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With Jon and Penny Thorp
91 Plays1 year ago
Sometimes you just need a bit of enthusiasm to get out there and do it! Today on PEP Talk, Andy chats with a couple engaged in old-fashioned street evangelism and tract distribution. Having seen God work through these in their own lives, Jon and Penny encourage their church family to be actively speaking to others at work, in the community and on the High Street.
Jon & Penny Thorp met through their work driving buses in West London. Penny was saved through an addiction recovery program and Jon came to the Lord in 2019 after knowing Penny for six years. They are now married and active at Feltham Evangelical Church.
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Transcript
Introduction of Guests
00:00:11
Speaker
Well, hello and welcome to another exciting episode of Pep Talk, the persuasive evangelism podcast. I'm Andy Bannister, one half of the presenting team, my other partner in crime, Christian Mayer, whose voice you'll hear if you're a regular Slit Pep Talk, can't be with me today. But we're made up, we make up for the lack in presenters. We only have one presenter, but we have two guests for you today, because I am joined by John and Penny Thorpe. John and Penny, welcome to Pep Talk. Hello. Hiya, thank you.
00:00:41
Speaker
Now we met, didn't we? We held a Solas Confident Christianity event at Feltham Evangelical Church, where you guys attend. That was a few months ago now. It was like a lifetime ago, but a few months ago. You guys came to that.
00:00:57
Speaker
It was fascinating by your story, so much so he wants to get you on pep talk. So without me rabbiting on anymore, let's get some of that story.
Penny's Journey from Addiction to Faith
00:01:06
Speaker
So, Penny, the best place to begin chronologically is with you. Why don't you tell us a bit about how you came to faith in Christ, but then what happened when you met John and how John came to faith in Christ? Penny, let's start with you and go from there.
00:01:20
Speaker
Okay, so where do I start? I came to, well, I met with Jesus about 17 years ago. I'd got into drugs and alcohol, and I just was sick and tired of my life. It was like a vicious circle, going back to drugs, going back to alcohol. I just didn't, it was at my wit's end, so I didn't know what to do. And I started going to church,
00:01:46
Speaker
Oh no, first of all, this little piece of paper came through my door telling me how much Jesus loved me, wanted to take care of me. And so I prayed and I said, Lord, if you're real, please come and help me. Forgive my sin and help me. Anyway, I started going to church and strategically placed in my envelope for the harvest festival or whatever it was, was a freedom from addiction teen challenge leaflet.
00:02:14
Speaker
So I thought, right, I don't care where it is or what it is I'm going. I sort of had a feeling it might be Christian. I didn't know nothing about Christianity, though, so I didn't really know.
00:02:27
Speaker
Well, I'd never read the Bible, and as far as I knew, religion just caused wars, so I'd stay well away from it. So I thought to myself, right, I don't care where this is or what it is, I'm going there. So I went to this rehabilitation center, and when I got there, it wasn't about the drugs and alcohol, it was about the sin in my life. And they discipled me all about the things of Jesus. I read the Bible every day.
00:02:55
Speaker
It was just an amazing program. So I got my relationship with the Lord and then I was there four years because it's like a rollover program where you end up as staff and you help other people. So I stayed there four years. And then when I came out, I lived with my friend Pat and then I got a job at the bus garage.
00:03:16
Speaker
and i started about a month or two before john was it yeah you started in december 2013 and i started february 2015 so i was there for a couple of weeks but i was still doing the root learning
Sharing Faith Through Tracts
00:03:32
Speaker
So I used to go into work and I'd take my tracks with me and I'd leave them on the bus and anyone who I got talking to, I'd tell them about Jesus. So when I got to the other end of the bus route, I'd go out, pick all my tracks up that had been thrown on the floor or fell on the floor, put them all back on the seats of the bus so that people saw them. And that went on for ages. I met John one morning, but he's
00:04:00
Speaker
He's probably better at telling that story. So why did you take over? So when you met Penny, the amazing track-bearing bus driver. Yeah, I mean, Penny went a little bit further into the story of when she was a driver.
00:04:17
Speaker
We met one really early morning, it's about three in the morning outside the bus carriage in 2014, February 2014. And I remember seeing Penn walk round the corner and just see this ray of light coming towards me. I had this, I'll be honest, I was physically attracted to Penn from the day I first saw her.
