A lot of Light on Black Friday - with Special guest writer Kristen Rasor

Most people look forward to Thanksgiving because it’s a time to reflect on the great things God has done throughout the year, and a chance to gorge themselves on great food, of which I am one. 

But another thing to look forward to is Black Friday. And the crowded stores. And the long lines. Sounds crazy for sure, but I know I’m not alone in seeing Black Friday as a great opportunity to evangelize the lost and hand out Gospel tracts. The people don’t realize it, but they are just standing there waiting for you to help relieve them of their boredom of waiting in line. And that is exactly what we did late last Thursday night, right on into Friday.

Our little, but mighty team of three really had no plan (not usual) of where to go, so we headed out to Target first, but surprisingly there were no lines. The store was busy inside though, and each of us went about handing out tracts, wishing shoppers a “Happy Thanksgiving”, and offering our sincere hope that they would find great deals. Then we heard from another friend that Kohl’s was busy, so we headed there.

And boy was it. There were lines to check out at the registers that wove throughout the store, and when we would ask people how long they had been waiting, they either said, “too long”, or “an hour”. Our tracts were getting low so we decided that Trish would hand out her “Are You A Good Mom?” tracts to the moms, Amy would hand out the “Are You A Good Dad?” tracts to the dads, and I would show my Curved Illusion tracts to the kids.

The response we got was truly great. No one refused a single tract, and people were eager to speak to us. 

One lady was handed the "Are You A Good Mom?” tracts and she quickly looked at it and read the question and looked back at us and said, "I am probably not a very good mom right now waiting in this line at this hour when my kids are at home!" She sort of laughed and then turned it over to read the back.

Trish broke from our plan and gave two teenage girls one of her “IQ Tombstone” tracts and told them how we had recently given those out the funeral of a girl who died in a car accident. One of the girls said that she had lost her mom in a car accident last year. Incredible moment.

Right after that I stopped to show my Curved Illusions to a group of ladies, while Trish and Amy kept moving ahead handing out tracts. They loved the Illusion tracts and after chatting with them a bit longer I left them to find Trish and Amy. I didn’t see them right away but knew I was headed in the right direction, because they left a breadcrumb trail of sorts. Almost every person I passed had a tract in their hand and was reading it. What a great sight to see.

After Kohl’s, we saw a small line of people waiting outside of a store waiting for the doors to open. Amy and I jumped out of the car, quickly handed out tracts (it was cold!), and jumped back in the car.

It was a great night for sure, but the highlight happened as we were starting to drive away from one store. An older man walked in front of our car from the parking lot on his way to one of the stores. Amy quickly rolled down her window and said to him, “Here, we have a gift for you”, and stuck her hand out to give him a tract. As he was reaching for it he said, “God bless you for what you’re doing.” That really took us by surprise. He hadn’t even seen the tract; he was merely reaching for it when he said that. Were we “entertaining an angel unaware” like Hebrews 13:2 says. Only God knows. ;-)

-The Tracts talked about can be found at THE FISH WITH TRISH STORE.