Battle Log

The good news is that the Covid-19 restrictions in NZ are being loosened.  It looks like we will be able to get back to the streets - with some restrictions.  We are intending to test the waters, in Christchurch, NZ this coming Friday.

It’s actually been hard work adjusting my routine from work on the streets to online.  But it was such a valuable process - and we have learned so much.  Now that I’m established in this new routine, it’s going to be difficult to transition back again - especially with winter setting in.  But I’m hoping some kind of online outreach will continue to be part of my work week once things are back to “normal”.

This report covers online outreach on Tuesday and Wednesday.

As I look at my notes from yesterday (Tuesday), I struggle to remember the faces of the people I’ve talked to.  The reason why is that, with online evangelism, it’s so easy to get conversations started, and so you just talk to so many people.

You get the same thing with street work, but often you’ll see people become interested, and then you can watch the penny drop - it’s so encouraging.  And then, after challenging them to respond, you have to leave them in God’s hands.  I occasionally say to people: “I’ll never see you again in this life, but I hope to see you in heaven”.

An interesting conversation that stands out was one with a guy who’s fire alarm was beeping, indicating it needed a battery change.  I was able to reference this when I was explaining the fireman analogy.  And I was able to remind him to change the battery!

The highlight conversation from Tuesday was a long conversation with a 17 year old kid who was very bright.  It turns out that he had grown up with a mum who had to learn life lessons the hard way - and so she was sheltering him from making the same mistakes.  This is not bad, but the effect on him was to moralise him.  Because he hadn’t gotten into trouble in his life, he considered himself a very good person.  This made what I said very confronting.  He was comparing himself to the wrong thing!  I had to labour with him on this, and he finally came to terms with what I was saying, and then I was able to share the good news with him.  He was highly engaged, and seemed to be really appreciative.  He said that no one had preached to him in this way before.  As always, I leave him in God’s hands.

Today (Wednesday), my first conversation was with a 14 year old “pastor”!  There was a problem with his mic, and I couldn’t hear him, nor him me, so we reverted to text chat while being able to see each other:

You: Can you hear me?
Stranger: Can u hear me ?

And so, instantly I wanted to check where he was at:

You: ok, can I ask you a checking question... don't be offended....
Stranger: sure
You: What do we have to do to go to heaven?
Stranger: obey his rules
Stranger: Commandments
You: ok, how you going with that?

Wrong answer, and very concerning.

Sadly, he didn’t want to talk for long.  But he gave me contact details, and I gave him needGod.net - saying he could contact me from there.

It finished like this:

You: pretend I'm a random on Omegle, what would you say to me?
Stranger: and I would say... no matter what u do, god loves u

If he’ll respond, I’ll try to follow him up.

PS, In the picture, I was able to use the sign on the wall in the conversation!
 

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