I have done a lot of witnessing in shopping malls over the past few years. Normally in the mall we have one eye out for the lost and the other for the security guards. We’ve had run ins with security, but typically we have been able to witness at the malls and talk to lots of people without any issues. We thank God, prayers and experience in doing this.
On Saturday, my wife, youngest son and I met up with Darrel Rundus who started the Prayer Stop and did some witnessing with the Denton Golden Triangle Mall. Darrel’s church is located in the mall and they set up the prayer stop right in front of the church “store front”. We stood in front of the church store front and handed out tracts and candy canes. Then we told people that we were offering the gift of prayer and asked how we could pray for them. A number of people gave us prayer requests.
I prayed for one man to lose weight. A group of college students asked for prayer for their friend who needs healing of his sight and new glasses. We prayed together with a couple of sisters who their other sister is going through a divorce. Gathering prayer requests also enabled us to share the Gospel with people one on one. We simply would say, “we are going to conclude the prayer in Jesus’ name. Do you know why we do that?” This would allow us to see where they stand with Jesus and then share the Gospel with them before we pray.
On other occassions we would ask, “can we pray for you?” and they might respond, “no, I’m good.” Using a play on words, we could then ask if we could give a quick test to see if that is true. This lead directly to the good test.
I was only there for a couple of hours. I must have given out over 100 tracts and candy canes and prayed with five or six people and had several short conversations with several others. At one point a security guard came by who was looking for a handicapped boy who had been separated from his party. Darrel stepped up and asked if we could pray for him to find the boy. The security guard agreed and Darrel prayed. Other security guards got candy canes. I believe Darrel has shared the Gospel with them already. We were free to roam around in front of the store front and hand out tracts and security did not bother us at all.
A really nice feature of the Prayer Stop ministry is that they gather the prayer request on “prayscription” cards. These cards allow capturing data like name and prayer request. And also have a place to write some notes to the person giving the prayer request. With the guy who asked for pray to lose weight I was able to refer him to a web site and some scripture and then give him that part of the prayer card. The top portion of the prayer card was collected at the Prayer Stop. These will be entered into the online database of prayer requests that Prayer Stop Counselors can continue to pray for these peoples needs.
Darrel’s group prayed with over 50 people over two days this weekend. They saw at least three people come to salvation! I was glad to be able to be a part of the Prayer Stop and look forward to participating again soon at the mall or any other event. Please check out the video montage below that Darrel put together with pictures from the two day outreach. If you live in North Texas you might like to join Darrel on Friday evenings and Saturdays witnessing at the Denton Golden Triangle Mall from now until Christmas.
