A man from Scotland journeys to California to face his fear of evangelism.

What do you call it? When about 100 people from all across America and some other parts of the planet come together in one place to do one of the most important things in the world. I know you’re thinking we call that Easy’s birthday celebration and you’d be right. But I’m talking about something else. I’m talking about living Waters Ambassadors Academy and I have with me, Mr Mark Spence, Mr Ray comfort and guys, you gotta be honest. Whenever we think about, whenever we talk about, whenever we engage in the Ambassador’s Academy, we get a little excited, don’t we? A sense of excitement comes in because this is exactly what this ministry is about. That’s what the Book of Acts is about and we just love doing it. Yeah, I often think Ray back in New Zealand 1970 something after you started living Waters. I mean if someone told you one day you’re gonna have hundreds of people over the course of time really over 1213 100 so far come from all around the world and do this. I mean, you would have thought, come on. No way. But it’s been wonderful. And we’re really excited to talk about it today and today we’re going to in fact, take a look at the story of one individual named Craig Hill from Scotland. Is that good? Right? I need help. I know training, I need Rosetta Stone courses killed, killed, killed. Anyway. Sorry, Craig Hill. I just insulted you and we’re talking about you today, we’re gonna look at Craig Hill’s life when it comes to evangelism, like all of us craig desire to get out on the streets and share the gospel with others, but of course there were a whole number of obstacles. But instead of me telling you, I’m gonna let craig tell you in his own words as he tells you a little bit about the Ambassador’s Academy. Yeah. I became a question just through a series of events in my life and one of them being, someone gave me a gospel tract and I completely poo pooed it as we see in Scotland and put it in a top drawer And left it there for about two or 3 years and came back to it one night in my bedroom. Reddit realized that if I died that night, I certainly wasn’t going to heaven and I didn’t want to consider the other option. That was the night that it all turned around. I read the gospel tract, there was a prayer on the back which I kind of went through and a Put it to one side and prayed myself repented and put my faith in Christ and that was it. And that was in July 1993. The spiritual climate in the area is pretty hard and that’s possibly a reason why it’s kind of like throwing seeds on concrete. The ground isn’t fair tale. But nonetheless, we still need to get out there and do it one night in a prayer meeting, It was a men’s prayer meeting. I don’t know what happened, but God in some kind of way arrested me and it was like he opened my eyes to the dreadful need for Biblical evangelism and my nation in Scotland and all I can say is it was I wept and I wept and then I wept some more. I wept in the prayer meeting. I cried the whole way home. I got into my house, I wept more and then I grabbed a bunch of gospel tracks and some questionnaires and pretty much drove to the nearest supermarket, gave out tracks to everything that moved, spoke to as many people as I could, pleaded with people to listen. It was, I think it was a sovereign move of God. And I’ve never looked back actually, the way that I engage with the lost at the moment is predominantly gospel tracts, just handing out tracts, handing out literature. I’ll give them a tract and then I’ll run away after a couple of seconds before they start to talk to me because I’m still a bit scared. I haven’t yet opened there, preached the thing about evangelism that makes me nervous is the fear of man. It’s the fear of rejection. It’s the fear of failure. It’s the fear of not having the right answer. The ministry of living Waters predominantly, they’re teaching on the biblical gospel and Biblical evangelism was like the if you like the centerpiece of a bigger picture when I understood the biblical gospel correctly. it made me start to question my theology in general. I knew that I was saved. I knew that I was forgiven and knew that I had a hope and a future in christ. But some of the dark final things that I had bought into, I realized we’re far from the truth. Christian should evangelize predominantly because it’s the great commission. It’s the last thing that jesus said before he went to heaven. I can’t remember what the statistics are, but I think it’s roughly 100 and 50,000 people dying every day. And I think that’s about two people every second and that’s frightening to me and it should be to every believer in christ and I think it’s just this sense of the clock is ticking. I think what I’m hoping to get from the Ambassador’s academy is confidence and the tools required to engage with people maybe more efficiently. But if I can get maybe a better skill set to engage with the lost and get better at it. Just get trained basically, get equipped. Um, that would be a bonus. That would be an absolute bonus every day. People