Battle Log

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Nambour and Mooloolaba

The Sunshine Coast team have been proclaiming Christ Jesus to the people of Nambour and Mooloolaba over the last month or so. We now meet up on alternate Wednesdays at The Plaza in Nambour and at "The Loo with A View" in Mooloolaba. If you would like to join us please contact me at kevinred@operation513.com. 

Firstly may I thank all those that have been praying for our Sunshine Coast outreach. As you all know we have had some issues in the past with the Police and Council in Nambour, however of late we have been given "permission" to preach and engage in one-on-ones as well as pass out tracts. It seems business and the authorities in Nambour have come to accept our ongoing regular outreach. I must say many people have stopped to encourage us, with offers of prayer, donations of bottled water for the team on hot days, and some encouraging words with the occasional hug or two. 

We have also established a regular fortnightly outreach in Mooloolaba. The Police particularly have been very helpful in assisting us to proclaim our Lord and Saviour in a busy area with lots of passing foot traffic.  The police have set a couple of conditions  regarding public safety (due to the proximity of the road) of which of course we are more than happy to comply with.  A big thank you to the senior officer in Mooloolaba for all the time he has taken to assist us with proclaiming the Gospel and the safety of our listeners. 

Our outreaches have been going well, the regular team, Justin, Ryan and I have been meeting for prayer at the start of the day, prior to preaching and passing out tracts. We have had so many conversations and many have stopped to ask questions or find out more about our message. We have given away many free bibles and literally 1000's of tracts.  All of us take it in turns to preach "on the box" and it is fantastic hear my brothers proclaim the Gospel. The Gospel is like perfume to those that love Christ and I must say I learn more about my Lord each week by listening to my brothers express His glorious Gospel in so many different ways. Many people stop to listen, some love the message and some become angry and reject it, however the Gospel is always proclaimed faithfully without compromise. 

Please may I ask that you pray for our Sunshine Coast team?  We really need faithful laborers to join the harvest on the coast. The beaches will soon be busy as the summer heats up, will you serve your Lord this season? 

Here are some pictures of the team in Nambour last week. 

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It was pouring with rain today and I had to force myself not to cancel the outreach.  I made my way to Romford through the rain and met the team which consisted of Chuck, Rob, Deji, Mario, Jacob and myself.  Even though it was very wet and cold, there were still a lot of people on the high st, so I set up under a shop awning and we prayed.  I spoke from Mark 7 as it is my favorite passage and the team engaged in conversations.  

Chuck spoke after me and a number of people engaged him in dialog.

During this time I got into a conversation with a Jehovah's Witness.  I tried to cut the issues down to the cause of our differences, which is what authority do we each follow?  

Do you practice (A) sola scriptura + infallible interpreter OR (B) sola scriptura allowing the Bible to interpret itself.  

JWs practice model (A) and evangelicals practice model (B) and this was explained to the JW who replied, "the Bible is the Word of God and we follow it".  I completely expected this response, but the problem is that JWs acknowledge the Bible's authority with their lips and then deny it by following the teachings from governing body of the watchtower.  This problem plus other glaring inconsistencies made by the watchtower, show that the governing body cannot be the standard of truth since they contradict themselves.  Mr JW did not appreciate this but we still parted amicably.  

Rob had a number of conversations and one was with two Mormon gentlemen.  

A number of local Christians were also present on the the street this day and were very encouraged by what they heard and saw. Mario preached after Chuck,

and then Deji preached.

The outreach was a complete success as the Gospel of Jesus Christ was preached and by God's grace we were uninhibited all day!!  SDG!

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It was another glorious night of preaching the gospel with a team of faithful labourers. Watch the following three minute video from the night and be encouraged:

To God alone be all the glory!

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Sunshine Coast Outreach and Legal Update.

Ryan, Justin and I attended Maroocydore Magistrates Court this morning to have a date for our trial set. The process was fairly quick and a date was set for early February 2014. We look forward to being able to defend our rights to participate lawfully in an Authorized Public Assembly under the Peaceful Assembly Act 1992 without fear of being moved on or arrested. We look forward to being free to preach the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour lawfully on the Sunshine Coast, so please pray for the team. 

After court we all headed off to Nambour to the library where we prepared and submitted our "Notice Of Intention To Hold A Public Assembly"  forms which we then delivered to the local police station and the local council offices. We then traveled to Mooloolaba to share the Gospel. 

It was very windy on the coast today. When it is windy it is very difficult to preach "on the box" as it's very difficult to make yourself heard, so we decided to spend the afternoon handing out tracts and getting into conversations with passers by.  All of us got in to many conversations and passed out many tracts including our brand new tract that will  be available for purchase in two days time.... Keep checking our web store for details....  

