Battle Log

Friday, 29 January, 2021

Posted 30 January 2021, 6:47 AM by Glen Richards. Permalink

On Thursday morning I awoke refreshed with a clear head (no tension or residual ache).  I was very grateful for this facing two busy days of outreach.  Due to the rainy weather, I spent the whole day in some very fruitful online evangelism.  Friday we were online and in Christchurch (NZ) city.

So, Thursday, I had about twenty five gospel conversations through the day (no technical hiccups this time).  Here are some highlights:

I was connected with a guy from India, who was Hindu.  He was very resistant to the gospel, but he was nice and it was a great chat.  We ended up talking for about thirty minutes.  The resistance was clear from him pretty much refusing to answer my questions.  Yet, he heard the law and gospel.

A wonderful twenty minute chat with a teen guy.  By the end of the conversation he said, “I need to sit and process this”, “but I want you to know, though, there is a good chance I’ll remember this for the rest of my life”, “we do online school now because of Covid… I think I’ve learnt more in the last few minutes than the whole last semester of school”.  I pointed him to the Bible.

A lovely twenty minute chat with a Muslim man from Morocco.  Sadly, he was a tour driver before Covid, but now there is no tourism he is out of work and living on savings.  He came to hear the gospel and he then wrestled with the cost of conversion.  He said: “It’s impossible for me”.  I instantly thought of Mark 10:27: Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Soon after I had another conversation with a Muslim man from Morocco.  He seemed impacted, but resistant.

Yet another twenty minute chat - this time with a recovering addict.  He seemed irritated at the beginning of the conversation, but then when understanding of the gospel took hold, he lightened up and opened up.  He had some good questions about hypocrisy in the church.

The last chat I’ll mention from Thursday was one with a lady who was a dentist in Sudan - I think that’s the first time I’ve talked to someone from there.  She was Muslim and very resistant to the gospel, sadly.

Friday morning I spent a couple of hours online before heading into the city.  Some great chats:

Two boys being silly online.  One became engaged and was trusting his good deeds and church going to get him to heaven.  After hearing the gospel, he had a very visible ‘I get it now’ reaction.  The other kid had been listening, and wanted me to wait so he could look up needGod.net before I left.

I had yet another chat with a guy from Morocco!  Before heading into a wonderful chat with a 17 year old guy who had just this year started rejecting his Catholic faith.  He heard the gospel and said: “I think I’m a Christian now”.  He encouraged me to keep doing what I was doing - I told him to join me!

We were in Cathedral Square and Cashel Mall from lunch time and into the mid afternoon.  Andy preached wonderfully!  He’s turned a new leaf.  He is navigating the paradox of repentance and faith so clearly.  And he is handling the hecklers so respectfully, gently yet faithfully dealing with their questions one by one.  A week or so ago I wrote about a heckler who almost came to blows with another member of the public during Andy’s preaching.  Well, today he came up to Andy and shook his hand!

I have to admit I’m still smarting from the difficult encounter I had on Tuesday.  I’m feeling shy, and flinching a bit in one to one conversations.  Yet, I had a nice long chat with one of my regulars in Cashel mall.  He has heckled my preaching in the past.

In the late afternoon and early evening I was online again.  Something weird happened.  I hit a “gospel flow”.  I used to get this a lot in my previous career as a software developer.  You would hit a vein of productivity, and you would mentally stand back and wonder where it was coming from!  Well, I started having wonderful gospel chats.  I was talking with two guys, and after some initial apologetical sparing, one turned to the other and said: “He’s icing you man!” (or something like that).  They both came to grasp the gospel, then slip and lose it (thanks to checking questions for detecting), and then had it re-explained.

The final chat of the day was epic.  With a deeply hurting guy who’s mum had died a few months prior and whose wife had left him a few weeks back.  He was drinking alcohol.  He was very angry, and he was directing it at me because of who I was representing.  I didn’t address his anger intellectually, but with empathy.  He wasn’t expecting that, and it completely deflated his anger.  We then ended up switching to the intellectual side of things - it was still a battle, but it was different.  I was no longer his enemy, but a friend saying some hard truths.  I had to try to rein in my passion.  By the end of the conversation he said: “you haven’t changed my mind, but there were multiple times I was nearly in tears.  Thank you so much for what you are doing.” (Or something like that).

I don’t write this to boast in myself, but to boast in God.  His gospel is amazing!  The gifts he gives us are amazing.  All glory to him alone!