Battle Log

Sunday, 21 January, 2024

Posted 21 January 2024, 1:59 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink

Glory to God, all the regular street outreaches went ahead this week - although shorter than usual.

Last week, Tuesday's outreach was super busy.  But this week it was incredibly slow.  I think I went for half an hour before getting into my first chat.  It made me think of my last half decade of full time street ministry.  I think in that whole time, there have only been 2 outreaches where I didn’t talk to anyone, and both of those were in my first year.  When you think about that, it’s amazing that there is so much opportunity to share the gospel.  It’s limitless.  And, more often than not, the conversations I get to have are really special.  And yet, even when they are not, the gospel is still amazing and the power of God for salvation.  I wonder how many of those ‘regular’ chats I’ve had, that have led to salvation.  God knows.  And even if no one is saved, it’s still worth it, to make known the great God of the universe, of his justice and his mercy.  What a privilege!

So, I was standing there, looking like a dork – a crazy old man, next to a brightly coloured flip chart.  People on the buses going past would stare.  When a couple of young guys went past.  I tried to engage them.  One of them turned his head and stared at the flip chart and made a comment.  But they didn’t stop.  But about ten minutes later they came back, going the other direction.  His mate blasted past, but his curiosity got the better of him, he wanted to do it - to his friends surprise.  And it was a really good chat.  He followed along with the logic of what I was explaining, and it seemed to really make sense to him, but there was a problem.  They were Muslim, and he knew what I was explaining was Christian.  Yet, he was open to reason and so I was able to labour with him about the gift of Jesus in spite of the cost of accepting him.  He got to a point where he had enough to chew on for the moment, and they decided to move on.  He gladly took a tract.

Friday’s outreach involved one of those special chats.  It was hot!  But bearable in the shade.  Roger was with me.  The busking festival has started now, so there were a lot of people out.  Our usual spot at the Bridge of Remembrance was taken by buskers, so we moved down to the corner of Cashel and Colombo.

Roger set up his flip chart (I didn’t bring mine).  But I was quickly into my first chat using Rogers chart.  A young couple passed - I asked if they wanted to do it.  She said, no and moved on, but he said, “yeah, actually”, and came over (to her shock).  She joined him, and we had a good gospel chat.  Glory to God, I had even gained engagement from the girl, because considering their time, I gave them an out expecting them to take it, but she said they had another ten minutes!  After the chat, they left with tracts.

I decided to let Roger use his own chat, and to get off his ‘patch’.  Everytime I glanced his way, he seemed to be busy in a chat.  And I had other opportunities too.  But, then I fell into my ‘special’ chat.  I crossed over to the shade on the other side of Colombo to hand out some tracts.  There was an older gentleman sitting in the shade.  I could tell he was watching me, and so I offered him one.  “Is that religious?”, he says.  “Yes, it’s about Jesus”.  “What a load of rubbish, it’s not logical!”, he says.  He had a loud bark, but I could tell he wouldn’t bite, and so I sat and engaged him.  I think he was very surprised by this!  I had to spend a fair amount of time listening, and I wasn’t able to deal with everything he was saying, but I was able to interject at times and challenge him.  I had to be patient, and work to keep him calm, but to my joy I was able to touch on the law and the gospel with him.  We were even able to talk about personal things - in spite of his very broken worldview (which centred on self happiness) he was really nice!  We talked for maybe 30 minutes before I think he’d had enough.  We shook hands before he moved on, refusing a tract.  He is 85 and has a bad heart.  He knows he is going to die soon, so during the chat, not only was I reasoning with him, but pleading with him on the urgency of accepting God’s mercy.  Please join me in praying for God to have mercy on Barry!

Saturday’s outreach (Riccarton) involved a long chat with two young girls.  They were waiting for the SoYo to open.

And then on Sunday I spent 30 minutes in the city again.  I had a couple of shorter chats, before bumping into one of my regulars that I’m praying for.  It was great to catch up with him.  I tried to swing the conversation to deeper things.  “Yes, I’ve been thinking about it, but I don’t want to talk now - maybe we could catch up sometime and have a long chat”.  No problem with me!  He remembered which church I went to, but I gave him my personal email.  The ball is in his court.

Thank you for your continued prayer for Operation 513.  May we continue to be faithful in preaching the gospel on the streets and online, and always open to correction.  Glory to God alone!