Battle Log

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We are 3 quarters of the way through our evangelism trip to the Philippines!

There is a public transportation strike happening this week, and so some of the universities we were to minister at are running online classes only.

Today we were at the University of the Philippines (UP). Sadly not many people around. BUT, we are not going to let that stop us. As long as there are a few people around, there are conversations to be had!

I was paired up with Joshua today. We prayed that God would lead our steps and allow us to glorify him with many conversations today. He answered our prayer! I thought about which direction might have the most people, and I decided to go in the opposite direction. All the other Christians out sharing would be going that way.

Instantly we were in our first chat, with 2 older gentlemen and a younger guy. Then some medical students.

And then a cyclist went past (he delivers food for Grab, pictured). As he was biking past, I asked him our usual opening question. He stopped to respond, and we fell into a very good gospel conversation. He heard the law and the gospel, and I was working through check questions when I asked: “So, if someone says to you, ‘I believe that Jesus died on the cross, but I think I’m going to heaven because I’m a good person’, where would they end up, heaven or hell?”. He thought about it for a while, and then gave a slight nod. He was still thinking good deeds would get him to heaven! I had to back up and labour with him to understand that being good can’t save him. He was quite shocked, but I think he eventually came to see how it made sense and was truly good news!

I had an encouraging chat with a young man who had obviously received a gospel tract recently, he knew that he didn’t meet the standard of the law, and he understood that anger is like murder in the heart already. He was also familiar with the gospel, so I laboured with him to see the seriousness of his sin and why he needed the gospel urgently. Gospel tracts do get read!

Next we encountered a couple of marine biology students. One of them engaged me, and said that after we die, our atoms are just recycled! I gave him the building builder analogy and it struck him, from this moment on, all his Christian background came out - he was answering my questions flawlessly. He already knew the gospel, but he hadn’t repented (believed it).

Joshua had the final chat before lunch. In spite of the lack of people, we still had a busy couple of hours of ministry.

After lunch we were at the shopping mall near the university. I had an amazing chat with two young men. Again, I had to labour with them to get them to realise it’s not their good deeds that save them, but Jesus alone. They seemed genuinely stoked by the end of the chat, and were willing to pose for a pic taken by Pastor Jeff.

To finish the outreach, I distributed some tracks to some motorcycle cart drivers while Joshua shared the gospel with one of them, and Pastor Jeff shared with another group of them. Joshua and I then went for a wander down the road, and found 2 high school age boys willing to talk. One spoke good English, so I talked to him, and Joshua spoke with the other in Tagalog. Pictured is from my BeReal.

God honoured our feeble efforts in providing many opportunities to declare his gospel, in spite of the transport strike! There is so much gospel opportunity, be encouraged to go out and engage!

Please keep us in prayer for the final 2 days of outreach and then the long travel home. SDG!
 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday March 7th, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

It was a pretty hot afternoon, especially at the Toowong bus stop with great radiating heat form the heated concrete surrounding. People tended to hide from the sun and the heat behind the bus stop shade. Again, God answered our prayer to face many Mainlanders with a softened heart. It seems that after the end of the zero-case policy, and the subsiding of the pandemic in China, there is a great flux of student from China especially those coastal provinces. Actually, I met consecutively two students from the same Suzhou city in Jiangsu. I also met people of other nations from India, PNG, Singapore, and local Aussie etc. The result of today was considered fruitful and smooth.

1) I chatted with the young man at the end of the long queue who is from Suzhou, Jiangsu. I built rapport with him through my experience of visiting his home town 50 years ago. He is a fresh graduate arriving just 3 weeks. He was a willing listener of the Gospel with reasonably good interaction. It was a pit she did not want to leave his name at the end. ( , , , )

2) Surprisingly, the 2nd person I approach was also from Suzhou.( . ) She is also a fresh graduate by the name of Hsia, arriving just a few week. She appeared also very opened minded and receptive to the gospel.

3) Then I spotted Winnie trying to chat with Fiona the Catholic lady once had deep conversation and tried to invite me to talk to her Catholic Father. She recognized me instantly and tried to catch up if I had done any follow up study. I said yes, I did discuss all the controversial issue with my CUHK classmate now migrated to Canada. He is a very pious and decent Catholic believers but he himself cannot explain the proposition that Mary was near Saint, if not goddess as Jesus’ mother. The arrival of the bus cut short our mutual updating of status.