I love to witness as we meet so many different people. I met several Christians today and talked to them about coming out and sharing their faith with others. Most Christians we meet tell us they don't feel equipped and are scared to share their faith. It's always a great privilege to explain that I once felt like that and I still do from time to time now. I explain that our teams are here to help train people and encourage them as they did for me.  I love to tell them of how much I enjoy the fellowship of being part of the Operation 513 family and what a privilege it is to serve along side my brothers and sisters in Christ. I pray that the people I shared time with today will feel convicted to join our team and help us to proclaim our Lord Jesus Christ to the people of the Sunshine Coast. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. 

One of my conversations this afternoon, was with a gentleman that was on holiday from New Zealand. He was a member of his local Anglican Church there and had been for many many years. He told me he was involved with many difficulties his home church was facing as many within wanted to accept non-biblical and liberal ideals into his church. He told me of the recent battles he had been involved in and the progress that had been made, he seemed resigned to the fact that this was going to be a long and hard and ongoing process. I was encouraged to hear somebody so willing to contend for the faith, and to hear of his desire to keep his church on a biblical track. Please pray for Malcolm. 

Today I didn't spend much time preaching to the unconverted, but I feel I was encouraged and I encouraged other Christians in their personal walks with God.  Its encouraging to know that as Christians we can rely on God to bring people into our lives that help to bring us even closer to Him, and I thank Him so much for these blessings. SDG 

By Kevin Red

 

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Riverfire is one of the busiest night of the year in Brisbane where thousands flock to the city to watch fireworks. Operation 513 kindly donated 16,000 gospel tracts for handing out during the event.

To God be the glory!

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Saturday, 12 October 2013

It has been a few weeks since I have been out on the street witnessing. The reason for this is quite simply fear. I have been afraid of hitting the streets again after two arrests. However, today, I headed over to Glasgow to meet up with a few guys for an afternoon of witnessing. 

When I arrived in Buchanan Street I was immediately struck with how noisy and busy it was. People were everywhere, and many of the best preaching spots were taken up with buskers. After walking the length of the street, Noman and I found a spot that would serve the preaching well.

Noman was the first preacher up. As he preached I handed out tracts and engaged a couple of people in discussion. During this time two police officers walked past, and my heart missed a beat. But, these officers clearly knew the law, as they allowed the preaching to continue. 

During this time a lady approached me to tell me her story. It turns out that four years ago she was on the streets, addicted to drugs and living rough. One day she heard an open-air preacher declare “Jesus gives freedom”. That is all she heard, and she actually scoffed at him. However, that was the seed which the Holy Spirit would use. The lady told me that she could not get those words out of her mind, and eventually it brought her to a place of repentance. She has now completed Bible College and is setting up a ministry to help homeless women. She thought she’d share this with us as an encouragement.

After this I was approached by a man that I had never met, but I knew who he was. His name is Tyler McNabb. Sadly, Tyler is now an apostate. He has forsaken the truth, and followed after Roman Catholicism (James White mentioned him here). 

Tyler wanted to know why we were preaching in a different location as he had been waiting for us elsewhere. I knew that Tyler was going to be out that day, but Noman and I decided that we would not fellowship with darkness. After speaking for a few moments, Tyler extended his hand to me. I replied that I would not be extending the right hand of fellowship to apostates. 

This set his wife off. She decided to come down and tell me that God is Love and I wasn’t very nice. I replied by pointing out what the Scripture says about apostasy, and how she needs to repent. Tyler interrupted at this point, and said, “I want to have a rational discussion.” My answer was, “I want to have a Biblical one.” With that they left. Please pray that the Lord converts them. 

After Noman finished preaching, I stood up to preach. I spoke about how Jesus needs to be lifted high as he alone is Saviour. I only spoke for about twenty-minutes, and then handed over to Craig to preach. 

Craig is from Glasgow, so he sounds like the people we are trying to reach. His accent actually drew the attention of the people. They stopped to listen, and some even began to heckle. Craig did a good job in answering their objections and pointing people to Jesus. 

Overall it was a good day in Glasgow. Quite a few conversations were had, and many heard the Gospel. Please pray the Lord softens hearts. 

Soli Deo Gloria! 

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Romford was teeming with people today we I approached the high St.  We were blessed with good weather this Saturday and prayed it would continue as such.  Todays team consisted of Chuck, Jacob, Jacob's Pastor named Joe, Mario who was a newbie and Myself.  We set up and prayed for the day and I began to speak.  I preached from Romans 1 about how all men know God exists and suppress this truth.  Eventually I had a gentleman heckle me who was wearing a nice suit.  I soon recognized that he knew the Bible fairly well but accused me of not telling the truth about Sabbath worship.  Eventually he confessed to being a Seventh Day Adventist who had recently been at church.  

His major argument rested on this type of statement -

If (P) Jesus said the Sabbath has changed, then (Q) it would have changed.  (~P) Jesus never said the day changed,

Ergo  (~Q) the day of worship must be Saturday.  

