Battle Log

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 17/5/2023 from 1300-1500

It was great to have Johnny re-joining the Sunnybank Street outreach on a weekly basis. I will not need to do outreach as a singleton anymore. Today, God again used us mightily to connect with large variety of people including non-believers, Christians but back flipped and Christians leading a nominal life without assurance of salvation and finally the fair dinkum Christians with 100% assurance of salvation anchored by the atoning death of Jesus as our Saviour and Lord of Life. Recap below is my Battle Log:

1) A Hong Kong Lady once was a Christian but deserted her original faith in Christ simply because of the bad witnesses of other Christians especially those Pastors who fails to live out a sanctified life to glorify God. I spend hugh amount of time to guide her to see that Christian if in flesh will still vulnerable to sin against God and each other. But as long as we have a right beginning of admitting we are sinners as accept Jesus as our saviour and Lord of our born again new life, then our eternal identity will be changed back from enemy of God to children of God or a heavenly Citizen. Yet Gid still has to take time to transformed us back to perfect through the gentle work of the Holy Spirit. In this journey of Sanctification, we should focus on letting out life be remoulded in God’s hand, but not picking on the mistakes or lack of life witnesses from other Christian brothers and sisters. Anyway, the arrogant and subjective through of the lady rendered a stone heart for the Spirit to let her humble herself to focus on her own life journey.

2) Michael from Taiwan. a fair dinkum Christian with 100% assurance of salvation and 100% understand of the gospel.

3) Then I was led to approach another Mainlander with just a brief intro of the gospel then the bus came to cut the conversation short. Still managed to give out a tract.

4) Allianz a Filipino Catholic girl with assurance of salvation clarified.

5) Philip another Hong Konger , just have time for a brief mutual intro and a nutshell of the Gospel then the bus came and he was given a tract to read on seeing each other off.

6) Then I was lead to meet a man from Xiamen but again just a brief chat with a tract as conversation ended again by the quick arrival of the bus.

7) Kevin an American Born Chinese from South San Francisco who again has 100 % assurance of salvation and 100 correct understanding of the gospel.

8 ) Then I came across a Chinese Christian but was not yet able to test for his faith status.

9) Sylvia from Nanjing who claimed Christianity is not scientific enough for things presented in the Bible. I thus chose to use 6 days creation to show her the science aspect of it and she was convinced. It was a pity the bus just arrived to end our conversation

10) Capella from Stretton State high School was friendly and open to the gospel message, again just managed to preach the nutshell of the gospel with a tract.

11) Then I was led to approach a Korean girl who end up also taking a tract with bus came quickly.

12) Zhou a mainlander who claimed himself once a Christian but no more after has done Philosophy and Theology simultaneously. He has a lot of incorrect and incomplete understanding of the Bible and prejudiced view of God's character and nature. I managed to draw him back to the right track but his wrong comprehension of the whole paradigm of God rendered him great resistant to really understand the truth.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday May 16th, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

It was great to have Johnny re-joining us so quick, the next day after he returned to Brisbane from Taiwan. With three persons, we could cover more people at the bus stop of Toowong. We thank God to call and guide us to do street outreach which we think, is the most direct way to reach out to non-believers instead of evangelistic crusade meeting which often time have become a gathering of more Christian with a a few non-believers. By doing out reach regularly at a fixed spot, God started to let us see His continuant work leading us to meet up with people we chatted before for good and useful follow up. This exactly happened to me twice as per Battle Log recap below: -

1) I was led to approach Arak from Indonesia with every good English as he is a cross breed of a USA father and an Indonesian mother. Even though he is a Muslim, but he was very open to the gospel and admitted the salvation God rendered to save us is logical and sensible.

2) Then I chatted with A girl Wang ?from Shanghai who has just come for a year. Despite a mainlander, she also appeared open and receptive to the gospel message.

3) Then I briefly in contact with an Australian Born Indian girl for just a brief chat handling out to her a tract.

4) Jeremy is a Brisbane Local. He is a Catholic Christian and claimed to have chatted with Winnie from Gold Coast before. I anyway still managed to check his Assurance of Salvation which was not there but got clarified. He was delighted to take a selfie with me.

