Battle Log

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Back to nice weather on Saturday in Christchurch (NZ).  After Andy and I interviewed James White for the Tell Me Evangelism Conference I headed into the city for a couple of hours of outreach.

There was lots of activity at the Bridge of Remembrance - it’s now my favourite spot for Saturday outreach.  As well as me, there were three other religious groups there - one I haven’t seen before.  It turns out the leader had lost his father in the Mosque shooting last year! :(  And yet he wasn’t there to promote Islam, but protest the government, and talk about conspiracy theories.  At times they had loud music with bad language - not so pleasant.

When you do a lot of street evangelism, you get a feel for the demographics that seem more likely to want to chat.  But you don’t rely on that, because you’ll often be surprised who wants to chat.

I had a lady stop who really wanted to chat and she quickly opened up about involvement with a cult that she had been excommunicated from.  And yet she seemed to have unresolved guilt that she was desperate to resolve.  In the short time I had with her I focused on the grace of the gospel without compromising the reality of the cost.  She accepted a tract as she moved on.

I had another couple walk past that surprised me when he accepted a tract.  I asked them what they thought happened after life, and they stopped to talk!  She was an atheist and he had a Mormon background.  It was odd, cos they wanted to stay, and yet it seemed too hard and they bailed.  But he did keep the tract!

Later in the afternoon I joined the Aussie team for some online outreach and I got to speak to some really interesting people about the gospel!

Firstly there was a Muslim guy from Nepal - very reserved, and yet he didn’t disconnect.  I talked and typed, he just typed.  We had a mutual connection in our enjoyment of Cricket and talked of that briefly before moving to deeper things.  He had an “ah ha” moment about the gospel, and said “wow”.  Later he said he was “intrigued”.  I left him with needGod.net.

I then was connected with a guy from Ethiopia!  He was Ethiopian Orthodox, something I’ve not encountered before.  He didn’t understand the gospel.  He mentioned Mary in his explanation of how he gets to heaven through his works.  And he wasn’t open to the gospel I was presenting, I slowly worked through his objections - but he became stubborn.  I became quite forceful with him, trying to wake him up.  I was pleading with him, when he disconnected.

On Sunday afternoon I decided to Join the Aussie team online again so I could stay late after church to sort out some Tell Me Conference organisation.  Pictured are the guys who were practicing for leading us with worship in song.  Thanks for your time guys! :)

It was a practical training outreach, and I was paired with the wonderful Grace!  We had a wonderful time observing each other's gospel conversations and offering feedback for growth.

We both had some difficult conversations, we both had some good ones too.  The highlight one for me was with two young men who I would never have picked as Muslim.  They were both blown away with the gospel - very, very encouraging.  I laboured on the cost of accepting the gift of Jesus, and yet it didn’t seem to distract from their understanding of that gift.  There didn’t seem to be anything stopping them from responding - I pleaded with them not to shelve what I said, but to respond to the gospel!
 

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There was contrasting weather in Christchurch between Thursday and Friday.  Thursday saw spring start asserting itself.  It was hot enough for me to go from four layers to two!  But on Friday, winter fought back with a cold wind and rain.  But both days brought glory to God in His gospel going forth!

Thursday’s highlights were at the Northlands bus stops.  I had three wonderful gospel opportunities.

The first was with a young agnostic man.  I offered him a tract, which he accepted, and so I asked him what he thought happened after life.  He was keen to talk, so I sat next to him for a long chat.  Sadly, he was resistant - and yet he heard and understood the gospel (a final checking question confirming).  As we were parting ways, I said that I hoped he hadn’t missed his bus.  He said, “oh, two have passed, I’ll get the next.”  I was encouraged.  People really want to talk about the important issues of life.  People are starved of truth and hope!

Next up a young man was willing to stop to talk - he even seemed keen!  To my shock, he said I had talked to him two times before - I have no memory of it.  And yet the gospel obviously hadn’t stuck, so I went through it with him again.  He was extremely open - even after considering the cost of faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for him.  He seemed keen when I invited him along to a church meeting.  He left with a contact card - I haven’t heard from him yet.

