Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Christchurch (NZ) Team
• Page 4

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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.

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A more difficult week of outreach this week.  Yet, no chat is in vain!  For all I know, those difficult opportunities will lead to an increase: salvation of souls.  God uses us in our weakness for his glory.

 

So, we skipped 2 street outreaches due to rain (Friday and Saturday).  So I was only at each location once this week.  Riccarton on Tuesday afternoon with Roger and in the city on Sunday afternoon.

 

But, this meant I did more online (and even that was difficult this week!)  Yet, the work online (via needGod.net) is so encouraging.  Not only are we reaching thousands of people with the gospel, I’m seeing individual Christians growing in their apologetics and evangelism.

 

I’m seeing massive growth in the ability of some people who I have been involved with during their initial training.  To listen to their conversations, then and now - the contrast is amazing, glory to God!  So, don’t give up, keep practising, that’s the key.  And online, it is so easy to do!  We offer free training, so if you are interested, get in touch!

 

So, reporting on the 2 street outreaches.  Last week in Riccarton, I was really busy in conversations, this week it was very slow.  So slow in fact that I decided to abandon my flip chart and go look for conversations to have.  This did the trick.  I wandered down Riccarton Road and I was quickly engaged in a conversation with 2 high school students.

 

I then had a special chat with a young lady right outside the bus terminal.  She was going to a church, but her motive for attending wasn’t right, and she wasn’t understanding the gospel.  I had a short opportunity to engage her.  She eventually asked an interesting question: “why isn’t God doing more to reach people”.  My answer was that I was talking to her right now!  God is raising up an army of people to go to the world with the gospel.  That’s you and me.  Regular Christians with an amazing, yet deep, yet simple message of Jesus.  Let’s be polite, and yet, let’s be bold in proclaiming it to the world around us.

 

Roger and I ended up wrapping up the outreach a little bit earlier than usual.  It finished with Roger having a conversation with a young Muslim man (pictured).  I could tell he wasn’t really interested in engaging, because he would keep avoiding the subject by asking questions about other topics.  I think Roger even said that he had rung his Iman for help!

 

On Sunday afternoon, the sun was back, and plenty of people were out and about.  Yet, I struggled to get conversations started.  I moved over to the sunny side of the street, and then I decided to go for a wander.

 

I approached someone down by the Avon river, but he wasn’t willing to engage, as I moved back to Oxford Terrace, I finally got some engagement with 2 guys.  But, sadly they had hot pizza and coke, and they wanted to move on and eat.  They took tracts.

 

Finally, back at the corner of Cashel and Colombo, I got into a short chat with 4 teen guys.  They didn’t really want to engage, so I had to work to keep them, but I was able to share the law and the gospel, before letting them move on.  Seed dropped.  May others be able to come and water it.  Are you ready?  I decided to head home early and work online.  Thanks for your prayer and support of our feeble efforts for his glory!

 

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I think I’m getting back into the routine of the regular weekly outreaches now that the summer special outreaches are well and truly past.  All four street outreaches went ahead this week - which was great.

 

Roger was with me in Riccarton on Tuesday afternoon.  My notes say “Straight into a chat with Hunter: had a lack of interest”.  I have no recollection of that particular conversation now, but it’s great that I was straight to work.  The outreach was busy!  It went for the full 2 hours, and so it was dark by the time we finished.

 

I also can’t remember the chat I had with “2 guys with glasses”, but I do remember the chat with the 2 Burnside High School kids very well.  Roger was busy with another chat, and the 2 kids were intrigued by his flip chart, even to the point where they were looking at the 2nd pages on their own!  So, I popped over to Roger’s side to engage them.  It was an awesome conversation.  Sadly, neither of them had ever heard the gospel.  Yet, gladly, they were very open.  The chat was textbook, and they followed the logic smoothly.  When I challenged them to respond to the gospel, there was a pause, and one of them said, “this is the first time I’ve heard this, I need some time to process it”.  That’s fair.  And yet, I explained how this message is simple and urgent to respond too.  I think they’d be prime candidates for my church's new foundation Bible study.

 

A third Burnside High School student tried to join this chat, but by this stage, Roger was free again, and so I directed him to Roger - which was great.

 

Back on my side of the street, 3 more high school students passed and were willing to chat (Roger had talked to 2 of them on the previous Friday’s outreach, so it was a partial follow up).  There wasn’t yet gospel clarity, and so I went back to the start.  It was wonderful seeing the reaction of one of them in particular.  She became very engaged as she got check questions wrong and learned why.  Glory to God, it was a wonderful chat.

 

As they moved on, a young man on a scooter came over, he wanted to try the good person test.  We ended up having a long conversation.  He struggled to grasp the gospel, not able to believe that salvation would be a gift.  I had to labour with him on both the law and the gospel.  I’m very grateful for the wonderful suite of check questions I have to utilise for this purpose.  I ended up giving him a church contact card with my contact details and an invite to our next Sunday gathering and the foundation Bible study.  I haven’t heard from him, yet he has the gospel seed.  I leave him in God’s hands for others to follow up and water.

 

On Friday, Andy and Roger were with me in the city.  I ended up doing a wander to Cathedral Square and back to the Bridge of Remembrance, having chats as I went.  I had a great chat with a young man who was in a Catholic school uniform.  He seemed to have a click moment with the gospel, which was great.  I also talked to a flat earther, and then a group of 3 european tourists.

 

But the highlight chat was with a young man from Italy.  In God’s providence, He had 2 Christian evangelists talk to him today!  He showed me a Gideon’s New Testament and gospel booklet that had been given to him earlier in the day - probably one of the OAC guys.  God is good!  So I had a wonderful follow up chat with him.

 

Back at the Bridge of Remembrance, it was great to see both Andy and Roger busy in conversations.  The harvest field is so ripe, the opportunity is endless!

 

I was also able to have a couple more conversations.  This outreach ended up going longer than usual, which is great.  God is good.

