Battle Log

Thursday and Friday were busy days of both street and online outreach.

I have 34 recordings of online conversations on my desktop from these two days.  It’s wonderful reaching so many with gospel seeds.

I’ll come back to the online conversations, but I want to talk about the street work first.

A team of six were outside the hospital standing against the horror of abortion and bringing the hope of the gospel.  It was a fairly calm outreach, although we had some students go past - one of whom, sadly, spat towards us.  And later we had a sudden verbal argument with two ladies who looked like they worked in the hospital.

The open air preaching in the Square attracted a large group of hecklers - one of the biggest I’ve seen.  At least three Christians preached, while others handed out tracts (Binu!), and others were able to have one to one (Ollie) or one to small group (me) conversations.  The conversations I had were difficult.  Heckler’s pulling out difficult Bible passages or concepts to challenge me on.  It was hard, but I had to be faithful to God’s word - even when it’s unpopular.  I decided to get the open air preaching going from this.  I decided to preach boldly on the issue of homosexuality being a sin (making it clear that I don’t hate homosexuals - even when faced with hatred from those in support of homosexuality).  I also preached against abortion.  But I also explained the hope of forgiveness found in the amazing sacrifice of Jesus.  Without God changing our hearts, it is impossible to turn from sin.  But Jesus did the impossible through his perfect life sacrificed on the cross for our sinful ones - received not by our works or actions, but by trusting in that sacrifice.

Later, a team of six were in Cashel Mall.  Two flip charts were running, tracts were being handed out, and plenty of conversations were occurring.  I had a tuff chat with a guy who has played indoor cricket for New Zealand.  It was a bit of an apologetics battle, but surprisingly I was able to get to the law and eventually the gospel - not that he was interested, sadly.

Now coming back to the online conversations.  The highlight for me was a chat with a young lady who was intelligent and very resistant to the idea of God.  It turned into a mini battle, but somehow the conflict got defused.  It turns out her resistance was because she had been Muslim and now rejected Islam.  I then found out she was from war torn Libya!  Thankfully she is not currently living in that country.  She asked that I stop recording the conversation, because her life was at risk because she had left Islam - I happy obliged.  Now that the conflict had been defused, I was able to have a wonderful gospel conversation with her.  She came to understand the key difference between Islam and Christianity.  And she seemed really grateful for the new information.  She said she would check out needGod.net before we parted ways.

Through the two days, I was also able to talk to guys from France and Spain, as well as many other places all over the world.  Online evangelism is a gold mine of gospel opportunity.  Please continue to pray for the team as we reach out in this way.  Thanks.
 

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On Tuesday afternoon, as usual, Roger and I were in Riccarton with our flip charts.  It felt “back to normal” with the kids back in school.  It was a touch quieter, and yet there were still many opportunities to share the gospel.

A highlight conversation was with a young university student - very shy, and yet willing to go through the flip chart with me.  He didn’t know the gospel (or was too shy to articulate it), but he was able to articulate after our chat.  It turns out he had been going to a church for a couple of years - he had been invited along by friends, and he wanted to learn more about God.  It makes you think: how can someone be involved with a church for two years and not be able to articulate the gospel?

The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday I was online with the team.

On Wednesday I was having a bad day.  I don’t understand why.  I didn’t want to be there.  I didn’t have the energy to deal with the people I was talking to, the smallest thing would irritate me.  Before each chat I would pray partly apathetically, and yet desperately for God’s help (is it even possible to be apathetic and desperate at the same time? :D )?  And I persisted through quite a few conversations.

Near the end of the outreach, I struck a girl who was quite intellectual in nature.  For this reason I was completely upfront with her on why I was here (to tell her about Jesus) and asked if she wanted to talk about it.  She said that she would never be converted, but she was happy to talk about religion.  The conversation went completely off script, and yet I was able to explain the seriousness of sin via the law and the amazing grace of Jesus.

