Where are the hearers of the Good News in Yorkshire?

I was born in Kingston Upon Hull, or ‘Ull on the ‘Umber as Yorkshire folk may know it. The nearest seaside town where we as kids would play, was Hornsea, now the home of my brother and family. A little further away were the popular seaside towns of Bridlington, Scarborough, and Filey. Our next door neighbours came from Filey, and on our trips back to England, many fond memories of those spots have been fostered through the years.

A story in the latest Jericho Walls Prayer journal caught my eye, and caused a distinct desire to make Filey a place to visit on our next holiday in the region.

Pray until there is victory

The story of John Oxtoby’s prayers for the English town of Filey, remains an encouragement to us all. (Praying Johnny; 1767-1830).

Methodist circuit preachers, who usually travelled on horseback from town to town in order to preach the gospel, had a huge influence on villages and towns all over England, and America. These Methodist preachers or ‘circuit riders’, as they were known, followed in the footsteps of those Methodist giants, such as Wesley and Whitefield, and brought great spiritual change to Britain as a whole.

A story is told of an incident in the town of Filey, during the early days of Methodism, after many preachers had been sent, but to no avail. The town was a stronghold of satanic power, and each preacher in turn had been driven out, until at last it was decided to give up the town as a hopeless endeavour. The now famous John Oxtoby, or ‘praying Johnny’, as he was called, begged the Methodist Conference to give the town’s people one more chance, and to send him.

On his way thither, someone enquired of him whence he was going. “To Filey,” he replied, “where the Lord is going to revive His work.” Seeing the town from a hilltop, Oxtoby’s feelings were so intense that he fell upon his knees under a hedge and wrestled, and wept, and prayed for the success of his mission. A miller, who was on the other side of the hedge, heard a voice and stopped in astonishment to listen to it. He heard Oxtoby say, “Thou munna make a feal o’me! Thou munna make a feal o’ me! (You mustn’t make a fool of me!) I told them at Bridlington that Thou was going to revive Thy work, and Thou must do so, or I shall never be able to show my face among them again, and then what will the people say about praying and believing?”

Oxtoby continued to plead with God for several hours. The struggle was long and heavy, but he would not cease. He made his very weakness and inefficiency a plea. At length, he rose exclaiming, “It is done, Lord. It is done. Filey is taken! Filey is taken!”

He walked into Filey, arisen straight from the ‘Mercy-seat’ and started to sing as he walked through the streets: “Turn to the Lord and seek salvation.” A crowd of hardened fishermen flocked to listen. He preached with unusual power and hardened sinners wept, strong men trembled, and while he prayed over them they fell to their knees, and cried out for mercy and found it. When God’s children pray, He answers and does what He promised.

My heart aches for the country that sent out so many missionaries in the past, but now needs the message themselves. Pockets of Wonderful Churches are a real blessing to find, and we rejoice when we can enjoy good fellowship with Bible believing worshippers, but in general when we visit England we find more atheists, agnostics, and scoffers than receptive ears for the Good News of Jesus Christ.

As an “eccentric” who has “got religion” it will be a pleasure to walk around Filey, and find someone who understands my lack of religion, but echoes my living relationship with my Lord and Saviour.

Jesus said, You will hear of wars and rumours of wars. Don’t be alarmed! These things must happen but they don’t mean that the end has come. Nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All of these are only the beginning pains of the end. … Many will lose faith … there will be more and more lawlessness, most people’s love will grow cold. But the person who endures to the end will be saved. This Good news about the kingdom will be spread throughout the world as a testimony to all nations. Then the end will come. Matthew 24:6-14 (God’s Word)

I looked up some statistics and found that the Joshua Project says that of 105 people groups in the UK, 29 are still unreached! That means that out of a population of 62,083,000 27.6% have not yet heard.
A Christian country or one that is losing faith?