Battle Log
Tuesday, 2 March, 2021
Posted 2 March 2021, 3:49 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink
New Zealand Mission - Whangarei - Day Two
A wonderful second day of outreach! There is no way I’m going to be able to cover all the encounters in this short report, but I’ll do my best. We were out for six hours today - two times three hour outreaches - with an hour for lunch in between. About a team of ten today. We started in the Cameron Street Mall with prayer before pairing up and spreading out.
I was initially paired with Christine, and we quickly fell into a conversation with Greg. He was very happy to chat, and Christine quickly took control of the conversation and shared the law and the gospel with him. It turns out he doesn’t live far from the church in Kamo: Clark Road Chapel - he even knew someone who attends there! He happily took tracts, including one with Christine’s contact details.
After this, other Christians started joining the team and we decided to head down to the “Town Basin” - a lovely spot with a walking loop & cafes all on the edge of a yacht marina.
Christine and I found a seat next to the walking loop, and as people walked past we would offer tracts and try to get conversations started. Two young ladies stopped, and a conversation got rolling. There was resistance to the idea of God, but they were willing to stay to continue the conversation. They heard the law, but as I was moving to the gospel - I could tell one of them was feeling uncomfortable and wanted to move on - but they were both happy to take tracts.
We then had another two young ladies stop and they were very happy to talk about spiritual things, one asking good questions. At the end of the conversation the other said, “I’ve got goosebumps talking about this - thanks so much”. Interestingly, the two girls were in different places, and Christine and I discussed splitting the conversation in situations like that.
Well, low and behold, our next conversation was an approach of an elderly couple enjoying the marina. There was instant resistance, and yet they were very friendly - and although they said they didn’t want to talk about spiritual things, they kept engaging us! And it turns out this was a perfect situation to split the conversation. I ended up engaging the gentleman, who wanted to spar on evolution, while Christine talked to the lady. She was open, he was resistant. She heard the law and the gospel, he had his difficult questions answered and in the process came to understand the seriousness of sin. She accepted tracts, he refused. And yet the conversations were very friendly. We parted with handshakes all round - so very encouraging!
We had lunch down by the marina in the shade. And low and behold, a guy who had been talked to by Brian in the morning, came over and wanted to talk more - this time with Alan! Pictured is the team (with a sea gull in the foreground) - Alan is on the right explaining things in the tract the guy is holding.
After lunch I was paired with Phil. We had two great chats (which I’m out of time to talk about), before the team moved back to Cameron Street Mall.
Outreach continued around the Mall & I’m going to have to leave the pictures to do the talking! Many chats of all kinds: short ones, long ones, hard ones, great ones - even some opportunity for follow ups from the previous day!
So encouraging seeing so many Christians taking time out of their day to come and be involved - even if it’s only for thirty minutes. Oh Lord, please encourage your church, and use our feeble efforts for your glory.
