Yorkshire Outreach: Day 3 – Leeds
It was overcast and threatening rain when we returned to Leeds today. I wasn’t feeling 100%, but still, I looked forward to sharing the good news; however, I found today harder.
During the outreach, I was able to hand out numerous tracts but only managed to get into one good conversation. After offering a tract, two ladies objected to its speaking about Heaven, as they are Jehovah’s Witnesses who want to live on ‘paradise earth.’ We chatted about why the earth is corrupt and the sinfulness of humanity. I asked them, “What hope do you have of resurrection?” They paused, then said, “We don’t know; it is up to Jehovah. We just try to do our best.” I told them I had complete confidence that I would be resurrected to life, then took them to 1 John 5:13 to show how God wants us to have certainty of salvation. The assurance of salvation seems to have rocked them, so I took them to Ephesians 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5 to prove that our salvation is not dependent upon what we do.
The conversation naturally made its way to the person and work of Jesus, and we all agreed that it is vital that we be correct in our understanding of Christ. They declared that Jesus was ‘god-like’ and an ‘angel’, so I took them to Hebrews 1:8 to show that the Father calls the Son - ‘God.’ When confronted with this Scripture, they quickly said they had to leave, though one did take a tract.
By now, it was my turn to preach, so I spoke on “Death: Is it the End?” There was very little interaction, and it started to lightly rain as I preached. One man did walk past and pretended to shoot himself in the head after hearing me. He then decided to give me the finger. Being a little bit cheeky, I replied, “That is correct, sir! Jesus is number one! Keep that finger high!” The man quickly pulled the finger down and disappeared down the street.
From a human perspective, we may say that not much happened today, although team members did have conversations and much preaching took place (I’ll let them share their stories). As I reflect on the outreach, I trust that God in His sovereignty, allowed me to speak to all He intended. Please pray for all who heard the good news.
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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