Newquay Evangelism: A Windy Day of Gospel Ministry

One of the challenges in living by the seaside is that sometimes it can get quite windy. Today, we had gusts of 45mph, which made me wonder if any open-air preaching would take place. Generally, when it is windy people will take tracts, but they won’t stand around to listen to the gospel being proclaimed. Since the weather was sunny, we decided to take the open-air board down to the town centre just in case we had an opportunity. Thankfully, we happened across a spot that greatly protected us from most of the wind. In that location, we set up the board and began to preach.

The town was very busy, but unfortunately, there were only two of us out sharing the gospel. Truly, the labourers are still few! (Matthew 9:37). If we had more people, then we could have easily handed out hundreds of tracts, and probably had many good conversations, but the Lord knows, and all those whom He wanted to hear heard the gospel today.

Today, I decided to test out a new open-air message called, “Bridging the Gap.” This message uses the classic evangelism images of a gap between God and man which can only be filled by the Lord Jesus. Using these illustrations, I shared the gospel. A handful of people sat down on the benches to listen, while others stood and paid attention. It was particularly encouraging to see both young and old listening to the good news. While all this took place tracts were being handed out rather quickly.

Probably the saddest sight today was watching a father instruct his children to put their fingers in their ears to block out the preaching. As he walked past, he mocked while his own fingers were jammed into his ears. I pointed out to him that no amount of effort will ever silence the gospel, and he won’t be able to block his ears when he stands before God to give an account for all his sins. Colour drained from the man’s face as he quickly hurried his family away. I pray that the gospel sting will cause this man to consider his own eternity, and that of his family.

Even though we were few, I rejoice that the gospel went forth. I was also encouraged when the local Pentecostal pastor stopped as he rode his bicycle past to pray for us. I truly hope that our presence on the street not only reaches the lost but stirs the church for evangelism.

SDG!