A dated introduction to the history of OACI

1892 An English Barrister, E P Field, preached to lunch-hour crowds in Martin Place, Sydney, Australia, and formed the NSW Prayer Band to support this ministry.

1913 The NSW Prayer Band was renamed the NSW Evangelistic Prayer Band.

1921 Former missionary W Bradley joined the NSW Evangelistic Prayer Band.

1922 W Bradley changed the name to 'Open Air Campaigners'. Gospel wagons were used to take the gospel message to people throughout NSW.

1939 OAC worked among the armed services during World War II.

1940 - 1950 The work extended to the states of Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and overseas, firstly to New Zealand. It was during this period that the typical sketchboard painting method became the 'trademark' of the work.

By 1970 OAC was well established in North America, Britain and Germany.

During the 1970s residential ministry extended to the Netherlands and Italy, with openings being made in many other countries.

The 1980s saw definitive expansion beyond the traditional protestant homelands and the following decade saw the establishment of branches in the former Communist Block and in Latin America and India.

The current state of OAC can be seen on this web site. Methodology has certainly developed, with evangelists continuing to use older methods and open air meetings as a basis, but also using films, computer aided presentations and even the internet to reach out across the globe.

An early history of the work was published years ago under the title 'The Truceless Warfare Advances', written by J. Duffecy.