Battle Log

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Evangelism in Timaru went well. Even though it was Queen’s Birthday Weekend, the foot traffic was very low and although only a handful of tracts went out, it was good to be out. Unfortunately I was the only one out, but hopefully more people will join in future outreaches. Most people were open to receive tracts, with only a handful rejecting the tracts. 

Only had one conversation: with ‘Vic’, who first appeared to have all the “right” answers, but on further follow up questions, revealed himself to be a Mormon, who somehow trusts grace & good works. When I used Ray Comfort ‘s illustration of the man dying in 3 minutes, and what he would say, Vic said he would ‘release his priesthood’ on the man. Umm...? Image removed by sender.:) 

We had a brief, but good, friendly conversation (referred him to Scriptures like Romans 6 & Ephesians 2). He left with Operaton 513 ‘150 years from now’ & ‘Why Christianity?’ tracts. 

Sometime in the future, I would like to setup a Gospel literature table & flip chart at the intersection- please Pray God would make this possible. Above is the photo of the intersection I referred to - thank you for the prayers.

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This last month has been a wonderful time with visiting brethren in Christ and many opportunities to speak for Jesus. It has become quite cold and wet as it always does in winter in Hobart. This means that fewer people stop to listen and come to the Bible table, but also more people are gathered nearby under the rain shelter in the center of the mall. There have also been many opportunities to share the gospel with tracts, I have run out yet again!

It was wonderful to have the Hemelaar’s come and visit us and be part of our outreach on Tuesday and Friday. Ryan was kind enough to preach and they both gave generously of their holiday time to serve the Lord. I am always encouraged by Ryan’s work, his ability to start a gospel conversation just warms my heart. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and service together and I saw conversations happening that I had not been able to have, praise God!

Some of the other conversations that have happened this month include:

• Mr T – A middle aged man who approached me after preaching recently and asked me if I had sinned. I responded that I had many times and needed a great savior. He said he had sinned as well and had lost his marriage because of his poor choices. He asked for me to pray for him, I offered to pray with him but he wanted me to pray that night. He stayed for a period and listened to the preaching again and afterwards took a bible.
• Young guy and girlfriend – They have stopped before and discussed ethics and this time stayed to listen for a while as I preached and afterwards chatted briefly.
• Mr P – A middle aged gent who was very happy to see Christians publicly preaching the Word of God. He had recently become a Christian and said that it was just so encouraging to see people willing to preach and talk and hand out literature in the mall.
• School girl – She had stopped by a number of times before and spoken with me. This month though she was struggling with grief and the horrible pain that brings. I tried to encourage her and have been praying that God will be with her in the pain and bring her healing.
• Also, there is the ongoing great conversations with I am privileged to have with two young men from the street work. Both of them are now claiming Christ as Lord! I am reading the bible with them both and it is a joy to share their walk and talk with them about the word of God.

Another great opportunity that has arisen is outside the mall. Today I will be appearing with my Pastor Campbell Markham as witnesses for the government Inquiry into the Status of Freedom of Religion or Belief. Please be in prayer that we will provide a Godly witness and an impetus to place legal protections around religious freedom.

A small fly in the ointment was Mr S. attempting to get his 5 minutes of internet fame by creating yet another attack video. I suppose it is an attempt to prevent the mainland “celebrity” from influencing Hobart people too much. In addition to Mr S. there has also been the ongoing aggression of pro-death supporters. It is hard to see my friends and my work for God attacked but it is comforting to know that God is our judge and it is before Him that we receive our commendation, not from men. Likewise, it has been good to see just how thin the arguments have been from Mr S. and his friends, most of it as baseless as the recent anti-discrimination case.

We will rejoice in Christ and preach His word, even while others attempt to use Christians as props for their agenda of self-confessed hatred for Christ our Lord. We will rejoice as God uses even the painful and difficult to draw people to salvation in Jesus Christ.

Praise our wonderful God!

