Off the Map's "Ordinary Attempts"

I found them because they are the people who bought the ebay atheist's church attendance for $504.00. I love their slogan: "Helping Christians be Normal". And I am very impressed with their approach:

"Christians still don’t really believe me when I say 'We are not trying to convert Hemant' . The purpose of this assignment is not to get Hemant saved (using some secret methods he can’t quite figure out). The one and only purpose of this assigment is to have Hemant tell us christians what he thinks about us and our products and services (we call it a service don’t we?). I would like to suggest that we refrain from trying to overtly or covertly convert Hemant and instead ask him questions about his experience, observations and thoughts after parchuting into our world. We are the ones who need to be converted - Hemant can work his own issues out with God (or his non god)"

The Ordinary Attempts section includes stories chronicling a very nontraditional approach to evangelism -- ordinary activities that you’re already doing. Not a program, pitch or presentation, but a simple shift in how we view the people formerly known as lost. Jesus said, “If you give a cup of cold water to a little child because you are my disciple you won’t lose your reward.” Matthew 10:42

Our culture's equivalent of a cup of cold water is attention.

Here's my oa (in as close to 200 words as I could make it):

After Hurricane Rita, we welcomed a man and woman into our home for 2 weeks. The woman professed belief in Jesus; her friend had been raised in catholic schools, rejected his faith, was a 60’s radical for a time then a Jehovah’s witness before totally rejecting faith in God. He seemed to use his impressive knowledge to keep people at a distance.

He went downtown to search for work and his car broke down. I drove down to pick him up and as we waited for the towtruck, we talked. I just listened mainly to his story. At one point he marveled at the feeling that despite his repeated rejection of God, God seemed to be “still pursuing” him.

After a long pause I asked “Why do you suppose that is?” He took a few deep rapid breaths and mumbled something and changed the subject.

On the drive home, as he continued to speak abstractly of God I requested permission to ask a question. “How do you see Jesus fitting into all this?” He spoke for a few minutes of his understanding of “the Christ”. Then he asked me who I thought Jesus was and I described my understanding.

At the end of two weeks he told me that he felt re-discovered by God.