Hannah Jones/Winonan
Students on their way to the Smaug last Wednesday were stopped in their tracks. Between them and the double glass doors stood Merle Evenson, a tall man with gray-white hair, calm blue eyes and a stack of Bibles in his hand.
“It’s a letter from Him,” he said, holding up a copy, “dictated by the Lord.” The book was about the size of a matchbox, and he had a box full of them by his feet.
Evenson and other members of the Gideons International Organization come to the campus once a year, talking to as many students as they can.
The organization’s mission statement, according to its website, is “to win the lost for Christ, and our unique method is the distribution of Bibles and New Testaments in selected streams of life.” These “selected streams” include public property areas such as elder care homes, jails, parades and yes, schools, both domestic and overseas.
For student Evie Trulen, this is one of the most uncomfortable days of the year.
“Personally, I don’t think it’s right for them to be on a public campus,” she said. “I came to a public school because I am not fond of religion being pushed on me.”
Trulen does not consider herself to be “lost.” But, because she is bisexual and already holds her own spiritual and religious beliefs, she said, Gideons International wouldn’t like who she was to begin with, let alone want to bring her in to their church.
“They think I’m going to go to hell,” she said. “I don’t want that on my way to class.”
For Evenson, the divide between spiritual salvation and damnation does exist, and was clearly defined by the book in his hands.
“We will meet Him, and we will be on one side of the gulf or the other,” he said. “If you don’t believe in the Lord, well, it’s either hell or heaven. Hell is not where you want to go. He loves you and wants you to come to Him.”
Evenson and his fellow members are not ministers, he said, but rather “pastors in a sense.”
“We all are,” he said. According to Evenson, the organization does not seek to convert the crowds to one side of that gulf or the other, but only to distribute information about Christianity.
“The Lord wants you to decide on your own,” he said. He pointed to the copy in his hand. “All we do is plant a seed. God has to water it.”
Other students took the copies Evenson offered them. Senior Naren Selvaratnam is Hindu, but took a copy in order to better understand Christianity.
“It’s good, when you get it for free, for someone who’s interested,” he said.
Others, like junior Mckell Heebink, politely declined.
“I’ve got one already,” she said of the New Testament copies. “It’s kind of good to get the word of Jesus out there. But some people feel uncomfortable, especially if they’re late for class. They don’t like to be stopped.”
Evenson stopped nearly everyone who walked into the Smaug that day. To him, stopping them was the most important thing he could do for them. Several of the students he had spoken to on campus in the past, he said, had gone on to be pastors.
“He’ll give you a life that you can’t even imagine,” he said.
Evenson said he wasn’t the best public speaker, but he took a moment to try and “get the phrase right” for what he had to say.
“I’ve lived pretty long. My wife, she was 68, and she’s with the Lord now. And I believe I will meet her,” he said. He looked around him at the traffic of students. “I just have to stay a while first.”
Contact Hannah at [email protected]