Later she was asking me about: “how has this improved your life”.  I was able to explain that it hadn’t necessarily improved my life - Jesus promised suffering for those that believe.  Before I was a Christian, I had been at the center of the universe, and my number 1 priority was my happiness - yet I wasn’t; but since I’d became a Christian, and now that I’ve grown I now realise that God is the center of the universe, and yet, I now have a Joy that I never knew.  I think it was something related to this where she came to tears.  She never explained why she was crying.  I didn’t ask.

The chat wrapped up soon after that.  But before she left, I checked to make sure she understood how one is justified before God.  Her answer indicated she understood.  She knows how to get in touch if she wants, I leave her in the hands of God.

 

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On Saturday I was online with the team.  When connecting with a stranger, some initial reactions to me: “Hi grandpa”, “Are you a teacher?” x 3, “I know you from somewhere!” x 2 (both times it was from Tik Tok video’s - praise God for that, may the gospel go far and wide).

A chat that fascinated me was one that seemed to end prematurely.  The three girls were very engaged from the start, and one of them even said, “don’t skip, I really want to talk about this”.  Because I could tell they were engaged, I was able to slow down and really work through the logic, law and gospel.  They seemed to grasp the gospel, as they were responding correctly to my initial checking question.  Then suddenly, one of them reached out and disconnected the chat.  I was so surprised - I have no idea why she ended the chat.  God does.  I leave them in his hands.

Sunday I was in the city as usual.  A team of seven with a mix of experience, which was very encouraging.  It was a very busy outreach, with some wonderful conversations.

I spoke with one guy who’s eyes seemed to shine as he came to grasp the gospel.  It was wonderful to watch him engaging.

A couple of Muslims were very interested in the flip chart and stopped to chat - they came to understand the gospel, even though they rejected it.  They were lovely, and we parted ways with a handshake.

One of the team brought three girls over to the flip chart to hear the law and the gospel (a boy friend also joined the conversation and heard the good news too).  And then later, I was into a conversation with an intellectual type, when more people joined the conversation - there ended up being a small group of unbelievers and believers hearing the gospel, or gaining experience in how to share.  Very encouraging.

By this stage I was a little late leaving, so I was slightly late to the online “training Sunday”.  I was paired up with Karah from the US, and we had a great time listening to each other's gospel conversations and giving each other feedback.

Karah had an interesting chat with a guy from the UK who had a guitar and would avoid Karah’s questions by bursting into song!  It was quite comical.  But despite his avoidance, he seemed quite smart, I think he was understanding what she was saying, but he was rejecting it.

I had two chats: One with a pair of girls who slowly became engaged and came to grasp the gospel.  The other was with a pair of guys with Christian backgrounds, possibly not Christians yet?  It’s unclear, but they certainly gained some clarity - glory to God.

I was encouraged to learn this morning that people actually read these reports from time to time.  If you are reading this, then thank you for praying for all this gospel outreach.  Pray that we will be humble and open to correction, we are so desperate to represent Christ correctly.  Pray that the gospel would prosper, and that God would be glorified.  Thank you!
 

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A very busy couple of days of outreach for the Christchurch (NZ) team.

On Thursday I was with the online team for five hours, and then Andy & I were at the bus stops (Northlands then Eastgate) for four hours.

My time online saw mainly difficult conversations - many false starts, lots of resistance, hurting people (suicide, wanting to go to hell).  Yet they were good chats: the gospel was heard.  One of the chats was interesting in the fact that the guy I was talking to whispered all the way through it!  I had another interesting one with a teen who was resisting the logic I was trying to explain when his uncle came into his room.  His uncle joined the conversation, sadly he was just as resistant.  It seemed like they had a Mormon background.  I focused on grace through faith and answered their questions until it became silly (going to absurdity to avoid the truth).  There was a chat with a girl who had a very visible GOT IT moment, when she heard the gospel after going through the law.  Sadly the video connection froze at that moment.  I have no choice but to leave them in the hands of God.

The bus stops saw many follow up opportunities.  A group of three school kids had flawless gospel answers, and yet it was clear they weren’t converted (they were almost mocking in their answers).

