Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Christchurch (NZ) Team

Andy, Roger and I were in the city on Friday afternoon this week.  Nice sunny day.

 

I headed down to the corner of Cashel and Colombo when a young guy went past in a way that suggested he was keen to talk.  I then recognised him as the guy who had been talking to Roger a couple of weeks earlier.

 

He stopped when I engaged him.  Very agnostic.  An intelligent and polite guy, but very keen to debate.

 

I made a few mistakes in this conversation.  I allowed myself to follow his setup hypotheticals in the hope that I could reason with him.  But he was actually completely closed to reason.  Instead, I should have stuck to the script (building/builder, law, gospel) - and disengaged if he wasn’t willing to be reasonable.  I did end up starting in this way, but after some debate, I weakened.  I think I ended up casting pearls before swine.

 

I hope to learn from this exchange for the future.

 

I did finally disengage, and he moved on.  Soon after, he came back wanting a gospel tract (to dissect, I’m sure), but I freely gave him one.

 

Having been the second time we have encountered him, I’m hoping to see him again, and maybe it will turn into more of a long-term chat.  If so, I’ll stick to the high ground and disengage if the tricks come.  May God humble his heart.

 

Soon after, I fell into a chat with a guy from Germany - an IT consultant.  I used to work in IT, and so we had some common ground for me to build some rapport with.  He also had a bit of a religious background, Catholic.  I was able to share the gospel with him.  There was part of him that seemed to understand what I was saying, and yet, there was a part of him that seemed blind to what I was talking about.  It wasn’t hitting home at all.  So, I decided not to push through all the checks, but to wind the conversation up.  He had received a tract at the start, and so he left with that for future consideration.

 

When I turned around after finishing that chat, there were 2 Police officers standing fairly close to me, watching.  Lately there has been a heavy Police presence in central Christchurch.  There are a lot of ‘streeties’ around, and I guess there has been trouble.

 

The Police in Christchurch are friendly, and I’m always polite and respectful with them.

 

I continued trying to hand out tracts and engage people.  But I have to admit that I felt mildly disconcerted with them so close and watching.

 

Eventually they moved on.  But when they did, they walked right past me.  There was nothing unusual about that, because I stand right in the best spot to catch all the street traffic.  So, I just thanked them for their service.  I know the Police have to deal with a lot of the dark side of life, and I’m very grateful for them.  And I’m also very grateful that we have the freedom to proclaim Christ.

 

Soon after, I had a young man stop as I handed him a tract.  It was clear that he had a Christian background, as he knew much of the lingo.  But it was also clear that he hadn’t grasped the gospel.  With a few brief questions, I could see light coming into his thinking, not only about the gospel, but also that he was currently a false convert.  It was one of those short and sweet chats.  It was obvious he needed to be somewhere, but that brief exchange of words seemed very impactful.  Glory to God.

 

I did have one more short chat with two young people who were trying to look different from the rest of society.  One of them seemed very intelligent with the few words they said.  But the more the other talked, the more they contradicted themselves with regard to logic and truth.  I reasoned with him twice before it became very clear they were not interested in logic and truth.  I was tired, and so I just gave my name and extended my hand: “Thanks for sharing your thoughts”.  He seemed a bit surprised, shook my hand, and moved on.

 

Salvation is ultimately a work of God.  May he use our feeble efforts to make blind eyes see by changing hearts.  Thank you for your prayers.

 

View previous Christchurch (NZ) report (6 September 2026)

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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.

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