Mark Cahill recently released a new booklet called “One Second After You…” Of course on the inside it indicates that what follows the ellipses is “die!” The book does a wonderful job of explaining that God exists, that Heaven and Hell exist and how to get to Heaven. There is some excellent background information to refute evolution and know that the Bible is true. Recently Mark donated a case of these books to us. Today we took them out to Brookhaven College and gave them away to the students.
We brought 180 copies of the booklet, three cases of water bottles, hundreds of tracts, a few DVD’s and about 100 AfetrLifeCatalog pens. Our primary focus was handing out the books and the bottles of water. Craig, Todd and I also engaged the students in one on one conversations. We each had a number of great conversations with the kids.
When I handed the book to one woman she asked “is this a God thing or a mysticism thing?” I said, “it is a God thing.” She handed the book back to me. So I asked if she liked to watch movies. She said sometimes that she did. So I handed her a DVD that we had instead. She took it and said she would watch it.
While most of the kids were passing by on their way to class. Some would stop and talk. Others took the books and then went and sat down in the courtyard area and began reading. This group of young ladies were all sitting around reading the booklet a short distance from where we handed them out.
Have you considered the parable of the sower?
And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.7Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matthew 13:3-9)
When out handing out tracts, books or resources we see all four types of soil. Some will pass by and totally ignore what we are doing. Some will ask what it is and then walk off uninterested. These two groups made up about ten percent of todays group. The next group will take it and might go off reading it or show better interest. This is the bulk of the people at the college. The last group is the ones that really excite us. You hand them a book and they say, “what is this? will you explain it to me?”
Today, a young woman who said she was a Muslim fit the last category. We talked for some time about God, Heaven and Hell and how to get to Heaven. We went through the Law and she indicated that she had lied, stolen and dishonored her parents. As we spoke more, she used God’s name in vain, twice. Yet, when I asked her if she would be innocent or guilty, she would say innocent. She and I went round and round a couple of times, talked about the court room examples and examples involving discipline in the classroom. I tried to explain how Christianity is different from all the other religions. But she was not listening. Fortunately, for me, Todd eventually came into the conversation and was able to explain to her that while religion is about man trying to earn favor with God, Christianity is about recognizing that God has already done everything necessary to save a person if they will simply repent and believe. She still had questions, but she listened intently. I was able to point her to some pages within the One Second After booklet that she already was holding the that answer some key questions, like how to know the Bible is true.
After about an hour and fifteen minutes, we packed up and headed home. We had handed out 150 of the booklets, a case of water, a number of tracts, all the DVD’s we had brought and a number of the AfterLifeCatalog pens. Brookhaven is one of our favorite fishing holes. We will be back next month!
The One Second After You booklet is available from Mark Cahill’s website. Many thanks to Mark Cahill for making this resource and providing them to us for the outreach.
