LCM missionary Olly Sherwood shares how God was at work on his day off in the middle of a rain-soaked cemetery and at a music concert that same evening.

6:00 AM – I wake up early, as I normally do. The house is quiet, so I take advantage of the peaceful time to read the Bible and pray.

7:00 AM – With quiet time over, I go and wake my daughter. We pray and read the Bible together, then go through our morning routine to get ready for school: breakfast, school clothes, brushing teeth, and a quick goodbye to my wife before heading out the door.

8:30 AM – We leave the house, and I drop her off at school at 9:00 AM. My friend Marcus has come down from Coventry, and we’re planning to go to a concert later. Since he’s here, we’ve booked a Christian Heritage London tour. Christian Heritage London offers guided walks through the city, sharing stories of Christians who shaped London and beyond. I’m looking forward to it, even though the weather looks grim.

10:00 AM – We meet our friend Rhys at St Paul’s Cathedral, where the tour begins. When Ben Virgo, our guide, arrives, we jump straight in. We spend two hours walking through the drizzle, but the stories make every soggy step worthwhile.

12:00 PM – The tour ends at St Mary Woolnoth, where John Newton once served as pastor. From slave trader to follower of Jesus, he became the man who wrote Amazing Grace. Standing there in the quiet church, we begin to sing the hymn together—just four blokes in a small, historic church singing words that have travelled around the world. After the tour, we talk about walking over to Bunhill Fields Cemetery. Many faithful Christians are buried there, and since it’s close by, we decide on the spur of the moment to go.

12:35 PM – We arrive at the cemetery. By now, the rain is falling even harder. We head straight to John Bunyan’s grave, with its carved stone figure lying across the top. While Marcus and Rhys chat, I look around and notice a man sitting alone on a bench, hood up and one headphone in. Something about the way he’s sitting there by himself seems off, so I walk over.

12:38 PM – “Alright, mate? What are you doing sitting out here in the rain?” I ask. He tells me he’s just on his lunch break. I ask if he knows who’s buried in front of him, but he doesn’t, so I tell him about Bunyan and how he spent 13 years in prison for preaching the gospel. From there, I take the opportunity to explain the gospel itself as simply as I can.

“I believe everything you’re saying,” he replies.

Then he admits that he heard us talking earlier and took out his other headphone so he could listen more closely.

12:48 PM – He says he’s from Croydon. I call Rhys over, since he attends West Croydon Baptist Church. It turns out the man had recently visited that church, so we swap numbers. I tell him I can pray with him if he’d like, but remind him that a prayer doesn’t save anyone—Jesus does. He says he’d like to pray, so I pray a short prayer of repentance and trust in Christ, and he repeats it. In that moment, in the middle of a rainy London cemetery we hadn’t even planned to visit, the man becomes my brother in Christ.

1:00 PM – We say goodbye, and he heads back to work. We stay a little longer, looking around the cemetery. I message Ben to tell him what happened, and he is amazed and encouraged.

10:00 PM – After the concert, Marcus heads back to Coventry. What began as a normal day off ends with someone coming to faith in a cemetery and new connections made at a concert. It’s the kind of day that reminds me why I love what I do.