Fertile Ground for the Gospel – Portsmouth Evangelism

Since moving to the UK, I have been struck by the history of the nation. As you travel, you will come across locations of famous historical events, and it is always amazing to walk where famous people once walked. Today, I got to preach in a location of great historical significance to me; for the first time, I preached the gospel in the city of Portsmouth, a city where my great-grandparents lived and worked before emigrating to Australia. I found it fascinating to think that I was preaching in the location where my grandmother would have walked as a young lady.

My grandparents knew the Lord, so today it was an honour to proclaim Jesus in their home city. There were seven of us on the streets today, but I have been assured that many others were praying. Their prayers were felt, as the gospel spread very freely this afternoon. Almost from the beginning of the outreach, people were stopping to chat and take gospel tracts. It is always encouraging to see people take literature and want to chat further about the Lord.

The preaching began with me preaching on “How Can I Have Peace?” As I spoke, a few people listened, including one lady who began to weep as she heard the gospel. Two members of the team were able to minister to her after the message. There was also a man sitting on the seats listening, after the sermon, he took a copy of John’s Gospel and started to read.

I could spend time explaining to you about the message, but something rare happened today – someone filmed my preaching. Below is the video of the open-air, “How Can I Have Peace?”

Throughout the outreach, we encountered many Christians, including Pastors, who were greatly encouraged to see the gospel spreading. It was great to chat with these Believers and encourage them in their evangelism. I am convinced that the role of the evangelist isn’t just to proclaim the gospel, but also to equip and encourage the Saints for the work of evangelism. Please pray that the brethren would be stirred to gospel action.

I wasn’t the only preacher for the day, Roger also preached. He read from John 3, then began to explain the gospel to those who were listening. As he preached, a Roman Catholic stopped to chat. We were able to point him to Jesus and encouraged him to read the Bible. He left with some tracts and a gospel CD.

Towards the end of the day, we thought it would be good to finish off the ministry with one more sermon, so this time I spoke on “The Way to Heaven.” As with my earlier message, it was recorded, so you can watch it below.

Throughout the day many people took tracts and John's Gospels and listened to the good news. Please pray that the seed of truth would fall upon good soil and that many would be saved.

SDG!