Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Christchurch (NZ) Team
• Page 30

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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 11am - 1pm - Riccarton (corner of Riccarton Rd and Rotherham St)
Sun 1:30pm - 3:30pm - City (corner of Colombo St and Cashel St).

Contact Glen Richards or Andy Barlow for more information.

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On Sunday afternoon, a team of four were in Cashel Mall: my three daughters joined me.

We split into pairs.  Haley and Julia found spots to hand out tracts, while Dani and I ran a flip chart together.

Dani and I had two good gospel conversations on the flip chart during the hour we were out.  I would pass over to Dani to do pages of the flip chart, and then she would pass back to me - a great way to get practice sharing the wonderful good news.

The first conversation was with a man with a Catholic background whom it was ingrained that, as long as he was good enough - he would be going to heaven.  Going through the law, and an explanation of the seriousness of sin, was very foreign to this man - and concerning.  He stayed to hear the good news.

The last conversation started when two teens were scooting past, and one of them saw the flip chart and wanted to give it a try.  They were engaged, and so a long conversation occurred.  They clearly understood the bad news, and then the glorious good news - and were able to repeat it back multiple times.  When asked what would stop them from accepting the gift of Jesus, nothing was - even after considering the cost.  So they were challenged to do so.  The accepted follow up tracts.

Haley and Julia were able to give away a number of tracts before we packed up and headed home.  So wonderful to see my daughters growing in their desire to communicate the good news of Jesus to the lost!

On Tuesday afternoon, I was able to find time to finish building a new flip chart (front page pictured) - with the help of my brother and his power tools to drill the holes for the metal bracket at the top.

I was able to use it for the first time on the Christmas Eve outreach in Riccarton.  There weren't as many people out as I was hoping - I guess most people drive into the mall for parking.  But I still was able to have a number of good conversations.

My first conversation was with a young man who said he was going to Valhalla.  But he said he loved talking about this stuff (the after life) and had grown up with a Christian background.  He got through the law before he had to go - he took a tract.

I had another guy interested in the flip chart immediately after the first conversation.  Sadly, he too bailed after hearing the law - he also took a tract.

But the highlight conversation was with three young men.  It was a challenging conversation, where they were grilling me with multiple questions at the same time.  It started off light hearted, but once they started understanding the logic of what I was explaining they sobered up.  Part way through the conversation, I had another two guys join in, and start peppering me with questions too!  It was too hard to deal with the new guys as well, so they took tracts and moved on.  The original guys heard the gospel before they moved on - but at least two of them were very resistant to it.  I would have loved to have more time with them.  They also accepted tracts.

Well, Merry Christmas!  God willing, some of the people talked to, or who received tracts will come to a proper understanding of why Jesus was born and will trust in His sacrifice!  Soli Deo Gloria!
 

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This Thursday we were at Northlands before heading to Eastgate for bus stop outreach.

Again, I relied on tracts to get conversations started.  And, sure enough, God brought along some people who were willing to chat.

I had a great conversation with two young ladies - one of whom said very early on that she thought she would be going to hell, which was surprising.  We dialoged through the law and the gospel, and then I started working on confirming that they understood it.  A few times through checking questions and I think understanding was coming.  But at the same time, there was a hardening to the message.  The cost to accept the gift seemed too great.

There was an encouraging encounter with a Christian who recognised the Eternity tract I handed to her - knowing the story behind it.  As she left, she said warmly: “this is the first time I’ve ever received a gospel tract!”.  God willing, as the years go by, may many people continue to receive tracts for the first time in Christchurch (NZ).

I had three other conversations at Northlands before heading to Eastgate: 1) A follow up with two guys I had talked to outside the bus exchange a previous Friday night - they were not interested in the gospel.  2) With two guys who had just finished high school - the building; builder / universe; universe maker analogy really helped and they listened well.

But the last conversation was with an older man who walked past and asked something about going on holiday.  I offered him a tract, and he said he already had one - so I asked him what he thought about it.  It turns out that this man had been part of a church all his early life (at least), but when I probbed him on what Christianity was all about he was clueless.  He suddenly didn’t want to talk, and turned to go.  But I stopped him, and said that this was the most important thing to think about.  I gave him a detailed tract (After Life) and asked him to read it through.  He accepted it.

At Eastgate, I had many conversations, including with an atheist, and a young man who was wrestling with some life struggles but who heard the gospel.