 

On Saturday I was back in Riccarton.  From memory, this outreach was a bit slower than usual.  And yet, I was still there, with my flip chart, a banner, with the name of Jesus on it (figuratively) being salt and light in the community.  I would hand out tracts, and I had a number of conversations, often shorter ones.  Ploughing, sowing.

 

After getting back from this outreach, I joined the online training outreach.  I had a very memorable conversation with a Sikh who lived in Portugal.  The conversation went for 45 minutes.  He was engaged enough to stay that long, but he really struggled to grasp the gospel, constantly defaulting back to ‘be good’, as the reason to get to heaven.  After much labour to show him how we are not good, and that Jesus is the only solution, I think he was finally grasping it - but maybe not, even at the end, some final checks and he had already started to slip in his thinking.  He is now in God’s hands to convict and convert - in His timing.

 

On Sunday, I had Elijah from church join me in the city for outreach (also Binu turned up to share tracts).  We had a very busy outreach at the corner of Colombo and Cashel.

 

There were a lot of young people out and about (the weather was nice at the start of the outreach).  So our first chat was with 2 young guys.  There was subtle resistance, and one of them was being particularly silly.  And yet, I rolled with that, and proceeded to share the law and the gospel anyway.  2 young girls joined the chat at one point, and so I decided to start fresh with them.  But they didn’t want to engage and walked off.  The 2 guys followed, but I was able to give them tracts before they left.  Interestingly, they soon came back.  And the conversation became more serious, and they engaged more sensibly.  It was great talking to them (we also saw them again right at the end of the outreach).

 

And it’s great seeing Elijah growing in confidence and ability in engaging with people.  By the end of the outreach, he was even engaging people on his own with the flip chart, as I would engage with others a few paces away.

 

One highlight chat was with 2 young ladies.  Fairly open and engaged well.  Elijah did most of the sharing.  The gospel hit home for one of those girls in particular, I could tell in a few ways, but particularly in the questions she would ask.  She accepted a gospel of John.

 

Near the end of the outreach, I had 2 particularly interesting encounters.  The first was when a large group of kids engaged.  Some of them said they had done the flip chart before.  I vaguely remembered some of them.  Yet some of them hadn't done it before.  There were too many for me to engage them all, and so I just cast my line and engaged with whoever responded.  I ended up with 3 of them in conversation.  But they soon had to split.  But as they did, one of them came back, and changed his tone and said something like, “hey man, what you said to me the first time made sense, I’ve started going to a church, thank you so much for what you do”.  Wow, that was encouraging.  Glory to God!  He didn’t have a Bible yet, and so I was able to give him a gospel of John before he went to catch up with his friends.

 

The last encouragement was when 2 guys stopped, I didn’t remember them initially, but when they said they had talked to me before, I remembered it from 3 weeks ago.  His answer to my check was “the mercy of God” which is not as precise as “because Jesus died on the cross”, and so I did some follow up.  But, I think the real reason they stopped was to encourage me, they had been impacted by the first chat (even though 1 of them in particular had been silly at the time).

 

All this to say: DON’T GIVE UP.  The law brings the knowledge of sin, and the gospel is the power of God for salvation.  God has the power to work in the hearts of people through our feeble efforts for his glory.  Don’t give up.  Continue to proclaim the wonderful good news of Jesus, wherever you may be.

 

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No action shots in the photos for this week.  But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an action packed week of street outreach in Christchurch.

 

I was too busy for photos Tuesday afternoon.  Roger was with me.  Friday afternoon was busy too.  Roger and Mark were with me.  On Saturday and Sunday I was on my own, so no one to take photos of.  But those outreaches were wonderful too.  Let’s start with Tuesday.

 

I decided to take notes, because I usually forget the chats from Tuesday by the time I write this on Sunday.  Haha, it must be old age!

 

So, there was someone sitting close to my usual spot, so I decided to set up my flip chart in Roger’s spot till he got there.  I hadn’t even finished setting it up when I heard, “Hi Glen”.  I looked up and saw a group of school kids from Christchurch Boys and Girls High Schools.  My look must have been blank, because she said, “you don’t remember us do you?”.  I didn’t.  She said, “that’s okay, it would have been a year ago when we last talked”.  So encouraging to know that people remember the gospel conversations you have with them.  The gospel is the power of God for salvation.  I started with a check question, and I was pleasantly surprised that they (a girl and I guy) knew the right way to heaven.  Yet, they had friends with them that didn’t.  And so, I was able to use the flip chart to share the gospel with them.

 

I went straight from that chat into another.  2 guys passed, and 1 of them glanced at the flip chart, so I said, “would you like to give the ‘good person test’ a go?”  He was keen, to his friends' surprise.  It was a good chat, but an intense chat.  They were intellectual types from the University.  And they wanted to play the agnostic / atheist card.  I didn’t want to bolster their suppression by giving them an inch.  I held my ground as to how they know God exists and what the true motivation for denying Him is.

 

By this stage, Roger was there.  And the intensity of the conversation, although polite, was attracting others to stop.  I noticed Roger busy in conversations, and I had multiple people queuing up to talk.  Sadly, I wasn’t able to get to them.  Eventually a friend of the 2 guys turned up and joined the conversation.  She gave me a long winded explanation as to why justice is not universal.  I gave up and let her talk.  You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.  If I pushed any harder, it would have just gotten nasty.

 

It was then that I noticed a young lady standing nearby.  She was either interested in our conversation, or she was looking for directions.  I decided to ask if I could help.  It turns out she is a Christian, and was very interested in the conversation.  I was able to peel away from the ‘agnostics’, leaving them with Roger, and engage her for mutual encouragement.  It turns out she remembered our ministry from the Rangiora A&P Show outreach 2 seasons ago (the flip chart was the link).

 

Once the Christian had moved on, I decided to leave the ‘agnostics’ to Roger.  But, with all the activity, an hour and a half had gone by, and I realised I was tired.  Once Roger had finished up, we went for a hot chocolate.

 

It was so good to have Mark with us on Friday, at the Bridge of Remembrance.  Mark is a local pastor.  He has a different approach to his street evangelism.  And yet, he is willing to work with us and learn why we do it differently, even if he is not fully convinced yet.  I really appreciate his humbleness.

