Dog evangelism...

One of my favourite outreach activities is something that I like to call "dog evangelism." But, before you start to get worried about my sanity, let me quickly explain that I'm not trying to share the gospel with dogs. I've just discovered over the years that making friends with people's dogs is a great way of making friends with the people themselves!

When I lived in Cape Town, and used to take my two border collies for a walk, I got to know the names of many of the dogs that we encountered on our strolls around the neighbourhood where we lived. Here in Spain, I don't have a dog. And, even though one of our cats, Teddi, is bigger than all the dogs in our street, I'd look a bit silly walking around with a big fluffy cat on a lead! But there's a little park right in front of my house and, as an incorrigible dog lover, I chat with everyone who's walking their dogs there. I've got to know many of them: Coco, Perla, Dory, Lobo... (Those are the dogs' names; not the people's names!) 

There's a little old lady  in her late eighties, whose house is back to back with mine. She walks with a stick, and she used to hobble around the block with a little fat dog who looked equally advanced in years. The dog got sick and had to be put to sleep, so the old lady and her daughter recently got a puppy from a dog rescue centre. Now six months old, little Bonnie, who looks something like a long haired chihuahua, is probably fully grown and still only reaches half of Teddi's weight and height! Last week I was talking with my friend (the lady, not the dog) and she was in tears as she told me about her concern for her daughter. The daughter, who's about my age, had lost her husband last year, and then last week she lost her beloved cat who had reached the grand old age of eighteen. My elderly friend told me of her concern that her daughter was not coping well with these losses and had begun to slip into a deep depression. She felt as if she had nothing left to live for. I felt such a sadness in my heart, that there are people who have no hope of seeing their loved ones again, or who have so few meaningful friendships that the loss of a pet leaves them with no sense of relationship in their lives. What a difference it makes if we know Jesus as the best and most faithful friend of all. I could only pray with my elderly friend, trusting God to help her daughter and give her strength and hope again.

Early this morning, when I was walking to the post office, I stopped in the park to greet another doggy friend: Trueno (it means "Thunder") is a crazy, 7-month old puppy with a black eye that makes him look like a pirate. As I chatted with Trueno's owner, another dog, a big boxer, came up to join in the game. On learning that his name was Mutley, I realised that this dog's owner was English. I met her again when I was walking home from the post office, and we got into a conversation. She told me that Mutley will go to the kennels tomorrow, because she's going on a trip to visit her grandchildren in Norway; and I told her that I'd coincidentally just arrived back last week from the same region of Norway. Then I happened to mention that I had lived in Cape Town for many years and had had to leave my two dogs down there. An amazed expression crossed her face, and she said, "This is spooky. I've just been making some enquiries about the possibility of going to work in Africa... I want to do voluntary work with disadvantaged children, and some of the opportunities are in Cape Town." She looked even more surprised when I told her that I had been doing voluntary work in South Africa, and that much of it had been with disadvantaged children.

As we talked further, she told me that her husband had died at the beginning of this year, after a long illness. They had known each other since their school days and had been married for nearly forty years. She began to cry as she explained that she needed a fresh start now and wanted to invest in a new project that would give her life meaning. "I've lived here since 2004," she said,"But I haven't made any friends or had a deep conversation like this with anyone." As our "deep" conversation had only been for twenty minutes or so, I realised yet again that many people live with a deep level of loneliness. They don't know what it's like to have friendship with God, or to have deep and fulfilling friendships with other human beings. Mutley's owner, J.., asked me if we could meet up again when she gets back from Norway. So I gave her my phone number and we're going to get together for coffee in a couple of weeks' time.

It can be so easy to go through our lives, walking down the street or shopping in the supermarket, without realising that many of the people around us are carrying their own private  sadness or pain, and perhaps don't have anyone at all to share it with. I am so thankful for my "dog connections" that enable me to get to know people that I might otherwise never meet or have an opportunity to speak to. Thanks to my doggy friends, I am able to add human friends to my prayer list, trusting that God can touch their lives and one day reveal His love to them.

You may not be a dog lover like me, but what are your favourite ways of meeting new people that you can pray for and form friendships with? Drop me a note by clicking "comments" below, so that I can also pray for you and the people you share your life with.