Battle Log

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The first two days of the second week of the NZ Summer Mission, in Dunedin, are now complete.

It has been testing coming out of our usual environment (Christchurch) - but it has been so worth it in so many ways.

It has been testing because we have had to adjust to so many things: meeting the elders of the local church we are serving and getting to know each other, being hosted in strangers homes for the week, finding the outreach locations, parking, the list goes on.

But so worth it because we are getting to know wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ in Dunedin: Elders, hosts, and others - the support has been amazing! And the people we have encountered on the streets to share the gospel with have been so open (compared to what I’m used to in Christchurch). Nerves about being in a new place for outreach have been quickly forgotten, as we have started conversations and shared the wonderful gospel of Jesus with many people in this city.

So a big thank you to the Christians and Churches that have welcomed us, are hosting us (strangers no more!), praying for us, and supporting us. Thank you!

As well as the many open hearted people we have been able to share the gospel with so far, there have also been many cults and false teachers out and about. We have had interactions with:

* Jehovah's Witnesses

* people who believe Baptism is required for salvation
a family teaching that we need to become perfect (in our own effort) to be saved (the father wore a big sandwich board and they had some kind of pre recorded preaching running through an amplifier). Matt engaged him with scripture and wonderfully he ended up leaving. We haven’t seen them since. But in the meantime, I had an opportunity to engage with his son and show him that it is impossible for us to be perfect in our own effort, but the only way to become perfect was through the imputed righteousness of Jesus that is received by faith alone. He was open until he was told by his mum that I was sharing a “false gospel”, he quickly shifted into a pre programmed mode and started quoting scripture at me. Sad.

* I had a guy who seemed to know scripture well and was saying the right things, but he was desperately looking for something to be divisive with me over. Once he knew I was a Calvinist, I was considered a heretic to be attacked. Sadly, this man is not connected with any church - a lone ranger.

And yet, we love all these people, we want them to understand the good news of the gospel, and we have done our best to respectfully do that.

On the Monday, Andy and Tom open air preached in the Octagon. There was an openness to it. People didn’t scatter, many were listening. People even asked questions of the preacher. To my amazement, two Christians (from overseas) who listened to the preaching were so encouraged that they are going to join the team for outreach on Wednesday!

Also on Monday, Nikos and Bronya ended up having a long gospel conversation with a young man. And I was able to follow up by taking him through the flip chart. He really appreciated the visual aids - he said it helped him to understand the gospel. And yet, counting the cost, he wasn’t ready to believe in Christ as Lord.

The next morning, he came back to the Octagon with his friend and found us. He wanted his friend to hear the gospel too! And so Matt and Emma were able to do that. Praise God. May they both come to know God’s grace!

Tuesday saw the first evening outreach outside the museum. As the evening progressed, there were less people around to engage with. But still there were enough to keep the whole team busy in gospel conversations for the whole time. We thanked God for answering our prayer in that regard.

So I’m amazed at how God has gone before us in so many ways for this trip to Dunedin. May people be saved, the church grow, and the community be changed for God’s glory as a result. Thank you keeping us in prayer!

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Battle Log For Toowong Village on Tuesday January 21st 2020 from 1330 to 1500.

It was a scorching hot afternoon that might have deterred some people from stopping to chat. But the heat did not stop the six of us to commit ourselves for His work. We praise and thanks God that He has moved and led yet another new blood Ryan Leung to join us the old team mates including Col, Gary, Winnie , Yuen Hang and Hung. Co-incidentally all four Chinese are Cantonese speaking person. Yet it did not deter us to proclaim the Gospel in other languages including English and Mandarin in His Strength.

As said , it appeared a more difficult day to get long conversation under the scorching sun. But by grace each and every one still got opportunities to share or just to serve handing out tract. Knowing that not our effort and skill but God's Sovereign Power and Will counts. They will supplied to me their short reflection not for the day later.

I got five divine appointments as led by the Spirit from different spot of or mission stripe along Banson Road as recap below: -

1) First at the traffic light, two Asian girls pretended not Chinese speaking but gave up admitting Chinese and submitted to listen to my sharing of the gospel. I walked them across the road to the bus station on the other side. From initial reluctant, the Spirit somehow helped to have removed their fears and ended up with sound understanding that we are not good enough for heaven and need Jesus to take away the punishment of eternal death for our sins.