5) Then I approached another Mainlander man who appeared not a willing listener but still did not reject me to carry on with my gospel sharing.

6) Pie a girl from Thailand was a good and receptive listener of the Gospel. She was surprised to learn that Buddhism is not a religion but a religious education without worshipping any god head. She find the gospel message very sensible and appealing to address the issue of sin.

7) Then I was repeatedly declined by several persons who was either on the phone ort busy in some other things.

8 ) Finally I caught up with Philip who recognized me right away claiming I had a good long chat with him. I then did a revision on the gospel message and follow up on any issues that still pull him away from making the final step of faith. He was frank and all receptive to the gospel message I revised with him help him a step closer to the final faith decision.

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Another week of God’s patience, another week of outreach.  God is good.  All the normal outreaches went ahead.  I was on my own in Riccarton on Tuesday and Saturday.  Roger & Andy joined me for the Friday afternoon outreach in the City.  And Mike was with me for the Sunday afternoon outreach in the City.

I’m going to start with Sunday’s outreach and go backwards.  I set up my flip chart down from the JWs.  It was a bit of a slow start.  I was able to catch up with some regulars before I had a guy approach me.  He was handing out tracts (Ray Comfort)!  He was feeling nervous, and so was asking for some tips, which I gladly gave.  Good to know that others are out sharing the good news!  Sadly, he is not connected to a church, but I decided not to push that for the time being.  Mike arrived, and we started talking about making more flip chart stands, when 3 young skater lads went past - I was able to get them interested in the good person test.  I gave the chat to Mike, and he was away (pictured).

I moved away and started handing out tracts when I got a great opportunity to have a conversation with a young couple.  She was studying philosophy at Uni, and he is studying law.  When I asked if they thought about what happens after life, she responded with, “oh, that’s deep, I think I want to be ignorant”.  Starting from there, I was able to explain why this is NOT something you want to be ignorant about, and then I proceeded to explain how we know God is real, the law, and the gospel, and a few check questions.  They seemed impacted, and I enjoyed the chat.

Mike had a whole lot of the King Charles Million Pound Tracts from Living Waters, and so I decided to start handing these out.  They were popular!  They gave many people a chuckle, at the very least (pictured).

Later, a deaf man and 2 of his children approached the flip chart.  He just wanted a million pound note to read, but his kids were keen to go through the flip chart - it was a good chat, if not a short one.

As I had the Jesus page of the flip chart up, an Asian lady stopped and stared at it.  We were able to engage her in conversation afterwards.  She was from China, and her English wasn’t the best, but Mike had a gospel tract in Chinese on him!!  Mike was able to use it as a bridge to have a conversation (pictured).

The day finished with me encountering a young man that I haven’t seen in a while.  I first met him about 4 years ago, and at one point he made a profession of faith.  But sadly, he went AWOL.  The next time I saw him, he was in the Mother god cult.  After reasoning with him on that, I eventually had to block him on Facebook due to his intensity.  Well, it was good to see him again, at least he is out of the cult now, but he is still not converted, and he is still intense.  In the end I wanted him to leave, and he did.  But, as I was walking home from outreach, we providentially encountered each other again.  He seemed to be humbling himself, and so I agreed to unblock him so we could continue talking.  While we have breath, there is still hope!

Saturday’s outreach was good.  I’ve got a regular there now: Kelvin.  He is retired, and he enjoys chatting, but he is very resistant to spiritual things.  But, I’m there to talk about spiritual things, and he knows it, so I decided to push today.  He rolled with it.  He wants to deny the reality of God, but he can’t.  And then when I took him through the law, he resisted hard.  Insisting on his innocence.  A laboured the law, because he needs to hear it.  I didn’t get to the gospel, and he wouldn’t take a tract, but we parted on good terms.  Hopefully I’ll see him again next Saturday, God willing.

I had a long chat with a young Filipino lad.  He had a Christian background, and yet the gospel wasn’t clear to him, in fact, he seemed to be subtly trusting his works.  I worked through the simplicity of the gospel with him and a number of check questions.  He had a number of questions that I was able to address with him.  It was a good chat.