 

Mark was keen to see the flip chart in action.  I didn’t bring mine, but Roger brought his.  Roger was quickly into a chat a short distance away, and so Mark and I paired up on the flip chart.  A lot of kids about - teachers only day.  I noticed 4 high school aged kids that I thought might be keen, and so I ran over to engage them.  They were indeed keen, and I was able to get them to come over to the flip chart.  It went well.  One of the girls had an audible penny drop moment as she seemed to grasp the gospel.  And another girl literally laughed out loud, when I asked if she would punch the fireman in the face.  It illustrated my point perfectly.  A believer will never use Jesus as an excuse to sin.

 

We then had 5 more High School kids go past - they engaged well on the flip chart too.  And then yet another group of kids, this time from a local Christian School - they did well in articulating the gospel - yet one of them had important questions we were able to address.

 

It was a busy afternoon.  Mark was asking why I had been skipping the first picture of the flip chart (Eiffel Tower) when a guy passed who (to my surprise) was keen to give the flip chart a go.  He wasn’t sure about God, and so, the perfect opportunity to use that first picture presented itself.  He dug his heels in, and so I was able to demonstrate the use of some simple apologetics, e.g., where did God come from?  I wasn’t going to let arguing about this hold back sharing the law and the gospel, and so I did that.  It was a great chat.  And Mark and I were able to debrief afterwards.

 

Saturday I was back in Riccarton.  Warm weather for the first day of winter.  I had many wonderful opportunities to engage people with the bad news of the law, and the good news of Jesus.  I even saw the young couple from my first chat on Tuesday again (from Boys / Girls High School)!

 

Sunday was sunny but cold.  I was on my own, and feeling a bit tired, so I decided to hand out tracts.  My first chat really stands out in my mind.  A young man slows as he walks past.  I could tell he wanted to talk.  We engaged (even though his girlfriend didn’t want to stop).  It was a short conversation, but a powerful one.  He heard the law and the gospel.  He was interested, it was like God had already been preparing him.  All that was needed was a Christian to be in the right place and ready to share.

 

Are you ready to share?  Are you willing to go?  Yes, it’s hard labour, but is it worth it?  Absolutely!  Be encouraged.  Glory to God alone.

 

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A bit of a disrupted week for me, I had to take some time off.  But that’s all sorted now, praise God!  Back to normal schedule, now.

 

So I did less outreach this week, but I was still able to do the 2 city outreaches: Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon.  Both cold days.  Sunny on Sunday, but wet on Friday.  Yet still very fruitful outreaches, glory to God.

 

Every picture in this week's report has a gospel conversation in it, even if it’s hard to spot!  Feel free to play a game of ‘where’s Andy’.

 

So, on Friday, it was overcast, cold and wet.  Not many people were out, and those that were didn’t want to be out for long.  Yet, the 2 hour outreach was productive.

 

Roger set up his flipchart near the Bridge of Remembrance.  Andy and I decided to head down to Ara.  It’s a great spot, and it didn’t disappoint on this day.

 

Andy was quickly into a chat with 4 Sikh’s from India.  It was interesting watching the dynamic of the group.  2 of them were very engaged - but 1 did most of the talking.  A 3rd was interested, and even engaged, but was easily distracted by the 4th, who didn’t want to be involved, and stepped back and away to make his disinterest clear, in spite of Andy trying to include him.  They had to get going (to catch a bus), so Andy quickly shared the gospel, as I distributed follow up tracts to all of them.

 

As they moved on, I noticed there weren’t many people around for the moment, except a guy who was sitting on a seat in the distance.  So I decided to go and talk to him.  He was open to chat, and so I sat next to him to do so.  He was Korean, and went to church, but he wasn’t sure if God was real, and so starting from there I was able to explain how we know God is real, the law and the gospel.  He seemed to appreciate the chat.  It reinforced things his pastor had been teaching him.  I guess it helps to hear it from someone else?

 

Heading back to the street, there were lots of students hanging around now.  Andy was busy, and I got into a chat with a young lady (pictured sitting in the number artwork).  Others joined and left the conversation throughout, but she was my main focus till she left (great chat), and then I was able to follow up with the others.

 

Andy and I eventually made it back to where Roger was.  I spent the last few minutes of the outreach handing out tracts.  As I left, Roger and Andy were both still in chats.

 

Sunday afternoon was sunny, but I was so glad I brought my jacket, because it was cold!  Esp. in the shade, and by the end of the outreach, the shade had almost enveloped everything.

 

Thomas & Mike were with me.  After prayer, we set up the flipchart (in the sun), and I hadn’t even finished getting ready, when we were instantly into a conversation with a guy (Belgian) and his partner (English) and their little daughter.  They lived in India (Goa) and were on holiday in New Zealand.  They were interested in the front page of the flipchart and we discussed it for a bit, before getting into a conversation about unrelated things (naturally building a rapport - it just happened that way).  He speaks French! (as does Thomas).  So it was great to have that connection.

 

Anyway, they wanted to know what the flip chart was about.  And so I was up front, we are Christians wanting to share about Jesus.  He was keen to chat.  They had an Eastern religious influence in their lives.  And so, going from there, we were able to share the law, the gospel, and move into checks.  He was very smart, and I could tell he grasped the gospel because he instantly said, “if that’s true, we can do what we want”.  I was able to address that with the fireman analogy, and then I went back to the ‘crossing the road’ analogy so he could see the contrast of the tension of how we are saved by a gift, and yet the gift will (willingly) cost us everything out of our love for the gift giver.

 

It was an amazing chat, and a great way to start the outreach.  I knew I had to give Thomas some space, and so I left him with the flip chart while I did ‘walk up’.  Thomas was soon into a chat (a difficult one), and so was I (also difficult), young guys coming to ‘have a go’, yet they were nice about it.  No problem with me, I was still able to reason with them, share the law and the gospel, even if they were subtly hostile.  The gospel is the power for salvation.