4) Isaac Paul is an Indian Christian from a Christian family. He quickly identified himself as Christian but failed right away the Assurance of Salvation test that he utterly has no assurance of salvation at all. I clarified a d pray that he from now on can stand firmly on his bottom-line faith in Christ.

5) Then I caught up with a girl form Henan, China. She has been in Australia for 3-4 months already. She also was very opened mind to listen to all the gospel sharing with a softened heart( . )

6) Then I tried to connect with an old man of age 82 whom I thought is from China. Yet he pretended to be a Japanese speaking person seemingly tried to cut off the conversation. But I could respond in Japanese, so he finally stopped pretending and resumed talking with me in Mandarin. He is actually from Singapore but could really speak 7 languages. He used to be a university lecturer but now retired. I turned back on to the gospel and he seemingly is not a Christian but claimed that Johnny had spoken with him before. I nevertheless still tried to follow up on his current understanding of the issue of sin and salvation by Jesus alone by faith through grace, yet the bus came just now.

(?82 … Johnny)

7) Finally I caught up with Yewleaf from PNG who came to Australia in 2015 and is now in her final year in UQ. She quickly identified herself as a Christian and is familiar with Yasmin. I anyway tested her assurance of salivation right away and she passed the test with 100% assurance of salvation.

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Wow, we are over half way through the trip already! Time goes fast when you have your head down and working hard in service of our great king and lord, Jesus!

And it has been such a joy working with the members of Rock of Refuge Church. Today we had a wonderful time of hospitality and fellowship with them. And their dedication in evangelism during this trip has encouraged me so much! It’s been such a pleasure to work alongside them.

I’m going to briefly write about Saturday’s outreach. We had a wonderful time of outreach at the University of the Philippines in the morning. And then in the afternoon we were at some gardens where families gather. I was paired up with Alvin. It was a joy to watch Alvin so calmly and confidently approaching strangers and getting conversations started. He was gentle and used questions to keep people engaged. He was an expert in language switching between Tagalog and English to keep me involved. We had some great chats. But there were distractions and sometimes a bit of a lack of engagement from those we were talking to.

The outreach was nearing its end when we approached a group of young people. Alvin handed out tracts, and I decided to show one of the guys my flip chart and asked him who he thought was ‘good’. He instantly engaged. And wow what a chat. I think I had to go back to the law once to clarify why we are not good enough for heaven, and then I was able to move into the false ways. He seemed impacted. When I finally revealed the only way to heaven: Jesus, he was visibly and audibly impacted. It clicked! It made sense to him. So, I then immediately moved into checking questions. He got the “sin again” question right, which was an encouraging sign. He stumbled on the “2 things” check, but this only turned it into a powerful teaching opportunity. “Ohhhhhh” he said as the gospel message was reinforced.

I then moved to the important concept of repentance (in regard to sin) using the fireman analogy. The “what would you say” check allowed me to use the “water via the straw analogy” to clarify that it’s not our faith that saves us, but through our faith IN Jesus. He nailed the “out of 100” check, and then I challenged him to respond to the gospel. He seemed genuinely happy for the conversation and to have heard the gospel, and this filled me with immense joy!

To finish off, I asked him about his friends (near to us) - what about them, what would they think they have to do to go to heaven? “Be good”. So, where would they go if they died? “Hell”. So what can you do to help them? “Tell them what you told me”. Right! He wanted some tracts to share - he requested 10!

His name was Prince. Please pray that he would be convicted and converted. And if so, that God would get him into a good church (he knows how to get in touch). I left him with a copy of the gospel of John.

The check questions we use are a powerful tool in making sure those we share with understand the gospel. If you would like to learn more about what these check questions are and how to use them in your gospel conversations, please check out this document: https://tellmeconference.org.nz/gospel-flipchart/
 

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I’m pretty tired having spent a day travelling to Manila, Philippines from Christchurch, New Zealand and then a full first day of outreach in Manila.  But I’m going to try to write a short report to let you all know how things are going.  In short, IT’S AMAZING!

 

As soon as I entered the arrival hall at the airport in Manila, I felt like I was ‘home’.  Before Covid-19, I had been travelling to Yangon, Myanmar twice a year - and there are so many similarities between Yangon and Manila.  If I was to highlight the 2 major differences I’ve noticed so far it would be: 1) Roman Catholicism vs Buddhism as the major religion (when you boil them both down, that’s not really a difference though) and 2) most people speak English.

