Battle Log

Page 114

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Praise and thanks God to have moved 5 of us from different Chinese Churches to form a new team of OPN 513 Street Evangelism at Toowong Tower effective today 6/8 and thereafter every Tuesday from 1:30pm to 3pm.

We started with a prayer to ask the Holy Spirit to pave the way for us and then formed two teams with me and Kiateck across the pedestrian bridge to the other side of the Benson Road. I stayed at the foot of the bridge and Kiateck went 30m further to take position at the traffic light. Johnny and Lily teamed up to do street evangelism at the front entrance of Toowong Tower. They were joined later by Chi Ming who is also a member of the Sherwood Methodist Church.

As the first timers Kiateck and Lily had been fairing very well kept handing out tract and stay put at their assigned location.

Johnny as usual had many amazing opportunities to stop people to share. He told me one of them was two UQ girls who actually met Johnny before at the King George Square before and have believed in Christ. At that time, they are planning to rent a house in Toowong area as St Lucia are more expensive and with little opening. But by grace of God today, they met Johnny again and told him they now have rented a place in St Lucia much closer to UQ. Johnny then referred them to go to CCCB St Lucia at Ryan Street which should be very near to the two girls' house. Thanks God that they may start to have stable church and worship life.

There were also six conversation with people of different origins including UK, China, Philippine, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia as well as local Australia from Brisbane and Mackay. Since I forgot to bring my iphone, I can only recall vaguely their name, background and responses as follows: -

1) Ellie from UK, a young work lady with no religious back ground. I gained the conversation by helping her to park the Council bicycle. She appeared very friendly to the gospel message and promise with politeness to read the tract and seriously consider the need to trust in Jesus.

2) A UQ student Majoring in Commerce and International trade from Jiangsu, China. He again has never heard of the gospel and thought initially it is too vague a thought for him whose focus is secular success. After hearing the full gospel, he admitted that every one including him is imperfect as well as a sinner in God's eyes rather than his previous thought of no absolute right and wrong depending on your angle of vision. So he will give more serious thought on this big life issue of live or die with sin not having been properly dealt with.

3) Wahwang and her friend from Philippines. She claimed herself Christian but seemingly of Catholic background, so despite her trust in Jesus, she still doesn't think she is a good enough Christian to be certain about admittance to Heaven. Hopefully my clarification have helped her to secure assurance of faith by Jesus alone while our life is yet to be transformed by the grace of God through the life changing work of the Holy Spirit.

4) Katie a local Brisbane Aussie girl. She delightfully stop to let me share with her the Gospel. It was also her first chance hearing about sin and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus. She appeared receptive and promise also to dwell on this issue after reading the tract at home. She is a QUT student but happened to come to Toowong for shopping.

5) A cheerful Lady stop to answer my diagnosis questions with the perfect right answer. She is from Mackay as a visitor. She was not surprised when I told her 90% of Christians are not clear about salvation and have no assurance of faith alone in Christ.

6) At the end, I met up with two UQ students Cherry from Hong Kong and Bing Fai from Indonesia. They also have clear understanding of faith answering my two diagnosis questions correctly. They are both Christian back in their home country but now is a member of the Power to Change. Cherry actually knows Florence and I told her they are more than welcome to join this street evangelism ministry one day.

Apart from these six medium short but complete conversations, there were some more fragmented short exchange of words. In general, older Aussies and very young Uni students are mostly atheists that rejected even the tracts not to mention stopping for a chat. Middle age and mature young persons are more receptive but cannot stop due to busy reasons.

In general, it was as usual a great day to experience the presence of God and be trained during the process of working with the Spirit for each divine chatting appointment. Pray that Kiateck and Lily will get adapted to this mode of street cross cultural evangelism and be a role models for their own church members to step out willing from their comfort zone .

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A worker who was pushing trolleys stopped, took a tract and was saying he believed in Jesus. Rick asked him if he were to die today why would God let you into heaven. He sounded like he was trusting in Jesus alone. He asked for a bible for his children, we gave him some of the Gideon bibles and two full bibles, some tracts and a booklet of John for his 13 year old.

He said his kids will love them. Pray for J, he is from another country where bibles would be hard to get and a lot of persecution for Christians in the country he has come from.

A man walked by and as he was offered a tract he said he wasn’t interested but he did take one, it was the “What is more important than water” tract. He continued walking away, but after he did his banking he walked past us again saying "It’s not true because if we don’t have water we will die." We said "yes, true but what happens after you die." He said "nothing, you just go in the ground and that’s it." This man was challenged of there being a creator and Eternity after we die and if he died in his sins he would find out that it is true and will have to give an account of his life when he stands before the judgement seat of God.

