Frank, Australia

On busy George Street in Sydney, Australia, Frank Jenner approached more than 100,000 people over the years, with this straightforward question: “If you were to die tonight, where would you be, in Heaven or Hell?”

The far-reaching results of this act of faithfulness, and this simple question, would perhaps never have been known as widely as they are now, if it wasn’t for a preacher in England named Francis Dixon. During his ministry, he encountered two men in one night who had identical testimonies of meeting a man on George Street who asked them this same question. That question, riddled with truth, caused conviction and later salvation and such transformation in these men that they dedicated their lives to ministry and evangelism, reaching thousands more for Jesus Christ.

Dixon decided to start sharing this story at other meetings as he traveled throughout the world, only to find even more people who had the same testimony that stemmed back to that question, asked by that same tall, nicely dressed, sincere, humble, and warm man on George Street. 

Dixon, when in Australia for speaking engagements, searched for and found Jenner to share what he had learned of the outcome of his faithful witness. Jenner was 50 years old at the time, and upon hearing this news, he burst into tears. While he had known of some who had made professions, he never knew if they truly received salvation, or what became of them. 

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We learn more about Jenner’s life and the people changed forever by his faithful witness in the book Jenner of George Street: Sydney's Soul-Winning Sailor by Raymond Wilson.

Born in 1903 in England, Jenner was a charismatic and defiant child, irreverent toward authority and dismissive of strict social conventions – causing his parents to send him aboard a training ship for troubled youth when he was 12 years old. At 14 years old, while docked at a west African port, he contracted sleeping sickness. While he miraculously survived, he struggled with narcolepsy the rest of his life.

Jenner loved the sea and craved adventure, and later joined the British Navy, jumped ship in New York City, then joined the American Navy, where he fell into a gambling addiction and earned the name “Bones” for the rabbit’s foot he kept in his pocket – he rubbed the bones for good luck. When he was saved however, it is said that gospel tracts took that space in his pocket instead!

He jumped ship one last time in Melbourne, Australia. There he met his wife and stayed. After he trusted in Jesus Christ in 1937, he pledged to serve Him faithfully. It soon became clear that he was gifted in personal evangelism, and he made it his goal to speak to 10 people each day – something he did for the next 28 years. 

In the book, Wilson shares that this never came easy for Jenner, though – and perhaps many of us can identify with that more than any other part of his story! Jenner was fearful every time, and was known to pull out a card he kept in his pocket, upon which was written: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Then, he would go up to the person, put his hand on their shoulder, look them in the eye, and ask them that same question: 

“If you were to die tonight, where would you be, in Heaven or Hell? 

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Jenner’s story is an example for all of us. We don’t have to be on a platform or behind a pulpit, nor do we even need anyone to know our names, to make an impact for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. We just need to be eternally-minded, full of God’s love for others, and faithfully declare the Gospel, wherever He places us.

Even when it’s a little scary. And even if you never see the results.  

Like Jenner, keep a tract in your pocket and keep your eyes open to whom the Lord sends your way. Who knows what He might do?