Fishing Report: Mitch's Problem and Our Problem

It was a rare Sunday fishing trip on August 1, as we headed out for a rare late afternoon trip to speak with folks about eternity. We normally go on Saturday mornings, so it was hard to know what to expect.

We went to the local park we usually go to, and there was hardly anyone there. Not surprising, since the heat index was about 108 degrees. We did, however, find a nice gentleman to speak with.

His name is Mitch, and he's 82 years old. He lost his wife 4 years ago, and has COPD. The biggest challenge with Mitch was getting him to care about eternal things. Each conversation is surprising and different in its own way. Here's a man who's no doubt facing eternity very soon, and his fate will be sealed for all eternity. Yet no amount of pleading, explaining, or illustrating could get him to care. Nathan presented the Gospel to him, but he really didn't care. I'm not sure it mattered a lot what we could've done.

Charlie and I had a bit of a different mindset. We wanted to plead with this man until he had some feeling of concern, or leave him to think about it. After the conversation, we had a long talk about, basically, our biggest problem - getting on the same page.

The closest we came to a solution - so that 3 people aren't dragging the conversation in 3 different directions - is to resolve to each take a conversation while the other 2 prayed and kept (mostly) silent. At this point, time was short, so we were off to find some more fish. The next conversation was mine.

As it turns out, we approached 2 people who go to a local church here in town (the same church as our frisbee golfers last time). They said they were Christians. I told them, "OK, I'm putting you on the spot. I've got 3 minutes to live, I've got a knife i my back. What must I do to be saved?"

For 30 seconds, they him-hawed nervously, fumbling for the words, not knowing how to respond.


"I've go 2 and a half minutes left! What must I do? Hurry!" I challenged.
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Surprisingly, they could both clearly articulate the Gospel (sort of). I asked them when was the last time they shared the Gospel with someone. They both could relay an encounter with someone they've witnessed to in the last couple months, and I think we all left very encouraged.

Time was running out. It was time to get a fish for Nathan. Unfortunately, the person we approached didn't want any part of a spiritual conversation, and time was up.

But Nathan's chance was only 6 short days away. Hopefully, you'll get to hear those conversations from today for yourself. I'm off to try to make that happen.