Battle Log

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Saturday, 26 November, 2011

On Saturday, 4 of the team met up in the city centre to preach and share the gospel with people in the city of Plymouth again.

The town was packed, and our normal spot had been taken by a Salvation army band, and they were adamant they had a permit, when I politely asked hopw long they would be there for that day, so we split up to scout around to find somewhere quieter. Closed down Woolworth stores are normally pretty good, but with a carousel opposite, we moved even further down to a less populated part, with fewer shops, though a McDonalds, Burger King and KFC keeping the crowds down that end!

We were a bit more aprehensive as we had not preached this far down before, but prayed that we would do Gods will, that he would direct our paths to witnessing opportunities, and we would have divine appointments and tracts would be taken and read. Someone had a paper which sometimes has some great springboards to preach from, and the front page listed a woman who had been swindling her deaf neighbours credit cards and taking out loands in their name and going on holidays whilst racking them up big bills. 

She had eventually been caught, and was awaiting sentence. I commenced preaching using our microphone and amp about what people thought this woman should get for her sentence, and how our conscience tells us what she did was wrong. A man walked past, and I managed to speak to him directly and started to ask him some questions about what had happened. He was about to walk off, but managed to stay and we had a conversation. I directed by questions generally to passers by, then to him to get his views, and we spoke for a good while. 

At the end of the conversation I managed to reason with him that he would be guilty if he died in his sins, and would end up in Hell, and he was open to hearing the good news of the gospel. I explained that to be saved, he needed to cry out to God for mercy, as he could not save him self, but needed to be born again, to be enlightened and to repent and trust in Jesus alone for his salvation, not good works or any merit of his own. He took a tract and said he had a Bible which he would read, and was a great discussion in the end, for others to listen too as well.

Dewi, our youngest member of the team was brave today and decieded to open air preach for the very first time. He is the newest memnber of our Church, and from Wales. He is studying molecular biology, and so is great to chat to people regarding evolution. He spoke very well, and was ncouraged by us all.

Again lots of tracts managed to be passed out, and Charles and Russ preached as well. 

We had some discussions with a group of post modernist youth, who said it was up to peoples own views what they believed, and basically 'man was right in his own eyes'. Rightly or wrongly, I decieded to show the incompatability with this view, by stomping on his foot, and saying if that was ok to do, as it was my opinion thats ok. Or, If I was his managed and at the end of the month only paid him a 10th of what he had earnt as that was my opinion of what was right. I hopefully tried to show we can only know right and wrong from what the Bible says, relating to the 10 commandments, and how the Bible is Holy Spirit inspired, full of scientific facts and shows without a shadow of a doubt to be authored by God himself.

It was a good days outreach and the people we managed to chat to hopefully had something challenging to consider about their eternal welfare.

Death always makes people think about their own futures and where they too will go. The sad death of Gary Speed on Sunday highlighted that even someone with fame, money, a family and children still needs the gospel, after he took his own life, when hours before on TV seemed absolutely fine and in good mental health. Many Christians unfortunatley dont see the opportunities to use this as an evangelistic springboard, but instead on facebook seem to pray him into heaven, just because he was a nice man. I hope to be agble to use this to discuss with many young people this week, and through Facebook, that people may see that life is a vapour, and Jesus Christ and his Gospel are the pivitol things in the Universe to embrace, whilst they are still granted life on this earth. 

Saturday, 19 November, 2011

Today the team consisted of Roman, Elyske, Rob and Myself.  We spread out in our usual spot and began to hand out tracts to pedestrians.  Not long after we began, I approached a young couple sitting on a bench.  Chris and Ellie were their names and I began to share with them how we as Gods creatures, have all broken Gods Law.  Chris had quite a few questions regarding apologetic considerations and I attempted to answer them.  They both seemed quite happy to talk about religion and philosophy. I explained the Gospel to them, gave them a few more tracts and we amicably parted ways.

Later I came across a lapsed Catholic from Ireland.  He believed the Bible and what is said about humans and sin,  He also had a few questions regarding how the Bible and darwinian philosophy are compatible and I explained that they aren't!!!  He listened intently and took a tract from Creation Ministries International.  He was very interested in the topic, may God open his eyes to see!

