Battle Log

Page 19

Page 1 . . . 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 . . . 282

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday June 18th, 2024 from 1330-1430

It was yet another cheerful and glorious day of gospel outreach under the warm Winter sun. There mixed reaction but overall speaking, we could feel the hands of God behind each and every divine appointment whether a smooth or difficult conversation, God was always in control. Both Johnny and Hung had some long and quality conversations with either first timer or people with multiple chats. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung.

1) I was led to approach first a Japanese girl who comes to learn English at the Language School of UQ. Mt Japanese greeting aroused her interest and allow me to share the full gospel to her till the bus came.

2) Linghan an English speaking Malaysian, though claimed to be an Atheist, but appeared very open and receptive to the gospel sharing as he could not find any illogicality in the need of a Salvation as it is universally agreed that no human is perfect as such we all need a Savior to redeem us from the bondage and judgement of sin. I at one moment even thought he is readily a Christian but on parting he told me he actually is an Atheist. So I can only claim this is the miraculous work of the Spirit to soften his heart turning him around to admit he also needs Jesus. He showed his appreciation by taking a selfie joyfully with me.

3) Then I had a brief chat with a young man from Nanjing who comes to study engineer at UQ. He showed impartially to gospel sharing and took a tract at the end.

4) Then I caught up with a Head student from SMT called Queensland Academy for Science Mathematics and Technology, a selective State School for elite student founded in 2007. She has around 15-20 badges of honor pinned on her overcoat life those veteran did on Anzac day parade. It was a perfect illustration of how a good or even excellent person she is but still she needs salvation like every body else as long as she admitted she is still imperfect.

5) Then I was led to catch up with a Belarus girl Valerian who is non religious but still friendly to listen to the gospel and took a tract at the end.

6) Another long chat with Anna an ABC of half Aussie (Mom) and half Chinese (Dad). She finally disclosed she once a church going Christian but no more. I encourage her to reconnect with God as we must remain in Him to be able to keep growing towards perfection through the life transformation work of the Holy Spirit, on top of the foundation of Jesus' redemptive grace granting us readily the long lost heavenly citizenship and life of eternity. She was graceful for my sharing and joyfully took a selfie with me.

7) Lastly, I caught up with a girl form Shanghai. It was a pity there was not enough time for full Gospel and she also took no tract at the end.

 

---

A more difficult week of outreach this week.  Yet, no chat is in vain!  For all I know, those difficult opportunities will lead to an increase: salvation of souls.  God uses us in our weakness for his glory.

 

So, we skipped 2 street outreaches due to rain (Friday and Saturday).  So I was only at each location once this week.  Riccarton on Tuesday afternoon with Roger and in the city on Sunday afternoon.

 

But, this meant I did more online (and even that was difficult this week!)  Yet, the work online (via needGod.net) is so encouraging.  Not only are we reaching thousands of people with the gospel, I’m seeing individual Christians growing in their apologetics and evangelism.

 

I’m seeing massive growth in the ability of some people who I have been involved with during their initial training.  To listen to their conversations, then and now - the contrast is amazing, glory to God!  So, don’t give up, keep practising, that’s the key.  And online, it is so easy to do!  We offer free training, so if you are interested, get in touch!

 

So, reporting on the 2 street outreaches.  Last week in Riccarton, I was really busy in conversations, this week it was very slow.  So slow in fact that I decided to abandon my flip chart and go look for conversations to have.  This did the trick.  I wandered down Riccarton Road and I was quickly engaged in a conversation with 2 high school students.

 

I then had a special chat with a young lady right outside the bus terminal.  She was going to a church, but her motive for attending wasn’t right, and she wasn’t understanding the gospel.  I had a short opportunity to engage her.  She eventually asked an interesting question: “why isn’t God doing more to reach people”.  My answer was that I was talking to her right now!  God is raising up an army of people to go to the world with the gospel.  That’s you and me.  Regular Christians with an amazing, yet deep, yet simple message of Jesus.  Let’s be polite, and yet, let’s be bold in proclaiming it to the world around us.

