By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter
[img_assist|nid=6069|title=Greg Hand, pastor of Vieux Carre Baptist Church in the French Quarter has brief encounters with revelers to share the gospel|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=67|height=100]NEW ORLEANS – Like “boots on the ground” on foreign soil, evangelism teams share the Gospel in New Orleans during Mardi Gras in a difficult and not-so-comfortable setting. The long hours of work bring but few to faith in Christ.
Greg Hand, pastor of Vieux Carre Baptist Church in the French Quarter, said brief encounters in tourist-swollen streets make it difficult to track conversions and the long-term results of their work.
So, why bother?
“We are called to be a light,” Hand said. “It’s an imperative. That’s why we do this.”
Though the numbers may be small, evangelism teams report professions of faith every year, said David Cobb, a North American Mission Board Intentional Community Evangelism (ICE) team member and the founder of the David Cobb Evangelistic Ministries.
Cobb’s team works alongside churches at events that draw large crowds. This year marks Cobb’s thirtieth year at Mardi Gras, many of which have been in tandem with Vieux Carre.
Cobb shared last year with three college students who did not make professions of faith on the street, but later each notified him of a commitment to Christ.
Debbie Smith, a Mission Service Corps missionary serving in New Orleans, shares the Gospel with children before Rex, the signature Mardi Gras parade culminating Carnival. Though space along a parade route goes to whoever gets there first, Smith has found the spot open each year of the last four years.
“God reserved it for us,” Smith said.
One little girl who came to faith in Christ returned the following year to tell the children at Smith’s tent about her decision. The girl told how she had worn the evangelism bracelet to school that Smith had given her.
Smith looks to her own experience as encouragement for returning each year to tell children about Christ.
As a child, Smith regularly attended the Mardi Gras celebration in Mobile, Ala., with her family. One year, a man handed her a Gospel tract. Years later, Smith became a Christian.
“I was the little girl in the crowd once,” Smith said. “I’ve never forgotten what the man did that day.”
Hand said one measurable result is the increased number of men from his small congregation who joined the evangelism effort this year. Five men, along with Cobb’s team of 50 men, lived at Vieux Carre with Hand the week before Mardi Gras in order to evangelize at parades leading up to Fat Tuesday.
Hand said Barkus, a Sunday parade “krewed” by dogs and their owners, is a major outreach event for the church. The parade rolls by the church’s front doors as church members hand out water, treats and share the Gospel.
This year, the church’s doors remained open following the parade to invite revelers into a Super Bowl party with an evangelistic emphasis.
Frank Robertson, 74, from Maryland, marks 30 consecutive years with Mardi Gras evangelism. Cobb said Robertson had been his mentor.
Robertson told of a woman who returned to New Orleans one year for the funeral of her estranged husband and was distraught over broken family relationships. Robertson gave her a tract and spoke with her about God’s love.
The woman attended the worship service at Vieux Carre the following Sunday and told the crowd she had considered suicide before receiving the tract, Robertson said.
“I just want you to tell you,” the woman said during the service. “[Street evangelism] makes a difference.”
Local churches provide follow-up. Team members contact churches in the hometowns of those who make spiritual commitments.
The purpose of Mardi Gras outreach is to sow seeds for the Gospel and to be “purveyors of grace,” Hand said.
Well-meaning Christian groups sometimes are put off by the destructive behavior exhibited at Mardi Gras and become abrasive in their evangelistic approach, Hand said.
Love and service to others are more persuasive than judgment, Hand said.
“We know what sinners do. They sin,” Hand said. “We want to offer them a way of escape.”
Cobb agreed that compassion is more productive than a judgmental attitude during street ministry.
“Most are feeling guilty already,” Cobb said. “If we tell people enough that God loves them, that God cares for them, that Jesus gave his all for them, then someday that love will win out.”