Battle Log

I turned up to my usual spot in Riccarton and set up my flip charting, wondering and praying about the afternoons encounters.

First up, I received some encouragement!  A bus driver had stopped in traffic directly opposite me.  The driver opened the door, and pulled a Gideon’s Bible out of his pocket to show me.  I smiled and gave him a thumbs up.  He nodded, closed the door and drove on.  To me, he was saying: “well done, I’m proud of you, keep up the good work”!

Then a guy walked past and took a tract and said that someone had already talked to him on Friday in Cashel Mall.  It was Jason!  Christchurch is a small world - encouraging.

Next up I had a young high school student surprise me by articulating the gospel quite well right off the bat - I was impressed.

I had a follow up with a lady I first met last week.  She had read the tract I’d given her, but I could tell she really didn’t want to talk about it.  So we chatted about other things for a while, and then she decided to share about someone she knew who had turned their life to God about eighteen months ago - she talked about the dramatic turn around in their life, and how she talked about God but wasn’t pushy about it… I understood, I can’t push God on to anyone.  It was a lovely chat - I hope to see her again.

I then had a chat with a guy who claimed to be Bhudist, but really just had his head in the sand in regards to the difficult questions of life.  As opposed to my previous conversatoin, I decided to be a bit forceful to try to wake this guy up.  He heard the law, and also the logic of why God and hell must exist.  But he didn’t want the good news.  He took a tract, and we parted on good terms.

Last Tuesday I posted about an interesting gospel conversation I had on the Riccarton outreach where an Indian guy got all the way through my gospel presentation saying he wanted to trust that Jesus paid his fine - but then after considering the cost of accepting the gift (last page of the flip chart) backed away. It was the last conversation of the outreach, it was a "come back" (he left but came back), and it caused the outreach to "go long".

Well, this Tuesday, on my last conversation of the day, I had a "come back" (received a tract, partly read it, and came back), which caused the outreach to "go long". This time it was with a CBHS boarder (Catholic background), and this time, even after considering the cost, he still wanted to trust that Jesus paid his "fee" (for some reason he preferred the word "fee" over "fine").

Now I'm not getting excited yet. I challenged him, that if he was serious, he was to talk it through with his parents (if they want to contact me, they are welcome). And then he was to contact me about coming along to church. He took a Bible (pictured), and various tracts. Time will tell. He is in God's hands. My gut says he needs time to consider it further, and work the implications through. Please pray for Will.

Photos, courtesy of Roger Spicer - thanks.

On Wednesday, I was in the city, most of my time was spent in Cathedral Square.

Good news!  KFC is opening up in Christchurch city!  This is the first major fast food chain to open a store since the earthquake 10 years ago.  It's a sign that people are returning to the central city - this can only be good for evangelism!

The outreach started with some good follow up conversations with homeless, or ex-homeless people that I knew.

I then got into a fascinating conversation with a young man who wasn’t shy at hiding the fact that he hated God!  I thought the conversation would die early - but he kept hanging on.  And he started to soften.  He was trying to make a distinction between us, and effectively saying his truth was true for him, and my truth was true for me.  But I gave clear arguments for why that didn’t make sense.

I was convincing him that we were equals, brothers in the sense that we were one blood before God, when he suddenly got up and approached a stranger to be an arbiter in our argument.  The stranger took my side!  And I also had an opportunity to bring the new person into the gospel conversation.  They didn’t stay long, but they did take a tract.

Even later in the conversation, a fourth person got involved - yet another opportunity to share about Christ!  He also took a tract before moving on.

By the end of the conversation, the original guy wanted to know what church I went to, and said he would come along.  I made it clear that coming to church wouldn’t make him right with good, and reiterated the gospel.  Like I said: fascinating.

The outreach ended with a great walk up opportunity with a young man from England.  He heard and understood the gospel.

As I think about it, it amazes me how many people are open enough to hear the gospel if I’m just a little bit bold in asking them a question.  Sure, I get rejected a lot, but still…  come join me in the harvest fields.

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