“I like your dog,” I said to the gentleman walking his dog along the streets of Athens.
“His name is Hercules. He walks slowly and teaches me patience,” he said.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Christos.”
I told Christos I was visiting Athens with some college students. They are some of the hundreds of college students deployed around the globe funded by SCBaptist churches. The college students were on mission and spread throughout the city learning about the culture and having conversations with people. I asked Christos about Athens, the culture, and his life. He was in between jobs and not currently working so there was no rush. We walked slowly toward a café, so I asked if he wanted to grab a cup of coffee.
We sat down at an open-air café, and Hercules was a magnet for everyone passing by. The longer we chatted, the deeper the conversation went. Christos was a geologist but hadn’t worked since COVID-19. His marriage began to fracture during that time due to the stress of joblessness and the pandemic. He would soon be divorced and would move back home to Athens, a plane ride away from his first-grade daughter. He was living off his savings and looking for work. We discussed each other’s beliefs, and I talked about the importance of the resurrection that Paul had written about in a letter a few years back to a church down the road in Corinth. Christos was baptized Greek Orthodox, but he was agnostic. He genuinely couldn’t understand why there was so much suffering in the world.
How did I find out so much about Christos? I asked.
One of the greatest barriers in evangelism is busyness. We are so hurried to get to our next appointment, next ball game, next meeting, next grocery stop, or next Bible study that we don’t slow down long enough to ask someone what their name is.
There are 4.6 million people in South Carolina who are not engaged in any Christian church, and 4.8 billion people on the planet with limited to no access to the gospel.
Every number has a name. Every name has a story.
Slow down and ask.