“I will never die!” – Southampton Evangelism
There was a storm warning in place as we made our way to Southampton for an afternoon of evangelism. Some of the weather apps said that it would be cloudy with no rain, and others said it would be wet. We decided that God is sovereign, so He will determine if it rains or not - our job is to merely share the good news. It was nice to have numerous labourers with me today. Last week, I was all by myself, but today, six of us were sharing the gospel.
Seeing that rain clouds were building, I decided to preach first. Playing off the death focus that Halloween brings, I preached on the question, “Death: Is It the End?” Shortly after starting, three young people stopped to listen. A young lady named Emma shouted, “I will never die!” When that was the opening line, I knew we were going to have a fun conversation.
Eventually, Emma conceded that she would die but was sure of Heaven, as according to her, she was sinless. Together, we went through the Ten Commandments to show that all have sinned and deserve judgment. After explaining sin, I asked, “Emma, how will you get to Heaven?” She replied, “We can’t!” It was at that point I took her to the cross. As I began to explain the gospel, I could feel the weather was about to change, so I quickly explained what Jesus had done and called on the crowd that had now gathered to repent and trust in Jesus. As a few drops of rain began to fall, I offered a copy of John’s Gospel to anyone who wanted to discover more about Jesus – six people, including Emma, took a copy of the Scripture. The heavens then opened, and the rain came tumbling down.
Will Goddard (Associate Worker with The Open-Air Mission) preached next. Standing in the rain, he preached about - “God is Just, and God is Love.” I think his boldness in standing in the rain caught the attention of a few people, including a drunk homeless man who didn’t understand personal space.
After Will, Ben preached on “Whether Warning” – whether you believe it or not. By this time, the rain had stopped, so a crowd gathered around to listen to Ben preach. After his message, several people took copies of John’s Gospel, and others wanted to chat further.
I found myself chatting with an intelligent young man named Sid. He was asking many good questions and had several good arguments he wanted to explore. The challenge, however, is that Sid was a post-modern relativist, so he didn’t believe in absolute truth or morality. Sid and I spoke for a long time (Ben estimated it was nearly an hour). We went back and forth on apologetic issues ranging from the nature of truth, morality, Christian teaching, evolution, and the gospel. At the end of our chat, he took a copy of John’s Gospel and said how thankful he was for our conversation. Since he lives near the city centre, we invited him to come back next week to talk further.
During my long conversation, team members were busy preaching the gospel and engaging people in conversation. Richard told me he had a good conversation with three young lads who were open to hearing of Christ. Ivan said he had spoken to a couple of Sikhs that were also interested.
Despite the wet weather, it was a productive day in Southampton. Please pray that the Lord would save all those we encountered.
SDG!
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Josh Williamson is a full-time evangelist with The Open-Air Mission. Since 1853, OAM has been sharing the good news on the streets of the United Kingdom. To stay updated about the work of the Mission, please sign up for the free quarterly magazine and monthly prayer notes.
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