Ministry at McDonald's?

We all have prejudices to overcome. Mine is McDonald's. I knew moving abroad would entail changing my habits and preferences to adapt to my new home and culture. I never thought I would have to be open to McDonald's.

Mr. Larry and Jess, I know you are both proud. I have now gone to McDonald's three days in a row. And I've had good conversations with people--several where I was able to discuss spiritual things.

I've been hanging out in various coffee shops in our neighborhood where we work. Jonathan always goes to Joe's Cafe to hang out. Sometimes I go with him, but most of the time I'll go off by myself for a few hours and we'll meet up later. This has allowed us to have better conversations with some people. I enjoy the local coffee shops and have had a few good conversations in them, but most people are studying. They camp out in the coffee shop for hours and only want to talk some. I wanted to find a new place to meet people. I discovered McDonald's, quite by accident at first.

I went in with a friend one night out of sheer desperation. We couldn't find a place still open for coffee. I made a couple of discoveries that night: 1. McDonald's green tea is pretty good 2. It fits in my budget better than coffee shops do 3. A lot of international students hang out there 4. Most people are willing to talk if they are there by themselves

I hit the jackpot as far as places to meet people go...much better than my coffee shops or the gym.

Jonathan and I went there on Tuesday, and he met a couple of guys and got to talk awhile. While he was talking, a couple of girls gave me suggestions on things to do in Vancouver. Wednesday I went back by myself. I met Ann, a Taiwanese girl who moved here 10 months ago. I sat by her, and we began talking. We were still talking two hours later. We talked about her life, moving here, Christianity, and more. I showed her the Bible in her language on Biblegateway, and she said she'd read it. We exchanged numbers and other contact information.

Today I went back. The first hour no one really wanted to talk, so I read an assigned book for class. The good thing about McDonald's is that people don't normally stay there for a long time, so these people left and more came in.While reading I kept praying and looking around. I family speaking in Spanish sat by me. I started talking to them and talked for awhile. Once they left, Juan, who moved here from Mexico four years ago, sat beside me. We began talking and talked for more than half an hour. I was able to talk about spiritual thing with him some, but not in depth since he wasn't too interested in that. He did give me some recommendations on Mexican food here, though!

While I was talking to him, two women came and sat on my other side. One prayed over her food. When Juan left, I turned and talked to them. The women are believers but don't have a church right now. We talked for a little while, and I invited them to our Bible study. They were excited and said they'd come. I gave them my contact information and wrote down our Bible study location and time. As we walked out of McDonald's, we heard one of the women say to the other one, "That is so cool. That's what I was looking for."

So, I recant from all of my rants against McDonald's. While it is not my preference of places, I will happily drink my green tea there several times a week to try to meet people. And I will trust God to open doors and do his work.