Battle Log
Sunday 7 July 2024
Posted 7 July 2024, 4:09 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink
3 street outreaches this week. Roger couldn’t make the Tuesday one, and the weather was poor, so I worked online instead that day. But the team was out for the usual outreaches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
I’m going to work backwards in my report (starting with Sunday).
But before I do, for those that read these reports (anyone? ;) ), and living in NZ, I want to let you know of some evangelism training opportunities coming up. Within the next 12 months, we will be running our standard evangelism training sessions in: Wellington (Sept), Christchurch (Oct), Whangarei (Nov), and in Dunedin (Feb 2025). There will be a couple of theory sessions in the morning, and then a street outreach in the afternoon. Plus, in Wellington, Whangarei, and Dunedin, we will also be doing a week of street outreach (we do that every week in Christchurch). So, if you’d be interested in being involved, check out the details here.
Okay, so, today (Sunday) I was in the city for a couple of hours. It ended up being a busy outreach. My first hour was focused on 2 conversations.
The first was with a man who had tattoos all over his face. Like, across his nose, from ear to ear it was totally inked in. He looked really rough. But, I don’t want to discriminate, and so I smiled and offered him a tract. He took it and we fell into an easy conversation. When he realised who I was and what I was doing, he wanted to put his best foot forward. He told me how long he had been drug free, and that he was trying to clean up his life. Going from there, I was able to share the law and the gospel. Cleaning up your life won’t remove the punishment for the wrong you’ve already done. I had started on the check questions when some of his friends came past. He decided to join them.
But, later in the outreach, he came past again. I was able to give him the next check questions, and he got it right! But it went downhill from there. He was still nice, but he dropped the mask. He started using bad language freely, and his bitterness and frustration about life circumstances came out. I realised I wasn’t going to make more progress with him today, but a seed had been sown. He accepted the gospel of John from me.
The other chat from the first hour was with a regular. I’ve been talking to this guy from time to time on the streets for years. Whenever we see each other, we wave. Today he decided to chat. And without me starting it, the conversation moved to spiritual things. We ended up talking about why there is evil and suffering even though God is in control. He also was cheating in some online mobile game he was playing, he felt convicted by this, and so I used this as an opportunity to remind him of the law (Matthew 5:48: you must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect), and the gospel (through Jesus sacrifice, we can be made perfect).
For the second hour, I was feeling tired. I decided to go for ‘walk ups’. But ended up back where I was. I focused on handing out tracts (I love it when people you don’t expect take one - you just don’t know where people are at), and ended up getting a few good opportunities to share the gospel. The final opportunity was with 4 young teen guys. 2 ‘Christians’, 1 Muslim, and a guy with no religious background. Great chat.
Saturday’s outreach in Riccarton was a bit slow, but I ended up having an awesome chat in the end. It was with a young man (high school age). It was a fairly textbook chat, I used the flip chart and hit every page. This kid already had a Bible. Some people had given him one outside his school. I assume it was Gideon's, and I was so encouraged by that. I pointed him to the gospel of John.
Friday’s outreach was busy. Roger, Andy and myself. The highlight chat was with 2 young guys. I had been doing a bit of a wander, and I encountered them at the intersection of Hereford and Oxford. We were crossing the road in opposite directions. But instead of crossing, I waited for them to cross to me, and then I engaged them. They were willing to talk, and soon became invested, so I was able to slow down a bit to labour with them. One of them in particular seemed impacted - it was great to see. I ended up giving them both a copy of the gospel of John, as they said they would read it.
Andy and I finished the outreach pairing up. We managed to get into a chat with 3 young people. They guy bolted, but the 2 ladies were keen to chat. Sadly, the main talking became subtly resistant, and constantly pulled the conversation in a direction that would deliberately make things ‘muddy’. I wanted to try to leave her to Andy, so I could engage the other lady. It almost worked, but soon after, the conversation ended. But not before we were able to give gospel tracts. God willing we’ll have more opportunities to talk to them.
Thanks for your prayer and support, all glory to God alone!
View previous Christchurch (NZ) report (30 June 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.