Many Hear the Gospel in Plymouth
It was a joy to head up to Plymouth today to join with the Operation 513 team there. Since moving to the UK my goal has been to join the guys there at least once a month for an outreach but so far my work at Newquay Baptist Church has kept me extremely busy; but today we finally made it, and I am glad we did!
Tim and I headed off from Cornwall at around 9:30am in order to meet the team at 11am to commence the outreach. Upon arrival we noticed that the city centre was quite busy, and that there were many people to witness to; in fact, while we were setting up our outreach location people began to stop and talk. This pattern of having conversations went throughout the day with many people wanting to chat about Christian things.
My first conversation was with a man named Gerald; he told me he didn’t quite know what he believed, but he knows that God exists. We chatted about reality of eternity, and I was able to walk through the Ten Commandments with him and show the need of the Saviour; then after he realised his plight I pointed him to the Lord Jesus. Gerald seemed quite touched by the message, so he took a tract and said he would try to come back to talk further later in the day.
By the time this conversation had finished our outreach location was set-up, so I started to use the flip-chart to engage more people in gospel conversation. The first discussion I had with the flip-chart was with two Welsh ladies who told me that they were both very good people. I took them through the “Good Person Test” which made it very clear that they weren’t good at all! When I got to the gospel component of the presentation a man who had been listening decided to interrupt. This older man barged into the conversation and demanded to know where the Bible taught the doctrine of eternal Hell; I gave him some Scripture references, then tried to go back to the conversation with the ladies, but this man wouldn’t let me. Eventually I called Tim over to assist me, he was able to engage the man while I finished sharing the gospel. The two Welsh ladies both took tracts and seemed to be interested in what was said; I pray the interruption didn’t cause them to misunderstand the gospel.
I now turned my attention to the man that Tim was talking to; it turns out that this man was a former Jehovah’s Witnesses who left that cult after being in it for forty-two years. The reason he objected to my message is because he was concerned that I was brainwashing people just like the JWs do. Tim and I pointed out that we cannot convert anyone, and instead of forcing people to agree with us we were encouraging people to test all that we said with the Bible. Over the next twenty minutes both Tim and I were able to engage this man with apologetics and the gospel. At the end he shook our hands and went his own way. We rejoice that this man isn’t in the cult any more, but we pray he comes to the Truth.
Shortly after this conversation a young fifteen year old couple stopped to take the Good Person Test on the flip-chart. Both of them listened closely as I spoke about our need of the Saviour and the gospel. From what I could tell neither of them had ever heard the gospel before, so I challenged them to consider what was said to them, and also to seek the Saviour. Both left with gospel tracts. This conversation reminded me just how much of a mission-field the United Kingdom is; there are many people (both old and young) in this land that have never heard the gospel. I would encourage you to ask the Lord about how you can help reach the British people for Jesus. If you are interested in coming here to serve in short-term or long-term missions, then please get in touch with me.
By now it was around 1pm so we transitioned from tracts and one-to-one witnessing to a time of open-air preaching. The first preacher for the day was Tim, and it just so happened that today was the first time he had ever spoken in the open-air. He stood up and read John 3 aloud for all to hear. He did a good job, and I hope he pursues open-air preaching more in the future.
I was the next preacher up; for my text I took Mark 2:1-5 which i used to speak about coronavirus and also the biggest virus we all have, sin. As I spoke a handful of people stopped to listen. After the gospel preaching I noticed that many people gathered around to talk to different members of the team. I am convinced that open-air preaching should lead to one-to-one evangelism. As I listened in on some of the conversations that were taking place I was amazed to hear that many of them focused on the issue of homosexuality (many conversations like this took place today). Most of those who were arguing for LGBT issues, or asking questions were young school aged teenagers. It almost seemed like they had been programed to only think about sexuality and that everything had to run through that filter. It was good to see team members lovingly and biblically addressing the questions; many of those who engaged in conversation took gospel tracts when they left.
Simon was the next preacher up for the day; he did an excellent job in talking about the shortness of life, and also how lives can be transformed through the Lord Jesus. Once Simon had finished preaching we saw that it was nearly time to finish, but we thought since things were going so well we’d set up the flip-chart to use it as an open-air preaching tool, but before the preaching could commence a crowd of people gathered around the flip-chart asking questions. Matt was able to engage all of them with the gospel and answer their questions.
Finally, as the day drew to a close I used the flip-chart to preach the gospel. As I spoke the Lord blessed the preaching with a crowd gathering in to listen. I did have a few foul mouth hecklers, but all they succeeded in doing was drawing in more people to hear the gospel. At the end of the message team members offered tracts to all those who listened with most of them taking literature.
Overall it was an excellent day in Plymouth. I am really looking forward to heading back up there next month.
SDG!
__
Would you partner with us in gospel ministry? Currently, my family and I are serving in Cornwall, UK where I am a Pastor / Missionary; Please consider supporting us in this vital work. Donations can be made via: http://www.joshwilliamson.org/support-us/