I had a number of other opportunities on Saturday. I ended up leaving a little early, as I was feeling a little bit sick.  I think I just needed some lunch, as I was fine after that.

Friday’s outreach was great.  Roger and Andy are both pictured.  I ended up having a follow up chat with a guy I hadn’t seen for 3 years!  I had talked to him many times before the gap.  He now lives in Auckland, hence why I haven’t seen him for 3 years.  Sadly, he was resistant - probably the most resistant I’ve ever seen him.  And yet we had a good long, but intense, chat.  God in his mercy has allowed him to hear the law and the gospel again, and it’s his power for salvation.  God can change the heart!  We parted on very good terms.  Lord, save him!

Tuesday was busy!  I arrived at the outreach spot, and instantly saw a group coming past.  I got out my tracts and prayed quickly, before engaging them.  It was a big group, and they were all in different places.  But I was able to hold the attention of 3 of them.  One in particular was resistant yet engaged.  I ended up talking for about 30 minutes.

I then headed down Riccarton Road and got straight into a chat with a young man.  Soon, his friend joined him, and then later another.  We ended up talking for 1 hour.  The 2nd friend was asking all the hard questions, and before I could even finish answering, she would ask another, and then another.  Whew!  But after 20 minutes, she felt comfortable enough with the conversation to say she was gay.  And so we discussed that for a while, me trying to hold the balance right: homosexuality is a sin, Jesus came to save sinners.

After the chat, I realised how tired I was, and ended up going home early.  I did some Insta conversations to make up the time.  I love the balance the online work brings to my energy levels.  God is good.

Well, that’s a wrap for this week.  Thanks so much for your prayer.  We appreciate it so much.  All glory to God alone.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 10/5/2023 from 1300-1500

Amy's son Joshua got place for Prep on fortnightly basis as such she could join me today for the Sunnybank outreach. God was amazing enough to let her connect with a Nepal couple who had met before months ago. Edy the man was more eager to catch up and could tell the key message of Jesus dying for us to take our place for the sin punishment. He showed great desire to learn more about God as such he asked for the Gospel of John booklet for him to read. His girlfriend was less eager but better this time joining the chat all along instead of retracting to watch smartphone. Pray for God's mighty power to bring Edy to make the final steady of faith. As for me, it was a mixed result day with willing listener and overt rejectors. God grace was enough to let me bring across the message in either case as per Battle Log recap below: -

1) Korean girl, not quite receptive using poor English level as an excuse. I still endeavour to finish the full gospel in simple terms and trusted God that the message conveyed will still bear fruit in His time.

2) Then I caught up with a North-eastern Mainlander lady who bore with me for a short while to check out what I was going to share. Despite of stone heart, I still managed to pass on the message that being a good person alone is not good enough for heaven. God's ultimate standard is perfection. As long as we are not perfect with blemish in our corrupted human character, we all need the redemptive grace of Jesus. Finally, she still declined to listen on after I finished with the nutshell of the gospel.

3) By grace, I finally met the second Christian Brother Lui ?receiving Christ at his home town in Shandong. No wonder he was open and bold enough to share about the contemporary regions persecution issues in China. Upon checking his assurance of salvation, he failed the test claiming he only has 80 % certainty to go to heaven. And he was delighted after clarification that he should have 100% assurance of salvation that ready got the gift of eternal life or the heavenly citizen the moment he accepted Jesus. And he knew now it is the beginning or the starting point for his life to be transformed back to perfection again by the 2nd stage of deliverance throughout our earthly life. When Jesus comes for the 2nd time, we all will be made perfect like a masterpiece created by God in Christ.

4) Then I was led to approach a middle aged woman from Hong Kong . She is an accompanying mum to look after her sons to do high school in Westend South bank area. She claimed to be a Buddhist , but I explained to her that even the Budda deemed himself a sinner needing a saviour to raise him from the death.

5) Then I was led to chat with two ladies from HongKong . One claimed to be a Taoist follower one claimed to be a Christian. The Taoist girl showed much less interest to chat on this life issues but the Christian girl gave me all he encouragement to carry on. So the full Gospel was shared before the bus arrived. The Christian girl took a tract and promised to chat with her friend later on. Praise the Lord.

