Battle Log

Sunday, 26 June, 2022

Posted 26 June 2022, 3:52 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink

It was great having a week’s holiday and spending time with my family.  God is so good.  But this week I was back on the streets! :)

It was so good being in church this morning and listening to the preacher teach from God’s word on prayer.  He used an illustration from the life of George Mueller that brought me to tears, and convicted me on my own lack of prayer and trust that God will actually answer.

Anyway, today as I made it to my regular outreach spot (cnr of Colombo and Cashel) as I set up my flipchart and sat down to pray, as per usual, I was so encouraged when God answered my prayer before I had even had the time to finish!  (Maybe I should pray BEFORE putting up my flipchart! :D )  Someone was standing in front of the flipchart, and I was straight into a conversation!

Later, Susan came to join me.  I was already deep in a conversation, but when it finished, I greeted her and suggested we pray… but before we did, we decided to move across the road to the sunny side (it was a warm day, but it was starting to cool down).  Low and behold, one of my regulars was there, and we actually got into a gospel conversation (he has heard it plenty of times before, but God hasn’t opened his eyes to it yet).  After that chat, Susan reminded me we hadn’t prayed yet!  So we sat down and did just that before getting into more conversations.

Soon after we prayed a young couple, who had talked to Susan before, turned up.  They were relativists, and were using it as a basis to make themselves god (so grievous).  It was mostly a friendly chat, but became very intense as I showed them how an absolute God must be real and the basis for the shared reality we are in.  They said the most absurd things (1+1=3 in my reality), and then would instantly contradict themselves (there is no right or wrong, but you are wrong).  In the end, they admitted they held their position so they can live as they like.  Sadly, the guy started to get angry with me.  When I calmly said there is no need to get angry, it only made him more angry, but he had to contain it, because it contradicted his argument for a world without anger!  It was frustrating and it was time for the chat to end.  They were polite as they left, but I was still feeling the sparks of battle.  Susan and I prayed for those 2 kids.  Sadly, they didn’t get to hear the law or the gospel, but I hope they will be challenged enough to be open to a reasonable discussion in the future.  God have mercy!

So many other great conversations today.  The last one was with a ‘Christian’ who was clearly pointing to his good deeds as the reason he was going to heaven.  I was able to gently, but pointedly show him that he is not currently a Christian, and explain the good news of how to become one!  I also had a full gospel chat with a young guy who identified himself as pagan.

Moving back in time, sadly, I wasn’t able to make it out to Riccarton on Saturday, but Roger and I were in the city on Friday.  It was a new public holiday in New Zealand, and there were LOTS of people on the streets that wouldn’t otherwise have been.  For some reason, I was feeling exhausted; I didn’t have the energy to get conversations started (like I did today).  So I just did my best to hand out gospel tracts to the people flowing past.  When Roger arrived it was great to see him enthusiastically engaging people (pictured).  At least one of us was able to!

On a whim, I decided to go for a walk and headed towards Cathedral Square.  It was providential, because I ended up encountering three kids at preacher's corner and having a wonderful chat with them.  Two of the three of them engaged really well, and we had a long gospel chat.
On Tuesday, Roger and I were at Riccarton.  This outreach was so long ago now that I can barely remember the details.  I’m sure I had some chats!  But I remember 2 things: 1) It was cold and got dark early (we have now passed the shortest day), and 2) Roger was having heaps of good chats!  (I tried to take some snaps, attached to this report).

I’m so grateful for the privilege of being able to focus on this work for the Lord’s glory.  Thank you for enabling me to do it, and please remember to keep us in prayer! :D