Battle Log

A busy week this week.  Street outreaches to Riccarton on Tuesday afternoon, and into the city on Friday afternoon.  And then on Saturday we were at the Ellesmere A&P Show.  Also busy with outreach online - that was so good.

Starting with Tuesday, honestly, it was a bit of a slow outreach (cold and dreary day - may have had something to do with it).  The reality is, not every outreach is going to be filled with stella gospel chats.  But we plod on anyway!  I was able to have some chats with people.  One in particular stands out in my mind, a young man who has been involved in a youth group and so was familiar with some of the lingo.  He came to grasp grace, and even made a profession of faith.  On the other side of the street, Roger was having an interesting chat with a young Muslim lad (pictured).  It was a fairly intense conversation at times!  We ended up wrapping up the outreach early and having a cuppa.

Friday’s outreach was really interesting.  Mark joined Roger and I.  I paired up with Mark for the first 30 minutes or so - before he had to leave.

I then needed to fill up my drink bottle when I noticed a couple of young ladies protesting against the CCP (as far as I could tell, against human rights violations). I went over to open dialog with the intention of swinging the conversation to the basis for human rights: the reality of God, and then what the ultimate solution to the problem must be: Jesus.

The conversation was rolling when all of a sudden a group of Chinese tourists went past.  They were disgusted at the protest, and they didn’t hold back in expressing their very intense anger at it.  I was shocked at their intensity!  But the protesters weren’t, one of them just pulled out her phone and started filming.

This fascinated me, and so I tried to engage the tourists, but they walked off.  Suddenly, another Chinese couple came up, their anger was just as intense!  This time I succeeded in engagement, I was able to pull this couple aside and start a conversation to try to understand the emotion.  It took some time, but I was able to get them to calm down a bit, while I was listening to their reasoning.  I was successful in eventually swinging the conversation to root causes, “where does absolute right and wrong come from?”  When they realised where I was going, you could tell they didn’t like the implications.  They tried to switch the conversation away from root issues back to fruit issues, but I was able to swing it back again.  I was successful in showing how we know there is a universe maker that would be the basis for absolute truth, and then I was able to take them through the law.  In this situation, it had a powerfully humbling effect.  But, before I could share the gospel, they suddenly said, “we need to get to the Museum”.  I wasn’t surprised!  They had some things to think about!  I was pleased when they both accepted tracts.  And we parted ways with handshakes.  Great chat!  I love learning about people and what makes them tick!

I went back to the protesters, and I was able to finish up a warm conversation with them.  I was able to touch on the law and the gospel with them as well.

Those interactions ended up taking most of the rest of the outreach.

The Ellesmere A&P Show had nice sunny weather, but there was a very very strong wind.  The pictures don’t do it justice.  Other stalls had to pack up and leave, because it was just too windy to be practical for them.  We managed to set up, although we kept the gazebo in the low setting, and we had to tie down the flip chart stands, and hold the flip charts tightly!  We decided to proceed with the outreach, and it wasn’t long till Andy was into the first chat.  We ended up in outreach for a total of 4 hours, before we finally decided to pack it up (after getting emergency texts on our phones about the winds).

We ended up with a team of 6 running the site (pictured).  But if it hadn’t been so windy, we would have had a team of 10, which is decent for an outreach like this.  By mid week, I was concerned that there would only be 3 of us (Andy, Lily and myself), but with some desperate messages, and a facebook post, it was great to have the calvary arrive. Thanks so much team!

So, even though my hands got quite sore having to hold the flip chat pages in place against the wind, I ended up having some wonderful gospel conversations.

My first was with a young couple.  He was struggling to grasp grace, so I had to labour, but it was fascinating watching her face, as she became more and more interested in the good news I was sharing.  The gospel is so amazing when truly grasped.

The other chat that really stands out in my mind was a long one.  Four young people boldly approached me, and I suspected I’d be in for a fight - I wasn’t wrong.  I reasoned with them for a long time, and in the process answered their objections and shared the gospel.  I had to deal with the 2 most common questions: 1) evil and suffering, and 2) homosexuality.  I was able to be faithful in explaining that homosexuality is a sin, and yet demonstrate that I don’t hate or fear anyone, and that there was forgiveness for sin in Christ.  By the end of the chat, one of the guys was willing to open up that he was gay, and even in a relationship with one of the other guys in the conversation.  They refused to give up their Idolatry (making a god that says they can sin), but I could tell they were understanding the good news of Jesus.  We finally parted ways on good terms (although we disagree).  The gospel is the power for salvation!  I leave them in God’s hands.

One other chat comes to mind.  It was with a young man with really frizzy hair.  It was awesome seeing what the wind did to his hair!  But what was great about the chat was seeing him go from joking about the conversation, to slowly sobering up about the seriousness of the situation of sin and hell.  By the end of the chat he seemed genuinely impacted, and thanked me with a firm handshake.

God is good!

Because we left the A&P Show early due to the wind, I ended up joining the training outreach online.  I was paired up with Issac in Sydney who did a fantastic job!  I had 3 conversations. The 2nd was awesome, because the young man came to truly grasp the gospel (he was close but so far), he was genuinely stoked by it!  And the 3rd chat was amazing too, the young lady came to tears as she came to understand the grace of Christ.

Anyway, that’s a wrap for this week.  Keep up the good work of sharing Christ with others!  Be encouraged!
 

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