6) Met again Madam Li of the Sacred Music Choir. Took the chance to briefly revised her understanding of faith.

7) Claire a Brazilian atheist once was a Christian and is still with a Christian background Family. I asserted that she has the right to assume there is no God which is also beyond my ability to prove it exists otherwise although I personally could relate to God and experience His ever and ready presence to work with & through me. But I shared with her the oneness and unity of the Bible that have His dual projects readily prophesize in Gen 3:15. She even know why Jesus’s incarnation as a perfect person cannot through normal husband and wife birth by virgin birthday as such Jesus will be free from carrying original sin as a descendant of fallen human race. The Spirit seemed to have work in her heart touching her and rekindling her search for truth and love of God. She got a tract and promised to give it to her Christian Grandmom which hopefully will trigger another round of discussion and contemplation of the need of imperfect person to be saved by grace through faith.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday May 9th, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

The weather has started turning cool lately, but our passion for gospel outreach remained fierce though hardship and rejection is the norm. It keeps our Spirit high in His strength to catch all the divine appointment that God grants us every time we served with Him. Today was again a day of mixed results but the gospel nevertheless has been proclaimed to the elected ones chosen by God as per Battle Log recap below for Hung.

1) I was led to approach a Mainlander from ChongXin Who has just come for the first year. I was able to relate by my credential as the Sichuan earthquake disaster relief team member in the capacity of counsellor He was polite and friendly for chatting. . Gospel was shared as a nutshell just in time before the bus arrived. Pray for the follow up work of the Spirit through the tract.

2) Raul a Catholic Christian from Bolivia, who originally should have gone to catch the bus, but he mistaken I was to catch the bus with him so he was a second late to let the bus go. It gave me a second chance to share the gospel but he quickly identified himself as a Catholic Christian so I changed to test for his assurance of salvation which was half success. He was confident he can go to heaven 100 % but it was because of his good deeds after being a Christian. I was barely in time to clarify with him that non 0f our good deeds before or after we become a Christian count and it is all to the credit of Jesus 100 redemptive atoning grace. At the end, he also willingly took a selfie with me.

3) Shirley was the third I approached again by the move of the Spirit. She is from Sri Lanka and claimed she has received the Spirit. But on testing for assurance of salvation, she is not sure at all. Thanks, God I had enough time to clarify everything for her and she was graceful for it and happily took a selfie with me.

4) Then I caught up with an Indian girl from Mumbai who has come to Australia for 10months. She was open for the gospel though again I only had barely enough time for the nutshell of the Gospel.

5) Then I was led to approach a Muslin girl Mamphela from Jakarta. She was however very open for the gospel chat. When asked if there is any perfect person, her religious teaching told her that Mohamad is a perfect Prophet. I however led her to have a 2nd though if really there is any human who can remain to be perfect the whole life. I illustrate even the Budda admitted he was not perfect as he once lived as a corrupted person when he was a prince and he did claim he also need a saviour in one of the Wall Sculpture carving picture written in ancient language In Chingmai. She was objective enough to accept my query and agreed that no human is perfect as such we all have to face the imperfection or sins we have committed throughout our whole life. It called for judgment and punishment after death which can only be cleansed by a perfection to take our place for the punishment which is Jesus and Him alone. She seemed convinced with the argument and happily took a tract for further pondering.

6) Then I bumped into an Australian born Mixed Chinese & Japanese girl. She is of Catholic Christian background and does not have assurance of salvation. Our conversation was but interrupted by a girl rudely cut our conversation stop. I suggested to her that she at least should excuse me for asking her friend to end our conversation.

7) Finally, I approached another Mainland girl who was very subjective that she deemed all religions are without scientific basis. God gave me just enough time to recount the scientific interpretation of the 6 days creation as well as the geographical landscape of Gorge like Colorado in USA and the Ching Hai high land with a rich mine of salt underground left behind by the great flood. She started to realize her own understand of the world was not comprehensive enough to explain all those faces hints by all those biblical truths. But with ages of brain washing by the atheist thinking of the CCP, she still was not yet moved to let in more gospel message at the moment. But it was definitely a very good breakthrough point hopefully for more follow up gospel sharing opportunity.

