Battle Log

God uses all things for the good of those who love Him.  Today I can testify to that.  You see, initially, the fact that we lost our free city parking was not good.  I do a lot of outreach in the city, and parking is not cheap!

But here are some of the good things that have come from that.  Firstly, it’s forced us to re-evaluate where we do outreaches for the better.  On Thursday we normally spend two hours in the city, and then two hours at the Eastgate bus stops.  But to save on parking, we decided to two hours at the Northlands bus stops instead of in the city before moving to Eastgate.

So Thursday became a very busy time of outreach, with the bus stops constantly refreshing the people available to talk to.

At Northlands, Andy had a special conversation with a very lonely older man.  He had no family or friends, and he spent his days riding the city buses.  He was overjoyed to have someone approach him to talk - even if it was about the Gospel, but what’s better than that to talk about? :)

Of all the conversations I had in those two hours, one of the highlights would be a conversation with a young high school student.  She denied the logic of creation being evidence of a creator, which wasn’t a good start, but rather than debate, I decided to just move on.  But she also denied that there was a universal conscience.  Again, I parked the debate, and moved on by appealing to the conscience she claimed she didn’t have.  I reasoned with her about the moral law of God.  She listened and seemed to understand, so I shared the precious good news of Christ.  Afresh I had the realisation that it’s the Gospel that is the power of God to salvation, and the law that brings the knowledge of sin.  Apologetics is secondary.

Eastgate was, as always, a wonderful time of ministry.  And we have so many opportunities to follow up with people previously talked to, as well as many fresh faces to share with.

I was very encouraged to re-encounter two young high school students, one of whom shared a testimony of how God was changing his life!  I encouraged them to get in touch with me, and to join me in outreach.

Andy & I also had a long Gospel conversation with the guy who converted to Islam after the Mosque shootings in March.

The second benefit of losing our free city parking is that I’m now doing more outreach on Fridays, and I’m realising that my outreach stamina is greatly improved since moving into full time ministry.  Because I now have to pay for parking, it’s cheaper to pay for all day.  But that means I would have to pay twice if I was to go home between the afternoon and evening outreaches.  So the solution is to just stay out and share the Gospel between outreaches!  This has also led me to discover that the dusk period is great for outreach, as I have the opportunity to reach many people as they leave their jobs to head home.

So last Friday I managed to do ten hours of outreach.  And today I managed eleven!  I admit I was very tired for the afternoon outreach - but I pushed through ok.  I appreciate that I probably won’t be able to maintain this pace long term, but it is very encouraging knowing that God is sustaining me.

It was very encouraging having six people involved with the Gospel + abortion outreach outside the hospital - including two newbies.  Four held signs, and two were free to try to engage people in conversations.

I thought this would be the first outreach with no major attacks from people who disagree with us.  But five minutes before the outreach was scheduled to end, a passionate hospital worker came out to give us a piece of her mind.  I was sad, yet encouraged.

The afternoon outreach started with both Andy & I having opportunity to open air preach.  We then headed to Ara to engage students with the Gospel.  Andy had a wonderful opportunity to minister to a lady who had, sadly, lost her sister two days prior.  Death was at the forefront of her mind.

As I walked from Ara back into the city I had some wonderful follow up conversations with people I had shared with on previous outreaches.

A team of three were involved with the final outreach of the day.  In spite of the cold, many wonderful opportunities were had to share Christ.

I got to see Mr Angry again (he won’t give me his name).  I haven’t found a way to get past his bluster and start having a real conversation with him.  I will add him to my prayer.

As always, thank you for your continued prayer and support of the Christchurch (NZ) team.  All glory to God alone!
 

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