Beach Evangelism Was OUTSTANDING! Be Encouraged!!!

My very first gospel conversation at the beach in 2019 and it was with three women, and get this, two of them were from Romania, and one from Jamaica! Evangelizing in New England is like being on an overseas Mission Trip without needing a passport!

This is Bujidada and Jivka from Bulgaria. They thought they were Christians, but they believe in reincarnation and other new age beliefs. Chris shared the gospel with them. Bujidada said, "God sent you to talk to us."

This is Proctor, one of our volunteers. He did a GREAT job bringing this group of people through the gospel message. Praise God!

After I was done preaching this message, a young man in his 20s named Eli approached me. He asked me if I had a Bible I could give him. I gladly gave him a Gospel of John booklet. We talked. Eli grew up in a Christian home, but had rejected the faith. He told me he even threw away his Bible but now felt that God was calling him and he wanted to study the Bible, and not only the Gospel of John. So I GLADLY gave him my Bible - an honor! Eli wanted to give me money but I refused. He asked what he could do for me, and I said, "you can attend a Bible-believing Church and grow closer to Jesus. Please do that." He said he'd email me to let me know how he's doing. My whole team was soooooo excited! Eli is someone's son, and I'm certain his parents have been praying for him. Would you please pray for this young man too? Thank you and God bless you!

A crowd listening to Jake bring them through the gospel message.

Chris had a productive conversation with Fahat, a devout Muslim. They focused on who Jesus is. Muslims do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and they don't believe He died on a cross. But Mohammed did tell his followers to read "the book" (the gospels), so Christ did a great job sharing from the gospels that just is "The Way, The Truth, and The Life" (John 14:6.) Please pray that Fahat will turn from false religion to the True God.

This is Brent (left) and Eddie (middle). Brent listened to my whole Open Air Message and was eager to talk to me. Brent is very intelligent, very curious, and thinks A LOT about eternal things. He's only 19-years-old. Sadly, Brent is very influenced by a non-Christian on YouTube, Jordan Peterson. Peterson is good on a number of issues, but not so much on the Bible. Brent thinks we're all Christ and we all have to suffer and get through it like Christ. I kept pointing him to the true Jesus of the Bible, and the true gospel of grace by faith. Brent and I spoke for about a half hour! Brent took my card, an Evangelistic DVD, and he said to me, "dude you're awesome." While I appreciate the compliment, I'm much more excited that he saw the Holy Spirit in me and was listening to the true gospel, which is the power of God for salvation!

Every year the town has a Professional Sandcastle competition, and it just HELPS our Evangelism so much. Someone will ask, "Where's the PROOF for God?" And I'll point to one of the Sandcastles, like this one, and say, "Would you believe me if I told you that this was formed by a giant sand storm throwing dirt around? After the dirt settled, this sculpted sandcastle emerged. Would you believe that?" Nobody believes that. And I tell them, "it's because the sandcastle has design and purpose. But the more we study the human body, the more design and purpose we find. Compared to us, that sandcastle is just a pile of dirt. If that sandcastle required a maker, then so do you and I. " How kind of the town of Hampton to bring these sandcastles in to make our evangelism jobs easier!!!

Who could resist this beautiful face? Jarvis the Evange-Poodle did a superb job making friends at the beach. People would come by to pet him and get some poodle-hugs, and then it's easy to start up a conversation about Jesus or to give them a gospel booklet. Good dog!!!

These 5 young people are students from India. They came over to me to pet Jarvis the poodle. (They loved him and took pictures of themselves with Jarvis!) I gave them gospel booklets written in Hindi and they kept asking, "How do you have Hindi?" I told them I care about them and want them to know Jesus so I carry a number of languages on me. They were really nice young people and were thankful for the gospel booklets (and thankful to pet the poodle.) Please pray for these 5. Wouldn't it be awesome if they traveled halfway around the world to get saved?

As you can see, they went nuts over Jarvis, and kept petting him and having their photos taken with him. :)

My daughter, Vivienne, engaging with a Dad at the beach.

Fellow OAC Missionary Richard Burley was in town from NY and we ministered together at the beach. God gave us great crowds to listen to the Open Air Messages, and tremendous one-on-one conversations! Hallelujah!

Ted has "the gift" of being able to get into a conversation with anyone and any group. It's a joy to watch God use him to connect with people at the beach!

This is Azelia. She told Chris that she can earn her way to Heaven by doing good for people, like by being a child psychologist or maybe nurse assistant. Chris explained the Great News of Grace. Azelia took an evangelistic DVD.

This gentleman had A LOT to share with David. He asserted that Jesus wasn't on a cross, but on a tree. He said that we can't use the name "Jesus" but must use the name "Y'Shua." He claims that if you look correctly at the "Mona Lisa" painting, you can see a spaceship. He said the purpose of the painting is to tell us about the spaceship. This man told David that there's two solar systems and Caucasians come from a different solar system than Africans do. He said the proof that Africans come from this solar system, but Caucasians do not, is that Africans don't burn in the sun and Caucasians do. What do you do with someone who won't stop to let you talk and is talking crazy? You give him a gospel tract, and pray he reads it later when he's more in his right mind. That's exactly what David did.