 

The outreach went quick, because we were busy.  2 other chats that stand out in my thinking were short but powerful opportunities.  A young Catholic kid who couldn’t stay long (he said, “will you be here next Sunday?”).  I was able to give him a brief law and gospel summary and a follow up tract.  And then with a young Asian lady.  She thought about what happens after life, but didn’t have any answers.  I was able to explain how we know God is real, the law, and then quickly the gospel before she also had to move on.  She took a tract.

 

We finished in prayer.  Great week!  All glory to God.  It’s about him, it’s for him.  I rest in his grace.  Please keep the team in prayer.  We appreciate your support.

 

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With Roger still away, I decided to leave Riccarton fallow again this week, using that time to focus on online outreach.  But both City outreaches went ahead.  I was with John and Andy on Friday afternoon, and Joseph and Elijah joined me on Sunday afternoon (today).

 

So today’s outreach was very special.  With the rain, I didn’t think it would go as well as last week.  But to my surprise it was the opposite.  I set up the flip chart and was still trying to get organised and pray, when instantly people took interest and a conversation was away.  Amazingly, we had 3 separate conversations before we had a chance to pray!  The chats literally rolled one into the next.  It eased off a touch after that, but the outreach was still very busy right to the end.

 

So, thank you for praying for this feeble outreach, we are getting so much opportunity, glory to God!

 

I’ll come back and talk about the chats later.  But first I want to talk about Friday’s outreach.

 

We started at the Bridge of Remembrance with prayer.  We didn’t have any flip charts, and so we were freestyling.  We decided to go down High Street towards Ara (tertiary education institute), since we had such a good time there a couple of weeks back.

 

I never made it.  Andy and John did.  Andy said he had some good opportunities down there.  But I approached a guy on High Street, and it turned out to be a guy I had talked to a few Sunday’s back.  He was keen to continue that chat, and we ended up speeding over an hour in conversation!  I won’t go into details.  But it was clear that, even though he was able to articulate the gospel, that he wasn’t converted yet.  He didn’t yet have any appreciation for the serious nature of sin.  And so a good portion of my time with him was in relation to this.

 

He ended up receiving 2 more varieties of tract (over the one he had received on the Sunday), a gospel of John, and a church contact card with my contact details on it.

 

John and Andy came back, just as our chat was wrapping up.  I introduced him to them, and it turns out Andy had shared the gospel with him recently too, because he remembered Andy.

 

This young man ended up walking with us back to Cashel Mall, and then Andy bought him a hot chocolate and we were able to continue the chat with him in a cafe.

 

He said he would come to church on Sunday, but I’m not surprised when he didn’t contact me, and he didn’t turn up.  Like I said, I think he has some processing to do.  He is in God’s hands.  Pray that the Holy Spirit would eliminate the law and bring conviction of sin in his life, and that he would truly see the treasure of Christ.

 

So, back to today’s outreach.  The very first chat was special, because 1 of them came to see a critical misunderstanding she had about the gospel.  When I say 1 of them, it was a group of at least 5 people.  And I think 1 of them wasn’t even with the other 4, he just became interested in what we were discussing.

 

So these people were all in different places.  The couple were not interested, and even walked away as I was about to switch to the gospel - I was able to get them to come back to hear it.  But it was 2 young ladies that were engaged, 1 more than the other, but the one that was less engaged ended up gaining the critical information.  What was that?  I’m struggling to remember exactly what I said now, but her response was to say something like: “Oh, I’ve always heard about Jesus, but I’ve had this nagging doubt that I’m not good enough” - yet, she said it in such a way that seemed to be seeing that she was missing what Jesus was all about - that we don’t have to be good enough to get to heaven.

 

By this stage, the couple had walked off again.  I wanted to follow up on this revelation she was having - but I wasn’t able to.  The seed had been planted.  And I have to leave her in God’s hands.  I rejoice, because God has the power to follow that up, so pray for her.

 

I’m not going to have time to talk about all the opportunities from today, but another special chat was with a young man who had been influenced by Buddhism growing up.  I had to labour with him to see that salvation was a gift.  He did come to grasp it, and then he started to nail the check questions (except 1: 2 things).  At the end of the chat he articulated that he understood that he can be 100% sure he is going to heaven, yet at the moment he is 0% sure (because he is not yet willing to repent).  Yet, he very much appreciated the conversation, and happily received a copy of the gospel of John and a couple of tracts.

 

Joe And Elijah had opportunities to get involved in conversations too.  You guys did so well!  Keep it up.

 

Joe had an opportunity with 3 young guys (pictured).

 

And Elijah joined me at the end for the last chat with a German guy (chat occurred just after I took the picture of him).

 

I didn't get a chance to take pics from Friday.

 

My mind is still processing all the chats from today.  But I’m out of time and energy to write about them.  I’ll leave it at that.

 

Again, thank you for your prayers, and support.  It amazes me that anyone stops to talk to me at all, so your prayers for this ministry are certainly effective!  The fruits of our feeble efforts, for God’s glory alone, will be known in eternity.  Till then, let's keep our heads down, and rest in the joy of the labour.

 

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A fantastic week of street outreach in Christchurch.  Roger is away, and so I let Riccarton lay fallow this week.  So 2 city outreaches this week on Friday and Sunday afternoons.  The rest of my week was filled with online work.

 

I had a special opportunity online yesterday.  I was live streaming with Ryan, and so I had my ‘live’ sign up behind me.  I connected with a lady who didn’t have her camera on, but she could see me and my sign, so she knew I was live streaming (this will become significant later).  So anyway, her initial response to my question of, “what happens after life”, was really good, and so I moved straight into checking questions.  I detected a wobble when she raised the issue of repentance but wasn’t able to clearly define what it meant.  So I backed up to the law and then moved to clarify the gospel.  It turns out she was defining ‘repent’ as ‘ask for forgiveness’.  And it was clear she meant that as a work, because she talked about needing to ask for forgiveness every night.  I was able to labour with her to come to gospel clarity.  Initially she was confused, but she could see how it made sense.  I continued with other check questions.  She got the 2nd to last one wrong, but that only led to more clarity, but then she got the last one right!  It was such a good chat, when all of a sudden the connection dropped.  I prayed for her and we moved on.  God knows what the fruit will be.

