Let me tell you a little story. Some friends and I had just started playing the card game 500 with a larger group. Being new to the group, we needed some practice and since Sundays can be lonely for singles we decided to spend our Sunday together. Our team of 4 started the day with 10:30 Mass followed by coffee and donuts (for us they are Do– Nots!) and then headed to a bar to play cards. Yes, that’s right the bar, but wait until you hear what happened.

At the restaurant we had a waiter named Walter. I was curious and asked my friends if they thought he was from Greece. As he approached us I casually asked him where he was from. He said he was from Puerto Rico. I asked him how are things down there with the damage from the hurricane and he said that his daughter is down there with no electricity. I asked him what brought him to Minnesota and he told us that he is in treatment for alcoholism after his marriage fell apart. He would come and go as he kindly waited on us.

Then led by the spirit I asked my friends, “Ladies who has a medal on them?” Two of them pulled off their own miraculous medals and handed them to me. I set them on the table with my hand over them. He came back and that is when the miracle happened. I asked, “By chance are you Catholic? “He said, “Well, I was but not really any more…” I lifted my hand and asked, “Which medal would you like ? “(2 sizes) He said with a big smile “I’d like them both.” We were elated. We handed Walter over to the Blessed Mother as he accepted these medals. We never saw Walter again, but we still pray for him. We were all changed that day.

While waiting for God’s timing and spirit to move us, we began our evangelizing. One of the ladies was so moved, that she ordered miraculous medals, chains and cards explaining the medal. She made up bags of 50 for others to hand out and had them blessed by our Pastor. She gave 50-100 to the Associate Priest for his next assignment as chaplain at North Memorial Hospital to hand out to patients. He was thrilled!

Well this was so much fun going to different bars to play cards and evangelize. We found our favorite bar, “Lucky 13” and went there quite regularly on Sundays to eat, drink, play cards and laugh. They got to the point where they were expecting us!

Shortly there after, we met a waiter whose name was Logan. He was a man of integrity, humor and respect. He was the dream guy every mother would wish for her daughter. We then asked him his nationality and if he was Catholic. He said “I was raised Catholic but…” So, we asked him if he’d like a miraculous medal. With an extra large smile he took it and said he was going to be deployed to the Middle East in a few months and he would take this with him. We loved this young man and he grew to love us. So again we prayed for him and asked that Our Blessed Mother love him into service for the kingdom of God.

This has become a fun way of listening, praying and waiting for the Holy Spirit to move us one step at a time as we live our daily lives. I must say it has been fulfilling to gather as a community of loving believers to fill different pieces of the conversion. Medals have since been given to friends, family, strangers, nurses. And so, God smiles as we give and receive. As a result the world changes for the better. Make a friend, be a friend and bring a friend to Christ.

Roxanne Weldon