It was very quiet in Cathedral Square on Friday.  Four Christians proclaimed the gospel in the open air to no opposition.  I had some great one to one gospel opportunities.  There was also a newbie there.  As he was new, I offered him a tract which he took.  I soon learned he was joining us.  To my amazement, five minutes later he was approaching someone to offer them the tract I had given him and start a conversation!  I was so encouraged by this.  Oh Lord, raise up labourers for the harvest!

It was a quiet outreach in Cashel Mall too - even Roger noticed it.  And yet, there were many opportunities to share about Christ.  Lord, use our feeble efforts for your glory!

I finished Friday with the online team again.  A blur of eight conversations.  I was able to share the gospel with a fellow Kiwi, and with a guy who had such a deep fear of death it makes him physically ill - he came to hear the good news!

 

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On Tuesday I was back in Riccarton.  I letterbox dropped either side of ‘walk up’ outreach on Riccarton Road.  And I had a couple of interesting chats.

The first was an encounter with one of our open air preaching hecklers from Cathedral Square on Fridays.  He’s not a very vocal heckler - but he chimes in from time to time.  Anyway, he seemed to see me on Riccarton Road, and so he stopped to talk.  It was an extremely friendly conversation where I had a chance to learn his name and more about himself.  He didn’t deny the existence of a higher power, but he didn’t believe in anything further than that.  I warned him that everything in me wanted to convince him otherwise!  He said he needed to be somewhere and had to go, but he was happy to take a tract and read it.  I’m now looking forward to seeing him again in Cathedral Square - God willing!

The other chat was with an elderly gentleman.  It was a longish one.  He was subtly resistant - refusing to answer some of my questions, and changing the subject.  He liked to talk, so I let him, with gentle interruption to remind him of what was important in regards to the reality that we will all die one day.  He was lovely to chat with though: he had been in the British Merchant Marine and so had travelled extensively.  We had a connection in that we had both been to Myanmar.

I had one other short chat, with a young guy who actually knew the gospel - his background was Anglican.  Although I’m not sure if he was a Christian.  He had to move on - wanting to catch up with his friends.

After being in Riccarton I was online with the team.  Seven solid chats.

I had an interesting chat with a girl who was resistant, but I was able to touch on the law and the gospel with her.  But, later in the conversation I ended up circling back to talk about how we know that God exists.  Her response was to scream while disconnecting!

A chat with a guy with a Christian background, but wasn’t a Christian.  He came to grasp the gospel - I knew, because he said something along the lines of: “that means we can do whatever we want”.  I addressed that (we won’t want to).  But he bucked and quit.

I had a fascinating chat with a kid who had perfect responses to my gospel questions.  He recognised my voice?  Maybe he had seen some of my online videos?  He said he had been a Christian for a year or so - but he wasn’t really reading his Bible, and he wasn’t part of a Church.  I pointed him to both before we disconnected.

On Wednesday I was online with the team again.  Six solid chats - some of them longer.

I had a great chat with a smart kid who read the question on my wall and said, “oh, my - that is a really great question!”  We fell into an easy conversation where he came to grasp the good news.  His response was to say: “You should write a book, I’d buy it!”  My response was to say I didn’t need to - there already is one: the Bible.  I pointed him to Romans.

I had a long chat with a false convert who came to grasp the gospel and was really thankful.  I pointed him to his Bible and back to his church (he hasn’t been for a long while).  I specifically pointed him to his pastor to discuss the gospel.

I had a few apologetics battles that I actually enjoyed for a change.  A guy from the UK who quit.  An interesting chat with a guy who looked at stars as the creators of the universe: “and so at least one star must be intelligent” - !?  He came to hear the gospel, but was very resistant to it and fell straight back to pointing to his goodness to save him.  I became bold with him out of love, but he didn’t like that - the connection froze soon after that.

I had an interesting chat with a guy whose friend was on his phone and kept saying: “He’s from Tik Tok, he is going to talk to you about God”.  Eventually I said, “yes, I’m on Tik Tok, and I want to talk about God - so let's talk”.  They were both involved with church, but he didn’t have a good grasp of the gospel.  I didn’t really get a chance to talk to the girl on the phone.  But they both were deeply appreciative for what I was doing.

