Battle Log
Sunday 1 June 2025
Posted 1 June 2025, 3:10 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink
The month of May is gone. A wonderful month of gospel ministry, both on the streets and online. As per the pictures, autumn is passing into winter here in Christchurch, New Zealand. God has also blessed us opportunities for evangelism training, both online and on the streets.
We have also restocked our supply of tracts - a new pallet load arrived the other day. You can get these tracts for free (just pay shipping) from here.
One of the pictures was a screenshot of an online gospel conversation with someone who seemed to have the penny drop - it was so good to read.
But the wacky quote of the month was from someone passing me on the street. I offered him a tract and he said, “what is it?”. I replied, “It’s about Jesus”. He continued to walk, but then he turned and said, “it’s okay, I already know about Donald Trump”. People turn to various messiah figures, but there is only one Messiah! Not Donald Trump, nor Barack Obama. Only Jesus.
So, in regards to the training. It’s been great to have Sam joining us regularly. He has moved back to NZ from the USA. He has been shadowing us and learning from us, with a passion to bring Christ to his community.
Also, some friends of friends in my church wanted to check out the street outreach gig and joined me a couple of weekends ago in Riccarton. I sometimes get a bit nervous when people come to investigate like this – what if the outreach is uneventful? But it’s a sin to worry, and there was no need, because the outreach was very eventful! I had the flipchart, and got into a good chat with 3 teenage lads. As that was happening, an older gentleman passed and interjected his thoughts into the conversation. I must have talked to him before, because (good naturedly, yet seriously) he warned the young lads not to listen to me. Then, 3 young early 20 ladies queued up to talk to us. They had an intellectual worldview that was in rebellion to the logic of Christ, so we had a long chat as I laboured with them towards the gospel. Just as I was getting there, someone in a car behind me asked what was happening. It broke the moment, and one of the girls wanted to split. I offered a tract to the lady in the car - she didn’t want it, but the guy driving said he wanted one - which I gave. I was then able to offer tracts to the 2 other girls, who accepted. Finally, a lady, named Sue, stopped to passively aggressively share her thoughts with us. At one point she was judging us for judging. She wasn’t open to any kind of dialogue, and I was relieved when she moved on.
I had some amazing face to face chats online this month. A 30 minute chat with a young man from the Bahamas. He had a Christian background, but he was thinking he got to heaven because of Jesus AND his goodness. He was really grateful to gain clarity on the truth of Jesus alone for salvation.
But the most special was a 1 hour chat with a guy from the Netherlands who was in the navy. A very intense conversation. A soldier who had seen and done many terrible things. Not able to process and so turned to alcohol. He is actually going to rehab for the 3rd time the next day. A wonderful conversation, where I was able to labour on evil and suffering, law, gospel. At times he would weep as he started to process things. In one moment he would say he knows he deserves hell, but yet he still held to his righteousness. He eventually skipped me. I pray for him!
Please continue to pray for this feeble ministry for God’s glory.
View previous Christchurch (NZ) report (4 May 2025)
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.