He went on to say that he still goes to church and I said "why do you go if you don’t believe it is true?" and he said maybe he would stop going. He elaborated as to why he said this - His wife had just passed away from cancer, as well as a sister and one of his children all in the last year. We said that we were very sorry for his loss and that was a lot to deal with in a short period of time. God took her he said and now he was left with no one.

He could see we had compassion for him as we tried to talk to him about God. We gave him a booklet “Why is there death and suffering in the world” he took it and we said that we are here each Friday if he has any questions or would like to talk further with us. Pray that he reads the tract again and the booklet and for God to stir his heart to respond to the Gospel.

It is very sad for we don’t know what teaching he was receiving and whether he was reading the bible to prepare himself and family for Eternity and life’s journey, all the up’s and downs we must face on a daily basis. God’s word is our refuge and strength for all time.

Bless His Holy name for giving us and revealing to us His precious word to lead, guide, encourage, challenge, correct, comfort and restore us when we fall and mostly thank you our Lord Jesus for laying down your life for the ones you chose to save, even before the foundation of the world.

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Wow today we were amazed at seeing God’s Spirit working in a man walking past the table. He was at first looking away as if not interested, he even said no to us offering a tract as he got closer.  Just about passed the table, suddenly he stopped and said “can I have a bible?” gob smacked we said "of course you can."

Then he was asked if he had read the bible before. He said a little, but a long time ago but didn’t understand it. We talked about the main point of the bible is so we can come know our creator God. His plan through Jesus, who is God, is to save us from our sins. There is bad news and good news. He was taken through the law and the Gospel was explained to him. We gave him a booklet of John also, as we were using the bridge analogy that is in the front of the booklet.

He was challenged to see his greatest need is Jesus. We got his name and hope to see him again soon. Please pray for J. Rick said the Lord must have said "wake up J!" We pray so.

We also had a couple who were on their way to spread the Gospel to a town 4 hours away. They said they were born again and believing in Jesus. They went past us twice but were in a rush. They were given a booklet and a few different tracts and they were encouraged to check out the ministry website and read some of the outreach blogs that endeavour to bless and equip other believers.

Always plenty of tracts given out, so much hope in the seed of the Gospel in written form. We are so thankful to our Lord for the work He is doing here in Warwick. It's been very dry here, we are in pretty severe drought and would appreciate prayer for rain but add that God’s will be done in it all as He is Sovereign over everything.

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On Saturday afternoon, the team met on Bribie for a time of outreach. We were blessed to have four extra helpers, which was encouraging. It was a great privilege to have a pastor drive all the way down from Hervey Bay to share the Gospel, as well as another Christian who drove through 2 and 1/4 hours of heavy traffic to join us. The weather was on its best behaviour, there was a constant flow of people coming and going, and the general atmosphere seemed friendly and receptive. A large number of tracts went out, along with several Bibles and other literature. Many people stopped to talk and heard the Gospel. There were a large number of Christians who also passed us in the course of the afternoon and encouraged us in what we were doing, promised to pray for the outreach, or took tracts to distribute.

  Mike engaged with two young atheists. In the course of the short discussion, they became very uncomfortable, but they left with Gospel tracts which speak of evolution vs. creation. Pray for their salvation. 

  One elderly lady said, "I followed Jesus once, but I don't don't anymore. I will pray to Him just before I die." Mike asked her if she knew when that would be, or if it could be tonight. She said she liked to be positive about such matters, but she did take a tract. 

  Pray too for a Christian lady we met who has been struggling with suffering in her life. She was looking for someone to reach out and care for her, someone to be there for her in her loneliness. She was encouraged to look to Jesus, to regularly study the words of Scripture, and to be faithful in her prayer life. She took some Christian literature and was put in contact with a local Christian who could mentor and pray for her.

  One of the team members spoke to some teenagers about the Gospel, and they seemed fairly attentive. After the main group moved off however, Keeshi stayed behind and asked some more questions. Her two sisters had once been "bad girls," but since getting saved, they had completely changed. She said they had been praying for her, and she seemed to genuinely seeking the truth. She came to our literature table and took a Bible and a DVD, as well as other Gospel literature. Please be in prayer for this young girl's conversion.

  Another team member was able to strike up a conversation with a gentleman who had previously refused a tract. He was able to plant some seeds in this man's heart, and we pray that God would bring them to fruition.

