From Hard to Receptive Ground – Southampton Evangelism

Today, we had another opportunity to make Christ known in Southampton. There were only three of us on the team today, including Immanuel who drove all the way from Plymouth (3 hours away).

At 1pm, we commenced the outreach, but a very loud street performer was set up near us. His music was good, but it was making gospel witness hard, so we had to move up the street to get away from the noise.

I started the preaching off by speaking about “Hope for a Broken World.” The ground felt so hard, it was as if the message was hitting a brick wall and going nowhere. After I had preached, Gary began to proclaim the gospel – he too felt that the message was just hitting hard ground. It was at this point we paused the outreach and began to pray; we had no way to break through the hard hearts of the people, but the Lord has that power, so we sought Him.

Once we finished praying, Gary began to preach again. Almost instantly two young ladies stopped and began to engage. They were very friendly and open to the gospel. They had a Roman Catholic background, so they were very much trusting in their works as the basis of their salvation. Gary preached to them from the words of Jesus, “It is finished!” At the end of the preaching, one of the young ladies took a copy of John’s Gospel, and both took tracts.

It was then my turn to preach, so I spoke about “The Way to Heaven.” The Lord very graciously gathered a crowd in to listen, and it was during this time that the busker stopped performing. The quietness made it much easier to preach. People appeared to be listening seriously to the gospel, and then at the end, I offered copies of John’s Gospel to whoever would like to find out more about Jesus. Two ladies walked forward in front of everyone to receive the Scripture.

One of the ladies who took a copy of the Gospel had tears rolling down her cheeks. She told me her name was Karla, and she wanted to talk. She was quite confused, but it was clear the Lord was dealing with her. She seemed amazed by the love of Jesus but couldn’t seem to grasp the point that Christ died for sinners like her. We exhorted her to believe in the Lord Jesus. She thanked us for taking the time to speak with her, and she left with gospel literature.

Gary then preached again, and as before people stopped to listen. The ground had certainly changed from hard to receptive. Throughout Gary’s message, people would come forward to take copies of John’s Gospel from the open-air board. One young lady named Heidi listened carefully to the preaching. At the end of the message, she took a Gospel and many different booklets.

Throughout the day, while Gary and I preached, Immanuel was engaged in one-to-one witness with the many people sitting in the area. He would simply walk up to them, offer them a tract, and begin a conversation. It was really encouraging to see him sharing the good news, and seeing people take copies of the Gospel of John from him.

The ground had gone from hard to receptive; it got to the point where I thought we were about to run out of John’s Gospels. The Lord truly answers prayers, and He is good. Please pray for all those we met today.

Today was also my last outreach in Southampton (for now!). I look forward to when I can preach the gospel in this city once again.

 SDG!