Follow up with the Christian Bookstore and other stuff

Last week I contacted Miles from the Christian bookstore in Courtenay as I was passing through last Friday and he wanted to meet with me so we arranged a time. I arrived at the store and he took me for a latte down the street so we could have a good chat.

He really is a nice fellow and perhaps I judged him a little harshly in my last blog. He explained that he understands why I am doing what I am doing. He used to be involved with Evangelism Explosion up until a few years ago and do street and door to door evangelism. Now he works full-time in his store so he told me how he interacts with people who come into his store. He said that 50% of the people who come into the store are Christians and the rest are not. Most of the other 50% don't necessarily even know that they are in a Christian bookstore until moments after they've entered it. He wants those people to experience GRACE until he can establish a rapport with them and he gets to know them and their needs. He does sound very caring and sincere. I know...not exactly biblical...but I don't wish to make an enemy.

Initially me standing out front tracting wasn't an issue, but that Saturday I was there, his wife was working in the store and had no idea who I was or what I was doing. A couple people came into the store thinking that I was affiliated with their store and I was handing out tracts on their behalf. No one actually complained about me, but his wife didn't understand and was alarmed and called him at home to deal with me over the phone.

He suggested to me to use an open area, like a square, about a block up the street and I was familiar with that spot and feel it is probably a pretty good location. He said that if safety is a concern, I could program his store phone number into my cell phone and if there was ever an emergency, if I called him, he'd be there in a heartbeat. Well, I don't have a cell phone (as there are no cell towers where I live), but I appreciated the offer and perhaps I could take my walkie-talkies with me and leave one with him so I could buzz him if I needed to. The area is relatively safe during the daytime, so I'm not really worried. The other good thing about this area that he suggested is that there are cement planter benches which would be suitable for Open Air if I ever get up the nerve.

Anyways, I've agreed to use the square as my "base" and plan to continue walking the blocks as well. I won't park in front of his store. But...I do plan on checking out his books again to see what kind of stuff he's selling and perhaps challenging him to carry some decent evangelism books. Although I had packed along my HBKS and TF Conv. DVD's, he was quite familiar with WOTM so I didn't offer them to him at this point.

Another good thing that came out of that meeting was, he told me that there is a church in town that regularly puts on WOTM training and he gave me the name and email address of the fellow that puts the training sessions on. I have since contact that fellow and he's in AZ for a couple of weeks but is anxious to speak with me upon his return! So...I am excited about the possibility of joining/forming a north island E-Team!

Anyways...after my meeting I headed down-island, even further...and managed to tract the Costco book dept...probably about 80 "bookmarks" were added to the assortment of books.

I am feeling encouraged at the moment...I feel some changes coming. My church is likely going to try another round of WOTM training and I feel hopeful that I'll have a couple people come through it eager to get out there with me. Also...I have been trying to register on the www.myfishinghole.com website for several months but there was a glitch and I couldn't get registered and for months no one was able to fix it. But I got an email the other day advising that they thought the problem was fixed...and VOILA! It was. So I quickly registered and did a member search and wouldn't you know it...there is one other person on Vancouver island registered and she lives in the next town! I just can't believe this great blessing. I've sent off an email to her and hope to hear back from her soon.

Tonight, Michelle Miano and I (she's a facebook friend) went into Yoville together (a facebook chat program) and we evangelised to a guy named geo. Geo had some church background it seemed, but didn't really have any clear information on how to get to heaven. We talked about sin and preached the Gospel to him and all we can do now is pray that the Holy Spirit convicts him and he cries out for the God that he so desperately needs. We don't know where his heart is right now, but together we made a good team and gave him a lot to think about. Michelle and I are going to team up together Saturday night after Last Words Radio and try it again. Imagine that...Michelle and I are a couple of thousand miles apart, doing 1-2-1's together in our jammies!

We serve a GREAT God!