Battle Log
Battle Log > Plymouth Team
Sunday, 5 February, 2012
Todays weather was really bad, with heavy rain and wind, and so when we met at mine for prayer and fellowship before hand, from the natural, things didnt look good. Howevere we prayed for hecklers and good conversations, and God blessed us, even though the weather didnt stop.
Charles preached first, and our amp had got wet, and so had to project his voice. Most people were hurrying past sheltering themselves from the elements, but again we think we have a ministry for husbands who wait outside shops for theior wives to finish their shopping, as quite a few stood and listened while he spoke.
I then preached and tried to explain to people what would make us come out on a day like today, with the weather being as bad as it was. We said it was the Love of God that compeleld us, and even though survivors of the Titanic m,ay have been damp and cold and wet and miserable after finding a liferaft to save them, that wouldnt have stopped them, from trying to reach out and try to pull others into the boat with them.
2 Older teens stopped to listen to the preaching, and I managed to engage them in conversation, and whilst this was going on, 3 other teens from the shcool I work at recognised me and also stopped to listen. This led to great discussion with them all, and managing to reason with them and to make sure they all had tracts to take with them. We briefly mkentioned the subject of evolution, and so I am sure that next week we will now be able to go into further discussion about the false ideas it leads to, and how creation DEMANDS a Creator. 2 girls also stopped to listen to the preaching, and Dewi managed to engage them with conversation and explain the gospel to them.
Russ preached, and we got our answer to prayer! A woman walked past with a dog and made some angry comments, claiming that Russ had sworn whilst he was preaching. He obviously hadnt, and tried to reason with her as she walked past about what he had allegedly said. Unbeknown to us, a man behind Russ knew the woman, and was also adamant to stick up for her, and so came stormig around the corner to approach Russ to his face about what he had supposedly said. The claims were entirely false, but this didnt stop the rather large and angry man from acting rather aggressivly and intimidatingly, being the same height as Russ even though Russ was standing on a soap box! Before we needed to go over and aprehend the situation, 2 security guards from the nearby store where he had just came from marched up to him, pulled him away, and deneid Russ had said anything wrong.
This caused a few to stop and listen, before Russ finished his message. A lady who sells helium balloons always is opposite us when we preach, and numerous times has asked us to hold her balloons whilst she goes to the toilet and gets a drink. This leads to good conversations with her and lots of tracts, and finally this week Dewi spoke to her about if she had read an of them and thought about what they had said? This time she said she had, and so was good to kinow us being in the same spot every week was at least being recognised and people were listening behind the scenes.
All of todays conversations happened with really bad weather, when most people were rushing by with coats up, umbrellas and sheltereing away from the street where we were. Hwoever God was faithful again to allow people to stop and here the good news of the gospel, and we pray that unbeknown to us, many are hearing and responding to the gospel as Gods spirit draws them to repentance and faith in the Saviour.
Saturday, 7 January, 2012
Last Saturday 4 of us went into the city centre again to preach and hand oiut gospel tracts to passers by in the city of Plymouth.
WE all took it in turn to preach, which resulted in mixed responses. Many people hang around outside the shops waiting for their wives to finish shopping, which leads to quite a few stares and remarks.
Charles was witnessing to a group of about 7 teens, who on first appearences seemed quite antagonistic, feeling that we were trying top scare them into believing in God by talking about God. We tried to reason with them, that just like the many adverts that warn you to make sure you wereyour seatbelt, even though they are blunt, shocking and to the point, Gods warning about Hell is not to force you to believe in him, but to show his justice and righteousness.
I used this analogy that actually the seatbelts adverts were loving, as the consequences, death, were far worse. We chatted for a further 10 minutes about how we had both become Christians, and that we were not 'good' people ourselves, but trying to warn people of their fate of dying with out Christ, but the amazing provision he had demonstrated of his love on the cross.
