Battle Log

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Saturday, October 17 — After a time of prayer, our team hit the beach at Bongaree for our monthly outreach.  The lovely weather brought local families flocking to the water for picnics and kept a constant flow of traffic up and down the pathways.  God blessed our time and allowed us to distribute several hundred Gospel tracts and a few of Bibles. 

  As various team members spread out giving tracts to anyone willing to take or talk, the Good Person flipchart, positioned at the crossroads, attracted attention and conversations.  One group of young people took the test and quickly discovered they were not as ‘good’ as they had anticipated.  They heard the full Gospel, kept engaged throughout, but didn’t seem to grasp the seriousness of their situation before God.  They did take tracts with them, so we pray for God to stir them up to repentance and faith.

  Throughout the two hours, several people stopped to chat or do the Good Person test.  One of the team who was walking along the path spoke with Lewis, Matthew, and Zain.  These young teens thought they had their whole lives ahead of them to get right with God, until it clicked that they weren’t guaranteed a long life, and that they could die tomorrow.  Matthew was in a hurry to head off; Lewis looked more amused than concerned, but the third, Zain, kept the conversation going through the whole Gospel.  At the end, all three accepted for Bibles, and they were encouraged to make peace with God through Jesus.

  Two young women, Montana and Cassidy, had attended a ‘Christian’ school, but were totally ignorant of the true Gospel.  They listened quietly, and agreed to think about it.  One had a Bible at home, but Montana took a tract and a Bible.

  We ask you to pray for Bree, a young woman we spoke to a number of months ago, and with whom we were able to share the Gospel once again.  She remembered us as ‘the Christians,’ and appeared to be open and friendly towards the things of God.  We praise God for this, and we pray that she would come to faith.

  Later in the day, another group approached the chart.  These were deeply interested, and they followed along as they heard the Gospel.  It was encouraging to hear their logical questions which showed they had been thinking hard and listening attentively.  As their objections were met, they seemed to grasp what was being said, and they all took literature and promised to think very seriously about it.  This openness was a huge answer to prayer.

  We give thanks to God for a time of huge encouragement and for all the people who received the Gospel.  Please pray for those who heard the Gospel for the first time.  May their lives be changed by the truth, and may God bring them to Himself.  Pray for those who are hardened and angry about the Gospel.  May their consciences have been pricked, and may the light break through into their darkened minds.  God’s Word is powerful, so we pray that it would triumph here at Bribie Island.

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Oct 21, 2020 from 1300- 1500

We were grateful to have Andrew rejoining us on a regular basis at Sunnybank. It was proven that it was a right and wise decision as all of us got many chances to share individually and as a team. In between, we ourselves had time to share experience and fellowship. God is good and was with us all the time all the way.

Meantime, the Mormon missionary from overseas turned up in a group of three. It means more so we have to stand our ground to serve on the street regularly, not giving up ground to the Mormon as much as we can.

Recap below are the conversations I had for the day.

1) Daniel chatted with me some times ago. When asked if he has made up his mind to accept Jesus as his Saviour. He said he has not as he is scare of making the decision because he has no confidence he will sin no more. I clarified with him that Jesus redemptive grace covered the sin we committed before and after we received Christ. And it is God's design to save us by three fold salvation package. Receiving Jesus as Saviour only granted us the identity of God's children again which was done and in effect immediately which has become the past deliverance. It enables us to be under God's sovereign control for gradual life transformation process through the work of the Holy Spirit which represented the ongoing current deliverance until Jesus come again. Then we will receive a new perfect body then representing the future deliverance. Let's pray for Daniel to full understood this and will find no guilt or shame to receive Christ.

2) A Couple boy and girl friends took the took and allowed me to share the gospel to them. It was a pity the bus came a bit too early before I wrapped up. Pray that God will still have His way to follow up on their salvation.

3) A good old man happily took the tract and proudly declared himself a good person. He gave example of his good deeds is to pick up litter on the ground voluntarily. I challenged him with a lot of imperfect sinful thought but he seemed to have been convinced he is all good as such he does not need any god or religions. The bus also came before I can proceed to guide him to have self awareness on the sin he has committed. Pray that God will follow up this case.

4) Philip a fair dinkum Christian that Johnny approached first. When he found we went to the wrong direction and came back passing me. I walked with him to do the diagnosis to assurance of salvation and shared about the three fold salvation package of God.

5) An Indian girl took the tract while she was on the phone. She did read the tract after the call before the bus came.

