Beach Evangelism is AMAZING! (Warning – Encouragement Enclosed.)

As you can see, LOTS of people stop to listen to our open air messages. These messages lead to fruitful one-on-one discussions, and tons of gospel booklets and DVDs handed out.

Chloe, Chris' 12-year-old daughter, shared a gospel magic trick with Amy here.

After Chloe was done explaining the gospel with Amy, Ted, one of our volunteers, spoke with Amy for some time, explaining the great news. Amy made a profession of faith right there on the beach! Please pray that Amy will be the seed that fell into good soil and bore much fruit.

The crowds generally get larger later at night when it's dark, but as you can see, people will still gather around to listen when it's still light outside.

Here's a first! This is Christina. I walked her and her friends Kayla and Kimberly through our series of riddles that lead to the gospel. When some more people showed up and asked what this was all about, Christina said, 'Can I do it? Can I explain?' Sure, why not? So here was an unsaved young lady bringing strangers through a pre-gospel message. But when she got to the gospel portion, she said, 'Mark, it's your turn. You're better at this part.' Christina, Kayla, and Kimberly were very sweet. They listened to me explain why we need Jesus and how to be Born Again. Please keep them in prayer.

This is Dave, and his story is just bizarre! In 2015, he was the worst heckler we ever had. As you can see on the left, he got right in between Chris and the crowd and started shouting at everyone to stop listening to us. He made such a scene that the Police came, and they sided with us. But Dave wasn't done. He came back the next week with an actual megaphone and got in between me and the crowd, using the megaphone to tell people to stop listening to us. I distinctly remember praying about how to handle Dave, and then the unsaved crowd started shouting at him, telling him to get out of the way, and that they wanted to hear what we had to say. Well, ever since then, Dave stops by every time we're at the beach and says 'hi' and wants to know how we're doing. He asks us if we're getting into good conversations. It's like Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I've never asked Dave why he was so nasty the first two weeks, and why he's been so nice ever since for the past 3 years. Very strange! On the right is a recent photo of me and Dave, all friendly. Please pray for Dave's salvation. He's certainly heard the message from our team many times!

This was the 4th of July. After I finished an open-air message, a man in his 20’s named Joe approached me and shook my hand. Joe told me that he got saved 9 months ago, and that Jesus delivered him from Heroin. He left the beach mad because he could smell marijuana and didn’t want to be around drugs. Joe walked right into my message about Jesus and he told me it was exactly what he needed to hear. He teared up and gave me a big hug! I prayed for him and exhorted him to keep going to his Church and stay close to Jesus by faith.

This is awesome! On the right is Judy, a sweet Born Again Christian who was at the beach when we were evangelizing. She loved the 'riddle painting' we put up that leads to the gospel. Judy just jumped right in and started talking strangers through the riddle and clearly shared God's way of salvation. Here she is with this family that showed up. She shared with so many strangers. She even shared with my daughter, Juliana, not knowing that Juliana knows Jesus and was with me. Her husband, Dale, joined in giving out gospel tracts too. The more the merrier!

This is Matthew. He took a gospel booklet from Chris, and the title was 'Where Will You Spend Eternity?' That got his attention. He shared a story about how he almost died two months earlier and believed that God was giving him a second chance for some reason. Chris agreed with him and laid out God's plan of salvation. Chris encouraged Matthew to repent and place his trust in Jesus to save him. When Chris asked when he was going to do that, he said, 'Probably pretty soon.' Please pray that God grabs a hold of Matthew and leads him to repentance and faith in Christ.

This is John and Noelle. Noelle is a former Catholic, and she told my daughter Vivienne (on the left) that she's angry with God. Noelle was wearing 2 pentagrams as jewelry, and you can see she has another pentagram on her outfit in the back. John's mother recently became a Jehovah's Witness. So sadly there's lots of Occult influences with these two. Vivienne did a great job testifying to Jesus Christ. Please pray that John and Noelle will be saved through the blood of the Living God! And I have to say what a JOY it is to see my own daughter lovingly reaching out to strangers! Praise God!

Chris delivers an open-air message to a group at the beach.

This is J.R. (right). He was heckling me and was clearly angry with Jesus. I answered a number of J.R.'s objections, but he still balked. So I asked him, 'J.R. if I could answer every single objection you pose and you really believed that Jesus is Lord, would you worship Him?' And J.R. said no. So I answered, 'there's your problem. It's not a lack of evidence that is holding you back, but that you just don't want to worship Jesus. It's pride.' Then Mike (left), a complete stranger to me, who was overhearing the conversation, came and asked to pray for J.R. on the spot. That's really cool!

It still amazes me that strangers stop to listen. But as long as they do, I'll keep on doing it.