 

Roger and I ended up wrapping up the outreach a little bit earlier than usual.  It finished with Roger having a conversation with a young Muslim man (pictured).  I could tell he wasn’t really interested in engaging, because he would keep avoiding the subject by asking questions about other topics.  I think Roger even said that he had rung his Iman for help!

 

On Sunday afternoon, the sun was back, and plenty of people were out and about.  Yet, I struggled to get conversations started.  I moved over to the sunny side of the street, and then I decided to go for a wander.

 

I approached someone down by the Avon river, but he wasn’t willing to engage, as I moved back to Oxford Terrace, I finally got some engagement with 2 guys.  But, sadly they had hot pizza and coke, and they wanted to move on and eat.  They took tracts.

 

Finally, back at the corner of Cashel and Colombo, I got into a short chat with 4 teen guys.  They didn’t really want to engage, so I had to work to keep them, but I was able to share the law and the gospel, before letting them move on.  Seed dropped.  May others be able to come and water it.  Are you ready?  I decided to head home early and work online.  Thanks for your prayer and support of our feeble efforts for his glory!

 

---

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday June 12th 2024 from 1300-1500

Hurrah, we had Edwin Qin Hao rejoining Johnny and Hung today at Sunnybank. Hopefully, he could join while in his BST term break till early July. He is a diligent and efficient evangelist capable of outreaching to as many more as led by God cross-culturally. In the meantime, Johnny and Hung both got their divine appointment to have conversations with all non-believers. Hung was especially led to more Mainlanders or Hong Kongers except the last long chat with an urbanized Indigenous people.

1) I was led to approach first a lady from Shanghai who studies at QUT. She appeared a bit sceptical about gospel, but still politely listen to the sharing of the full gospel before her bus came.

2) Next I was led to talk to a Girl from Taiwan who studies at QUT. She claimed we have chatted before I anyway quickly revised the message before her bus arrived.

3) Then I met a Hong Konger who claimed he does not speak Mandarin. He anyway is a UQ student but lives in the CBD. He declared himself a Buddhist, but I affirm all religion are good for guiding people to be a good person yet none of them address and resolve the issue of sin. He politely kept listening but was apparently not impressed.

4) Then have another long chat with a lady from Chengdu who accompanies her boyfriend to study here. Perhaps because knowing I had involved in the disaster relief through counselling so I was accepted to have more open chat of all life issues. She actually behaved very thoughtful and open and found the gospel quite receptive.

5) Yet another Hong Konger and held an impartial view toward the issue of human nature and the impact of sin to the human race as such he delightfully took a tract at the end.

6) Finally, I was led to catch up with Matari, an Indigenous people lives in Brisbane and of Christian background though not a church going person. But he understood the gospel and salvation and showed appreciation for us three to tirelessly share the gospel to people of all Nations including him as the people of the First nations. He was more than happy to take a picture with me as a evidence we are now friend in Christ.

---

I think I’m getting back into the routine of the regular weekly outreaches now that the summer special outreaches are well and truly past.  All four street outreaches went ahead this week - which was great.

 

Roger was with me in Riccarton on Tuesday afternoon.  My notes say “Straight into a chat with Hunter: had a lack of interest”.  I have no recollection of that particular conversation now, but it’s great that I was straight to work.  The outreach was busy!  It went for the full 2 hours, and so it was dark by the time we finished.

 

I also can’t remember the chat I had with “2 guys with glasses”, but I do remember the chat with the 2 Burnside High School kids very well.  Roger was busy with another chat, and the 2 kids were intrigued by his flip chart, even to the point where they were looking at the 2nd pages on their own!  So, I popped over to Roger’s side to engage them.  It was an awesome conversation.  Sadly, neither of them had ever heard the gospel.  Yet, gladly, they were very open.  The chat was textbook, and they followed the logic smoothly.  When I challenged them to respond to the gospel, there was a pause, and one of them said, “this is the first time I’ve heard this, I need some time to process it”.  That’s fair.  And yet, I explained how this message is simple and urgent to respond too.  I think they’d be prime candidates for my church's new foundation Bible study.