6) A senior lady from China surprisingly stopped to have a long tract. She tried to excuse by claiming she has Buddhism as her religion. I nevertheless helped her to understand that all religions are good but could not address the issue of sin and there are no sense of punishment of sin. She was convinced and promise to ponder and decide. 中囯大媽佛教

7) Barack a young man from Congo. He was a bit hesitant to chat as his English level is not good. Nevertheless, I still finished the sharing after we finished walking the bridge.

8) Another Lady from Henan, China also tried to excuse for my approach because she is a Buddhist. But after listening to my sharing, she also admitted the Gospel appeared sensible and logical, then the bus came.

 

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On Wednesday, my first decent gospel interaction was at the corner of Cashel and High.

I approached a middle aged guy who was open to talk about deep things.  We talked about how we know God exists, and why there must be hell.  I was just taking him through the law when his wife (I assume) approached.  She had been shopping, he had been waiting.  She looked pretty shocked that he was talking to me.  I tried to include her in the conversation, but she didn’t want to have anything to do with it!  She said she was heading off, and was surprised when they guy didn’t follow - he wanted to talk about the deep things of life!  She walked off.  I didn’t want to come between them, and so I told him there was really good news in the tract I had given him - I summarised it briefly just before he turned to leave.

I turned in the other direction, and there was a young guy sitting just across from me.  So I striked up a conversation.  He was tentatively keen to chat.  He wanted to go to heaven when he died, but it was deeply rooted in him that his goodness would get him there.  I would explain the good news, and it seemed to deflect off - checking questions confirming.  As I was labouring with him, we were suddenly interrupted by two drunks!  I recognised one of them well - the last time I talked to him he seemed to be grasping the gospel well.  I was very sad to see him in such a state now.

The drunks didn’t scare off the young guy I was originally talking to, and I was able to keep labouring with him.  But he just didn’t seem to be grasping the gospel!  Amazingly, the drunk guy would answer correctly for him when I’d ask something like: “So what’s the reason why we can go to heaven?”  The young guy finally moved on, tract in hand.

I was then able to focus back on my drunk friend.  His other friend seemed to have ditched him.  He was making a real fool of himself, lying on the footpath and making people walk around him.  I took some photos of him, and he wanted to see them.  I said I’d show them to him if he came and sit next to me - it worked!  We sat and talked for a while, during the conversation he would show me ripped up bits of Bible pages he had in his pockets.

I really want to help this guy more, I’ll be praying for him, and hope to see him again real soon - hopefully in a sober state and able to reason properly.

Further down High Street I encountered an older gentleman who was keen to chat.  He was friendly and talkative, but deeply, deeply resistant to any kind of reason or logic.  I felt defeated and useless.  In the end I let him talk and listened to him, before gently ending the conversation and parting ways.

On Tuesday I was in Riccarton as usual and Roger joined me.  At the start of the outreach I was pondering on why people bother stopping to talk to me at all - it’s amazing, to me, that they do.  Sure enough, it was an outreach with good opportunities to engage people with the gospel.  With one guy, I was able to get all the way through the flip chart - it was a great chat, he was very open.

But the highlight conversation was a follow up with a guy that it turns out Andy had been talking to on Friday in the city!  Previously involved in gangs and crime, it seems he has turned a new leaf and is now a Christian.  But sadly, and amazingly, he seems to be subtly trusting his righteousness to get to heaven - even quoting Muhammad Ali!  I worked with him on this, him being both open and resistant at the same time.  Time will tell where he’s really at.  I hope to see him again.

I was online both days as well.  The highlight conversation was with a very intelligent young man who was agnostic.  The conversation went for nearly thirty minutes.  I was despairing that he wouldn’t open up (they usually don’t).  But to my surprise he did open up slightly.  I could tell he was challenged and needed to follow up on what I’d been telling him.  And, I was able to touch on the law and the gospel multiple times!

All glory to God.  Lord, keep us going, day by day, by your grace.  Help us to trust in you in the face of opposition and hardness.
 

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong Village on Tuesday Oct 20, 2020 from 1330 to 1500

We, Johnny, Winnie & Hung, had the privilege to serve as a team again with God as our team leader. Before we realize, God is changing the pattern of out reach at Toowong. For consecutive weeks, God led many gospel targets we had outreached in the previous weeks to turn up time and again to let us do follow up on their journey of faith in search of the ultimate salvation. Another new inspiration we got was that we might have to change tactic of doing friendship evangelism with those who declined if not rejected our approach. We can withhold preaching to them right away for the time being but changed tactic to make friend first as many of them turn up regularly each week. Recap here below are the battle log for me and Winnie (in Chinese). You will notice some of this examples.

