The day after Thanksgiving Day is culturally known as “Black Friday.” It is traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Merchants and the media have named it “Black Friday” to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers go from being in the red (posting a loss on the books) to being in the black (turning a profit). This year, on Friday, November 26, six Christians, from five churches, from four cities, from two ministries came together to address a need that most Black Friday shoppers had probably not given much thought to… eternity, specifically theirs.

The mission to evangelize the Appleton shopping area on Black Friday was solidified when two gospel ministries, Burnbrothers Ministries and Fishermen’s Call, came together to be obedient to the mandate to seek and save the lost. All the people involved in this mission were united in faith on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This endeavor began at 2 AM, as the laborers woke and gathered to start their trek to Appleton using the travel time as an opportunity to pray. The teams dispersed in two groups of three and headed towards the long lines at the stores that opened at 4 AM. The teams distributed a specially designed gospel tract to the many shoppers in line. The gospel tract’s message concluded with a challenging comparison between Black Friday and Good Friday. As the crowds were waiting for the stores to open for their “doorbuster sales,” they received the tracts with anticipation and curiosity.

Every shopper the team came in contact with received tracts. This opened doors to conversations on a spiritual level. For example, Anthony, a diabetic, was standing in line at Menard’s for a TV. After receiving the tract, he asked what it was and that opened up a 20-minute conversation. Anthony was convicted over his sins and his eternal destiny, and he was told the Good News of what God has done for him in Christ Jesus. He was left with the admonition to turn from his sins and turn to Christ and trust in Him.

One gentleman, after reading the tract returned it, explaining that the team could give it someone else. This opened up an opportunity to clearly explain the Gospel. After a ten-minute dialogue, the gentleman shook the evangelist’s hand and thanked him for his concern.

In one instance, a professing Christian was quick to criticize the method of evangelism being done by Burnbrothers Ministries and Fishermen’s Call while he waited in line at Best Buy for hours with non-believers around him as he remained silent about his faith. May the Lord open his eyes to the truth in 1 John 2:15-17: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions – is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

After all the stores opened their doors, the teams went to the mall to take advantage of the crowds on this busy shopping day. The fields were plentiful for the Gospel to be sown. Two foreign men from different kiosks were engaged in conversation with members from the team. One from Turkey and the other Nigeria. By God’s providence, three teenage girls from Appleton, Texas were shopping in Appleton, Wisconsin with their parents. While resting after an early shopping spree, one of the members of the team engaged them in honest conversation for half an hour about the reality of their eternity.

The two ministries finished the morning with breakfast at Mc Donald’s and received a sweet affirmation of the work done; they observed a woman in a near-by booth eating her breakfast sandwich as she read the Black Friday tract that she must have received early in the morning.

Let this be an encouragement to the Body of Christ that the Lord of the Harvest is increasing active laborers, so that much may be sown and much may be reaped. No immediate results were seen, but to pray for a harvest you must first plant the seed. Please pray for the souls of the shoppers that received gospel tracts on Friday, November 26, 2010 that the Lord would draw them unto His Son, the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.