[England] London Bible Outreach Day – 7

Preparation News for Christmas Cantata and Bible Seminar with Pastor Ock Soo Park The London Bible Outreach is now only one week away. Throughout the month of April, we passed flyers door to door, organized a flash mob, advertised on the streets and used more various methods to make the seminar known to the citizens of London. Amongst the places we visited, advertising on the streets gave us a great chance to preach the gospel to every person we met. Every week, as we went to witness in all the countries of Europe, we met all the people God had prepared for us to meet.

Meeting an England Citizen A large variety of people live in the international city of London. People range from African, Indian, and Arabic people. That is why it is hard to meet a native English citizen in the city of London. However, through advertising on the streets, we were able to meet native English people. Amongst the people who came by the advertising table, there were people who bought Pastor Ock Soo Park’s books, to rent the books, and some came to receive counseling for spiritual life. Some of them were people who were very concerned in front of the word, and after they listened to the gospel we preached, they attended the conference. Also, of course, there were people who wanted to attend bible studies. Some of them were currently pastors in their own churches. At first they didn’t make known that they were pastors, but as we kept talking, they revealed that they were pastors who had even written books. They were pastors who had written books and gone to pastor gatherings, but they didn’t know the truth of sin that the bible was talking about. Although London is the place where John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, and more preachers of the gospel were in the past, and although their names and their books still exist in universities, the fact that the gospel wasn’t left in their hearts was very unfortunate. That was the reason we were looking forward to the conference even more.

From Disrupters to Friends One day we were advertising on the streets when some young people came and started to bother us. They cursed and tried to pick a fight. The missionaries there sent us with a good word but they came to us again and told us we had to stop advertising there. The atmosphere got very tense and there was even a physical fight. However, that place was a place with many people and we had become close to the people around that area, so we felt that we shouldn’t make the situation worse there and moved on. One young man took the missionaries to a bar. He introduced himself as Sam. He started to talk about why he had tried to disrupt the advertising. Being a second generation Jew, he had been against Christianity. Then he found out that the missionary was a missionary working in Germany. He got very angry and tried to disrupt us even more. As we had fellowship, that young man opened up to the missionary, apologized for his actions and even promised to come to the Gracias Choir Music Festival. The next day we received an unexpected call and he invited the missionary to his friend’s house. Sam, his friend and his friend’s girlfriend was there as well. We introduced the Christmas Cantata, the Bible Seminar and was naturally able to preach the gospel.

Tania of Finland – Testimony At first, when we went out to witness on the streets, I thought, “Since I could speak English, of course I will be able to speak to the people in English.” I started to witness with a good heart. As I was witnessing to the people, I met a lot of Muslim people. We got into arguments and sometimes people would come to the witnessing table to stop us from witnessing. People other than the Muslims also got angry at us and asked why they had to believe. As I met these kinds of people, I fell into difficulty. I didn’t know how to preach to these people and my heart had fallen into disappointment. I sat under the hot sun, and I thought, “I am a person who can’t do anything.” I was able to realize myself. No matter how well I spoke English or how well I listened to the word, I was not a person who could lead another person to God. I had no choice but to look for God and seek his grace. One day, a man came over and asked us about the will of God and why God allows bad things to happen. We answered his questions one by one, he started to have interest in the things we said. Naturally we were able to preach the gospel, and after we had finished the fellowship, he said he was thankful to us and shook our hands. We were very surprised. As we witnessed on the streets, we learned to witness not with our power but with grace. I was so very thankful that God had used me to preach the gospel to the people in London.

There was a pastor’s wife who said that she was so happy to out to witness everyday. Under the Europe sun, we did get a little burned and it was a little difficult, but we can testify that God had given us a joy by allowing us to meet the people God had prepared for us. As we were preparing for the conference we had many difficulties, however, we gained happiness and strength by meeting the people whose lives were lead by God to listen to the gospel. It is exactly one week before the London Bible Outreach. We hope that through this last week of witnessing, that God will allow us to meet more people.