1) Sonia , a tall Aussie Uq girl appeared very friendly who let me chat with her about the tract. I had just enough time to share the full gospel to her, but no time to get her direct response though she appeared very receptive.

2) Munich a Hindu young man who was humble to listen to the gospel and found it sensible and logical. He promised to seriously ponder about the need of his sin be forgiven by accepting Jesus.

3) A young man from Henan, who initially declined to chat with Winnie but accepted the tract and started reading it. I approached him a short while after he started reading the tract and changed tactics to make friend first to reduce his alertness against stereotype religious preaching. He turned his attitude to become more receptive to gospel message which I had run out of time to share when the bus came. Pray that God will use the tract to follow up on his pursuance of faith.

4) Jia Peng 賈蓬 was met by Winnie last week. I followed up on her understanding and had gone through the full gospel again. It appeared she now understood she is a good person but not good enough to hit the perfect requirement of God as such she also need redemptive grace of Jesus. Hope we will have chance to chat again next week.

5) An UQ student from Taiwan 台灣who initially also refused to have a chat about the tract. God inspired me to make friend first by switching into more causal chat. So again pray for next meeting to see if her heart is more opened for the gospel.

6) Gail is a Hindu man from India. He turned down to chat with Johnny at the traffic light and Winnie when he got to the bus stop. But When I approached him as he arrived at the bus stop. He recognized me that we had a chat before at least once or more times. He took initiative to talk to me defending for his Hindu faith which I of course responded with a listening ear. Basically he deemed that Hinduism also advocate there is only one God but they can incarnate and appear in human world in many forms in different cultural groups. They all came with a purpose yet they cannot stipulate. On the other hand , they rejected that there is a supreme being God as they cannot rationalize that there is a God who exists by Himself. God head in Hindu people's mind are just spiritual being created in heavenly realm. After I heard his explanation, I challenged him with the question what is the purpose of the Hindu god for coming to live as a living being. Before I can lead him to know that Jesus came with a mission to save us from hell punishment by dying on the cross. Yet the bus came at this moment in time. No doubt God will have another divine appointment arranged in near future.

7) Another girl from China was reluctant to chat but my new tactic of making friend first worked. She took the tract when the bus came.

8) After we finished for the day and did the closing prayer. We noticed an old woman from Shen Zhen 深圳 sitting on the ground waiting for her daughter who had gone to the Toowong shopping centre. We took the chance to share the gospel briefly to her and gave her the tract.

Battle log of Winnie:

感謝主今天的带领，除了兩位數周前遇到的，主今天讓我遇上七人傳福音的機會。中途遇見了香港來澳洲讀書的偉行，問及他的信仰程度，再次複述上次我們講的福音。

遇到印度基督徒女學生，上次關牧師曾经测试她信仰程度。我再次問她，死後能否上天堂，她猶疑不答。我再次解释给她。

第一位，Marion, 基督徒。不太清楚能否上天堂。我解释给她，她完全明白。還接受我给她的單張傳给朋友。

第二位，Joshua，UQ 學生，願意回教會，尋求更多真理。

第三位男士，不願聽福音。我問及他是否認識耶穌，跟着傳福音给他，送给單張。

第四位，Alex 來自India, 天主教徒，我講及基督教與天主教分别。

第五位，Sam UQ 學生，來自香港，當我講完福音後，願意接受主耶穌，還很高興遇到我分享福音给他。感谢主。

第六位，Oscar，UQ 學生。會细心想想。

第七位，Lindy UQ 學生，來自 馬來西亞，明白真理，願意信靠主耶稣基督。

感謝讚美主。願主祝福今天聽到或再次聽到福音人仕，打開心門，讓主進入他們心中，尊崇敬拜祂。…

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Saturday I spent two hours online in the morning, and two hours online in the afternoon.  In between I watched this super encouraging video on YouTube.

My last conversation of the day was with someone using a professional looking microphone - I wondered why, but figured I had nothing to hide and proceeded with my usual attempt to share the gospel.  He was a very thoughtful guy and gave good responses.  Slowly, but surely I was able to work him through the logic of how we know God exists, and why there must be a place of punishment after life: hell.  He heard the law, and then I moved to the gospel.  He had a very encouraging “ah ha” moment as he came to grasp it!  At this point he really opened up.  He mentioned something about being at a crossroads.  So I said it was no accident God had paired us up out of 50,000 people.  He started weeping.  I reflected afresh in my awe of God and his amazing Gospel.  I asked the guy if he had any questions, and he said: “You’ve answered questions I didn’t even know I had”.  Glory to God!  My hope is that those tears were tears of repentance - but that is God’s job, not mine, so I decided to leave him, after pointing him to needGod.net.