Roman began a conversation with a Muslim named Hammed, which went on for over an hour.  Eventually Rob and myself went over to listen and began to add to the discussion.  Rob brought up a very powerful and logical argument against the Koran which made Hammed think a bit more regarding the grounds of his belief in Islam.  Unfortunately we had to go by that time and I gave Hammed a tract to take with him.  We had a great time sharing the Gospel today, may God grant repentance to those we shared with!!

Friday, 11 November, 2011

The team was out once more on Friday evening to share the gospel with people in and around Leicester Square. We met beforehand at Cafe Nero and I shared on the finished work of Christ. Many religions and cults place an emphasis on works for our salvation. Even Mormonism, which claims to preach the grace of Christ, says “...for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” (2 Nephi 25:23) In John 6 the people ask Jesus, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (John 6:28) They lived by a system of works and thought that their many deeds would make them right with God. Jesus told them plainly: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (John 6:29) Christ lived the perfect life for us, the life that we cannot live, and then He died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins. That is why faith in Him and Him alone is sufficient for our salvation. In fact, there is no other work that can save us. We must believe in the One whom God has sent. 

When we arrived at Leicester Square it was awash with people. You can get a glimpse of this by looking at the picture to the right. Standing up to preach I began by speaking about Remembrance Day and the many lives gone before us to protect our freedom. I then switched to talk about One who has won our freedom once and for all time from a bondage far greater than war, tyranny or oppression: the bondage of sin. Jesus said, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) As I shared the gospel people stood listening and before long many in the team were in conversation. 

Myself and Ingrid spoke with a young Muslim man (Majit) from Pakistan, who now lives in England. He was really pleasant to talk to and listened as we shared with him. He made the claim that the Bible was in error and had been changed. I spoke to him about how the letters of the New Testament were distributed far and wide once they had been written, and that copies upon copies were made and then distributed even further. If at some point the Bible was changed and altered, the task would have been insurmountable. All the thousands of copies would have had to have been collected and for consistency they would have all needed to be changed. Each of the four gospels accounts for the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. The Qur’an, written after the Bible, says that Jesus did not die on the cross. Were all four gospel accounts changed? How was this done, bearing in mind that before Muhammad was even born, countless copies of the gospels were circling round the known world at an unprecedented speed? It was quite apparent that Majit understood the argument I was making, which was very encouraging. At the end of our conversation we exchanged contact details and I have since written to Majit. Do pray for him and that we would be able to continue in dialogue together. 

Mehlika also had a very encouraging conversation on Friday night. Here is her account: “At the beginning of the night when I was standing and listening to the preaching, a young man, Nickel (26), walked through the crowd, stopped, and said to me; ‘should I be listening to this?’ and I said yes, then he said, ‘Is it a good message’ and I said yes. He asked me if I was only saying, ‘yes,’ then I explained what the message was that was being preached, and how as a Christian I find the message dramatically important. Then he looked at Rob and said, ‘Okay, what’s he saying, can you translate for me?’ Then I began to tell him the gospel. God is good because this guy didn’t ‘waist time’ arguing that mankind is good, but he acknowledged we are all sinners, he acknowledged that Jesus was indeed a historical character and he did not question the validity of the Bible, which was shocking for me because he is not a Christian and he was very switched on. Through this Nickel and I were able to get stuck into the Bible and the gospel message; he was asking lots of questions and he seemed to be taking in everything I was saying. I was also able to share my testimony with him. We spoke for a good period of time. This allowed us to talk about the O.T. and why God chose the Jews, and even as in-depth to talk about Abraham and how there was a ram caught in the thicket when he was about to sacrifice his son. This allowed me to demonstrate to Nickel that God has always known about the provision of His Son for our sins. This allowed me to add weight to Christ, by showing how the O.T. talks of Him.

Drawing near to the end of the conversation I told Nickel that he couldn’t leave tonight thinking Jesus was just a good moral teacher; because there is no room to believe that. Instead I told him he had three options, only three! Jesus was either a mad man, who generally believed he was the son of God, or he was a liar, purposely trying to deceive people into worshiping him and believing who he said he was, or he was telling the truth which would make him one with God; the son of God. Then he showed me the book he is reading, it was on spirituality and he said that it has many quotes from the Bible; and that he thinks a Christian might have written it. I told him I had a better spiritual book for him and handed him the Bible. He was reluctant to take it at first because I guess he assumed that I thought he would be a Christian. I reassured him that I’m only responsible to share the gospel, and that God seeks the hearts and transforms them, no one else. I had also told him how someone gave me a Bible 2 years before I became a Christian. He was very thankful and loved the in-depth conversation. He gave me his email and I told him that my fiancé and I would write to him one day and see how he is doing. I generally believe that he was meant to be there last night. He had never heard the gospel, yet he was starting to think of spiritual things. Praise God that He set that situation up, and I shall keep him in prayer.”