Friday followed the usual schedule, starting with the gospel + abortion outreach in the morning (which I posted about on the Project 139 Facebook page)

The weather changed to sour near the end of that outreach, and by the time we made it into Cathedral Square, there weren’t too many people about.  Andy and I sang a Christmas Carol with Kelvin the busker, before we headed off in search of gospel conversations.

Andy had a long conversation with a very resistant tourist (German I think), And I had conversations with two sets of people from Holland: a Christian couple, and then a young man who heard, but was resistant to the gospel.

Later in the afternoon, I open air preached and immediately following that Andy & I had a great follow up conversation with three young people.

We finished the afternoon outreach with Andy open air preaching.

The weather had improved for the evening outreach, and there were lots of people out  - I guess many were celebrating the last day of work?  There was a team of three: Andy, Mike and myself.

Andy and Mike seemed to have some great (long) conversations (as pictured).

I had two noteworthy gospel conversations: the first was with a German tourist, but the stand out was with a man who was very drunk.  He couldn’t believe I was asking him about God, but he sat me down wanting to talk.  Verbally, he was very resistant to the gospel, but he wasn’t hiding how deeply he was being impacted - the muscles in his jaw were working over time, as he processed and understood what I was saying.  He kept reflecting back to his mother who was “very spiritual”.  He took a detailed tract, and I told him to put it in his pocket and read it in the morning - I hope he does.
 

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Thursday - just after midnight - saw the opening of the new Star Wars movie.  The Christchurch (NZ) team had some Star Wars tracts left over from an outreach a few years ago (pictured in storm trooper outfits) and so it was time to give them away (minus the outfits this time)!  A team of two: Jermaine joined me.

Our plan was to turn up a couple of hours before the movie started and hand out tracts to those heading in.  We were too early - there was no one around, but God provided some wonderful follow up conversations while we waited.

The picture theater is opposite the bus exchange, and a couple of guys I’ve talked to many times before (and who I regularly pray for), were heading into it.  We headed over, and we were able to continue the conversation - they had a friend I hadn’t met before.  They invited me into the bus exchange to talk further... when I encountered yet another young man that I’ve had two good gospel conversations with before - he had some other friends I hadn’t talked to.  And then a security guard walked up… because she wanted a Star Wars gospel tract!  I couldn’t talk to all of them, so Jermaine talked with the new group, while I talked with the original group.

The two guys I have talked to many times before were still no more interested in the gospel.  But their friend was curious and so I focused on taking them through the law and the gospel.  It was difficult, because one of the other guys kept interrupting and trying to take the conversation off track.  In the end, I only had time to go through the law as their bus came.  But a detailed tract (After Life) was received.

The guys Jermaine was talking to had also left, so we headed back over to the picture theater to start handing out the Star Wars tracts.  It worked out great, as there was only one entrance - So Jermaine took one side, and I the other.  And, sure enough, plenty of Star Wars fans started appearing (many in costume) and the tracts started going out.  I had a gospel conversation with one young atheist while he was waiting for a friend.

At one point early on, one of the people that worked for the picture theater came out wondering what we were doing, when Jermaine told him his response was: “Oh, that’s wonderful - we need more people doing this!”  He was a Christian!  He helped us by collecting discarded tracts (inside the theater) and giving them back to us so we could give them to someone else.

All the tracts we had were distributed - about 200.  And the guy who worked in the theater took the last few and said he would give them out.

This outreach was a bit of a risk, as I didn’t know if it would work.  But God was faithful and brought us many opportunities for the gospel as we stepped out in faith.  I was very encouraged.  May He save some through these feeble efforts - all glory to Him!
 

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A wonderful outreach to Riccarton, Tuesday afternoon.  Roger and I - as usual.  It was windy and cold, but we missed some rain either side of the outreach - thank you Lord!

Roger had a gospel conversation started before he had barely had time to finish setting up his flip chart.  It was a long chat, but a goodie.  He was clicking his heels afterwards!

I had four interesting gospel conversations through the outreach.  I was pacing myself again, but God was faithful and brought along these people who were very keen to chat.

The first was with a young man from Scotland.  He seemed pretty resistant to the idea that God exists, but he was curious about the flip chart, and so I took him through the law and the gospel.  It turns out that the guy he works for is a Christian, and had even had him along to a church event.  This guy was obviously processing the important questions of life before he even came to me.  He left with the tract: “How we know that God exists and why it matters”.

