Open-Air Mission Outreach: Day 4 – Truro

Our day of outreach began a little bit different to what we have experienced over the past few days. Last night, the Open-Air Mission team moved from St. Austell to Newquay, so I was asked to lead their devotional time before heading to Truro. I was more than happy to share with the team a short message from Mark 4:26-29 on the subject of evangelistic encouragement. You can listen to the audio of that message below.

Today, our outreach in Truro was blessed by the Lord. When we arrived at 11:30am, we noticed that the city centre was quite quiet. The area where we preached yesterday was empty, so we moved down the road a little way to preach in front of the Truro Cathedral.

Once we had set up the open-air board, and also the literature table, we began the ministry. Tim was the first preacher of the day. He explained the gospel to those who gathered to listen. While he preached, other members of the team were handing out tracts or were engaged in gospel conversations.

One lady walking past took issue with John 14:6 being quoted, so I asked her why she disagreed. She told me that she was a Methodist and that she believed that God’s love is unconditional, as such everyone would be going to Heaven. This lady had subscribed to the heresy of universalism. I asked her what Jesus meant by His words, but she refused to give me her thoughts, all she kept saying was, “Christianity has twisted the teaching of Jesus.” Whenever she said this, I would ask her what the true message was, but she never gave an answer. As we chatted, this lady went on to say that she believed that she was divine, and so was I. She then went on to state that God is everything and in everything. I pointed out this isn’t what the Bible teaches, and that what she was doing was making a god to fit her desires, which is idolatry. She scoffed at this idea and then claimed that she was sinless and perfect. I have met many self-righteous people during evangelism, but this lady would have been one of the most puffed up and conceited that I have ever met. I am certain that even the Pharisees would have blushed at some of her claims. I quoted James 4:6 to her and explained that God resists the proud, to which she openly admitted she was proud, and that she believed it was a good thing. All I could do was call this lady to humble herself before the Lord humbles her on judgement day. She shook her head and walked off declaring her own perfection.

Not too long after this, it came my time to preach. Today, I preached a simple message on “Are You Good Enough for Heaven?” As I started my message a couple of drunk hecklers decided to ask questions. The first related to the existence of God, and the other was on the issue of suffering. These are excellent questions, sadly, they were in no state to hear the answers as their mind was clouded with alcohol. We did our best to answer them, and they took a booklet that gave more answers. All we can do is pray that when they sober up, they will take out the booklets and read them.

After they left, I went back to preaching. A few people gathered to listen, and I noticed that on the second level of a business next to us that two ladies were filming the whole open-air and were listening. The gospel was spreading. Two more young ladies stood to listen, they later admitted they were lesbians, but they seemed to be genuinely interested in the message. One of the team members had an in-depth conversation with them afterwards.

After I finished preaching, I went back to handing out tracts. During this time, Andy Little was preaching, and he had a group of young people pay attention to the message, and then take copies of the Gospel of John. I was able to engage the group after this and re-explain the gospel to them. This group seemed stunned by the love of God, so I stressed to them that Christ shows love by dying for sinners, and then rising again. I read to them John 3:16 and was able to explain it to them.

Overall, I think today was a little bit slower than yesterday, but still, we rejoice that the gospel went forth. Please pray for all those who heard the good news.

SDG!

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