Reaching the Lost and Equipping the Found – Southampton Evangelism
The city centre of Southampton has been turned into a Christmas wonderland. Little shops and huts have all popped up selling every kind of Christmas treat and sweets. Even though it is nice to see the markets, it has created a challenge for us. In our usual preaching location, there is a shop selling Yorkshire puddings and other delights. Fighting the urge to buy a pudding, we went to the top of the street to an open location. It wasn’t ideal by our standards, but it was the perfect spot the Lord had ordained. From the first minute of the outreach, we were busy engaging people who wanted to talk and take literature.
Before we could finish setting up the Bible table, people gathered around. Literature was being taken, and people were asking questions. The Hindu Catholic from a couple of weeks back came by to speak to Nigel again. Nigel once again pointed him to Jesus and encouraged him to seek the Lord.
While this was happening, I chatted with a Christian lady who is greatly struggling. She had been hurt in the church, so she was carrying many wounds. I’m convinced that the role of an evangelist is not just to reach out to the lost but to help the found, so I spent a few minutes caring for this lady and pointing her towards resources to help her grow. She was the first of many Christians that we would meet today.
As the outreach progressed, numerous Believers stopped by to chat with us. One man who works for a well-known church in England was blown away by the outreach. He was amazed at the number of people engaging us and the responses we were getting. We were able to give him material to better equip him in the work of evangelism. At another point, an elderly supporter of The Open-Air Mission came by; she saw we were OAM and loudly asked me, “Which one are you?” It was encouraging to hear that she prays for the work each day.
All the Christians made the outreach encouraging, but still, we were there to reach the lost. One man took a tract from me, then said, “I am a Jehovah’s Witnesses.” I asked him if he reads his Bible, to which he answered, “No.” Somehow, the discussion got onto the issue of the deity of Jesus. I asked the man, “If the Bible declared that Jesus is God. Would you believe it?” He shook his head. “No, I would believe the Watchtower.” With that, he handed back the tract and then walked away. This man was so blinded by the cult that he would rather have the lies of men than the truth of God.
Due to our location, it wasn’t an easy place to open-air preach, but I did manage to present one message. Since everything was about Christmas, I used John 3:16 to share about God’s gift to humanity. As I preached, a few people paused to listen. At the end, two people took copies of John’s Gospel, including a young man who said, “I’ve got much to think about now.”
Throughout the outreach, the free Bible table was busy, and many people were taking tracts. It was so busy that we ran out of New Testaments! One encounter at the table stands out to me. Two Chinese students approached stating they’d never read the Bible. Growing up under Communism, they were not exposed to the truth of Jesus. We had a chat and then both took copies of John’s Gospel and a card that links to the good news in Chinese.
It was a non-stop day! The lost were reached, and the found were equipped for evangelism. Please pray for 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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In common with many evangelistic reports, we have changed the names and some of the photographs to protect the anonymity of those mentioned.