I then had two separate conversations with Catholics.  Both thought they were good people and going to heaven, but the law showed them how good they needed to be - before I showed them the way to heaven: faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for their sin.  With one of them, it was fascinating watching the guy try to avoid the difficult question: “if you were to die today, and be judged by God, by that standard, would you be innocent or guilty?”  Each time I would just listen to his answer, and then repeat the question.  On the third time, he admitted he would be guilty.

The last conversation was with a young man on his way to work.  I didn’t need to convince him to try the good person test, he wanted to do it.  It’s like he knew what it was about and wanted to talk.  And he seemed very open.  He said there would be nothing stopping him from trusting in Jesus' sacrifice to be saved - even after he considered the cost.  So I challenged him to do so, to start reading his Bible, and to get in touch to get connected with a local church.

Wednesday was four seasons, but it didn’t stop the outreach in the city from proceeding.  I ended up parking myself at the southern entrance to Cathedral Square (without my flip chart - too windy).  In spite of the weather, I had a number of good conversations.

The first was with a young, high school aged, couple.  They were not interested in the gospel.  They clearly loved their sin too much.  But they stayed to engage, and they heard the law and the gospel.  He sobered up a little bit, as he realised the logic of what we were discussing - but the cost was way too high (for now anyway).

I then engaged in a difficult conversation with a guy, who knew he was a sinner, had tried to get involved with a church, but didn’t see any change in his life and gave it up.  I tried to share the gospel with him, but he seemed hardened.  But he accepted an “After Life” tract, and I hope it does a better job of explaining than I did.  I hope to see him again to follow up.

The last conversation was with two young Indian guys.  One seemed quite sobered by hearing the law and understood the gospel.  The other understood too, but clearly rejected it - again, after counting the cost.

Tonight (at midnight) the new Star Wars movie will be showing.  Two of us are going to try running an outreach in the two hours leading up to it outside a movie theater.  We have special tracts for this.  God willing many, who wouldn’t have otherwise, will hear the gospel.  I'll write about it in my next log entry.
 

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Continuing from my last log entry, after the gospel + abortion outreach on Friday morning, three of us went to open air preach in Cathedral Square at lunch time.

Marty preached first and attracted an early heckler who was ignored.  But soon after, an old lady walked through and stopped to listen to the gospel.  She was bold, and decided to go to the preachers defense!  She took on the heckler (see photo) who soon left!  Marty was left to preach in peace.  :)

In the afternoon, another team of three were in Cashel Mall (Roger instead of Marty).  I had a stand out conversation with a young man who was with his parents (I suppose) - he was keen to try the flip chart, but his parents couldn’t stop.  The mum just smiled, and said for me to take him through it…  It turns out he had a church background, but he wasn’t right with God.  He became very uncomfortable when we were talking about hell (I was too when I was his age before I was saved).  And so this conversation was a wake up call for him.  And then he revealed that he was recovering from cancer!  No wonder his Mum wanted him to talk to me - his parents are no doubt praying for his salvation.  He understood the gospel.

I was exhausted and on my own for the Friday evening outreach, but God helped me through and I ended up having wonderful gospel opportunities, three in particular: two of which were follow ups.

One was with a young man struggling with addiction.  I was glad to hear he had been in rehab, but then sad to hear that he had just left.  He desperately needs the gospel and so I did my best to continue to share it with him.  I will continue to pray for him.

The last was with two catholic high school students who I shared the gospel with about four months ago.  It was a long follow up, where I continued to reinforce the gospel message they had heard.  They have contact cards for my church.

On Sunday a team of four were at the corner of Cashel & Colombo for a couple of hours.  But before I arrived, just after leaving my car, I had a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel with 3 guys.  They all got my checking question (so what do you have to do to go to heaven?) correct on the first try.  They each said part of the answer: “trust”, “Jesus”, “paid the fine for my sin” - I was impressed.

After the outreach had started, I had a wonderful conversation with two young ladies.  It turns out one of them was getting baptised tonight!  And she had a good understanding of the gospel, and helped me share it with her friend, who isn’t a Christian but didn’t want to go to hell.  She understood the gospel and took a follow up “After Life” tract.  She is going to church tonight to witness her friends baptism.  Oh that she understands and accepts the gospel message too!