2) Then I chatted with an UQ student Chiang from Taiwan at the bus stop in the shade behind the Bus platform Shelter. He was happy to let me share before the bus arrive. He has fragmented Bible knowledge because his parents are Christian. He of course never has a full understanding of salvation but found my sharing of God's way of redemption is sensible and logical. He felt it is time for him to take the Christian faith seriously so let's pray for his final step of faith be made at the earliest instance by the grace of God. 蔣,台,父母基督徒,合理,願信

3) I returned to the traffic light and left Winnie and Yuen Hang at the bus stop to get more opportunities to share. Then I saw two Indians coming up along the road from the footbridge. Ryan was there to greet them and passed them a tract. I thus followed up on giving them another "Good Person tract which again was well received by them. So I asked if they mind to let me share even if I had to walk some way with them across the road. The man called Shekish appeared more friendly and receptive then his friend. Although they claimed they do not need religion but they could not deny we are sinners that need salvation from Jesus.

4) After coming back to where Col stationed. He just stopped a Chinese girl whose English seemingly was not good enough to understand the gospel in English. She actually was greeted by Winnie and or Yuen Hang at the Bus stop but she did not stop for a chat and walked up to the traffic light to be approached by Col. He then referred the girl to me. She obviously has just newly arrived at Brisbane from Shandong China. Her name is 張悅怡，山東, she tried to discouraged me to share claiming she is a Buddhist. I anyway affirmed her that all Religions are not bad but just calling on people to be a good person. None has addressed the issue of sin and there is no solution to deal with the righteousness requirement for sin to be punished.

She was amazed to find out that Buddhist has no God head but just a way for self-perfection towards a peaceful status of our mind called Nirvana. Hopefully, my sharing have removed some of her labelled opinion towards Christianity that it is not in conflict but supplement the lack of all religion to give us human the sinners a perfect solution for the redemption of our sin so that we are right with God again through Jesus Christ.

5) Next I saw Col sharing with a Chinese girl giving out English Bible the Book of John to her. So I supposed she is a non believers who has no Bible but is earnestly hoping to get one, so I gave her a Chinese NT bible. Pray that the words of God will take life changing effect for her to come to Christ in His time soon.

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From 1 month ago - You who are alert will have noticed that I should have included another clause. I am sure you will agree that
Jesus  return will be far better than any present day service we may do.

     There were not the usual number of tourists today and many God did not want us to converse with today. As always, God gave us the ones He wanted spoken to.  

      Fynn had 2 groups of his former school acquaintances passing by. The 3 young men had forgotten what they had heard at school earlier and were quite careless about it all. A larger group wanted to go through the flip chart. 2 of them appeared to be 'counting the cost' after a thorough chat.

          - Fynn also took P., a young woman, through it all. She stated that she would get 'a round toit' So she was asked, "If you were offered $1000000 and told this condition: "When you die you will go to hell", would you accept the money? She got the point. Pray she receives God's only Saviour & Lord in saving faith.

     Ryan was able to help a Dutch lady rightly divide justification and sanctification in her understanding.

     He also had 3 children seem eager  to receive Jesus. It appeared from conversing with their  parents that they had a Pentecostal church background. The mother, E., had a shallow knowledge of the gospel and apparently did not teach their children at home. He would not engage with us. Sad!!!

     I met my former J.W. door-knocker and his new co-worker (they sit in deck chairs?!?) . No apparent progress today but God works while we sleep.

To Him be the glory and praise. We went home thankful and rejoicing.

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On Saturday, It was our first time that we used ‘good person test’ flip chart, by God’s grace we had a lot of people engaging with the chart. Overall, It was such a joy filled day to see many people paying attention to the glorious gospel and that glorious gospel been proclaimed loud and clear at the centre of Melbourne CBD. 

I encountered ‘Woo Hyun’ he was from South Korea and he showed interest to ‘Good person test’ flipchart so it was good chance for me to share the gospel with him. As I was going through the flip chart he constantly smiled and laughed as he was realising that he was not a GOOD PERSON and when the gospel was shared about the death on the cross and the resurrection, he said ‘wow.. I am getting goosebumps’ I urged him to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Please pray for Woo Hyun as you read this. 