Below are some more pictures from the evening. 

It had been a fantastic night and although a bit manic at times we praise God that we were able to make His name known. It truly is a privilege and an honour to do so!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Saturday, 5 November, 2011

Saturday, November 5th, Rob Hughes and I both hit Brentwood town centre. 'Armed' with loads of tracts and a willingness to preach the Gospel to the lost, we were soon joined by Elyske and Ingrid to make a team of four.  The High St was consistently busy today which made handing out tracts a lot easier.  My first conversation came from a gentleman named Mustafah.  He took a tract, read it while waiting for his girlfriend in a shop and came back to me asking questions.  He was very amiable and had a great interest in different world religions.  I explianed the Biblical view of Creation and fall of Man into sin, Gods Law and how we break it, how Christ came to save those who repent and why the Biblical Worldview is the ONLY way to account for human experience of the world.  He appeared to take in every word and we eventually parted with him taking more tracts and an ear full of the Gospel.

Rob also had an opportunity to chat to people -

I had the opportunity to talk with a man who said he was a Mormon. Ingrid had already been talking with him when I came over and joined her. He came across as a man content and quite happy with his life, and spoke a lot about how good the Mormons are, that as a group of people he found them to be the most “caring people he had ever met.” Mormons certainly are a people of “good works.” Their emphasis on striving for perfection as the people of God is driven by their theology, for to attain to the “Celestial Kingdom,” where “Heavenly Father” lives, one must do all he can in this life (in the Book of Mormon it says: “...for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” - 2 Nephi 25:23). As a result the perception of Mormons is that they certainly are a people of “clean living.” 

However many Mormons, particularly women, reach a point where they become simply overwhelmed by the many works they must perform. It certainly is hard to be perfect, and even harder when you do not truly have the Holy Spirit to help you, when your mind has not been regenerated by the power of God, when your desire to be holy is man-centred and not God-centred. I explained to the man we were talking to that it is faith in Christ alone that makes us perfect before God, because Christ has already lived the perfect life for us, the perfect life that we cannot live (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). I found it peculiar that he wanted to turn to Scriptures that really had no bearing on what we talking about. I had to keep bring it back to the central issue. It is either grace plus works that saves us, or it is grace alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us plainly: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Towards the end of the conversation I had to become a little more direct and said to him plainly: “The Mormon Church is a false church.” He did not like this, so I tried earnestly to explain to him why this is the case. Mormonism is not Christianity, because it deviates most definitely from orthodox, historical Christianity. For that reason it is most certainly a cult, and one which must be exposed as such. Do pray for the man we spoke to, and the many Mormons trapped in this false religion. They “worship” Jesus, but it is not the Jesus of the Bible (the Truth) whom they are worshipping. Do pray for them!

Saturday, 12 November, 2011

God has a way of showing me that although he is sovereign/ all powerful/ Transcendant and yet personal, he also has a sense of humour!

Whilst at work I was reading a great book on Evangelism by John MacArthur and other pastors and missionaries at Grace Community Church, and the chapter I was reading was about personal evangelism, not just outreach and arranged evangelism, but also being ready to share the gospel with others at home, work and in the street in our day to day living. I was highlighting certain points to type up and give to some members of our evangelism team, and sitting on the same table as a 19yr old trainee teaching assisstant.

After a few minutes of reading, she suddenly came out and asked me what I was reading and why I was highliting most of the page I was reading?

This allowed me to be able to share with her what the book was about, why I was doing it, and to talk in the 3rd person about what questions we may ask people on the streets on a saturday. There were about 3 other teachers in the room at the time, but quietly I managed to share my testimony and the gospel with her, and to give her a tract to read. I could see the other teachers walk past and listen in etc, but because she asked me the question, It gave me opportunity to speak with her.

It turned out she had some previous experience of attendiong a Church in the past when she was younger, and she said she had a Bible and would think about what was said, which was great. God wanted me to put into practise what I was reading and it seemed very encouraging!