The conversation actually ended very well, with all of them taking a tract, and shaking hands, saying there was something for them to now consider and think about.
We had another gentleman called Ben come across to chat to us whilst we wee preaching. At first we thought he had some genuine questions, but then realised he had many red herrings he was trying to tangle us with. He aid he used to be a Christioan, but then the more he read of the OT with the NT, found many supposed 'mistakes' and 'contradictions'. He also said he didnt believe with the scriptures that said that Homosexuality was a sin, even though he said he himself wasnt.
He turned out to be a false convert, who was trying to weigh us down and trying to take our time away from preaching and handing out tracts. WE managed to finish the discussions with him, and I gave him my email, and I said I would be more than happy to discuss any quesrions he had. Unsuprisingly enough, he never replied!
In the afternoon after the outreach, I handed a mpn tract to a guy at the same bustop at me. I asked him if he had understood it, after he had read it. He said that he did, and that he was a Christian. I then asked him what Church he went to, and he said he was a JW! By funny coincidence (or Gods timing!) wew were both getting the same bus, and so manmaged to carry the discussion on. The conversation got onto me saying that as a Christian, I could say I knew I was going to Heaven when I died, because of what Jesus had done for me. He could only say the 144,000 'good' JW's wewre in Heaven, but that him and everyone else would end up on the new earth. He didnt believe in Hell, believed most people went to the new earth, maybe including Adolf Hitler! and he also wouldnt agree with breaking Gods laws meanrt we were guilty before him.
He believed that God was all loving and merciful, knew we were just human, and would forgive us all.
I should have said he was breaking 2nd commandment- Idolatory, but left him with the MPN tract and another about which was the right way to Heaven. A seemingly semi-drunk man on the seat next to him chipped in on the conversation too, which was really surreal, especially for all the other passengers listening to us, but prayed good seed fell on good soil, somewhere!
Sunday, 1 January, 2012
For 6 days over the Christmas and New Years break, 4 men from our church set off to stay at Forestside Christian centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to stay at the church for fellowship and evangelism.
Over the 6 days we were very fortunate to have lots of theological discussions, great food, table tennis and lots of witnessing opportunites out in the city centre. Northern Ireland is the predominantly Protestant side of Ireland, and although having MANY different denominational churches there, there are still many there who are not sure what the gospel is, how it is appropriated to someones life, or feel that religion and Church attendance are enough. So with our Living waters 'Intelligence Test', easil, a soap box and loads of tracts, we headed out onto the streets most days to call people to repent to God from their sins, and to put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
One guy I chatted with had Jewish parents and said he was Jewish, though was not really practising it.I therefore tried to reason with him about how he was going to heaven when he died? He listed many things, including being a good person, believing in God etc, that God was merciful and forgave all sin etc, but I kept referring him back to the OT commandments,how he had broken them, and explaining how Jews had their sins covered in the past, through sacrifice. The verse in the OT and NT that 'without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness/ remission of sins' was used to show him that he needed a blood sacrifice to atone for his sins, and yet with the Jewish temple being destroyed in AD 70, what was he going to do to get right with God?
It was great, as we went onto discuss what the sacrifices composed of in the OT, and then logically led onto Jesus the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. He had to go quite sharpish, but It definatly led him to think about what this meant, with some tracts to take with him as well.
2 Atheists wanted to try the intelligence test, and although they got 5/6 correct, they had some very strange ideas, such as saying there was no energy in the Universe, as it is cancelled out by negative energy and black holes etc? They kept saying the burden of proof was on us to prove God exists, but yet had no reasons to give why he wouldnt exist. They tried to refute the notion that just because buildings need builders and paintings need painters, that creation would need a creator. They kept tangling themselves up, saying things like you cant be sure on things, so I said are you absolutely sure, or that they didnt have absolute knowledge of the universe, but refused to acknowledge they were therefore agnostics etc. We left them in the end as they werew there fore an arguement and not to be reasonable.
