New Years Eve

January 1, 2012CarlAs You Go, tract distribution

At the beginning of the week I had 800 New Year Resolution tracts.

200 tracts

Someone in the tract club asked for 400 of them so I mailed them to him for an outreach they were doing on New Years Eve. That left 400. A friend was going on a trip to San Antonio. So I gave him 200 of them. That left me with 200 of them. I jokingly took a picture of the two stacks of 100 each this morning and posted it on facebook with a caption – Mission New Years Eve. I then headed out to the store with my wife. I greeted every person I met at the store, whether employee or customer, with a smile and a greeting “Happy New Year” and then handed them one of the tracts. I must have handed out 25-30 of the tracts inside of the store.

As we drove home, I realized that the car was low on gas. So I stopped at the gas station and filled it up. I put tracts in the gas pumps of four of the pumps while I waited for the gas to pump.

I still had the bulk of the tracts. We had to go pick up one of our cars

About 150 tracts

that was being worked on. After picking it up, it seemed good to put a few miles on it to make sure it was in good shape before my son drives it back to college next weekend. So I headed for the Dallas West End with the remaining tracts.

There were plenty of people in the West End. I started handing out tracts. I like to distribute them like seed (bait) and then see who bites. As I was walking a voice called out to me. It was a homeless man named Frederick. He needed transportation to the doctor. So I bought him a day pass for the train. He also had not eaten, so I got him some lunch. After visiting with him over lunch and sharing the Gospel with him I bought him a few toiletries at the drug store.

Back at the DART station, I continued handing out the tracts and sharing the Gospel with anyone that would listen. I had a long conversation with two young men who were waiting for the train. They were humbled by the law and really considering eternity. When the train came they thanked me for the conversation and got on the train.

Another young man overheard that conversation and we got to encourage each other in the Lord with a brief time of fellowship while he shared his testimony with me.

Another man was visiting from Memphis. He said he was not much into religion. But he listened intently as I explained to him that to me religion answers two question: how to live a moral life and what happens when you die. I explained that Christianity is different from all the world religions because instead of trying to work your way to God, God did everything necessary to save you. He was thankful for the conversation and said he had a lot to think about.

As I wrapped up talking to him, two guys came along handing out some literature of their own. They were with a homeless shelter that teaches people to overcome addiction only through the Gospel! WOW! An answer to prayer. Albert and I had a wonderful time of fellowship for a few minutes. He and his group were proclaiming their testimonies in the open air and telling others about Jesus. The answer to prayer is that we have been looking for some homeless shelters to refer people to that we witness to.

A few tracts left

Eventually, I was down to my last few tracts. I handed the rest of them out to people there at the train station. I got to have one last conversation with a guy that got one of the last tracts. As I turned to go to my car, I could see Albert and his group across the tracts. One of his group was giving a testimony of how Jesus saved his soul. And then they were all singing and giving praise to Jesus.

As I walked back to my car, I had given out all of my tracts and had nothing left of them except this rubber band!

All tracts handed out!

I called home and told my wife that I was on my way. As we talked she told me she had just found another fifteen or so tracts on the dinning room table. Seems like this happens a lot when we have certain “time sensitive tracts” that I’ll think they are all gone, then we will find some more (kind of like the stack of Halloween tracts we found recently). When I got home, I found there were 12 tracts there!

I had to run an errand to AutoZone. I was able to give a tract to the store manager and the guy that helped check my battery. I also gave six tracts to customers that were in the store.

That left four tracts. We were headed to dinner. The greeter got one along with the person that took us to our table. After dinner, the waitress got one. That left one tract. I went to get the car to bring it up to get the rest of our group. When I went outside there were three people trying to take their own picture. So I offered to take the picture for them. They agreed. After taking the picture, I gave the camera back with the last tract. The two others in the group asked why they did not get one, so I reached in my pocket, got two other tracts and gave them to them.

Walking to the car, I gave out two more to people in the parking lot!

What started out as a joke of handing out 200 tracts (with no event planned) turned into a reality, with a good 50 of them being handed out at stores, gas stations and restaurants! You can do it too. It’s a new year! Make a commitment to hand out one tract every day “As You Go”.

You can get 30 FREE tracts per month from our Bezeugen Tract Club.