Open-Air Preaching in South Auckland, NZ

It was a privilege to be able to join with South City Church to share the gospel in the open-air at the Otara Markets today. The weather was rather overcast so there was some concern that this may impact the crowds which normally gather, but we needn’t have worried, as there were many people shopping and hanging out in the area.

The church had managed to book a stage in the main shopping area, which gave us permission to set up for the open-air. It was a joy to see several men from the church proclaim Christ, including Abraham, who is our Operation 513 Auckland team leader.

While the men were preaching, I stood to the side in order to hand out tracts. As I distributed gospel literature I was amazed at how friendly and open the people were to hearing the good news. It was also during this time that I discovered that the world is quite small. While handing out tracts I looked up to see a man on the other side of the mall with small group, he looked at me and I looked at him. It was Stu Miller from Train to Proclaim in Brisbane. It was great to bump into an old friend who is currently in New Zealand training a church in evangelism. Back home we only live about thirty minutes from each other, but I never expected to bump into him in Auckland.

Shortly after this it was my turn to preach. I took Galatians 3 as my text, and I spoke about how a person can be right with God. As I did this I explored what Paul said in relation to us being cursed, and Christ being cursed on our behalf.

As I preached I noticed a number of people stop to listen. One lady came out of a shop, then quickly returned into the store in order to get a notepad and pen. It turns out that she was a new Christian who wanted to learn more about the Bible so she took notes on my open-air message.

After the preaching had finished it was good to see a number of one to one conversations take place. It was a real joy to spend the morning with South City Church. On Sunday, I will be preaching at both of their services, including their gospel service. Please remember me in your prayers.

SDG!

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