Finally I had two guys go past - I had also talked to them before.  One of them became very engrossed in the conversation when he opened up about his Dad falling away from his faith.  It turns out he had had a very legalistic upbringing - a weight no one can bear!  We had a good chat about this, and the hope of the true gospel.  He seemed very encouraged.  I offered to meet with this guy's Dad over coffee to talk things through.

We had encouragement at the gospel + abortion outreach, read about it here.

We then moved into Cathedral Square for open air preaching.  The food and market stalls weren’t there, and the hecklers pretty much left us alone, so we were about to preach the gospel freely to the people walking past.

A team of five then gathered down by the bridge of remembrance.  By this stage it was raining.  Roger found a sheltered spot to set up his flip chart.  We spent an hour in the rain doing our best to share God's grace.  We did get a number of opportunities.

I ended up spending the rest of the day in online evangelism.  I ended up having three great opportunities to talk to people from the Philippines, all of who had a Catholic upbringing.  As I was explaining the gospel to one of them he said he felt very confused - I took that as a good sign that I was making progress - it is very confusing thinking you have to keep the commandments all your life, and then someone tells you we are saved by grace through faith!  I continued to labour to bring clarity to this person.
 

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On Tuesday I started with some online outreach.  The overriding memory is talking with Christians.

There was one guy who didn’t fully understand the gospel.  He really appreciated gaining clarity on the fact that Jesus had fully satisfied the punishment for his sin.

Yet there was another guy who seemed to understand the sacrifice of Jesus for his sin, but not the repentance that would accompany it.  We spent a fair amount of time working this through.  I have no idea if this guy is a false convert or not (either way, maybe this conversation will be a catalyst of change?)  I pointed him to his local church for further help.  He thanked me for the conversation at the end.

I then joined Roger in Riccarton.  Roger ended up calling me over into one of his conversations - there were four of us involved when suddenly a fifth person joined in and wanted to try the flip chart!  He and I split off over to my flip chart and he was extremely open.  I made it all the way to the final page where we talked about the cost of accepting Jesus, and there was nothing stopping him.  It seems he is already involved with a local church, and yet he said that it was today that he fully grasped the gospel.

I saw some of the high school kids I mentioned in my report from a week ago.  The one who hugged me was still smiling, and still understood the gospel.

But later I had two more high school students (older) come past and show interest in the good person test.  They too made it all the way to the final counting the cost page.  One of them was not deterred after counting the cost.  I asked him to get in touch so I could connect him with a local church - I haven’t heard from him so far.

Wednesday I was in the city having one to one conversations.  I spent some time in Cathedral Square and then moved down High Street towards Ara - having conversations with people as I went.

Once at Ara, I had a divine appointment with a guy whose path crossed mine as we were walking.  He said he was a Christian, but said he would be going to hell!  He quickly gained clarity on the gospel and seemed to really appreciate the chat.

I finished the day’s outreach online.  My last conversation was with a young lady from Brazil who couldn’t really speak English.  Yet she wanted to communicate, so with Google Translate, I shared the gospel with her.  I ended up translating the whole of needGod.net and sending it to her.  She read it, and then in broken English said, “that is beautiful”.

(Pic, view of Christchurch from the Port Hills taken on my day off on Monday.)
 

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It was a busy weekend.  It started with the Christchurch March for Life which was well attended, but changed my outreach routine for Saturday.  I ended up going online in the evening.

There were two stand out conversations.  I had a longish chat with two girls who slowly came to grasp the gospel.  One of them started asking me about suicide, she brought it up a few times - because she had friends who were talking about it.  So I spent time addressing this with them - suicide is not an option, there really is hope - ultimately found in Jesus!