I felt overjoyed!  The wonderful opportunities we are having to share the gospel, and see it deeply impact people.  Glory to God, it’s so wonderful.

Andy and I headed into Cashel Mall on Sunday after church for a couple of hours.  Andy is becoming a “walk up” pro.  As soon as he finishes a conversation, he seems to be straight into another! All that’s needed is some gentle boldness.  People want to stop and talk!  Pictured are a few of those conversations.

Andy got into a great conversation with some Christian kids out doing healing evangelism, he pulled me into the conversation and we ended up giving them a demo of the flip chart and how the gospel message is the only power of God to save.  Healing and apologetics are great - but they don’t save people.  Only God does, and he condescends to do so through us sharing the gospel.  It was a great chat, and there were handshakes all round.  I invited them to get in touch and join us out on the streets!

An interesting conversation for me was with three people heading out to busk with a guitar.  They were intrigued by the flip chart, and I was completely upfront with what it was about.  As we worked through the law, they became very resistant - they wanted to insist on their goodness getting them to heaven.  I verbally came alongside them and tried to coach them that there was good news for those that were humbled by the law, rather than fighting it.  Sadly, it didn’t work.  They insisted that they would be going to heaven, simply because they didn’t want to go to hell!  They disengaged, and I knew it was futile to persist.  They all took tracts.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support of the street / online work of Operation 513. :)
 

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Thursday: Online in the morning before joining Andy at the bus stops.  Northlands and then Eastgate.

One of the most interesting conversations I had was with a young high school student from the Philippines.  He wanted to talk, but he was extremely softly spoken.  I took him through the law and the gospel, and he conceded to the logic of what I was saying.  I then moved into checking questions and I wasn’t surprised when he gave “good works” as the reason he would be going to heaven.  So I tracked back and started trying to explain things in different ways.  It wasn’t that he was disagreeing with me, but every time I would ask a checking question, he would rebotically respond with “good works”.  It’s the first time I’ve really encountered someone so entrenched in their thinking.  Early on I learned that this guy was one of Jehova’s Witnesses, and eventually he said, “we don’t believe in hell”.  It was an extremely difficult conversation: I was standing in an awkward spot, I could barely hear what he said, and I was feeling pretty tired.  I ended up giving up :(  But looking back that was wrong.  He wanted to talk - I should have calmly persisted.  Five minutes later, his bus came and he left.  He had a tract.

Friday started with the abortion outreach.  It was sunny, but the wind was strong and cold.  So strong in fact that we could barely hold our signs without the wind trying to whip them out of our hands!  Andy and I had been discussing repentance when a guy came to shake our hands and talk with us.  We have talked to this guy many times before, but I moved the conversation to the gospel again.  I explained how we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus' sacrifice on the cross - he seemed to understand, and so I explained the concept of repentance.  It was interesting seeing his response, he instantly started saying, “yeah, I need to try harder”.  I can’t be sure, but was he thinking he needed to try harder to be saved?  So I re emphasised justification by grace through faith.  The take away for me is that everyone we talk to is different, and finding the right balance in explaining faith, repentance and obedience in relation to salvation can be quite a tightrope.  But we must labour to get people to understand the paradox clearly and correctly!

Due to the strong wind turning our signs into sails, we decided to cancel the outreach early.  Andy and I headed back to his place, where I got him set up for online evangelism on his new computer.  Andy had a long friendly chat with a Muslim who was keen to engage, but ended up being resistant to the gospel.

We headed back into the city for open air preaching in the Square.  There were eleven Christians there, and only one heckler!  The heckler was in a deep one to one conversation with one of the Christians, so the preaching proceeded unopposed.

I decided to hand out tracts and I ended up getting into a wonderful conversation with a lady passing by.  She was Catholic and confident she would be heading to heaven because she is a “good person”.  I just said, “well, if it’s good deeds that gets us to heaven, then I’m not going there”.  She was intrigued, and came back to talk to me.  It was a short conversation, but I was able to explain the gospel, and how we are justified by grace through faith, and not by works.  It started to really click on the second explanation.  She had to go, but she seemed genuinely impacted by the conversation.  Thank you Lord.

After some more one to one gospel conversations, we moved to Cashel Mall.  It was great to have Binu and Graeme with us.