00:04:39
Speaker
Yeah, I just felt there was something special about her, even from that first moment. So we went out and we was route learning. And straight away, when we was route learning together, about three drivers, one would obviously be driving, then two of the others would be sitting down. So when I was sitting with Penny,
00:04:56
Speaker
the first thing she would start talking about was jesus and jesus christ and how he saved my life and i was like oh this one's a bit big she's crazy really you know because she was talking about jesus and i sort of knew about jesus but i didn't know about his
00:05:13
Speaker
his salvation on my sin in my life. So, you know, cut a long story short, we sort of became friendly because I liked Penny's personality. So, as time went on, we started driving in service and stuff like that.
00:05:29
Speaker
we were still friends we used to go out together and i sort of obviously had romantic tendencies towards penny but she didn't for me so i still like to as a friend so we still went out as friends for about six years and i just interject why that's because this is a great i love the double act we got going here so you yeah
00:05:48
Speaker
One of the reasons I wasn't interested, because one of the first things that come out of his mouth was, oh, I'd never get married again. And I'd made a vow to the Lord that I'd never marry a man that didn't love Jesus. And I thought, well, well, he's very good. So that's why I weren't that interested in him. But we was good friends. So we used to go out occasionally and stuff like that.
00:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, but then Pen, I used to talk about problems in my life, and she was always saying, you need to read the Bible. Everything in the Bible is the answer to any problem in life, you know? And I used to, there was one time I rolled my eyes out in the campaign because she used to go on a bit, and she rebuked me and told me off.
00:06:34
Speaker
I said, don't you roll your eyes at me. I said, you need to read the Bible. It tells you all the things that you need to learn about living your life a better way and how to deal with your problems in your life. He didn't cut an eye into it. Then the Holy Spirit started softening my heart a little and then I sort of started saying, no, no, I could read the Bible, but
John's Spiritual Awakening
00:06:58
Speaker
I don't like small print because she gave me a small print Bible and I was making excuses and I can't see it and stuff so about two weeks later she came into work with this big large print Bible so I'll take that one. No excuses coming from me. She was relentless, I mean the Lord just used her.
00:07:19
Speaker
So then I started reading that but because I weren't born again I couldn't understand it and I was always reading it at night in bed and I would just feel sleepy so I was never reading it properly but I was still reading and then as time went on I started to watch this Christian channel on TV and
00:07:43
Speaker
On a Sunday, even though I wasn't going to church at the time, and they started talking about the Lord and talking about forgiveness and repentance and humbling yourself before the Lord. And there was this one particular Sunday, I was watching it.
00:07:56
Speaker
and he said humble yourself and he said come to Lord just humble yourself and put yourself right on the ground and just give your life to the Lord you know and I started thinking yeah I need to do that I need to break my prideful heart you know and um humble yourself and you will be saved it's yeah yeah that's right but then
00:08:18
Speaker
I thought, right, I'm going to start reading the Bible. I need to start reading the Bible properly and diligently. But at the time I was in the middle of reading this book that I got off the shelf at work, which is an old fiction book called The Fog, which actually Penny's got it behind us. I've written it. I've got it here and I've written on it. Well, I think I never prepared for this. Yeah, this is in my study. Well, no, this is in his study on over there and it says on it, never forget how you were saved. Anyway, so.
00:08:45
Speaker
There was a book marker in the book that I'd put there. I'd read it for about two weeks and I opened the book up onto the next page and right at the top of the page it said to me, Neil, before me and humble yourself and you will be saved. And I was like, wow. It was like.
00:09:01
Speaker
I just felt something come over me. It was like the Lord spoke to me that moment. And then from that moment on, I just wanted to tell Benny because I just felt his presence in the room with me. I know it sounds a bit sort of unbelievable, but I did. It felt like the Holy Spirit was with me. So I photographed the verse.
00:09:21
Speaker
not the verse, the line, because it's not the verse, it's not the Bible. And I photographed it and sent it to Penny. And that was in July the 4th, 2019, because I had the photograph. So that's when I believe I was born again. So yeah, so then I started, I just read the
00:09:42
Speaker
that last bit of the book and then I started reading my Bible and I told because I felt I was born again and started taking an interest and the Bible started making sense to me, me and Penny sort of obviously started talking more about the Bible and I had more of an interest instead of sort of listening but not listening, I was sort of actively listening more. And then you started going towards
00:10:05
Speaker
then I started going to a church that Penne used to go to. She wasn't a member then, I started going there because I didn't want to sort of go to the church that she was at. And yeah, so that's how my Christian work went on. Then we became sort of close. And then sort of in December, we sort of, yeah, we sort of become a little bit more involved with each other. And then
00:10:29
Speaker
And I said to him, you're not just saying you are a Christian to get to me, are you? And he said, Penny, if I was going to do that, I'd have done it six years ago. Yeah, so. The story then, I know you told us this when we met at Felton. The story then continues because then you began, John, didn't you, doing the same kind of evangelism that Penny had been doing when you first met her. So just tell us that bit of the story. Yeah, that's right.
