On Tuesday I went to the London Road petrol station till in Maidstone to pay for petrol.  A dark skinned Asian man served me.  I thought that I would offer him a PAC but that he was probably Muslim and would not wish to receive one. I showed him the image of Christ and offered, saying, "Would you like one of these?", adding there is a great church just back along the road you might like to think about going to."  He replied: ( well maybe you might like to anticipate his reply.  OK well I will tell you, but the point is you never know what their response is going to be - your really just cannot predict): "Well thank you but I have a church to go to, I'm a Catholic."  I said that was great and left with a smile

This good brother's response reminds me that a favourite approach of mine to a stranger or a colleague, to get a meaningful spiritual conversation going is "Do you have a church to go to?"  This almost always results in a conversation about each others church in a useful and interesting exchange.  Well worth trying as an opener in many settings.

Yesterday, Wednesday  morning after my swim and standing at the hairdryer, another brother was standing there. He was just turned 60 it transpired, and retired.   He spoke first and said he had seen me at the pool for a while but didn't know me, but had come to know everyone else!  I had that morning prayed to be able to slow down (President Uchtdorf April GC 2011) so that I could pay more attention to people!  I shook his hand and introduced myself.  His name is Richard - same as my son, I told him.  We got into a great conversation about our mutual backgrounds in eduction and got on well, a real friendship starting up.  Nothing said about the restored gospel of Christ, but this is a great opportunity as well as having created a new potential friendship!  All good.