I didn’t bring the flip chart due to the wind.  Andy and Graeme were busy in walk up conversation after walk up conversation.  I had two highlight walk ups.

The first was with a guy sitting near the Bridge of Remembrance.  He had a Catholic background but didn’t seem to be convinced by it all.  So I took him through the logic that there is a God and a hell, and then through the law and the gospel.  He listened and asked great questions.  He then made this statement: “you shouldn’t be sharing it like this, people will think they can live their lives any way they like”!  He was understanding the grace of God!  So I then explained the concept of repentance to him (mainly using the fireman analogy).  He seemed genuinely impacted and thankful, he shook my hand a few times.  I could tell he had some thinking to do.  Lord, change him by your grace!

The second conversation was with a Muslim teen girl.  It was a long, respectful conversation with a focus on how God can be both just and merciful, and how Christianity has an answer, and Islam does not.  She started asking wonderful questions related to the Bible and the Quran.  I ended up pulling Andy into the conversation who is reading the Quran at the moment.  She agreed that she needed to read the Bible and find out what it says.  Suddenly, two girls butted into the conversation.  They focused on the Muslim teen and asked: “are you ok?  You don’t have to listen to these men if you don’t want to, you can walk away”.  I was deeply hurt by the insinuation.  But I just stepped back - I wasn’t holding her against her will, I would let her decide if she wanted to keep talking to us.  Not surprisingly, she did want to keep talking to us, much to the shock and hatred of the two ladies who left but kept watching from a distance.  The conversation was pretty much over anyway.  We gave her four types of tract, including “Which One?” and explained how she could get a Bible in a language that suited her.  It was so wonderful talking to a very bright minded young lady.  Lord, we leave her in your hands.

Andy and I finished the day of outreach online with the Brisbane team.  It was so great having Andy joining us!

Thank you for your prayers and support of the Christchurch (NZ) team!  God bless you.
 

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Wed Oct 14, 2020 from 1300 to 1500

Praise God that he withheld wind and rain for us to have a dried period of street evangelism ministry at Sunny Bank, despite there was rain all the way when I drove there. We also had Andrew rejoining us today making a team of four including Johnny, Col, Andrew and Hung. God used us to display good team work to supplement each others . It was particularly obvious between Johnny and me. At the end God used us to help out an overseas visiting Chinese lady to find info and the way to have the Covid-19 test enabling her to board the plane departing Oct 5. I actually already shared the gospel to her last week when she was in great worry of losing Wechat for external communication. I gave her words of comfort and directed her to the greater need of salvation. God used someone to help her restored the faulty Wechat account. And led her to meet Johnny then me to help her to find and book Covid-19 testing to enable her to board her flight back to China on Nob 5. During the process, God used me to impressed and reinforced again the imperative need for salvation by every one. I trust she was moved this time by both the message and the action love exhibited by the som many Christians God sent to help her out. Recap below are my others divine appointments today.

1) Madam Pang 彭 was born in China but raised in HKG. Lived in Taiwan then migrated to NZ and finally came her. She noticed my HKG accent so volunteer to speak in Cantonese with me. With the common home town, she was very talkative. I manged to drag our conversation back to Gospel and Salvation. Curiously despite of her mixed Christian 基 and Catholic 天 background, she has 100 % assurance of salvation but for a vague reason including the elements of good works. So it was good that I could guide her to understand her 100% assurance of salvation was built on Jesus and Him alone.有確據但不十分清楚, but it was a bit fishy she declined to take a tract. , 定意不拿單張

2) William and Ifun Two students , one a local Aussie another a Malaysia school boy. Both understood but no move to make decisive action to receive Christ immediately.

3) Johnny talked to a BCAC new Christian by the sure name 蘇 who is yet to be baptized. He referred her to me as she is Cantonese speaking.

4) Another anonymous target took the tract , have a chat but decline to leave any name.不願告名

5) Madam Chai 柴，from Heibei 河北. Story as shared above.

 

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Tuesday was a wonderful day of outreach for the Christchurch (NZ) team.  Four hours online, and the Riccarton outreach went long due to a great conversation: two & a half hours.

Online I alternated between text and video chats to pace myself.

My first video chat was with an extremely resistant guy who fought me on everything I said.  It was a really draining conversation that I decided to end.