00:10:56
Speaker
Yeah, so now, because Penny, she got laid off from work because she was off so such a long time because they kept, they didn't do the operations right. So yeah, so now I've taken over the bat on her as it were, you know, so when I'm at work, I put tracks on the bus and evangelise. I struggled to talk about Jesus more than what Penn did, because she was very bold in stuff. But you know, people know I'm a Christian, but I don't sort of
00:11:23
Speaker
round came the Lord down people's phones like Pended. But one question I had off of your story though that interests me is straight away I'm fascinated because some people would think of tracks as being quite old school in some ways but I love your story because it shows they still work.
00:11:44
Speaker
right, God can still use some of those other ways of evangelism, right, can't they? So yeah, they're amazing. I totally love tracks because it was through one coming through my door that got me saved. So I give them out all the time and we stand on this high street in Feltham every Saturday and give them out for an hour, don't we? Yeah, so we in our church, we sort of head up evangelism. So
00:12:14
Speaker
So Saturday mornings, we go out onto the high street and just, we get, there's normally about between two or three of us to sort of six or seven. And then we hand tracks out to people. And then every two months, we've got this, we call it the big one. So we try to get as many people from the church to come. And then we sing hymns on the high street and we give tracks out and we give refreshments out to people. And our pastor,
00:12:40
Speaker
He sometimes preaches a bit of the word, not too much, but yeah, he preaches the word and we read the Bible out on the high street. So yeah, it's a real blessing to be able to do that. And sometimes there's another guy just over to the right of us who's from another church. He's evangelizing as well. It's a real blessing.
00:13:00
Speaker
But we do get a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses as well, so we're trying to sort of... Well, I think it's just me too. Yeah, exactly on that, John, is that often when I've been out on the high streets, you know, I've seen the part of London where I grew up, you know, you'd see the Muslims would be out there, the Jehovah's Witnesses would be out there, and I've sometimes found myself thinking, it's a shame more Christians and more churches aren't.
00:13:20
Speaker
out there because it's a little bit scary but if all that we see is the alternatives and without the Christian voice so I love the fact that you folks at Feltham are actually getting out there and doing something maybe a little bit you know in some people's eyes old-fashioned but God is using it right?
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And we've got a cafe at the church as well. So we give out flyers for that as well. And Grace Tots, we have, people go to Grace Tots as well. So on a Friday, there's the Way Cafe, which we, you know, I sort of, if I see someone who's a bit older and I feel they could do, you know, I sort of say, come to our cafe on a Friday, you know.
00:13:59
Speaker
it's free tea and coffee and cakes but i always say to them no bacon bays just pastries you know we're not a full-time cafe a bit of sugar and carbohydrate and the gospel right so
00:14:12
Speaker
And what have you found the reaction on the streets? When you go out there and you do the tracks, you do the kind of singing and stuff. Do you get a whole range of different reactions from people? Yeah, definitely. Sometimes you get people just ignore you. Some people just say no thanks. Some people take the track and you see them bin it. Some people are really rude. Some people are really open.
00:14:39
Speaker
I mean I was talking to a medium the other day and I said she said oh no I have Jesus and I said yeah but it's very dangerous doing what you're doing being a medium and speaking to spirits if you if you've got
00:14:54
Speaker
that if you, I can't remember what I said to her now, I'll go and answer, sorry. But I've got all black. If you're using the name of the Lord. And she said, oh no, I speak to Jesus. And I said, but do you know He's God? And as soon as I said, do you know He's God, I said, I'll show you in the Bible. And she went, oh no, no, no, no, I don't want to know, I don't want to know now. So like,
00:15:17
Speaker
whoever's speaking to her it isn't Jesus and she sort of started freaking out when I told her that Jesus was God and that talking to spirits was wrong and being a medium isn't is wrong and so but you do have some really good conversations as well. Can I just add as well already when we're doing a big one and we're singing and we're singing the hymns and stuff because
00:15:41
Speaker
sometimes we'll have Christians come along and they join us you know so that's a real blessing as well and the Holy Spirit's filled the high street but we're praying. I really encouraged everyone at the church last time to try and come because it was good Friday actually so we was at church Friday so I could go round trying to rally a few people to come and we had 27 go out
00:16:05
Speaker
like that day so that was good. That's fantastic.
