Christian witnessing etiquette

Okay, so I have a situation/question about evangelical-style talking about God to strangers in non-religious settings.

I don't want to go into exact details to avoid identifying the guilty, but as you know I have back problems. Recently I started a holistic type of treatment that I'd heard had some positive results for some people. After researching it on the Internet, it seemed like there might be something to it, and I looked for a business near me that might do this sort of stuff.

Lo and behold, there's a guy who does it very near me. I had never heard of him at all. So I called the number, left a message on the answering service and later that day, the guy called me back. I explained what my medical problems were exactly and he gave me an appointment.

Then he asks out of the blue if he can pray for me. Now this is not usual or normal, at least not here, not when you don't know someone at all, and not when you're not calling a pastor. This holistic stuff has nothing to do with any religion.

However, unfortunately, sometimes when people say "I'll pray for you" it has no more meaning than "How are you?" So, I decided, given the largely Mennonite area, that maybe he thought that it (he is not a Mennonite) was good for business to say things like "Can I pray for you." That attitude is certainly not an uncommon one among certain Mennonites. And since he knew my name, he knew I was ethnically Mennonite.

So I was taken aback, and thinking this is weird, but I say "sure" because really, he's put me in an awkward position with that question. What if I was an atheist? Even an atheist might say "yes" out of politeness, rather than feel themselves wrangled into a religious discussion.

I was thinking when he asked me if he could pray for me, that if he in fact prayed for me at all, that he would do it quietly, on his own time. Instead he started praying out loud right on the phone.

So my next thought, although there was nothing wrong with his prayer, it's just that this is so totally odd, is that he's a weirdo, maybe a serial killer. It's just so not normal to do that here. I have serious second thoughts about going to this appointment since it is odd also that I've never heard of him. I call around and find no one who has heard of him.

About 30 minutes before my appointment, I actually do find someone who does have an idea of who he is and he is married into a local family. So I keep the appointment, but I'm a bit nervous. I just do not, absolutely, one hundred percent not, discuss with complete strangers my religious beliefs.

It's a little like if you were to take your car into a garage to have work done, and the mechanic asks if he can pray for you. It's not expected. It's not a specifically religious situation and I do not know this guy from Adam.

Well, during the appointment, he again prays for my back out loud. It's not that I don't appreciate prayer but if he really wanted to pray for me, and be a witness or whatever you call it in church, why not pray quietly to yourself for me until you get to know me better?

I'm all tensed up because I have no idea where this prayer thing is going to lead - if he's going to start asking me if I'm born-again or what. This feels pushy and presumptuous.

On my third appointment, he asks if he can "give me" a Bible verse. I don't even know what that means to "give" me a Bible verse but I do get that he obviously has decided that I am not a Christian and he wants to evangelize me. With a frozen, constipated polite smile on my face, I say, "Of course not."

He then says, "Do you have a Bible?"

So you see where this is going. When I reply in the affirmative, I get a look that says he thinks I'm lying.

I do not like to feel pushed into disclosing personal beliefs before I am ready to do so. Anyway, "giving" me a Bible verse turns out to mean writing a Psalm verse down on my appointment card for me to look up in my non-existent Bible.

Now if I was the heathen he thinks I am apparently, then the Psalm itself would have no meaning. And if I am not the heathen or as Biblically illiterate as he thinks I am, then he's just insulted me. Because I do not get this "giving" of a Bible verse. I understand the theory behind it, in that some Christians think they are offering comfort, but again, I have a Bible. Several. I read it regularly. I know what comforts me and what doesn't. I don't need anyone to give me a Bible verse.

I resisted the temptation to tell him that he could give me a Bible verse if I could give him one.

What is the proper, Christian, not wanting to insult him etiquette, to gently tell him (I have come to believe he is sincere and well-meaning) to back off a little or to even express my belief that even if he sees his entire life as an opportunity to witness, going about it the way he's going about it with a lot of assumptions, is not really likely to gain him any converts.

I could for instance, shoot him with a Matthew 6:6 in exchange for his Psalm 89. But it all seems so childish.

Layla