 

A third Burnside High School student tried to join this chat, but by this stage, Roger was free again, and so I directed him to Roger - which was great.

 

Back on my side of the street, 3 more high school students passed and were willing to chat (Roger had talked to 2 of them on the previous Friday’s outreach, so it was a partial follow up).  There wasn’t yet gospel clarity, and so I went back to the start.  It was wonderful seeing the reaction of one of them in particular.  She became very engaged as she got check questions wrong and learned why.  Glory to God, it was a wonderful chat.

 

As they moved on, a young man on a scooter came over, he wanted to try the good person test.  We ended up having a long conversation.  He struggled to grasp the gospel, not able to believe that salvation would be a gift.  I had to labour with him on both the law and the gospel.  I’m very grateful for the wonderful suite of check questions I have to utilise for this purpose.  I ended up giving him a church contact card with my contact details and an invite to our next Sunday gathering and the foundation Bible study.  I haven’t heard from him, yet he has the gospel seed.  I leave him in God’s hands for others to follow up and water.

 

On Friday, Andy and Roger were with me in the city.  I ended up doing a wander to Cathedral Square and back to the Bridge of Remembrance, having chats as I went.  I had a great chat with a young man who was in a Catholic school uniform.  He seemed to have a click moment with the gospel, which was great.  I also talked to a flat earther, and then a group of 3 european tourists.

 

But the highlight chat was with a young man from Italy.  In God’s providence, He had 2 Christian evangelists talk to him today!  He showed me a Gideon’s New Testament and gospel booklet that had been given to him earlier in the day - probably one of the OAC guys.  God is good!  So I had a wonderful follow up chat with him.

 

Back at the Bridge of Remembrance, it was great to see both Andy and Roger busy in conversations.  The harvest field is so ripe, the opportunity is endless!

 

I was also able to have a couple more conversations.  This outreach ended up going longer than usual, which is great.  God is good.

 

On Saturday I was back in Riccarton.  From memory, this outreach was a bit slower than usual.  And yet, I was still there, with my flip chart, a banner, with the name of Jesus on it (figuratively) being salt and light in the community.  I would hand out tracts, and I had a number of conversations, often shorter ones.  Ploughing, sowing.

 

After getting back from this outreach, I joined the online training outreach.  I had a very memorable conversation with a Sikh who lived in Portugal.  The conversation went for 45 minutes.  He was engaged enough to stay that long, but he really struggled to grasp the gospel, constantly defaulting back to ‘be good’, as the reason to get to heaven.  After much labour to show him how we are not good, and that Jesus is the only solution, I think he was finally grasping it - but maybe not, even at the end, some final checks and he had already started to slip in his thinking.  He is now in God’s hands to convict and convert - in His timing.

 

On Sunday, I had Elijah from church join me in the city for outreach (also Binu turned up to share tracts).  We had a very busy outreach at the corner of Colombo and Cashel.

 

There were a lot of young people out and about (the weather was nice at the start of the outreach).  So our first chat was with 2 young guys.  There was subtle resistance, and one of them was being particularly silly.  And yet, I rolled with that, and proceeded to share the law and the gospel anyway.  2 young girls joined the chat at one point, and so I decided to start fresh with them.  But they didn’t want to engage and walked off.  The 2 guys followed, but I was able to give them tracts before they left.  Interestingly, they soon came back.  And the conversation became more serious, and they engaged more sensibly.  It was great talking to them (we also saw them again right at the end of the outreach).

 

And it’s great seeing Elijah growing in confidence and ability in engaging with people.  By the end of the outreach, he was even engaging people on his own with the flip chart, as I would engage with others a few paces away.

