I need to get a wide brim felt hat. My colleague John has one. He had no problems standing in the sun on Saturday handing out leaflets. The back of my neck was becoming increasing uncomfortable. Baseball caps aren’t much good when it comes to street evangelism under a midday sun.
John had written the leaflets, “Losing to Win”. We were standing outside the Casino at Darling Harbour and managed to have micro-conversations with around 200 people. Each leaflet had a short gospel presentation designed to engage Casino patrons. We’ll be at the Fish Markets next week with a similarly pithy offering to hand out.
We’re in “mission mode” at our little church in Pyrmont. Some might deem our efforts decidedly old-fashioned. “1950’s evangelism” is how it was put to me recently. But here’s the thing; we’re actually interacting with outsiders. Carol is just brilliant when it comes to this interacting business. I watched as she politely spoke with people in the Square and offered them a “Believe it or not” fold out tract. In the space of around 90 minutes she managed to place well over 200 tracts into the hands of milling locals and tourists.
One of the reasons that people gathered in the Square was because of our second hand book table. “Nothing over 50 cents!!” And with every purchase people received a free copy of Dave Mansfield’s, “About Life” and an info leaflet from the church. It may well be “1950’s” stuff but I’m fine with that. A wide range of people get to hear about Jesus and church members get to participate in entry-level evangelism.
Sticking with the “been there done that theme”, John is off to letterbox drop a local apartment block. We can actually get into this one. He’s ordered several hundred John’s gospel’s and each occupant wiil receive one. Later that day a member of his team will return to rummage through the recycle bucket and extract the gospels that get turfed. Can’t afford wastage with such a tight budget.
On Friday we had a dinner on our premises (the rear section of a real estate agency). Michael and his wife Christine (from New York) - who live on a yacht in Darling Harbour had guests in tow. So too did Christina. She’s from Korea, as were her friends. It was a great night - though at one stage we thought Di had, well…died. She’s elderly and had stopped breathing. Carol, who is also a nurse could find no pulse. So we called the ambulance and Di was taken to hospital. I actually think the love and care that Di received from our little community of faith was a brilliant (though somewhat unusual) witness to the transforming power of the gospel. A timeless gospel. Which is good news for a group whose methodologies are a tad dated!
