“When I heard of God’s love, it broke me!” – Southampton Evangelism
It was great to be back in our usual outreach location in Southampton. Now that the Christmas markets are packed away, we had the freedom to get back to business as usual. As we set up the open-air board and the free Bible table, I thought it would be an easy day – but challenges soon arose!
When we had finished setting everything up, a busker arrived. He started to set up not far from us, so I asked him if he could move further up the road. He was friendly and agreed. The sound system he had was huge and powerful – even though he was now further away, his singing drowned out conversations and the preaching. As all this occurred, I wondered, “What is God’s purpose in this?” The man wasn’t hostile, but his music made gospel ministry more difficult. I would see later in the day that the Lord had a plan for that busker.
While music filled the air, I chatted with a man at the literature table. He told me his background was completely non-religious. His parents never told him anything about God, so he has been on a journey to find the truth. For the past six months, he has been thinking about Christianity but has grown tired of reading what people said about Jesus. He decided it was time to read the Bible for himself… the problem was he didn’t have one – that is until he bumped into us. He gladly took a copy of the Bible and a few evangelistic booklets. We had a nice chat, and he was happy to finally have the Scripture.
Even though it was noisy, we decided to preach. Richard went first, speaking on – “Life: What’s the Point?” As he preached, a German man paused to listen. Afterwards, I spoke to the German, and he told me, “My head is so full of stress, I can’t even begin to think about this!” I shared with him and encouraged him to consider Jesus. He took a tract and a card that linked to the gospel in German.
While this was taking place, young tourists from Germany also stopped to listen. It turns out a cruise ship was in port, so many of the holidaymakers were German. Team members had good conversations with them, and they all took material.
Over at the literature table, I noticed a man with his family stop to browse the material, so I walked over to greet him. He was very polite and friendly. As we chatted, he told me he was a Muslim from Pakistan but now lived in the UK. He said that in Pakistan, he had studied for a Masters of English Literature; as he read, he discovered that much historical literature quoted the Bible. This intrigued him, so he decided to read ‘the divine book.’ As he took the Bible, he asked, “Where should I start?” I put a bookmark in the Gospel of John and encouraged him to begin there. He also took a tract that linked to the good news in Urdu.
Today was a real international outreach, as Jeremy spoke to a man from Swaziland who had grown up in a church-going home but wasn’t himself converted. He listened to the gospel, then let Jeremy pray for him. Afterwards, he was connected to a local evangelical church.
All this took place while the busker continued to sing. Nigel went for a walk to the other end of the street; he came back reporting that the singer could be heard clearly even way down the far end – that is how loud it was! Mike Mellor attempted to preach during this time, but it was challenging to hear him. Deciding it was too loud, we thought it best to focus on tracts and one-to-one.
After handing out tracts for a few minutes, we heard the busker announce, “Two or three more songs, then I am finished.” Not sure if he meant he would take a short break or pack up completely, I decided as soon as he finished, I would preach. As the final song ended, I stood up, “Good afternoon, Southampton. I have a question for you – How can you be sure you’ll go to Heaven?”
The lack of singing made the street quiet, so now the gospel could be heard clearly. Soon a crowd gathered. As I was preaching, the busker and his wife came near. At this stage, I referenced Romans 6:23 by mentioning wages, so I said, “My friend here has been singing; he has earned his wages today.” The busker stopped and began to listen.
The message is simple – it looks at the bad news and the good news, and then it challenges people to respond to the gospel. As I walked through several texts, people remained listening. In the end, when I offered a copy of John’s Gospel to anyone who wanted to discover more, the busker was the first to walk forward. In total, five people took copies of John’s Gospel.
One man who responded said, “When I heard of God’s love, it broke me! When you said Jesus died for my sins I knew I had to respond.” As he said this, he pointed to Romans 5:8 on the board.
Mike Mellor finished the outreach by preaching on - “Where Are They Now?” At the end of his message, two people responded to the offer of John’s Gospel. The final hour of the outreach (after the busking finished) was busy and productive. The Lord was at work!
Please pray for all those we encountered today in Southampton.
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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