights than in previous years. Could it be the economy? Are people just not in the "Christmas Spirit"? Or maybe we just picked a rotten night to go. But, after a little sight seeing we made it to the BIGGEST exhibit in the area. Surely there would be a huge crowd here. But, it was even a smaller crowd than the last one. This seemed like a great idea when we started, but I didn't expect that the crowds would be so small. We met a couple of groups of people and handed out tracts to them. This exhibit took donations to help pay the power bill (if you had seen it you would know why). So I wrapped a Million Dollar Bill up in a generous donation and put it in the donation box (never give people JUST the fake money when they are expecting real money). It was a let down, but at least we got the Gospel into some people's hands.

Who knows why we were out there? Who knows why the crowds were so small? God does!! All I know is that we were out there for a reason and if it was for only one person out of the 30 or so we handed tracts too, then they were worth it. It's not ours to say whom God will save or why. All we can do is be obedient and preach the Gospel to everyone and let God handle the results. The part that made me a proud parent was that both my daughter and son were not ready to stop handing out tracts. They wanted to wait around longer to see if more people would come. It was cold and getting late, so I promised them I would take them out with me on the next event I did. There is something we can all learn from the enthusiasm and fearlessness of small children.

Until then, What are you waiting for?? Go preach the Gospel!!!

Payton Dooley