Day 1 – Baber Park, Sunflower Butter, and a Fresh Start

So today’s July 1. I wasn’t planning on starting anything big today, but I was talking with my friend Caden and he brought up that it’s been about two years since we did that 30-day evangelism challenge. Then he said, “We should do it again.”

I kind of paused. Because I know what that means. It’s a time commitment. It’s an emotional one too. You’re intentionally putting yourself in situations where you might get rejected, where you’re trusting God to show up, and where you have to actually talk to people—which sometimes sounds great in theory, but feels like a lot when you’re tired or busy.

We’ve both been wanting to share Jesus with people lately, but I haven’t actually done it.

We decided to start at Babler Park because parks seem to be a pretty easy place to strike up a conversation with a stranger. They’re not too busy and it just seems to work.

Eventually, we ran into two guys mowing the lawn—Thomas and Austin. We went up and said something like, “Hey guys, we’re out here telling people about Jesus and passing out a few tracts. Mind if we give you one?”

Thomas took it right away, said “Cool,” and put it in his pocket. Austin said, “Nah, I’m good.” No attitude or anything—just didn’t want to talk about spiritual stuff. We said, “Totally cool. God bless you guys.” And then we just chatted for a bit.

Austin had this giant jar of sunflower butter he was eating straight from. It was kind of awesome. That sparked a little conversation. He’s from St. Ann, which isn’t far from where we’re from. We joked that next time we see him, we’re gonna try to convert him. He laughed.

Thomas was more talkative. He’s from South Carolina. We ended up chatting a bit about the area, about how some people are easy to talk to, some aren’t. Just normal stuff. But they were both cool guys. Friendly. Open enough for a good conversation.

After that, we went back to the truck and prayed for them. That was it. Day 1.

Final thought:

Not every day is gonna be a fireworks moment. Sometimes you just have a normal conversation with a guy eating sunflower butter and hand someone a tract. And that’s okay. God still moves.