 

One highlight chat was with 2 young ladies.  Fairly open and engaged well.  Elijah did most of the sharing.  The gospel hit home for one of those girls in particular, I could tell in a few ways, but particularly in the questions she would ask.  She accepted a gospel of John.

 

Near the end of the outreach, I had 2 particularly interesting encounters.  The first was when a large group of kids engaged.  Some of them said they had done the flip chart before.  I vaguely remembered some of them.  Yet some of them hadn't done it before.  There were too many for me to engage them all, and so I just cast my line and engaged with whoever responded.  I ended up with 3 of them in conversation.  But they soon had to split.  But as they did, one of them came back, and changed his tone and said something like, “hey man, what you said to me the first time made sense, I’ve started going to a church, thank you so much for what you do”.  Wow, that was encouraging.  Glory to God!  He didn’t have a Bible yet, and so I was able to give him a gospel of John before he went to catch up with his friends.

 

The last encouragement was when 2 guys stopped, I didn’t remember them initially, but when they said they had talked to me before, I remembered it from 3 weeks ago.  His answer to my check was “the mercy of God” which is not as precise as “because Jesus died on the cross”, and so I did some follow up.  But, I think the real reason they stopped was to encourage me, they had been impacted by the first chat (even though 1 of them in particular had been silly at the time).

 

All this to say: DON’T GIVE UP.  The law brings the knowledge of sin, and the gospel is the power of God for salvation.  God has the power to work in the hearts of people through our feeble efforts for his glory.  Don’t give up.  Continue to proclaim the wonderful good news of Jesus, wherever you may be.

 

---

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday June 5th 2024 from 1300-1500

As normal, Johnny and Hung team up to do street outreach at the Sunnybank North bound bus stop. It was an ordinary day, most of the gospel sharing were in A HURRY and incomplete with a few exception especially the last one with a non-religious Korean. No matter how and in whatever circumstances, we believe God is in full control to use us to sow the gospel seed and in the meantime bring us up as a more mature and faithful servant of God. recap below is the Battle Log of Hung: -

1) First led to approach a young man from Guangzhou . Cn speak Cantonese, and friendly to chat, but once touch upon religious topic, all most instantly switch to avoidance mode.

2) Next was another Mainland Chinese middle age lady, just had 1min to share the nutshell of the gospel.

3) Next was a guy from Northeastern China Jilin, time for sharing was also very brief. But willing to take a tract to read later.

3) Rejected by several including a White Lady unsure of nationality.

4) Then another girl from Guangzhou , who is an UQ student. Willing to listen but just shared half of the Gospel.

5) Via a Filipino Catholic Christian has 100% assurance of salvation but cannot qualify why clearly, though she seems to be on the right track to have faith in God

6) A Kiwi migrated girl of Chinese Cambodian origin is non religious but was open to chat and have shared almost full gospel to her.

7) A young man by the name Li? from Macau, had a long chat with Johnny first, and let me continue to share in Cantonese.

8 ) A Kenya girl migrated to become an Aussie. She is a Muslim and a UQ student.

9) Last but not the least, I had the longest chat with a Korean who is non- religious. Initially he avoided me and flee from my presence to leave the bus stop. But God miraculously moved him to come back to me for a chat on anything but religion. I respect his wish and accompany him for over half an hour to give him chance to chat and brush his English.

---

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday June 4th, 2024 from 1330-1430

Praised be to God, Ben as introduced and led by Gladys both from Toowong Baptist, joined Hung and Johnny today for the first time after an unsuccessful connection two weeks ago when Hung was away on a mission trip to North Qld and Johnny was not available as occupied by a Medical appointment. We wasted no time to do our opening prayer and than chatted along the walk to the bus station. I briefed about the Biblical basis for street multi=cultural outreach, and the way we do it. To my personal joy, all people I met to day were opened , friendly and receptive. Recap below was my Battle Log.

1) First I was led to approach a Hong Konger girl who is no believer but once studied in Christian school in HKG. So she was not completely strange to the gospel message, but she seemed receptive to the idea that as long as we are not perhaps, every normal good persons also need salvation.

