Another sign of hope

A reader writes:

I think this organization, St. Paul Street Evangelization, would be an amazing story.  They are a group of Catholics who take the Catholic Faith to the streets.  On Facebook, the group is rapidly growing a following among faithful Catholics, by posting pictures and articles of the experiences they have on the streets evangelizing our culture.  The page has 6000 followers.  The organization started only 6 months ago, and has spread to 10 cities accross the country.  It is in Texas, Detroit, Lansing, Chicago, New York, Oregon, Idaho, and more.

Their website is: http://streetevangelization.com/
The facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/CatholicStreetEvangelization

News items:  http://streetevangelization.com/in-the-news/

Their mission, vision, values:

Mission

St. Paul Street Evangelization is a grassroots, non-profit organization, dedicated to responding to the mandate of Jesus to preach the Gospel to all nations, by taking our Catholic Faith to the streets. We do this in a non-confrontational way, allowing the Holy Spirit to move in the hearts of those who witness our public Catholic presence. Christ’s call to evangelize was made to every Catholic Christian, and as an on-the-street Catholic evangelization organization, St. Paul Street Evangelization provides an avenue for Catholics to share the Person of Jesus Christ and the truth and beauty of the Catholic Faith with a hungry culture. St. Paul Street Evangelization is in ten cities across the nation and is working with over 20 other groups that are in various stages of becoming operational.

Vision:

St. Paul Street Evangelization seeks to provide the tools, resources, and inspiration to local groups throughout the country and world which will allow them to duplicate our non-confrontational method of Catholic evangelization in their home towns.

Values:

St. Paul Street Evangelization is committed to bringing about the conversion of our culture by presenting the truth of the Catholic Faith and is faithful to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church as defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and by the Magisterium.

Patrons:

The patrons of St. Paul Street Evangelization are St. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, and Servant of God, Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

Some stories from their facebook page posts:

“Here is one example of a recent reversion story that we had recently.  This man approached us and informed us that he was a fallen away Catholic. He said that he had lived an extremely sinful life and he knew that he would be heading to hell if he didn’t change, but he did not know what he needed to do. Steve, one of our Evangelists from our Portland team in Oregon, explained that God is merciful and would forgive his sins if he was willing to give his life back to Him, go to confession, return to the sacraments and live in accord with the teachings of the Church. He said he was willing to do it, so Steve invited him to go to Mass, which he agreed to, and followed that with confession. The man thanked Steve and said he has found a new Catholic Home. They have kept in touch since. Praise God for loving the Prodigal Sons of our world.  Our evangelists have experiences like this each time they go out.  Each one of the hundreds of photo’s on our facebook page has a story that you can check out here.”

“This Protestant Christian approached us with a video camera and asked if we would mind if he videotaped us. He proceeded to question us on different aspects of Christian doctrine such as salvation, Hell, sin, praying to the saints and other topics.

At one point during the conversation he told us that we were going to hell as Catholics and unless we repent, leave the Church, and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, we would never be saved. Steve told him that he has accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and tried to clear up all his misconceptions of the Church with him. Even though this gentleman had been hostile towards Steve for some of the conversation, Steve gave him his telephone number and told him to call him if he had any further questions. ”

“Here Nick discusses the Faith with this man for over an hour. Even though he was Buddhist, this man was very open to the Catholic Church. He had only interacted with Protestants in the past, so he was totally blown away when presented with rational arguments about why Catholics believe what we do. Nick also explained how various key Buddhist teachings ultimately could not be right, such as reincarnation, an agnostic/pantheistic view of Creation, and subjective morality.”

Hundreds more like this here: https://www.facebook.com/CatholicStreetEvangelization/photos_stream