Battle Log

Tuesday, 14 February, 2023

Posted 14 February 2023, 8:09 AM by Glen Richards. Permalink

Just a short report to cover last week, as I took the weekend off to be involved with my church camp - which was awesome!  Roger joined me on Tuesday in Riccarton, and John was with me in the city on Friday.

Tuesday’s outreach felt special, as I had a couple of memorable gospel chats with people, as well as follow-up opportunities with some high school students.

But firstly, I want to mention that I had 4 university aged kids go past, they saw my flip chart, and joked with me as they went past.

Then I fell into a chat with a young lady who seemed to have an understanding of the gospel, but not precisely.  It turns out she had an ‘Orthodox’ and ‘Latin’ background.  So I focused on being precise in how salvation doesn't involve works (something the Orthodox sadly teaches).

As she moved on, I noticed some people sitting in the seats behind me.  It was the 4 university students!  They came back and wanted to talk.  I think they were curious as to why I was on the street corner.  We fell into a gospel conversation (1 was a Christian, 2 were atheists, and 1 didn’t want to think about it).  And after sharing the gospel with them, it turned into a bit of a Father speaking to his children kind of discussion.  I remembered when I was their age, at a crossroads - I took the wrong path.  And I wanted to save them some pain.  I pleaded with them to trust in Christ today, and not follow the path I took.

On Friday I was handing out tracts when a young lady went past and took one.  She said she thinks about the afterlife all the time.  She believed in God and heaven & hell - so I asked her what she had to do to get to heaven.  She immediately pointed to her works: bible, prayer, church.  I gently tried again, and so she went to the greatest commandments (the law) as the reason she’ll get to heaven.  I prompted again, and she finally swung to the right answer: Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.  It was very concerning.  What concerned me more is that she was on her way to the library to prepare a talk for a church group she is involved with.  Without asking her to respond to me, I pleaded with her to examine herself and check if she was really still trusting in her works for salvation, or in Jesus' sacrifice alone.  Strangely, she started talking about how many think they are Christians and are not.  I don’t know if she realised that this was my concern for her!  She left with a tract “Who Made It”, and I asked her to review it carefully, and get in touch if she had any questions.

I’m moving into a busy period of special outreaches.  And I’d appreciate you keeping the team in prayer:
Sat, 18th Feb - Training + Training Outreach: https://tellmeconference.org.nz/training/
Sat, 25th Feb - Kaikoura A&P Show (in conjunction with Christians coming down from Blenhiem).
Tue, 28th Feb till Fri, 10th Mar - Philippines Trip
Sat, 25th Mar - Malvern A&P Show
Sat, 1st Apr - Oxford A&P Show
Sat, 8th Apr - Easter Outreach
Mon, 10th Apr - Easter Outreach

Thanks and God bless! :)