An Enjoyable Outreach in Reading
For the past few days, the weather forecast had been warning of a wet afternoon, but the Lord had other plans! The sun was shining, and the temperature was pleasant as we headed out into the town centre of Reading to share the good news. As we set up, I noticed that many people were walking by, and before too long, some were stopping to engage in conversation. While setting up the literature table, one lady stopped to ask for a Bible. She took a copy and a booklet explaining who Jesus is.
The preaching commenced when Trevor spoke from Romans 5:6 – “Christ died for the ungodly!” One man who listened to the preaching was very encouraged. I spoke with him afterwards; he said he is an evangelical in the Church of England. He was happy to hear God’s Word being proclaimed.
Another man stood listening to Trevor preach; then, as he moved away, I offered him a tract and started a conversation. The man had limited English as he was from Nepal. Using the Evangecube, I was able to explain the gospel. He took a tract and said he would try to read it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any gospel literature in Nepali (I will work on remedying this shortcoming!).
When it was my turn to preach, I decided to use my new message, “Lessons from the Boomerang.” A couple of homeless men stopped to listen and engage. They told me they liked the message, then walked away. Rich was able to pursue them to make sure they had gospel literature. An older man listened, then walked away, but came back. Eventually, he went over to the literature table to talk with Trevor. From what I heard, he was an atheist at the beginning of the conversation but wasn’t by the end!
Next to preach was Rich; he spoke on “Did you know Jesus…” In this talk, Rich lists different facts about Christ, asking people if they know who Jesus really is. A few listened, including a couple of men who decided to speak with a team member to argue about the Old Testament. They heard the gospel but were very closed to the truth.
Over at the literature table, I spoke with a homeless man who told me he had read the Old Testament, but never the New. We chatted about the gospel, and he happily took a booklet and New Testament.
Richard preached next, though I didn’t get to hear much of his message as I was off doing other things. Knowing Richard, I am confident the gospel was explained.
It was getting close to the outreach finishing, so we decided that two more quick open-air messages would take place. First, I would preach, then Rich would finish off the outreach. I preached on “Death: Is it the End?” This message is a bit harder-hitting, but it does cause people to think. A couple listened, and another man walked by calling out, “Rubbish!” One man who listened took a Gospel of John at the end and spoke with a couple of team members.
To close out the day, Rich preached on “What’s your favourite song?” He then used Psalm 23 to explain the good news.
Overall, I think today went well. Lots of people took literature, and others heard the gospel. Please pray for all those who heard the good news of Jesus.
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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