Battle Log

Wednesday, 3 February, 2021

Posted 3 February 2021, 5:42 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink

On Tuesday I was back in Riccarton.  I letterbox dropped either side of ‘walk up’ outreach on Riccarton Road.  And I had a couple of interesting chats.

The first was an encounter with one of our open air preaching hecklers from Cathedral Square on Fridays.  He’s not a very vocal heckler - but he chimes in from time to time.  Anyway, he seemed to see me on Riccarton Road, and so he stopped to talk.  It was an extremely friendly conversation where I had a chance to learn his name and more about himself.  He didn’t deny the existence of a higher power, but he didn’t believe in anything further than that.  I warned him that everything in me wanted to convince him otherwise!  He said he needed to be somewhere and had to go, but he was happy to take a tract and read it.  I’m now looking forward to seeing him again in Cathedral Square - God willing!

The other chat was with an elderly gentleman.  It was a longish one.  He was subtly resistant - refusing to answer some of my questions, and changing the subject.  He liked to talk, so I let him, with gentle interruption to remind him of what was important in regards to the reality that we will all die one day.  He was lovely to chat with though: he had been in the British Merchant Marine and so had travelled extensively.  We had a connection in that we had both been to Myanmar.

I had one other short chat, with a young guy who actually knew the gospel - his background was Anglican.  Although I’m not sure if he was a Christian.  He had to move on - wanting to catch up with his friends.

After being in Riccarton I was online with the team.  Seven solid chats.

I had an interesting chat with a girl who was resistant, but I was able to touch on the law and the gospel with her.  But, later in the conversation I ended up circling back to talk about how we know that God exists.  Her response was to scream while disconnecting!

A chat with a guy with a Christian background, but wasn’t a Christian.  He came to grasp the gospel - I knew, because he said something along the lines of: “that means we can do whatever we want”.  I addressed that (we won’t want to).  But he bucked and quit.

I had a fascinating chat with a kid who had perfect responses to my gospel questions.  He recognised my voice?  Maybe he had seen some of my online videos?  He said he had been a Christian for a year or so - but he wasn’t really reading his Bible, and he wasn’t part of a Church.  I pointed him to both before we disconnected.

On Wednesday I was online with the team again.  Six solid chats - some of them longer.

I had a great chat with a smart kid who read the question on my wall and said, “oh, my - that is a really great question!”  We fell into an easy conversation where he came to grasp the good news.  His response was to say: “You should write a book, I’d buy it!”  My response was to say I didn’t need to - there already is one: the Bible.  I pointed him to Romans.

I had a long chat with a false convert who came to grasp the gospel and was really thankful.  I pointed him to his Bible and back to his church (he hasn’t been for a long while).  I specifically pointed him to his pastor to discuss the gospel.

I had a few apologetics battles that I actually enjoyed for a change.  A guy from the UK who quit.  An interesting chat with a guy who looked at stars as the creators of the universe: “and so at least one star must be intelligent” - !?  He came to hear the gospel, but was very resistant to it and fell straight back to pointing to his goodness to save him.  I became bold with him out of love, but he didn’t like that - the connection froze soon after that.

I had an interesting chat with a guy whose friend was on his phone and kept saying: “He’s from Tik Tok, he is going to talk to you about God”.  Eventually I said, “yes, I’m on Tik Tok, and I want to talk about God - so let's talk”.  They were both involved with church, but he didn’t have a good grasp of the gospel.  I didn’t really get a chance to talk to the girl on the phone.  But they both were deeply appreciative for what I was doing.

My last chat was with a very intellectual lady from the UK who eventually said something like: “well, I’m bi, so I won’t make it”.  Well, I had good news for her.  She was still very resistant by the end, but it was a good friendly chat - if not a bit of a battle.  I leave her in God’s hands.