On the way home that day I caught the bus into town, and a couple of girls in year 8 were there too. They asked me to give them some more of the intelligence questions I had shared with them before, and so this made them laugh when asked how to spell the word 'Shop' etc. I then offered one of the girls called Kelsie a million euro note, which she then began to read out loud, so that her friend, a Teacher and others on the bus could all hear, much to my encouragement. Kelsie is quite a troubled girl, tall for her age and often at trouble in school. She laughed at the first tract I gave her, after I had tried to reason with her about the existance of God etc, but she wanted to know more about this one.

I went through the good person test with her, and after asking her 5 of the questions, as to whether she had ever lied, stolen, used Gods name in vain or dishonoured her parents before, her face soon changed, and she looked at the floor when she discovered that God would see her as a lying, thieving blasphemer, who had dishonoured her parents as well as other things before, and therefore deserved of Hell. It was actually good to see contrition on her face, and her loud and often abrasive manner went to being quiet and reflective for a change. I had to get off the bus pretty soon after, but managed to giver her the tract and said that now she had heard the bad news, she would have to read the good news on the back. No doubt I will have more opportunities to chat to her in school again which should be good. 

Our outreach yesterday in town was great, with 4 of us meeting to chat, share, and pray together, before we commenced with handing out tracts and preaching. Charles preached whilst we handed out tracts, talking about a serious motorway crash that had happened last week, with 7 people dying and many more seriously injured as a result, and if those people would have thought that that day they would have died? This showed the frailty of life and how serious it was to get right with God today. 

I spoke about rememberance day, and how the whole country had gotten together to remember the lives of those who had died in the 2 great wars and many since, and how people had tried to make peace with other countries, often with varying degrees of success. I spoke about how it was God that was seeking to make peace with humanity before it was too late. We have to come to the end of ourselves before we can be humbled and seek Gods forgiveness, but it was God who was in Christ reconcilling the world to himself, and as Christians, has committed to us the message of reconcilliation. Peace cant be made with God through being religious, good works or trying to be a good person, but only through the death of Jesus Christ. The more good works people try and to to make themselves right with God, the further away people push themselves, yet God is seeking people who are humble and contrite of heart and just like the prodigal son in Luke 15, it is only when we come to the end of of ourselves and say 'what must I do to be saved', that we see it is the Father who has been out seeking us the whole time.

We had good conversations with people after Russ preached as well, with 2 17 yr old sixth formers from a school and a great chat, 2 semi drunk men, an atheist who said he didnt have any proof or reason to believe that God existed because of science, and a man approached me and wanted to chat who was called Steve, and said he believed in God and used to be an alcoholic and had been through the 12 step programme. He said it was only God who had gotten him through, yet through alcoholism he had lost his wife, children, house and job and for a time had lived homeless on the streets. He said he attended another Church occasionally, but I went through the gospel with him again and explained that there is only one God, whereas with AA you can make up a god in your own image, but there is only one true and living God, and we can only come to him through Jesus Christ.

He said he has read the Bible a bit but doesnt make sense and said that he would like someone to help him read and understand it. I explained that it is only the Holy Spirit who can open someones eyes to understand what the scriptures say, but I have him some tracts and contact information to read, and said we were out here every saturday if he would like to chat further about things.

It was a great conversation with him, and a good days outreach overall, to God be the glory for using sinners such as ourselves to be the agents of drawing people to himself! 

Friday, 4 November, 2011

On Friday evening we had a good size time out once more, there were at least 15 of us. Not all were able to make it to the cafe but joined us a little later up at China Town. When we got to China Town I decided that as it was rather difficult last week we would head back to Leicester Square to see if things could be easier for us there. I was quite pleased that an area had opened up near the new M & M store so we set up to preach there. 

We didn't get a large crowd during the open-air preaching but some people did stop to listen as I shared the gospel. After I finished preaching we all got into conversation with people passing by, handing out a good number of tracts. Elyske shared afterwards about a conversation she'd had that was really God ordained. A gentleman passing by had taken a tract from her and after reading it came back a little later to talk to her about it. It truns out he has really been struggling of late and so was quite struck by the timining of Elyske handing him the gospel tract. She shared God's Word with him and was also able to share her testimony, which is always so valuable, as our testimony is personal and people can really relate to that! Please pray for him. 

