Do Not Just WATCH The Local Christmas Parade

Yesterday was the local Christmas Parade in our small town.

I suppose it's not that small. We've grown quite a bit over the past few years. The total population is about 5000. Still, we're no New York City, or Washington, D.C.

The closest highly populated city is about 28 miles away, with about 50,000 people. Of course, we normally go there for shopping and events. They rarely come to our town.

This morning my son and I headed to town for the Christmas Parade. Not to stand and watch, but to hand out tracts.

We expected several hundred people to line Main Street and watch the local dog-owner clubs, Girl Scouts, Pee-Wee Football Team, and fire equipment roll past.

We arrived about 45 minutes before the start of the parade, and found no one on the streets. No one.

Our little shopping centers (there are two) were busier than usual, but not a single family or lawn chair lined the street.

Perhaps it was because of the temperature? Thirty-four degrees is cold, but not unusual, for this time of year. Still, the sky was blue, and the air was calm. If you stayed in the sun, you could stay fairly warm without being bundled like Randy, the little brother in the movie, A Christmas Story, who had to waddle to school and could not get up when he fell down.

My son and I decided to stick it out. I had prayed before we left, and I was confident there were people who needed to hear or read the gospel. So, we waited. Surely, someone would come.

Only fifteen minutes before the parade was scheduled to begin, we started walking toward the assembly point. My plan was to walk alongside the parade all the way to the end, handing out tracts as we went.

But as we walked to the starting point, we saw only a few people... perhaps three to five each block. Still, we could see that some people were there all along, remaining inside their cars, enjoying the warmth. The promise of small crowds increased as we approached the drums, bagpipes, and police auxiliary who milled about for the start of the festivities.

As the escort car began to roll down the street, I crossed over. My son would take one side, I would take the other, and we'd meet up at the end.

We handed out Christmas Cash from Custom Tract Source. They were perfect! There is a picture of Santa on what appears to be a million dollar bill. On the back is a wonderful gospel presentation.

All we did was walk along with the parade, say "Merry Christmas" and hold the tracts out. People snatched them up with a cheery, "Thank you. Merry Christmas!"

We handed out over 600 tracts!

Here is some of the work we saw God do today:

• Many, many people appeared!
• Only about six or eight people declined to take the tracts, and some of them were probably just trying to keep their hands warm.
• We arrived at the end of the parade route at almost the exact minute the parade ended.
• I ran out of tracts completely just as the parade ended. My son had another pack in his pocket, but he gave out the last of the open tracts at about the same time I did.
• Just as the parade ended, and my son handed out his last two tracts, he was able to witness to two young men.
• One witnessing discussion my son had begun with a young man stating that God does not exist, and ended with him confessing that he needed to repent and give his life to Christ!
  

Interestingly, we saw several people we knew from local churches along the parade route, watching. While there is nothing wrong with watching parades, if we always watch, who is sharing the gospel? No one.

Next year, consider walking with the parade and sharing the gospel. I can promise you, you will be glad you did.