As I was handing out gospel tract, a man showed interest and starting to show genuine interest to the message but he gently asked me to share it bit quickly as he is waiting for the tram to come however, as the gospel was shared he decided to stay bit longer and after the gospel was shared he commented “It is too easy, just believe and be saved !” So I told him that’s why it is ‘grace’ and ‘free gift’ from God but I had to emphasise as well that If someone truly believes their ways will change out of thankfulness and love for Christ and shared Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26

From Huy Do:- 

This day’s evangelism was quite productive, thanks to the grace of God, thanks to His mercy and grace and faithfulness, the glorious Gospel of salvation was preached to many. During the entirety of the evangelism, I had shared the Gospel using the new flip chart that brother Martin graciously acquired, but only to groups of 2, 3 or 5 people at a time, yet the highlight came at the end. It was 21:00, nearing the end, and a Muslim couple with their child had come to take the good person test, it was late, and I had thought about not getting up on the soap box, but proceeded anyways, I thought that I was just going to share the Gospel to the couple and that would be it, but it was not so. As I got up and started to go over the commandments, the couple became a group of 4, the group of 4 became the group of 6, and then a little while after, a heckler came and started to object to the preaching, to which I graciously engaged, yet with his presence, more people came and a crowd gathered, by this time, the flip chart had already been fully finished, so then I proceeded to continue to preach about the Gospel to the crowd. I then ended with a plea for them to flee from the wrath that is to come and flee to Jesus Christ, and that whosoever believes in Him shall not be put to shame. By the end, several people came forward to take the Gospel tracts that I offered at the end of the preaching. PRAISE GOD for His faithfulness, only He can miraculously draw a crowd and cause them to listen, please pray for those who heard, that God would by that Gospel save them.

From Mai :- 

I met a Hindu man who had never heard of the gospel or the Christian faith before. After presenting the gospel to him, he saw the beauty of God and His love and said that it will make him think more about eternal life. 

From Daniel :- 

There was a woman from French Polynesia, who I approached and said she didn't know much English but she knew enough for us to have a conversation. She thought herself to be a good person, so I went through the 10 commandments with her, showing her she is not a good person, she is a sinner like the rest of us. She said she doesn't believe in heaven or hell but she believes in God, I challenged her theory by asking her since God is Holy and Just how can sinners get justice? Sinners would get away with their sin. She noticed her problem, since God exists there must be heaven and hell. I told her what Christ did for us on the cross, that He died for her, absorbed the wrath of God for her and that Christ loved her that He died for her. I told her she must repent of her sin and trust in Christ alone.

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We learned some very sad news while we were in the city on Thursday morning. And this report will focus on that, please keep reading.

The first week of the NZ Summer Mission, in Christchurch, is now complete.

On Thursday morning, we were back in the central city (team of six) - and in the afternoon, we were at the Northlands bus stops (three). On Friday we followed our usual schedule: with a gospel + abortion outreach in the morning (team of seven), preaching in Cathedral Square at lunch time (seven), flip charting and walk up conversations in the afternoon (seven), and an outreach to the city in the evening (four).

On Thursday, while I was in Cathedral Square, I noticed two construction workers sitting next to some flowers. So I approached them asking if they were selling them! 🤣 Of course they weren’t, but they said that someone had died and the flowers were there in respect of them. 😢 I was sad to learn of this, but it opened up an opportunity to talk about death and then share the law and the gospel with them. One was resistant, the other was open.

Afterwards, I was walking with some of the team towards Cashel Mall, when one of them informed me that Kelven had died! I was devastated. Kelven was the blind busker who was always in Cathedral Square. We had a friendly toleration of each other. He would stop busking to allow us to open air preach - but he didn’t agree with our views.

I remember at Christmas time, on a rainy Friday Kelven requested Andy & I sing a Christmas carol with him. We obliged. Even though we disagreed on religious matters, we could be nice!

In my last Christchurch report I mentioned how difficult the open air preaching had been (last Friday). I was on my own, and I had a lot of hecklers who were mocking. Sadly I remember Kelven laughing while this was all happening.

Here is what I wrote:

"I felt quite grieved at how people were mocking God (I don’t care if they mock me). God is not mocked. And one day they will face Him. But I’m thankful for the patience of God! I hope some heard the gospel and will be saved from His wrath."

I also specifically remember declaring that, although they are mocking now, there will be a day when they face God, and they won’t be laughing. I pleaded with them to accept the mercy of God while they can.

And tragically that mercy is no longer available to Kelven. Did he repent before the heart attack struck on Tuesday? Possibly, but all the evidence points to his rejection of the gospel. If so, Kelven will face a just God without the mediator: Jesus.

