Battle Log

Wednesday, 25 September, 2019

Posted 25 September 2019, 5:57 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink

I’m back in Christchurch already.  The Myanmar mission was so busy and felt like it went so fast, that my brain can barely sequence the events of the trip!  And with re-adjusting my timezone, I’ve found these first few days quite difficult, esp. as I re-establish my routines!

I arrived home Saturday night, and managed to have a really good sleep, enabling me to get back on the streets in Christchurch on Sunday afternoon.

And my very first conversation was a follow up, on my way to Cashel Mall, with a guy I’ve talked to more than once before.  He had a friend with him, and they were heading to a bus stop where they were meeting more friends.  I was invited along, and had a short opportunity to talk with the whole group - before the bus came.

I finally made it to Cashel Mall, and I was very surprised to see someone, I’ve never met before, offer me a million dollar Gospel tract!  It turns out he was there with one of the newer outreach guys that I have recently met.  They had come to join me, which was very encouraging.

But having just been in Yangon, where there were scores of people willing to stop and talk about the things of God, I was surprised to remember how much fewer people there are in Christchurch, and how much more resistant they are to stop and chat.  Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of resistance in Yangon - but Christchurch is another level!  I got into a conversation with one man who was staring at the buildings about him - it turns out he hadn’t been in Christchurch since before the earthquakes and he couldn’t believe how different things are now.  But as soon as I tried to swing the conversation from the natural to the spiritual, he immediately switched off with “I used to be a Christian”, and he purposely walked away from me before putting his bag down so he could continue staring at the new Christchurch skyline.

I’m pretty sure I had at least one full Gospel conversation on Sunday, but on Tuesday I went to Riccarton mall for an earlier than usual outreach due to forecast rain - and for only the second time since starting with Operation 513 nearly a year ago, I went through a whole two hour outreach without being able to have a single Gospel conversation!  I got quite a few started, but people just weren’t interested.  I was able to hand out some tracts.  But other than that, I take solace in the fact that the outreach was successful in the sense that God was glorified in my being able to obey Him and go!

Wednesday (today), I was in Cathedral Square and outside Ara - again earlier than usual due to forecast rain.

In Cathedral Square I was able to set up right in front of the broken Cathedral (pictured), and I was able to get conversations started with various people, but I was finding it difficult to get people engaged enough for me to be able to share the Gospel.  I ended up switching to “walk up”, and managed to get a good conversation going with a lady from Melbourne.

Ara ended up being a great location for outreach.  I was there at lunch time, and there were a lot more people around - and they were willing to talk!  I had a wonderful Gospel opportunity with two young trainee chefs.  I was able to use the new flip chart from the Myanmar mission.  Both young men ended up saying they were already trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins (which was interesting, as some things they had mentioned did not line up with this).  After discussing the cost of following Christ with them more, I left them with tracts, and a request for them to get in touch if they had further questions.

After this, I had a conversation with a group of six (pictured walking away after the chat).  I was nervous about approaching such a large group of young people.  But my opening line, seemed to work out, and we were very quickly discussing the important questions of life.  Sadly, they had to go back to class before I could get to the Gospel.  All but one (the atheist) took a tract.

One thing I’ve learned from Myanmar is how to slow down to take the time to labour with people so they can understand the Gospel.  Sadly, as much as I’ve wanted to do this since I’ve returned, people just don’t seem to be as interested here to be able to do that.  Praying that God would have mercy on our city and nation, and allow us to have solid Gospel conversations leading to a change of heart.  God, have mercy?