HARRISBURG, Pa., (BRN) – On Tuesday, Aug. 2, the Annual National Night Out was held at a local park in Harrisburg (located less than a mile from East Shore Baptist Church). Local police, firefighters, Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), rescue squad personnel, canine teams, helicopters, drones, plus more were all on hand to promote emergency responder-community relations.
East Shore Baptist Church (ESBC) had a tent set up and used evangecubes to share the gospel multiple times during the three-hour event. Church volunteers shared the evangecubes (purchased with funds from the BRN Evangelism grant) with children and adults. Each person who listened to the presentation received their own evangecube to take home. While the church’s target audience was children, we were pleasantly surprised by the number of adults who also found the evangecubes fascinating and wanted one of their own to share with others. Aa an added bonus, East Shore Baptist Church was able to also invite every child who stopped by our tent to our upcoming Vacation Bible School. Many God-conversations ensued as a result of sharing the evangecubes, and several parents and children expressed interest in attending our Vacation Bible School, which will only provide further opportunities to share the hope found in Jesus! God is Good all the time—so share the gospel! Two specific stories and a comment from the night:I walked around the event with an evangecube just watching all the people interact. A little girl under the age of two walked towards me and I sat down on the grass and shared the gospel story with her through the pictures on the cube. Besides her mom, there were many people within earshot so the Holy Spirit would have been able to stir in their hearts as well. Another experience was when I was manning our table. There were three boy scouts who were at the tent next to us waiting in line to throw darts for a chance for a prize. One of the boys asked if he could have a cube and remarked that he did not have time to stop over after he threw the darts. I said, “No problem, I would be happy to stand in line with you and share.” As I did so, I talked about us being sinners and he commented that he was not a sinner. I said we are all sinners and he pointed to one of the boys with him and said, “Well, he is not a sinner.” The boy said, “No, I am a sinner.” I continued sharing the rest of the gospel story and the kid that said he knew he was a sinner asked me, “So if I believe, all I have to do is repent of my sins and I will have eternal life?” I assured him that was all he had to do. He had already admitted he was a sinner, if he confessed Jesus as Lord and repented of his sins, he would have eternal life. So cool! I probably shared the gospel with over 20 kids myself in the span of time I was there. Before the night, I asked the Holy Spirit to open eyes and ears as people came up to our table. Throughout the night kids would come up with parents and with other siblings. Out of those we shared with, it was evident to me who the Holy Spirit opened eyes and ears of. It was an amazing night and I cannot wait until next year!
