Yorkshire Outreach – Day 4: Barnsley

It was a cold and windy day in Barnsley for the fourth day of The Open-Air Mission Yorkshire outreach. This town has a strong Christian heritage, as it was here that the famed missionary, Hudson Taylor, was born; in fact, the location of his birth was right near where we preached. 

Due to the high and constant wind, a literature table was not possible, so instead of a full table, we only had a few New Testaments and Gospels available, but they were very much strapped down! 

As with previous days, I can only share some of what I was involved in – other team members will need to share their own accounts. That being said, it was quieter, but still a good number of people were spoken to about the gospel.

After Daniel preached, I chatted briefly with two young men who had broken English. Both were Arabic in origin, but one spoke German and the other Turkish. I was able to point them to QR codes on my open-air board so they could go to a website to read the gospel in their chosen language.

When it was time for me to preach, I spoke on ‘God is Love’. There wasn’t too much engagement, though one lady stopped to ask for a Bible, and another lady who listened asked if she could have a copy of John’s Gospel.

Due to the weather and the incoming rain, we cut the outreach short. I thought that was it for the day, but when we got back to our team base, I decided to go and buy a cold drink from the corner shop. As I chatted to the man behind the counter, he told me he was a Kurdish man from Iraq. I was able to give him a booklet in English, along with a Gospel of John, and also a tract in Kurdish. He seemed pleased to be able to read the good news. 

We have one more day of open-air evangelism to go; please pray for us as we head to York tomorrow, and also pray for those who’ve heard the gospel. 

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