So it was with this in mind that I preached with a fresh passion and love for the lost of Christchurch today (Friday). I talked about the things I’ve mentioned above, I proclaimed the law (the bad news), and the wonderful good news of the gospel. And I afresh pleaded with people to repent and trust alone in the free gift of forgiveness found only in the sacrifice of Jesus paying the fine for sin.

Kelven heard the gospel many times over the years we have known him. What about you, have you heard the gospel and not responded so far? We don’t know when we will die - this is so important. Please understand and respond to the gospel today. You can read about it here: https://www.needgod.net/

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Day three of the NZ Summer Mission is complete. Today we focused on outreach at the beaches in Christchurch. In the morning we were at New Brighton, and in the afternoon we were in Sumner.

We were slightly late getting over to New Brighton, but it was providential that we were. When we arrived, the location was dead. We peered over a low wall to take a look at the beach, and the only person I could see was someone surfing! But then I turned around and noticed a young lady walking past, I mentioned to her that there weren’t many people around, and from there I ended up having the best gospel conversation of the day (for me)! If we had arrived earlier, I may have missed her. It felt like one of those divine appointments, and I knew I needed to focus on the conversation rather than getting the team organised. At one point, Andy tried to call me, but I ignored it. Eventually the lady said, “I think your phone is ringing”. I just responded with, “I know, but this conversation with you is more important right now”.

After that conversation, the team (of seven) gathered (in the meantime, some had distributed tracts to the people fishing off the pier, and others had gospel conversations with those they could find), and we prayed together before pairing up as usual. And by now, there were more people appearing - not too many, but enough to keep the team busy sharing the good news of Jesus for the morning!

And this just caused us to be brave and bold, and approach everyone we came across. This led to many surprisingly good gospel interactions.

At lunch time, we bought cans of soft drink and some ice to fill a chilly bin with before moving over to Sumner. The team enjoyed lunch together before we headed onto the beach for round two of the day armed with the chilly bin as a means of blessing people with a free cold drink and starting gospel conversations (that is, if they wanted to talk - some took a drink but didn't want to talk, which was fine, but most would at least take a tract).

A highlight conversation for me was with a family of four from the Philippines. They were very grateful for the drink, and were keen to chat about what happens after life. This was a great opportunity for Julia to try using the mini flip chart for the first time. She did a fantastic job! Well done Julia! She got stuck a few times, which was fine as I was there to help her through. It turns out that this young family had a Catholic background, and so the conversation focused on salvation by faith alone (not works) - and what the right motivation for good works should be (not trying to earn salvation). I gently challenged them to trust in Christ alone for their salvation, and to come away from the Catholic church. Their young son, engaged in the conversation very well. I was surprised that when the conversation ended, he gave me a hug! How precious was that!

But the afternoon had it’s trials as well. One lady was so offended at us giving away free drinks to “dupe” people into a conversation that she made a bit of a scene about it. This was out of the blue and I wasn’t prepared to deal with it. I could have handled the situation better, and it was a good learning opportunity for me. Unfortunately it spoiled the conversation that had started but, praise God, another team member was able to share the gospel with one of them later in the day. And it certainly didn’t stop our efforts to continue the mission! It was a reminder of the battle we are in, and the desperate need to have our armour on and to be in prayer. We need your daily prayers also - thank you!

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Battle Log for Toowong Village on Tuesday Jan 14, 2020 from 1330 to 1500.

I was seriously held up by traffic jam caused by a serious accident on M3 as such I arrived only after the team started. There were five persons serving today, namely Capetian Johnny, Col, Kiateck , Yuen Han and Hung. Johnny chose to go to the main entrance side of Toowong Village and served at Sherwood Road while all others still took our position on the Benson Street front with Kiateck later changed site to the Eastern corner of the Toowong Village.

No matter how, we all were still blessed with significance conversations with our Gospel sharing targets. Our fresh blood sister Yuen Han was doing very good since day one. Today was her 2nd participation and she could still mange to get many conversations though many rejections as well. She will have a separated post of sharing later.(*)  Col got three consecutively long conversations particularly the last one with a young Aussie girl. As for me, despite my late arrival, and walking around to check on team mates status, I still got 5 divine appointment to chat as recap below: -

1) While checking of the status of Yuen Han, with her haring with other person at the bus stop, I took the liberty to share with two young Aussie Girl Seth and Natalie. They looked a bit funky but turn out to be two willing listeners. It was the first time for both of them to hear the Gospel and they find it sensible and logical to get saved through Jesus and Him alone. Pray for God's continuous work on them.

