Eastbourne Outreach – Day 4
The sun has finally arrived! After a few days of cold and windy weather, today it was sunny, hot, and calm. In fact, I even got sunburned! The good weather brought challenges along with it, as people were less keen to stand and listen to preaching, but were happy to take tracts.
As with previous days, I can only detail a few of my encounters. I look forward to hearing the reports of what happened from the other team members.
One of the first encounters I had today was with an Irish lady who was telling me all about her religious family background. She was steeped in the errors of Romanism, but was friendly and open to hearing the biblical gospel. She took several booklets.
Then I had an interesting chat with another lady. She told me that someone had said to her that if she wants to find out more about who God is, then she needs to read John. The problem was that she didn’t know who John was! I was able to explain that John is a book in the Bible, and that it details the life and ministry of Jesus. I gave her a copy, as well as a gospel tract.
A particular highlight was talking with three young agnostics. They had many questions, with one of them saying, “I don’t reject Christianity, but I don’t accept it either. I don’t know enough to make a decision!” We spent lots of time talking about different aspects of Scripture and the gospel. At the end of our conversation, they thanked me for answering their questions, as many Christians had refused to engage with them. They all took New Testaments and an in-depth gospel booklet.
Later in the day, I was near the open-air board after Dave had preached. A Scripture verse was on the board when a young South African man stopped to read it. He told us he loves Jesus, but thinks the Bible is corrupt. I asked him how he knew about Jesus if the Bible is corrupted. He told me his feelings determined truth, so I asked what happens if my feelings say something different. He agreed that we’d need a truth standard outside of ourselves — the Bible. We couldn’t go much further as he had to leave, but he took a copy of John’s Gospel and ‘Ultimate Questions’ by John Blanchard.
Today, I also preached twice in the open air. The first message was on “Lessons from the Boomerang.” There wasn’t much engagement. The second was on “Why Christianity?” As I spoke, a group of eleven- and twelve-year-old children stopped to engage. They had very little biblical knowledge, so I explained the gospel to them. Two of them seemed to be Hindu, so they couldn’t take a copy of the Scriptures, but all took a children’s gospel booklet.
It was a very busy day on the streets, and then in the evening I had the joy of preaching and sharing at Eastbourne Grace Baptist Church. I hope our visit has stirred them up to share the gospel more!
Please keep praying for the gospel outreach.
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