Snatched from a Cult – Southampton Evangelism

After a few days of wet and windy weather, today was beautiful. At 1 pm, a group of us gathered in the city centre of Southampton for a couple of hours of outreach. It was good to see brothers from different locations, including a brother whom I’ve only met online.

We set up the open-air board, and a literature table; I then began to preach. The challenge with the preaching today was that there was a busker nearby who was playing a keyboard rather loudly. My message focused on “Bridging the Gap”, which uses the old illustration of sin separating humanity from God. One gentleman stopped to listen, and a team member was able to engage him in gospel conversation afterwards.

When I had finished preaching, Gary began to preach. Almost as soon as he started a young lady began to engage him. She was very open, and gladly took a copy of the Scripture. After Gary, Mike preached, and again someone stopped to listen and engage. The background noise of the busker made it hard, but still, ones and twos were stopping to engage the gospel further.

Before I realised it, it was my turn to preach again. This time I spoke about “Hope for a Broken World.” In this message, I begin with creation to show that God’s design was one of perfection, but humanity has broken the world due to sin. One lady who was listening seemed quite excited as I preached about the good news. She kept saying, “Amen! Jesus gives us a new beginning!”

After this, I was very glad to bump into Will again. I spoke to him on Monday, and since then we have been exchanging messages via WhatsApp. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have been pursuing him, so I sent him a lecture I gave on the Watchtower. Will listened to my message and was convinced that the JW’s are false. He then sent my message to the Jehovah’s Witnesses who were pursuing him, and needless to say, they weren’t happy! Will told me that he returned the JW edition of the Bible he was given and said he wouldn’t be having anything to do with them. He also told me that he will be attending a local evangelical church on Sunday. Will told me that he is quite confused, but he hopes that one day he will come to know God. I was able to give him a gospel book, and once again pointed him to Jesus. Please pray for him. Will has been snatched from a cult, but now He needs to take hold of Christ.

Another good conversation I had was with an elderly lady named Pat who is a church attendee. She said that everyone goes to Heaven (including Hitler). I reasoned with her about the sinfulness of humanity and her own depravity. She quickly agreed that she wasn’t perfect but hoped her goodness would get her to Heaven. Several times I pointed her to Christ, and by the end, she seemed to grasp that she had to trust in Him. Pat took a gospel book, and a New Testament.

While all this was going on, other members of the team were also engaged in excellent conversations. Two young lads were spoken to as they were quite open to the gospel, and also a young lady from Saudi Arabia took a New Testament and was open to hearing more about Jesus.

Please pray for all those we met today!

 SDG!