Evangelism and Motivation
00:16:09
Speaker
But that's the last question I'd love to put to you is actually that is what you talked about there John is that I know some people if you sort of if a pastor sort of at the front of a lot of churches and went right we're going to go and do some evangelism on the street nobody would come people are afraid how have you found is a great way to motivate and encourage people perhaps you've never tried it to go come on it's the big one come on out what are some of the ways that you encourage perhaps slightly more
00:16:32
Speaker
you know, timid, nervous Christians to come and give it a try. Yeah, I don't know really, I'll just say, come on, we're all together, you know, as long as we all stick together, we'll be safe. And I just sort of say, thinking of persecution, some of the people Christians went through back in the first century, like Paul and stuff like that, I feel, you know, this is nothing compared to stuff like that.
00:16:56
Speaker
I say stuff like that as well. And, you know, I mean, we're, we're, we're such a close church. We're such a good fellowship. So, you know, if you try to encourage them and I think they want to come with you because they want to support you as well, you know, if that's what makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I think the idea of going out as a group.
00:17:14
Speaker
is interesting too, isn't it? Because I think one thing I've noticed sometimes is sometimes, you know, we think of evangelism as being like a solo pursuit. But of course, if there's 20 odd of you going out on the street, when I first did street evangelism years ago, I remember going out with a group, and it was great because you had a lot of people there. If you didn't know what to say, you could just come and stand by the side and learn. And you always go, right, if you get a question or a response you don't know how to deal with, there's someone over in Wiser, you can say, hey,
00:17:44
Speaker
Yeah, because we've got we've got brother Andrew. He's so wise. He's been a Christian. He's 76 now and he's still coming out. He's still coming out of the high street. And I don't think he'd give up on what laboring for the Lord until his final day, you know, because he loves the Lord and he's such an influence for us as well. And our pastor, you know, our pastors wise as well. So he's a great pastor and he's an encouragement.
00:18:11
Speaker
Yeah, there are a lot of us that like going out. It's just a case of whether they can or not, whether they're working or whether their kids have got stuff going on and stuff. A lot of people do like coming out in our church. It's actually called an evangelical church for, I suppose, that reason as well. Yeah, yeah.
00:18:29
Speaker
It's been absolutely inspiring kind of hearing your story and i love the enthusiasm and what i hope is that people some people listening to this, this may have encouraged people to give street evangelism a go because i the other piece we haven't really had time to talk much about penny i also love with your story how it began with that little leaflet that little note that someone put through your door.
00:18:50
Speaker
So again, to encourage people, if you get a sense of the Holy Spirit is saying you should drop something through a neighbor's door or something, maybe listen to it because you never know how the Lord's going to use that. Right. You know, that's a little piece of paper.
00:19:03
Speaker
Can I just give you another little story for me today Andy? Well I was coming back because I always go to the coffee shop on my break because this is quite grim in the in the tea room so at work so and I always leave tracks in the coffee shop and I leave and stuff so but as I was walking back I had my tracks in my pocket and I went to pull something out of my pocket but all my tracks fell out on the floor and this guy was walking just behind me with his wife and child
00:19:33
Speaker
And I was picking up most of them, but then he picked up one of them that had gone just to one side. And he said, oh, here you go, sir. I said, no, you keep it. I said, have you heard of the Lord Jesus Christ? And he went, oh, yeah, yeah. I said, OK, read that track and just think about that. So I pray maybe that was by God's providence that they fell out of my pocket that time. But I couldn't speak to him because literally I had about two minutes before I had to go out of my bus because I was rushing to get back to the garage.
00:20:01
Speaker
But yeah, I just I love little situations like that where where you can get track. And I always say it. I mean, I've got bolder. The more I've more, more deeper I've become, I believe, you know, I don't know what the word is. The more bolder, the more bolder I am, you know, because one day on the high street, I could see these guys in the pub because he's right by the pub and they're all looking out laughing at me and pointing at me. And I find it a compliment to be laughed at.
00:20:30
Speaker
Yeah. And also the other thing I found when I used to street evangelism in London is the more you do, it's also like a lot of things, right? You pray about it, you trust the Lord, but the more you do it, the easier it gets, right? Once you've been laughed at three or four times, you get used to it. And as you say, when you see God work and people respond positively, then it gives you this huge encouragement. So I think it's fantastic. Well, it's been an absolute joy to have you
00:20:56
Speaker
on the podcast and just keep doing what you're doing. I love the thought of that bunch of you out there from the church out there on the streets, just bringing the gospel into the public square. So John and Penny, thanks for taking the time to be with us on pep talk today. Thank you for having us. Thanks for having us. Well, thank you for listening to another episode of pep talk. I'll be back in a couple of weeks time with another guest. Thanks for joining us and bye for now.