 

But, and this is really encouraging, half an hour later, Ryan posts a YouTube comment.  It was from the lady!  She was engaged enough to be able to search for and find our live stream, and she wanted to thank us for the chat!  God is good.  May the gospel clarity lead to her salvation, for God’s glory alone.

 

The takeaway here is to be precise.  People are so subtly missing the good news!  We need to esp. be careful in explaining repentance.  It’s not a work we do, instead it’s a change of mind about sin and Jesus that WILL lead to a change of action.  Asking for forgiveness is good, but it’s not what saves us.

 

You can actually watch this for yourself on YouTube, just find the 2 hour live stream for Saturday, 11th May 2024 on needGod.net

 

So, on Friday, I was with Andy, John, and Mark at the Bridge of Remembrance.  Since Roger was away, I decided to take my flip chart and use his usual spot.  After prayer we got into a very busy outreach.

 

I was pretty much straight into a chat, and I noticed the other guys were all busy too.

 

My first one was with a guy who had ethics I strongly agreed with: abortion is murder.  He called himself Protestant.  But something wasn’t right.  He liked to talk, and so I had to be patient, but the more he did, it was clear that he was resolving things in his thinking politically, rather than biblically.  Eventually I was able to touch on the law and the gospel, which he agreed with.  But then I started popping check questions.  The ‘out of 100% how sure are you’ one did the trick.  His response and my counter question caused him to stop and really think.  After that, he started talking less, and I was able to talk more.  I was able to point him back to his Bible, that he hasn’t been reading, and I even invited him along to church, which he isn’t currently involved with.

 

Next I had 3 German tourists.  Actually, now that I think of it, the first chat was with a German guy too.

 

2 of the 3 were not interested, but 1 of them was intrigued enough with the flip chart to stop and engage, and so his friends did as well.  2 out of the 3 were resistant, but 1 was listening.  Interestingly, it was a different 1, and so his friend inadvertently enabled him to hear the gospel!

 

Next, I had a chat with a young guy who was also interested in the flip chart.  He started out by saying that good and bad is subjective, but then in his very next breath he talked about good and bad objectively.  I pointed this out to him, and instead of doubling down, he smiled in acknowledgement of this fact.  He opened up at this point, to hear about the objective basis: God, and then to hear the law of God.  But then he started to close up.  He heard the gospel, but he resisted it.

 

I’m struggling to remember any of the other chats, but I know there were more, because I was busy for the whole 2 hours of the outreach.

 

On Sunday, Thomas was with me.  We decided to bring the flip chart, and I’m glad we did.  We had an exceptionally fruitful outreach.  Nice winter weather, plus it was mothers day, so lots of people were out and about for that.  We literally had people queuing to do the flip chart multiple times during the outreach.

 

Some of the chats were short but sweet, with follow up tracts to take away.  Some were resistant.  But many were very open.  1 In particular, the first one, was very providential.  A young lady with a Christian background was struggling with issues of conscience that had caused much division in her family: tattoos, but esp. Vaccines.  This was all related to ‘the mark of the beast’.  And sadly, this was all a distraction to the gospel for her.  By God’s grace, I was able to give her answers that were very helpful to her - she really appreciated it.  And not only that, she gained some gospel clarity.  I pointed her to the Bible and a good local church.  Words don’t describe it, but it was a special chat.

 

Another outstanding chat was my last.  A young couple were queuing to do the flip chart (Thomas was having a great chat with a young man who was now rejecting the new testament - I don’t have time to talk about that, but I’m in email contact to follow up).  So, I approached the young couple.  She was a professing Christian, and wanted me to ‘convert’ her boyfriend.  She was pointing to her goodness for her salvation, and so I initially focused on him, but I was speaking to them both when I shared the law and the gospel.  Great chat.  They are from Timaru, and so I was able to point them to Covenant Grace Baptist Church.

 

Thomas and I were rejoicing after a busy, but wonderful outreach.  All glory to God!

 

Well, I’m out of time.  Be encouraged to be salt and light where you are.  Be open about the fact that you are a Christian, and then take opportunities to actually articulate the gospel.  How can they trust without hearing, and how can they hear without you speaking!  It’s not about your ability, God shows his strength through our weakness, so all the glory is His.  Be encouraged.

 

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What a great week of outreach.  I made it to all four regular outreaches.  I feel like I’ve got a lot to write about, but only an hour to do it in; so I’ll write till I run out of time and leave the rest to discuss in eternity.

 

I guess I’ll go in reverse time order.  So, starting with today’s outreach (Sunday), I was in the city between church gatherings.  I was out alone, but I quite like that sometimes.

 

As I was walking in from where I parked, I encountered a lady I’ve distantly known for a long time.  I used to be involved with a kids outreach known as Te Mapua Child and Youth Trust.  Believe it or not, my ugly (younger) mug is still on their homepage (at time of writing)!  Well, this lady’s son was one of the kids in the weekly program I was involved with.  Sadly, 2 years ago, he passed away at the age of 19.  And so, I was able to spend about 15 minutes with this lady.  It was another opportunity for her to process her grief.  Through the conversation I was able to touch on the hope of eternal life.  But she has heard it plenty of times from me, and so I didn’t push it.  It was great to be able to catch up with her.

 

I thought the outreach was going to be more pastoral, when my next chat was with a church goer who wanted to talk.  I instinctively knew trying to push a ‘scripted’ chat wasn’t going to be fruitful, and so I let him talk.  He did leave with the tract that I had given him at the start of the conversation.

 

After that, I had some great opportunities - not full chats, but misunderstandings about God were corrected.  One girl believed in heaven, but not hell and came to understand why both made sense.  Another guy came to see how he was sure God was real.  A guy from Mexico thought he was going to heaven because he had done nothing wrong - a few questions about the law seemed to have a deep impact on him, and so I was able to drop the seed of the gospel.

