“Can I interest you in a dessert?” The waiter asks, standing with his pen and notepad poised to scribble down our order.
I’m sitting with Ed and Ruth at a polished wooden table at an Italian restaurant, where stacks of our empty plates testify to how much we enjoyed our pasta.
“Do you have Affogato?” Ed asks eagerly. Affogato, an Italian dessert, is one of Ed’s favorite treats.
Our waiter, whose name tag on his black apron says “Danny”, smiles apologetically. “I’m not sure what that is.
”Ed smiles. “Do you have ice cream?” he asks.
The waiter nods. “Yes we do.”
“Do you have espresso?” Ed continues.
“Yes…”
“Good! I’ll take both of those things and show you an affogato.”
The waiter leaves and then returns with a shot of espresso in a tiny cup and a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a dainty stainless steel bowl. Ed pours the espresso over the ice cream, which melts slowly, melding together the sweet and bold flavors. The waiter watches with wide eyes like he’s seeing a magic trick.
“Wow, that looks amazing!” he says. “I’ll have to show that to my family. I just started working here so no one’s ever asked me if we have affogato before.”
Ruth smiles. “Well, you’re doing a great job! Can we pray for you and your family?”
The waiter blinks a few times as though he heard her wrong. “Really? You’d pray for me?”
“Of course!” Ed says. “God cares about you.”
The waiter is silent for a moment, and his eyes shine with tears. “Thank you, that means a lot to me.” He shares with us some hardships his family has faced lately. Ed, Ruth, and I join hands and pray for him.
As we pray, I think about how Jesus and the early Christians shared the gospel. From Jesus’ miracles in the marketplace (e.g. the water into wine, the healing of the leper) to the apostles praying for healing for the blind beggar, the divine meeting of people’s needs was something that happened continually in the New Testament and opened people’s hearts to God’s goodness. In every interaction he had with others, Jesus reversed the results of the fall: the pain, sickness, sin, fear, and hopelessness.
Often, it’s really difficult for us to help non-believers understand who Jesus is and that He cares about them personally. But through demonstrating God’s goodness (be it through prayer, a prophetic word, acts of kindness, etc.), we can create meaningful connections with others as we share the Good News of salvation.
As we finish the prayer, Ruth invites Danny to come to an event at church. As we wrap up our meal and leave the restaurant, I hope that we’ll have another chance to talk to Danny. The next time we go to the restaurant and sit down in a comfortable booth, I look around, wondering if Danny is here today. Suddenly, he pops out of the swinging kitchen doors and makes a beeline for our table. “Thank you for praying for me! Seriously, you have no idea how much that meant to me,” he says.
“I am so glad to hear that! Would you like to meet the God who we prayed to?” Ed says.
“I’d love to! I just need to get this other table’s dessert orders, I’ll be right back.”
Danny turns to the table next to us, asking if they’d like any dessert. The elderly couple at the table look at each other and then pleadingly at Danny. “We can’t possibly decide. What do you recommend?”
Danny smiles. “Do you like ice cream?”
“Yes!”
“Do you like coffee?”
“Yes!”
“Then I think I have just the thing for you!” He grins at us and heads back to the kitchen with a mysterious air.
Ed, Ruth, and I all laugh together, grateful for another day of prayer evangelism.
– Eutychus
(To learn more about prayer evangelism, check out Ed Silvoso’s book Prayer Evangelism, available at transformourworld.org/store)
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