Battle Log
Sunday 25 August 2024
Posted 25 August 2024, 3:34 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink
All this week’s street outreaches went ahead. The weather is getting warmer, which is great!
A team of 4 in Riccarton on Tuesday. Some mixed theological positions among us, and so we had some robust conversation over coffee afterwards, yet we all agree on the essentials. We had a great time in evangelism.
I had set up my flip chart and I was straight into a gospel conversation with 3 young people. My memory of that chat is getting a bit dim now, but I remember it to be a good one: they came to grasp the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation.
Roger had a good sit down chat with a lady (pictured). And I remember having a great opportunity at the end of the outreach, with a young Korean guy. He had a Christian background. I was able to bring some gospel precision into his thinking. He seemed blessed, which was encouraging!
On Friday, there was a team of 3. For me, I remember it being a difficult outreach. I had 2 chats where the people I was talking to insisted that they were good and had done nothing wrong.
But, one encouraging thing happened. In the morning I had been praying for a man I’ve talked to a lot on the streets. I was praying for his salvation. I haven’t seen him for a long time, maybe a year, or more? I began to wonder why I continued to pray for him. Well, in the afternoon, I saw him again! Although we have vastly different worldviews (Atheist vs Christian), we have a mutual respect and friendship. We were able to catch up briefly. Sadly, the reason he is back in town is because of family health issues: sickness and death. He teared up about it and had to move on, but he came back later and introduced me to some of his other family members. I’m now encouraged to keep praying for him! God’s timing is perfect. Lord, save him, and his family.
Saturday’s weather was really nice. I was in Riccarton. I set up my flip chart, and prayed, and then I was straight into my first chat. It was with a streetie (homeless). He claimed to be a Chrisitan, and even talked about the church he attended. Yet, he clearly didn’t understand the gospel. I had to gently slow him down a bit, and start engaging him on and bringing precision about the law and the gospel with him. Slowly, some light seemed to shine into his thinking - I could tell by his responses to my check questions. I knew I needed to labour more, but he decided to move on at that point. He had a gospel tract.
About a minute later, I looked down and noticed a bit of gospel tract on the ground in front of me. I was a bit confused and picked it up. There was some wind. Slowly I put 2 and 2 together. I went down Riccarton Road a little bit. Sure enough, I found little bits of gospel tract down the footpath. He had torn up the tract and thrown it away (pictured). His reaction to the light was to scurry for the darkness. He is currently rejecting the gospel. What can we learn? 1) Sometimes we don’t know what someone's response will be - yet that is out of our control. Focus on what you can do, and leave the rest with God. We share the gospel, God regenerates hearts. He may have rejected, but someone else may accept. 2) It’s not too late. He may be rejecting now, but soil has been ploughed, and seeds sown. While he has breath, there is still hope.
I had some other good opportunities during this outreach (although it was slow). The one that sticks in my mind the most was with 2 young teens. 1 was interested, the other was not. They came to hear the gospel, and I was able to run through a few checks before the one who was not interested managed to pull her friend away.
In contrast, Sunday’s outreach was very busy. Really nice weather and lots of people out and about. There were various groups out. There was an animal rights group and some JW’s.
When Thomas and I turned up, Andy was already in a chat (pictured). It went long. Andy said it was a really good one and reckons he’ll be in touch with the guy again.
I hadn’t even finished setting up my flip chart, when 3 young guys were there interacting. Apparently I had talked to 2 of them before - but I don’t remember them. They wanted me to share the gospel with their friend. But I wanted to recheck where they were at. All 3 of them were in different places. And I couldn’t get a flow rolling with any of them. It was a bit’s and pieces chat. My checks revealed that they weren’t 100% clear on the gospel. Yet, there is much interest in them. I was able to invite them to church, which is now running a foundations Bible study (for new believers, or those investigating).
I had lots of interest in the flip chart for the rest of the afternoon. One chat would roll into another. I had a particularly great chat with a young Catholic guy.
Later, Thomas was with the flip chart, while I was freestyling. 3 young teens went past. 1 believed in heaven, one didn’t believe in God at all. I was able to show him how we know God exists, which he conceded to. And so I addressed all 3 of them on how you can get to heaven. 1 of them surprised me by giving me a really good answer: “believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins”. I asked him what church he went to: he didn’t. So? Where did you learn that? His answer: TikTok! I was shocked. So, I moved into checks. He wasn’t 100% clear in his understanding of the gospel, and so I was able to labour with all 3 on this, with the time they gave me. They all accepted tracts and thanked me. I pointed them, not to TikTok, but to the Bible. Specifically, John’s gospel. That kid gratefully accepted a copy, and said he would read it.
Thank you for continuing to uphold this ministry in prayer!
We will be in Wellington in 2 weeks, for a week of outreach. We will be running some training on Saturday morning, 7th September. For more details, and to register, go here.
View previous Christchurch (NZ) report (18 August 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.