Dirks is helming an evangelization effort across the state through his organization, Carolina Catholic Professionals. He began efforts in the Charleston area by recruiting members of the Knights of Columbus, and several signed up not quite knowing what to expect.

The Knights, however, were pleasantly surprised once they set up a Catholic kiosk at the corner of Marion Square downtown.

“Having witness testimony from our fellow lay Catholics is very important,” Dirks said. “We need to speak to it. We need to be a witness to it.”

Bob Fintak stepped up after listening to Dirks speak to his KofC Council 9475 in Mount Pleasant.

“I said, ‘Sign me up,’” Fintak remembered, then added that he’d never done public evangelization before.

Fintak worked a two-hour shift at the kiosk in May with Deacon Kevin Campbell from Christ Our King Church. He said that he was willing to let Deacon Campbell take the lead, so he told the deacon, “As people go by, I’ll tackle them, and you evangelize them.”

Finks said Campbell laughed; it doesn’t quite work that way.

“We just say, ‘Good morning, God bless you,’ and we offer them material,” Fintak explained.

People were drawn to the kiosk by a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Mary has a knack of pointing people to her Son, Jesus, and her image brought folks right up to the evangelizers.

“People would stop by, and we said, ‘This is our opportunity,’” Fintak said. “I was nervous.”

They chatted and offered their visitors crucifixes, rosaries, miraculous medals and pamphlets.

Fintak gave one man a miraculous medal. “He said, ‘I’d love to have one for my partner.’ So, I gave him a miraculous medal on a chain,” Fintak said.

He was impressed by the reactions and began to feel a little more comfortable. So, he and Deacon Campbell decided to give it another go, this time manning the kiosk in July when a Carnival Cruise ship docked in the harbor.

The travelers were pretty interested and engaged. Fintak said, “The first folks that stopped were probably thinking, ‘Catholics, they don’t go out on street corners and do that.’” They do now.

It’s part of the five-year plan called Via Fidelis (faithful way, or way of the faithful) put forth by Bishop Jacques Fabre-Jeune, CS. This first year focuses on evangelization, and the Knights are leading the way. If the bishop is calling his flock to go forth, be disciples and spread the word, they are doing so at Marion Square.

Fintak said one man who stopped at the kiosk was experiencing homelessness.

“He was spending the night in the park adjacent to us,” according to Fintak. The man was in his mid- to late-60s and had fallen on hard times.

“I’ve never seen Catholics on the street evangelizing and handing out Catholic things,’ Fintak said the man experiencing homelessness responded. “I said, ‘If you get a chance, go to Mass on Saturday or Sunday,’” especially since they were a few blocks from the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.

It was a beautiful invitation, and Dirks agrees.

“It’s about encountering people where they are … and inviting them,” Dirks said. “Offer a rosary. Be present. Be there. You’re not going to draw people sitting behind a wall.”

Dirks is calling more Catholics to get involved.

“We want it to spread around, but we need numbers,” he added. “The more numbers you have, the more impact you have.”

Dirks offered advice to those interested: Don’t feel intimidated. Let the Holy Spirit lead you.

“It is the witness we must offer to draw people closer to Christ,” he said. “It’s the world beyond our parish gates that is crying out.

“It’s got to be the laity … who go out and proclaim the faith,” he stated.

That plea drew Ruben Leija, age 50, from the St. Finbar Council of the KofC. He also wanted to be a witness at Marion Square but was hesitant because he didn’t want to be seen as the classic, abrasive “Bible thumper” cliché.

“I was terrified. I thought that people who should be doing this have a stronger faith than me,” Leija explained. But he had nothing to worry about. “We are not hounding people. We are just saying ‘hi.’”

Leija said he grew up Catholic in Indiana, but he only went through the motions of the faith. That changed when he hit his late 20s and early 30s. He went on a retreat called Christ Renews His Parish, and it profoundly changed him.

“You’re there all weekend. You’re cut off from everything. There was a lot of faith sharing,” he said.

He attended with 18 other men, who formed a bond and then hosted the next retreat.

“You just build this parish,” he said of the retreat. “It was absolutely amazing.”

When Leija moved to Charleston, he found a home at the Cathedral. He said he felt welcomed by the rector and the parishioners, and when a Knights of Columbus council began to form, Leija got involved.

Now he was being asked to go to Marion Square and bring people closer to Christ.

“I was scared to do it. I was kind of nervous,” he said.

He described how one man stopped by and began talking about his younger brother, who had died of cancer. Before dying, the younger brother “told his mom everything’s going to be OK because the angels told him it’s going to be OK,” the man relayed.

That moved Leija, who thought, “I’m in that spot maybe not for somebody else, but for me. … You never know who is going to be put in your presence. It may be for you. It may be for them.”

Then he described an encounter with a student, who was walking along with her mother.

“She was the one who said, ‘Let’s pray.’ She told her mom to come over, and we got together and prayed,” Leija added.

That young woman calling her mother over to pray also made an impression on Leija. He said of his experience that it was “nothing like I pictured it would be. I felt like I was supposed to be there.”

Now Leija is talking to other men about joining this opportunity to go beyond parish walls and talk to people about God. It only takes a spark.