James Chittenden

Open-Air Mission

‘Holding fast the faithful word...’
(Titus 1:9)

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‘Holding forth the word of life...’
(Philippians 2:16)

James Chittenden

Part-Time Evangelist

Open-air opportunities in Crawley, Horsham and Redhill

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James’ Testimony

BENEATH THE SURFACE

Horsham is one of the towns I preach in regularly. It is a market town in West Sussex situated 31 miles south-west of London. It has a population of about 60,000 and is in the top 15% for low crime. In 2006 Channel 4 proclaimed it to be the second best place to live in the UK! Officially there are no homeless people living in Horsham. So on the surface all is well.

Although Horsham is generally a very middle-class town, there are many people with difficult lives whom I often meet. Adrian, who had just been released from prison, demanded an explanation for why his sister had died of cancer. What can you say to a person with that question? All I could do was to offer my sincere condolences and then seek to tell him of the love of God displayed through Jesus’ death on the cross. Adrian took a booklet on suffering and went down the street reading it. Then there was the elderly man who has been on numerous Alpha courses yet still believes that life is pointless, especially after his experiences in World War II. He, too, took literature with him to read, though he told me not to expect it to have any impact on him.

There was Ben who stood with me in the rain. He shared that he had been in a very bad motorbike accident. Ben admitted that he thought someone was looking after him. I told him about Associate worker John Bolger’s accident last summer. Ben was very keen to listen to John’s testimony, so took the ‘Life Changing Stories’ testimony CD.It’s amazing how God uses the experiences of Christians to challenge people. The other day I was able to share my testimony with a woman who has had a difficult life; she took away literature wanting to know more about God.

During an open-air last November I was approached by a Council official who said that using the open-air board without permission broke local bylaws and therefore I could be arrested if I persisted in using it. Since then the Christian Institute have become involved, but so far the council are still refusing to allow the use of the board. In the meantime we actually seem to have had more interest in our preaching without the board! It just serves as a reminder that this is the Lord’s work, not ours.