Open air preaching comes to Yorkshire

|PIC1|About seven years ago, Roger and Rosemary Gray began coming down from their Glasgow home to Bridlington, a holiday resort and fishing town that attracts large numbers during the warmer seasons. Then the Grays felt that God was speaking to them about the spiritual needs in this lovely community.

As missionaries with their home church, Findlay Memorial Church, they have over the last 25 years established the work of OAC Ministries (Open Air Campaigners) in Scotland. They have pioneered open air preaching using sketchboard illustrations and many other evangelistic outreaches in Glasgow and beyond. Yet they now realised the need to respond to God’s prompting and took a few trips to consider the possibility of this new calling.

Several small churches in the town had members who had moved to the area with a concern for outreach. They had been praying for other people to join them as they felt they needed extra help. By the end of March, Roger and Rosemary were able to move to Bridlington.

Now Roger says, "We praise God for so definitely confirming our call to Yorkshire by the openness of the schools and the response to the open air work. The enthusiasm of local Christians in these first few months has been fantastic."

Three local churches of different denominations have become involved with the outreach. Each Friday at lunchtime Roger presents a message in the town’s one precinct. Team members from the churches join him, first for prayer and then to engage with onlookers in one to one conversations and literature distribution.

As a resort venue, Bridlington is very much geared to tourists. In summer, they double the usual population. With their ministry experience, the Grays anticipate becoming involved with Yorkshire churches for activities such as missions, family services, quiz nights and holiday clubs.

Then there have been opportunities to take assemblies in schools throughout the area. One Deputy Head Teacher in Hull said, "I was very impressed with the use of the sketchboard illustrations. It got the message across in both an educational and an interesting way. Also, I liked the way Roger interacted with the children, asking them questions. It stimulates them."

When they prepared to move, Rosemary comments, "A friend of mine said 'Stand back and see what God’s going to do.' Standing back and seeing the schools work open up has been incredible. Within just ten weeks of being here, we were booked into 22 schools!"

On the web: www.oacgb.org.uk