“I THOUGHT it was a circus - where are the circus people?" the little girl asked me. She'd seen our bright marquee and was expecting acrobats and clowns. All she'd found inside was our evangelism team and visitors - eating lunch!

We may not have been the circus but each of the five days of our 'Loved' Gospel Roadshow campaign in Liverpool was full of life and colour. Several visitors found faith in Jesus for the first time and dozens asked for prayer and felt that they had experienced something real from God.

There were also two encounters that only God could have arranged. A local man called Ilan came over to the marquee. We were amazed to find out we'd been part of the same church in Ewell, down south, 33 years before!

Ilan explained. "I was seventeen and had just become a Christian after meeting Gerald Coates in Kingston-upon-Thames. When I told him I was a Jew, he replied 'So was Jesus!' and gave me a New Testament. Through reading it I realised Jesus was the Messiah and became a Christian. Meeting Selina could only be God! It gave my faith just the boost it needed."

Ilan visited each day and after reading Fire in our Hearts - the story of the Jesus Fellowship - he decided he'd found the church he'd been looking for.

Another divinely-organised re-union happened between a visitor called Katy and Violet, one of the team.

"When Katy walked into the marquee we recognised each other straight away, after a gap of twenty years!" says Violet. "The last time I saw Katy we were children in the school playground and Katy had just beaten the living daylights out of me! As soon as she realised who I was, she came over, gave me a big hug and said 'I've just prayed a prayer to become a Christian - can we be friends and sisters now?'"

Liverpool has been designated European City of Culture for 2008 and in 2007 will celebrate the 800th anniversary of its first charter, awarded by King John.

But no amount of cosmetic preparations can disguise the great difficulties many people in Liverpool experience. During the campaign we prayed for the power of the Holy Spirit to meet the needs of many who were lonely, having a hard time finding meaningful work, struggling with the effects of mental illness or desperate to be free of addictions.

"This time we live in," said Dave Brown, who leads the Liverpool community house, "is a time of fragmentation and loneliness for many. The only solution to man's personal heartache and society's evils is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"It's been good to have these five days to bring that gospel to people, but when the marquee has gone, we'll still be offering the same gospel to anyone who will receive it - in our community house in Allerton Road, Liverpool."