Spearhead Winter 2012/13
G
LO as an organisation is always looking for the opportunity to share the gospel with people who have never heard. Those opportunities can happen all year round, but one of the best times of the year is during the summer when many Christians throughout Europe have time off from work, school or university and can be mobilised for mission. It is for this reason that the summer team programme is a vital part of GLO’s evangelism strategy. One opportunity that we seized upon this summer was the Olympics which were held in London.
Summer Opportunities We were based in Ilford which was only an eight minute train ride to the Olympic Park was and 25 minutes from central locations such as the Houses of Parliament. As expected, London was crowded with visitors from all over the world as well as the 12 million people who consider London to be their permanent home. The main focus of the team was to distribute a tract that was specifically written for the occasion. Having an Olympic themed tract certainly did help and we are able to distribute 16,000 of them in 10 days. Perhaps the best opportunities for distribution were the two Sundays during the women’s and men’s marathon when hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the streets to watch. The evenings were occupied distribute tracts to the many thousands who went to the Olympic Park each night. One of the unexpected opportunities that presented itself was evangelism among Muslims. During the Olympics hundreds of Muslims took to the streets to propagate their faith and inevitably this brought them across our path. We had many good conversations as we shared the reality of our faith. Another summer team that had the opportunity to reach out to Muslims was the Marseille team. The 12 team members from India, China, Argentina, UK, Spain, and Switzerland arrived in Marseille during Ramadan and were able to take part in relationship-building activities in an area of the city with a large Muslim population. An international evening, football tournaments, mass distribution and beach evangelism were all part of the programme. About 15 local people were willing to leave their contact details and receive a further visit. Romania proved to be another place where opportunities could be taken. This was made possible because young people from both the UK and France wanted to join the two summer teams held there. There were 12 from the UK and a further 17 from France. The UK team were involved in children’s work in two locations and around 200 came to the clubs along with a number of parents and grandparents. It was a
By Stephen McQuoid
wonderful opportunity to fill young minds with biblical truth and some 53 of the children were awarded prizes for learning memory verses. One of the children, Nicu, aged 11 encouraged the team by telling them that, “I need to ask God to forgive me, so that my name will be written in the Book of Life”. In addition to the children’s work there were also 3 youth evenings which proved successful. The French team also did children’s work, this time in gypsy villages, with over 90 children attending each day. The French young people organised songs, sketches, lessons as well as testimonies. The evenings were mainly used for events for adults in the various gypsy communities. Children’s clubs were also held in Enniscorthy in the Republic of Ireland where the four summer team members helped the church and resident GLO team reach out to the local community. Over 130 children came to the club each day with a significant number of parents coming to a parent’s night at the end of the week. Each child went home with a copy of Mark’s gospel as well as other literature. A “Beautiful Women’s Night” was also held during the week with 80 guests and a number asked for further contact or promised to attend a ladies’ Bible study. A further 200 came to a Family Fun Day with many of them staying on for an evening concert which included a presentation of the gospel. During the second week of the team over 50 teenagers attended a youth club where there was a variety of activities as well as the gospel being presented through drama and discussion groups. This was supplemented by a children’s club held on the green outside the house of Andrew and Lorna Burt who lead the resident GLO team. Over 50 children attended and a further 40 guests came to an Over 60’s afternoon tea. In between all these activities the team distributed 4000 magazines around the town. North of the border there was a summer team in Woodford, County Armagh which also focussed on children’s and youth work. During this team four children became Christians. Children’s work also
“ I need to ask God to forgive me, so that I will be written in the Book of Life” Nicu, 11
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played a significant role on the team in Mollet near Barcelona where the 14 team members conducted open air meetings for children in two parks. The theme was “Go for Gold” and the team held a fun Olympics with a couple of sports each day. The church there took the opportunity to rent the old Market Hall for an international night and a music night. Families who had been contacted in the parks attended both evenings and were challenged with the gospel. Summer teams often provide the opportunity for people from the same church to go as a group and engage in mission. This was the case on the Marsciano team where a group of 13 from Aberdeen came to support this fairly new church. The programme for the team changed quite radically because just a few days beforehand a 14 year old boy from the church in Marsciano had been electrocuted to death. In this situation overt special event type evangelistic evenings would have been culturally out of place. Nevertheless this opened up the opportunity for some very effective house meetings and one-to-one evangelism. The prayer times which the team and local church had were very special and there was real unity within the team itself and with the local church. A surprising opportunity presented itself this year in Sázava in the Czech Republic. In 2011 a GLO team from a church in Glasgow went to Sázava to support the work of the small church there. Good contacts were made and some of the contacts invited the team to come back. Four did so along with five others which they had recruited. They ran a very similar programme to the previous year using English language classes as a way of developing friendships with people. They also organised five outreach events: two barbeques, a film night, a trip out to a neighbouring village and a meeting in the local church. The barbeques in particular were great opportunity for witness and many good discussions took place. Given that it was an Olympic year ‘Chariots of Fire’ was screened at a film night and this too was impacting. These were just some insights to the 25 GLO summer teams that took the opportunity to bringing the good news of Jesus to a lost world. Perhaps next summer you will take the opportunity to come with us as we bring the gospel to people who have not heard.