I then moved into a very long chat with a young man called Angel.  He was a very logical thinker and was grasping what I was saying quickly.  He was initially quite resistant and I was wondering if I was wasting my time, but I held on, and I’m glad I did, because he slowly opened up after I explained that just because a building is broken, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a builder, instead we need to ask, what’s gone wrong with the building?  It turns out he didn’t want to believe God existed because of pain in his life.  He came to understand the hope of the gospel.  And he kept asking good questions, which I did my best to answer.  He was very thoughtful at the end of the conversation.  He knows how to get in touch via needGod.net.

On Sunday I made the decision to join the online practical training outreach with the team from Aussie rather than head into the city.  This allowed me more time for fellowship after the morning church meeting.

I had the honour of being paired with Ryan.  It was wonderful to be able to observe him and learn.  It was also good to be observed and get feedback from him.

Ryan had two wonderful conversations where the people he was talking to came to grasp the gospel and responded positively to it!

Later in the evening I did some more online outreach to catch up on the time missed on Saturday.  The highlight was a long slow conversation with a young lady who considered herself a Christian, but didn’t believe in hell and really struggled to comprehend the gospel - constantly falling back to her good deeds to get her to heaven.  But thankfully she slowly started to grasp the gospel of grace.  And she opened up as well, also asking about suicide.  She really appreciated the conversation.  I pointed her to a local church.
 

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On Thursday I spent a couple of hours online with the team in Brisbane before meeting Andy at Northlands for bus stop outreach.

When I arrived at Northlands, I was feeling tired, but bold.  We started with prayer.

I had a conversation with a guy till his bus arrived, and then I started handing tracts to people hoping off the bus.  One of them responded to my follow up question of “what do you think happens after life?” and I started walking down the street with him.  He was extremely open to the logic of what I was saying, and grasping the gospel very quickly.  His facial expressions and verbal responses confirmed that he was deeply impacted by the simple, yet glorious gospel!  Very encouraging.  I’m glad I was feeling bold and managed to get the conversation started!

It was a very productive time at Northlands, for both Andy & I.  We became very busy when the high school students started turning up.  I started a conversation with one, and then others started joining in.  There were at least five of them paying attention.  These kids seemed starved spiritually and were very attentive, asking very good questions.  One of them in particular seemed deeply struck and started asking questions about how to trust that Jesus died for his sins.  I was careful not to fall into the trap of giving him a formula.  When their buses came, some of them thanked me for sharing, and most of them received follow up tracts.

Before we knew it we had run overtime at Northlands and made the move to Eastgate where we continued to have gospel conversations with people, including follow up conversations with some.

You can read about Friday mornings gospel + abortion outreach here

In the afternoon, we ended up spending most of our outreach time in Cathedral Square with a wonderful open air preaching opportunity.

But I spent most of my time in one to one conversations on the periphery.  I had a wonderful gospel conversation with a construction worker who was a Catholic.  He was subtly trusting in his good deeds to get him to heaven, and so I needed to labour with him on this.  I was quite a distance away from the open air preaching - but I could still hear Marty!

Apparently there was some preaching that didn’t go so well.  Steve the atheist wasn’t given a fair go.

But then Andy stood up to preach.  It was wonderful!  As per the pictures, a crowd gathered.  The reason being that there was a good heckler asking good fiery questions!  Andy did a wonderful job of holding the crowd, answering questions and sharing the gospel.  While this was happening, I was able to continue to engage people leaving the scene one on one.

Eventually Andy tagged me in, and then it went pear shaped!  People started either going nuclear (getting really angry), or walking away.  My hat goes off to Andy for doing such a good job!

The good heckler ended up coming over and shaking our hands once it was over.  And there were lots of follow up one to one conversations.

By the time we made it to Cashel Mall, we only had thirty minutes of outreach time left - but we had many wonderful opportunities in that time!  We ended up going for forty five!

In the evening I finished up with some online outreach.  I had a really stellar conversation with two girls who came to understand the gospel.  They were super appreciative, and thanked me for doing what I was doing.  Lord, save them, because I can’t!
 

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Friday night in Brisbane City was surprisingly quiet but that is beneficial, it is easier to get into conversations when people aren't rushing around everywhere.

