Battle Log
Sunday 29 January 2023
Posted 29 January 2023, 2:16 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink
I’ve had a couple of weeks of holiday, which were great. But so good to be back to my regular beat. A normal week of street outreach. It was great to have John from down south join me in Riccarton on Tuesday afternoon. Joel, Roger and John (another John!) were with me in the city on Friday afternoon. I had a good solo outreach on Saturday lunch time in Riccarton, and then Andy, Mark and Susan were with me in the city on Sunday afternoon, after church gathering.
In Riccarton on Tuesday, John and I decided to split up early - on either side of Rotherham Street. I was quickly into chats, and when I glanced over my shoulder between chats, I could see John was busy too! The details of those chats are getting fuzzy in my mind now. I’ve only really got glimpses. I remember seeing a ‘regular’ I hadn’t seen for a long time. She remembered my name! She is an atheist, and didn’t feel like continuing the conversation at this stage. I pray that the law and the gospel continues to be active in her life bringing conviction and conversion - that she will come to a point where she is willing to chat again, either with me or another Christian.
Friday was hot! And the buskers were out in full force, so I moved down the mall a bit - setting up my flip chart. Roger set up on the other side. Joel joined me and John did ‘walk up’. I had an interesting engagement with a couple of exclusive brethren guys, but the highlight chat was one with a couple of couples from the UK. They walked up to the flipchart curious as to what it was about, and we fell into a really good gospel discussion. It was also a good opportunity for Joel to see how the flip chart worked. To end the outreach, Joel and I ditched the flip chart and switched to ‘walk up’. I managed to get a chat started, but the guy, although friendly enough, was very resistant, and didn’t really allow any opportunity for meaningful engagement.
Saturday I had a number of interesting conversations. One guy showed up wanting to do the flip chart, but it was a bit of a set up - he was just there to argue and became absurdly resistant to the existence of God. “You can’t know for sure that that chair didn’t appear from nowhere”. I politely shut him down quickly - I didn’t want to waste time with absurdity. Very interestingly, about 30 minutes later, one of my ‘regulars’ came past. He said, “hey you just talked to my flatmate”! We had a nice catch up chat, but he is also currently holding to his absurdity - for now, God, have mercy!
I was able to catch up with Sanjay (another of my ‘regulars’), I often see him on Saturday. He’s a lovely guy. Hindu. Each time I see him, I gently labour the law and the gospel. Sadly, I popped him a quick check question and he instantly went to his goodness for salvation, but I kept labouring. Praying for him; praying that I see him again next Saturday, or at least a Saturday soon and that he will start grasping the serious nature of sin and that the only logical solution is Jesus.
Talking of sin being serious. I had a guy stop and take a tract, and I was able to engage him in conversation. I could tell he had a bit of a Christian background, but he wasn’t being clear on how we are saved. So, as I probed, I took him through the law, and this dredged up some questions for him, like: why is hell so terrible, and why is it forever? Anyway, he eventually said, “I know what you are going to say, Jesus died on the cross, yada, yada, yada” as though it was something trivial and unimportant. I felt shocked and offended, and maybe I lacked some patience. I responded with, “how can you say it like that? Jesus dying on the cross to pay our sin is amazing!”. This was revealing a very low view of the serious nature of sin, and the incredible cost of the gift to save us. We continued talking, with me trying to alleviate this. Maybe I was being too forceful, or maybe I wasn’t, but eventually he said: “I’m feeling uncomfortable”. That pretty much killed the conversation, we parted with a handshake, and he mumbled something. I asked what he was going to say, and he responded with, “it wasn’t anything you said that made me uncomfortable”. We parted ways then. I really hope that his discomfort came out of conviction and not me being too abrupt! God help!
Sunday was a wonderful outreach. It started and finished with a lovely conversation with a couple of retired American missionaries! They are visiting New Zealand on holiday. In between these chats, the team was busy handing out tracts, getting into chats via ‘walk up’ and the flip chart. I had a pair of encouraging chats. One was with a young lady who had drifted from the faith. She even agreed that if she had died today she would have gone to hell out of unbelief, but she gave me a very warm smile as she left me with some questions answered, the gospel and a challenge to accept it today. The other was with a young man who had some nominal Christian input in his life, and was shocked that good deeds were not the way of salvation. I laboured with him till he grasped it, and challenged him to respond. He left with a gospel of John, a summary tract, and a card for my church. I had a number of other good opportunities for gospel engagement, but it’s time for this report to end!
Thank you so much for continuing to support his ministry. Please continue to regularly uphold it in prayer. God bless!
View previous Christchurch (NZ) report (8 January 2023)
Christchurch (NZ) Team
Weekly outreaches:
Tue 3:30pm - 5:30pm - Riccarton (corner of Riccarton Rd and Rotherham St)
Fri 1:30pm - 3:30pm - City (Bridge of Remembrance)
Sat 11am - 1pm - Riccarton (corner of Riccarton Rd and Rotherham St)
Sun 1:30pm - 3:30pm - City (corner of Colombo St and Cashel St).
Contact Glen Richards or Andy Barlow for more information.