Hi Everyone

Day 3 of the Wellington Outreach, and the team is in full stride in getting the Gospel message out! It has been windy and overcast, but God has providentially kept the rain away.

Today we are in Wellington City. It was just the four of us for the morning (Glen, Andy, Roger, and myself). We caught the train in, and jumped on the bus. The Christchurch boys were eager to talk with some university students on the trip , so I picked out Massey University Wellington Campus as a potential spot for them.

Massey University: The sun was out today, but there was a cold southerly wind blowing off the sea, straight off Cook Strait and up Wallace St past we were. So it was a matter of finding a sunny spot to engage people. I chose to hang around the bus stop outside the main entrance.

Dylan – First person I talked to was hands down the best conversation of the morning – in terms of grasping the Gospel, that is! With Dylan being of Indian ethnicity, I was expecting a debate of karma & reincarnation vs true justice. But thankfully my preconceptions were way off. Dylan was very humble. He came to realise that all his good works, begging for forgiveness, and changing his ways were not going to alleviate his hell punishment in any way. He went very quiet. His mouth was stopped, as per Rom 3:19. It was then the perfect time to give Dylan the good news of Jesus taking his hell punishment for him, and him needing to place his trust 100% in Him. It all made perfect sense to him. I asked when he should do this, and he said straight away. I did some checking questions with him to make sure he understood, and he did. Then I asked him “At the beginning of this conversation, what did you think was getting you to heaven?” He said “My good works”. I asked “So had you have died before this conversation, where would you have gone?” “I would have gone to hell” he answered. “But now what do you think gets you to heaven?” “Jesus taking my hell punishment”. It was a life-changing moment for him right there. I showed Dylan how to download a Bible on his phone, and said he should start reading the Gospel of John. I also showed him the needgod.net website where he can find a good church. Dylan was very happy and thankful for stopping him. I said it was God that changed his heart not me. We said goodbye and shook hands. It was going to be hard to top that encounter today. All glory to God!

Titi – This was a short encounter. Titi listened, but showed no interest during the conversation. I thought he was going through the motions just to mock me. He said he was interested in different religions, so he took a tract from me and went away laughing.

Hector – This chat was going great. He knew that his good works wouldn’t get him to heaven. I was half way through telling him the good news when his bus came. He had to run, so I gave him some resources to take with him. Aagh, I was too slow. I haven’t done bus stop evangelism for a while, forgetting to always give the condensed version. I pray that God will still work in his heart, though!

Derek, Jack and Michael – these three dudes thought they were clever. This was the sort of encounter I expected to have this morning – young people with enough information to be dangerous to themselves. They couldn’t even get past the creation/creator argument without all yelling their objections. They were easily to refute objections, but instead of listening, they were all throwing strawman arguments back at me at once. So I played them at their own game. When they all yelled at me, I put a glazed look on my face and stared in the distance. They soon stopped rambling and asked me if I was OK. I said “Oh, you want me to talk now? Cool. So which of the 15 questions you just fired at me did you want an answer for?” It was a bit cheeky of me, but they got the point. We eventually got to the ‘Who made God’ question, for which they thought was a weak reply, because they were thinking that anything pertaining to God is only spiritually discerned, so was therefore silly. Rather, Christianity is also logical if one can get past it becoming a stumbling block or offensive. Unfortunately for them they couldn’t, so I thanked them for their time. They did take tracts, though.

Bella – this was my last chat of note for the morning. Bella said she was a Christian. She said she was not a good person, and that Jesus took all of her sins. She told me she struggles to tell her friends, as they keep telling her that Christianity is OK for her but not for them. So I was able to briefly share that the heart of Christianity is not always an emotional or experiential one, and so we must use the law to bring about the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). She wanted to know more but had to go to class, so I gave her a few tracts and pointed out the website on the back to check out. She thanked me for the chat. It wasn’t a classic evangelistic encounter, but more of a pastoral one.

I spent the rest of the morning just handing out tracts, as my brain was a bit frazzled. We then jumped on the bus and headed back down to the central city.

Cuba Mall:

After a refuel, we hit the streets again. Cuba St is a long outdoor walking mall. It attracts a lot of alternative people, giving some interesting chats! Warren, Caro and Ron joined us for the afternoon. Caro tagged along with me, just to listen and observe. If you’re not confident to approach people to witness to, this is the next best thing to do to boost confidence. I took no pictures from the afternoon outreach, so all are of the morning outreach.

Kione: This guy was interested to begin with, but bailed before hearing the good news. He did take a tract, so praying that God will work in his heart.