My last chat was with a very intellectual lady from the UK who eventually said something like: “well, I’m bi, so I won’t make it”.  Well, I had good news for her.  She was still very resistant by the end, but it was a good friendly chat - if not a bit of a battle.  I leave her in God’s hands.
 

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Saturday I was online with the team.  It was a great outreach.  For me it started with a wonderful chat but then it started to get harder.  At one point I had chats with three likely false converts in a row.  And it ended with a very difficult chat with a couple of lesbians.

First up the easier / wonderful chat was with a guy who said it was 10 pm, and too late for such deep questions!  I managed to convince him that it was quite simple and proceeded to take him through the law and the gospel.  He seemed to be deeply impacted and very appreciative of the chat.

I had a chat with a girl who seemed sad and introspective - didn’t know the gospel.  Part way through the chat she said that it was an interesting ‘coincidence’ that she was talking to me, because she was going back to church tomorrow.  She came to understand the gospel by the end of the chat.

Next up was a Catholic kid who was super glad to hear the gospel.  He asked good questions at the end which showed his engagement.

It was at this point the conversations became harder and I had to confront (as gently as possible) some people about if they were really Christians.  This often leads to explosions.  Thankfully that didn’t happen.  One of them even thanked me!

The chat with the lesbians started with one of them saying that she was angry at God for making a law against homosexuality.  But then, actually people had misinterpreted the rule - so God is actually ok - as though she was the judge of what is ok!  So going from there we talked about who God is, why he gets to make the rules, and why the rules are the way they are.  In the process I was able to go through the law and the gospel.  I did my best to communicate both truth and love.  It was clear they were rejecting the gospel at this stage.

On Sunday there was a team of three: Mike, Andy and myself.  Lots of people out due to the buskers festival.

I had an interesting chat with a guy who accepted the Old Testament and the Gospels, but rejected the writings of Paul!  He was subtly believing in faith + works to save him as opposed to what the Old Testament and the Gospels teach!  We are justified by grace through faith alone!  We parted on good terms, but I pretty much terminated the discussion.

Mike and I had a great chat with 3 teen Christians, again possible false conversion?  I was able to be razor precise on dealing with the question: “why do we go to heaven?”.  I hope it helped them.

In the late afternoon I was paired with Grace for ‘training Sunday’.  As always it’s so good to be able to listen to and discuss the gospel conversations we were having through the outreach!

Thank you for your prayer and support of this ministry.  To God alone be all the glory!
 

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On Thursday morning I awoke refreshed with a clear head (no tension or residual ache).  I was very grateful for this facing two busy days of outreach.  Due to the rainy weather, I spent the whole day in some very fruitful online evangelism.  Friday we were online and in Christchurch (NZ) city.

So, Thursday, I had about twenty five gospel conversations through the day (no technical hiccups this time).  Here are some highlights:

I was connected with a guy from India, who was Hindu.  He was very resistant to the gospel, but he was nice and it was a great chat.  We ended up talking for about thirty minutes.  The resistance was clear from him pretty much refusing to answer my questions.  Yet, he heard the law and gospel.

A wonderful twenty minute chat with a teen guy.  By the end of the conversation he said, “I need to sit and process this”, “but I want you to know, though, there is a good chance I’ll remember this for the rest of my life”, “we do online school now because of Covid… I think I’ve learnt more in the last few minutes than the whole last semester of school”.  I pointed him to the Bible.

A lovely twenty minute chat with a Muslim man from Morocco.  Sadly, he was a tour driver before Covid, but now there is no tourism he is out of work and living on savings.  He came to hear the gospel and he then wrestled with the cost of conversion.  He said: “It’s impossible for me”.  I instantly thought of Mark 10:27: Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Soon after I had another conversation with a Muslim man from Morocco.  He seemed impacted, but resistant.

Yet another twenty minute chat - this time with a recovering addict.  He seemed irritated at the beginning of the conversation, but then when understanding of the gospel took hold, he lightened up and opened up.  He had some good questions about hypocrisy in the church.

The last chat I’ll mention from Thursday was one with a lady who was a dentist in Sudan - I think that’s the first time I’ve talked to someone from there.  She was Muslim and very resistant to the gospel, sadly.