It was a great encouragement to have had Brian join us on Friday. Brian serves in the U.S. Military and until just recently was in the U.K. on holiday. He had visited our church the week before, after a referral from Dr. James White over at Alpha & Omega Ministries. We had got talking and he mentioned that he did some witnessing back in the States and so I told him he must join us on Friday. He jumped at the opportunity. In fact, he made sure his schedule was laid out especially so that he would be able to join us. I think if he was living in London he'd join us every week! You can see Brian sharing the gospel with a young man in the picture to the left. 

Marie had a rather long conversation with a Muslim man that appeared to not really know a lot about Islam. She was able to share the gospel with him and although he grappled with the truth that Jesus is God, he was very responsive. (You can see her sharing the gospel with the man in the picture to the right.) Marie mentioned that he appeared quite fragile and lonely. May the Lord draw him to Himself and comfort him with the peace that is found only in Jesus! 

I had a great conversation with some tourists from Holland. They all gathered round as I shared the gospel with them. They were so open and responsive, it was quite amazing. When I took them through the law of God and spoke to them of sin it was so clear they understood perfectly that they had indeed transgressed God’s law. This made sharing the gospel with them such a joy. They all left with an in-depth gospel tract and much to think about. Do pray for them!

I also had a conversation with two Muslim men. We spoke at length about the justice of God. The reason I brought this up with them was to show them that where the God of the Qu’ran fails, the God of the Bible succeeds! You see, if God shows mercy to a sinner, He is not just. If He acts justly towards the sinner, mercy is not given. How then do we reconcile justice and mercy? (Mercy, while definitely being one of God’s attributes, is not something He is obligated to pour out. This is why mercy means “not getting what we should deserve.”) I illustrated my point by saying that if “my sister” were to be murdered it would be right for the murderer to be sentenced and punished. To this they agreed. I asked them whether the judge would be a good judge if he overturned the guilty verdict and let the man go free. They agreed he would be a bad judge. I then asked them who’s standards are higher: God’s standards or human standards? They affirmed that God’s standards are higher. I then said to them that if a human judge is bound by the law and must execute justice, how much more must God! 

God must execute justice. If He doesn’t, He is not just, it as simple as that. Yet we understand that God is also merciful. So how is this demonstrated and how is justice and mercy reconciled? Here’s the good news: God pours out all His justice on Himself and in so doing saves us from His justice. We receive His mercy because all of His justice towards sin is taken upon His very own shoulders! The Son of God took our place so that we could go free. That is the gospel! They objected and tried to say that if God shows mercy to the sinner, without there being a sinless mediator standing in man’s place, God is still just. Yet this simply is not so. We all understand the idea of justice, and just because “God is God,” He still acts justly in the very way that we understand justice. 

Joining the rest of the team it was encouraging to hear about the conversations they’d had. Below are some more pictures from the evening. It was a blessed time!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Saturday, 5 November, 2011

Saturday was quite a windy day, and with people working and being away, we only had 5 of us out preaching today. We all gathered and prayed, before Charles preached, whilst others handed out tracts to passers by. Quite a few people stopped in the background to listen, and while Charles mentioned about death, a big gust of wind blew our wooden board down, making a loud bang with great timing and effect!

I then preached about people covering up the real them, with clothes, cars and fancy things, and yet the real us is often someone we dont want others to know. I said that rogue builders try and hide faults in their work, and its only later on that cracks in the foundations start to show. The parable of the 2 builders on solid rock or sinking sand was mentioned, and that people can either build their lives on Gods word, his truth, and Jesus the perfect cornerstone which made sure our lives were straight and long lasting, or people could build their lives on fairytales such as evolution, false religions or just what their parents told them was right in their own eyes.

Russ preached later, and a 16yr old lad leaned against a tree and listened to him, and afterwards I managed to have a good chat with him. He asked why the Christian God was the right one to believe in, as well as many other questions, and questioned whether the Bible was just stories or how we could know it was Gods word. Some goodscientific facts in the Bible helped show him the Bible was no ordinary book, together with some calculations about all of the prophcies of Jesus coming true and what the statistical chances would be, showing Jesus was more than just a man, but the promised Messiah, God incarnate.

He was eager to take quite a few tracts and was a good conversation.

