First Time Out With The "Are You Ready" Cross

Yesterday was my first time out standing on a street corner with the "Are You Ready" cross.
I got home from work, loaded the cross into the trunk of my car and drove to the corner of Ortega and Camino Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano. I sat in the Starbucks across from the corner and read my bible while enjoying a tasty iced latte. After reading several chapters I began to pray that the Lord would bless my time out with the cross. I had no idea how this was going to go and was nervous! In fact, I may have been even more nervous than the first time I open-air preached! I "tweeted" a quick update to twitter asking for my brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for me and then headed back to my car to get the cross and my evangelism backpack. I got the cross out of the trunk, hoisted it up and began to walk toward the corner. I said hello to a couple who were hanging out on a park bench and they just stared as I walked past. As I walked down the sidewalk toward the street corner I could see drivers looking up at the "Are You Ready" message on the cross. I crossed the street and turned and faced the traffic and felt very conscious of the eyes that were now staring at me and the cross. I continued to pray that the Lord would use the "Are You Ready" message to cause people to think about eternity. I was also praying that the Lord would confirm to me that this "method" of evangelism is valid.

During the first several minutes I experienced a full range of responses from the motorists who drove by. Some stared at the "Are You Ready" message, some honked, some nodded, some gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up, some shook their heads, and some laughed at me (nobody hollered or cursed at me and I was very thankful for that!). I thought about Tony Miano saying that he experienced a new level of identifying with Christ in holding the cross for all to see and I too experienced this new sense of identification with my Saviour.

Then it happened! I caught the eye of a young man waiting to cross the street. His eyes were riveted on the cross. When he got a walk signal and began crossing, I could tell that he was headed my way. I said hello and asked how he was doing. This began an amazing witnessing encounter that was an answer to my prayers. I was wondering if holding the cross on the corner was effective and the Lord brought this young man along to answer that prayer. Rather than type out the conversation here I'll just let you hear for yourself. I pray that this will be an encouragement to you as it was for me. Also, please pray for this young man. He was very open to the gospel and I believe that he will read the bible I gave to him. I look forward to seeing him in town again to follow up on our conversation. Here's the audio:



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