Thomas: Caro wanted to listen in on one of Rogers chats with the good person flipchart, so I stopped Thomas. He was eager to chat. His replies were of ‘what’s right for you is right for you, but not for me’ nature. I thought post-modernism had died a slow death the last few years, but obviously not. Facts and truth are a post-modernist’s mortal enemy, and I employed some through analogies, ie if a policeman catches you driving through a red light, it doesn’t matter what colour you think it was – the law has the final say; buildings don’t build themselves; paintings don’t paint themselves, etc. Thomas eventually conceded the point, and let me continue. I moved to the concept of sovereignty – God made the universe, so He sets the rules for how we live in His universe – just like your house, your rules. With this I moved to the conscience, where the law pierces deeper than any intellectual argument. Thomas fell way short in terms of his goodness. He argued that changing his ways and asking for forgiveness will get him through, but some courtroom analogies quickly extinguished those arguments. I’m glad I can now easily recall these analogies; they really are a very effective weapon in evangelism. Thomas asked how then can anyone get to heaven? It was the right time to introduce Christ’s atonement. He knew about Him dying on the cross, but had never joined the dots before. He said he had to go and make a delivery, so I wrapped it up by saying that “Now you definitely know the way to heaven. Not that there was any excuse before, but should you reject Christ’s offer of taking his punishment, you would have to take it yourself”. Thomas understood, although I was not convinced he was going to do anything about it, apart from God’s grace that is. I had to leave him in God’s hands.

It was a long conversation, and I was getting mentally exhausted.

Kamal: I was listening in on one of Roger’s chats for some mental relief, when Kamal walked past. He looked Indian or Pakistani, so I was expecting a good chat. I suspected he was either Hindu or Muslim. I sidled away from Roger. Kamal was taken aback by the afterlife question. He thought it was straight to heaven where he was going, so it was an easy transition to the law. His goodness was of course no match to God’s perfect standard. When he learnt that his goodness and pleading for forgiveness would do him no good, he looked at me with searching eyes, as if he was silently pleading for a way out of going to hell. I told him that now it was time for some good news. “If someone was willing to take your hell punishment on your behalf Kamal, how would you feel towards that person?” “I would be eternally grateful. Tell me who would do this!”. I said “It was God Himself in human flesh. You’ve heard of Jesus dying on the cross before?” He said “Yes, but how could that save me?” I went on to tell Kamal how Jesus was perfectly God, and perfectly man, making Him the only person who could take his punishment; that Jesus allowed God to crush Him on the cross with the weight of yours and my sin; that He died and was buried, and God raised Him up on the third day to prove that He has defeated death; and that all those who place their trust in Him alone for the forgiveness of their sin will inherit eternal life. Kamal looked relieved. I asked him “If you choose not to place your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, who would have to take it?” He replied “I would have to”. “So where would you go?” “I would go to hell”. “So on a scale of 1 to 100, how sure are you that you will go to heaven when you die?” “100%”, he replied. I asked why. He said “Because I choose to place my trust in Jesus”. That was music to an evangelists ears! I told him that if that was true, the sin he now loved he would grow to hate, and his hunger to learn more about the person who saved him would increase. I showed Kamal how to download a Bible on his phone, and how to find a good church. 

I am still dining out on that gospel conversation! Some Christians have the expectation that all witnessing encounters should go this way, otherwise they would be a failure. Yet it rarely happens like this. God gets the glory for every gospel conversation had or tract handed out, therefore there can be no such thing as a failed witnessing encounter!

Lorelai: Some of us were gathered at the end waiting for others to finish their conversations. I was just standing handing out tracts to passers-by, when a young lady stopped and asked me why do Christians hate gay people. It took me by surprise a bit. I was able to tell her that in fact “We don’t hate gay people, but rather love them enough to tell them the truth. God runs the universe, so He gets to set the rules about how we live in it. If we fail to keep the rules, then we receive a punishment – just like if we break the law of New Zealand, the New Zealand Police have the right to arrest us. We may not like the rules, and just ignore them and keep breaking them – but that doesn’t take away the Police’s right to enforce the rules, and punish the rule-breakers. So the Christian’s role is to warn people of the wrath to come if we just ignore God’s rules.” Lorelai said she saw me in Upper Hutt on Tuesday. She didn’t talk to me then, but wanted to ask the question. I attempted to swing the conversation back to her, and asked “What about you – have you been keeping all of God’s laws?”. She was having none of it, but thanked me for talking. I asked if I answered the question satisfactory, and she said yes. So I told her she needed to find out exactly what God’s rules were, and how she can escape the coming punishment. I pointed her to the Good Person tract I just gave her for the answer. She thanked me again, and left.

So it was another awesome day of sharing the good news of the gospel. Exhaustion was setting in for me, but God has sustained all the team for His important work!

Blessings

Craig