That night, 3 of us met to go up to the fireworks display and bonfire night, as we knew it would be packed and have lots of opportunities to hand out our 'Big Bang' tracts. Quite a few went out, and was an eventful night. We managed to help an elderly man who fell over to get back on his feet and to a taxi with his elderly wife, and although it turned out he was almost certainly under the influence of alcohol, they were very grateful for the assistance and was a good way to give them a couple of tracts to say why we were out that night.

Whilst watching the bonfire, in the middle of the whole crowd oif hundreds of people, it just so happens that we realised we were standing right next to a group of about 6 older teens whom we had chattedf to a few weeks before, one of them being very flamboint in their Atheism! So ths led to about a 15 minute conversation with the lad, of proofs of Gods existance, reasoning that no one could be an athiest with absolute knowledge, but people may claim to be an agnostic, and not sure whom God was. Coded informnation in DNA, biblical manuscripts, as well as objective absolute truth helped show the lad that belief in God was not just clutching at straws, but based on firm solid information about the way the Universe around us works and is sustained.

It was a god conversation and definatly led him from backsliding to an agnostic from an athiest, which he was not too happy about, but he took another tract and our email and I said I would be more than happy to lend him books, DVD's and give him some websites to think about, so will see if he does contact us again! Gods providence definatly showed, and we knew we were in the right place at the right time, with God directing our steps that night.

Friday, 28 October, 2011

We had a number of people join us for outreach this past Friday, at least five new people, which was so encouraging. After a great time of fellowship in the cafe we headed out to our new spot near China Town. There was roughly twenty of us and so we were in for a great night! 

I preached for a good 30 minutes. This is quite long and the reason was largely due to the hecklers in the crowd. One gentleman in particular, which you will be able to see in the video above, had a number of questions and charges to lay against Christianity and Jesus Christ. One of his questions centred around the life of Christ before he entered his ministry. He asked, “What did Jesus do for the thirty years undocumented in the Bible?” I asked him to elaborate and he said, “The part between the two years before his death and his birth, what was he doing? The Son of God surely should have been doing good things.” I responded by saying, “He was growing up.” He then responded by saying, “Oh, the Son of God had to grow up did he?” I recognise that I could have done a better job in answering his question, however it allowed me to emphasise something very important. Jesus became a man so that we could relate to Him (He subjected Himself to human existence. He slept, ate, walked, etc, even though He was God) and also, more importantly, He became a human being so that He would be the perfect representative for mankind. Man has sinned, which means man is culpable. The only hope for humanity is a substitute willing to take our place. But what kind of substitute? The Bible tells the only acceptable substitute is one who is both fully God and fully man. Why is this? The Heidelberg Catechism of 1619 A.D. explains it so well:

I explained that option 1 is impossible, since for something to create itself it would mean that it existed before it existed. This of course is absurd. Option 2 has been accepted almost universally by the scientific community as false since the laws of thermodynamics show us that the universe must have had a beginning. This leaves option 3 as the only rationale explanation for our existence. She didn’t like this but it was obvious she saw the logic to what I was saying. I reasoned with her some more and explained that there truly is a God before whom we must one day stand and give an account. 

Although the spot we have chosen is great for open-air preaching, it is tricky with regard to one-to-one witnessing, as the road we are in is opened for traffic at roughly 10:00pm. It became quite difficult and so we decided to move back down to Leicester Square. Arriving back at the Square we continued to witness to people and hand out tracts. It was a great time and I was so encouraged to join with so many brothers and sisters in making Christ’s name known. Lord may you open the hearts of the people to hear and respond to your Word. Grant repentance and faith Lord to the lost people of London!

Saturday, 29 October, 2011

The Essex Team broke loose on the Brentwood High St today, sharing the Gospel to anyone and everyone who came our way.  We began with a small team consisting of Rob Hughes and myself, and were soon joined by Roman, Elyske, Ingrid, Wesley and James.  We spread out and handed out loads of tracts and got into a few conversations with pedestrians that would lend us an ear.  I had a wonderful conversation with an ex roman catholic priest from India.  His name was Thomas and he expressed "belief" in the Bible but when pressed, he only acknowledges the 'red letters' of Jesus.  I asked if he was born again and he said he got born again at his "christening".  We talked about Gods righteous requirements in his Law and how he matches up, and discussed Hell and justice.  We parted amicably and I stressed 'faith in Christ alone' NOT in the roman church or a human priest!  A great time of sharing was had by all.  May God grant repentance to those who read or heard the Gospel this day!

