Thursday, October 05, 2006

Cool restaurant owner. Thu, Oct 5, 2006.

10/05/2006. Going home from sitting in on a missionary lesson, I stopped at a chain restaurant (not a fast food place) to have an early supper.

I wouldn't have expected a franchise of this store to likely be owned or operated by immigrants, but I figured that I was going to talk to somebody there, since it seemed like a prompting.

It turned out the owner-manager is a delightfully outgoing and chatty grandfatherly type. He has a cool accent, so I just asked "I don't recognize your accent, where are you from?" He's originally from a Middle-Eastern country, but has been in the US a very long time. We chit-chatted a bit, and even as I was sitting and eating, he still initiated casual conversation a few times. His friendly style had turned this franchise store into a cool mom-and-pop.

For some reason I decided, no inspiration -- just my own decision, not to present any church material in his native language at that time. I wanted to come back and make a presentation on another occasion. And I felt comfortable with that decision. This restaurant is near my area of activity, so there was no sense of urgency as if this were the only opportunity.

2 Comments:

At 10/07/2006 06:16:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wish that I were able to share the Gospel like you!

I think it would be great to be friends with you, but it seems that you are super busy as you say you spend a lot of time already online. So I will just enjoy reading your blog and seeing you at Annegb's blog. And I will count you as a friend in the online community sense. I really get a lot out of just participating with people on blogs and forums as I mentioned before.

 
At 10/07/2006 07:28:00 PM, Blogger Bookslinger said...

When I'm out in public, I don't consider it sharing the Gospel.

"Sharing the Gospel" is a big mental hurdle for me as much as anyone. What I'm doing is giving out free books. As regards to this project/activity, I try to focus my mind on offering people a pair of free books, one in their native language and one in English.

Therefore I don't have to face the "sharing the Gospel" hurdle.

All I have to say is :
1. They're in your language and in English.
2. They're free.
3. They're from my church.
4. It's Christian material, is that okay?
5. I have some with me, would you like to see them right now?

The Book of Mormon speaks for itself. The topic of the book is printed right on the cover in the sub-title. There's no further explanation needed, unless they ask.

And if they ask, then there is no hurdle, because they have turned it into a religious discussion, and all I have to do at that point is answer their questions.

 

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