An early conversation was with two girls who stated that they were Christians but when asked why God would let them into Heaven shared that they thought their goodness would be enough. Over a short converastion they came to hear the good news of the gospel and surprised that no one had explained it before. They took tracts and said they would have to read them!

The following conversation was with a young guy who came to grasp the gospel and just as he was being asked, "So when are you going to start trusting that..." his friends came in an dragged him away. Thankfully he had heard the good news already.

Another conversation was with two African ex-Muslims. In wanting to live their own way they had rejected Islam but they still were pretty sure they would be good enough for Heaven finally at one point one of the guys said, "By what you're saying no one gets into Heaven". To which it was affirmed that no one deserves to go, which is why God is the only one that could get someone there. They then came to grasp the gospel but stated that they didn't want it and it came down to their knowledge that it would change their lives and they weren't keen on that.

Next was a conversation with two Spanish men who had decent english but struggled to understand the gospel they just kept thinking it was their works. Then one of the men said they had to go and they might see me again. They left with tracts but not comprehending the good news.

Next was an exciting chat with Malik who was so interested in hearing the good news that at one stage when his friends were making a lot of noise he actually told them to quieten down so that he could hear. He came to grasp the gospel and was so thankful! He said he was keen to find out more and mentioned that he should read the Bible that he has. He was blown away by the good news and it seemed to really hit deeply!

Two Indian men then also came to grasp the gospel but they seemed less impacted but they did comprehend the simlicity of salvation. Then as the conversation ended, the two Spanish men were spotted walking by! They were approached and one guy said that they weren't really in the mood to chat, it was pointed out that this might be their last opportunity to ever think about it and they were asked if they knew the way to Heaven to which the said they didn't but were hoping for the best. A time limit of two minutes was given and after five or so attempts to help them grasp it in the last conversation, one final attempt was tried and in less than a minute they got it.

They were so thankful, surprised at the good news and said they were glad they had stopped. They were encouraged to read John's gospel and to check out the tracts they had in their pockets.

Praise God that He bought them back to hear and grasp it! Please be praying for all those who heard tonight, this small snippet are just some highlights from one team member, there were nine others out who had many exciting conversations! Praise God for the work He is doing through those who are His! Why not consider joining sometime, you'll be glad you did!

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How can I describe what Newquay is like during this summer months? Our normally quiet streets are overflowing with masses of humanity from all different backgrounds, contexts and beliefs. At this time of year all of the UK seems to make its way down to the Cornish Coast in order to enjoy a nice holiday. For us this means we are in a strategic location which, if evangelised well, has the potential to impact the entire United Kingdom.

Our outreach commenced with a time of prayer at Newquay Baptist Church as without prayer our evangelism will be futile. We need the Lord to show His mercy, so we asked that the Father would draw many to the Lord Jesus Christ.

At around 1pm we made our way down to the High Street and as was expected we were greeted by crowds of people. The challenge we now face was where we should set up for our open-air meeting, but the Lord had gone before us and in His providence He had arranged for a street stall to pack up and move as we approached.

As Nigel and George of the Faith Mission set up the open-air board, I commenced handing out tracts. Nearly straight away I was engaged in a conversation with a lovely older lady who professed to be a Christian. The concern for me was that she attends a liberal and pro-LGBT Church of England congregation here in Newquay; whenever I hear of someone going to a gospel-denying church I have to wonder about their conversion. As we chatted it became clear that this lady had a grasp of the gospel, but it still wasn’t clear why she attended such a church; eventually I discovered that she had been hurt by other churches, but at the Church of England she found friendship. It should rebuke us to know that the Christ-deniers seem to be friendlier than those who profess to love Jesus; may Christ forgive us for the times that we as evangelicals have failed to love one another. This lady and I had a good chat, and she took the details of our church and also a tract on true and false conversion.