Other Christians encouraged us as we preached on certain days, some hearing of Ray Comfort and the Way of the Master before and the million pound/ million Euro tracts we had.
People there of all ages seemed so much politer there, with Tracts so much easier to give out of all sorts, ones about evolution and creationism, to ones about which religion was the right one to choose etc.
We managed to visit the local Museum which was great with lots of colourful displays, dinosaur fossils, different varieties of species of butterfly and insects etc... and LOTS of evolution theories, supposedly portrayed as scientific act. These included Ardi- austro Lyphythicus (bad spelling!), drawings of how supposedly a dinosaur had evolved into becoming archaeoptryx, big drawings of how the moon supposedly came from the earth after a meteorite hit it etc, yet stating how we relky on the moon so muh to support life with tides/ gravitational forces and light etc.
We planted lots of Anti evolution tracts around, and at the end I questioned one of the staff there about some of these so called 'evidences' for evolution, stating lots had been proven scientifically wrong, yet theyt were lying to people stating them as fact! The staff member was not happy about us 'distributing reliigious paraphanelia' around the Museum, but the manager in charge just weakly said there was nothing he could now do about it. The security guard got a million euro tract at least.
We were also all able to share our testimonies on the Sunday evening at the Church which was great, and many said how they were encouraged.
It was a great few days away, though is disheartening coming back to Plymouth where people just sem to apathetic about spiritual things. But at least we can rely on God to do the saving if we continually sow the seed, some will fall on good ground and produce a harvest. It also shows us how we need to pray for more labourers too as the fields are ripe! God blessed us with a great time away and many tracts were given out and the gospel faithfully, lovingly and truthfully proclaimed to the city of Belfast. Soli deo Gloria!
Russ & Dewi At the Museum planting tracts! Young people taking the ''Intelligence/ Good person' tests.
Charles preaching in Belfast city centre
Me doing the Intelligence test in Belfast city centre
Saturday, 3 December, 2011
Saturday 3rd December
Today, Charles, Russ and myself met up in a very busy city centre to preach to a packed town full of eager Christmas shoppers.
We shared a bit, prayed, then I spoke first, preaching on Matthew 1 v 21 and Isaiah 9, on the titles of Jesus and what they showed about him.
I tried to ask people to relect on how Christmas comes around so quickly, the minutes we all had left on this earth dependant on our ages, the death of Gary Speed last week, views of where he is, and the almost worship ands idolisation of him as a person, when in actual fact it was murder, and how he left a wife and 2 teenage sons behind. People have seemed to treat his death like he died in a car crash or a house fire, and yet it was him taking the easy way out, though no one as of yet really knows what led him to this.
For his family and many others, Christmas without loved ones can be a tragic time, as I met a 17yr old girl the other day and found out her Mum had died when she was aged 8 in a car crash, what Christmas is really all about, and what the 2 scriptures mean- Jesus being a councellor- a mediator between us and God, being called God and equalled deity of the Father, and yet iut was Jesus who in the incarnation was born in a manger, how Jesus is the everlasting Father- is eternal and the creator of all things, and he is the Prince of peace, how we wont have peace this Christmas until we have peace with God through Jesus Christ and are in a right relationship with him.
There were a few people who stopped to losten, including encouragement from a Christian family out shopping that day. A teenager was listening and came to speak to me afterwards, and I would never have guessed what he would have asked!
-The 'boy' was 19yrs old, and said that since the age of 12, he has felt like a girl trapped in a mans body. He was dressed a bit like Edward scissors hands with black leather, metal buckles and starps and big black boots, with long 'side show Bob' wavy hair, and a pale complection. 'He' said he has some surgery of some desacripton and is now in a homosexual relationahip, and wondered what God thought of people who were Homosexual?