Later I was able to catch up with yet another old workmate - his wife took tracts.  And then a conversation with a German tourist who appreciated the conversation and “found it really interesting”.

Well it’s been a really long week (for some reason) - really looking forward to a rest tomorrow!  Thank you Jesus :)
 

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As per usual, the Christchurch (NZ) team were at the bus stops on Thursday: Eastgate then Northlands.

It was a difficult start with an older man dumbfounded that anyone would believe in God.  He was hostile.  And he denied that Jesus existed; but wouldn’t engage intellectually claiming I didn’t have the academic credentials!  Very arrogant.  We disengaged and he went to sit in the bus shelter.  About five minutes later, I had the pleasure of circling back to offer tracts to the others sitting in the shelter.  The lady sitting right next to Mr. Arrogant was very pleasant and appreciative of receiving the good news.

I wasn’t deterred and spent four hours at Eastgate having many gospel conversations.  I was very encouraged to have a follow up with a guy who had talked to one of the team about four months prior.

At Northlands, two follow ups also stand out.

The first was with a young man who seemed to be seriously contemplating the gospel.  He had questions about: what church services were like, how we talked to God, and how God spoke to us.  I encouraged him to start reading his Bible and invited him to church - but I made it clear that more important than that, he needed to consider the cost of following Jesus, and to place his trust in His sacrifice before it’s too late.

The second was with another young man who was very keen to talk.  He went through the law with me, and then I asked him if he knew anyone who was perfect and willing to pay his fine.  His face lit up and he said: “Jesus died on the cross to take away our sins” (or something like that).  I was surprised how perceptive he was and figured he had a Christian background, but it turns out that Andy had shared the gospel with him the week prior!  He had really good questions and he really enjoyed the “crossing the road” and “fireman” analogies - they really seemed to help his understanding of the gospel, faith and repentance.  He accepted a Bible and seemed really keen to start reading it.  Praise God.

Friday saw the usual four outreaches: gospel + abortion outreach in the morning, open air preaching in Cathedral Square at lunch time, Cashel Mall in the afternoon, and then the Evening outreach in the city.

The gospel + abortion outreach was very eventful.  There was a team of four.

I had a lady (and her husband, I presume) approach me.  She seemed upset, and calmly explained that she needed to vent.  I held my breath, expecting the worst - when she surprised me.  She started sharing about her grief of a loved one who was very sick in hospital - she simply needed to talk to someone to help process what she was experiencing.  I told her there was hope for eternal life, and she accepted a tract.  But, sadly, she didn’t stay to talk further.  May she read and understand the tract and get in touch.

But I was able to share the law and the gospel with another young man later on.

And Andy had a wonderful long conversation with a young man - he was sitting on the wall outside the hospital - and so Andy approached him.  After some time, he went into the hospital, but then he came back out and continued the conversation with Andy for a long time.  He accepted a Bible.

To finish off, we had some serious opposition.  A guy with a lady pushing a pram, came right up to me and wanted to know what we were doing - I was up front with him and he became very angry and mocking.  In the meantime, Sonya had started talking with the lady, and was offering her a tract, when the man grabbed it and screwed it up and threw it on the ground.  Everytime one of the guys on the team tried to engage with him, he became angrier.  He wasn’t being rational.  He came over to Andy and tried to take his tracts - which Andy politely refused him from doing.  He then had a go at Marty, swiping his sign out of his hands.  It was at this point that I told everyone to ignore him and stop responding - to allow him to vent and leave.  Which he did thankfully.  We were all safe and fine.  But it was a reminder of the strong feelings the issue of abortion and the reality of God stirs up.  This is why we are there!  It is encouraging to know we are reaching people and being effective.  Please continue to pray for the Christchurch (NZ) team as we bring the hope of the gospel to the issue of abortion outside the hospital.  All glory to God.

I will share about the other three outreaches in my next log entry (tomorrow).
 

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I found the need to pace myself on Tuesday (Riccarton) and Wednesday (Cashel Mall & Cathedral Square) - only having the energy to let people come to me, rather than being as active in getting gospel conversations started.  So I was relying heavily on my flip chart and tracts.  But God was faithful in bringing people along who were keen to talk.  It was great having Roger with me on Tuesday, as per usual.

Two great conversations on the Tuesday.