2) Next I was led to approach a Muslim by the name Hashish from Bangladesh. Surprisingly he took in the gospel quite well without any preoccupied thought and did not feel offence to hear about Jesus as God and our savior. Happily he took selfie with mew as a gesture of appreciation for our frank and open chat.

3) Kai a local Aussie and UQ student , claimed himself a 50/50 split of Christian. SO I simply shared him the full gospel again and hopefully helped him to rekindle his love of God, Jesus and his salvation.

4) Then I was moved to approach a local Aussie girl, who is a non believers but was brought up from Christian School. We build rapport as she is studying Psychology while I was a Counselor student. She also appreciated hearing the Gospel that had rekindled her heart for Christianly when ahs was young.

5) Last but not the least I caught up with a person from Jiang Xi , he appeared very open and receptive to the gospel

---

No action shots in the photos for this week.  But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an action packed week of street outreach in Christchurch.

 

I was too busy for photos Tuesday afternoon.  Roger was with me.  Friday afternoon was busy too.  Roger and Mark were with me.  On Saturday and Sunday I was on my own, so no one to take photos of.  But those outreaches were wonderful too.  Let’s start with Tuesday.

 

I decided to take notes, because I usually forget the chats from Tuesday by the time I write this on Sunday.  Haha, it must be old age!

 

So, there was someone sitting close to my usual spot, so I decided to set up my flip chart in Roger’s spot till he got there.  I hadn’t even finished setting it up when I heard, “Hi Glen”.  I looked up and saw a group of school kids from Christchurch Boys and Girls High Schools.  My look must have been blank, because she said, “you don’t remember us do you?”.  I didn’t.  She said, “that’s okay, it would have been a year ago when we last talked”.  So encouraging to know that people remember the gospel conversations you have with them.  The gospel is the power of God for salvation.  I started with a check question, and I was pleasantly surprised that they (a girl and I guy) knew the right way to heaven.  Yet, they had friends with them that didn’t.  And so, I was able to use the flip chart to share the gospel with them.

 

I went straight from that chat into another.  2 guys passed, and 1 of them glanced at the flip chart, so I said, “would you like to give the ‘good person test’ a go?”  He was keen, to his friends' surprise.  It was a good chat, but an intense chat.  They were intellectual types from the University.  And they wanted to play the agnostic / atheist card.  I didn’t want to bolster their suppression by giving them an inch.  I held my ground as to how they know God exists and what the true motivation for denying Him is.

 

By this stage, Roger was there.  And the intensity of the conversation, although polite, was attracting others to stop.  I noticed Roger busy in conversations, and I had multiple people queuing up to talk.  Sadly, I wasn’t able to get to them.  Eventually a friend of the 2 guys turned up and joined the conversation.  She gave me a long winded explanation as to why justice is not universal.  I gave up and let her talk.  You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.  If I pushed any harder, it would have just gotten nasty.

 

It was then that I noticed a young lady standing nearby.  She was either interested in our conversation, or she was looking for directions.  I decided to ask if I could help.  It turns out she is a Christian, and was very interested in the conversation.  I was able to peel away from the ‘agnostics’, leaving them with Roger, and engage her for mutual encouragement.  It turns out she remembered our ministry from the Rangiora A&P Show outreach 2 seasons ago (the flip chart was the link).

 

Once the Christian had moved on, I decided to leave the ‘agnostics’ to Roger.  But, with all the activity, an hour and a half had gone by, and I realised I was tired.  Once Roger had finished up, we went for a hot chocolate.

 

It was so good to have Mark with us on Friday, at the Bridge of Remembrance.  Mark is a local pastor.  He has a different approach to his street evangelism.  And yet, he is willing to work with us and learn why we do it differently, even if he is not fully convinced yet.  I really appreciate his humbleness.