But then I got into a conversation with a professional looking guy who wasn’t resistant at all.  He was going through a life crisis which he wanted to talk about - I listened and shared my empathy.  I could tell he appreciated it.  He was showing all the classic signs of false conversation, but then I wasn’t sure.  I took him through the law, and the gospel.  And I worked on his understanding of what saves us from hell.  There didn’t seem to be much reaction.  I continued to gently probe with questions when suddenly he started talking about how he felt like he had walked into a ditch.  So I came back to the gospel, and explained that Christians can walk into ditches, even get caught up in very serious sin, but if they are Christians, God won’t leave them in a ditch, he disciplines those that he loves.  And Jesus died on the cross to forgive us of all our sins.  It seemed to be a God moment.  Tears welled up in his eyes, overflowed down his cheeks and dropped onto his shirt.  He seemed oblivious to the tears - he just listened.  The moment passed and we continued to chat.  I still didn’t know if he was a false convert, or a Christian battling sin.  I emphasised the wonder of the gift of the gospel, and urged him to take drastic action in relation to sin.  Before we disconnected, I let him know how to get in touch.

Later I was connected to a kid from Bulgaria!  My first time talking to someone from there.  He was very intelligent, and steeped in secular philosophy.  I took him through the logic of the existence of God, the law, and the gospel.  He was resistant, but he didn’t disagree with what I was explaining.  When I shared the gospel, he gave a classic: “ahh, I get it now” response.

The outreach at Riccarton was awesome.  The highlight conversation was the last one.  Two guys walked past, and I tried to get their attention completely expecting them to ignore me.  To my surprise one of them wanted to talk (the other didn’t)!  I was able to pull the second guy into the conversation, and it went deep quick.  Eventually, the first guy asked if we could sit down, which we did, and the three of us had a long conversation.  From what I could gather, the first guy had Christian influence, and has some conviction of sin, but is trying to work out how much sin he can get away with!  The second guy is “atheist”.  We had a long discussion where the gospel was talked about a lot, as well as what repentance means.  It was a long conversation, and I eventually felt like we had made as much progress as we would.  We all shook hands at the end, and the both took tracts.  I was shocked to realise the outreach had gone well over thirty minutes extra - but that is such a good thing, oh that more and more people will want to stop to talk about the most important questions in life!  Lord, save people for your glory!

On Wednesday I was online and in the city.  I wasn’t feeling the best when I was in the city, so I just sat at the southern entrance of Cathedral Square and handed out tracts to those passing by.  By God’s grace, I was able to get into an easy conversation with two guys.  It was a quick conversation, and at the end of it, one of them said, “that is the best explanation I’ve heard from a believer”.  All glory to God for giving us the truth of the gospel, and I’m very grateful for those He has raised up to teach us how to effectively share the gospel: Ray Comfort and Ryan Hemelaar (and others).

From there, I went for a walk through the sitting looking for people to share with.  I ended up having a good chat with a taxi driver (he eventually invited me to sit in his car).  I then was able to challenge a guy at the corner of High & Cashel, before heading towards Ara.  Unfortunately it started raining, so I decided to head home to go back online.  I was walking a route I don’t normally take when God led me to a guy I ended up having a long conversation with.  He was a Christian, but needed encouragement which I tried to give.

I finally made it home and was given the privilege of livestreaming for the first hour.  God was very gracious in giving me a string of wonderful conversations where people came to grasp the gospel.  How wonderful!
 

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong Village o Tuesday October 13, 2020 from 1330 to 1500

Today we had a team of three as usual including Johnny Winnie and Hung. The weather was not sunny with cloud but the day light was bright with breeze as such it was ideal for outreach. The chances of divine appointment were equally distributed amongst the three of us each having around 8 to 9 chatting opportunities. We also encounter a special situation or outreach pattern of having many mini-reunions with gospel targets we met lately. It enabled us to follow up on their understanding of the Gospel and meaning of salvation t osee whether there is still any barrier preventing to make that precious and important decision to repent and accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord of Life.

Recap belows are the battle log of me in English and of Winnie in Chinese: -

1) A Christian young lady who claimed to have 100% assurance of salvation. When I wanted to cross check what is the basis of this 100% assurance, she then started to avoid answering. I was not able to pin her down for an exact answer as the Bus came at this moment. So it is doubtful if she trust on Jesus alone or herself. Hope next week will meet and follow up with her.

2) Derek and I recognized each other but I forgot his name. It was nice to catch up his understanding and clarified further that no good man is good enough and we all bound to have imperfect sin of though and acts that would subject to hells punishment. Derek now admitted he is good but not perfect as such he would need Jesus if he wants to be on the bright side of God in eternity. I vowed to remember his name next tome we met and awaiting for his serious decision to accept Christ.

