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This would be well beyond the scope of “ordinary” for most of us, but I thought it was worth sharing because the story didn’t end like these usually do, and Paul and his posse seemed ok about that.

Me and some friends have been hitting some city projects lately just seeing if we could pray and minister to people. My wife saw a girl sitting on a porch and asked if she needed prayer. While she was speaking with her, her boyfriend came out of the house I began to talk with him and ask if he needed prayer. It turns out he was totally deaf in his right ear.

We told him like Jesus said “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (ref. Luke 10:8). He looked at me kind of strange and I began to explain that means God’s kingdom is right here in our midst. He let us pray for his ear when we ask if it felt any different he said he was feeling pressure in his ear. He also shared he didn’t have an eardrum, we were encouraged figuring if God put a new eardrum in you’d feel some pressure.

We prayed again and then he started to say I can totally hear out of my ear. We were all pretty shocked because we had never witnessed a deaf ear healed. It was awesome. He began to tear up saying he didn’t know why God would do something like that for him. We just shared that it’s because God loves you so much. He wasn’t ready to give his life to the Lord but he was totally blessed. We were able to follow up on them the next few days so that was very cool getting to know them.

–Paul

Note: Asking strangers if you can pray for them can sometimes come across as patronizing, arrogant, or self-righteous (I’m ok, you’re not).  This is a practice that requires a high degree of sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Like any spiritual practice, if it’s just a technique to make you feel better about YOU, it’s bogus. But if you’re paying attention to the Spirit…well, almost anything can happen!

Today I went for lunch at BPs. I had the most delicious buffalo chicken sandwich. I never steer away from it and try anything else, it’s just too good. It’s a very large sandwich and I usually eat the whole thing. I just can’t stop eating it. But afterward I hurt and immediately regretted my impulsive decision. Today I ate only half of it and boxed the other half.

Today I also met Hank. Well Hank is his street name he says. His real name is Henry. I met him walking home from school. He stopped me and asked for a quarter. I did my usual, “Sorry I have no money” but we continued to talk. He told me he’s a lone ranger, originally from Battleford. Between his slurred speech and drooling he also told me he’s 57 and I also heard the word “hungry” somewhere in there. Perfect, I thought! I have half a sandwich. I gave it to him and he seemed excited. But he told me not to worry about him because he’s a survivor. He went to a Residential School, been through two divorces and traveled all over alone. When I asked if he had kids he immediately broke down and cried, telling me he had a son but the police found him frozen just outside of Saskatoon ten years ago. My heart sank. I asked him if I could pray for him and he tried to brush me off, saying he was fine. But he never left. He then let me pray for him and in the middle of the School Division parking lot, as people walked past, I prayed for him. We kissed and hugged and talked some more and said good-bye a hundred times but never seemed to be able to leave.

Half of what is mine is yours.

John was speaking to a crowd, and after he called them all vipers, they asked, “What should we do then?” John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” (Luke 3:11)

People interpret this many ways. But I say, if you have a whole buffalo chicken sandwich, half of it doesn’t belong to you.

(Many thanks to Jason VanBinsbergen for passing this wonderful story along to us.  Canada rocks.)

Reaching Out to Neighbors Different From Us from Recycle Your Faith.

I thought this week’s post by April said something really important about one of our simple, spiritual practices we call “noticing”…so I wanted to post part of it here on the Ordinary Attempts page as a reminder that noticing is a transformational practice, both for us and those we notice.  Read the whole article by clicking on the link in the byline.

“Imagine living in a place (a nursing home) where you are ignored or not understood.  People assume that you don’t think because you can’t communicate, but imagine that once a month a group of people come along and they look down into your eyes and they notice you.  They notice that you are in there still thinking, still understanding in whatever capacity that you are able.  They notice it and in noticing, they are giving you hope that it could happen again.  Suddenly, those fifteen minutes become so much more important than the icecream social that you enjoyed the day before.  Love doesn’t come by shoving a cup of ice cream into someone’s hands.  It comes from the spirit.

Our ministry (to seniors) isn’t anything special other than that we are there and that we notice.  In noticing, we are more aware of what’s going on inside the eyes of those we greet.  Anyone can do the music, the prayer, and the message, but not everyone notices.  Not everyone makes that exchange that gives hope to those who thought they were invisible.  We humans need each other.  We need to be needed and noticed.

If you haven’t noticed anyone in a long time, then you have been asleep.  You have allowed unimportant trivial matters to rob you of one of life’s greatest secrets.  You have the hope that others need, but you have to take notice first.  You have to look into the eyes, see the soul, and make the exchange.  No one can do it for you, and if you aren’t doing it, you are missing out on one of life’s beautiful and unique mysteries.”

We’ve been posting information the past few months about a rather exciting new conference experience that was created by a team of four women.  The conference called “Ordinary Influence” was a really creative two-day experience for women in a denomination’s region.  I thought some of you would be interested to hear how it worked out and some might want to do an OI conference yourself (see the postscript).  Here’s the report from Gretchen Carlson:

The conference was high energy and must have scratched an itch.  Bottom line:  Women want to feel comfortable sharing their faith.