 

Mark was keen to see the flip chart in action.  I didn’t bring mine, but Roger brought his.  Roger was quickly into a chat a short distance away, and so Mark and I paired up on the flip chart.  A lot of kids about - teachers only day.  I noticed 4 high school aged kids that I thought might be keen, and so I ran over to engage them.  They were indeed keen, and I was able to get them to come over to the flip chart.  It went well.  One of the girls had an audible penny drop moment as she seemed to grasp the gospel.  And another girl literally laughed out loud, when I asked if she would punch the fireman in the face.  It illustrated my point perfectly.  A believer will never use Jesus as an excuse to sin.

 

We then had 5 more High School kids go past - they engaged well on the flip chart too.  And then yet another group of kids, this time from a local Christian School - they did well in articulating the gospel - yet one of them had important questions we were able to address.

 

It was a busy afternoon.  Mark was asking why I had been skipping the first picture of the flip chart (Eiffel Tower) when a guy passed who (to my surprise) was keen to give the flip chart a go.  He wasn’t sure about God, and so, the perfect opportunity to use that first picture presented itself.  He dug his heels in, and so I was able to demonstrate the use of some simple apologetics, e.g., where did God come from?  I wasn’t going to let arguing about this hold back sharing the law and the gospel, and so I did that.  It was a great chat.  And Mark and I were able to debrief afterwards.

 

Saturday I was back in Riccarton.  Warm weather for the first day of winter.  I had many wonderful opportunities to engage people with the bad news of the law, and the good news of Jesus.  I even saw the young couple from my first chat on Tuesday again (from Boys / Girls High School)!

 

Sunday was sunny but cold.  I was on my own, and feeling a bit tired, so I decided to hand out tracts.  My first chat really stands out in my mind.  A young man slows as he walks past.  I could tell he wanted to talk.  We engaged (even though his girlfriend didn’t want to stop).  It was a short conversation, but a powerful one.  He heard the law and the gospel.  He was interested, it was like God had already been preparing him.  All that was needed was a Christian to be in the right place and ready to share.

 

Are you ready to share?  Are you willing to go?  Yes, it’s hard labour, but is it worth it?  Absolutely!  Be encouraged.  Glory to God alone.

 

---

3) A late middle age man by the name of Liu ? from Taiwan he seemed to be open and willing to listen?, took? the tract but his heart was seemed not in there to take the message.

4) Jrest an Australian born Colombian and was born here in a Christian family. But surprisingly he got 100% assurance of salvation with the concept crystal clear. So I laud praise to him as a Fair Dinkum Christian. He was happy to take selfie with me.

5) A Filipino Catholic Christian with girlfriend who has only 20 % of assurance of salvation. Issue clarified and hopefully may become more active in living a world Christian life for the Gospel sake.

6) Next was a Japanese girl who was surprised when I greeted her in pure Japanese. She was happy to chat about the gospel and took a tract when her bus came.

7) Arrogant youngster ABC but still finished listening the full gospel. She had tendency to find out loophole in your conversation and launch attack. They were all fenced off but the Bus arrived and ended this gospel attempt.

---

A bit of a disrupted week for me, I had to take some time off.  But that’s all sorted now, praise God!  Back to normal schedule, now.

 

So I did less outreach this week, but I was still able to do the 2 city outreaches: Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon.  Both cold days.  Sunny on Sunday, but wet on Friday.  Yet still very fruitful outreaches, glory to God.

 

Every picture in this week's report has a gospel conversation in it, even if it’s hard to spot!  Feel free to play a game of ‘where’s Andy’.

 

So, on Friday, it was overcast, cold and wet.  Not many people were out, and those that were didn’t want to be out for long.  Yet, the 2 hour outreach was productive.

 

Roger set up his flipchart near the Bridge of Remembrance.  Andy and I decided to head down to Ara.  It’s a great spot, and it didn’t disappoint on this day.