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A full week of street outreach this week, based on my normal schedule.  I was on my own in Riccarton on Tuesday and Saturday.  Andy, Roger and John were with me on Friday in the city.  And Tanush joined me on Sunday in the city.  Plus, plenty of wonderful gospel opportunities online.

So, let's start with Tuesday’s outreach.  2 significant conversations from that outreach stand out in my mind.

The first was a chat with a young man with Russian ancestry.  It was a shorter chat.  He seemed to come to a limit with the information I was giving him, and I decided it was good to stop and leave him to process it.  He heard the law and the gospel.

The second chat was with a man from South America.  He did say which country, but I have now forgotten that detail.  He had just arrived in NZ and was going to spend some time improving his English before moving into a job in the dairy industry.  But his English was actually very good.  He was very engaged, and eventually he invited me to sit on the seats behind my flip chart so we could discuss in leisure!  We had a long chat, where he admitted he was convinced that God was real, but when he faced the reality that God therefore gets to make the rules he all of a sudden didn’t want God to be real!  I pointed this out to him, and he could see my point.  He came away clearly understanding the gospel, and yet he understood the cost (his life would come into submission of God).

As I turned up to Friday’s outreach, I noticed Andy was already there and he was in a deep conversation (pictured).

Roger arrived and we set up his flip chart - instantly it attracted 2 people.  Roger engaged one of them, while I engaged the other with the flip chart.  We were busy for the rest of the outreach.

I moved further down the mall and started handing out tracts.  I had a guy stop (he actually seemed to beeline over to me) and we fell into a chat.  He was German and into the new age.  He explicitly rejected rationality and the mind, over emotion and the heart.  And yet, reality trumps his worldview, and I reasoned with him anyway.  I was making slow progress, in spite of his resistance, when a couple of my regulars came over to break up the conversation.  Adam came over and hugged me (as he usually does).  Adam speaks German and started talking to the guy I had been talking to, and then the guy decided to leave - refusing a tract.  Adam was gleeful that he had ruined my opportunity to share the gospel: “he didn’t want to talk to you anyway Glen, I could tell”.  He was right, he was resisting what I was saying.  I wasn’t disturbed, God is sovereign.  Our labour is never in vain, and God’s purposes will never be stopped.

Adam noticed Andy in the distance (still in his original conversation) and decided to go and break that up too.  Yet, I was glad to hear afterwards, Adam’s attempt totally failed.  The lady Andy was talking to was very engaged in the conversation and wasn’t going to be put off!

On Saturday I had a number of interesting chats.  One was with an older gentleman.  “What is it?”, he says, “religious stuff?”.  I responded in the affirmative: “it’s a Christian gospel tract”.  “Ahhh, that’s a load of rubbish”, he says.  I didn’t back down, and so we sparred on the street!  He was fighting hard, and I didn’t flinch, responding quickly and striking back.  Of course, there was mutual respect as this was happening - nothing nasty: just worldviews clashing.  After a while we parted ways with a handshake.  Only God knows what effect the law and the gospel had with him.

Another chat started when a lady with two of her children approached me.  Her daughter wanted to do the good person test.  I was up front with what it was about, and although her worldview was completely different, she seemed to want her daughter to hear the gospel.  It was a bit uncomfortable, but I wasn’t going to turn up an opportunity to share good news, and I did exactly that.

Finally, I fell into a long chat with a guy who ended up wanting to judge God as evil for allowing evil.  When I challenged him on his basis for judging God, he pointed to himself.  Ridiculous.  He came away hearing the law and the gospel.

Sunday was rainy, but not enough to stop any outreach.  I had two great, separate, conversations with guys from India.  The 2nd guy was keen to get in touch, and left with a gospel of John, a tract, and a contact card for my church with my contact details on it.

Later, Tanush was with me, and we had a great walk up chat with 4 girls.  They went to a Christian school, but didn’t know the gospel.  There were times in the conversation where you could see they were challenged in spite of resistance.  They heard the law and the gospel.  I was also able to have another follow up chat with one of my regulars.  We ended up discussing homosexuality and why it’s sinful: because God says so.