Can God use a teenager to reach someone for Jesus? Oh YES He can! This is "E," a Jesus-loving Teen who took my Evangelism Class back in January and has done Subway Ministry. She's reasoned with Tom for nearly a half hour! Tom has "strange" beliefs. Tom believes in other worlds and that God needs our love to get power to make other worlds. He also believes that Angels and the original Apostles were working with the Roman government. It's also likely that Tom was high on drugs at the time, so that's all the more reason to get printed materials in his hands so he can read them when he's in his right mind. E listened, but asked great questions, like, "What do you mean by that?" And "How did you learn that?" And "How do you know that's true?" She was very patient with Tom, gave him a gospel booklet, and pointed him to the Scriptures. Most importantly, E have Tom a copy of The Gospel of John. He said he'd definitely read it. Please pray for Tom. And let's praise God for young Evangelists like E!!!

This is a new painting I made for the "4th of July." On the top-left, you ask the person what is happening there. They usually say "George Washington getting caught cutting down a cherry tree." Then you ask if that is a true historical event, or just a nice story we tell kids? Most people get it right that this is not a true historical event. So why do we tell it? Because it teaches a good moral lesson about telling the truth. Then you go to the top-right and ask what is happening there. Usually the person gets that it's George Washington crossing the Delaware. So you ask them, "Is that historical? Was Washington a General in the Revolutionary War?" Of course everyone says yes. Then you go to the bottom-left. You ask them which famous document that is. Most everyone guesses "The Declaration of Independence." Then you ask them to fill in the missing words, "L___, L______, and the pursuit of H________." Everyone gets "Life, Liberty, Happiness." Then you point to the bottom-right. You ask them what is happening there. Everyone gets "Jesus dying on the cross." And you tell them that Jesus also rose from the dead. He did this to provide Eternal Life. He did this to give us liberty, not from England, but from slavery to sin and sin's consequences. And true happiness comes from knowing that you're an adopted child of God, and that only through faith in Jesus Christ. But then you ask, is the death and resurrection of Jesus like George Washington cutting down the cherry tree, where it's a nice tale but isn't true history? Or is it like George Washington being a General, grounded as a historical event? This lead to fruitful conversations!

This is Remy, Mason, and Emma. They approached our "July 4" riddles and were VERY INTERESTED in talking about Jesus. I asked them if they ever think about Eternity and Mason said, "All the time." Remy is a history major and was intrigued by the evidence for the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. Emma attended Catholic School and didn't know much about salvation by grace. Three really nice young people.

This is Alexa and Pam. They paid very close attention to what Ted was sharing with them, and he could tell they were thinking hard and seemed to really ponder the gospel message. They both accepted New Testaments!

A crowd gathers to listen to Richard Burley share the gospel message in the Open Air.

This is Jose and Gordi. David spoke with them. for a while, and then invited me into the conversation. They both claimed to know Jesus as Savior, but Jose admitted that he's not reading the Bible currently and not attending Church. Gordi is in the Word and going to Church, and he was glad that we encouraged Jose to do so. Jose struggling with hardships currently. We encouraged Jose to read at just one chapter a day. He said his Pastor said the same thing. He knows it's true. We prayed together and shared contact info.

Funny things happen at the beach! Jake here was taking a couple through our evangelistic riddles that lead to a gospel message. But more and more people began showing up to see and hear what's going on. So Jake started over again and it turned into an unplanned "open air message" reaching a bunch of people. It's wonderful when God orchestrates those "Divine Appointments."

Chris talking with two young students with Campus Crusade for Christ. They watched us for a while to see if it "really works" to talk to strangers about Jesus. They were happy to have run into us. We encouraged one another in the faith!

Mike is one of our volunteers. He's SOOO friendly. He loves talking to people about Jesus and his love and concern for them shows very clearly. He's often praying for people and shaking hands and exhorting them to turn to Christ. :)

This is Noamy and Cassandra from Quebec. They came over to check out our evangelistic "riddles." They had s superb conversation with Mike, who brought them through the gospel. He even used Google Translate to help them understand key concepts in French (their first language.) They both gladly took French gospel booklets. Noamy and Cassandra appeared to be very open. They "know of" Jesus, but don't "know" Jesus. At least not yet.

Groups like this stop by all night to try our "pre-evangelistic" riddles and go through the gospel message. I love Beach Ministry!!!

A number of families stopped to hear the gospel. The woman on the right is named Star, and she stayed to speak with Jake and me afterwards. Star became very emotional and saw her need to get right with God. I gave her a few Church suggestions, and a Gospel of John booklet.

Chris giving an Open Air message. The man in the chair is George. He listened to the whole message and spoke with Chris afterward. More on that encounter in the photo below...

This is George. George is a Combat Veteran who was damaged by the war. He listened to the whole open air message. He said he wanted a gospel booklet. And he wanted Chris to pray for him. Interestingly, a few nights later I ran into George and got to talk to him again. :)

The Town of Hampton puts on a FREE concert every Wednesday night, and that attracts a LOT of people. We setup our evangelism right outside the concert, and it's a great way to share Christ with lots and lots of people.

God gives us lots of great one-on-one conversations at the beach, like with Michael here. Michael, like all of us, needed to be pointed to Jesus. He needs the gospel. He needs grace.