Battle Log

Sunday, 25 June, 2023

Posted 25 June 2023, 2:34 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink

Another week of God’s patience, that could run out at any moment.

And I just witnessed this online evangelism stat pop up, we have just hit 10,000 hours in gospel chats as a team:

Team Milestone: Had 10,000 hours in chats as a team across 43,997 chats in 2 years 3 months!
191 Countries reached (76%).  58 Countries to go!

All glory to God alone.

Well, in regards to the street work.  This week I was at all the normal outreaches, except Riccarton on Saturday - due to rain.

On Tuesday afternoon, I was in Riccarton with Roger.  I had significant chats with people from overseas.  They came to hear the gospel!  One of the guys was from Chile (if I heard him right) and another from France.  They were both open to a conversation, but they were both resisting the gospel due to idolatry (they want to make God rather than acknowledge that God made them).  Yet, they both clearly heard the law and the gospel.

Roger was busy on the other side of the street.  As the outreach came to a close at 5:30 pm, I noticed that whoever was talking to Roger was being pretty intense.  In his face.  I packed up my flip chart a little early and headed over to see what was going on.  Sure enough, an Atheist was in attack mode - Roger was holding his own.  Ya know, most of the people I talk to are not Atheists - it’s logically silly to hold that position.  I want to push this guy back a bit, and couldn’t help joining the fray (verbally).  I could tell the guy and his friend were not open to reason, and I could give a fair guess why: again Idolatry - ‘I want to be god and make the rules’.  So I shut the conversation down, with an offer to continue the chat online.  They both received tracts with how to get in touch.

One of my daughters has started a job at McDonald’s in Riccarton mall just round the corner from where we outreach.  I had to wait for her to finish her shift, and so I shouted Roger some McDonald’s so we could catch up while I waited.

As we were talking, suddenly a fight broke out behind Roger.  Right in the food court, in Riccarton Mall, about 15 teen guys started having a very serious fist fight.  It was horrible.  Chairs were thrown, children were crying, people were standing round stunned, or trying to calm things down.  I was one of the stunned ones, Roger was in there trying to stop it.  I felt very unsafe.  The fight went for at least 10 minutes.  And it moved up and down the mall.  Security didn’t seem to be able to do anything to stop it.  I took some video footage as evidence, and then I called the police (yet again).

I felt angry.  I wanted to do something about it.  I could see some of the problems, and political policy started formulating in my mind.  Yet, as essential as sound political policy is, it’s nothing without getting to the root of the issue.  The root of the issue is sin.  And the only solution is the gospel.  This motivates me, even more, to focus on reaching people with the good news of Jesus.  It’s God’s will that his mercy be demonstrated, and we need to be praying that his will be done, and get out to proclaim the gospel!  God, have mercy on my city, nation, and the nations of the world!
Finally the fight stopped (or moved out of the mall, I don’t know), and things started to return to normal.  To my horror, a couple of the kids came back.  They were looking for a phone that was lost.  They should be in prison after what I saw them do.  One of them was a chair thrower.  One of them approached me to ask if I’d seen the phone.  I gave him a tract and asked if he believed God was real.  “Yeah, I believe in God.”  I was angry, and so I said, “So, do you believe in hell?”  There will be consequences for our actions.  My daughter finished work and I didn’t want her near these guys after what I had witnessed.  I queried the security guard as to why they were let back in.  He seemed to think they weren’t at fault!?  Out on the street.  As I was walking towards my car, with my daughter, I spotted another group of them.  I didn’t feel safe.  It took me a few days to process this.  The gospel is the ultimate solution!  I want these kids to know God's mercy.  Yet, God will also be glorified in demonstrating his justice.

Friday (Roger, John, Andy and myself) and Sunday (Susan and myself) the team was in the city.

On Friday I was saddened to talk to a lady with a Christian background.  I try to be really gentle in checking gospel understanding, but she gave me the anti-gospel (works) as the reason she gets to heaven.  When I gently tried to point this out, she doubled down.  Resistant and not open to talk about it.  I ended up having to shut down the conversation.  I also received ‘tracts’ from 2 different people.  One was against a cashless society.  The other was against vaccine mandates.  I was able to get into a conversation with the anti-vaxxer, but she didn’t want to talk about the deeper issue of what happens after life.  The thing I learnt most through the Covid period is how to love those I strongly disagree with - and I told her this.

Sunday was cold, but Susan and I had some good opportunities to engage people with the gospel, through conversation and tracts.  We weren’t far from the JW’s with their stands.  And I caught them glancing at me multiple times.  I think they were able to hear the gospel conversations I was having.  I hope to see them again, and God willing, have meaningful gospel conversation directly with them too.  May God open their eyes.  Have mercy on our land!