Friday morning I spent a couple of hours online before heading into the city.  Some great chats:

Two boys being silly online.  One became engaged and was trusting his good deeds and church going to get him to heaven.  After hearing the gospel, he had a very visible ‘I get it now’ reaction.  The other kid had been listening, and wanted me to wait so he could look up needGod.net before I left.

I had yet another chat with a guy from Morocco!  Before heading into a wonderful chat with a 17 year old guy who had just this year started rejecting his Catholic faith.  He heard the gospel and said: “I think I’m a Christian now”.  He encouraged me to keep doing what I was doing - I told him to join me!

We were in Cathedral Square and Cashel Mall from lunch time and into the mid afternoon.  Andy preached wonderfully!  He’s turned a new leaf.  He is navigating the paradox of repentance and faith so clearly.  And he is handling the hecklers so respectfully, gently yet faithfully dealing with their questions one by one.  A week or so ago I wrote about a heckler who almost came to blows with another member of the public during Andy’s preaching.  Well, today he came up to Andy and shook his hand!

I have to admit I’m still smarting from the difficult encounter I had on Tuesday.  I’m feeling shy, and flinching a bit in one to one conversations.  Yet, I had a nice long chat with one of my regulars in Cashel mall.  He has heckled my preaching in the past.

In the late afternoon and early evening I was online again.  Something weird happened.  I hit a “gospel flow”.  I used to get this a lot in my previous career as a software developer.  You would hit a vein of productivity, and you would mentally stand back and wonder where it was coming from!  Well, I started having wonderful gospel chats.  I was talking with two guys, and after some initial apologetical sparing, one turned to the other and said: “He’s icing you man!” (or something like that).  They both came to grasp the gospel, then slip and lose it (thanks to checking questions for detecting), and then had it re-explained.

The final chat of the day was epic.  With a deeply hurting guy who’s mum had died a few months prior and whose wife had left him a few weeks back.  He was drinking alcohol.  He was very angry, and he was directing it at me because of who I was representing.  I didn’t address his anger intellectually, but with empathy.  He wasn’t expecting that, and it completely deflated his anger.  We then ended up switching to the intellectual side of things - it was still a battle, but it was different.  I was no longer his enemy, but a friend saying some hard truths.  I had to try to rein in my passion.  By the end of the conversation he said: “you haven’t changed my mind, but there were multiple times I was nearly in tears.  Thank you so much for what you are doing.” (Or something like that).

I don’t write this to boast in myself, but to boast in God.  His gospel is amazing!  The gifts he gives us are amazing.  All glory to him alone!
 

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Tuesday and Wednesday were very hot days in Christchurch (NZ) - 36 degrees Celsius.

Yet, the temperature seemed quite pleasant when I set up my flip chart in Riccarton on Tuesday afternoon.  As usual, Roger joined me.

I started out with a difficult conversation with two guys from Christ College - a prestigious boarding school - enjoying the last days of school holidays I assume.  They were both quite resistant to start with.  So we sparred with apologetics to start with.  One of them softened, but the other hardened.  I was able to touch on God’s law during the conversation.  One of them shook my hand, shared his first name, and took a tract.  The other refused all three.  The conversation ended when I said, “well, I’m not holding you here”.

The next conversation would have to be one of the hardest I’ve had in a long time.  Harder than with the gospel + abortion outreach - in that case you can expect it.  I think it was harder than the couple of times the Police have been called.

So, five late teen girls come past.  Four of them are very interested in the flip chart, and we fall into an easy discussion.  The other goes and sits down some distance away.  During the conversation, they say they are Christians, and as I’m learning what that means to them, they declare that they are gay - interesting.  So I ask if I can back up and explain what I understand Christianity to mean.  We start working through that when we start discussing the logic of hell - one of the girls didn’t believe in hell - no problem so far.  But at this point, one of the girls leaves the conversation to go talk to her friend sitting some distance away.

She comes back and says that they need to go - apparently I’d upset the fifth girl a month ago.  I was surprised, but didn’t have any problem with them leaving - but I just confirmed, “do I look like someone who would aim to upset?”.  One of them agreed with me, and they moved on.