are dying and get into what the bible describes as hell. And that should be the motivating factor. The factor should be love, love for the lost because we have the answer. Um, someone told me so why shouldn’t I tell someone else? Oh man, how cool is it that he said, he stopped after, He never stopped after starting. I started and I never stopped and to think that he uh he got that urgency, you know that he, that he was consumed by where he said, I ran out to the supermarkets and I just, I told gave attract everything that moved, you know, there’s something so, so starting about that. But yet guys, we can relate to that fear that he’s had even not wanting to do it at first and then even like you said, I gotta try and then I run away. So I’d love to hear from the two of you on what you experienced in those days because our friends are watching today are saying, I can relate to that. I’m terrified at that thought. So take us there and how did you overcome before we go there. Let me just talk a little bit about Scotland, what rich spiritual heritage, Scotland hands with john Knox yes, etcetera. And I was reminded, I visited Scotland many years ago, uh a town called Motherwell and then went to Glasgow and and preached in a prison. Never get a guy came up to me a prisoner and he said in a Scottish accent seriously, it was so broad and never knew what he was saying. I just said yes, yes, yes. I still feel guilty in case he was asking a serious question. But yeah, but what thrilled me about what my brother said was that he gives out a track. Like mentioned any runs? Yeah, I still do that, I really do I give someone a track and I think to myself, please don’t read it, wait like get away. So it’s something that never goes away. It’s a Goliath that sits on your shoulder and you just have to ignore it. Mark, let me, let me ask you the same thing. But but even for you like you and I are not Ray obviously. And yet isn’t there some encouragement in hearing that even Ray comfort saying I still deal with that today. Right. I think people look into Ray’s life because they see his Youtube channel with his dog and I think well here’s a guy that goes out a couple times a day to share the gospel. I don’t have that gift, I can’t do what he does. And listen, I mean I was driving along with Justin Peters and I was, we were talking about that very thing and I said hey the apostle paul said that he would gladly give up his own salvation for his countrymen. Do you think that was hyperbole because I asked a very well known preacher and he said I think that was hyperbole. I said I don’t know Justin Peter said you know, I don’t think that was hyperbole. I think the apostle paul truly cared so much about people that he was willing to surrender his own salvation, that he was that focused. So I mean I I get I get nervous right, when did I get nervous last 10 minutes ago, right, hyperbole. But that’s how often we get nervous to share the gospel, but we need to swallow our fears and move forward. I think it was you that said um faith is a fear that has said its prayers or courage is fear that has said its prayers. I wasn’t listening at the time, but that’s what we need to do. We need to not think it because if we begin to think about it, we’re gonna overthink it. If we overthink it, we’re not going to do it. You just need to be doers, not just here, but when your knees go weak, drop to them, that’s the safest place. And there’s a saying, you know, when when you’re on your knees, your knees don’t knock. They don’t, wow. Yeah, its dependence on the Lord. You know, I’ve often said that one of the most important parts of the great commission is often left out. And that is, and lo I am with you always Even unto the end of the age, Yeah, couldn’t let it go. Now we’ve offended Scottish people and short people. Yeah, good thing. You’re two ft one. Yeah. He’s not talking to an individual named lo he’s talking to us, right, I am with you always even unto the end of the age and that should be our soulless because look, if we’re doing evangelism, friends, hopefully we’re doing it because we want to bring people to the Lord. Well he’s with us and he’s there to encourage us to help us to strengthen us. So let’s remember that now. We want to continue looking at our friend Craig’s journey. Now. Friends Craig is exactly why we do the Ambassadors Academy right? We want to help people overcome their fear. We want to help people in fact, despite their fear, even though they may still feel it, do what’s right and reach out to the loss. And so people come, as I said earlier from all across America in different parts of the world. We bring them in, we give them classroom instruction, we have small groups, we have all kinds of different sort of modules that teach you how to evangelize. And then we have a leader who actually goes out with you on the street who’s done it and who trains you and who encourages you. So we saw Craig in his homeland, right talking about what he’s doing with Tracks and that’s all he does. Let’s see how his journey continues when he actually comes out here to the