 

I was feeling tired of staying in one spot and trying to get chats started, and so I decided to go for a walk to see who I could find to talk to.  I finally made it to Cathedral Square, and found a young lady sitting on her own, enjoying the sun and listening to something on her headphones.  She accepted a tract and was willing to chat briefly.  But she had stuff to do in life, and didn’t want to consider the afterlife.  I gently challenged her that she may not get tomorrow, and how she knew God was real.

 

Moving back to Cashel, I encountered a young man, also relaxing in the sun.  He refused a tract, but let me ask my question: “what do you think happens afterlife?”  He smiled, thought, and turned down my offer to discuss it.  No problem.  I pray that even that approach will cause him to think, and that he will be willing to discuss it with another Christian before it’s too late.

 

I went down High Street, and then turned down Cashel Mall when I noticed two cultists walking in front of me.  They were boldly approaching strangers for conversations.  I partly admired them, and wished the true church would be so bold.  But I was grieved that they have such zeal without knowledge.  Anyway, I sped up to get closer to them, and then managed to overtake down a different path and then get in front of them on their path.  They took the bait, and one of them approached me.  We had a great chat.  I let him start his presentation (it was interesting that he clarified that he is ‘Christian’ but now JW or Mormon) and from there I was able to engage him with the true gospel.  I was encouraged to see him show signs of doubt.  I pray that the gospel will be the power that breaks through on his thinking.  That God would have mercy on him (and his friend).

 

The outreach didn’t end there, I ended up encountering a man who turned out to be a Christian.  We even had mutual friends.  Yet, we had a robust conversation about various important Christian concepts.  The time wasn’t wasted (it never is).

 

On Saturday, I finally made it back to the Riccarton lunch time outreach.  Again, on my own.  I set up my flip chart.  It started out as a slow outreach, I had 1 conversation with a man who just wasn’t willing to engage.  I knew if I pushed, it would become a fight, and he would get angry.  So I decided not to push, and let it de-escalate to a natural finishing point.

 

I was able to catch up with a church friend and her brother who has recently come to Christ!  Praise God.  He has an evangelistic edge about him, so it was great to be able to discuss that.

 

Immediately after they moved on, I got into a wonderful chat with a Chinese Bhudist lady.  She was very intelligent, and open.  She was very interested in the gospel.  She accepted, not only a tract, but she was keen to read the gospel of John (which I gave her), and she took a church contact card.

 

After that I had a busy outreach, I distinctly remember 2 solid chats with 2 sets of young people.  God is good!

 

On Friday afternoon, I was with Andy in the city.  Roger is overseas for a couple of weeks, and so we decided to pair up for ‘walk up’.  We wandered down Cashel, and then decided to head down High Street towards Ara (tertiary education campus).  We ended up having 4 great gospel conversation opportunities on High Street alone, and then when we got to Ara, the fish were swarming!

 

Of those 4 chats, the stand out was one with 3 students.  One didn’t want to stay and walked off.  One was very engaged and talked with Andy.  The other was in the middle, but decided to stay.  We listened to Andy for a bit, but then I decided to engage her separately.  I’m glad I did, because she was in such a different place from the guy Andy was talking to.  I was able to drop the gospel seed to her, while Andy did the same with him.

 

At Ara, we spent the rest of the outreach engaging various people on the footpath outside the main entrance.  I ended up engaging a big group of students (maybe 10 of them).  They were all in different places, and asking different questions, but it was fun.  Many of them took follow up tracts, even though there was much subtle resistance.

 

On Tuesday, I was in Riccarton with Roger in the afternoon.  And I’m struggling to remember anything from that outreach now.  I guess I’ll leave it at that then.

 

Well, a whole lot of labour, for God’s glory.  Even if everyone rejects the gospel, we have still succeeded, because the goal is primarily God’s glory, and our obedience is enough.  Leaving the results with him.  I love God so much.  Thank you for your prayer and support.

 

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Another week of fishing has passed!

 

On Tuesday Roger and I were at our usual spot.  Roger’s lure was his flipchart and tracts.  Mine was ‘walk up’ and tracts.

 

It started so well, 2 young lads went passed just after Roger’s flip chart was set up - because I was there, I was able to engage them and use the flip chart to share the gospel with them.  One of them knew what it was about, he said he’d done the flip chart 4 times before!  Twice at A&P Shows, and twice on Cashel Mall.  But his friend was uninitiated and wasn’t sure about God.  The building builder analogy really clicked for him, and he opened up to the rest of the conversation.  Great chat.

 

I headed down to the bus stops and managed to get into a chat with 2 young ladies.  They were subtly resistant, and yet, were engaged enough to stay and be challenged.  They ended up having to go, but one of them made it clear why they were currently in rejection: live for today, because tomorrow we die.  Let’s party.  Before they left I was able to point out why I have the opposite position but for the same reason.  They took tracts.

 

I made it back to where Roger was, and he was in a chat with a Muslim guy Andy & I have talked to a lot in the past.  It was good to see him again.  I left Roger to continue his conversation while I engaged a couple of kids on his flip chart.

 

Later I joined Rogers chat (maybe I shouldn’t have - sorry if I butted in Roger!)  Our Muslim friend, sadly, is as resistant as ever.  I decided to take him on, and it got quite intense.  Yet, we finished up with hugs and handshakes.  When I talk to Muslims, I focus on how ‘being good’, and ‘asking for forgiveness’ can’t logically remove punishment, and so Jesus makes sense.

 

Speaking of Muslims.  I’m going to jump forward in time to Saturday and the training stream online.  I was paired up with Nick.  When it was my turn, I was paired up with a couple of rich Muslims from Saudi Arabia.  It was an amazing 12 minute chat.  I followed the ‘script’ fairly closely, and it was great to see the effect of the law sober them up.  They became engaged, one of them gently resisting, but I was able to make progress.  They were able to see how ‘being good’ and ‘asking for forgiveness’ can’t remove sin, and so I was able to explain about God’s mercy: Jesus.  When I said Jesus’ name, I was expecting the usual indoctrination to come up.  I expected them to ‘manafest’.  But they didn’t, they just nodded their heads - “it makes sense”.  And so I just kept rolling, and moved into the check questions.  I was able to explain about ‘faith alone’, before one of them suddenly ended the chat.  But I rejoiced that I had been able to deliver the gospel seed into the heart of such a closed country / culture to the truth of Jesus!  God can show his strength by using that seed for his glory!  In his hands, It can be the spark that changes that country and culture for Jesus!  Don’t give up, don’t get distracted.  God is good!

