Battle Log
Sunday 9 April 2023
Posted 9 April 2023, 1:49 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! :) Happy Easter, the time when we can start a gospel chat by asking, “why do you think we call good Friday ‘good’, when we remember a man dying on a cross?”
This week, the outreach schedule was very different. With the shops closed on Friday & Sunday (today), we didn’t do street work on those days. Instead I worked online.
But on Saturday (and then again tomorrow, Monday) we ran a special Easter outreach that we call the Hot Cross Bun and Gospel Tract Outreach. Also, on Tuesday, Roger and I ran our usual afternoon outreach to Riccarton.
So, the focus of the Easter outreaches is giving tracts, along with a gift of a hot cross bun or easter mini egg. People are always blessed to receive the gift!
During the outreach on Saturday we gave away 500 buttered hot cross bun halves. We had 3 buttering stations down Cashel Mall, and trays were loaded up and taken by Christians to offer to those going past. Also, flipcharts were up and many gospel conversations were had. I’ll let the pictures do the talking! From my perspective it went really well.
I didn’t have many gospel chats myself, as I spent my time, during the 2 hour outreach, going from station to station to make sure everything was going well.
Down one end, we had the JW’s across the road, and then the Hare Kristina's turned up and set up on the other side of us. It wasn’t a problem, we just kept to our own tasks.
I offered hot cross buns to the JW’s. And at the end of the outreach, one of the Hare Krishna's came over to chat with me. I’ve actually talked to him a few times before, I had some in depth chats with him years ago. But today he approached me and told me he was a bad Catholic! I found that odd, but we fell into conversation, and it turns out that, as a child, he never got satisfactory answers to questions from the Catholic church. So, I did my best to address those questions and was able to share the law and the gospel with him (again) in the process. I hope to be able to see him, and some of the other Hare Krishna's that I’m getting to know, again to be able to continue the conversation.
I love the photo I took at Riccarton on Tuesday, the autumn colours in the trees are lovely - with Roger in conversation below their canopy.
He seemed to be having a good conversation with the ladies in that photo, but then a group of high school kids came and started interrupting it. I took the initiative, and went to engage the school kids. Eventually I was able to get them to come across the street to my flip chart. They were rowdy! I couldn’t engage them as a group, and so I tried to focus on individuals. The girl of the group seemed to be the most resistant - asking me hard questions initially. But to my surprise, she was the one that stayed to hear the gospel (all of her friends left her and went to the mall). It ended up being a good conversation with her. It turns out she has Muslim influences in her life, and she wanted to go and get her brother to talk to me. Sadly, I would have left the area by the time she got back, but I told her to get her brother to contact me.
Well, 1 more special outreach tomorrow: 11 am in Cashel Mall, central Christchurch - giving away the gospel + hot cross buns. The weather forecast is not looking the best - but God will get us through! Please come and get involved! And please pray that it will go well: that God will be glorified!
View previous Christchurch (NZ) report (2 April 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 12:30pm - 2:30pm - Riccarton (corner of Riccarton Rd and Rotherham St)
Sun 1:30pm - 3:30pm - City (corner of Colombo St and Cashel St) - only 2nd, 4th and 5th Sundays of the month.
Contact Glen Richards or Andy Barlow for more information.