 

I had 3 gospel tracts with me to give away during my travel day.  The first went to the guy sitting next to me on my flight from Christchurch to Sydney - we had a short law and gospel chat.  The next went to a guy that Mark witnessed to in Sydney airport (he is FIlipino and on the same flights as us).  And the last tract was used on the taxi ride to our hotel after arriving in Manila - it was a special chat.

 

The taxi driver said he was considering cancelling our pick up, but he decided not to.  As we swung the conversation to, “what happens after life?”, he said he would be going to hell and there was no hope for him.  He thought this because he was part of a Christian cult (INC - Iglesia Ni Cristo) that had booted him out, and there was no hope of ‘salvation’ outside of this cult.  Mark and I were able to gently labour with him that salvation was available to him, and that it was a gift.  He said our conversation may be an answer to his prayers.  My last tract went to him!

 

The daily schedule for this trip is going to be: 2 hours online, 2 hours on the street, lunch, then 3 hours on the street.  Today’s outreach was very encouraging.  It was great to join a big local group, from local churches, at a university campus.

 

I was really excited to be out witnessing, and I was glad for the adrenaline to get me through the day!  My first chat was with someone with an Anglican background, next a Roman Catholic, next a Mormon, and then I started encountering people with subtle resistance to the idea of an after life.  All heard the gospel.  I had so many gospel chats today, and met many interesting people.  Ploughing and sowing.  Gay pride is visible on the campus, and a big mural on the road said “Defend Academic Freedom”, this became a conversation starter for many of my chats at the end of the day.  I had a long conversation with a couple of Sociology students who had been studying world religions.  By the end of the chat, they were subtly yet respectfully resisting what I was saying, because they loved their sin.  I didn’t back down on the truth of the Bible, and that sin was sin.  I warned them, and pleaded with them to accept the mercy of God - the one who logically get’s to set the rules.

 

My last chat was going really well, the guy seemed very convicted and concerned about his soul, and I had shared the gospel and was working through checks when a friend came and told him he needed to get to classes, killing the conversation.  I then noticed he tried to pull a person away from a gospel chat with Paul and Chris.  He was plucking away seeds!  It was interesting that he was trying to get people to class, and yet he didn’t go to class himself!  I had an opportunity to respectfully  follow up with him on that - he didn’t want to talk, “I don’t know English well”, but he accepted tracts, 1 in English and 1 in Tagalog.

 

Please continue to keep the team in prayer!  I will try to continue writing regular reports. :)

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 1/3/2023 from 1300-1500

Again, I did solo today at Sunnybank with everybody else not available. Curiously and interestingly, majority of chat today were with Chinese from Mainland China, and most of them are UQ students but coming here for shopping of Chinese food. Another unusual phenomenon was that most of the Mainlanders were not that stone heart and appeared mostly open for chat. Recap below is the Battle Log.

1) First, I was led to a girl from Huang Gun Hubei near Wuhan. It once was a heave pandemic casualty town. The girl was very open to chat and show receptiveness to the gospel message, acknowledging that human are imperfect and beyond redemption. All she needs is to make a last step of faith to accept Jesus as her Saviour and Lord of life.

2) Then I connected with Leah who initially did not want to tell me her name and where she is from. But once I shared with her my China ministry during 2008 -2015, she was able to identify with my heart and love for China so she was all opened to listen to the full Gospel endorsing all the points conveyed and left me her name at the end.

3) Next was a young man sat next to us listening up to most of the conversation with Leah. He also showed rare acceptance to chat and we got hook up right away because of my past China ministry in Sichuan with Chengdu the hub of our ministry. As he is from > He has been in Australia for four years finishing his undergraduate in Engineering and is not in postgraduate study. He also shared the same view of the gospel message that human race is beyond redemption apart from Jesus.

4) Then I turned to my right to talk to a Chinese young lady but she did not want to show any response to my approach because of her Local Aussie boyfriend. So instead, I talked to the Local Aussie who seemed to have a lot of prejudice on faith, He clarified with me if I am evangelical Christian as such, he felt a bit relax to chat though still with many pre-occupied and biased understanding about Christianity.

5) Then I approach the only person left after a bus came to take all people away, she was eating a pear as her lunch. So I briefly share the nutshell of Gospel and left her to finish her "Lunch".