2) Then I caught up with another local Aussie Steve. He is a rational man who knows the Bible a fair bit but missing the point of salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ. Through his fragmented understanding of the Bible, he has utterly no assurance of salvation and wonder how the sins of every one can be forgiven. It was a pity that I could only rush to explain that only through the atoning death of Christ that the punishment of our sins can be taken over by Christ as such we are all pardon to become right with God again regaining our lost heavenly citizenship right away with 100% certainty through accepting Christ as our Savior and Lord of our born again new life.

3) After that I walked up to look for Johnny with Kiatecj who felt like switching place across the road back to the Shopping mall side. On the way, I handed a tract to An Aussie skinny lady. She accepted it with reluctance and hurried off to her errands.

4) Afterwards, when I returned to check on Yuen Han, I followed up on Matt an old Aussie man who had received a tract from Yuen Han but did not stop. Again I got his permission to walk him to the Shopping mall across the foot bridge. He walked very fast despite of his heavy body, so I had to speak with faster pace to finish the gospel sharing just upon our entering to the shopping mall. He anyway still thanks for my message and hopefully it will has God's impact in his life.

5) Finally, Han a Malaysian Chinese old man was first rounded up by Col. But Mr Han speak no English, so Col refer him to me despite it was already time for us to go to do our closing prayers finishing for the day. I chose to stay behind and quickly found his family has Christian background in the older generation. And Mr Han appeared very interested to start pursuing God even as this old age. He recognized the CCCB St Lucia Church which is close to his home in St Lucia. I pointed at Kiateck across the street and took a photo with him so that Kiateck know to follow up on him when Mr Han really plan to attend CCCB St Lucia. So God timing is always the best, not too early and not too late for us to get connected with needy lost souls.

(*) Yuen Hang Tsui  14/01/2010

This time I could only share the good news with two people, few of them were happy to receive the tracts and some of them even refused the tracts. I thanked God that I could have the chance to be involved in the Street Evangelism.

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The NZ Summer Mission has started! We have now finished the first two days of outreach, and they have been better than I could have imagined. We had a total of nine people involved on Monday and eleven on Tuesday. That’s a lot more people than the regular outreaches - so very encouraging. Not only that, but it’s been wonderful seeing all those people having many opportunities to share the gospel with people. Those with more experience have been encouraging those with less - everyone is growing. And most importantly, God is being glorified in his people obey the command to go!

Monday started with a morning and afternoon outreach within the central city - and Andy open air preached during lunch time too (pictured).

After prayer, we split into pairs and made our way around Cashel Mall, Cathedral Square, and everywhere in between sharing the gospel with anyone willing to listen.

 I was initially paired up with my wife, Ruth, and one of the first people we had a good chat with (pictured) worked with her step brother! It is a small world. :) He stayed to talk for as long as his break allowed. We didn’t get to fully unpack the gospel with him, but he did take two types of gospel tract.

By about 10:30 am, lots of construction workers were also taking their breaks providing some great opportunities for gospel witness with them. Ruth and I had three conversations and many of them received tracts.

The second conversation was with two of them sitting down by the Avon river. As I was approaching them, I looked at them and the thought went through my mind that they wouldn’t be interested. Thankfully I didn’t let that stop me, because they were very interested in the conversation and were very engaged! They heard the law and the gospel.

The third conversation was with three more construction workers - and it was one of those conversations where it just clicked. They seemed deeply impacted as they heard the gospel and my impassioned pleas to respond to it!

In the afternoon, we continued our gospel work. The conversation that stands out to me is one my daughter and I had with a lady (pictured). Firstly, as a Dad, it was wonderful watching my daughter taking this lady through the law and the gospel with the mini flip chart - she did a wonderful job.

But this lady, kept getting stuck on the checking questions. She kept defaulting back to saying that her good deeds would get her to heaven! Eventually she started giving the right answer (it’s faith alone not works), but I suspect that she was just saying it rote. I don’t think she was understanding. She left with two kinds of gospel tract, and I hope she was challenged enough to start thinking about this more deeply - she is in God’s hands. But I was afresh challenged in realising that a) without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we will be blind to the truth, and b) my responsibility as a Christian to labour with people in getting them to clearly understand the important concepts of the gospel.

