Battle Log
Sunday, 11 June, 2023
Posted 11 June 2023, 2:51 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink
Another week of God’s patience has passed. Another week of gospel outreach is complete. This week I decided to let Riccarton lay fallow. I would have been on my own on Tuesday and Saturday, and so I decided to work online instead, for various reasons. But Andy was with me for Friday afternoons outreach in the city, and Susan and Binu were with me for the Sunday afternoon outreach in the city.
I had two very poignant online conversations on Friday. You can actually watch them on YouTube here.
The first was a fifteen minute chat with a guy from Canada. Early in his life he had been very scared of death - but no longer, he had reconciled it. I thought he was going to say he had reconciled it by pretending that God isn't real. But to my surprise he said he became a Christian! But sadly he was pointing to his works as the reason he was saved. It turns out he was Orthodox. It was a very profitable conversation in the sense that he seemed to be engaged in the gospel clarification I was bringing. I think he was challenged, as part way through the check questions, he skipped the conversation. Oh well, I was very grateful for the opportunity to plough and sow into his life.
The second was a 30 minute chat with a guy from Saudi Arabia. I don’t often talk to people from there, and I again have the wonder afresh of the fact that the Holy Spirit can beam me into someone’s life for a moment to minister the gospel and then beam me away again. Online evangelism is a neglected harvest field of the church. It’s a gold mine of opportunity! What’s even more amazing is that I can stay in contact - via Instagram messenger. Not surprisingly he was a Muslim. Now, I talk to a lot of Muslims, and I’m familiar with the ways they usually resist the gospel. So, it was to my surprise that he didn’t resist in those ways. At one point he even seemed to concede to what I was saying. I was very encouraged.
The afternoon street outreach with Andy was wonderful. No flipcharts. We just paired up, prayed, and moved down the street to engage with people walk up style. We took turns leading the conversation. There were many opportunities. I’d guess that we had about 15 conversations in total. We ended up in Cathedral Square, and then headed back to the Bridge of Remembrance. Some of the chats went well in the sense that people engaged naturally. Some of the chats were awkward. Some of the chats involved resistance. In most of the chats, both the law and gospel were ministered.
Andy ended up getting a chat started with a lady from France (she had been in NZ since January, and was heading back in a few weeks). I decided to leave him to that, and went off to have my own conversations. I got into a very interesting chat with a couple of construction workers that came from Chile. It was an interesting chat because the one who denied God seemed to be convicted (& resistant) and the one who believed in God became thoughtful.
The outreach ended with two great short conversations. One with an atheist who quickly backslid to agnosticism and heard the law and the gospel. He stayed resistant but seemed to appreciate the chat. The other was with two young ladies: one with a Mormon background, the other who “loved Christians”. They both heard the law and the gospel, and left with tracts.
Sunday was a sunny but cold day. I saw TK (one of my regulars) and his dog, called boy, and so I went to say hello before getting into the outreach. The JWs were set up in my usual spot, and their sign said, “when will suffering end?” And so I decided to go and ask them why they thought God allows evil and suffering. I didn’t spend much time with them, but it was an opportunity to get to know them.
I started handing out tracts and was quickly into a conversation with 3 young lads. They were keen to engage, in fact, one of them pulled out their phones to record. It didn’t seem like a set up, but I didn’t have any problem with it. I have nothing to hide. One of them took point and did most of the talking. It was clear he was keen for an apologetics battle - I was happy for that, but I didn’t let it distract from getting to the law and the gospel. My check questions revealed that 2 of them just weren't engaged (not surprising because I wasn’t focusing on them). But the main talker came to understand the gospel, even if he is rejecting it at this moment. They all left with tracts.
I then had a lot of encouragement. A guy that I’ve been talking to, on and off over the last 5 years, came past. He was in a cult that accepted all the books of the Bible except Paul’s letters. He was very much a legalist and proud of it. Our discussion times in the past were often a bit heated. To my surprise, he said that he has had a change since we last talked (about 6 months ago). He is now out of the cult and going to a local church! We ended up sitting down and having a long catch up. He is still not articulating the gospel clearly, but there is a change in him, and he is open to discuss and learn. He is serving in the church, and he’s doing a bible study course that is helping him sort through all this stuff (I’ve done a quick Google search, and no red flags jump out). We have exchanged phone numbers, and I hope to see him again. I’m just rejoicing that God is sovereign and God can save and change us for his glory.