Skelton Agricultural Show – July 2013

This show is advertised as the “largest village show in Cumbria“ with the expectation that 10,000 plus people will attend. The day for the show was one of the hottest and sunniest of the year. The local paper afterwards carried the headlines ”Record crowd basks in sun at Skelton show“. As the Gospel van had a pitch in the centre of one of the main thoroughfares it ensured that there was a constant stream of people passing the van and a number paused to inspect the tracts, booklets and bibles on display. Early visitors to the van were two ladies on holiday from Norway. They made themselves known as believers and expressed pleasure at seeing the CGO witness. They did however say with some sorrow that similar witnessing in Norway was declining. During the course of the day a number of other Christians made themselves known and some were able to take literature to help them in their particular circumstances, mostly because they had a concern for someone they knew who as yet was not a believer. One lady came searching for literature that would be of help for her brother. He had recently suffered the loss of his wife and was having difficulty coming to terms with her passing. He was not a Christian. This lady was able to take helpful literature dealing with bereavement and tracts with “Hope for the Future“.

A Roman Catholic gentleman from Keswick spent some time in conversation but sadly he appeared to be placing his faith in the “the church“ rather than the Saviour . He went away promising to read the booklets “Journey into life“ and “Ten Reasons to Believe“.

The guessing box remained popular with children although their ability to relate identified objects to the Bible varied greatly. One boy aged 10 was unable to say how Jesus died and was convinced that Whinnie The Pooh was in the bible.

David Johnston