Saturday, 29 October, 2011

Last Friday night 3 of us met at Plymouth University again at 6pm to try and catch some of the throng of people on their way home or out early to the bars etc- Charles who is X- Navy and Dewi who is a Medical student, both of whom attend our Church. We only managed to spend 45 minutes out tonight as was cold and dark and wet, and some Haloween tracts were handed out to people and I managed to have a good chat with 2 2nd year medical students who were on their way back from the Gym. One said he believed in God, the other was Asian and said he was a Christian. A good discussion arose, we went through the commandments and reasoned about the existence of Hell etc, and went on to the cross etc. I asked them what reasons they had for believing in God, and suprisingly they said there were none, it was all blind faith, and so I showed them by using the University building, that the proof of the builder is the building itself. We have to have faith in the builder- God, but the creation around us, from the Universe, to the written code in DNA, shows us God exists. (Hebrews 3 v 4- For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God came to mind).

The guy that said he was a Christian didnt really know what God had done for sinners like us so that we could go to Heaven, but in the end he understood after a 10 minute conversation and both willingly took 4 tracts and information each which was good.

We thought there may be some people in McDonalds we could try and chat with, and a man caught our attention who was sitting by himself in the corner and looked pretty down and depressed. When he left we followed him out, and I offered him a gospel tract. We all started a conversation and he turned out to be a homeless guy called Adam who I think was only 25. He said that 2 weeks ago his girlfriend had split up with him, kicked him out of their flat, and he also lost his job and car pretty soon afterwards, and so he was in a pretty bad way, as nearest family members lived up country.

He said he had a faith, used to belong to the Jesus army where he had given in all of his possessions, and that things were not turning out well for him. We managed to minister to him and prayed with him and Charles made sure he had some money for food and said we were out preaching the next day if he wanted to come and find us to chat to again we would.

On the Saturday about 6 of us started to set up in our normal place, but unfortunatly there was an alarm going off randomly from a shop nearby, along with a new shop opening with music and tannoy announcments which drowned out our preaching. This led us to pack up and move down the street outside an abandoned Woolworths store.

I was a bit dubious as we dont normally come down this part of the street as is much quiter, but 3 good conversations arose with 3 groups of lads- 3, 3, 2, and some tracts were distributed by members of the team. One of the team preached, and said that God had saved him in the past from the sin of homosexuality, and that he knew then it was a choice and he was not born gay, but God had delivered him from it. An angry man walked past kicking the sign and cross over and shouting lots of abuse at him. This led to another member of the public and his wife intervening, and the 2 almost squared up, with lots of pushing, shouting and sweraring, with the new guy adamant the man should not have disrepected our stuff by kicking it over. The preacher almost had to phone the Police, but thankfully was dispersed, I managed to then quietly talk to the man who had kicked off (a quiet word turns away wrath!), which led to a discussion, and him saying he was not gay, but he had friends that were, and he was angry that the preacher said that homosexuality was a sin that people needed delivering from.

He calmed down a bit but was still very heated, and in the end stormed off, still cussing us and causing a scene. A Muslim couple who were standing back had watched, and took a tract about which religion has the truth and read it, and so it was an eventful day!

Finally today I missed the bus to work, and so had to catch another that went a longer route and involved walking part of the way. I cycle to the bus stop and wear a bright yellow flkourescent jacket, and whilst walking from the bus, caught the eye of a Council street sweeper man who also had a similar jacket on, and nodded in acknowledgment. I used this eye contact opportunity to offer him a million pound note tract. His eyes lit up, and he said he had seen one on the street just the other day. I asked him if he had read what the back of it said, and he said no, and so I gave it to him and showed him where to read. He was really thankful, and was reading it as I walked off.

This was a real encouragement, as if I had not missed the bus I would not have walked that way and would have therefore missed him, and I am not sure where he saw one on the street but if someone else had one and discarded it, it shows that the gospel message is to some the stench of death, but to others the aroma of life. Acts 17 says that God has appointed people in various places that people should seek after him, though he is not very far from each one of us, and 2 Cor 5 v 17-21 says that we are ambassadors for Christ, with God giving us the ministry of reconcilliation, using us to reach out to people.

What a priviledge, and worth missing the bus for!

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