If Chloe, who is only 12, can talk to strangers and bring them through an evangelistic set of riddles, then what is stopping you? Please contact me if you'd like encouragement and/or encouragement to be a more effective Ambassador for Christ.

This is Lucas, another one of our volunteers (the tallest one we have!) He does a great job patiently explaining the gospel message to people.

This is Connor. He was using his metal detector at the beach to look for treasure. So Chris shared Jesus, the greatest treasure! (Okay, so that's a little cheesy, but Connor spoke with Chris for a while.) Connor described himself as an Agnostic, but open to the possibility of God. Chris took Connor through 'The Good Person Test' and Connor said it did concern him that he deserves Hell. Chris shared the great news of the gospel with him, and Connor took an evangelistic DVD. Praise God!

Our evangelistic riddles make it very natural to lead people into a gospel message. This is David, and he got the hang of the riddles in no time and was chatting with people about Jesus all night!

This is Kenny and Justin. Kenny's dad is a Christian, but he's looking into Buddhism. As Chris shared Jesus, Justin said, 'This is strange. I was playing basketball with a guy who was telling me about Jesus, and now you're telling me about Jesus too. I need to think about this.' He took an evangelistic DVD from Chris.

Chris wrapping up a fruitful conversation with Chandler.

Ted, one of our volunteers, was using the riddles to have a great conversation with these Teens.

He's a HUGE TREAT! The guy on the right is Paul, and he's a GREAT friend of mine, but moved to North Carolina. He was visiting New England and came to the beach with his Mom and kids to say hi to me. I loved that!!! :)

Mike is sharing the message of salvation with a crowd of strangers. Mike is from NY and attended the OAC Training Week in Boston this past June, and it was GREAT having him come out to the beach with us since he was in town.

This is great! Mike (on the left), is an unbeliever, but said he wants to know the truth about God and the Bible. He even studied Greek and Hebrew so he could read the Scriptures in the original language. And for some reason, he had a ton of questions about Mormonism. Get this, another Mike (on the right) was volunteering with us at the beach for the first time, and he's a former Mormon! How perfect is that??? They spoke for quite a while and opened the Scriptures together. I love love love when God sends 'Divine Appointments,' and, thankfully, He does that a lot! Please keep the unsaved Mike in prayer.

Open Air Preaching is still a very effective way to reach lots of people with the gospel who might not otherwise hear. Praise God!

This is Caden, only 15-years-old, but a super Volunteer! He gave out hundreds of gospel tracts and spoke with a number of people about the Lord. Praise God!

We really can't do or ministry without volunteers coming out to help us. Here's Kenny, a brand new volunteer, and he did great! He walked folks through our "riddles" that lead to a gospel conversation, and spoke with people for hours. He gave out a lot of gospel booklets too. If you love Jesus and love people, then you can do this too! Contact me if you'd like to give it a try!

This is Derek, and he was adamant about what he doesn't know. He insisted that the Bible doesn't mention Hell, even though I did a search and showed him many verses. He insisted that everyone is going to Heaven if you're good. So I brought him through some of God's commandments and he admitted he has broken them and isn't good. But then he went back to insisting that he'll go to Heaven because he's good. The thing is, Derek isn't all that different to how I was before Jesus saved me. I also was adamant about what I didn't know. And God is really good at saving Lost people. I believe that the gospel is the power of God to salvation, and Derek heard the gospel. Please pray for Derek to humble himself, repent, and believe. Thanks!

Handing out gospel tracts is a GREAT way to start a fruitful witnessing conversation, like with this Mom and Daughter. The person asks, 'What's this?' I say, 'It's about God and what happens when we die. What are your thoughts on that?' And you're off... I thank Jesus that He allows us to give out hundreds of tracts (or booklets) every time we go out!

I truly am a softie when it comes to dogs. And when you pet someone's dog at the beach. they almost always will stay to talk with you about Jesus, like these 2 kind young ladies.

What do you do when a stranger tells you that her Mom just died and her Dad committed suicide 2 years ago? You say 'I'm so so sorry' and offer a hug. That's what I did to Kayla (on the right). This is Sandra and Kayla. I gave them both a gospel booklet that's entitled, 'Where Will You Spend Eternity?' and when Kayla read that, she said, 'That's really weird.' I asked her why? And that's when she told me that she had been thinking about Eternity because of the recent death of her parents. And that's when I gave my condolences and got a hug. We had a nice chat. They both agreed to read the booklet and consider the message. You never know who God will send your way when you're out evangelizing. Please pray for Kayla (and Sandra). Kayla's been through A LOT recently, and salvation for both of them would be awesome!

This is Richard, a very nice and soft-spoken man. Get this, Richard had NEVER heard why Jesus died on the cross. I explained and he was very thankful. He took a gospel booklet and a handshake.