 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 3/5/2023 from 1300-1500

Today, I was to serve solo again as no one else was available. It was important for me to keep the momentum going despite I just freshly recovered from my Prostate trimming procedure which normally would require more time of rest. But by the grace of God, I felt as energetic as usual to honour my commitment to keep doing street outreach in His strength. Basically, I got both funny if not crazy responses from some guy appeared to have mental issue and a deceitful lady pretending she does not speak Chinese or English. In the meantime, I had several very meaningful and fruitful conversation with both non-believers or Christians without clear understanding of the gospel lacking assurance of salvation. Recap below is the Battle Log for today.

1) I was moved to approach a Chinese looking middle age guy but he chose to response in short English phrase that seems to be from the charismatic background. I was almost certain he does not speak fluent English but just short phrases of Biblical weir terminology, likes Bible on the grace, prostitutes, that convey no complete meaning. I anyway disregard his tactics to confuse me but focus on sharing the full Gospel to him until his bus arrived.

2) Then I approached Ryan who sat on the side bench. He is a non-believer but remain polite, friendly to the gospel, especially I usr the Aussie slang Fair Dinkum as the ice breaker. At the end, he was convinced the gospel is sensible and he promised to ponder about his need for Jesus to pardon his sin and grants him the eternal life. He delightfully took a selfie with me for future possible re-encounter for follow up.

3) Then I moved closer to the bus stop to connect with a Colombia couple coming to learn English. I used my limited Spanish greeting as the ice breaker and share the full gospel to them. They appeared receptive to he gospel message possibly because of their Catholic Background but with little interaction because of limited English level.

4) First Terry then joined by Josh the Filipino couples, they quickly identified themself as Catholic so I focus on testing their understanding of the gospel and if they have assurance of salvation which as expected were both unclear. I clarified it for them together with related biblical teaching. They politely and patiently let me finish off my clarification and sharing about the Kairos movement originated from their home country with a selfie.

5) Then I came across a possible Chinese girl but trying to disguise herself as English speaking. I then switched to share in English and after I finished the nutshell of the Gospel, she excused to quit our conversation for checking out the bus schedule.

6) Then I turned to Roland an 11 years old ABV with parent from Vietnam. He was receptive to the gospel message and promise to read the tract in full for a personal response.

7) Then I caught up with a Nepal girl and draw her to see the work of God in Nepal after the earthquake 9-10 years ago. She show good interest in the gospel.

8 ) Then I approach finally Theja from Sri Lanka coming here to study international business at Griffith. She looks like a high school student but is mature enough to have an interactive conversation with me about the eternal life issues.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday May 2nd, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

Resumed serving this week starting at Toowong after my routine Biopsy and precautionary Prostate trimming procedure last Wednesday. It was a pity that Winnie had a sore stomach that forced her to withdraw to the toilet at the Toowong Village then come back to continue for another half an hour. As for me , I kept doing solo at the bus stop having some quick catch up as well as some long chats with deep interchange of faith issues. Recap below is the Battle log of Hung.

1) Michael an UQ student and Australian born Indian was open to the Gospel. He admitted he could not find any argument against the logic of rational sense of Gospel that we are all imperfect sinners as such all need Jesus as our Saviour. Our conversation ended eventually by the interruption of a phone call.

2) I was moved to approach a Cantonese speaking Guangzhou lady who was open for a chat. . It was interrupted by the quick arrival of her bus.

3) Then my next approach was with a Thailand girl. Again just had time for greeting and a nutshell of the gospel before she embarked on to the bus.

4) Then I had a conversation with Eunice from Ecuador who is Spanish speaking with limited English capability. I still managed to share the nutshell of gospel and handed him a track when his bus arrived.

5) Then the Spirit led me to have a long sharing of the Gospel with Chan just arrived from Hong Kong for study at UQ. He listened attentively and appeared very receptive to the gospel message.

6) Then I was moved to approach Frankel again who said I had a long chat with him before and he kept the tract at home. I nevertheless refreshed the gospel message with him and he acknowledged that he found no argument against the gospel message and is still seriously pursuing the Christian faith. He is an ABC with parents also coming to Australia possibly from HKG at their early age. Pray for God's timing to move Frankel to Christ.