Well, a few minutes later, the fifth girl comes back, in tears and starts giving me an emotional filled verbal assault worse than I’ve experienced in as long as I can remember.  I decided the best approach was to say nothing - I let her say what she wanted to say.  Apparently I’d told her: she was going to hell, she had been in deep pain for the last month, this stuff deeply impacts people, and you shouldn’t be out here talking about it, I’ve had to talk to my boyfriend about it, etc.  Then she started cursing and calling me foul names.  It was this point that she crossed a line into hypocrisy.  Sadly, my listening just enraged her more - I guess she was expecting me to fight back.  She then questioned the way I was looking at her.  So I dropped my eyes to the ground.  By this stage, one of her friends was with her.  Well, me looking down didn’t help - she just got worse and then claimed I was ignoring her, so I looked up and said, as gently as I could, “I’m hearing you”.

Eventually a lady who worked in the bank came out and asked the girl to calm down.  “Everyone in the bank can hear you.”  That didn’t help.  Roger had finished his conversation, and he came over to help.  I told him not to say anything - and he wisely ignored me.  He stood in front of her to talk.  Soon she was yelling at him to step back.  He ignored her.  She said something about me not letting her go.  Roger denied that, and said, “you are free to leave”.

I turned to the lady from the bank and said, “I’ll pack up and move” - anything to get this girl to stop and calm down.  The lady from the bank asked if I was okay.  I said I was, but I don’t think I was.  Outwardly I was calm and analytical.  Inside I was a blubbering mess.  There was a huge disconnection between the two.  I packed up and moved across the street.  Soon after Roger was with me.

Roger wanted to take me to get an iced coffee, but I felt obligated to finish the outreach as best as I could.  Roger soon fell into another chat, and I noticed a homeless guy sitting not far from us, so I decided to go and talk with him.  He asked how my day was, I smiled and said it wasn’t the best.  But then I swung the conversation to him.  I found out his name and started to learn about why he was on the street when a friend came past.  Suddenly I was in two conversations.

I managed to start sharing with my friend about the experience I had just been through - the homeless guy listened in.  Part way through, the homeless guy said: “wow, you really do have problems!”  So he packed up and moved on (after a handshake).  In hindsight, I found that quite comical - there is no way my problems are worse than his!

Eventually, the outreach came to an end, and I went with Roger for an Iced Chocolate.  It was then that my emotions started to kick in.  I was a bit of a wreak for a few hours after that.  I couldn’t do online outreach.  I reached out to some people as a way of processing my emotions - that really helped.

And writing this report has helped.  That girl was emotional & irrational.  Obviously in a lot of pain or under conviction of sin - or both.  She made a lot of false accusations.  I have no recollection of talking to her before (I don’t deny that I did - I just don’t remember it).

I am always very careful in how I present the law, and talk about hell so that it doesn’t come across as me judging.  Not to say that I don’t make many mistakes - I’m sure.

I was feeling okay by the evening.  And I was back to work on Wednesday.  Many wonderful chats online.

I’m so dependent on God.  I’m so weak.  And it’s hard to be faithful to the gospel - which is so offensive.  I don’t want to be the offence.  God help us!
 

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A wonderful weekend of outreach for the Christchurch (NZ) team.

A team of two on Saturday morning in Cashel Mall and Cathedral Square.  The foot traffic was a bit light at the start, but it picked up as the outreach progressed.  It was also unfortunate that there were windy gusts at times.  The highlight chat occurred during one of these gusts, so strong it nearly knocked the flip chart over even with me holding it; and it made turning the pages hard - yet it didn’t put the three young men off hearing the law and the gospel - the oldest one was particularly engaged (whom had been involved with the Ratana church in his past).

