Battle Log
Saturday, 21 October, 2023
Posted 21 October 2023, 11:12 AM by Glen Richards. Permalink
A shorter week of outreach this week, because today I’m heading to Wellington for a week of outreach with Craig and the team at Calvary Wellington.
To conserve my energy, I cancelled the outreaches in Riccarton (Tuesday and Saturday), so the only scheduled outreach was Friday - in the city. But, we heard a special announcement, the Living Waters team would be filming for the Way of the Master TV Show in Christchurch on Wednesday and Thursday - and so I had to check that out!
Sure enough, on Wednesday & Thursday evening, they were at the Bridge of Remembrance. There were quite a number of Christians who had turned up to say hello and see them in action. They focused on open air preaching, and used various techniques, including: trivia & giving away money, comedy & communication skills, flip charts and sketch boarding. Those who spoke included: EZ, Mark Spence, Oscar, Ben Price, Eddy Roman, and Chris Sandford from Living Waters Down Under. They all did an excellent job! Glory to God alone.
It was great to see people stopping and engaging as they all preached the same message: the gospel of Jesus!
On Thursday afternoon, they did some filming with a focus on how to hand out gospel tracts. I somehow managed to be roped into this, and was even mic’d up for it! It was fun.
Before the open air preaching, on Thursday evening before the Living Waters team arrived, I had some time and managed to get into some gospel chats for 30 minutes or so. I had a long chat with 2 guys who were already very drunk - it was only barely past dinner time! They were resistant, but I calmly spared with them, answering their objections and tenaciously sticking to the task of sharing the law and the gospel. And I succeeded in that task! If they will remember it is another thing - but that is in God’s hands anyway. Later, I had a chat with a young couple. I think I’ve talked to the guy once before. They were also very resistant. So I spared with them as well, and succeeded in explaining how we know who God is, that we have sinned against him, and the solution to the problem: Jesus.
While I was doing this, Brian and Laura had their flip chart up, and were sharing the gospel with a young couple (pictured). It was so wonderful watching them work as a team! They are from Nelson, and like us, go to A&P shows in their area to share the gospel. (They had come down to see the Living Waters team in action.) May God bless them in their ministry!
Brian, Andy, Roger & Dom joined me for Friday’s outreach. The crowd was tough on this day too. I talked to a man who quite quickly opened up about being gay, he wanted to justify his sin, and wasn’t really interested in engaging at this time. And yet, he took a gospel tract. I then talked to a young man from Canada. He too had his head in the sand in regards to truth. I then went to help Roger disengage from someone being obnoxious, and then ditto with Brian. I then paired up with Andy with a conversation where the guy was resistant (pictured). And finally Dom and I paired, the guy we approached said he always gets asked “why do you think happens after you die”! I engaged him on how we know there is an afterlife with a place of punishment. He didn’t like this idea very much, and soon after we parted ways. Finally, I approached an older man, who took a tract, but was adamant there is no God and nothing after life. I gently reasoned with him till he too had to move on.
None of those conversations are a waste, because people are learning more about God, even in their resistance, it’s ploughing and sowing. Maybe one day in the future someone else will harvest? But all the glory will be to God.