6) Then another very pleasant chat was with a young man called Chen from Beijing. He is also an UQ student who has just arrived to Brisbane for 3 days. . . He also show very openness to Gospel though the sharing was cut short.

7) Finally, I approached two young man from Mainland China who initially had some reservation to chat. Again, the Spirit softened their heart to listen on till the bus came. They are also UQ students but came for Chinese stuff shopping.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday Feb 28th, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

Today was quite hot. Everybody hid behind the bus station shed. Bus frequent arrival made toady gospel sharing a bit difficult. We anyway still managed to reach out to as many people as possible including those initially reluctant ones. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung.

1) First I was led to approach a man from China who initially pretend to be non-Chinese speaking. After I switched to English, he then spoke with me in Chinese. but in a very unfriendly manner expressing his dislike to talk about religious issue. I guided him to treat it as a cross cultural life issue and shared a bit of my own life testimony. At the end, the Spirit did soften his heart to listen to the gospel in full. It was surprised his bus did not turn up after a long long while. After I finished my sharing and switch to share with next person, I noticed he was reading the tract attentively. Praise be to the Lord for answering our prayer.

2) Then I connected with a young man from Norway. He quickly indicated he is a Christian. But he his assurance of salvation is only 90% which was clarified.

3) Next, I caught up with two Fijian ladies of Hinduism background. Yet they were both open to the gospel and appeared both a good two listener. I just managed to shared with them the conclusion that no one can go to heaven unless you are perfect and gave them both a tract.

4) Sauron is a Australian born Scandinavian boy still ding grade 11 at SMT private college. He is open to gospel and appeared fully receptive to the need of the salvation of Jesus.

5) Then I approached a Canadian of Vietnamese background. He was open to the gospel and took a tract when the bus came quickly.

6) Then I connected with a Girl from cairn but her origin is from PNG with Netherlands blood. Again she is a very open to gospel and show receptiveness to the salvation of Jesus.

7) Finally I shared gospel with an Indian lady who was also open to gospel.

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We ran another special outreach this week (Saturday): the Kaikoura A&P Show outreach.  And we had some special people join us for outreach this week (Friday): Kane & Damo all the way from Brisbane!  So good to have them with us!

But I’ll start the report with Tuesday afternoon’s outreach to Riccarton.  Roger was down sick, so I got to set up my flip chart on his side of the street.  :D  I had 3 significant chats.

The first was with a young man down from the Hawkes’ Bay.  He is starting university in Christchurch.  It was a good chat in the sense that he was open to hearing the law and the gospel and going through all the check questions.  He seemed to respond positively, but he hedged a bit when I got him to count the cost in this life of accepting the gift of eternal life.  I can’t save him, only God can!

Next I had a long chat with a streetie.  Sadly, she loved the sound of her own voice.  She talked a lot!  So self absorbed.  I didn’t give her the gospel, she was obviously not ready for it.  When I had opportunities to speak, I would gently but directly labour the law of God into her life, trying to reignite her conscience.  Eventually she got tired of being challenged, and decided to move on.  She did take a tract.  I saw her again on Friday in the city, but I was in a chat and wasn’t able to follow up with her.

The last chat was with 3 teen girls.  They accepted tracts on their initial pass, but my question of “what happens after life” was cheekily rebuffed!  Yet, a minute later, they came back, they wanted to talk, and they each had a machine gun of questions to fire at me.  It was a bit overwhelming!  But the questions were very good ones, showing they cared deeply about life, and what happens after life.  As the conversation progressed, I was of course sharing the law and the gospel.  But we finally hit the two hardest questions: 1) evil and suffering and 2) homosexuality.  I actually felt honoured that they trusted me enough to ask about what were obviously very sensitive questions for them.  I did my best to give them answers that were: compassionate, yet faithful to the truth.  It’s only the truth that sets us free!  Sadly, they weren’t able to give me the time to do the subjects justice - they had to leave; I did my best.  One of the girls had been twisting her tract as we were talking.  She accepted another that she could read.

Friday poured with rain!  Yet, we had a team of 6, and it was an awesome outreach in spite of the rain.  There were heaps of people out and about, and everyone was making the most of the sheltered spots where we were able to spark up chats.