academy. So what we’ll do now is we’re gonna go around everyone’s just gonna just share what you hope to get out of what I want to get out of this is more experience obviously in any fashion, way to pass it on tracks, standing on a box just loving on people having brothers and sisters in christ like mine that are doing this. Even folks are scared out of their mind that just saying please go with me man. It’s just such a stretching and growing experience. So that’s what I’m really looking forward to it. Okay. Yeah. My name is jake from Scotland just outside standing on a box. Never done it. The thought of it makes me want to vomit. I’m going to try and push myself. I think that’s the next step for me. I do like 1-1 like handing out tracks because you can give them and I feel kind of safe by and large. I’m just taking a skill set. So yeah, just to kind of get around like minded people and know that you’re not the only guy doing this. It can be quite so when you vomit just make sure you’re facing away from me. Well as you can see, there’s, you know, a lot of different kinds of guys here, but the same time very similar. You know, we, we all just want to uh further our walk with christ. We want to become better equipped to just share the gospel one of one of the prayers. I just had for a long time to be able to just to just talk to anyone in any situation. I would say as you do this this weekend, allow yourself to be stretched. All right. So he said, it makes him feel sick. I won’t get into the graphics that he shared, but it makes him feel sick. Just to think of open air preaching ray. You can relate to that personally. In fact, you you did feel three months. I felt physically sick. Seriously? I can’t go into details. But I I just felt I was just so nervous. Every single explained three months. It’s like about 12 weeks. What are you talking about? I’m from Lebanon. Right. But what do you mean for three months, three months? Uh, that’s how long it took me to get over the I kind of a terror and move it down a slot to where I could control the terror I guess. But terror. You actually used the word terror. It was above terror. I can’t find the words. I think mortification downplaying it. Yeah, Yeah. It really was. It was. I would have rather have done anything. But I’d get on my bike and ride about half a mile to the local square and get on the box. Well, I didn’t get a box. I just stood in. So you’re saying that you’re saying for the first three months every day, That’s what it was. Like what? What was it like before you ever did it for the first time? I wasn’t gonna do it. It wasn’t on the why did you do it? I mean who did you see do it? They said I want to do that. Well, I was sitting on a bus taking it back on my way to work. I worked in a bank, I don’t know where I worked. Anyway, we don’t care. It’s so long ago and I looked at people sitting there just bouncing along on the bus and I had the revelation, they’re all going to die if I really cared about that, I would stand up and preach the gospel because I found everlasting life and the thought and it was very real was the bus driver would immediately stopped if I did it on a bus and he tossed me off and everyone would just join in and kick and that would be it. So I did pray the most dangerous prayer I’ve ever prayed and that was, oh Lord, if there’s only some way where I could preach the gospel to people knowing there wasn’t. And then they legalized, I think two weeks later they legalized public speaking in our city for some reason. Um, and then I avoided it for two weeks. Absolutely thought of it. I just, I was horrified that God had answered my prayer and I didn’t even think about. It was just, no, I’m not even, not even entertain it. And then I saw a picture of the bible lady uh in the square, she got a violin that she used to play and she was called the bible lady and they just had a little caption bible lady sharing her faith and speaker’s corner and I felt so ashamed that a little old lady was doing that And I wasn’t. So I went in and I stood there And I’ll never forget what happened. I shouldn’t have said that because I’m gonna forget. As I was standing there, a guy came up to me as a professing Christian and I was looking, I was just gonna get ready to preach this crowd of about 30 people and he said, look at that bunch of losers hardly worth preaching the gospel of them. And he just walked off and he didn’t know what I was entertaining and I thought, wow, that was just too obvious. I’m going to do it. And I did it and it was the first Every day for 12 years first time. But like that’s the three months after that I was just in that. But you did it though. I mean you kept going, kept going. And was it like you woke up in the morning and just was a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. Like here I go again. Absolutely. And I stayed there and but it was never, it’s never realized. You know, I I didn’t get stoned to death. I don’t know what is fearful of and I still don’t know what I’m fearful of. You know, if you drive yourself, so don’t walk off, Mark, what about