In the afternoon, I was online for a few hours.  10 chats, including:

• A Muslim.
• A young girl passionate about her atheism!  It was great engaging with her.
• A wonderful chat with a young lady (whom I couldn’t see - only hear) who I really had to labour till she grasped the gospel.
• A ‘Christian’ kid, who was mucking around, and yet stayed to hear the law and the gospel.
• A chat with a Christian kid who gained gospel clarity.
• An interesting chat with a lady who only spoke Spanish, yet using translation tools we were able to communicate.
• A Jewish guy who heard the law and the gospel.  His sticking point was, “a Christian can do anything then”.  Actually, we don’t want to as per Romans 3:31
• A fascinating chat with a guy who couldn’t fault the logic of the gospel and yet rejected it - wanting to be his own God.

On Sunday afternoon I was very encouraged to be in a team of six - including two newbies.  The weather was great, and there were lots of people out and about.  We split into pairs to engage with the gospel - flip chart, tracts, and walk up.

My first encounter was a follow up with a young man who seems to be responding to the gospel.  He can articulate the gospel, and there seems to be change in his life.  Yet, there is a desperate need for discipleship.  I challenged him to get knitted into a church and to actually contact me in this regard.

I had a number of great walk up opportunities.  The first with a guy on a skateboard.  The next one was cool: two guys - one not interested, the other was.  The one that was caused the other to wait and he became engaged as well.  At least twice I heard the comment: “that makes sense” as we went through the law and the gospel.  And then, suddenly the conversation was over - they didn’t want to miss their movie start.  Yet they went with the seed of the gospel and tracts to read later.

It was great watching Andy engage with group after group.  Eventually he fell into a long conversation with a group of kids that kept changing - kids would join the conversation, then leave, while others would join and leave.  There seemed to be a couple of them that were deep in the conversation and stayed for the whole time - one girl in particular seemed very engaged.  The chat was still going when I left to join the team online!

It was great to see the newbies have opportunities to witness gospel conversations and be encouraged!

I made it home in time for online training Sunday.  I was paired up with Javier (in California) and we had a great time watching each other's gospel chats and discussing afterwards.  Javier had a long chat with a young (lonely) man.  Javier did such a wonderful job in clearly explaining the gospel and working through his suite of checking questions.  It’s so wonderful seeing these young ones learning to so clearly articulate the gospel.  Raise up an army Lord!

My two chats were both with Muslims.  One in America, the other in Jordan.  They were both very open to hearing the gospel.

Praise God - all glory to God alone!
 

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On Thursday, Andy & I were going to go to the bus stops - but due to the weather, we ended up going online instead.  So my whole Thursday was spent in online outreach.

In that time I spoke to:

• Suicidal girls
• A Muslim man (+ someone off camera) living in northern Israel.
• A man who spoke in riddles and would turn everything I said into a riddle - avoidance?  I gave up.
• Another Muslim who was up to no good (based on what he said at the start) - he heard the law and the gospel before disconnecting.
• A Hindu who heard the law and the beginnings of the gospel.
• A great chat with a guy from the UK who was struggling with why there is suffering and evil in the world (God is “mean”).
• An epic text chat (I talked, they typed):

Stranger: Be good in life and just even at your lowest always be the best person you can be
Stranger: Yes
Stranger: It’s not good to lie
Stranger: Yeah
Stranger: It wouldn’t be the best
Stranger: None
Stranger: Heaven
Stranger: I totally agree I didn’t see it that way
Stranger: Heaven
Stranger: To be truthful in some sort of way or be able to speak to Jesus and not only rely on him
Stranger: Yeah that’s true
You: Trusting
You: Jesus died for your sins
Stranger: Yeah thank you for that I didn’t see it that way but that’s really encouraged me
Stranger: To be good in life and be the best person you can be
Stranger: To be able to rely on Jesus and take the punishments we make for us to go to heaven
Stranger: Trusting?
You: needGod.net
Stranger: Heaven because Jesus took their punishment?
Stranger: Honoured and respectful towards him
Stranger: No way
Stranger: Because I may have done bad things in life but Jesus took those punishments for me to be able to go to heaven
Stranger: Nothing I totally understand now
Stranger: Yes
You: start in "John" in the second half of the Bible
Stranger: Yes but closed because of corona
Stranger: Yeah
Stranger: It’s a Christian one
Stranger: No I think you’ve covered it all to be honest
Stranger: Can i ask
Stranger: Do you make content
You: needGod.net
You: insta: needgod.net7
You: Tik Tok
Stranger: Yeah I’m gonna give you a follow thanks for that I appreciate it have a good day my friend
Stranger: Hopefully see you too
You have disconnected.