By this stage the open-air board had been set up, so I decided to do something which I have never done before - I used George’s board to preach the gospel. This board was designed by the Open-Air Mission and it contains a magnetic backboard and tract holder; the way the board is used is that the preacher puts up quotes and Bible verses while he preaches, thus enabling people to hear and see the gospel.

My message focused on the question of “Who is Jesus?” I used Matthew 16:13 as my text, and from there I began to show how Jesus is the greatest man who ever lived, died and rose again. The open-air seems to have gone well, and this method of preaching is something I would like to try again.

Today there was a sense of a hardness in Newquay, which made the preaching and the one to ones difficult; for instance after I finished preaching, an elderly man took a tract off Nigel then ripped it up. As he walked by me I said to him, “Sir, may the Lord grant you repentance and faith for tearing up the gospel; one day you will stand before God and give an account of your actions.” The man seemed rather shocked and taken aback, I pray that this one line warning would be used by the Holy Spirit to convict the elderly man and bring him to repentance.

It now came time for George to preach; his message this week focused on “Ultimate Questions”, which included queries such as "Where did life come from?” As George preached he would put on the board what man thinks and what God says. As he did this I noticed a family listening to the preaching, the father was clearly opposed to the gospel, but his young son turned him and said, “Dad, I think the answer is what God says.” Truly the young child speaks the truth!

While all this was going on an elderly lady walked past mocking the gospel, I decided that I would challenge her on that so I asked her, “Why don’t you believe?” Well that question opened up a floodgate! The lady told me that she is a former Roman Catholic but now doesn’t believe in any religion. She went on to list all of her good works and how if God is real He would be happy to have her in Heaven because she is such a good person who never does any wrong. It was then that I said something which I don’t normally say, I said, “You are an older lady, so I will speak to you directly and with respect as I would my own grandmother, but you are self-righteous and the moment you close your eyes in death it won’t be Heaven where you are going, it will be Hell.”

The lady seemed taken aback (I must admit I was shocked I spoke so directly), but once again she began to list all her good works and deeds; again I took her back to self-righteousness and how efforts do nothing to save. This elderly lady had the false teaching of Rome jammed down her throat, and even though she had abandoned Romanism she still had the doctrine of antichrist in her thinking. The more she stressed her works, the more I stressed that her works would damn. I should make clear that this conversation even though it was direct all took place in calm and conversational tones, as I listened to this elderly lady my heart was breaking as I realised that she was in the final hours of life, yet here she was waving her fist at God.

The lady was clearly angry at Romanism (I join with her in denouncing that evil system), but instead of looking at what the Bible says, she kept holding onto the lies she had been taught. After talking for awhile she asked, “If God is loving why the world so bad?” I answered by saying God isn’t to blame for the world being the way it is, rather we are to blame because humanity sinned. When I spoke of sin she went back to her self-righteous ways by talking about how good she is and how she has been married to the same man for sixty years. I commended her for her marital faithfulness, but pointed out that won’t help her when she stood before Jesus. I explained the gospel to her, and called on her to trust in Jesus, but she refused. I asked her, “Are you saying no to God’s love and compassion today?” She looked at me and said, “I’m saying no to Jesus!”

The elderly lady told me she is 80 years old and that in her life she has never seen God do anything good. I looked at her and said, “God causes it to rain, He causes the crops to grow, He causes you to have life, He causes you to have the air within your lungs, He gave you a good husband for sixty years - every good gift comes down from our Heavenly Father. How can you say God hasn’t done anything good?” It was at this point a softening and change occurred, the lady looked at me and said, “How can I be right with God, I am too old to bow and do all the things Roman Catholicism said I have to do.” I stressed to her that God doesn’t look on the externals rather He looks upon the heart; I once again explained the gospel and called on her to repent and trust in Jesus. As I spoke to this lady I majored on the love of God for sinful people and His amazing kindness; I then asked her, “You are old enough to be my grandmother, would you take a gift from me as if I was a grandson giving you something?” She said she would, so I offered her the Gospel of John. She took the Gospel willingly saying that she had read it before and she liked that book. She assured me that she would read it so that she could understand God’s love more.

