Battle Log
Sunday 27 September 2026
Posted 27 September 2026, 5:39 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink
A mixture of warm and cold spring weather this week. Roger and Graeme were in Riccarton on Tuesday. Andy & I were in Riccarton on Thursday. Roger, Andy, John Boyce, and I were in the city on Friday. And Julia and I were going to head to the city on Sunday (today) after our church gathering, but with heavy rain, we did some Duo chats online instead.
So, in Riccarton on Thursday, Andy camped out at one corner, while I did the same at the corner a block down. We were both busy with chats.
2 chats stand out in my mind.
First, 3 guys from the local boys' high school went past. I offered tracts, and one of them seemed to recognise me. He stopped the group and encouraged his friends to talk to me. It turns out I’d talked to him another time (but I don’t remember it) - and later in the chat it became clear that he had remembered the gospel message I had obviously shared with him.
But based on his encouragement, I was able to have a great chat with all 3 of them. They were all in different places regarding their thinking, but because they were open to the conversation, I seemed to juggle it well. In the end, one of those guys took a gospel of John. I don’t hand those out willy-nilly- only when I have a level of confidence that they will actually read it. The fallback is to encourage them to get a Bible on their phone. And to my amazement, the other 2 pulled out their phones and showed me their Bible apps!
It’s so encouraging to be able to minister freely without having to worry about follow-up. Not that follow-up is not important. But God has to change a heart before they will really want ‘follow up’. And the gospel is the power of God for salvation.
The other chat that stands out in my thinking was with another high school-aged guy. I think he may have been Filipino.
When he saw me, he didn’t shy away. It was like he was very keen to chat. He had a Christian background, so he knew the lingo. And yet, he was articulating a very works-based understanding of salvation.
At one point, he said, “I must trust that Jesus died for my sins”. But I knew something wasn’t right, and so I asked, “How do you trust that?” and he responded, “Well, at the very least you should keep the commandments!”
And so, going from there, I slowed down to show him some of the commandments and see how he was going with keeping them.
Also, early in the conversation, he would make claims, but it seemed like he was just making his theology up on the spot. It was just whatever seemed right at the moment.
So, I had the joy of ministering to him by slowing him down and backing the conversation up so we could work through the logic of the gospel.
A key series of questions for him was: “So, before this chat, what did you think you had to do to get to heaven?”, and then, “So, where would you have ended up?”, and then “But now that we have had this chat, how do you understand you will be able to get to heaven?”
On Friday we had some annoying rain. But it didn’t stop us from having chats. John Boyce is a natural at starting and keeping conversations to share the gospel. It’s a joy to watch him go. Andy and Roger seemed busy too.
The standout chat for me was a very short one. It was with an older couple. Neither of them believed in God, and yet the gentleman wanted to clarify: I’m not an atheist; I’m a Presbyterian. John Knox would turn in his grave to know people would say such things!
But the reason the chat was so good was that they both went to ‘evil and suffering’ as their argument against God. Glory to God, I was able to take this argument and explain why God allows it, and in fact uses it for good, and in the process explain the law and the gospel.
Seed planted! May God use that conversation to place a crack in the hard soil of their hearts and let the seed germinate. God can do it!
It was a joy to be able to spend an hour and a half with Julia (my daughter) in shared online outreach this afternoon. We will continue to work together in this so she can get up to speed ready for the Schoolies outreach in November. It’s such a joy to see her struggle and yet her desire to push through it for the glory of God.
As we step out in seeking God’s kingdom first, He will meet our needs.
Thank you for your continued prayer!
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View previous Christchurch (NZ) report (20 September 2026)
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.