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It proved to be a coolish day but the conversations were warming to our hearts. Ryan started a chat with a young man and was still engaged after an hour. Lee-Anne had an open chat with Sarah and they had reached the gospel when her bus arrived. She left with John's gospel and Lee-Anne's phone number as she wanted to hear more. Please pray that she does. As Sarah got on her bus and it was departing, another young lady came running for the bus but missed it. Lee-Anne was able to console her and was chatting freely with her as I left. 

     I met a Philippine lady Muslim who was easy to speak to but not really taking what I said seriously. She freely admitted her sinfulness and need of forgiveness. She ignored the court analogy of simply asking the judge to have mercy on her and then expecting him to let her go free, and asking God for mercy with no satisfaction of His offended justice and expecting the Righteous Judge to let her go unpunished. She stuck to her 'we worship the same god but in different ways'. Her way was from the Koran.

   Next was Jordan who was wide open and seemed to understand the message of salvation. He has a Bible and was asked to read John's gospel humbly asking God to reveal Himself. Jordan was also made aware of his need to 'count the cost'.

We can thank God for the cool breeze that swept through the plaza from time to time. It seemed to keep many away but even our long-time 'knocker' passed by twice without interfering. Praise God and to Him be all the glory.

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Queen Street Outreach

Our gracious God had granted to us the joy of heralding the everlasting gospel on Queens street, our opening line in the open air was “Hear ye, Hear ye, we are here on Queen street, on Queen's birthday weekend but we come by decree of the King of Kings....”

We had a team of 5, many of our Op513 tracts were handed out along with a few gospel conversations, one of the brothers had bumped into an old friend whom he had not seen in over 15 years, it was a great opportunity for him to share how God had saved him from his life of sin. We were blessed to have good steady foot traffic during the open air preaching of the gospel.

Please pray for those whom we came into contact with either through one on one conversations or walking past while we preached, we pray that God would enable them to hear the call of the Kingdom.

Our team was: Pastor Alfie, 2 of our Deacons' Charles & Joe, our sister Eliza and myself.

May the Lord Jesus the King of Kings be glorified, rule and reign forever and ever.

 

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Speakers Corner (Auckland City, Albert Park) 

We give thanks to the Lord in allowing us to have this place to open air preach - Every Wednesdays' myself and a mix of brothers from different Churches gather here at Speakers Corner for open air preaching - this particular outreach it was, Brothers' Trevor, Tim, Alistair and myself -

We usually meet here at around lunch time and often get some foot traffic moving through, as it is located in Auckland City people come to this park for their lunch break, also, this park is right next to the University of Auckland - So we get a steady amount of University students passing through.

One student in particular who's name was Logan I had noticed as I stood up on the podium to preach came and sat down to listen to the message, he had stayed there until I had finished and as I came to sit down he walked over and asked me the question "Why would a loving God send anyone to hell?"

With the Lord's help I was able to take him briefly through some of God's attributes, explaining to him what the bible means when it speaks of God's Righteousness, Holiness & Justice and His hatred for sin, explaining what the Bible means when it speaks of man's total depravity, but then making the point of the mystery of God's mercy and grace to sinners as He sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins. and then asking the question, "Why does God send anyone to heaven?"

By God's grace Logan was able to come to the understanding that "there are none good, no not one"  and that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" that "the soul that sins it shall die".

One other thing was that during our conversation as I was explaining to him the meaning of repentance - He was able to come to the understanding that turning away from your sin and trusting in Christ is a work from God and not of the flesh, I assured him that his only hope in being made right with God is through Jesus Christ the Lord.

As we parted, he expressed his appreciation for our conversation in answering his questions and I gave him one of the "Jesus shows us God" Op513 tracts. Please pray for Logan and others who would have heard the preaching of the gospel this day. Our next outreach will be on the 1st of June in Auckland City on Queen Street if it be the Lord's will. 

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Open air meeting at Otara Shopping Centre 

With the Lord's help we were able to do something we have never done before and have an open air meeting in the Otara Shopping Centre with some of the members of our Church - This was a great opportunity as we had hired the main stage in the square and were granted permission to use amplification for open air preaching.

By God's grace, myself and my Pastor were able to bring 2 messages and the Lord's grace was shown as it allowed for many people to stop and listen to the preaching of the gospel. In between the preaching we sung hymns such as "How great thou Art" - "The Old rugged Cross".

