“My Boyfriend is a Missionary!” – Winchester Evangelism
It was encouraging to be back in Winchester today. The team in the city is slowly growing, and there is increased involvement from local churches (something we’ve been praying about). After a surprise, brief rain shower, we set up and began the outreach.
While setting up the literature table, a teenage young lady stopped. She expressed an interest in God and said she had recently started attending church. She had many questions and wanted to learn. She received a copy of John’s Gospel and the booklet “Why Christianity?”
Paul was the first preacher of the day; he spoke on the subject of “Lessons from the Criminal.” As he explained the gospel, a young lady stopped to listen. She stood for a while, then began to leave. As she walked off, JP offered her a tract, and soon a conversation was underway.
I was later told that the young lady was a Roman Catholic, and that the conversation went very well. She ended up taking a copy of John’s Gospel and was very thankful to JP for the chat.
It was now my turn to preach. Today, I decided to use my new/revamped version of “The Message of the Cross.” There wasn’t too much interaction, though occasionally someone would pause, listen to a snippet, and then move away. Still, seeds were sown!
Next up was JP, who preached on “How Is Jesus Unique?” A young lady who listened claimed to be sinless. She didn’t engage much with JP, so Keith offered her a tract. She refused it, saying, “My boyfriend is a missionary!” With that, she walked off.
I decided to go after her and start a conversation. She was very friendly and happy to talk. What she said, though, wasn’t what I was expecting. She shared that her boyfriend is a missionary within the Church of England and that he is helping with a church a bit further north. She then revealed that she is an atheist and a Quaker. This made for a good conversation!
I used some basic apologetics to answer the claims of atheism, and she quickly backslid to agnosticism. Then we began to talk about her Quaker beliefs.
As a Quaker, she longs to have ‘light’, so I asked how she would respond to the statement Jesus made in John 8:12, when He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
The young lady paused, then said, “That’s a very bold statement.” I followed up by using C.S. Lewis’ argument of ‘Liar, Lunatic, or Lord’ to show that the claims of Christ are either true or not. She agreed it was something she needed to consider. She took a copy of John’s Gospel, saying she would read it to find out more about Jesus.
While this was all taking place, over at the literature table team members were busy sharing the good news with a JW and with another man who was very open to the gospel. It is always encouraging to see people hearing the good news!
Before the outreach concluded, we had three more open-air messages. First was Paul, who preached on “What’s the Greatest Danger?” Then JP, who spoke on “Sheep in Need of a Shepherd.” Finally, I preached on “The Three S’s.”
It was one of the better days in Winchester. I know many people are praying for this city; will you please join us in praying that the Lord would save many in this community?
SDG!
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Josh Williamson is a full-time evangelist with The Open-Air Mission. Since 1853, OAM has been sharing the good news on the streets of the United Kingdom. To stay updated about the work of the Mission, please sign up for the free quarterly magazine and monthly prayer notes.SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MAGAZINE AND PRAYER NOTES