Tuesday saw us at the Eastgate bus stops in the morning, and in Riccarton in the afternoon.

Initially there were way more evangelists than people to share with, but us the day grew hotter, buses brought more and more people to talk to.

The highlight conversation from this outreach was with a man who was going to prison, so the courtroom analogies had high impact. He was very engaged, and seemed to really appreciate the conversation. He wanted to be able to get in touch and so we connected on Facebook. He left with gospel tracts.

In the afternoon in Riccarton we set up four flip charts in various spots, and had people also doing “walk up” at the nearby bus stops. And everyone was really busy sharing the gospel.

Near the start, one of my daughters noticed a girl and asked if she should offer her a tract (did she really need to ask?! 🤣 ). But I told her to try taking her through the mini flip chart, she looked really nervous, so I said a tract would be fine. I was busy getting flip charts set up, but a few minutes later, I glanced over and noticed that my daughters were taking the girl through the mini flip chart together! (pictured) Go girls! I was so pleased to see them getting over their fears, giving it a go, and seeing the fruit of it. Praise God. What about you?

Personally I had a number of wonderful gospel opportunities through the outreach, but I’m out of time to write about them. And I know all the other team members had wonderful gospel opportunities as well. Many are hearing the gospel, because a group of feeble Christian are stepping past their fears and giving it a go. It’s wonderful seeing God show His strength through us! All glory to him.

And thank you for all your prayers and support! Please keep praying for us! We need His power. God bess.

 

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On Saturday, by God’s grace we had total 11 labourers praise God!. The weather was great and accommodating for evangelism. As we all gathered, the word was shared on 1 Cor 15:1-4 and we prayed for outreach. 

We had quite a few interesting conversations, I met a lady called Nina she was waiting for her friend. When I approach her to give gospel tract and asked her if I could ask a question she said “yes” although she was little bit shy. So, I asked what was her idea on after life she laughed and said “um.. I don’t know” also she made the point that she was more of atheist. Simple apologetics and Romans 1:20 were shared to show that why creation is not only true but also scientific. It seemed like she was uncomfortable but wanted to keep the conversation going. Law was displayed by asking ten commandment questions and gospel was shared, she responded well and promised to think about it. please pray for Nina  

Carl was a interesting teenager, he was very honest with his answers, bit aggressive but engaged really well throughout the conversation. When the ten commandment was being shared, on the second question “have you ever stolen anything?’ he said “yeah” so what will you call me if I stole your stuff?” Carl answered “I will knock you out” but he got the point at the end that he is really not a GOOD person in the sight of God. We urged him to turn away from his sin and put his trust in Jesus Christ as we really do not know when we are going to die. Overall, Carl took the message quite seriously and understood the justification by faith. Please pray for Carl as you read this. 

From Huy Do:- 

This day’s evangelism was very productive, a conversation was wrought with two teenagers who was very attentive to the message of the Gospel. They understood the implication of the law, they understood that they are under the condemnation of God for their sins and that their only way out was that of Christ crucified at Calvary. Yet the thing that stood out was that they had encountered Operation 513 when they were at Gold Coast, Queensland, they had been preached to in regards to the Gospel already. This very much shows that God indeed is sovereign, that He is calling and commanding men to repent. Please pray that the Lord will continue to work on their hearts and regenerate them unto salvation.

From Daniel Supek :- There was a Maori guy who I had a chat to that wasn't going to any church who believed he was going to heaven by works so I asked him the question what was the reason Jesus died on the cross? He said to die for my sins. I said correct, for the forgiveness of sins, so I asked him how can you go to heaven by works if Jesus died to forgive you of your sins? I think he noticed the problem. I tried to make it clear to him that you cannot go to heaven by your own good works if Jesus died on the cross for you. You cannot enter heaven by works when you're good works aren't good enough, the standard for heaven is perfection since God is perfect. Romans 3:23 all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. We fail to keep the 10 commandments perfectly showing us we are incapable of keeping it and thus fail to make it to heaven by works, but Christ's finished work gets us to heaven. Then he thanked us for the chat. Then I told him how it was important for someone who is a believer to go to church, that God designed the church so believers can meet together to encourage, correct, worship together, he agreed.

SOLI DEO GLORIA !! 