7) Then I caught up with a Local Aussie girl and have a brief sharing before she boarded the bus.

8 ) Then I was led to approach Wang ?for Hebei Shek Jia Chong . Again, sharing of Gospel was interrupted by the quick arrival of bus.

9) Then I was led to approach Yong from Singapore for a long chat. He was a non-believer but was very positive to the gospel and also could not find any argument against the logic of the gospel.

10) Finally I had another very long and deep chat with Mackillop a Canadian nurse of Catholic baptised Christian background. She was grateful to have me clarified her wrong understanding of the salvation and promised to re-examine the validity of her past Catholic faith and will remedy if she actually has never trusted in Jesus alone as her saviour.

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It’s the end of another awesome week of gospel outreach.  Another week of God’s patience.  A standard week this week, although I stayed online on Friday due to rain.  I’ll work backwards in my report, starting with today’s (Sunday) outreach in Cashel Mall.

It was a mini outreach revival.  There was a team of 6!  Binu, Mike, David, Susan, Tanush and myself.

I started out on my own in my usual spot, corner of Cashel and Colombo.  They JW’s had taken my flipchat spot; so I stashed it and decided to hand out tracts close by.  I got into a good chat with one of my regulars when Susan turned up.  And then Tanush turned up.  We grabbed the flip chart, and moved down the mall to a nice sunny spot half way down, we prayed and got into it.  Tanush and Susan paired up and moved off to do ‘walk up’, while I manned the flip chart.

I was instantly into a chat with a ‘journeyman’ (he defined it as someone who travels for 3 years to learn).  He was from Germany.  Since he was keen to learn, I said I had something to share, and we fell into a gospel chat.  It was a short one, but a good one.  He started out as an atheist, but couldn’t argue with the logic I was giving him.  I was able to share the law and the gospel, before he had to go.

I turned around, and David was standing by my flip chart!  Oh, hello!  It’s been a while!  It was so good to have you join the team today David!

As we were catching up, four young ladies approached the flip chart.  I sensed a setup, and I wasn’t wrong.  They were nice, but it turned into an apologetics battle and the tension of it had become uncomfortable.  So, I decided to defuse it and switch it to the conscience rather than the intellect.  They were curious about the pages of the flip chart, and so I used that to switch to the law, and then the gospel.  We parted on good terms, and all but 1 took tracts.

And lo and behold there were 2 more!  Mike and Binu had arrived.  I was exhausted from the tension of that chat, and so I let Mike join David on the flip chart and left Binu to hand out tracts, while I went to get some snaps.  Tanush and Susan were going strong!  Afterwards, Tanush told me they had 3 gospel opportunities.  So good to see you growing in your passion for evangelism Tanush!  Keep up the good work for the glory of God!

The outreach went long when Tanush and I had a good conversation with a young couple.  And David was having a separate chat beside us (he took over my flip chart, haha).  Such a good outreach!

Saturday I was on my own in Riccarton, but it was a wonderful and busy outreach.  It started with a brief chat with a young Muslim.  Before Matthew, who I talked to the week before, came past again.  Being a Christian, we ended up discussing predestination - a difficult subject that Christians wrestle with.

The outreach ended with an interesting situation: two high school aged boys approached the flip chart - I recognised one of them, I’ve talked to him before on a Tuesday outreach.  He was resistant, but his friend engaged.  As I was explaining the gospel, another couple stopped and listened from a distance.  These situations are difficult, because there is only 1 of me!  I suspected the new couple were resistant and thought they were going to break up the conversation.  I was going to wrap up my current chat and engage them.  But then I realised that they were going to interrupt, so I decided to continue my first chat and labour through the checks.

Once the 2 guys had left, I was able to engage the new couple.  And then I realised I recognised him.  He is a good friend of a friend who used to join me in street outreach.  He is a passionate Catholic!  I’ve had a long chat with him before.  We are Facebook friends and he had seen the link to a video I had shared the day prior of a conversation Ryan had had with a Catholic.  He hadn’t watched the video, but in God’s providence, he was standing in front of me now!  We got into a good chat.  He loves to debate, but the outreach was ending.  He was keen to take my email address so we could continue the chat.  I hope he gets in touch.