I heard a wonderful report from Roger, who had a fantastic chat with a guy who’s flight had been delayed and was wandering the city aimlessly till he encountered Roger.  They guy was so impacted by the gospel conversation, that he headed back to his hotel room to start reading a Bible!

I was paired up with Damo, and he needed to go to the bathroom before we started, so I took him to where some were.  As he was going in, 2 guys passed and I asked them, “hey, what do you think happens after life?”  They were keen to chat, and stopped to engage.  But, as I was talking to them, a streetie who knew me passed, and wanted to talk.  He waited in line!  Damo came back, and I passed the 2 guys to him (pictured), while I addressed the streetie.

Damo’s chat was much longer than mine, and so I ended up going to Lichfield street to see if I could get into a chat there.  Four Catholic high school students went past, and I had a fantastic chat with them.

Damo and I then headed back to Cashel Mall and found a spot down by Ballantynes.  We had 2 outstanding chats.

One with a guy who knew all the Christian lingo, but was subtly missing the gospel.  After labouring with him, I could see a breakthrough starting.  At points he seemed to almost come to tears.  And he left saying we had given him something to consider.

The other was with a young couple (also going to a Catholic high school).  The guy looked so happy, he said, “I’ve seen others being asked that question, but no one has ever asked me”.  It turns out he was very familiar with Ryan via TikTok!  He was very deep in thought throughout the chat, often with a distant look, and often taking a long time to answer questions as he processed what he was learning.  It was so good.  By the end of the chat, I could tell they were taking what we were sharing seriously.

Kaikoura is two and a half hours north of Christchurch, so it was an early start for the team of 5.  It was so good to have Andy, Mike, Jerome and Elijah with me for the drive up.  We were joined by a team coming down from Blenheim, led by Scott.

It was raining when I left home, but, although the ground was very damp, the rain held off for the whole outreach at the Kaikoura A&P Show.

This show wasn’t as busy as some of the others we attend, and yet, there were still plenty of opportunities to engage people with the good news of Jesus.  I’m running out of time to talk about the details of some of those chats.  But the highlight for me was having opportunities with the type of people who wouldn’t normally give me the time of day.  One farmer stayed to hear the law before bailing on me (the fact that I got that far was amazing).  Another elderly couple stayed to hear the gospel, but there was such a hardness that my very first check was answered with “be good”.  Again, I was amazed they stayed as long as they did.  I hope I left a pebble in their shoe, and that God turns it into a rock!  While we have breath, there is hope, God can do what is impossible for us.  They left with tracts.

Susan joined me for the Sunday afternoon outreach in central Christchurch.  It was a busy outreach, and so the time went fast.  Some very encouraging chats with some High School kids, who were challenged to urgently trust Christ, yet left thinking deeply while counting the cost.  Also a great chat with a young man from Australia among other chats.  Out of time!

A small team from Australia and New Zealand is heading to the Philippines to hopefully be an encouragement to the church there in evangelism.  We leave on Tuesday for just under 2 weeks of outreach.  Please keep us in prayer!  I intend to keep writing reports, keep your eye out for them here or on Facebook.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 22/2/2023 from 1300-1500

I had to go solo again as no other gospel co-workers was available today. In Sunnybank the usual reject rate was high. I could manage to have a few chats and I had to move around to the other side to look for gospel targets. I also took pictures of all those possible evangelism sharing points to be shown to a God raised mission oriented Chinese Church for their Street outreach evening scheduled on March 17 Friday evening 7-9pm.

One encouraging divine encounter was with Ms King from Hong Kong that we have met two times before. It was really not by coincident that God let us meet to follow up on her inner faith journey transiting toward the eventually salvation faith.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday Feb 21st, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday Feb 21st, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

The long queue at the Toowong Bus station appeared again today. It was both a good and bad things for our outreach. It was good we could randomly pick anyone in the queue, but the conversation could not guarantee to last long as once an empty bus came, everybody will be taken away quickly. But even if the bus did not come quick, it was less focus for both the gospel targets and people around as out gospel sharing will be under the scrutiny of a wider public not giving them more privacy to ponder the message. Nevertheless, both Winnie and Hung had a good handful chance to share, though not without exception that some rejection with a cold shoulder were faced. It anyway did not deter our spirit and boldness to keep proclaim good news for Christ. Again, a good mixed of people groups were outreached i.e., Indonesia, Chinese, Scottish, Mexico, Aussie, Korean etc. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung. queue at the Toowong Bus station appeared again today. It was both a good and bad things for our outreach. It was good we could randomly pick anyone in the queue, but the conversation could not guarantee to last long as once an empty bus came, everybody will be taken away quickly. But even if the bus did not come quick, it was less focus for both the gospel targets and people around as out gospel sharing will be under the scrutiny of a wider public not giving them more privacy to ponder the message. Nevertheless, both Winnie and Hung had a good handful chance to share, though not without exception that some rejection with a cold shoulder were faced. It anyway did not deter our spirit and boldness to keep proclaim good news for Christ. Again, a good mixed of people groups were outreached i.e., Indonesia, Chinese, Scottish, Mexico, Aussie, Korean etc. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung.

