Sharing Easter eggs and good news on our street

Even as someone who communicates regularly, I have found having a ​‘script’ helps. Knowing what you are going to say gives you a firm footing to begin a conversation. At each door, we decided we would hand over the chocolate egg and say, ​‘Hi, happy Easter. This is for you. We are the family who live at the top of the road with the silver car. We are also a Christian family and wondered if there is anything that we can pray for you today?’ It was as simple as that. We then held our breath and waited to see what God would do.

We were blown away by the encounters. The first door we knocked on, a couple answered with extreme timidity. We asked if they were ok. They said with much sadness and to our surprise, ​‘No one ever knocks on our door.’ We were reminded that we live amidst an epidemic of loneliness, where so many people have never been more disconnected from their community.

At another door, an upstairs window opened and a man leaned out whose muscles rivalled his tattoos. He demanded to know what we were doing. We repeated the script. His eyes lit up at the offer of chocolate, and he rushed downstairs. At the offer of prayer, he opened up, ​“My dad died recently. I miss him.” We prayed that the presence of Jesus would comfort him this Easter.

The next door was opened by a woman who was not sure whether she could take the egg. She described herself as a pagan, but then, almost in an effort to self-justify acceptance of the chocolate, said that she was a ​‘new pagan’ and so was allowed to receive it. 

We then sought to build on the common ground of shared spirituality and offered to pray, but said we would do so in Jesus’ name. At this point, she opened up and said she had struggled since moving to the area. After we prayed, she was visibly moved and emotional.

But the ​‘best door of all was one answered by two older teenagers. At first, we thought it would be a fairly mundane conversation. When we offered to pray they said, ​‘Pray that we have a nice life.’ We obliged, and then their mum came down the stairs. ​“Were you just praying?” she asked. When we said we were, she interjected, ​“That’s so spooky. I’ve been really spiritually searching recently.” 

She told us she had looked into a couple of religions but not been convinced. ​‘We are Christians,’ we offered, ​‘would it be ok if we shared our stories with you?’ we asked. 

My wife and I went on to tell our two very different stories of what God had done in our lives. All the time, the teenagers listened in, before the older son made things a little awkward: ​“Mum, I need to confess something to you,” he said. 

We waited with trepidation to hear what he was about to share. ​“I’ve been doing Bible study with a friend for the last few months,” he blurted out, before turning to us and saying, ​“Would it be ok if we came to your church?”

As we walked back home, we were empty-handed but our hearts were so full. I sensed God say, ​‘Phil, you should do what I say more often!’ The experience and the fruit were worth every moment of agonising and pound spent on chocolate eggs.

If you like the sound of this idea, my experience was that it was simple and effective. We know our neighbours better now, and it has created a spiritual open door for the gospel. So my encouragement to you this Easter is to pray and reflect on what you could do and let’s make the most of this glorious season of hope.