Open Air Campaigners
Publications
OACI Update 1999

Great Britain: Leicester Square, where anything can happen!

Leicester Square is at the heart of London's entertainment area. Cinemas, theatres, clubs and eating-places attract great crowds of Londoners and tourists. David Fanstone, the UK National Director, has been preaching there for over 20 years. David says, "Over the years, I've experienced just about everything that can happen at an open-air meeting - both the good and the bad! I've had paint thrown over me, been heckled and even arrested! However, one evening I finished preaching and straightaway a well-dressed young man stepped to the front and asked me if he could speak to the crowd. You never know what people are going to say in the open air, but I felt it right to say 'Yes'.

"This person then started to give a testimony of how two years previously he had been depressed and at rock bottom of his life. He had walked through Leicester Square and stopped to listen to this man (pointing to me!) preaching. He took a leaflet, which sometime later he read and committed his life to Christ. He said his life was now sorted out, and he regularly attends church. He concluded by saying, 'What this man says is true.' I was able to have a quick word with him afterwards to thank him for his testimony, but he slipped away before I could get his name and address. This incident was a great encouragement to me, and although a similar situation has never occurred again, I believe many others have found faith in Christ through preaching the Gospel in the open air in Leicester Square, London."