1) Two Chinese guys pretending they do not speak Chinese but still were not that mean to reject my sharing, so I share them the full gospel as the bus was late and people around all heard the good news. They tried to shut their ears but eventually, the facial expression told me that they heard and understood the gospel and have not reason to reject it.

2) Then I went to the end of the queue to pick up an Indonesia girl. She obviously is a Muslim, but still was open enough for the gospel.

3) Then after the long waiting queue was cleared up by two pick up bus, a Scottish woman was left behind. She actually is from a Christian family originally lived in Namibia. She has now just come to join her son living in St Lucia. We had a long chat and her faith was pure with assurance of salivation.

4) An Aussie girl just only had minimum tine for the nutshell of the gospel and the conclusion for the "Good Person" question.

5) Then I was led to connect with Milani a Mexico Catholic girl. We had a not long but not short conversation as I could identify with her that my father was born in Mexico and in the middle age era, he worked in El Salvador for 10 years. Basically, she is of Catholic background so she did not have much objection apart from the concept of assurance of salvation. Our conversation got cut short when her friends came to reunite with her for shopping.

6) Then I shared with a Korean man and he seemed to be a non-believer as he did not show great empathy with the gospel message. He anyway took a tract when his bus came.

7) Yvonne a CCCCB members recognized us for the consecutive week and kept apologising for not being able to enrol in the Kairos Online Class.

8 ) Jack seemed to be a Christian showing no sign of rejection of the gospel. Just no time to clarify his Christian status as the bus came a bit earlier.

9) Then I caught up with a young from Cairn. He was also very receptive to the gospel as such he voluntarily took a picture with his own camera and then my turn to take a selfie one.

10) Last but not the least, I was moved to approach a funky girl with a nose ring. She showed no objection for me to share but showing me a face of indifference.

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A wonderful week of gospel outreach. (But then, every week is a wonderful week of gospel outreach!)  It wasn’t a usual week, because on Saturday I ran some evangelism training sessions and, from my perspective, it went really well!  Thank you for praying for this.

But before mentioning how that went, I want to talk about Tuesday’s outreach in Riccarton.  Roger was with me, as usual.  It was an incredibly busy outreach.  Pretty much non stop gospel conversations for over 2 hours.  I set up my flip chart, and prayed, and before long I had 7 university students go past and I was into my first chat.  The larger the group, the harder it can be to hold all their attention.  And this was certainly true for this group.  They were all in different places.  Some of the guys were quite interested in the conversation, but one of the girls, in particular, was quite resistant.  She ended up leaving, which caused some of the others to leave, and then the guys had to go too.  They left with tracts.

But as soon as they walked off, a guy went past who I was able to stop and engage in conversation.  And it was like that for the rest of the outreach.

A lady went past and she said, “Are you Mormon?”  No.  “JW?”  No.  “Oh” she says, “then what are you?”.  We fell into a good conversation.  But it was a difficult one, because I had to be gentle in trying to untie some of the really bad theology she was holding on to.  It was an extreme form of pentecostalism / charasmania.  Where she believed God was giving her and her husband visions that clearly contradicted scripture.  And, unfortunately, this was impacting her soteriology in a subtle way: she was trusting in her ability to deal with generational sin and ask for forgiveness.  She talked about having “enough” faith for salvation: that’s works in disguise!  Anyway, her husband had had visions of a military build up in NZ, and that there would be some kind of coup and all Christians would be rounded up and killed.  And so her husband was preparing to flee to the bush.  I was able to gently work with her to the point where she understood that these “visions” might not be from God.  But unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make much progress in working on her soteriology.  There were other issues as well, and I would have loved to have more time with her.

