Day three of mission found the Naremburn Cammeray mission team back on the street, this time at the train stations: Artarmon, St Leonards, Chatswood, and Wollstonecraft.
“We grabbed a bunch of leaflets,” explains Dan, “stood near the entrance, people were coming from all directions, and I was handing out leaflets.”
Most of the team found that half to a quarter of the commuters accepted invitations, with about forty to fifty invitations being accepted per student.
“One factor was level of stress as they were running to get the train,” suggests Will, “Another factor was their perception of Christianity, another was how friendly I was, whether I smiled or not.”
“I think I had a slight advantage,” continues Will “because I had an English accent. As soon as they heard my voice they paused, so had a more time, a very small surprise factor than I wouldn’t have had in England.”
One of the big challenges of leafleting is rejection.
“Yesterday I felt rejected more personally,” explains Liz, “today it was okay, they were busy people rushing to work and I was okay with that, and I knew it would only be an hour.”
“I had a mixture of feelings,” adds Will, “ranging from didn’t mind, to a bit put out to saddened by their attitude and all that played into it. I was saddened by their hostility to church.”
But of course, a large majority didn’t reject the flyer.
“It makes it worth it,” muses Dan, “the past five rejections disappear, and some people actually thank you. So it’s a constant up and down in terms of emotion but you have to keep on going and not give up in the down.”
“I was glad that someone took the thing,” says Sam, “and I was glad when I had a conversation. Even though they didn’t accept the flyer. One lady was quiet saddened and angry at the greed of the Catholic church, so I just commiserated with her.”
The question is of course, did it work?
“Yeah, definitely,” says Dan without a second thought, “I guess that’s one way to connect with the community, to show at least that the church existed, and you know God works in many different ways.”
Will thinks no differently, “Yes, I think it was worth it, it was because it took minimal time and effort, and gave fairly wide coverage, it would certainly be worth it if out of the hundreds of people five or six can come to church.”
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