The first was with a young man on his gap year away from home: the south of the USA.  He had a disdain for Christianity, which he grew up with a form of.  Yet he was “open”.  He didn’t appreciate the basic apologetics I used explaining why there must be an afterlife - it was too simple - and life is full of grey (or so the excuse goes).  But I took him through the law and the gospel as usual.  I was also able to mix in some of my testimony which had similarities to his life.

The second was with three kids from Christchurch Boys High School.  They all heard the law and the gospel too, and then we circled back to discuss the reality of God's existence - two of which were very resistant to.

I’m trusting that the gospel is the power of God for salvation in spite of the resistance encountered in these conversations.

The first outreach on Wednesday was in Cashel Mall.  There were lots of people out and about, and there was even a brass band playing Christmas carols further down the mall - very pleasant.

I had a wonderful gospel conversation with a young kiwi guy sandwiched between two conversations with guys from India.  The first Indian guy just couldn’t grasp that salvation was a gift, and kept reverting back to thinking he had to be a good person to go to heaven.  In contrast the second Indian guy understood grace clearly from the get go.

But the conversation with the kiwi guy was special.  He had a catholic background and was confident he would be going to heaven until he tried the good person test.  I could tell he was quite impacted by the law, and it was a joy to share the good news with him.  For some reason I told him I had been to Pakistan to watch cricket, and this accelerated his interest, as he is a budding cricket player and had recently been in Sri Lanka for cricket.  It turns out that, not only had he been in Christchurch when the Mosque shootings occurred, but he was in Colombo when the church was bombed!  He explained how he had to move south and go into lock down for three weeks!  He has been close to the stench (figuratively) of death, and now he has heard the hope of eternal life, only found in Jesus.  I hope to see him in the Black Caps one day - more importantly, I hope to see him in heaven one day too.

The Cashel Mall outreach ended with a difficult conversation with a very drunk homeless guy.  In the end, I was keen for him to move on - but he took tracts.  I hope he reads them when he is sober.  And I hope to see him again soon to follow up with him.

After lunch, I was in Cathedral Square.  I set up my flip chart, but I noticed a (homeless) guy I’ve talked to multiple times before sitting in the distance - so I went over to follow up.  I’m glad I did, because not only did I have an opportunity to get to know him better, but he had multiple sets of friends come past and I had opportunities to share the gospel with all of them (some of them pictured walking away after the last conversation).  And the original guy took keen interest every time I did.  I pretty much spent the whole two hours with these various groups of people - except at one time where two girls were working their way through the flip chart on their own, before I headed over to explain it to them (they seemed quite impacted).  One of the groups were also friends with a whole other group of people I regularly have gospel opportunities with.  I’m really starting to get to know certain people out on the streets of Christchurch.  Plenty of fuel for my prayer time.  I wish I could convert all these people - but that is out of my hands.  All I can do is share the gospel, pray, and continue to be friendly and meet them where they are at.  Salvation is of the Lord.
 

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Friday night, I was dreaming about evangelism.  So I woke up feeling like I had been working all night!  But I had to get up to head out on outreach.  It was raining on Saturday too.

I set up my flip chart under the shelter of the tree at the southern entrance to Cathedral Square and I determined to take it easy.  The early part of the outreach I handed out tracts to the few people that passed and prayed.

Thankfully the rain eased and eventually two guys were intrigued enough by my “after life” question, that they turned back to talk.  They were keen to try the good person test.  One of them was an atheist/agnostic, but seemed to be impacted by the logic of the law and gospel presentation.  He asked thoughtful questions - it was an enjoyable conversation.

Another conversation I had was with a group of tourists from the UK who had come off a cruise ship and were exploring Christchurch for the day.  They were Christians, and one of them gave me a very encouraging testimony.  Years ago, he was about to walk into a pub to get drunk, when two men stopped him to share the gospel with him… one of those men became his father ‘n’ law - as he placed his faith in Christ and joined the church.

Sunday was warm and the Santa parade was on, so there were lots of people in the city.  A team of four set up flip charts at the corner of Cashel and Colombo, and we had a busy time in gospel conversations and handing out tracts.