3) Then came Perry who was approached by Winnie last week. Her feed back was like Derek still opined that she could continue to live as a good person without adhering to any religion. I caught up to clarify with this point that all religions are good to appeal people to try our best to be a good person. But none of them address the issue of sin that every good person would have committed from time to time as such no religion can saved us from the punishment of sin except Jesus Christ who came to die for us as a blemished perfect sacrificial goal to take our place to receive the hell punishment, but he defeated Satan as well as his power of death so that he rose up to be the King of kings and our Lord of all Lords giving us the assurance of a new heavenly identity to reconcile with God and be His people again. Like-wise, Perry seemed to have got th point this time and I could only pray God will do the rest to convict her and let me know net time we met.

4) Then came Mandy in a rush to buy something from Towong Village and had to hurried back to work. I offered to walk with her and finish my shorter version of Gospel in a nutshell. She appeared very receptive to the message and acknowledged the need of Jesus after my sharing. She seemed to have received great enlightenment and promised to seriously read the tract to help her to reach the right decision important to her eternal destiny.

5) Lily a young Aussie girl who got a tract from Johnny but did not stop. I followed up to chat with her when she got to the bus stop. I was only able to share the gospel in a nutshell realizing the bus was arriving. She anyway showed degree of understanding of the issue and promised to chat more next time if we meet again.

6) A Lady was on the phone but she still politely accepted the tract, so that mean there is always next time to follow on the aborted conversation.

7) Nish an Indian girl who humbly listened to the Gospel in a nutshell that I could barely had time to finish by the time the bus arrived. She seemed to have got the essence of the message and I can only pray for God's mercy on her to lead her to Christ in His time.

8) Another Indian lady claimed we had chatted before and she was not in the mood to chat anymore. Just pray that net time God will change her mind.

9) Finally Fiona took the tract but the bus came and I did not even have time to share apart from getting her name so hopefully God will give us a second chance to chat next time.

Recap below is the battle log summary in Chinese for Winnie who spoke to 8 persons with mixed results. Three would think deep about it , two said they would accept Jesus as savior. And three all claimed to be Buddhists but Winnie learned to explain to them to notice the difference of Christianity with all other religions including Buddhism that they are all good but only appealing people to be a good and better persons yet provided not solution to address the sin and the consequential hell punishment that only Christianity provides a solution of letting Jesus a perfect person nto die for them taking their place to received the hell punishment of our sin as such we a clean and right with God to be His people again.

感謝主今天的带领，讓我可以遇到八位傳福音的機會。有一位澳洲男士趕着見醫生，接受單張，便離開，説會閲讀内容。另外一位澳洲老婦女，有中国男士照顾她。男士不要單張，但婦女伸手拿取，願意閱讀。

第一位遇上是 Eve,澳洲少女，聽完福音後，願意想想。

第二位是 Jane, 中国少女，也是需要時間想清楚。

第三位是 Kelvin, 中国青年。初時不想聽，當他坐下來，我問他認識耶稣基督嗎？跟着傳福音给他。

第四位澳洲青少年，願意接受免费禮物。

第五位是中國 UQ 女學生，May, 願意信靠主，寻求更多真理。我给她咭片，Power of Change.

第六位是中国女士，當我講述福音後，她说是佛教徒。我解释她基督教舆佛教分别。

第七位是澳洲女士，Linda, 她説有朋友是佛教，有的是天主教，有的是基督教。她分不清楚所有的教有什么分别？我解释给她聽，佛教及很多的教都是講及要做善事積陰德。基督教是講述罪的問题，耶稣基督為我們贖罪釘上十字架上，死後，三天復活。我們信靠祂，罪得赦免。死後可以上天堂。當我們信靠了主耶稣，聖靈便會進入我們心内，我們應不能做的事，聖𩆜帶领下，我們都可以做得到。我講述自己的見證。她聽後，願意信靠主耶稣，多謝我詳细解释。感谢主，這都是神利用我這個不配的器皿講出來。

第八位 是中国少女，红。她説她的朋友都是佛教徒。我解释她佛教與基督教分别。她説會想想。

感謝讚美主，謝謝關牧師的教導。今天學到的功課，就是遇到佛教徒時，怎样回應他們。

   

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Saturday I decided to go online instead of head into the city.  A couple of hours in the morning, and a couple in the afternoon (with the Brissie team).

In the morning I had two highlight conversations.