  Overall, it was a great afternoon. The Word of God has gone out, and we now pray for fruit to come. Please be active in prayer for these souls, fervent in supplication, and if you can make it, we would love to have join us next month at the Bribie Island outreach. 

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It was good to get out again... there's still a lot I need to learn. I need to spend more time in prayer, reading the Bible and other helpful resources such as 'The Christian in Complete Armour - William Gurnall.

Took the flip chart out to Caroline Bay (Timaru) to meet up with a few other like minded Christians. The others already had a few conversations with a few different people by the time I arrived. After the flip chart was setup I had a conversation with a 'Christian' who said it was a lousy method (flip chart); who did not agree with the direct approach of the good person test (Law and Gospel) and who seemed to deny original sin. I pointed to Psalm 51 'In sin did my mother conceive me'; he also tried to say that its not really breaking the law if no one sees you. He did seem to change his mind slightly when I gave a very basic illustration that if I stole my mother's purse and no one saw me, that it is still theft, whether anyone saw me or not. He was unable to tell me how or why to get saved if I were an unbeliever and favoured a more 'friendship-God-is-love' approach.

 

I had a few minutes with a group of German tourists, who although pressed for time, did stay a while to chat, but when the conversation started to become serious (Law and Gospel and the consequences of breaking the one and neglecting the other) they excused themselves. Attached is a photo of a member from my church who had a good conversation with two girls, who also left with tracts.

It was a brief, but thought provoking outreach. Please pray for all who were spoken to. Psalm 67

 

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As opposed to the last two Saturdays, today was a nice sunny day.  Spring is definitely on the way!  So I headed into Cathedral Square to set up my flip chart.  I had about eight Gospel interactions.  Some long, some short.

I had a good follow up conversation with a guy Daniel had talked to during last night's outreach.  He is from the USA, and is heading down to Antarctica.  He said he liked the tract he had received, and asked if I had any different ones - so I gave him one of each I had.  Some good reading material for him while down on the ice!

Soon after that, I had two guys stop and instantly start talking about God’s love (in a very attacking kind of way - which put me on the back foot and made me very defensive).  They had pigeon holed me as a “fundamentalist” that only talked about God’s wrath.  It turns out they were Catholic.  We spared for a while, before they disengaged.  I got to talk about the love and wrath of God in balance with them.  The tract I gave them was perfect for the discussion: Jesus shows us God.  We parted on good terms.

Near the end of the outreach, I had a boy see “the good person test” and want to give it a try, he had his aunty with him.  It can sometimes be awkward sharing with a child and parent.  The parent often doesn’t like it when I hold up the law like a mirror to their child, who is always “good”.  So I was very upfront with the aunty about what I was going to do.  And I made it all the way through the law and Gospel presentation with them both with no problems.  The aunty accepted a follow up tract too.

With the completion of this Battle Log, I’m officially on leave for a few days!  Taking some much needed R&R with my family.  I’m very grateful for rest, and looking forward to recharging the batteries before launching into another busy summer of outreach!  Soli Deo Gloria! :)
 

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Thursday and Friday saw five outreaches: Eastgate bus stops (team of two), Northlands bus stops (team of two), Gospel + abortion outreach outside Christchurch Hospital (team of five), Open air preaching in Cathedral Square & flip charting near the Bridge of Remembrance (team of ten), and finally the city evening outreach (team of two).

The highlight conversation at the bus stops was with a Muslim high school student who accepted a tract as she walked past and then became engaged in a discussion.  The fulcrum of the debate was around how God can be both just and merciful.  It was a passionate conversation.  In the end she had to go, but she didn’t want to let the debate drop, and wanted to connect on social media so the conversation could continue.  I ended up giving her my phone, and she emailed herself from it so she could reply at a later time.  She couldn’t shake my hand, as they don’t do that in their culture (I’m slowly learning!) - but we parted on good terms.

I turned around and noticed another high school student (from a Catholic school) and offered him a tract, which he refused.  I said, “I’ve just had a great chat with a Muslim, I’d love to talk to a Catholic now!”  He smiled, and then he said something that really surprised me, he said, “I really appreciate the way you go about what you do.”  He had obviously been taking notice of the conversation I had just been having!  I thanked him, and admitted that it can sometimes be hard to maintain gentleness and respect when you are sharing a message that people don’t want to hear - but that it is vital to do so.  I then offered him a tract again, and said, “are you sure you don’t want one?”  He then said, “no, I already have two, I’ve picked them up around here - I like to talk about them with my RE teacher”.  He then shocked me by asking if he could have my phone too, so he could email himself and get back to me!  I was honoured to allow him to do so.  How incredibly encouraging!

