A Hard but Fruitful Day – Salisbury Evangelism
Sometimes in evangelism, you have challenging days. These are the days when things seem to go wrong, and people appear to be less receptive to gospel truth. For us, the challenges began when my open-air board broke, but thankfully we were able to repair it so that it could continue to be used. Then throughout the day, it felt that people weren’t as open as usual. Tract distribution was a challenge, and conversations were scarce. But the Lord was still at work. Little by little the Kingdom was advancing.
Paul began the outreach by preaching the gospel. As usual, he did a great job in explaining the good news and calling on people to come to know Jesus. After Paul finished preaching, it was my turn to proclaim the gospel. I decided to preach on the topic of “Your Life.” In this talk, I examine the shortness of our lives, and how we need to answer the question of “What’s Next?” A couple of people paused to listen, including a lady who spoke to Paul afterwards. She took a copy of John’s Gospel and Ultimate Questions.
Over at the Free Bible table, a few people were stopping to browse the literature. It is always encouraging to see people take up booklets on various topics – may the Lord speak to them as they consider His truth.
Throughout the day, I felt Salisbury was challenging, but that began to change towards the end of the outreach. Paul once again preached – this time he spoke on “Six Certainties.” As he shared the good news, a young man took a copy of John’s Gospel.
Then, I finished the outreach by preaching once again. I spoke about how our sin has separated us from God. As I shared about our sin, three young men stopped to listen, so I engaged them. This open-air discussion served to pique the interest of others; people listened in as we spoke about sin and the gospel. The three young men were very polite and engaging. At the end of the message, all took copies of John’s Gospel and were thankful for the chat. After a hard outreach, this was a wonderful way to finish.
As I write this report, I look back and find myself resting in the truth of God’s absolute sovereignty. He allows the gospel to go forth, and He will do as He sees fit. Please join me in praying for all those who heard the good news today.
SDG!