We had 190 women attend, representing 20 churches and all ages.  We asked for immediate feedback and there were 145 responses.  (very positive) We’re sending a follow up email evaluation later.   Good weather was sandwiched in between two weekends of snow.  Thank you, God.

We called it a conference because we wanted a format different from typical women’s retreats.  Plus, we didn’t want to have to arrange the hassle of one hotel or conference center. The host church had families who opened their homes for free overnight lodging, but otherwise, women found their own hotels.  We held it Friday from 7 – 8:30 at a church.  Then we offered a continental breakfast from 8-8:25 Sat. morning.  The sessions ran from 8:25 – 3:00 with 45 minutes for lunch.  We served soup, salads and rolls.  Two churches contributed the bulk of the food  (only the soup was catered).  We charged $15 for early registration and $25 for late registration.  We kept it cheap – very purposefully. We had tons of door prizes, chocolate, and table center pieces (women like fluff and chocolate) – but it all was donated and done by church women.

One “philosophy”: When doing something, gather as many people as possible to help.  The more ownership that people have, it goes better.  It’s not hard to ask and most individuals are happy to pitch in (especially when it’s simple like making a salad.)

The women who attended were impressed with Ordinary Influence, and we trust they will follow its heartbeat.    We are excited that many of the discussion leaders at OI are reporting different ways they are following up in their churches.  Some are leading Sunday School classes on evangelism; others are creating “support networks” so women can share stories and encourage and pray for each other.

A key strength of OI was that there were four speakers, and they all were ordinary women.  (There was a lot of positive feedback about that.)  The speakers simply read  books on evangelism and then shared experiences around major teaching points such as:  Don’t manipulate conversations to fit in gospel presentations.  Don’t view people as projects (let’s get them saved).  Count conversations, not just conversions.  Be real  and skip the “canned” messages.  Serve and love.

These themes felt like a breath of fresh air, a new way of sharing the gospel for many women.

Interested in putting on an Ordinary Influence Conference for women in your neck of the woods?  OI coach Gretchen Carlson is willing to help make it happen.  Email me at “randy at DoableEvangelism.com” and I’ll hook you up!

My friend’s brother died. This friend honestly intimidates me. She is an accomplished attorney who has argued a case before the US Supreme Court and won. I only know anything about her because I clean her house. When I found out about her brother’s death, I baked banana bread and showed up at her house. All I said was,”I heard about your brother. I don’t know what to say, but in hard times I like to feed people.” She invited me in and I listened to her talk about memories of her brother. I didn’t pray (except behind her back) or mention God or Jesus. Keeping my mouth shut doesn’t “feel” like evangelism, but Doable Evangelism encourages me that it can be a step in nudging others towards Jesus. If Jesus can use a few fish, maybe He can use banana bread too. I have to let go and let Him work.

The power of doing small, ordinary attempts is that it can start a movement.  Everyone can play.  Everyone wants to.  This is an example of someone doing something doable, invisible, and anonymous.  This was so powerful that it continued to be passed on by each recipient for nearly five hours.

Spread the joy this Christmas season.  Do what’s doable.

Here’s the link to the story: LINK

Yesterday I had a doctor’s appointment that I showed up to on time at the start of their afternoon yet still had to wait 20 minutes before getting seen. So as I sat in a much-too-quiet waiting room, I chose to not bury my nose in a magazine but instead try to notice the people around me. I first noticed that I was the only patient in the waiting room, so I noticed the receptionist.

She was a brown-eyed girl in her twenties with long dark hair. She wore blue scrubs and had a nice manner with people on the phone. She hadn’t quite finished her lunch as I could hear the crunch of chips behind the wall she would retreat to to grab a quick bite. She looked coworkers in the eyes when she spoke with them and the patients as well as they finally started to file in.

I had to take rather quick glances because she was mindful of my presence in the waiting room as well and I was trying to avoid that awkward mutual glance … the one when you both accidentally look at each other at the same time without meaning to and then with embarrassment, quickly revert your eyes back the floor.

As other patients sat down, I noticed them as well. The silence was never broken by any of us and felt similar to standing quietly in an elevator with people. But at least for 20 minutes of my day I was intentionally thinking of and noticing others – giving my mind a break from the hours of thought revolved around myself =)

In the past couple of years a change has been occurring within me. I used to be (and often still am) a judgmental sort of person. I started noticing myself having negative judgmental feelings toward others who were doing something unsafe such as riding a motorcycle without a helmet, or speeding and passing unsafely while driving.

My natural response to this would be to get angry, and think that the person would “get theirs” by ending up in an accident – so obviously not a very Jesus-like response.

Then one day while I was driving and a young man on a motorcycle popped a wheelie on I-95, I realized that if Jesus were seeing this person he’d want to show love, not judgment. All of us are guilty of using bad judgment somewhere in our lives; and we wouldn’t others to think worse of us, or judge us unfairly because of it.

So, instead of giving vent to my negative feelings of how stupid my fellow man could be, I prayed that God would keep the young man safe. I do that now whenever I see an unsafe situation people are involved in. The people I pray for may never know it. However, I believe it makes a difference not only for them, but it has been transforming me from the somewhat self-righteous person I was to someone who cares about people whether she knows them or not.