These conversations occurred on Thursday afternoon.  As of now (Saturday morning), I’ve not heard from either of them yet - but I hope I do.

During the Gospel + abortion outreach we had a man in a wheelchair stop to talk with us and express his support.  I quickly took the opportunity to swing the conversation to a Gospel one.  They guy through he was a good person, so I took him through the law (the ten commandments) to allow him to test himself.  I was then able to share the good news of the Gospel: Jesus.  As soon as I’d finished, he said, “look at the time, I’ve got to get going”.  I have no choice but to leave him in God’s hands after our very brief conversation.

The preaching in Cathedral Square was fascinating.  The musician who plays loud music hadn’t arrived yet, and so we had a great opportunity to proclaim the Gospel in the open air without that distraction.  Marty preached the Gospel, then I preached the Gospel, Marty again, and then to our surprise, the Wizard decided he would speak.  After that, Ari, another wizard spoke as well.  And then Andy got up to respond to Ari and proclaim the Gospel (pictured).  By this stage, there were a fair few people hanging around to listen and engage.  Tracts were distributed, and many spin off Gospel conversations occurred as well.  It was a wonderful time of ministry.

Later in the afternoon, construction noise caused us to move from our usual flip charting spot on the corner of Colombo and Cashel, down to the Bridge of Remembrance.  There I had two tiring Gospel conversations with people whose native language was not English.  As I finished the first conversation, I moved straight into the second one because the guy was waiting to talk with me!  He had received a tract from someone else on the team and wanted to discuss.  He was from China, and he did want to practice his English, but was also very interested in the Bible.  After working through the law and the Gospel with him, he said that this was the second time someone had explained it to him, the first time he 50% understood, he said he now 80% understood, and wanted to learn more.  By this stage, Andy had joined the discussion, and he took over to try to get him to fully understand that we are justified by faith in Jesus (and not by works) and that he needed to do that (trust Jesus) today.  Our new friend wants to learn more, and accepted a Bible, and an invite to come to church on Sunday (he lives close by, and received a card with directions - pictured).

I was very tired by the time the evening outreach started, and thankfully Daniel ended up fielding most of the Gospel conversations on this outreach.  I was saying to Daniel that it can seem like there aren't many people around and that it will feel like it may be hard to start a conversation, but if we are patient, often wonderful conversations do occur.  Sure enough, about ten minutes later, someone stopped and started talking with Daniel, and then five minutes later, a second guy stopped and joined in as well!  Daniel spent about thirty minutes with both of them, where he was able to clearly share the Gospel! (pictured)
 

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Tuesday saw a team of two in Riccarton, but before I arrived for the outreach, I needed to go to the bank.  As part of the meeting, the banker asked me my occupation.  This was a great opportunity to bring up spiritual things!  So I explained that I was a Christian minister.  Her response was to say, “oh, I’m an atheist”.  So I responded with (I don’t know why), “there are no atheists”!  To my surprise, she immediately responded with, “well, I do believe there is something there” - she back slid fast!  It would have been easy for me to convert the conversation into a Gospel one, but I needed to get the appointment over so I could get to the outreach - and I was aware that she was currently working.  So I offered her a tract, which she accepted, and she promised she would read it (pictured on her desk).  I think she found me odd enough (my attitude towards money is probably different to what she is used to), that she even mentioned that she would discuss the tract with her workmates - I hope she does.  Do you have tracts with you?  Are you ready to share the Gospel when an opportunity arises?  Check out the Operation 513 web stores to buy some.  Many good Gospel conversations were had on the outreach, as per the pictures.

