A Street Preacher's Journal

 

Report of open air Preaching

August 30^th DUNSTABLE. It seems always, when one is about to begin preaching there are a few rough looking people hanging about. So it was today. As I began to preach one shouted at me, “Speak up! We can’t hear you.” I spoke up. He and his friends sat on the wall next to me and there was no further interruption. I had half expected officers of the law to arrive seeking to prohibit my freedom of speech but this never happened. Most people totally ignored me as they had done in the past and I suspect this state will continue even if restrictive laws are introduced.

So we begin as I left off eight months ago. A Bible held in my hand and a public declaration that God has no other Book. The Holy Bible is God’s only Book. He doesn’t need two books because He got it right the first time. Then, we preach that there is no God but the One revealed in this Book. Next there is only one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.

There were no conversations ensuing so I walked back to my car. (This was a triumph for me. I hadn’t walked alone for eight months. No I didn’t use a Zimmer either! Yes, God does use disabled OAPs).

August 31^st LUTON TOWN CENTRE. The response was the same as yesterday. The only difference being a lot of Muslims present but none of these taking any notice of the gospel either. Standing is now limited to ten minutes at a time.

September 7^th L.T.C. Today two people in this conurbation of some ¼ million souls stopped to listen to the gospel. They were still there when I finished so I asked them if they were saved. They told me they were saved. The lady had been saved at a Bible camp when she was nine but had drifted for twenty years and had only recently come back to the Lord. They were both from California.

There was another man listening. He was sitting on a bench with his back to me, four yards away. When I mentioned that the great apostle Peter preached repentance and never ever called for penance I was met by a torrent of obscenity from this man whose accent revealed him to be from a part of the British Isles outside the UK. Most of the winos in Luton come from either this part of the world or Glasgow. He made a few other threats, enough to take him off the street for a while had there been a police officer around.

September 20^th DUNSTABLE. Ashton Square. Things are getting back to normal at last─I had some serious heckling today. A man shouted at me as he walked past and then a woman confronted me and raged at me for a few moments. I do not stop preaching for this kind so I did not take in what she was shouting about.

It was at this place several years ago I was assaulted by a Muslim woman, a Turk I think. She asked me if all babies went to heaven if they died. I assured her that was my belief. Even Muslim babies? Yes, God is no respecter of persons. Eventually she asked me what I thought of Mohammed. I told her that civilized folk would regard him as a paedophile. She then beat me about the head.

September 21^st LTC. Three young people, a male and two females, had been listening to the preaching. When I finished they emerged from their hiding place to tell me they had been listening. They wanted me to know that God had sent them to Luton to make way for the revival which was about to hit us.

Well, the town is full of such folk and has been so for many years but still no revival! I did not regard these three as believers. The women were dressed the same as the man. The only difference I could see, he hadn’t got paint on his face and nails. Despite this disobedience to the word of God they assured me that they lived according to the Ten Commandments. Alas they were not familiar with the first one. The sad thing is they were desperately sincere and had a zeal not found among my brethren.

Then this lad wanted to pray over me so that God could give me an anointing. They appeared to be totally ignorant of the gospel of Christ.

October 9^th NEW BRADWELL. On the Green. We were preaching on the Green at the end of the road in which is our Gospel Hall. It is a cul-de-sac made up of terraced houses with front doors opening directly on to the pavement. When we had finished preaching we made our way to the hall to hold a Gospel Meeting. A couple from the meeting who hadn’t joined us in the open air followed us down the road towards the hall and found themselves accosted by several residents who were very angry that we had preached publicly. One woman claimed that she had been insulted by our words. I suppose this would be regarded as a public order offence. Our friends found themselves having to make a defence.

October19th LTC. A young man had a hand-out for me which I stuffed in my pocket. I handed him a copy of Luke’s Gospel which he seemed pleased to accept. I rediscovered his hand –out a week later. It was a signed contract for a college course, giving his name and address. How strange!

I began to preach and the motorised road sweeper arrived and continued to sweep my bit of road, up and down, up and down. This I thought must now be the cleanest bit of road in the EU. I prayed him off, and resumed my preaching.

A young lady wanted to know what I was going to talk about. I told her it was the same message as last week but she said she had never heard me before. She is a philosopher. At least, she told me she had just passed Philosophy ‘A’ level. So did she now have the answer to life? No, but she had covered comparative religions and the Bible.

I was then able to tell her that when I was 18 I started to read Philosophy but found it so utterly boring I threw away the books I had bought on the subject. I was searching for Truth, and I found Christ. She listened to my testimony. It struck me she was just content to listen, although she did ask a few questions.

The result was I stood for 45 minutes talking to her and this was the longest I had stood for about a year. A sudden downpour brought our conversation to an abrupt end. Pray for this young lady. She is 18 years old and her name is Sam.

The long stand brought on leg cramps and I had difficulty moving away. (Poor circulation, I’m told.)

October 20^th DUNSTABLE AS. The vultures hovered around me today. They thought my presence would supply them with prey. I saw them coming as I preached. Black creatures with name tags, “Elder Bob” or whatever. When they saw me they immediately dived on their first target. It was an old man who had just walked past me. I saw him gesticulate and then he turned and pointed his walking stick towards me. I hope he advised them to listen carefully to the truth of the gospel so that they could avoid the depths of hell. Even Mormons can get saved.

Beware believer! Mormonism is going “mainstream”. It is being accepted in so-called Evangelical circles. It is a false hellish cult. This pair didn’t make any attempt to approach me.

October 23^rd NEW BRADWELL. An old woman came out of her house to complain about the preaching. We now know that our preaching can be heard INSIDE the houses up to about 300 yds away. We do not use an amplifier. We have found increasing hostility over the years when preaching in residential areas. However we do stand on the village Green here in N B.

In Luton the central mosque has a tall minaret and calls to prayer are wailed out from the top of it through an amplifier several times a day. A local by-law prohibits this but it hasn’t made any difference over the past few decades, and as far as I know not a soul has ever complained.