Stories from Oceania – campfire storying
When: 2008
Where: Australia
Who: secular Australian man in 40’s
Easter weekend is one of the busiest holiday times in Australia. We parked in an out of the way campsite and prepared to wait out the 4 days of traffic congestion.
Strangely a campsite isn’t an easy place to get to know people. It is as though each site has an invisible wall around it. You don’t feel able to just walk across the line into someone’s space. It’s easiest to connect in neutral spaces like at the laundry or bathrooms. As I greeted people and made friendly overtures, I continued to pray. “Lord, you have someone here you want to hear the gospel. Show mercy to them and bring us into each others orbit.” “Lord, you have someone here you want to hear the gospel. Show mercy to them and bring us into each others orbit.”
Surely the best way to celebrate Easter would be to share it’s true meaning with someone.
Eventually I was invited to sit around the fire with a group of four. A woman was there with her boyfriend and her two children. The children gave me the gospel starter by chattering excitedly about Easter eggs. Allowing the adults to overhear, I asked, “Why do they give eggs at Easter?”
“They symbolize new life.”
“Is that all Easter is about?”
“There’s something about a man called Jesus dying and coming back to life.”
Like many Australian’s they could still parrot some facts but they had no idea of what relevance Jesus’ death and resurrection had to them. They didn’t know why an egg appropriately symbolizes those events.
With my next question I aimed to include the adults.
“Why does the date of Easter change every year? Really it is a pest. It is hard for us to know when to plan the holiday each year.”
The man, a carpenter mused for a while, “Is it something to do with a lunar calendar?”
“Yes, but whose?”
He had no idea. I asked his permission to answer with a story. I related the Exodus story. He’d heard the story of the 10 plagues but wasn’t really aware of the significance of the 10th plague. The Jews were commanded to celebrate the Passover every year in remembrance of God saving them and freeing them from slavery. God set that night as their New Year because it was to be the start of a new life. From slavery to freedom.
Then I linked the Passover story with Jesus. It was no accident that Jesus died that night. God’s timed it so that the linkage was clear. The greater salvation from slavery to sin, death and Satan comes because of the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God. Jesus’ resurrection that first Easter Sunday proved that new life was possible. We didn’t need to die under God’s judgement but could accept the death of God’s lamb in our place.
“So you see, an egg is a good symbol. Jesus’ death and resurrection guaranteed new life for those willing to humbly accept it.”
The carpenter said “Oh, I get it. I’d never understood the relevance of Easter before. I thought of it only as a holiday and time to eat chocolate.”
That story is so encouraging to me. I really liked how the story started. I find it difficult to know how to start the conversations. How can I get an ‘in’, it was helpful hearing how you started the conversation.
I chatted to a lady the other day in a craft shop, she had stitched a picture of the Pope and I asked her why she had done that and was she catholic. This got us chatting but she said something I was not sure where to go after that. Do you have a suggestion. She said I believe that when we die we go down there and that is it. She was pointing to the ground and I said really do you really think this is all there is. And I felt I had such a wonderful message of hope but did not know how to start to share it. AHHHHHH I feel I really mucked up a golden opportunity.
Even if we mess up an opportunity, we can relax, as we can always go back to it by saying something like, “Remember last week we talked about X, I think I didn’t say anything helpful but when I got home I thought of a question I’d like to ask. Is it okay if I ask it?”
Some questions could be:
* What do you think happens after death?
* What evidence do you have for your belief? Or How do you know?
* What determines if someone goes to heaven or hell?
* If we just return to the ground -what is the purpose of life?
This can then lead in to the first stories. Talk about God’s original purposes (perfect world and relationship with him) and then what went wrong …results of that…eventually indicate that later stories will explain about heaven/hell …how one can know that they exist…