A Busy Outreach in Reading
It was good to get back out onto the streets of Reading to share the good news. Today, seven of us set up our open-air preaching location and began to engage the community with the gospel. One of the things I love about Reading is that it is very multicultural, which means we will engage with people from different nations, languages, and religious backgrounds. This provides challenges but also opportunities.
The first gospel conversation of the day came when we began to set up the open-air board. A lady was intrigued by what we were doing, so she spoke to Trevor. She then went to the Free Bible table, where she took literature.
I was the first preacher for the day, and as I have with other recent outreaches, I decided to use my new message, “Who Will Be King?” As I preached, one Asian man was engaged; he listened to all that I had to say, but then when I offered him a Gospel of John at the end, he defiantly declared, “King Charles is my King!” I agree that Charles III is King, but I am more interested in the King of Kings.
After the open air, we handed out tracts and chatted to people. I left my open-air talk on the board so that people could read it as they passed by. One young lady stopped and began to read through the different Bible verses. I engaged her in conversation by asking what she believed. She said that her parents were Christian, but she rejects Christianity. I asked her what made her reject, and she replied by talking about evolution and what she had been taught at school. I engaged her briefly in apologetics, but her friends were trying to call her away. She did take a tract before leaving.
Trevor was the next to preach; as he spoke people would pause to listen. When they went to move off, I would try to engage them in conversation. Not all wanted to chat, but all did take tracts when offered. One man did want to talk; he is from Argentina, but he is here working with the Polo Club. He was very friendly and open to talking. After discussing the gospel, he took a New Testament and “Why Christianity?”
Rich was the next preacher. He did a great job explaining the different aspects of who Jesus is and what Christ has done. While he preached, I found myself near the Bible table as things were getting busy. It wasn’t until later that I discovered how much literature had been taken. When I counted everything afterwards, I found we had distributed four Bibles, ten New Testaments, and two John’s Gospels. On top of this many booklets on a variety of topics were also distributed.
We are so thankful for all that the Lord did today. I am looking forward to the next time I am back in Reading.
SDG!