I first heard about Open Air Campaigners in March 2010 when I
Rick Moore at Shops at Legacy
attended the Living Waters Ambassadors Academy. Since then I’ve talked to several people about it and have had an interest in learning more about it. About three weeks ago, while looking at a friends pictures on Facebook, I saw a picture in one of his albums of a guy doing evangelism with a sketch board. I posted a comment “is this Open Air Campaigners?” The answer came back, “yes” and my friend connected me with Rick Moore. I sent an email to Rick and he called me a couple days later. We talked about meeting up.
Last night, my wife and I were able to meet up with Rick, his wife, a couple who were visiting from Oklahoma to learn from him and a couple of other people who had come out. Rick had picked a spot near the pond at the Shops at Legacy in Plano. As he got set up, we talked a bit about how he did this with the Sketch Board. He explained that he would have a dialog explaining what he was doing. And then afterward for people that were there and interested in more information he would talk one on one with them and give them a tract to take with them. He told us that after a little while he would paint up a sketch called “solve this riddle” and that people would likely come by to solve the riddle after the painting part was already done.
Sounded simple enough. So Rick got started with the Titanic illustration. At one point there were probably 20-30 people listening. Unfortunately as Rick shared the Gospel, many of the people left. We were able to talk to a couple of people and hand out four or five of the tracts.
The crowds near the pond were thinning out and we considered moving up the street. I walked up the street to see if the area that Rick had in mind would work. We decided to move and began packing up to move. As we were packing up, a couple of people came and asked what we were doing. Rick turned the black light back on and got going again with the sketch. As he did, the crowd began to assemble again. When Rick finished all of the riddle, he was talking with a couple of people that had been listening in.
Around then a couple of kids walked up to the board looking at the riddle. I walked up to them and started to explain the panes of the riddle and walk them through it. The played along and solved each pane of the riddle while I was giving them a little help and some hints. The last pane said “death / life” which of course leads them to say that “Harvey had life after death”. I was then able to explain the Law and the Gospel to them.
For the next 45 minute to an hour there was a constant flow of people coming up, asking what we were doing, solving the riddles and then sharing the Gospel with them. Each of us that was there to help were engaged in various conversations. At one point, another believer and his wife walked up and engaged with one of the people I was talking too.
The whole experience was very uplifting. The sketch board was an amazing way to draw people in to spiritual conversations and share the Gospel with them.
I am planning to get with Rick soon to get some training and learn more about how to use this to share the Gospel. If you live around North Dallas and would be interested in getting some training please let me know and I will coordinate it with Rick. If you live outside of North Dallas, additional information on Open Air Campaigners training is available on their web site as well as their YouTube channel.
