Battle Log

Sunday 23 August 2026

Posted by Posted 26 August 2026, 11:54 AM by Glen Richards. Permalink

A slightly delayed report.  Better late than never!  We were on the streets on Thursday (20th) in Riccarton (Andy & I) and Friday (21st) in the city (Roger, Andy, & I).

 

I turned up early on Thursday, and I knew Andy would be there because I walked past his car on the way to the outreach spot.  And yet, he wasn’t on the corner of Riccarton and Rotherham.  I figured he would be on ‘the loop’, so I decided to go find him.  I completed the loop: no Andy.  Yet, there was a huge stream of high school students heading towards Riccarton Road, coming down Rimu Street.  So, I perched myself on that corner and started handing out gospel tracts.  My stack depleted quickly!

 

I got to have some short but wonderful interactions.  One was a follow-up with a young man who thought the “good person test” was associated with Scientology.  In this interaction, he came to learn that I wasn’t a Scientologist, and he warmed slightly to me.  I hope to see him again and be able to share the gospel with him.  But he wasn’t ready yet.  After he left, his friend apologised for him - it turns out his friend is connected to a large local church, but sadly, he wasn’t able to articulate the gospel to me.  I hope to get more opportunities to talk to him too.

 

Later, on a subsequent run of ‘the loop’, I noticed some ripped-up tracts at the bus stops.  So, as part of my practice, I clean up and place them in the bin (pictured).  Sadly, they are rejecting gold and can’t see it.

 

Back at the corner of Rotherham and Riccarton, the standout chat for me was with a guy from China, who defaulted to atheism with a mix of reincarnation.  He was very open to logic and the gospel.  After a short chat, he readily accepted a copy of the Gospel of John.  Very encouraging.

 

By this stage, Andy had appeared.  It turns out that he had gotten into a good chat with a Muslim from Saudi Arabia who had just moved to NZ; they retired to a coffee shop to continue the conversation there!

 

And speaking of Islam, on Friday, Andy had a chat with another Muslim for at least an hour and a half (pictured).  Andy said he deployed the Islamic Dilemma in that chat.

 

Roger also had an outstanding chat (pictured).  That picture has a rubbish bin theme too.  It makes me think: we are rubbish (I don’t mean that negatively) sharing gold!  2 Co 4:7 (esv): But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

 

Thank you for continuing to pray that God’s strength be shown through our weakness!  All glory to Him alone.

 

View previous Christchurch (NZ) report (16 August 2026)

Christchurch

Christchurch (NZ) Team

Weekly outreaches:
Tue 3:00pm - 5:00pm - Riccarton (corner of Riccarton Rd and Rotherham St; Led by Roger)
Thu 3:00pm - 5:00pm - Riccarton (corner of Riccarton Rd and Rotherham St)
Fri 1:30pm - 3:30pm - City (Bridge of Remembrance)
Sat 11:30am - 1:30pm - 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.