A Conversation with Alex and Manny

I was able to have my first full one-2 one conversation with two boys Alex and Manny this past Saturday. I had been giving out a whole bunch of tracts in Glendale and I only had three tracts left. I had met a girl Ashley who came out with the team and we struck a friendship that night. Seeing that we were almost done Ashley asked me if we could see if we could strike up a conversation with someone with the million dollars. At first I kind of hesitated and started to get a little nervous. I told her okay and that I had never really had a full one to one conversation with anyone before. She said that we should start off by praying. I said great. So sat by a water fountain and prayed together. I felt such a peace and comfort surround me that I really hadn't felt before that. So after that we headed off to find someone. She told me she thought it was best if we found someone sitting down at a table by themselves that didn't look like they were in a hurry. I aggreed. We walked up to one lady but when I handed her the million dollars she rejected it and didn't want to talk to us. But we didn't stop, we kept looking.

As we were coming to the end of the pathway Ashley spotted two guys about 15 or 16 years old and said we should talk to them. Okay..

"Hi, Did you get one of these?" I asked handing them a million dollar bill.

"No." they answered.

"Do you know what the million dollar question is?" Ashley asked.

"No."

"Where do you think you will go when you die?" Ashley asked.

"I don't know." Alex and Manny said.

"Do you think you would go to heaven or hell?"

"Heaven?" they replied with hesitation.

"What do you think you would have to do to get into heaven?" Ashley asked

"Have a lot of money." Alex said "Be kind." said Manny

"So be a good person?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah." they replied.

"Do you think you are a good person?" she asked

"Yes." they said.

"Can we take a couple minutes of your time to see if that is true?" she asked.

"Yeah. But only a couple of minutes." said Alex. He looked at his watch as if to time us.

"Well have you ever stolen anything, doesn't matter how small, cheated on a test?" Ashley asked.

"Even something small from Legoland?" Manny chuckled

"Doesn't matter what it was." Ashley said

"Yes."

"And if I were to steal from you, you would call me a..."

"Thief."

I jumped in. "Have you ever told a lie?"

"Yes"

"And if I lied to you I would be called a..." I asked

"Liar."

Ashley then jumped in. "So by your own admission you are liars and thieves."

She told them how they are breaking the Ten Commandments and asked them if they would be innocent or guilty. They tried using the excuse of what if they had done all these other nice things too. She took them through the courtroom analogy and asked them what they would think of the person that paid their fine. They said "Nice."

I jumped in. "That is exactly what God did. God came down to earth, God in the flesh as Jesus Christ. He died a horrible bloody death on the cross to pay for our sins so that we wouldn't have to spend an eternity in hell. But it isn't just enough to believe. We have to repent, turn away from our sins and put our faith in Jesus Christ alone to save us.

Alex asked "Where can I read about this?" Ashley told them to get themselves a Bible. Manny kind of chuckled and said "Maybe we should buy ourselves a Bible since they have been telling us this."

Ashley then took them through the parachute analogy. Manny tried to get around it by saying since you are flying over land couldn't you just drive to where you wanted to go. So we took them over water. Who would survive the fall the one with or without the parachute.

"The one with." Alex said. "Yes, we can't just believe in the parachute. We have to put it on and trust that it will open up."

"I see." Alex said.

Ashley suggested that they get a Bible and read it, pray about it. The time to get right with God is now.

Alex then mentioned how "My parents won't like this. They are Jewish." Ashley then told him how it was hard for her when she became a Christian and how she was actually raised in an atheist home and how the rest of her family was Atheist.

Afterwards Alex thanked us and we thanked them and they left. I could see by the conversation that God was working in Alex's heart. I felt an unspeakable joy and had to give Ashley a big hug. We prayed for them as we walked back. I told my dad and gave him a big hug as well. Please be praying with me that God would convict Alex and Manny and that they would repent of their sins and put their faith and trust in Christ alone to save them.

My first one-to-one conversation

I did it Saturday night around 6pm. I initiated my first one-to-one conversation. Here is my story.

I had been watching a couple of girls sitting beside a fountain down on Brand Boulevard and they were just chatting together. I felt this deep urge inside of me telling me to go and start a conversation with them.

I told myself no. But it kept nagging at me to share with them. So finally I said yes..

My heart was pounding in my chest. I looked to my dad and told him that I want to have a conversation with the girls.

'Oh no, I thought. There is no turning back now...'

My dad asked me if I wanted some spiritual support and back up and if I wanted him to go with me. I nodded my head yes. So we headed over to them.

We walked up to the girls my heart still pounding in my chest. I had a couple million dollar bills with me. "Did you get one of these?" I handed it to them.

"Do you know what the million dollar question is?" "What?" they asked.

"Do you know what happens to somebody when they die?" Silence. She said something that I don't remember. I had no idea what to say next. I looked to my dad for help. "Well what do you think you have to do to go to heaven? Be a good person?" he asked.

One of the girls said "yes." "Would you like to go through a good person test to see if that is true?" he asked.

"Yes." I took it from there. "Have you ever told a lie?" "Yes" she replied.

"If I lied to you what would you call me?"

"I don't know," she replied. I looked up at my dad again for help. He said "It rhymes with fire and starts with an L." She shrugged her shoulders. "Liar."

I asked her "Have you ever stolen anything, even something small, downloaded music that you didn't pay for?"

"No." she said.

"Have you used God's name to express disgust, like saying Oh my g."

"Huh" She wasn't understanding. Her friend standing next to her tried to explain. "Like saying Oh my G--."

"Yes." the other girl said. "That's called blasphemy." I said. The girl still didn't seem to understand. The other girls' phone started to go off. She said "You know what, we have to go. Our ride is here." "Oh Okay." I said. And that was it. That was the conversation I had.

After they left I talked to my dad and he said that he thought there was probably a language barrier between us since the girls were Hispanic. The girls were only 15 years old. After that I was able to hand out about 400-500 tracts that night. When I got back to the car, I broke down in tears. My dad gave me a big hug. I was so sorry that I couldn't really get in a deep conversation and share the gospel with those two girls because I was literally shaking with nervousness, my heart pounding and stuttering my words a lot and they had to leave as well. That was a huge step out of my comfort zone... Never before had I taken so huge a step to share the gospel with someone.