Newquay Evangelism: "I'll be worm food!"
15 July 2020
Newquay is certainly getting busier as the summer tourist season commences. For most of the year our town is small in population, but once the warmer months get here it explodes in size. This means that Newquay is a strategic town for the evangelisation of the UK; with so many tourists coming here we can impact the entire nation without leaving our community.
Just after lunch, four of us gathered at Newquay Baptist Church to pray and prepare for this afternoon’s outreach. When we arrived in the town centre we found that our regular preaching location (if one can have a regular location after a single outreach) was taken by a man who was selling driftwood art. It turns out that one of our team members, Ian, knew this man so he went to chat to him. The man very kindly offered to move his stall so that we could set up to preach. We are so thankful that the Lord’s providence allowed this man to be in the spot that we wanted and that he was willing to move.
The team began to hand out tracts while I set up my sketchboard for the open-air message. It has been over two years since I used my board so I was rather nervous as I got my paints and paper ready. My message was called, “The Way to Heaven", which looks at three wrong ways that people think will help them get to Heaven, then it looks at the one right way; the whole message uses a variety of Scripture but it is mostly based off John 14:1-6.
My nerves were rising up as I got my Bible ready to preach; if I could have, I would’ve happily let someone else take my place as preacher. Even after proclaiming Christ in the open-air for sixteen years I get nervous when it comes time to proclaim. Yet, despite my nerves I had to push forward; I needed to make much of Jesus so I began to speak, “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen…”
A small number of people stopped to listen as I painted and explained the gospel. One man named Simon asked a few good questions during the open-air which I was happy to answer. It turns out that Simon is a school teacher who teaches religion. His questions were good, but they did show a lack of understanding of what Christianity really teaches. We went back and forth for a little time over who is Jesus, and also how we got the Bible. When I asked Simon what will happen to him after death, his response was to say, “I will be worm food.” He didn’t really have any reason for this belief, it just seemed to best fit his current worldview. When Simon went to leave the open-air meeting Ian was able to chat to him and to give him literature which specifically answered the questions Simon was asking.
After my open-air it was time for George of the Faith Mission to preach. He did an excellent job preaching on “Where do we come from?” This message challenged the prevailing mindset of our culture that we are just cosmic accidents; he also clearly preached the gospel to those who would listen.
Next to preach was Nigel, also from the Faith Mission, who spoke on the love of God from Romans 5:8. It was great to hear him expound on who God is and why He loves people. It was a simple, yet clear call to trust in the Saviour.
I finished the day off by preaching from Acts 16:30-31 on the topic of “Are you asking the most important question?” My challenge was that people would consider Christ and then seek Him as the Saviour. I truly pray that many would do just that.
Overall today went very well. A number of tracts were handed out and people listened to the gospel. Please pray that many would come to faith in Christ.
SDG!
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