One lady walked up to the flip chart without any prompting and was very keen to give it a try.  When I got to the “road rage” page, she paused me and wanted to know where Jesus had said Anger was murder of the heart.  I told her it was Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 and 22.  And she made me wait while she took note of that in her phone to look up later.  Once she was finally ready, I quoted the verses to her.  She seemed upset by it.  I continued on with the presentation and asked her how she would go if she was to be judged by the standard of perfection - would she deserve heaven or hell?  She became very defensive, insisting that she was a good person and that she didn’t believe in hell.  I thought she was going to bolt.  But I gently pleaded with her to hear me out - as I had good news of hope to share.  She eventually let me share the good news of the sacrifice of Jesus for sin and his resurrection defeating death and hell - by grace, through faith in Him.  I’m not sure if she understood, as she was keen to get going.  I offered her a tract - but she said she already had one!  She had been given it a few days earlier.  She accepted a different kind of tract before making tracks.

Another interesting conversation was with two high school aged young men - one who thought the way to heaven was “loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbour as yourself” - which I pointed out that I failed to do - and his friend was an atheist.  I was able to use some light apologetics to provoke the atheist into a debate, and then explain the law and the gospel to both of them.  Neither of them seemed too happy by the end of the conversation, but the atheist took a follow up tract.

Two of my daughters were on the team today, and it’s so encouraging seeing them grow in confidence in reaching out with the gospel.  Julia did a wonderful job of politely handing out tracts.  And Dani helped me with some of the flip chart presentations.  Well done girls!

Looking forward to a rest on Monday.  God bless you as you take the opportunities that come your way to share the love of Christ this week.  All glory to God!
 

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On Friday there was a team of four for the gospel + abortion outreach in the morning, two for the afternoon outreach in the city, and three for the evening outreach.  The outreaches were characterised by a few long conversations rather than lots of short ones.

I’m going to highlight three of those conversations from the afternoon outreach.  They were all special in their own way.

The first started as a result of Andy’s open air preaching.  As per the picture, there were quite a lot of people around, and the crowd grew as Andy spoke - many listening for long periods.

A young man on a scooter came a listened near the end of the preaching, and I had an opportunity to talk to him afterwards.  A high school student, who’s holidays had just started, he had the time to chat - but he was quite reserved.  I asked him what he thought of the preaching - he said it was great, which was interesting.  He believed in heaven - but not hell.  He then said that he had been going to church for two weeks.  Some friends from school had invited him.  I asked what he thought, and he said it was pretty weird - with people holding up their hands when singing.

He wasn’t clear on what the way to heaven, so I took him through the law.  When asked if he would be innocent or guilty if God was to judge him by that standard, he said he would be guilty.  But he still thought he would be going to heaven.  I asked why, and he said that his good deeds would make up for his wrong.  So I spent some time explaining why good deeds won’t solve our guilt problem.

But he still thought he would be going to heaven.  So again I asked why, and this time he said that it was because he had admitted his guilt.  So I spent the time explaining why admitting our wrong, or even being sorry for it, won’t take away our guilt.

He had run out of options, and now realised his predicament.  He wanted to know what the good news was, and it was my pleasure to explain it.  He took some follow up literature before we parted ways with a handshake.

The second conversation started as Andy and I were leaving Cathedral Square to head to Cashel Mall.  I bumped into an old workmate!  We had both changed jobs within the last two years, so we spent some time catching up.  When he asked what job I had moved to - it was a wonderful opportunity to talk about the gospel: my new job is that I’m a street evangelist!  I asked if he wanted to talk about the gospel - but he refused.  So we kept talking about other stuff for a while.  There were multiple opportunities for the conversation to end naturally, but he wasn’t taking them.  So I decided to gently shift the conversation towards the important questions of life, and it turns out he was open to chat.  In a roundabout way, I was able to share the law and the gospel with him.  There was potential for the conversation to get quite heated - but it didn’t go nuclear, which was great.  Early in the conversation, he had taken a tract, and it went with him as we parted ways.

But the best conversation was the third one.  I approached a couple that were looking pretty relaxed sitting on a seat next to a tram stop.  And a very natural conversation got underway.  And it was a very refreshing conversation in the sense that this guy was being so honest in dealing with the concepts of the gospel.  Near the end of the conversation, he wanted to talk about the “loopholes” in the gospel (e.g., if we are saved by faith, then what’s stopping us from just sinning all the more?), which just goes to show that he was truly grasping the grace of the message we were sharing - and yet he kinda already knew that there weren’t any loopholes: if we understand the amazing grace of Jesus, why would we want to sin more?  And yet he wasn’t ready to accept the gospel, he even mentioned a party he would be going to on Saturday night.  But at the same time I could see that he was deeply challenged by the gospel.  He took my last gospel booklet and promised he would read it.