you? You remember the first time you, the first time someone, the first time I open here preached was in las Vegas and remember how it happened to Ray had was asked a question and he goes, uh Mark, you want to come and answer that question? So he provoked me to go up and do it. And there was a sweet couple that were christians that came up after me afterwards to encourage me. But truth be told, everybody was more interested in this light show that was happening behind me at the hotel. That’s what we used to at santa Monica. I had someone that I thought could open your preach, I’d get him to come forward and just hold something for me. So we just hold this while I speak to the crowd and it got them used to seeing the faces and then if they asked someone asked a question, I can’t answer that and it helped them break the ice, was like pulling them onto the ice. Yeah. You know, there’s something about being in the atmosphere and being there that just, it compels you, you get, you get stirred up and you get provoked to do it. So friends, we want to continue the journey with craig. We saw him in Scotland talking about how he first started and he was just giving out tracts and talked about his nervousness. We saw him come to the academy and he’s talking there as we’re in the classroom. It’s one thing to talk about evangelism in the classroom, to theorize about it. It’s an entirely different thing to actually get out on the streets and do it. So let’s see what happens as craig’s journey continues. Here he is. Mhm uh Nikki Bigler actually so easy spoke last night, is that correct? Did he say great comfort is just a little kid in a little kid’s body. He didn’t good cause I don’t want that to get out anywhere. Eventually you’re gonna be hit with just opposition and whatever, whatever form we live in a country, the main way that people see, christians are just bad. I want people to find everlasting life. I want huge crowds. I want people to hear the gospel and there is a way to draw in a crowd, but I’m not talking about standing on a street corner with one of those bullhorns yelling at passersby. I don’t like that. I think it brings your approach to the gospel and I’ve tried everything under the sun to get people to listen. But about 20 years ago I began using trivia to get people’s attention and it worked okay. Where was the Declaration of Independence site? Independent? No. Where was it saying? Come on out, come on, stand up and say, okay, I got a bundle of money here, I want to give away and I have a bundle of ones and I say, can anybody tell me the capital of France begins with P and rhymes with paris. You see, you want someone to answer and someone will say paris, that’s right, here’s your daughter. And he says what really? Here’s your daughter china is correct. But when someone gets a question wrong, I say that’s wrong, give him a hand and I say here’s your dollar. You know we like people that try that creates goodwill. I’ll say to someone else, what’s your name? You’ll say eric that’s right, here’s your dollar. The whole principle of evangelism is go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. The disciples didn’t stay in the upper room, They didn’t carpet it out and air conditioning saying we’ve got the power and just stay there. No, they went open air, they went with the fish are and that’s what we’re to do to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Oh my God! At the beginning of the day I was a bit nervous, a bit twitchy on how to engage people. Maybe it’s my accent, maybe asleep difference in the culture, how you doing mate? Can I give you that? If you take that will give you a million dollars? I’ve came all the way from Scotland to tell you this. I’m craig, I’m from Scotland, that’s my son’s name Lucas, that’s irish about the first hour. I thought this is not really working. I don’t know how I feel about this whole thing. The first two or three people pretty hard going. Didn’t really understand where I was coming from. I know where I’m at with Christianity, I am a christian. Okay, but how did that happen? What what tell me what happened? Do you have faith in anyway robert? You you do you have a religion, is there anything that you follow? What do you believe? You’re muslim? Right, okay. Does that not stress you to know that you’re living a life and the balance that you’ve got to try and do more good than bad and so on. You get used to people nowadays don’t want to be told what to do, but they want to live by the way they want to live. What would stop you from doing that rob? What do you mean? Repenting and putting your faith in christ, nothing stops me. Okay, so you still follow the teachings of Islam though because it’s it’s in the end it’s all the same what you think it’s the same God, how do you not say that that is he formed man from the dust of the prove or disprove that he did not start with something less than us. No, but you can prove it in comparison to the world, but it’s the same God, definitely. There’s only one god and we all believe in it. Okay. You’re not telling me otherwise. Sure. Well the scripture