I asked Ben if he is not a good person, where should God send him after he dies. He said he should send him to hell. Then something broke inside Ben, and he started to cry uncontrollably. I asked him if he was OK. Through his tears he said “I never knew how bad the things I did looked to God, and what that meant for me. I don’t think anyone should go to heaven”. It was a vulnerable moment. It would have been easy to destroy him with more truth about how bad he was, so I had to tread carefully.

Out came a string of abuse and threats. He said if I called the cops they would take five minutes to get here, and he could kill me in just one. At that point I threw my hands up and backed off. He said very colourfully that if I didn't get the Jesus stuff out of his face he would make sure I wasn't able to tell anyone anything ever again.

LDS missionaries – as I approached these two young Samoan guys, I could overhear them mocking the ladies for believing that Jesus was God. That mad me a bit angry, and it took all my effort not to yell at them. One looked at me and asked me if I believed that too. I said I believed it because Jesus said He was (John 10:30).

I was able to lead Jessie through the Gospel conversation, all the while her mum throwing verbal volleys at me. It was like having my own personal heckler. Jessie was very humble, admitting that she would be judged by God and given hell as a punishment. But she was distracted and embarrassed by her mum’s behaviour, and said she should go.

He was trying to think up another way to get around this. I short-cutted this strategy, telling him that the only way to avoid his hell punishment was if someone took it for him. He listened silently as I gave him the Gospel of grace, saying that there was nothing he could do but place his faith in Christ, who did all the work for him. He was quiet for a long time, then said that it made perfect sense.