 

Friday’s outreach was busy.  Andy and Roger were with me.

 

My first chat was with a young farmer from Southland who seemed to be building his own little empire, but I was able to share the gospel with him, and the futility of gathering stuff in this life.

 

I then had a great chat with 2 young people before Going for a wander.  I was about to engage a young post-grad Phd student who kept mentioning that we are ‘stardust’.  He didn’t stay long, but I left a stone in his shoe.  I then engaged a young barber, he was on a break from work, and was staring as though pondering something very deep.  I knew I would only have a short time with him, but I was able to touch on the law and the gospel with him.  He gladly received a tract.

 

I had a half engagement on High Street, but the lady had to go back to work.  Next up I was able to have a great gospel chat with 3 young guys just before Cathedral Square.  It was wonderful watching one of them, you could almost see the gears turning in his mind.  Who knows!  They could repent today, God knows.  We need to faithfully plough and sow, and leave the results to God, he will bring an increase to his glory.

 

Arriving into Cathedral Square, there was a young tourist there, I approached him, and we got into a good chat.  He was from Italy.  I think I spent about 20 minutes with him.  He had a Catholic background, but had rejected it.  His god was himself, and his justification was ‘subjectivity’.  I had to patiently labour, and I was able to share the law and the gospel, but I was able to challenge him on his idolatry.

 

Back at the bridge of remembrance, Andy was just finishing up a very friendly looking chat.  But then he joined Roger on his, and that turned into a very intense chat.  Roger and I left Andy to it, while we went to get a coffee / hot choc.  Andy joined us later, and we had a good debrief time.

 

I didn’t make it out on Saturday!  I could have gone, the weather was great.  But I decided to focus on catching up on TikTok DMs instead.  I’ve had some encouragement in this department.  1 kid just wasn’t getting it, but then he started to understand!  I know this because I had a note from 20 days ago saying “not getting it”.  A reminder to be patient in our labour.  Some are resistant, and you have to let them go, but some are open, but you just have to work with them gently.  Another young lady was struggling with some stuff, and wasn’t able to tease out the tension between faith and works.  Yet she stayed with me.  The penny really dropped as I went through the fireman analogy with her. It was so good to see her joy as she said, “I get it!” - that chat’s not quite finished yet, I’ll hopefully finish up explaining about Christian living next week.

 

On Sunday, after listening to a wonderful sermon, I headed out to Cashel Mall again.  I had an amazing chat with two young men, who went to local churches but were not clear on the essentials of the gospel.  I was able to labour with them on this.  A powerful check is to ask, “before this chat, did you think you had to be good to get to heaven”.  They both thought for a bit, and admitted that they did.  So I followed up with, “so, where would you have gone if you died?”.  Hell.  They got it.  I pleaded with them to trust Christ alone, urgently.  And then pointed them to their Bibles.  As I was alone, and tired, I decided to head home early to do more TikTok DMs and write this report.

 

Thanks so much for your prayer.  Please be encouraged to take and make opportunities to share about Jesus in your own life.  Jesus is amazing!!!

 

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Glory to God, it was a great week on the streets!  3 of the 4 usual outreaches ran (I’m working back up to 4 out of 4).

 

On Tuesday afternoon, Roger was with me in Riccarton.  I had a slow week last week, and so I decided to ditch my flip chart and do ‘walk up’ this week instead.  I’m so glad I did.  Roger set up his flip chart, and after praying with him, I went for a wander down Riccarton Road, collecting rejections.

 

But once you collect enough rejections, you’ll strike someone willing and interested to talk.  I had a brief conversation with a young lady from Brazil. Before approaching a young man who I thought ‘he won’t be interested’, but to my surprise he was very interested.  It turned into one of those chats where they are fully engaged.  He was so engaged that he willingly let his bus pass (I was at a bus stop), knowing he could catch a later one, so we could continue to chat.

 

He was from East Timor, studying environmental science (I think it was) at the university.  His religious background was Catholic, and stemming from that, he considered his good deeds the reason he would get to heaven.  He resisted the law; considering himself good, he didn’t want to admit that he had done anything wrong.  And so I spend some time labouring with him on this.  Once he seemed to come to a point of understanding, I was able to switch to the gospel and labour through the check questions on that side.

 

Some of the details of the chat are fading in my memory now, but I remember him eagerly accepting a copy of the gospel of John.  And I remember rejoicing after he hopped on his bus.  God knows what the result will be, I leave him, prayerfully, in God’s hands.

 

It was a long chat, and I remember feeling drained, so Roger wrapped that outreach a little early.  We headed to a coffee shop for some debrief.

 

On Friday afternoon, Andy & Greg were with me in the city.  There were lots of people about.  It took me a while to work out that it was because of the school holidays.  I was paired up with Andy for a good portion of this outreach.

 

My first chat was quite awkward.  The girl was subtly resistant (didn’t really want to talk, but didn’t leave either).  And the guy with her said nothing, even when she tried to include him.  I wanted to bail from the chat due to the awkwardness - but I’m glad I didn’t.  In spite of the resistance, she heard the law, and then finally the gospel.  And then she opened up a little about her religious background, a mix of Catholic and Mormon influence.  I could tell she was comparing what I was saying to that.  And so I did my best to draw the distinctions (we are not saved by our works).

 

Later I talked to 2 young men who were out promoting a new local barber shop.  It was an interesting chat, but they were both in different places and it became difficult to keep them both engaged at the same time.  One of them was particularly resistant (yet still friendly).  Eventually I decided to end this chat.  They were supposed to be promoting the barber shop, and they both continued in their resistance.  Yet they accepted tracts.

