Tourism Evangelism

Otherwise known as “shopping for Jesus”. Who would not want to do that, right? I’m sure you heard of it before. Perhaps you’ve heard of it as “marketplace evangelism” or some other catchy phrase. Certainly it is “Great Commission Evangelism” which demonstrates “as you go” at its best. It agrees with the premise that some may plant, others cultivate and still others see the harvest. We are all to be out working in the fields.

We’ve had a visitor recently and I was with her as she was looking for something for her mother in one of our tourist shops. The shopkeeper asked if she might be of some assistance. I took the opportunity to speak a little in her native tongue and asked if she were a “psychic” or “fortuneteller”. She gave me a rather strange, questioning look and denied being one while also saying she didn’t believe in “those”. I told her that my friend was wanting something for her mother but wasn’t sure what her mother might like. Unless the lady was a psychic, she probably couldn’t know what my friend’s mother would like either. We both laughed.

We swapped tales for a while about people who had come into her shop wanting to read her palm and tell her fortune. She said one woman had insisted for ten years now that she was going to have another daughter. So far, no change in the number of children she has. I took the opportunity to share with her about an occurance in my life when I had “predicted” the future so to speak. It involved our coming to Belgium. I was able to share a little with her about believing in God and living life with Him as my “boss”.

“When He said ‘Go to Belgium, we packed and came.’ ” I told her.

The purpose of tourism evangelism is to lead people a little closer to Jesus. For some, closer may be to let them meet someone who is a believer who is pleasant or who has an active seven day a week relationship with God. For some it is to get them thinking about God for the first time in years or even in their life. For some, there will be the opportunity to ask them about making that decision for themselves. You just don’t know where the person you are speaking to is in the “growth” process until you begin that conversation. You can’t determine whether to gently cultivate them or whether to plant a seed or whether they are indeed “ripe for the harvest” until you do a little research.

So that’s another thing “tourism evanglism” is . . . it’s market research. Place to place, shop to shop, as you go, squeeze the fruit a little and see which ones are ripe and which ones need a little more time and care.

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What’s the Point?

We recently participated in a project entitled “Serve the City”. Projects under this title have gone on for several years now in several different locations. This was evidently the first one to occur, or be organized as it were, in Gent. John had gone to the planning meeting alone since I was down with a strange flu at the time. We’d both been to Brussels earlier to meet one of the originators and learn about how it got started. We went back to Brussels as their group had a planning meeting to organize this year’s activities that were scheduled around Valentine’s Day. John has also spoken with the organizer for “StC” Leuven.

The local group chose a “dessert and coffee table” as their first project. On Friday, I baked a chocolate cake from scratch with a recipe from a colleague. She assured me that the three “boys” in her life loved it and that was recommendation enough for me. The true challenge is getting a recipe to work in my Belgian convection oven. I babied it. It came out looking lovely but sank a little. Not to worry, I was going for a “brownie” sort of thing anyway. I put a warm chocolate topping on it and let that sink in to the warm cake finding and filling every hole it could and the extra ones that I’d made with my toothpicks.

Saturday, I thickened the cherry juice and topped the luscious dessert with cherries in sauce. Saturday evening we loaded up our cake and went to pick up one of the organizers of the event. We loaded more cakes into our car along with decorations, CD player for background music and lots of “etc.” We arrived at the site and began the process of preparing it for the occasion. Tables had to be set up and decorated. Balloons inflated and hung. Cakes, pies, tiramisu cut and plated. Coffee made and water heated for tea.

I noticed, as I walked around the room, all the signs and posters about poverty. “Stop poverty now.” “The end of poverty begins with you.” They were legion; all nicely done in four-color ink on slick paper. I wondered about the target audience. The people invited to our “dessert and coffee table” were certainly the local poor. Those attending were single mothers with their kids, apparent bachelors or single-again men, older women who were perhaps widowed and a family that looked to be of immigrant, non-Belg, background. The invitation went out through a local food bank initiative. Surely they weren’t the signs’ audience. What power did any of them have to stop poverty?

From there, it was an easy jump to ask myself “Who is your target audience?” Is it the poor? No, it isn’t. My Lord saw no urgency in serving the poor. He is quoted as saying, “The poor you have with you always.” I believe He is truth and speaks truth. Somehow, I don’t think we’ll ever “stop poverty now. “ So who is my target audience and what am I doing feeding the poor? Jesus fed 5,000 men and their families in one sitting. I see it as a teaching occasion for his disciples—they got to learn what miracles he was capable of and then he told them they would do greater. I see it as an opening into the lives of the people—an occasion for them to think about what He’d been telling them, teaching them, a chance for them to apply it to their hearts. Maybe a few hung around and asked some of the hard questions since they didn’t have to hurry off to feed their families.

What did it do for those undecided peripheral followers? They weren’t the “faithful” disciples, at least not yet. Maybe they weren’t “the poor” either. Maybe they were the “seekers”, the ones we call “people of peace” who are wondering about this Jesus and watching to see what effect He has in someone else’s life.

I spent some time Saturday evening talking with an older lady who lives alone. I talked with a couple of single mothers who come to the food bank as they try to make ends meet for their kids. Then there was this young man . . . a volunteer who came to help set up tables because someone he knew was coming to help. He thinks she’s a bit different because of her faith background. He seemed strangely blown away to learn that we’d moved to Belgium from America. We talked a long time about why and the nature of people and relating to God and lots of other “spiritual” things.

I came away from the evening exhausted and praising God for the opportunity to connect on a level that will make an eternal difference. Spiritual poverty can be stopped and abundant life can be started. The end of spiritual poverty can indeed begin with God working through me. What’s the point? Who is my target audience? Good questions that should always be asked.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be filled.”

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Create in me a new heart

We continue to praise the Lord that our daughter has a steady job in this challenging economy. While it is not her “ideal job”, it does pay her bills and allow her to stay close to her home church and family and her grandmother. She’s working as a Unit Clerk in the pediatric intensive care in the hospital where I once worked. It is through her work there that I have learned of a young girl who is in need of a heart transplant. Disease has weakened her own “native” heart to the point that it can no longer work to keep her alive. She is in fact being kept alive by a machine as she awaits a miracle or death.

Everytime I read an entry from her blog I am reminded of the people God has called me to work among here in Gent. They too have “heart failure”. They too are awaiting a miracle or death. The big difference is that they don’t even know it but this little girl is very much aware.

While she walks the hospital hallways tethered to the machine that keeps her alive, the people here walk through their existence not knowing that they are bound by any tethers. They’ve been limited for so long, they don’t recognize their limits. “Think outside the box?” They don’t know there is a box. The abundant life that Jesus offers is a “never dreamt of” thing.

This little girl is asking for a miraculous healing of her own heart by God. She knows that can happen. It can happen for my people as well. God is still in the miracle business. This little girl knows as well that if she is to be healed through a heart transplant, someone has to die. That is not an easy thought to entertain and she and her family pray even now for the family of the child that may be involved. For my people, the death has already taken place. When Jesus died, it was to give them a new heart. When will they see that and accept it?

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

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