Battle Log
Friday 18 June 2021
Posted 19 June 2021, 7:11 AM by Glen Richards. Permalink
As I’ve been doing online evangelism with the team, there has always been at least one person dedicated to responding to direct messages on Instagram.
Well, on Thursday, I was introduced to helping with this task. It was a real eye opener. As I write this (Saturday morning) there are 107 unread messages, and 17 new message requests (that’s a lot).
I spent most of my Friday dealing with these messages. What we are doing is: sharing / clarifying the gospel, answering questions, pointing people to their bible and a local church.
So, why are so many people contacting us? Well, every day, we are sharing the gospel, one to one, with strangers on various online video chat platforms - so follow up messages come from that.
But not only that, we are live streaming some of those conversations on YouTube and Facebook. So people who find us there may message in.
And then there is TikTok where regular short videos, taken from some of the online chats, are posted. By the grace of God, this has really gained traction. And so a lot of messages come from people who have seen these videos.
How did this happen? Well it certainly wasn’t planned! It started with Christians with a passion for the great commission, deciding to do something. Getting out on the streets to talk to people about Christ. And then Covid happens, and lock down is suddenly a thing. Well, we can’t go to the streets, so let's go online. Through trial and error, we discover online chat platforms. But there is a lot of bad stuff there, so we (actually, Ryan) build tools to shield us. And it grows from there. All glory to God!
So, based on my first day of dealing with these messages, I have a fresh appreciation for the wonderful work that Pastors do, shepherding the flock. Many Christians are messaging in asking good questions. We clarify the gospel with them, try to answer their questions, and point them back to the bible and their local church (because we are not their pastors). But I’ve also dealt with questions from people who don’t believe God exists. It’s a real mix!
What a privilege and responsibility it is to represent Christ to all these people. We certainly don’t take it lightly.
Since starting to write this post, there are now 109 unread messages and 18 new message requests. I’m going to finish this report now, and get to work responding. Please continue to pray for us!
View previous Online Evangelism report (9 June 2021)
Online Evangelism
Here are the tentative weekly outreach times for online evangelism:
Sunday 1-3pm (Practical Training Outreach)
Monday 9am-5pm
Tuesday 1-5pm
Wednesday 1-5pm
Thursday 9am-5pm
Friday 1-4pm
Saturday 1-4pm
These times are all in AEST (GMT+10), so adjust them based on your own timezone.
How to take part
To watch any of our online outreaches, you can watch live on our YouTube channel or Facebook page.
Or to take part in any of these outreaches, email us for the virtual room meeting link.