It was a crisp January Sabbath morning. I had my devotion, fuelled up on a good complex carbohydrate and got myself ready to hit the city centre.
A large amount of people were going to be there, so we, in obedience to counsel were also going to be there.
At every large gathering some of our ministers should be in attendance. They should work wisely to obtain a hearing and to get the light of the truth before as many as possible.
Evangelism 35.4
We prayed, went in faith, armed with hundreds of books, a message of hope and the people responded.
To be honest, it felt quite strange being in town on a Sabbath morning in jeans and trainers. It took a few moments to get adjusted. [Maybe because preaching from a pulpit or sitting in a pew has become the sum total of our Sabbath experience?! Just saying…]
A few days earlier, it began with a call for help and it ended with an army of workers armed with the books Great Controversy (GC’s), Ministry of Healing, The National Sunday Law and others.
It was amazing, as soon as the gazebo went up the people came and were really interested in what we had to say and in what we had to give. They were like the proverbial bees around honey [the gospel is sweet though right.]
You can see, there were different covers on the GC’s. It actually worked quite well as different people were attracted to different covers.
If you look a little closer, in the top left of the picture, you’ll see that there were also GC’s in the Arabic language which read right to left. I think that there were less of them at the end than at the beginning [so you know what that might mean 🙏🏿 ]
This picture was taken quite early on. The table got much fuller than this and was restocked quite a few times.
The size of the book Great Controversy can look quite daunting when handed out without any real conversation, so we engaged everyone who was interested in the book in conversation first. I must say that everyone was willing to talk.
My particular angle was to direct people either to Chapter 15 - 'The Bible and The French Revolution' or to Chapter 35 - 'Liberty of Conscience Threatened' depending on how the conversation went. Because Manchester had gathered to demonstrate the erosion of their freedoms, it wasn't hard to get into some really, really deep conversations, especially with Michael a Catholic from Ireland.
We had a great conversation. He wanted to know how far back into history the book GC went as he saw that there was force and coercion in the book of Daniel. We shared thoughts on Daniel 1, 2, 3 and 6. It turned out that he knows about Seventh-day Adventism and has friends back in Ireland who are SDA. We shook hands, exchanged blessings and he left.
You can see that there are flyers inserted strategically in the book. We needed to make sure that everyone had a chance to know that there are options when taking care of their health and that the final stop on the erosion of liberties was the fast approaching National Sunday Law. In fact, that Book [National Sunday Law] fly off the table first. They were gone before the demonstration even started!
We were ready and so were those who had congregated in the centre of Manchester so that their voices could be heard. They were old, young, male and female with one common "let us exercise our liberty of conscience."
So the crowds started to gather and more people started to take notice of what we were offering. Conversations began to happen everywhere and frequently.
The voice you can hear in the background was a group who were also out evangelising the crowd. I don't think they were too happy when we started unloading the boxes of free materials and engaging the people in conversation. They promptly packed up and left for a more favourable spot. 😳
We tried to give them some books, but they didn't want to take anything from us and accused us of being a cult...😁 What a start to the day! Things soon picked up and we were now in full flow.
The crowds began to grow. It was quite difficult from this vantage point to see just how many people were there, but I'd say, easily a few hundred at about 12:30
As the demonstrators snaked their way through the streets of the city centre, making their presence and voices heard, Stephen decided to engage this gentleman that wanted to talk more than walk [and believe me, lots of people wanted to talk.]
85 Years Young...
A little bit after this, a few of the troops decided to take a walk down Market Street to plant more seeds...
It didn't take long...
I think Lorraine is a natural...I’m sure they were talking for a good while...
I decided to "mingle" with the crowd, because I "desired their good." They were more than willing to talk. They just wanted to share their side of the the narrative.
Almost everyone that I was able to engage in conversation said "I'm not an antivaxxer, I just don't like the force being used."
Unfortunately, no one wanted to be interviewed. They were all ”very shy.”
Society knows that something is not right, they just don't know what it is, where it's coming from and where it's going.
While they may not know where this world is heading, they understand enough to know that their "Liberty of Conscience" is being threatened.
The quote goes something like this:
Walk a mile in my shoes
See what I see
Hear what I hear
Feel what I feel
Then maybe you'll understand
Why I do what I do
Till then, don't judge me
I didn't walk a mile [maybe I did actually] but I definitely understand where my Mancunians are coming from...
Mothers came and said what they needed to say...
So as I walked back [the event wasn't finished but my car was on a meter] I noticed some very potent and pointed stickers placed in strategic places [kinda Martin Luther-esque]
Hmmmm...deep on so many levels.
So many more testimonies to share but you'll have to ask me or anyone else that you know that attended...suffice to say that two self-proclaimed Satanists left with Great Controversy's in their possession.
When we got back to base camp, the troops were still hard at work, engaging society and scattering the autumn leaves in winter...it was amazing to see.
A Special Thank You!
I couldn't end this mission report without saying a HUGE Thank You to everyone that sacrificed and donated to the buying of books. You know who you are.
I was blown away by the generosity of God's people and it confirmed to me again that arms need not be twisted, or the promise of full bellies for God's faithful to give. In less than 8 hours God's people had given in excess of £1,800.00! And more came in after the event.
You can't tell me that God's people aren't mission minded and ready to support the cause. I wouldn't call you a liar, but you wouldn't be telling the truth.
Thank You also to the team that assembled at somewhat short notice...You made heaven glad!
Watch this space because there will be more of this work taking place in the near future. Here's a date for your diaries:
Hope to see you at the next event...
Maranatha!
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