Wednesday saw me in the City and at Ara.  One conversation from the days outreach was very special.  A gang member became interested in the flip chart - then decided he didn’t want to go through it, but he accepted a tract as he left.  I turned around, and to my surprise, two young ladies were sitting down waiting to talk to me.  I recognised one of them - I have talked to some of her friends quite a few times since summer.  These two girls clearly wanted to talk about spiritual things, and so I sat on the footpath in front of them and started answering their questions.  We talked about how we know God exists, where morality comes from, why there is suffering, the seriousness of sin, the amazing grace of Jesus.  We also sparred about abortion and homosexuality.  At one point I said, “God will accept you just as you are…”, and then I got cut off with the response of, “no He won’t!  He doesn't accept homosexuals as they are!”  And then I finished off with “... but He won’t leave you as you are.”  Both girls seemed impacted by the conversation, the one I hadn’t seen before, even looked like she was wiping away tears.  I’m sure I could have convinced them to “pray a prayer”, and “accept Jesus into their heart”, and pick them up to bring them to church.  But I was again reminded that I can’t save them with my convincing, passion, sincerity, or anything.  Salvation is of the Lord.  But I did plead with them multiple times to repent and trust in Christ - to accept the gift of grace, acknowledging the cost.  They know how to contact me if they want to.  I leave them in God’s hands, but I will be praying for them.  Oh God, please save them, usher them into your kingdom - may you receive the reward of your suffering!  (They are pictured walking away.)
 

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Otara Markets

Grace and Peace to you all in Christ, My friends, it has been some time since our last update; But the Lord's work has not been silent here, By His grace in the past few months God has blessed us here in Auckland at our outreaches, our usual times have been kept the same, with the added venue being the Mangere markets, which has been a great spot where there is much foot traffic during it's opening hours. 

Last weekend we were back at Otara, there were 5 of us on this day, Alfie & Elsie, Joseph, Elijah and myself, it had been about a month since we had been there, and the Lord had blessed our time, we setup at our usual spot in the walkway with our literature stand and flip chart and it wasn't too long where I had a group of approx 8 youths who stopped to go through the chart, in the beginning we went through the first few pages but as we got more into it things began to get more serious as they realized that because of their sins God must be just and punish sin.

You see these were troubled youths, and so by God's grace we were able to talk through this area of the justice of God, of God being a good judge, relating this to the court system that we have here in this country which they seemed to know well, and that they were needing reconciliation and redemption through the Lord Jesus, that only the Judge could save them, Please pray for these young people. They along with many others took our Op513 tracts, Pastor Alfie and brother Elijah were on the other side of the shopping center where they had an opportunity to open air preach, Pastor Alfie was met with some opposition by an aggressive man who wanted to pay him 20 cents to stop but it was short lived and he was able to continue to preach, there was a good number of foot traffic there as well so please pray that the Lord would save and raise up more workers from this area who truly know the Lord.

We have a problem here in South Auckland, the problem is that we have too many church buildings with no Church inside. In the words of Paul Washer speaking of "American Christianity"  - "They are not gospel hardened they are gospel ignorant" This is also true here. God have mercy on us.

SDG

 

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What a glorious day our Lord  gave to us  in which we were enabled by Him to show something of our love for Him - 1 Jn. 5:3. How much more glorious will the recreation be, especially when we see Him as He is? -  1 Jn. 3:2

     Ryan and Fynn manned the jetty while Railee and I did a tour around the point. We met a young family, Jesse and Christine and their first child, one gorgeous little bundle of joy. They showed some understanding of why God could forgive them but were not familiar with the imputed righteousness of Christ. How can so many protestant churches not teach the basic fact of how Jesus saves His people from their sins? - Mt. 1:21 How can anyone be truly assured if they do not realize the completeness of the Lord Jesus Christ's finished work. 

     We conversed with June but after 10 minutes or so, we had not apparently communicated. Her Watchtower training had her well and truly bamboozled. Please pray for her as she is very religious having journeyed through the Baptists, Mormons, etc., but her professed saviour is only a created being who has not the capacity to satisfy  the infinitely holy God.

     Meanwhile, among others, Ryan engaged a mature aged couple; the wife had been told that she had about 5 years of life ahead of her (barring a fatal accident or?). They both initially had been depending in their goodness to get into heaven. After hearing the bad and then the good news, she remained apparently unmoved while he said that he must consider God's message.

    There was also a mature aged man who was going to heaven and jovially announced that he was perfect.  After hearing God's Word, He came to state that he would have to go over these matters with a Christian friend. Pray he does. (I had thought that Ryan could not 'get through' to this man, but God showed me again how wrong I often am. The night sermon was based on 1 Sam. 16:7 - ouch! Time to repent again.)

     Meanwhile, Fynn was approached by 2 young ladies, Ellie and Rita. One could give a biblical reason for the hope of glory that she had. After further conversations, they expressed interested in our Sunday night training in King George square.

     As always, we went home rejoicing and praying that God would be pleased to use His word, particularly with regard to the tracts we handed out with little comment. To Him alone be the glory as He keeps on drawing His elect to His Son who welcomes all who come to Him - Jn. 6:37,44.

     

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