I was reminiscing on my experiences with Servant Evangelism and I realized I have a good story that I had never posted on my blog. It’s the Reflection Paper I wrote for my VLI evangelism class in February 2007. I describe an incident that will forever be ingrained in my head. Here is my reflection paper:
Servant Evangelism was introduced to me in Spring 2005 shortly after joining the Grove City Vineyard. Prior to taking this class, I had been on at least 30 Servant Evangelism outreaches with my home church. I was blessed to be pre-mentored by my Associate Pastor, Jason Coker, who was a graduate of VLI many years ago and a veteran Servant Evangelism leader. He ingrained all of the practical DOs and DON’Ts in my head and that impartation has been a tremendous asset.
Our project was pretty straightforward. We planned on standing in line at Starbucks, Panera Bread, and McDonalds and try to start up conversations with the customers and offer to buy their coffee, pastry, breakfast, etc. One part of our plan was to get approval from the Manager-On-Duty who will be working that Saturday morning. Another part of our plan was to buy a few gift cards per store so we wouldn’t have to fool around with money. The last part of our plan was to create a basic map of the three places along with cell phone numbers of all the team members so our volunteer servants could find their way to the facilities and contact any of us with questions. I personally did not set any measurable goals as far as the quantity of people I would contact. I make a point to see what God is doing and adapt to the situation at hand.
On the day of the project, we had 4 team members and 6 volunteer servants. Team A went to Starbucks with 4 students. Team B went to Panera Bread with 3 students. Team C went to McDonalds with 3 students. I was on Team B that went to Panera. The Manager-On-Duty was expecting us and we greeted her and thanked her for letting us come out. She seemed pretty happy that we were going to offer to pay for their customer’s food! The three of us (Staci Yoder, Joe Byler, and myself) took a table near the front of the store by the register. As a group, we decided in advance that we would try to stick with the same-sex approach. Joe and I wouldn’t approach women and Staci wouldn’t approach men. (We didn’t want to give the customers a wrong impression!) Unexpectedly, the first 6 customers or so customers that walked through the door were women! Staci was BUSY and Joe and I laughed at the situation. It was kind of interesting… if I were to guess the ratio between girl and guy customers, it was about 4:1. Yeah, Staci was REALLY busy!
It wasn’t until about 40 minutes of being there that I had my chance at the plate. I got up when I saw two guys come into the store, moved closer to the register and they walked right on by to go to the bathroom. I looked behind myself and saw a woman about the age of 50 come into the store. I got this impression from God that I really need to make the offer to her (despite the fact she is a woman). She looked about the age of my Mom, so I felt pretty comfortable starting a conversation with her. I introduced myself and said I would like to buy her breakfast this morning and she got really quiet. God was really doing something at that moment. She checked to make sure I was serious and I absolutely insisted that I buy her breakfast this morning because, “I’m here to show you God’s love today.” She began to show signs of tearing up and became flustered and couldn’t think straight. As she looked into her purse, she expressed to me that she had no clue how she was going to afford eating breakfast this morning. She accepted the offer and tried to order something from the menu, but she just couldn’t hold her concentration! After she took about a minute to decide on a small fruit cup and a coffee, I presented the gift card to cashier. In my peripheral vision, I felt her eyes probing me. I looked over at her and she said to me, “You’re an angel!” I took that as a complement and said “You’re welcome.” Then she said to me, “No no! You were never born! You’re an ANGEL!” Right then, I new she was seriously convinced that God sent down a guardian angel. She completely took me off guard and I couldn’t find anything to say. I smiled, took the receipt for the cashier, and wished her a good morning as I walked back to our table, completely stunned.
When I got back to the table to meet up with Joe and Staci, I burst out saying, “You wouldn’t believe was just happened!” I relayed the story to them and they were in awe of what just happened. About a minute later, the lady (who thought I was an angel) walked by our table with her food and she said to me, “Why are you still here? Aren’t you supposed to go up to heaven?” as she enthusiastically pointed her thumb up in the air. Again, I was completely without words! I smiled and wished her a good day. About 15 minutes later, she came by one more time, placed her hand on my arm and said, “Thank you.” Then she walked out of Panera.
I’ve been on a lot of Servant Evangelism outreaches, but this is the first one where someone thought I was a literal angel. I have a feeling that by the time she came to me that last time, she realized I was a real person and she proved it to herself by touching my arm. I know God was doing something in her through that whole situation; she knows it was God, she just initially miscredited it to an angel. I really do think God sent me to Panera just for her. If I were to have done it differently, I would have invited her over to our table for breakfast to talk and introduce her to Staci. I think God wanted to do a little bit more there.
Overall, I think this project was a huge success! The manager’s were accommodating, we touched the lives of several strangers in a powerful way, Jesus’ name was glorified with every encounter, and we had fun doing it. What more could we ask for?