This is the fallacy of denying the antecedent - If P, then Q.   Not P.  Therefore, not Q.  (I have also heard JWs and Muslims use this line of reasoning in denying the Deity of Christ).  

Needless to say when this error was pointed out to the gentlemen he didn't like it and rather than concede that his reasoning may be at fault he just continued to talk over me and not engage in dialog.  Instead I decided to move on swiftly and continue preaching the Gospel and by that time my crowd had tripled in size, Praise God!  I concluded my message by explaining the need to repent and turn to Christ in faith as He is the only name by which we can be saved.  

Chuck preached too and I handed out tracts.  A number of Christians were very encouraged by the preaching.  The other team members were also busy chatting and handing out tracts to the public.  It was a good day of gospel proclamation and God showed us favor with the civil authorities and crowds.  SDG!! 

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Maroochydore and Mooloolaba 

It's been  hectic for several weeks now with the arrests and legal challenges we have been facing. We have all been arrested twice,  falsely imprisoned and had to make several difficult decisions regarding these things, however we as a team have decided to fight for our rights to political and religious freedom in Australia. I am going to avoid commenting on our current legal battle for the time being except to state that things are proceeding as expected and we are actively seeking to legally gain our civil liberties and freedoms on the Sunshine Coast. Please could I ask you to pray for our ministry and the government and it's representatives at this time. 

This morning Ryan, Justin and I met early as we had been invited to attend a meeting with council.  We met and prayed and then we travelled to Nambour to the meeting with the council. The meeting unfortunately was as we expected and was really a waste of time and an opportunity again for the council to tell us how wrong our interpretation of the law was. We left upbeat thanking God that he would use this meeting to further His purposes. 

Due to bail restrictions we we unable to preach in Nambour today so we headed to Maroochydore and met with a friend named Michael. Michael is a local Christian businessman and a keen evangelist. Apart from most graciously providing lunch for us he also told us the best spots to preach and give out tracts in the area. So having enjoyed a meal and some fellowship we headed to the Plaza. We set ourselves up outside the Plaza and passed out many tracts and we all got involved in conversations. Ryan spent some time with three young lads, one of the lads said he was a Christian but his brother had talked him out of it of late. He seemed keen on finding out more and all four  had a long conversation together. The young men all said they would think about things some more after Ryan explained the good news to them.  As we were leaving and heading back to the car, I was giving out tracts and then I met with another young man who said he wanted to find out more as he was unsure about the Christian Faith. We talked about the ten commandments, sin and the coming Judgement followed of course by the good news. He was happy to take a free bible and an invitation to a Christianity Explored course invitation from my local church. Please pray that he will repent and put his trust in Jesus Christ and that he will read the bible and attend the course to find out more. 

We then headed for the crowds at Mooloolaba beach.  I started the preaching off reading from Romans 1, and talking about how although people know the truth of God they suppress that knowledge in favour of living selfish sinful lives denying all knowledge of God. I was near a large coffee shop and many people turned to listen to the message. I was approached by three "lighthearted" hecklers, who I had a fruitful conversation with. I pray the Lord left them with something more serious to consider than they had expected I ended the preaching with a call to faith and repentance, and also a thank you for listening to the captive coffee shop audience.  

We moved along the sea front giving out tracts as we went and finally we found a suitable location for Ryan to preach. As Ryan preached several business owners appeared claiming we were breaking the law. One particularly said he was a Christian but didn't think that Christians should disrupt business. Ryan continued as Justin and I talked to the business owners and passed out many tracts.  

Further along the seafront again Justin got up and preached. I could see several people actively listening to his message. Justin is much more softly spoken than Ryan or I, but he used his tone and knowledge of the scripture to full effect as people had to turn an ear to listen. I really enjoy listening to a gospel presentation from Justin and wish I could sometimes just sit and listen, but quickly Ryan and I both got into separate conversation with professing Christians. Of course anyone who professes to be a Christian is asked questions so we can be sure if they understand the gospel.  The young man I got talking to was very excited to hear the preaching and his gospel knowledge was sound. He was on holiday from NSW and was enjoying some family time in Mooloolaba. We talked about preaching and evangelism and he considered it very important personally which was of course a pleasure to hear. I pray as he grows he keeps this conviction and learns to actively share his faith. I pointed him towards some good free resources to look at when he got home. 

For me today has been an absolute privilege, I have enjoyed serving my Lord and saviour and working with Ryan and Justin who I love as brothers in Him. I thank and praise God for giving us all a day without hassle from the police or council as we preach and also for the many encouraging words and conversations we have had.   

SDG.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Watch the video battle log report from the night as we see some people let go of their atheism:

To God be the glory!

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One couple that we spoke to tonight were from the Revival Centres International and their beliefs were very contrary to Scripture. They thought that no one in the Old Testament was saved, they thought that baptism was a requirement for justification and that everyone must speak in tongues.

Soli Deo Gloria!

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