Witnessing in Winchester
Due to a planned family holiday, and other scheduled meetings, today was my last outreach in Winchester until October; however, after what happened today, I'm looking forward to returning to this historic city.
Almost from the very beginning, we were engaged in gospel conversations. I spoke with a man named Stuart who told me he was very lonely as he's a drunk and that alcohol is destroying his life. I listened to his story of woe and then offered a solution. I asked him why he goes back to the bottle, and he replied, “Because it makes me feel good!” I pointed out the issue he faced was one of worship. God made Stuart to worship Jesus, but Stuart had placed the bottle in the place of Christ. Fundamentally, the issue was idolatry. Stuart said that made sense, as he wanted to serve alcohol when he should be serving God. I explained the gospel to Him and stressed that Christ is the only solution.
As soon as that conversation had finished, I found myself chatting with two young ladies who had stopped at the Free Bible table. Both had no concept of Christianity. They thought good people went to Heaven, and God let everyone in. It was a challenge to witness to them as they had no foundation upon which I could build the gospel. Everything relating to biblical Christianity was foreign to them. Slowly, I explained who God is and what He has done. They listened, engaged in conversation, and then took a New Testament each. These two young ladies are a prime example of modern Britain. We have scores of people walking around who don’t have a basic understanding of Christian truth. This is why the UK needs missionaries!
As I thought about the lack of knowledge these two ladies had, I decided that for my open-air message, I would focus on the truth that God is the Creator and that we had turned away from Him. As I preached, I noticed one older man with a walking stick stop to listen. He stood for a while, shook his head, then walked away. But after a few steps, he paused to listen again. After listening for a few more minutes, he again began to walk away. He took a few steps, then stopped to listen. It was as if he couldn’t get away from the message.
Between the two open-air messages, the four of us on the team focused on handing out tracts and chatting with people. All of us were amazed at how many people were taking literature and by the number of people stopping at the Free Bible table to talk.
For my second open-air message, I spoke on “Your Life.” As I preached, a few people stopped to listen. One young lady seemed engaged. She listened as the gospel was explained, and when I offered a copy of John’s Gospel to those listening, she came forward to take one.
A number of those who had listened made their way over to the Free Bible table, where they chatted further, and took literature. It is always encouraging to see this kind of response to the preaching.
Overall, it was a very productive day of witnessing in Winchester. Please pray for all those we met.
SDG!