Newquay Evangelism: Back to the Streets!

I love being able to chat to people in public about the Lord Jesus, however, due to all the COVID lockdowns our efforts in open-air evangelism have been limited this year. That changed today! It was so enjoyable to be able to return to the streets to share the good news with the people of Newquay. The weather was fine and sunny (though a bit on the cooler side); due to this, quite a number of people were walking around in the town centre. Add in that it is Easter weekend, and we had the perfect opportunity to share the gospel

Over the past few months we have been focusing on preparing and planning for local outreaches; one new initiative we came up with was to use a literature stand to advertise the church and also to provide a central location for people to avail themselves to gospel material. Previously we have used a literature table, but due to being on the coast the winds often made this not workable; however, during the lockdown an evangelistic ministry in the UK told us about a stand which they had previously used, since they were no longer using this resource they generously donated it to us for our gospel work.

Today was the first time we tested out the “Gospel Cart.” There were a few teething problems, but we will work on fixing them. This cart is bright and draws in the attention of the people walking-by; in fact, within seconds of setting the cart up we already had three people stop to take literature.

One couple who took literature told me that they were moving to Newquay in a few weeks, so they were looking for a Church. We were able to give them some resources, and also a CD from John MacArthur which examines the issue of true Christianity. They were excited to receive a MacArthur CD since they had heard him on Christian radio.

There were four of us witnessing today, since the town centre wasn’t busy enough for all of us to be there, we split the team with two heading to the beach to hand out literature; I later heard they ran out of tracts and Gospels. I stayed in the town centre with James, and for about the next ninety minutes we handed out material and chatted to people about the good news.

As we handed out tracts it was good to see people that I had spoken to previously; one man named Patrick stopped again to chat. Patrick is a nice chap who struggles with reading, but he told me that he has made a point of slowly and carefully reading the literature we have given him. As we spoke I asked Patrick what does he think happens to people when they die; he told me that the good people (of which he was one) would go to Heaven, but the rest would go to Hell. I explained to Patrick that none of us are good, rather all of us deserve Hell because we have sinned against God. I then used the Easter holiday to explain the gospel to him. Patrick listened carefully, and said that the message made sense; he also said he would like to visit our chapel. Please pray that the Father would draw Patrick to the Son.

Shortly after this conversation, I was able to speak to an elderly couple who attend a very liberal Church of England church. They were the kind of people that were CofE more out of tradition than for any real theological reasons; they were friendly and very polite. As we chatted they took a great interest in the gospel work we were engaged in, and said how wonderful it was that Christians would be out talking to others about Jesus. We made sure to give them the gospel, and also some resources. One of the items I gave them was the John MacArthur CD on true Christianity; upon receiving the CD they said they would actually play the sermon via their church sound system this afternoon as they had to go to spend a couple of hours setting up the flowers for the Easter Sunday service. I found it very encouraging that the true gospel would actually be proclaimed in that liberal Church of England building - May the Lord Jesus rescue His sheep!

By this stage we had run out of Easter tracts and also the Easter Gospel booklets from the Pocket Testament League. Overall, the people of Newquay were open to hearing about the Lord Jesus. May the Lord do a mighty work in this community, and may He be glorified!

SDG!

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