There are some brothers from other churches who want to join in on the next open air meeting if the Lord wills we plan to have on the 16th of June. 

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Anzac dawn service & Parade 

Members of our Church, and our Pastor by God's grace were able to attend both dawn service and the ANZAC parade in Manurewa, South Auckland to hand out a replica copy of John's gospel that the soldiers would have received during the first world war - Easily over 200 gospel's were handed out altogether - We were greatly encouraged by the willingness of the people wanting to take God's word with them and hearing how it was standard issue gear for the soldiers. One particular lady whom I got to share with said that she had an original copy that belonged to her great grandfather. We give praise and glory to the Lord of hosts for allowing us to serve & worship Him in this way. 

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We had a break in the showery weather which was long enough to do what our Lord would have us (6 on the team today) do. We had a few conversations and gave out some tracts as usual. One encounter with a Korean young woman reminded us of the lack of a fear of God in some people. This lady was showing a non-English speaking Korean woman around the Point.  During a chat with her, the fact was presented that Jesus is a fully competent Saviour with the capacity to save His people out of their sins, or former, present and future sins. The lady responded with a remark that if she trusted in Jesus then she could live as she wanted and He would certainly save her. The reply that if anyone continued to live as he wanted to, yet claimed to be a Christian, it would demonstrate that he was not a Christian at all. Thankfully she then agreed to give a tract to her Korean friend who was returning to Korea in a week. Once back, she was asked to search out a Christian to explain the tract to her. Please pray that God will be gracious to these lost souls that He directed to hear some of His liberating truth today.

     We recall that repentance is one's acknowledgement of one's own sins and his inability to reconcile himself to God. It is a fruit of regeneration and leads to a new way to live - for the glory of God. Where there is no repentance, there can be no forgiveness. The Christian knows the ongoing blessedness of ongoing repentance as one walks with the Lord - daily; moment by moment.

What a privilege that every Christian has been reconciled to the one true and living Holy God. To Him be all glory!

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As winter slowly creeps up the foot traffic in Brisbane city on a Saturday night has been getting a little quieter, yet God still provides people with whom the Gospel can be shared.

Watch this encouraging video with a short recap of the evening.

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On Saturday night in Brisbane city it was a little cooler than usual but God still allowed the team to have some great gospel conversations with the lost.

It is great that sometimes we get to speak to people we have spoken to in the past. On Saturday night we spoke to one such man who one year ago had a conversation with us. He didn't fully remember the way to Heaven, so we got to remind him that it is through trusting in the the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

This man saw this second conversation as another wake-up call to really take this all seriously, but he saw that sin is pleasurable and so wasn't sure if he is ready yet to come to saving faith. We stressed the urgency of doing so, gave him a gospel of John to start reading, and left him in God's hands.

Another man we spoke with was a student from Nepal whose brother gave him a Bible when his brother became a Christian, before becoming a Muslim and then becoming a Hindu again. This man said he had read some of the Bible, and so in the conversation after talking about how we have all broken the law of God (to bring the knowledge of sin) and after hearing the gospel, he saw that his Hinduism doesn't actually provide a solution to getting rid of the history of his sin. He saw that doing good deeds wouldn't erase the past and saw how he needed a perfect person to take his punishment for him.

But he said, "The biggest thing stopping me from becoming a Christian is that we as Hindus must burn our parents once they die and you Christians bury your parents." It was explained that there is no commandment in the Bible about what exactly should be done with a person's body when they die, but burying is usually done because it shows respect for the person and it reminds us of the resurrection to come.

The second thing stopping him was, "But I don't want to lose what I've gained in Hinduism." We gave him the example of the apostle Paul who had gained so much in his Judaism prior to becoming a Christian - he was a Pharisee of Pharisees, and yet then in one of this letters he says "Whatever I gained, I now count as loss in comparison to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."

This man was seriously counting the cost of leaving Hinduism and trusting in Christ, we gave him a full Bible (as he left his in Nepal) and recommended a local church to attend on Sunday to learn more. To God be all the glory!

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