 

Next up I had a great chat with two young teens who went to a Christian high school.  Sadly, they too were resistant in their own way.  Yet, they responded well to the logic of what I was explaining, even if they weren’t showing interest.

 

Sadly, I forgot to take a picture for Friday’s outreach.  But, to make up for it, I’ll include 2 for Sunday’s outreach in the city.  This was an AMAZING outreach.  A team of 5: Joe and Elijah from my church, plus Mike, Susan and myself.

 

The outreach started with just Joe, Elijah and I.  We prayed, and then set up a flip chart (it’s a great tool for training with).  We were quickly into our first chat with 2 young men.  Glory to God, it was a textbook chat, where I was able to work through the whole chat with no resistance – even a profession from one of them.  They both received tracts, a gospel of John, and contact cards for our church.

 

Then a young Muslim lady and her friend went past.  They were intrigued by the flip chart, but didn’t want to stop, so took tracts instead.  But then they stopped, talked together briefly, and then came back!  They wanted to do the ‘good person’ test.  It was an amazing chat.  I didn’t get any of the usual resistance I get from people with an Islamic background.  What a joy!  I was sad I didn’t have any more gospels of John, but I told her how she could get a Bible on her phone.  She also took a church contact card.

 

The chats just didn’t stop, one would roll into another!  Next up we had about 7 young people stop and engage - great chat.

 

And then a man from Australia stopped.  He had a Christian background, but had drifted away.  He didn’t think there was any hope for him now.  I was able to take him through the law, and because I could tell he had to leave, I touched on the gospel, plus a critical check question to show how he was currently trusting in works for salvation, but that it was never too late: because of the gift of Christ!  Short chat, but that one was so special to me.  He left with a tract.

 

By this stage, Mike was with us, and he had set up his flip chart further down (Joe joined him).  He ended up having a chat with a work mate!  The gospel conversation has been started, and there will now be further opportunity to continue it.  God is good.

 

Well, that’s a snapshot of the street work for the week.  Plenty of gospel work online too.

 

I’ll leave it at that.  Sharing the gospel is such a joy.  I’ll never get sick of it.  When I’m ministering to others, I’m also ministering to myself.  The gospel is so simple, and yet it’s so deep.  Be encouraged to take the opportunities to talk to people about Jesus, as you can!  All glory to God alone.

 

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Had a bit of a stressful week in my personal life.  But I’ve learnt so much from it.  I now have a fresh empathy for those that get anxious.  I’ve experienced being constant in prayer and dependence on God - and seeing him answer!  I’ve learned that my micro management is not always needed; when people get in tough spots, God has given them survival instincts - yet, encouragement and support is helpful.  I hope some of this will be applied in my evangelism work in the future.

 

But, anyway, 2 street outreaches this week: Tuesday in Riccarton (with Roger), and Sunday (today, with Thomas) in the City.  On Friday and Saturday I was so tired I stayed home and worked online.

 

Tuesday started out a bit slow, yet Roger seemed busy on his side!  3 Christchurch Boys High students came and sat on the seats behind where Roger was, and since Roger was already in a chat, I decided to go over and engage them.

 

They seemed to have time, so I took it slow - I didn’t push it.  And I gave them plenty of opportunities to disengage.  Yet, at least 2 of them were keen to continue the conversation.

 

It was interesting watching them test my character.  Is this guy genuine?

 

Anyway, I fielded a lot of questions, but within that I was able to share the law and the gospel, and start working through check questions.  It was a great chat.

 

I’m sure I had other chats - I just can’t remember them now.  It was a full 2 hour outreach.  Glimpses of short chats are slowly coming back into my memory.  Nothing is wasted - even those short passing comments / interactions.  Little bits of ploughing and sowing.  God knows the result.

 

It was great to have Thomas join me again for today’s outreach.  He enjoyed the ‘walk up’, from the last time he joined me, so we decided to do that again today - no flip chart.  We started with prayer, and then put a few tracts & a gospel of John in our back pockets, before moving down Cashel Mall.

 

We started collecting rejections.  I think on the 4th approach we got some engagement.  It was with a young couple, hung over.  The guy had a ‘super religious’ family, but was in rejection.  He believed in God, and heaven, but not hell.  I was able to address that, but I was amazed he talked with us for as long as he did, before he decided he didn’t want to keep chatting about it.  Yet, they both took tracts.  He even said, ‘keep doing what you’re doing’.

 

I had a short chat with a young Irish couple from Sydney.  And then Thomas had a few goes at starting chats.

 

We then got into a great chat with 6 or 7 high school aged guys.  They were all in different places, so that was quite hard, but they were all very engaged in different ways.  They were queueing up questions by putting their hands up!  I spend a lot of time on building / builder, really nailing that down, before moving into the law and then the gospel and checks.  I think some of them were really getting it.  Tracts were accepted and a gospel of John was taken - I only had 1, and so they even did ‘rock, paper, scissors’ for it!  I’ve never had that occur before!

 

Thomas started the next chat, it was with a young couple.  He was instantly engaged!  She was very much not.  He came to grasp the gospel, although he really struggled with the initial check question.  “My brain is trying to process it”.  It was at this point that she became involved in the conversation.  She was very resistant, I became very aware of how the issue was less about intellect / logic, and more about something emotional.  I wanted to address it, but I struggled to disengage the intellect and address it.  In hindsight, I should probably just cut to the law!

 

We finished up with 3 more short interactions before starting to head back towards the car.

 

It was then that we encountered our local World Mission Society Church of God evangelists.  I decided to engage them in a very friendly manner.  One of them looked fresh.  What was great was the freshie decided to engage Thomas while I talked to the main evangelist.  That was great!  Because the guy I was talking to was very open about how closed he was (he refused my offer to catch up again or via email).  Yet, Thomas was able to engage the freshie with the gospel.

 

Well, that wraps another week of God’s mercy.  Please pray that God continues to raise up labourers for the harvest!

 

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