On Tuesday it was a team of 3: Jermaine and Roger were with me.  It was a busy outreach with all 3 of us in separate conversations at multiple times.  My highlight chat was with a young lady who obviously had a religious background but had never grasped grace.  As I was working through the check questions I could see it starting to click into place for her.  It was so encouraging.

Later, Jermaine pulled me into a chat with a young man who already seemed to have a good grasp of the gospel, claimed to be a Christian but wasn’t in a church.  He had recently immigrated to New Zealand.  Both Jermaine and I invited him to our churches: I gave him my contact details.

Well, this morning (Sunday) he rang me!  He was coming to church.  I met him outside, and brought him in to sit with my family.  Afterwards I was able to introduce to other members of the church and he was connected with a home group leader.  I’m hopeful that he will continue coming and we will get to know him better!

All glory to God for this wonderful week of street outreach.  The online outreach work is still going strong.  We have more message requests on Instagram than we ever have.  And they all lead to gospel conversations.  Some of those conversations are wonderful, when people truly seem to grasp what Jesus is all about.  Here are a couple of comments from one person I talked to this week:

“I literally was crying when you were breaking stuff down and this is good news and I’m soooo happy I thought I knew the full truth about Christ!!! How foolish am I. Now now now now I trust he paid for my sins I understand completely”  and then, in response to the ‘2 things’ check: “no because they still didn’t accept his salvation. I get it now. The only way of true salvation is to accept the free gift of him paying the price for my sins.. past present future sins and nothing I could have done could have saved me. Spreading the gospel, feeding the poor,tithing , loving everyone,worshiping repenting daily, even in his name - nothing I could do to bring me to heaven except… accepting his true loving wonderful freeeeeeeeeeeee giiiiiiiiiftttt!!!! I’m so happy my brother I’m saved”.

All glory to God alone.
 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 & Antioch Lutheran Church the "Unite" Team at Sunnybank on Friday 21/4/2023 from 1830-2000

I was occupied on Wednesday as such I decided to do my usual Wednesday shift instead on Friday together with the "Unite" team of 11 of the Antioch Lutheran Church. It was the 2nd time the "Unite" team was sent on to the mission field in Sunnybank. I was honour to be a mobilizer and guardian to walk alongside this energetic young team to overcome their unwilling and insecure barrier to do open air cross-cultural outreach. Their Pastor Rev Charlie and Shirley Mach also turned up this time to give them a spiritual boost and support. They still sub divided into three groups of a new team combination and swapping position. While I still have a handful of my own outreach as recap below, my time was mainly spent to oversee their progress giving a needed push as guided by the Spirit. Actually, the presence and the acts of the Spirit was quite obvious. I was led to meet up with the same guy that had a long chat with I-Lu a month ago. And I was able to stop randomly a Guy from Tongxin Sichuan who was opened to the gospel and connected well with Joshua and Jiao Jiao the Sichuan girl. On the other hand Gabby team had a long conversation with a Christian who has doubt about his faith. But Gabby spent hour to mentor and pray for him. The Gabby team was also visited by a Chrisitan friend with a non-beliver freind coming along at the back. But Gabby was able to initiate a gospel chat with that non-beliver guy with good results.

Overall speaking it was a successful outreach with encouraging sign of steadfast Commitment and continuous growth in confidence and faith in working with God to become a team of fisher of men for Christ.

1) I tried to approach a girl next to the Joshua Team as a demo but the effort was in vain.

2) So, I turned to another guy nearby who happened to be the same young hippie guy that had a long chat with I-Lu. Yet this time he showed no keen interest though he still listened up the full gospel sharing. After that, he excused and left for meeting up with a friend.

3) Then I went back to the West side and caught up with Brendan an Australian born Sri Lankan of Catholic Christian faith but has no assurance of salvation. He was there waiting for pick up by friends as such I had long time to share both the gospel and testimony.

4) Last but not the least, I again stop a guy called Duke from Tongxin who has come just 3 months. So he is the new generation with more open mind to embrace new thought and idea. At the end, we added each other WeChat including Joshua as Duke's senior in QUT of the same Finance Department and with Jiao Jiao who are culturally similar from Sichuan.

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