The first was with a guy who looked suspiciously naked from what I could tell at the edges of my video shield.  Normally people like that take one look at me and disconnect.  But strangely he didn’t.  I expected him to leave at any second, so I just started trying to share as much as I could about God before he left.  To my surprise, he started responding via text.  He said: “I’m practicing my posing for a bodybuilding competition”.  So I asked him if he believed there was a God.  He responded with “yes of course”.  And we were into a discussion!  Safe to say, I kept my video shield up!  I was able to take him through the law and the gospel.  It turns out he had a Muslim background.  He gently resisted initially, but to my surprise he softened.  At the end he said: “Yes I see ur point”.  And then when I asked if he could see how this is good news, he said, “yea def”.  He received a link to needGod.net.

The second was with a man from Dubai.  Initially he was being a bit silly, taking the serious things I was talking about lightly.  I decided to verbally jolt him - expecting him to bail.  But he didn’t, he sobered up.  I was able to share the gospel, and he seemed to really appreciate the conversation.

In the afternoon I had four conversations before getting into a long chat (nearly 50 minutes) with a young guy and his friend.  This guy seemed genuinely impressed that I was online sharing the gospel.  It seems he is a recent convert and so I was able to give him lots of encouragement, and clear up some confusion he had in regards to Catholicism (which his friend was).  I shared a link to needGod.net, and he checked it out on his phone - he was instantly excited because he recognised Ryan!  He had been watching the gospel video clips on Tik Tok!  He was genuinely excited to know that he was talking to someone on the same team as Ryan.  And it was so encouraging to me to hear of the impact the gospel videos on Tik Tok were having.  Thank you Lord, all glory to you!

A couple of conversations later, and I got into a chat with a young guy who melted when I gave him the building / builder - universe / universe maker analogy.  It really clicked for him, and he became very open to the law and the gospel, which he was familiar with, but didn’t really understand.  It was a wonderful chat.  Lord, save him.

Sunday afternoon saw two outreaches for me.  The first was in the city with Andy.  Andy was in fine form getting people to stop and chat - walk up style.  He was in conversation after conversation.  At one point he was in a conversation with a guy who started throwing coins at him!  He was mocking Andy somehow.  The guy left, but the Hara Kirstina’s were out evengelising in the same spot and one of them asked me if he could take the coins!

The Hara Kirsina’s were busy, getting into conversations, and selling books.  But Andy & I kept pace.  I’m starting to get to know one of them, he even shook my hand today.  They don’t want to waste time with us - but I’d love to get to know them, I’d love to be able to share the gospel with them.

I had some great chats.  I’ll mention two.

The first was with a guy who I didn’t expect to stop.  We had quite a long conversation.  Initially I thought he was a Christian, but little warning signs were showing.  He then started talking about baptism being required for salvation.  That was a loud warning!  So I took him to the flip chart to start confirming what he understood.  He ended up saying, “I need to trust that Jesus is the son of God”.  I corrected him by saying, “You need to trust that Jesus died on the cross for your sins”.  Finally I said, yes, Jesus must be God.  And then he said, “oh, you believe in the trinity”!  He denied Jesus is God.  I should have known, but it was the fact that he said he went to a Baptist church that threw me.  I explained why Jesus must be 100% man and 100% God.  He left with a tract.

The other chat was unexpected.  I was rushing home to be ontime for the online outreach with the Aussies when I noticed an elderly man trying to wheel his wheelchair without much success.  I hurried past, but then I caught myself.  I went back and asked if he needed any help.  He said he needed to get to the bus exchange.  It would make me late, but I knew I had to help.  As I was pushing him, I introduced myself, and then I realised I had a gospel opportunity on my hands!  As I wheeled him to the bus exchange, I was able to share with him.  He seemed resistant initially, but he didn’t fight.  He took a tract.

I finished the day online.  I had two outstanding conversations: 30 mins, and 1 hour 30 mins!

The 30 min chat was with two girls from the States.  One of them said that she was going to skip me initially, but that she was glad that she didn’t.  The both seemed to really appreciate the conversation.

The 1 hour 30 min chat was with four guys.  They were up to no good - so God sent me their way.  There was a real mix of beliefs among them.  One of them was genuinely stoked to realise I was online to share the gospel, and he positively influenced two others.  The fourth guy was Atheist - but he was keen to chat.  They all heard the gospel multiple times, and then they started taking turns to ask questions - good questions.  I ended up with the Atheist and we talked for a while.  He eventually opened up about why he was suppressing the truth about God - he is bisexual.  “Am I damned?”, he asked.  Without compromising the serious nature of the sin of homosexuality, I was able to explain (again) the amazing good news of Jesus - even for homosexuals.  What a privilege!

Oh Lord, please save people through our feeble efforts to share your amazing gospel.
 

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