 

Andy was quickly into a chat with 4 Sikh’s from India.  It was interesting watching the dynamic of the group.  2 of them were very engaged - but 1 did most of the talking.  A 3rd was interested, and even engaged, but was easily distracted by the 4th, who didn’t want to be involved, and stepped back and away to make his disinterest clear, in spite of Andy trying to include him.  They had to get going (to catch a bus), so Andy quickly shared the gospel, as I distributed follow up tracts to all of them.

 

As they moved on, I noticed there weren’t many people around for the moment, except a guy who was sitting on a seat in the distance.  So I decided to go and talk to him.  He was open to chat, and so I sat next to him to do so.  He was Korean, and went to church, but he wasn’t sure if God was real, and so starting from there I was able to explain how we know God is real, the law and the gospel.  He seemed to appreciate the chat.  It reinforced things his pastor had been teaching him.  I guess it helps to hear it from someone else?

 

Heading back to the street, there were lots of students hanging around now.  Andy was busy, and I got into a chat with a young lady (pictured sitting in the number artwork).  Others joined and left the conversation throughout, but she was my main focus till she left (great chat), and then I was able to follow up with the others.

 

Andy and I eventually made it back to where Roger was.  I spent the last few minutes of the outreach handing out tracts.  As I left, Roger and Andy were both still in chats.

 

Sunday afternoon was sunny, but I was so glad I brought my jacket, because it was cold!  Esp. in the shade, and by the end of the outreach, the shade had almost enveloped everything.

 

Thomas & Mike were with me.  After prayer, we set up the flipchart (in the sun), and I hadn’t even finished getting ready, when we were instantly into a conversation with a guy (Belgian) and his partner (English) and their little daughter.  They lived in India (Goa) and were on holiday in New Zealand.  They were interested in the front page of the flipchart and we discussed it for a bit, before getting into a conversation about unrelated things (naturally building a rapport - it just happened that way).  He speaks French! (as does Thomas).  So it was great to have that connection.

 

Anyway, they wanted to know what the flip chart was about.  And so I was up front, we are Christians wanting to share about Jesus.  He was keen to chat.  They had an Eastern religious influence in their lives.  And so, going from there, we were able to share the law, the gospel, and move into checks.  He was very smart, and I could tell he grasped the gospel because he instantly said, “if that’s true, we can do what we want”.  I was able to address that with the fireman analogy, and then I went back to the ‘crossing the road’ analogy so he could see the contrast of the tension of how we are saved by a gift, and yet the gift will (willingly) cost us everything out of our love for the gift giver.

 

It was an amazing chat, and a great way to start the outreach.  I knew I had to give Thomas some space, and so I left him with the flip chart while I did ‘walk up’.  Thomas was soon into a chat (a difficult one), and so was I (also difficult), young guys coming to ‘have a go’, yet they were nice about it.  No problem with me, I was still able to reason with them, share the law and the gospel, even if they were subtly hostile.  The gospel is the power for salvation.

 

The outreach went quick, because we were busy.  2 other chats that stand out in my thinking were short but powerful opportunities.  A young Catholic kid who couldn’t stay long (he said, “will you be here next Sunday?”).  I was able to give him a brief law and gospel summary and a follow up tract.  And then with a young Asian lady.  She thought about what happens after life, but didn’t have any answers.  I was able to explain how we know God is real, the law, and then quickly the gospel before she also had to move on.  She took a tract.

 

We finished in prayer.  Great week!  All glory to God.  It’s about him, it’s for him.  I rest in his grace.  Please keep the team in prayer.  We appreciate your support.

 

---

With Roger still away, I decided to leave Riccarton fallow again this week, using that time to focus on online outreach.  But both City outreaches went ahead.  I was with John and Andy on Friday afternoon, and Joseph and Elijah joined me on Sunday afternoon (today).

 

So today’s outreach was very special.  With the rain, I didn’t think it would go as well as last week.  But to my surprise it was the opposite.  I set up the flip chart and was still trying to get organised and pray, when instantly people took interest and a conversation was away.  Amazingly, we had 3 separate conversations before we had a chance to pray!  The chats literally rolled one into the next.  It eased off a touch after that, but the outreach was still very busy right to the end.