'He' was very softly spoken and polite and seemed genuinely interested. He said he was an Atheist, but I managed to explain what the Bible said about homosexuality, listing 1 Corinthians 6 v 9, and saying Hetrosexual fornication was equally as a sin to God as homosexuality, and regardless o0f his gender of sexual orientation, he was still a sinner in the eyes of God regardl;erss, as he agreed he had lied before, stolen and blasphemed Gods name. I also said thats why people claim to be Atheists as they dont like Gods boundaries and rules and want freedom to sin, but instead use atheism as a pretense.
The guy listened intently, and took a card with a website on I explained would give more answers a lot better than I propbly had, but he seemed to go away eager to see what it said. This was a very unusual experience that I would never have guessed would occur!
Charles preached afterwards, and whilst preaching, someone walked past and called him a 'Nigger'. Charles was very gracious and instead of getting irate, used this against the man to show how his lack of understanding showed even more how he needed Jesus Christ in his life.
Russ also preached after I had to leave, and afterwards said he had a rather 'fruitful' conversation with an Angry Atheist who claimed there was no evidence that Jesus was even a real person, or that he needed saving.
Lots of tracts were handed out and although we were only there for a short time, many people heard how Jesus is God in the flesh, the only mediator between man and God, and how people need tosee the reason why they are celebrating Christmas this year. Replacing Jesus with 'Happy X-mas' or 'Happy Holiday' wopuld not stop Jesus from being Lord, someone who needed recognition and adoration this Christmas for who he is, what he has done and what he will one day soon acomplish by Judging the living and the dead.
We are also very fortunate that our friend Nigel Williams has given us some '180 Movie' DVD's to hand out to people on the streets, and already I have gotten my Mum to watch it and it has really shown her some things to consider. We were also able to drop a Bible round to a couples house, who requested one when receiving a tract from one of us on the streets, and contacted Nigel's ministry for a free Bible. We had a good chat with the gentleman and his friend and encouraged him to read the gospel of John, and to consider going on the NeedGod.com website and to think things through.
Praise God he gives us the right words to say, the right tone of voice to say it in, at the right moment for the right person in the right place!
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, 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!
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.
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!
Saturday, 8 October, 2011
This evening Charles, Dewi and myself met at McDonalds to share and chat, before heading over to the Plymouth University. Tonight we had an easil and the 5 intelligence test questions Living Waters use, and we set this up, prayed, then started to hand out our evolution tracts to the many students walking past on their way home or out to clubs. Over the night, many people stopped to ask what the questions were about, as well as us asking people what they were studying and if they thought they were clever enough to take the test.
We ended up chatting to 4 students, which went well, and at the end one of the girls was screwing her face up. It turned out she believed most people went to Heaven, and that God was not as angry at sin as we were making out. Wew tried to reason with her that Gods standards were so much higher than ours, and a good judge should punish a guilty criminal. 2 others of the group also chipped in, but one remained silent the whole conversation. The converation ended up amicable, and I think the silent lad maybe understood more than he was letting on to the others in the group.
3 French men who were in the Navy walked past who had had a bit to drink and were asking us where all the pubs and bars werer, and we ended up having a good chat in broken english, and had a real good discussion with one of them. The other was more interested in us take his photo next to a Police car. Another 2 lads walked past, one of whom had quite a lot to drink, but stopped to speak. The French sailor came back, and we thought there may have been a bit of a scuffle between them, and so I took the semi drunk english guy away from the group and managed to witness to him by himself.
This ended up being an eye opening discussion, with him seeming to open up the more he spoke, and he got quite broken when we reasoned about his sin and judgment day. He ended up crying on my shoulder and he let me pray for him, and I gave him a couple of tracts to read the next day when he sobered up, which he agreed to put in his wallet and read the next day.
It was a great night, and many people walking past said they believed in evolution and so took the tracts out of interest, and many people throughout the night were drawn in by the questions which led to good discussions and sharing the gospel with people.
