Happy Easter! It’s been a busy week, with 2 special outreaches over the Easter weekend.
I took last week off (hence no report), but partly in preparation for this big week of outreach.
The Sunday afternoon before Easter I was able to have the opportunity to deliver a 1 hour lecture on ‘the bones of a gospel conversation’ to those in my church in preparation for the Easter outreaches. Much thanks to the elders of my church for giving me this opportunity. If you’d like to see my lecture notes, you can find them here.
So, Roger and I had our standard outreach to Riccarton on Tuesday afternoon. So much has been going on, I can’t remember any of my chats from that outreach!
We didn’t do any street outreach on Friday, because it’s a public holiday, and all the shops are closed, there are not many people out. I worked online in the afternoon, after a Good Friday gathering with my church family in the morning.
Saturday was the Oxford A&P Show outreach. I have to admit it’s a bit of a blur for me. I left home at 7am to be there by 8am, and set up by 8:30am. My daughter Dani was with me with a solid team from my church (the Brown’s, the Linton’s and Jordan) plus Mike & Rebecca Ryan. It was so great catching up with Sam Linton and Jordan the next day and to hear of how encouraged they were from the outreach. Thanks for your support team!
We had a bit of drizzle (rain) during the day, which was a bit annoying, but we all were still very busy in gospel conversations. We finished up at 4pm. Great outreach, glory to God.
On Sunday, I spent a couple of hours in the city in the afternoon. There was a Christian dance conference on during the weekend, and they were going to be doing some street dancing. I was asked to share the gospel with those that passed by. The dancing caused a lot of people to stop, which was great! I handed out a LOT more tracts than I normally do, with a cheery “Happy Easter”.
I also got into a conversation with 3 young people who recognised me. They said one of their friends loves our tracts and follows the content online - which is very encouraging. But sadly, these young people weren’t really interested in the gospel. While I was talking to them, I got pooped on by a bird! I think that’s a first! (I’ve had a few near misses). Luckily it only hit my hat, which I sweeped off. I didn’t let that kill the conversation, we moved and continued chatting.
On Monday, we ran our yearly Hot Cross Bun & Gospel Tract outreach in Cashel Mall. We had 3 tables set up and gave away 1,200 hot cross bun halves (minus about 50 eaten by the Christians in the team!) over the 2 hours of the outreach. It was a lot of fun. A bit slower than previous years, maybe because the weather was cloudy? But that was okay, I had opportunities to get into conversations, and give away hot cross buns and tracts myself - which was great.
So, no details of my actual conversations for this report. But needless to say I had many interesting conversations. God knows the fruit it will bear. Thank you for your prayer and support. Glory to God in the highest alone!
View previous Christchurch (NZ) report (17 March 2024)
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.