says that jesus said I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father except through me. So jesus is exclusive, he’s saying I’m the only way I’m the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father except through me. You get what I’m saying there. But all you need to do is repent and put your faith in him. Okay, will you do that? Will you think about that? Thanks for listening to God bless. Yeah, it was hard and it was a bit discouraged. Yeah. Oh, good man, Bless you. Popular, drink T but by the end of it, I spoke to a couple christian girl and her boyfriend. He got the law and the gospel and he said it made a lot of sense and he was prepared to make some kind of commitment to christ. Now, I never pushed him on that. But it was encouraging to finish off by knowing that. Well, at least there was, you know, there was something you felt something had happened, Take care. All right. Oh, no, madam. That was so cool. Yeah. Great. What were your thoughts as you watched? My thoughts? My heart went out to him because not only was he witnessing like the first time having disappointments, but he was miked up and being filmed, which adds that puts the whole thing I’ve had that and you think everyone’s listening from a distance is being filmed and so my heart went out to him. But what I really like about this and what he’s done in production, it’s very real because it can be very disappointing. It’s not like day of Pentecost 3000 come to christ it’s like some guy says, yeah thanks for talking me walks off and leaving it a little discouraged. But that’s how it is. You’ve got to learn to deal with it. Yeah. Mark, did you did you notice though even though he said it was hard and discouraging, did you notice how he began to thaw little by little he began to talk to people? Because it does get easier. It gets easier as you go out when somebody says something against your savior, you get provoked within when somebody says something that’s not true, you get provoked because we are lovers of truth. Truth has set us free. So we want that to come out. So you just keep being faithful and doors will open up for you. Amen and friends. The reason why we do the academies is to teach people how to communicate the gospel clearly. And one of the things that I’ve always loved in terms of what Ray says is that it’s not as difficult as people think that it is. So what Ray is gonna do for us now is he’s gonna show you really the heart of the Gospel. How do we communicate the gospel in one minute? One minute. Yes, go. Well, there’s one reason you need to come to christ and that’s the fact you’re gonna die. And the reason gonna die is because you have sinned against God. Death is evidence that God is serious about sin and the way to see if your sin is to have a look at the measuring Rod. God’s given us the 10 commandments. If you lied or stolen or look with lust, if you hate someone, the Bible says you’ve committed murder. The Bible says God requires truth in the inward parts. He sees the thought life. And that was my revelation many years ago when I realized that God saw what I was thinking about and he held me accountable and I realized on judgment day I’d be condemned, I’d be guilty, no excuse And end up in hell. And that’s when I understood the cross. That Christ died on the cross for us. We broke the law. The 10 commandments are called the moral law. Jesus paid the finance as simple as that. That’s why he said it is finished and he rose from the dead, defeated our greatest enemy, death itself. What greater news could you ever hope to hear? And if you’ll repent that is confess and forsake your sins. Don’t play the hypocrite. Don’t say I’m a christian and lie and steal and lust. Be genuine and put your trust in, jesus like a trust. A parachute rest in him with your free eternal salvation. God will remit your sins and grant you everlasting life as a free gift. That was the first time Ray comfort has ever shared the gospel. But the one message you can never get tired of sharing. Really Ray, you just conveyed the most important message in the history of the universe and what a message worthwhile communicating and friends. That’s what we do through the academy. Hopefully you’ve been inspired. You watched Craig Wright. He began nervous and what do I do? He came out, he listened, he watched, he went out, he started to do it, but a story is not over. Next time you’re gonna watch Craig as he not only talks to people, but as he gets up on a soapbox in Hollywood on one of the busiest streets in the world and proclaims the Gospel. If you want to see that, you got to join us next time. Thanks for being here, join us again next time. One way. The Master, We hope this episode of Wave, the Master has inspired you to share the message of eternal life. You can watch our award winning movies such as the Atheist Delusion freely on our website where you’ll also find articles, videos, and audio messages, as well as books, dvds, gospel tracts and other resources to help you share your faith Biblically and effectively make sure to visit living Waters dot com today