• A South African
• Claire from the UK, and her friend Jordan.  Working with the elderly and suffering was her sticking point too.  She was making a case for Euthanasia - which I stood firmly against.  I thanked her for the awesome and important work she was doing in caring for the precious elderly in our community.
• Someone from the Czech Republic
• An excellent chat with a lady who also struggled with evil and suffering.  “Why weren’t my prayers answered?”
• A chat with a guy from Afghanistan - I think my first with a person from there.

Just to name a few.  I had some technical troubles during the day, that sadly slowed me down a bit.

Friday was a busy day of outreach.  I was in the city in the morning and into the early afternoon.  It was great to have Jermaine, Roger, Gary, Mike, Steve, my Mum, and others join me at various times through the day! :)

My first chat was with someone whom I thought was a construction worker - but he turned out to be homeless.  He had really good answers to my questions - he seemed familiar with the gospel.  He then said he had been “anointed” a few months ago - it turns out he was talking about Baptism!  Sadly, he had had a turn for the worse in his battle with sin - so I was able to encourage him with the gospel!  It was a lovely chat.

The buskers festival is on in Christchurch, so I was able to have a great follow up chat with a busker who was biding his time before his first act started.  I didn’t really have an opportunity to get to the law and the gospel - there was a lot of discussion about worldview and apologetics.  God willing, I’ll have yet another opportunity to talk with him.

I set up my flip chart (as did Roger).  Jermaine had a gospel chat with some kids (pictured).

Later, I had a gentle chat with an older lady with a Catholic background but was leaning Bhudist.  She took a tract.

Just before lunch time, I headed to the Square.

I approached a few people.  Tash had been to a church, but through “being kind” would get her to heaven.  She grasped the gospel very quickly.

I then talked to Tony.  He said I didn’t need to talk to him, he was already a Christian.  So I turned the conversation to other things.  But as the conversation progressed, it became very clear that this guy was trusting in his works for salvation - he really didn’t understand the gospel.  I knew I had to be very gentle and careful in communicating this - and what the gospel really was.  Finally I asked him how sure he was of going to heaven.  He said, 99.99%.  I asked why he had 0.01% doubt?  He thought about it and said: “I might sin”.  So I said, “what are you trusting in to get you to heaven then?”  Sadly, he erupted: “I don’t like this conversation”.  He sneered and gave me the fingers when I offered him my hand to shake.  I really tried to be gentle and respectful - but I love people too much to not confront them with the truth (I know I fail to do this too often).

After this I moved into open air preaching.  One of our hecklers had told me he had been researching the web site of the church I’m a member of - he was ready with ammo.  And yet, he seemed to misfire?  He did have a few goes at me, I did my best to listen and respond appropriately and then just proceeded through my usual law and gospel presentation.  Andy preached as well.  There was much discussion afterwards.

In the late afternoon and early evening, I was back online.  My first chat was with a guy with “a very religious family - they will be glad you’re talking to me”.  He heard the law, the gospel, the reason why God has done things the way he has, and the real reason why people reject it.  During my explanations I said something that “can’t have been a coincidence”.  There are no coincidences - there is God.

I had an interesting live stream chat with a kid who said: “I need to believe in Jesus and stop sinning” to be saved.  Going from there I clarified that it’s only the first part that saves us: Jesus paying our hell fine, and we accept that by believing he did it for us.  It seemed to click for him.  I was clear that, of course, we will want to stop sinning - but that does not save us.  Later I asked him how sure he would be of going to heaven.  He started by responding with 80% - but he stopped himself, and corrected by saying - now I’m 100% sure.  Christians can have assurance of salvation - because salvation is not dependent on them!

A tiring couple of days.  I’m about to head into the city for a Saturday morning outreach - Ravi is joining me.  I’m feeling encouraged, because more Christians are contacting me to get involved.  Long may that continue!  SDG
 

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