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A busy few days of outreach for the Christchurch (NZ) team.  Thursday @ the Eastgate and Northlands bus stops.  Friday: the first gospel + abortion outreach of the year outside Christchurch Hospital, open air preaching in Cathedral Square, flip charting in Cashel Mall, and the evening outreach in the city.  Sunday: afternoon Cashel Mall outreach.

Thursday at the bus stops:  Being the school holidays, there were periods where there weren't many people around (as per the picture), but as I’m looking back on my log of gospel interactions - it’s very long!  The most encouraging thing was all the follow up conversations I had.  I would approach people to start a conversation, and I would get responses of: “oh, you’ve already talked to me” - I’m just not remembering all the people I’m talking to!

I had two positive follow ups, and two “negative” ones - but all of them encouraging.

The first was with a young man at Eastgate he remembered the building / builder, universe / universe maker analogy - and it stuck with him, as he said it back to me right at the start.  But when I asked him what the good news was, he said that we had to be good people - wrong answer!  So I was able to go over the law and the gospel with him again.  He is very open, and so I challenged him to respond to the gospel today.

The next follow up was with the older man I mentioned in a recent report that I had talked to at Northlands.  This time I saw him at Eastgate.  I challenged him about the way to heaven, and he responded with: “I don’t want to talk about it”.  Fair enough, so we parted ways.  Funnily enough, later in the afternoon, once I had moved to Northlands - I bumped into this man for a third time!  I promised him I wasn’t following him.  :)

The third one was with another young man, but this guy he had a good grasp of the gospel.  He had obviously been reading the tract and pondering it.  After a good conversation, he gladly took more tracts and a Bible - he seemed very keen to start reading it.

The last one was with a young man who wasn’t really keen to talk, and yet stuck around to engage with me.  It turns out he was a muslim.  He was challenged about the problem of how God can give justice and mercy - before he moved on to catch his bus.

I was also very encouraged to bump into a friend that I hadn’t seen for years.  I used to play indoor cricket with him.  We had a good catch up.  The last time I talked to him about spiritual things, he had said he had been involved with churches, but wasn’t interested any more.  Well now, his tune was different.  He had recently lost some loved ones to death, and was really pondering the after life.  I challenged him on if he would go to heaven - and his response was: “I’ve said the sinner's prayer” - as though it’s some magic spell.  Sadly, the sinner's prayer has inoculated many people into thinking they are right with God when they are not.  So we had a discussion on how we get right with God (a repentant faith in Christ) and how we can know that is genuine.

One last interaction that stood out to me at Northlands was with a lady whom I asked if she had ever thought about what happens after life.  She said that she had been talking about that very subject with someone in the cafe at her work.  She didn’t want to chat, but she did want a tract and said she would read it!

Of all the gospel ministry that occured on Friday, I will focus on the lunchtime open air preaching.  It was one of the most difficult times I've preached.  For a start, I was on my own.  Next, I attracted lots of hecklers, which was great - but some of our regular hecklers stirred things up which made interaction really difficult.  I felt quite grieved at how people were mocking God (I don’t care if they mock me).  God is not mocked.  And one day they will face Him.  But I’m thankful for the patience of God!  I hope some heard the gospel and will be saved from His wrath.  Near the end, a young man approached me and started asking me questions about climate change.  I said I would talk to him once I finished.  He waited, and we ended up having a one to one discussion where I tried to share the gospel, but he seemed so blind - his focus was on the fact that there was no planet B, that he couldn’t see that there was no life B, which is a much bigger problem for everyone!  Sadly he refused a tract on environmental grounds.

I know this report is getting long, but after a rest on Saturday, I was feeling really fresh for the Sunday afternoon outreach in Cashel Mall - the weather was hot.  A team of six were out - including my three daughters.

The highlight conversation was a walk up with five young people.  I managed to get them to stop, and then get them to engage through apologetics.  Reading their reactions, I could tell one of them was really uncomfortable - she was one of the professing ‘atheists’.  And so I gave them the option to end the conversation, and they took it - two tracts were taken.  But I was really surprised when one of the girls didn’t leave with her friends.  She wanted to know what church I was from, and she said it was really brave what I was doing.  She said she had been a Christian, but wasn’t any more.  But I could see that she was really thinking heavily about the important questions of life.  She was one of the ones that took a tract.  She wanted to know how she could get in touch - which I told her.  I could tell she had deep questions, but she had to go.  I pray that her questions will be answered, and that she would understand the gospel from the tract - that she would be saved by God and for His glory.  Amen.
 

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