Saturday 8th October
Today 5 of us met for outreach in the city centre again, and it seemed like another ordinary day, We prayed, and immediatly had some sixth formers who were atheists wanting to chat about the intelligence test questions and scriptures, but who were quite proud and not willing to be reasonable about their sins and the facts of creation, and so I decieded to leave them as they wanted to debate rather than listen.
An elderly gentleman came and did the intelligence test, and said that he was a Christian. So I asked him what he would say to me if I had a knife in my backa nd only 3 seconds to live- what could he share with me so I could know how to go to heaven. He didnt really know what to say, and so I gently went through the commandments in the 3rd person and shared the gospel with him. He said it made sense and thanked us for chatting.
I went to the toilet at Mcdonalds, and came back to find Russel standing on the cool box debating with a lively chareacter who I found out was called Paddy. He had been listening to us that afternoon from a distance, and had decieded to come and make his point of view known. He had also been watching the rugby that day and to him shouting out saying this earth was hell and there was no where you went after you died. He also started doing some dancing, and more and more people came to see what was going on. He had some bags of shopping, and so decieded to sarcasticly get out a loaf of bread and start breaking it up and pretending to feed the 5000 with it. More and more people gathered around to see what he was doing.
After a while Russ let me try and talk with him, and then another angry voice came from behind me, which was an angry young man and his girlfriend whoi were spitting out lots of foul language, saying there was no God, that we came from aliens, and that if there was a God he would not have let his 14yr old friend die a few months ago.
His shouting and anger led to more and more coming to listen, and a massive crowd had now gathered around, seeing the dancing drunk irish man, and the loud angry swearing atheist.
At a conservative guess, between 100-150 people had stretched out in a circle now listening to what was going on, and even some Christian students were standing up against the girl saying her language was so bad it was letting our country down with her foul mouth. I also asked Paddy when he thought he was going to die, and if anything bad had ever happened to him in his life. I managed to stand up and show the crowd the scars on my legs and then gave them something to think about how long they had left in this life before facing God.
Eventually a Police woman came along and politely asked if she could disperse the crowd once we had finished talking with the people, as cars were having to come through the crowd at times. In the end the crowd gave the Irish paddy an applause for his antics, and then lots of people came to talk to us, take tracts, and other Christians ask to find out what Church we were from etc.
Paddy actually turned out to be called Andy and was actually very reasonable once everyone went, and apologised if he caused offence to us, but appreciated what we did and said he would come back again next week if we wanted to help geta crowd. It was a fantastic day with many opportunities to witness to people who were sittting around afterwards and asking what they thought about what was said. Thank God for providing us with the heckler! We will see if he turns up next week :)
Saturday, 17 September, 2011
Belfast- Ireland 17th September 2011
On the weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Belfast in Ireland to stay with a church we are affiliated with- Forestside Christian Centre, along with 5 others, for fellowship, ministry, evangelism, and invading the 2 Christian book stores for cheap second hand J.C.Ryle books!.
Charles and myself went to the city centre on Saturday, and managed to find about 50 young people all gathered outside the city hall at lunch time. Charles and I prayed, and then for the next hour and a half managed to give out loads of tracts, and witness to lots of the young people.
The young people here were really open to chatting, as most know about Roman Catholicism and Chrisatianity, and therefore have some views on what its all about. People were really polite, said thank you when taking tracts, and managed to give some good feedback.
Some of the young people included a girl who said she was a homosexual, and after a 20 minute discussion with her friends about the natrure of sin etc, her homosexuality didnt come up once, and her silence and friendly handshake afterwards seemed to imply she understood which was great.
The evolution tracts were so easy to give out, just going up to strangers and asking them if they believed that God made people, or if we evolved from a monkey or a missing link? People gave their view, suprisingly most said they thought it was God, and all took the tracts to give them something to think about, about 40 in total.
Charles and myself had a great time, were really encouraged by the openess of the people we chatted with, and hope to go again soon.