Before our mission team left for New York City, we knew that Missionary Ron Taylor did “subway evangelism.” We don’t have subways in Cincinnati, Ohio, so there was not one member of our seven-person missions team that wasn’t looking forward to an evening of “subway evangelism.”
But the devil was really working against it. Subway evangelism was scheduled for Wednesday. We planned to leave about 5:00 pm so we could catch the rush-hour commuters. On Tuesday, during day camp, a couple of the boys roughhousing with Ron hurt his back. So he had to squeeze in a visit to his chiropractor on Wednesday after day camp. That pushed our subway evangelism into the six-o’clock hour. By the time Ron was back from the doctor and we had everything together and were ready to go, it was 6:30, and we still had a one-hour subway ride to Union Square, where Ron intended to hand out tracts.
He was trying to start a new work in Union Square, and if we hit the subway riders in Rockaway Beach, where the church was located, we would have caught mostly beach-goers and tourists. Ron was looking to establish connections with permanent residents. So we had to travel some distance away to do that. The subway would take us longer than driving, but if we drove, not everyone could participate. Finding a parking place next to the train station at Union Square would have been impossible. So we were in a trick. We were hoping to catch the rush-hour commuters, and the time was slipping away.
Wanting to do what was best for Ron and help in anyway possible, Barry, our pastor, volunteered to drive. That decided, we scrambled into our fifteen-passenger rental van and took off. It still took us an hour to get there, maneuvering through some horrendous traffic. Barry dropped us off at about 7:20, but by the time we were actually in the subway area set up, it was 7:40.
We were all separated, standing in different locations, holding up a little green card and yelling out, “May I pray for you? Would you like me to pray for you?” Hundreds of people rushed by me without even acknowledging my offer. They were focused on catching their connecting trains. Many people made brief eye contact and gestured “no” as they ran by me. A few people took the card from me as they hurried on. But a couple of people stopped to talk to me, sharing their concerns and very specific prayer requests. Everyone of us got to pray with someone, and we collected email addresses from them for Ron to follow up with them and their requests. Only eternity will reveal the impact we had on lives that day.
We stayed there about an hour. As we were exiting the subway station, we saw our van drive by. Barry was going to drive around Manhattan for an hour waiting for us to come out. As it turned out, God had provided him with a parking spot a few blocks away. While waiting for us, he went into a coffee shop and had a cup of coffee. And God gave him opportunities to witness right there. He had just left the coffee shop and drove by the subway station when we had come out. (Talk about timing!) Of course, this was New York City, so a green light didn’t mean anything because he was stuck in traffic. So we ran up to the light, crossed at the intersection, wound our way through stopped cars, and climbed into the van while Barry was sitting in traffic. Only God could have planned that.