Hi Everyone

Well, we are full swing into the outreach, with God providentially providing some awesome conversations!

Today our plan was to go to the Porirua City centre, about 30km north-west  of Wellington City. It was just Glen & myself this morning. I thought that the Cobham Court area would be a great place, as the car park is normally pretty busy with people coming and going. It turned out be a good spot, as there were lots of people about. 

Lots took tracts, but I called out to a guy named Kereama, who circled back on his bike to chat. I think he was pretty well known, as he was yelling out to lots of people as he was talking. I could tell he was going through the motions, constantly distracting himself. He knew he would go to hell, but didn’t really care one way or the other. In the end he left with a tract to read, and some hard questions to consider. I had to leave him in God’s hands.

I saw a young Samoan man named Tak sitting on the bench, so I joined him for a chat. He was keen to talk, but I got the feeling he was just lonely and needed to get some things off his chest. He was worried he would go to hell, but thought there was nothing he could do to avoid it. I gave him the best news he could hear – God saving a wretch like me, and he could do the same with him. He was quite tearful. He said he wouid be dead if not for his sister, Asea, who joined him in the chat. It was a humbling chat, and it taught me a lesson in not to over-complicate the Gospel!

Glen said he was approached by a woman who was a Parking and By-laws Officer at the Porirua City Council. Apparently we were not able to do what we were doing without a permit. Glen requested to see a copy of the by-law, she said he could find it online. Apparently people are allowed to approach us, but not the other way around. Anyway, it is something I might follow up, as it seems an over-reach of Local Government to put this restriction on in this way!

We decided to walk over to the train station. There were buses coming and going, and a train arrived just after we got there. Lots of tracts were taken, but the first pair of guys who would chat turned out to go to a local Equippers Church. They were nice and respectful. I asked them what they would say to God on judgement day why they should be let into heaven. To my surprise, they pointed to their good works! It was a hard labour to de-program them, and tell them the true Gospel, but they were very humble and listened to everything I said. They thanked me for the chat, and I said that if they didn’t hear what I told them re the Gospel from the pulpit, then maybe they should find another church.

I chatted with a Samoan woman named Lani, and it turned out she was a universalist – God is in the trees and flowers and also in you, loves everyone, and wouldn’t send anyone to hell. What a wake-up call she got when she realised that her sins were enough to send her to there! She started agreeing with what I was saying, but suddenly turned back to her ‘God is love and wouldn’t throw anyone in hell’ stance. Then her understanding of English disappeared, and she feigned a language barrier problem. It was perfectly fine at the beginning. As she could read English OK, I told her to read the two tracts I gave her.

We decided to walk over to the skate park to see if there were any kids there. On the way, Glen called over a group of 4 boys. They looked a bit rough, and I think Glen was thankful I was there. They were engaged well. One of the guys names was ‘Mighty’. I think he was high on something, because his eyes gave the impression he was somewhere else. It turned out to be a great chat with lots of questions asked. Then it got off-track with some distracting questions, so Glen thanked them for the chat. We left them in God’s hands.

We had lunch, and then decided to scope out the Whitireia Polytech Campus. It turned out hat we couldn’t find a public place where people were coming and going. In fact no one was doing either, so we gave up, and decided to drive back over the hill to Hutt City and try in the area around Queensgate.

It was a great decision, and I must have given out about 200 tracts in the early afternoon. We thought we would go to the riverbank and see who was down there. I got a message from June to say she could come for a wee while. On the way to meet up with her, I passed a young lady and engaged with her. She was very cynical, as she had been to a church but was burnt, as there was a lot of bad stuff going on. As far as she was concerned, she would never darken a church doorway again. She did take a tract, though. It made me angry, as she had most probably had a false conversion. Often these are the hardest people to get through to…

We decided to go back to the Queensgate corner. Glen tried his luck at the Bunny St bus stop. I warned him it was a bit rough there, so June and I went to the High St bus stop instead. There were lots of people coming and going. Then school was out, so the harvest field grew exponentially!

A couple of college girls Jennifer & Monica crossed the lights. The conversation with them was great. They both came to understand that faith in Christ alone was all that would get them to heaven – great chat!

June was with me, and I spotted 4 school girls waiting for the bus – Nina, Anoushka, Neziah & Kira. I tried to make it as fun as possible, but serious enough to get the message across. They were all good sports, joined in the fun, but all took it seriously. Praise God they all professed faith in God, and I was able to show them how to download the Bible on their phones, and read it regularly!

A girl called Moana was also very humble. She quickly came to understand where she would go when she died, and asked me how she could avoid her hell punishment. She was relieved that all it took was faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of her sins, and nothing else, not even the good stuff she did. That’s all it is, folks!

Then a tall high school guy named Taylor crossed the street. I’m just on 6′, this guy cleared me by about 5″,  7 if you count the afro!. He also came to grasp the seriousness of his sin. He professed that right now would be the best time to transfer his faith in Christ, and he did, he tells me! A few of his friends came over. I asked Taylor what the best thing he could tell his friends would be, and he said how to tell them how to get to heaven! From his friends, I singled out a guy named Fletcher. He was too busy joking with the other guys to take it seriously, but he did promise to read the tract, and listen to whatever Taylor was going to tell him!

The afternoon was supposed to finish at 4pm, but it was like God was bringing the fish to us, and before we knew it, it was after 4:30!

So it was another awesome day on the outreach – we give God the glory for each encounter!

Blessings

Craig.