Battle Log

Friday, 13 December, 2019

Posted 14 December 2019, 7:11 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink

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).