A Quiet and Hard Day – Southampton Evangelism

When I write these reports, I wish that I could state that we saw many people come to know the Lord Jesus, but the reality is that much of the time, open-air evangelism is ploughing ground and sowing seed. Some days, it is just plain hard work – today was one of those days.

As I walked to our open-air location, I was greeted by the sound of amplified music; either side of where we would be preaching were two buskers – who were quite good, but very loud. Thankfully, shortly after we arrived one of them packed up, but the other maintained a presence all day. 

Shortly after starting the outreach, an older gentleman stopped to talk. He is an elder at a local gospel church; he was encouraged by the outreach. A forgotten aspect of this form of evangelism is that it greatly encourages Believers, as there is something wonderful in hearing Jesus proclaimed in public.

For my first open-air message of the day, I preached on “How Can I Have Peace?” In this message I looked at the lack of peace in society, and what is the cause of turmoil. This then allowed me to swing to the gospel and preach Jesus as the “Prince of Peace.”

After I had finished preaching, Ben spoke on the topic of “Are You Really Sure?” As he spoke, a few people listened, including Will who had questions relating to the eternality of Hell. When Ben finished preaching, I was able to chat with Will about his beliefs. He grew up as a Roman Catholic in Ireland, which means he had been hammered by legalism; he said to me, “Good people go up, bad people go down.” But then into the mix, it turns out that the Jehovah's Witnesses had gotten their claws into him. Will is really confused, but I was able to give him some resources on the gospel, the Trinity, and the Deity of Jesus. We exchanged contact details, and we are now in touch via WhatsApp. Please pray the Lord saves him.

To finish the day, I preached again, this time on Romans 6:23 – “Wages or Gift.” This message simply walks through the verse and explains that death is what we deserve, but God has shown grace toward us.

It was a quiet, and hard day, but we rejoice that the gospel went forth. The Lord is sovereign in salvation, so we trust that the seed will be used by Him and for His glory!

SDG!