Thumbs "Out" for Witnessing

Elaine and I were at Cleveland Bethel Church of the Nazarene last night for a funeral. As things were drawing to a close, I saw two teenagers outside, standing at the bus stop. Not thinking anything of it, I went about my business. A little time later though, I was in the parking lot talking with a few members of the congregation and I noticed the two teens still at the bus stop, sitting on the sidewalk now. I decided to walk over and hand them each a Bible Tract and said, "Here ya go guys, something to read while you’re waiting for the bus" and I walked away. 

About 15 minutes after that, I had to unlock the door to let someone out of the church and I saw the two teens letting a bus pass them by. Curious, I decided to strike up a conversation. "Where are you guys trying to go," I asked. They said Parma and I looked at them confused. I queried, "Doesn't that bus go to Parma?" The one teenager told me that it was going to the wrong part of Parma and they had been waiting for a few hours for the right bus, but the right bus wasn't showing up. Feeling generous, I offered to give them a ride if they were still waiting when I was ready to leave the church. They agreed and I went inside to talk to my wife.

Twenty minutes later, we all hopped into our Chevy Prism and took off for Parma. Elaine and I began talking to them as we drove. They seemed to have somewhat of a Christian church background, but only through family association. I began to pry a little deeper into their spiritual backgrounds by asking, "What do you use as a guidebook for your lives?" Their answers were a bit shaky, finally deciding on "We decide for ourselves what's right and wrong." It was at that moment that I knew they needed to take the test... "The Good Person Test!" I asked, "Do you consider yourselves to be a good person?" They responded with, "I think I'm awesome" and "Ya, I'm a pretty good person." Let the test begin!

After going through the test, the teenagers realized that they were not good in the eyes of God. We shared with them exactly what needed to be done so that they could be right with God (Jesus paid their fine with his blood) and told them what they had to do (Repent and trust) in order to accept that gift that Jesus offers them. When we arrived at the destination, we found out that the girl was being dropped off and we were asked to give the boy a ride back to his house near the church. I shouted, "Praise the Lord" inside my head! "Sure, we'll give you a ride back man," I stated out loud.

The ride home was very productive, to say the least. The boy teenager had some questions for us concerning the different things that he had been told about the Bible. We answered his questions, showed him some verses of scripture, and gave our cell numbers to him, for when he or his "friend" had any other questions. When we pulled into his driveway, we asked if we could pray with him before we left and he agreed.

I'm guessing his dad was curious about the strange car in the driveway, because he came out asking who we were. I told the dad that we felt bad for his son having to wait on the bus for so long and offered him a ride. The dad said that was very nice of us, but he probably yelled at his son after we left about getting in the car with strangers. Overall, a wonderful drive out to Parma and back with some new friends that we hope to see again.

* Please do not try this at home. We are trained professionals that have a Savior Insurance Plan.