Battle Log
Thursday, 11 March, 2021
Posted 11 March 2021, 4:18 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink
New Zealand Mission - Week Two - Christchurch - Day Four
Today we started with gospel + abortion outreach outside the hospital. A team of eight. It started out peacefully, but then four counter protesters arrived, and then more, and the more. I lost count how many there were - 13? They were pretty well behaved, and so things proceeded peacefully. They would try to bait us into long distance exchange, but we wouldn’t - if they come up to talk reasonably, we are more than happy.
And we really want to talk! So Andy did something brilliant, he moved across from the main line, just down from where the protesters were. They couldn’t resist, and so a group of them moved down to talk to him. Sonya then went and engaged the other group. Two sets of conversations were away - praise God!
Later, one of our original counter protesters turned up - a bit of a ring leader. They put on some music with filthy language and paraded and danced in front of us. Then a song came on talking about hatred and how wrong it is, and then the song started talking about how they hated those that hated them! How ironic! And the amazing thing is - we don’t hate them, we don’t hate anyone, even our enemies. Very sad indeed.
We wrapped up the outreach and gathered to pray, they played the music right behind me while this was happening. We prayed for them! We want the best for them.
The team split up, a few of us headed into the city. Andy stayed behind because he fell into a wonderful gospel conversation with an Asian couple who came to grasp the gospel and want to start coming to church!
In the city, Marty open air preached the gospel using the NZ national anthem. Later, a large group of school kids turned up just before Andy was due to preach - perfect timing. Many of the students started listening, and even engaging with questions and responses. Not surprisingly, the teachers gathered up the students and moved on, but not before Andy was able to touch on the gospel. He continued to preach - one of our regular hecklers arrived to interact.
After lunch, a team of three continued with one to one gospel conversation on High Street and Cashel Mall. Many wonderful conversations.
The highlight for me was the last conversation I had. I was handing out Eternity tracts. A guy refused the tract, but he heard me ask: “What do you think happens in Eternity?” To my surprise, a minute later, the guy came back and engaged me in conversation. Just then, a busker came down to join the conversation - and yet she ended up killing it. The situation was out of my hands. I just prayed I would be able to get back to the original conversation. The guy wasn’t going anywhere, and the girl wasn’t going anywhere, so there was a bit of a stalemate. Eventually the girl gave up and moved on, and then the guy said: “I’ve been going to a Bible study.” Later he said that my question had caused him to come back. We sat down and had a long chat. Turns out he had nearly died a year ago, and since then he had turned back to Jesus. He really wanted to talk, and so I let him, trying to respond appropriately. My initial checking question revealed an understanding of the gospel. The guy had to go, but he wanted my contact details before he left. He said he would be in touch - I’m more hopeful than usual that he will!
Team - again, thanks for your prayers. Prayer for energy and strength, and that God would be glorified in what we do.