It was hot on Thursday during the Nortlands and Eastgate bus stop outreaches.  But I’ve run out of time to write about them.

Thank you for continued prayer for the Christchurch (NZ) team.
 

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Warm and windy weather in Christchurch (NZ) on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Roger and I were in Riccarton in the late afternoon of Tuesday.  Roger was straight into a gospel conversation with a group of four (pictured), while things started a little slowly for me.  I was wondering if this would be another of those outreaches where nobody would stop to talk, but it wasn’t long before I was into conversations as well and the outreach got better as time passed.  It became so good, in fact, that the outreach went over by half an hour.  Two of those last conversations I’ll document:

The first started with a young man stopping and being keen to try the good person test (flip chart).  I had made it up to the “road rage” page when I notice another guy was watching the conversation from a short distance.  After a minute, to my surprise, this new guy asked if he could join in!  So with permission of the first guy, I rolled back and started the flip chart again.  I had just made it to “road rage” page again, when another three young people went passed and stopped wondering what was going on.  I offered these newbies tracts - which they accepted - but they were curious enough to want to do the flip chart as well… and then yet another guy stopped!  So all of a sudden I had six people keen to do the flip chart.  With permission of the first two guys, I rolled back and started again.

And something special happened: this group became captivated by the gospel.  It seemed to make sense, and some - by reading their facial expressions and body language - seemed quite impacted.  One of the guys even asked me to pray, and took his cap off (something I don’t normally get asked to do by people who have just heard the gospel)!  It was at this point, that the original two guys decided it was time to move on - one accepted a follow up tract, while the other refused.  But the other four stayed.  I said I don’t normally pray - but I normal plead with people not to delay in responding to the gospel.  But it seemed right, so I prayed with them.  There was a follow up question or two before they moved on as well.

But it didn’t end there.  Another group of four came past - and they were keen to give the flip chart a try - no convincing required.  This usually happens when they know what it’s all about and want to pick an apologetical fight.  But, yet again, the group became captivated by the gospel.  It was like they had been disarmed and lost all will to fight, and just started drinking in the truth of the wonderful grace of Christ in paying the terrible fine for sin.  Twice I asked checking questions, and both times, I got a clear response back showing that they were understanding.

Things were quiet for a moment, and I wasn’t sure what to do - I guess I was enjoying the wonders of the gospel myself, when - slowly but surely - the spell was broken.  One of the girls asked a question about tattoos.  And then the guy asked about drugs.  And then all their justification of sin, and reasons to question the existence of God came flooding out!  By this stage Roger had joined me, and we fielded some of their questions - but I knew it was time to disengage.  They had heard and understood the gospel, and - for now - they were clearly rejecting it.  But they all took tracts, and I hope - while they are alone - the Lord will cause them to think back to the conversation and start convicting them of their sin.  May they be saved for the Lord’s glory - they are in His hands.

On Wednesday I was in the city: Cashel Mall and Cathedral Square.  For some reason, I was feeling a little disheartened - struggling with a feeling that all I’m doing is annoying people out on the streets with a message that they don’t want to hear.  Which I know is true - but yet God has asked us to go to them with this amazing message of good news in spite of the offence it will bring, for the few that will see it as the pearl that it is.

And I had some wonderful and relaxed conversations with people: a retired couple (he went to the same high school as me which really warmed up the conversation), a teacher between jobs, a lady who worked for the city mission.  And after lunch, the stand out conversation was with some construction workers - one of whom had a Christian background but zero comprehension of the gospel.  I had to labour with him for a while to get him to understand the way to heaven.  I’m confident that he understood the paradox that it’s a gift with a cost.  He was very reflective as he walked back to work.

Today is the first anniversary of Operation 513 starting to support me so I can be out on the streets sharing the gospel of Jesus six days a week.  I’m amazed that I’ve survived this long.  I have no idea why God would want an introverted person like me, who hates conflict, to be in a role like this.  And yet, I hope the few of you who have read this far are encouraged by that.  If I can do this, so can you - seriously.  I know I have strengths that compliment my many weaknesses.  And I know you have strengths and weaknesses too - different from mine.  Together, and with God’s help, we can reach thousands with the amazing gospel of Jesus.  Join me.  All glory to King Jesus!
 

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