 

So, thank you for praying for this feeble outreach, we are getting so much opportunity, glory to God!

 

I’ll come back and talk about the chats later.  But first I want to talk about Friday’s outreach.

 

We started at the Bridge of Remembrance with prayer.  We didn’t have any flip charts, and so we were freestyling.  We decided to go down High Street towards Ara (tertiary education institute), since we had such a good time there a couple of weeks back.

 

I never made it.  Andy and John did.  Andy said he had some good opportunities down there.  But I approached a guy on High Street, and it turned out to be a guy I had talked to a few Sunday’s back.  He was keen to continue that chat, and we ended up speeding over an hour in conversation!  I won’t go into details.  But it was clear that, even though he was able to articulate the gospel, that he wasn’t converted yet.  He didn’t yet have any appreciation for the serious nature of sin.  And so a good portion of my time with him was in relation to this.

 

He ended up receiving 2 more varieties of tract (over the one he had received on the Sunday), a gospel of John, and a church contact card with my contact details on it.

 

John and Andy came back, just as our chat was wrapping up.  I introduced him to them, and it turns out Andy had shared the gospel with him recently too, because he remembered Andy.

 

This young man ended up walking with us back to Cashel Mall, and then Andy bought him a hot chocolate and we were able to continue the chat with him in a cafe.

 

He said he would come to church on Sunday, but I’m not surprised when he didn’t contact me, and he didn’t turn up.  Like I said, I think he has some processing to do.  He is in God’s hands.  Pray that the Holy Spirit would eliminate the law and bring conviction of sin in his life, and that he would truly see the treasure of Christ.

 

So, back to today’s outreach.  The very first chat was special, because 1 of them came to see a critical misunderstanding she had about the gospel.  When I say 1 of them, it was a group of at least 5 people.  And I think 1 of them wasn’t even with the other 4, he just became interested in what we were discussing.

 

So these people were all in different places.  The couple were not interested, and even walked away as I was about to switch to the gospel - I was able to get them to come back to hear it.  But it was 2 young ladies that were engaged, 1 more than the other, but the one that was less engaged ended up gaining the critical information.  What was that?  I’m struggling to remember exactly what I said now, but her response was to say something like: “Oh, I’ve always heard about Jesus, but I’ve had this nagging doubt that I’m not good enough” - yet, she said it in such a way that seemed to be seeing that she was missing what Jesus was all about - that we don’t have to be good enough to get to heaven.

 

By this stage, the couple had walked off again.  I wanted to follow up on this revelation she was having - but I wasn’t able to.  The seed had been planted.  And I have to leave her in God’s hands.  I rejoice, because God has the power to follow that up, so pray for her.

 

I’m not going to have time to talk about all the opportunities from today, but another special chat was with a young man who had been influenced by Buddhism growing up.  I had to labour with him to see that salvation was a gift.  He did come to grasp it, and then he started to nail the check questions (except 1: 2 things).  At the end of the chat he articulated that he understood that he can be 100% sure he is going to heaven, yet at the moment he is 0% sure (because he is not yet willing to repent).  Yet, he very much appreciated the conversation, and happily received a copy of the gospel of John and a couple of tracts.

 

Joe And Elijah had opportunities to get involved in conversations too.  You guys did so well!  Keep it up.

 

Joe had an opportunity with 3 young guys (pictured).

 

And Elijah joined me at the end for the last chat with a German guy (chat occurred just after I took the picture of him).

 

I didn't get a chance to take pics from Friday.

 

My mind is still processing all the chats from today.  But I’m out of time and energy to write about them.  I’ll leave it at that.

 

Again, thank you for your prayers, and support.  It amazes me that anyone stops to talk to me at all, so your prayers for this ministry are certainly effective!  The fruits of our feeble efforts, for God’s glory alone, will be known in eternity.  Till then, let's keep our heads down, and rest in the joy of the labour.

 

---

Page 1 . . . 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 . . . 282

---