While I was talking to her, I had 2 groups of people go to the flip chart and start looking at it.  With the 2nd group, she encouraged me to go and talk to them.  I thought I would do that, hoping she would stay and listen too, and get a chance to hear the gospel.  She stayed for a while, but then had to go before I got to the gospel.

So many other interesting gospel interactions throughout the outreach.  And I just don’t have time to talk about them.  But I will mention that a young lady, who I have shared the gospel with before, came over to say hi.  Sadly, she didn’t remember the gospel (to my grief), and the guy that was with her hadn’t heard it.  So I shared it.  And I got a touch emotional.  I was pleading with them to respond to the gospel today.  I’ve talked to people on the streets who I now know have died.  We don’t know when we will die.  There is urgency!

I’m heading to the Philippines for an evangelism trip very soon.  And in last week's report I mentioned a conversation I was able to have with a young Filipino girl.  Well, what’s interesting was that exactly one week later, on Friday, I was able to have another great gospel chat with a young Filipino guy!  It just goes to prove that we don’t need to travel on expensive trips to bring the gospel to the nations these days!  And yet, I want to take every opportunity to encourage the church, worldwide, to rise up where they are at and bring the gospel to their community!  May God bless our (feeble) efforts for his glory.

Like the girl from the previous week, the guy was a church goer.  He said he needs to 'follow the word of God' to get to heaven.  So, I took him through the law. When I asked how he could remove his hell punishment, he said 'repent'.  I asked him what that meant, and he said, "ask for forgiveness".  I explained why that wouldn't help him and proceeded to share the gospel - finally he started mentioning Jesus as the reason for salvation. He agreed that if he had died before our conversation he would go to hell.  And so I called him to repent!  Trust only in Christ as the reason he is saved.  His 2 mates didn't want to talk to me, they were waiting down a bit.  So I gave him 3 tracts.

Please be praying for this young man, and for the young lady from the previous week.  And please be praying for the upcoming evangelism trip to the Philippines (28th Feb till 10th Mar): That the church will be encouraged.  That the church would have a backbone, and stand up and proclaim the gospel.  In the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and beyond.  Pray for the team, that there would be no sickness that would hinder us; that we would be able to resist the many opportunities that there will be for unnecessary division among us.  Pray that this trip would have a lasting effect on the lives of many.  That we would be like fearless warriors, our swords reflecting the glory of God!

So, the evangelism training seemed to go well.  A week ago, there was only 1 person registered, and I was going to cancel it, but we ended up with about 15 people there!  ‘We’ being Andy and I.  It was wonderful being able to take them through the biblical basis for how to do evangelism, deal with too difficult, but common issues: evil and suffering, and sexuality and then finally go over the specifics of the evangelism method we use.

Many of the attendees came to the optional street outreach afterwards.  I had a great flipchart conversation with 3 young ladies while many of the attendees were watching, it was almost a mirror conversation to the role play I had done earlier, and so it was encouraging that they could see the theory being put into action!

It was a very busy outreach as well (cruise ship was in port).  I had so many gospel opportunities.  For the next training, I need to arrange to have more experienced Christians with me to pair up with the trainees.  A good problem to have!

I had opportunities to continue getting to know some of the Hara Khrisian’s that I interact with, which was a great encouragement to me.  (I’m out of time to give details.)

Finally, Sunday’s outreach proceeded as normal.  It was hot, and there were not as many people out.  I had 2 great conversations.  The first was with some climate change activists.  And then lastly, with a guy who identified as trans - this was a long chat.  Initially, he cut to the chase, and wanted to know what I thought of trans people.  I refused to answer without giving context to my answer: how do we know what is right and wrong?  He was deeply resistant, but I was able to show how we know God is real, who God is, what God’s law is, and about the incredible mercy of God.  I was then able to cycle back and explain why homosexuality is a sin: because God makes the rules.  He said the Bible was wrong.  So I asked him on what basis he was judging the Bible.  His answer: himself.  That’s shorthand for, I love my sin, and I want to be god and make my own rules.  Idolatry.  He was really unhappy with me by this point, he wouldn’t shake my hand.  But I made it clear that I cared for him, and that I wanted him to know God’s mercy before he walked off.  We can’t compromise the truth, but we need to do that with gentleness and respect.  I’m making enemies.  But if I’m trying to please man, I’m not a servant of Christ (see Galatians 1:10)
 

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