This elderly lady’s name is Shelia - I told her that I would be praying for her (and I hope you will too); she said she would appreciate all the prayers she can get. May Shelia no longer say no to Jesus, may she instead come to Him in humble repentance and faith.

While all this was happening, George had finished preaching and Ian was locked in a good conversation with a gentleman on an electric scooter. It was this point we realised the outreach time was nearly gone, so Nigel finished the day off by preaching about God’s love in the gospel.

Even though it felt hard today, we rejoice in the knowledge that our God changes hard hearts. Please join us in praying for all those we encountered.

SDG!

 

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On Tuesday I spent a couple of hours online before heading to Riccarton for a couple of hours.

I was a touch late to Riccarton - Roger was already deep in conversation when I got there (pictured).  He had a good early run of conversations.

It started a bit slowly for me, I had two good follow up conversations, and then I got into an interesting chat with a young lady who was mildly intrigued at what I was doing.  She saw my flip chart which said “the good person test” and instantly assumed I was in a religion that taught good deeds to “make it”.  She said she could be good without religion, and the conversation went from there.  She accepted a tract, but handed it back - she was resistant but, strangely, she opened up and hinted at serious trials she was facing in her life at the moment.  She didn’t stay long, but she did accept the tract back again.  I was encouraged.

We had a bit of a lull in the middle of the outreach, and I was beginning to think on new locations for outreach when it finished with a bang.  The outreach went nearly 30 minutes over!

In a recent Riccarton outreach report I talked about some Christchurch Boys High students who I took through the flip chart.  I was discouraged because of their resistance.  I specifically remember the one who understood it the quickest being the most resistant!

Well, three of them were back - including the most resistant one - and they had four friends with them!  We had a long conversation, where I took them all through the flip chart and then spent time working through an excellent series of questions they had.  The most encouraging thing was seeing Mr. Resistant thinking deeply.

Roger ended up coming over to join the conversation.  He had frozen yoghurt for me that the Muslims in the shop had given us.  I gave it to the boys, who seemed to appreciate it.

Just then, one of my regulars went past - a satanist.  I left the boys with Roger and fell into an easy conversation with my satanist friend (yeah, those words were as weird to write as they are to read!)

Then the strangest thing happened, the CBHS boys had finished talking to Roger and had moved past me.  One of them came up to me and gave me a hug!  My satanist friend was as surprised as I was!  I chucked a checking question at the kid… and he got it right.  I challenged him, “when should you start doing that”?  He said, “I already am”, and he ran off to catch up with his friends.  I pray that that is so.

But it only gets stranger.  I wrapped up my chat with my satanist friend, and I shook his hand and said, “I’ll be praying for you, I want the best for you.”  As we were parting ways he said, “oh, why not… I’ll give you a hug too”.  And so we did.  If only hugs could convert - this guy would be saved.  But it’s only God who saves, through the gospel.  Oh God, save his soul for your glory!

What a fantastic outreach!

On Wednesday I decided to spend the whole afternoon in online outreach.  One of the conversations that stands out was one with a couple of teens.  One said they were a Christian, so I asked them what they had to do to go to heaven.  They both said, “be good”.  I shared the law and the gospel with them, and moved straight into my first checking question, the response from the Christian was still, “be good”.  So I re-explained and checked again, and to my shock it was still “be good”.  I was lost for words.  She looked at me like I was queer and then disconnected.  She seemed completely blind.  I encounter it so often, I shouldn’t be surprised.  But it’s so frustrating.  Luckily my last conversation of the day was with a “Christian” who did come to grasp the true gospel.

Thank you Lord for the many gospel opportunities of these two days.  And thank you for your support of the Christchurch (NZ) team.  We so appreciated it!  To God, alone, be the glory.
 

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It’s election time in NZ, and on Saturday I had one of the candidates for my electorate knock on my door.  I had a wonderful opportunity to share my thoughts on some important social issues that affect our society, like abortion - which needs to end.  The candidate and the person with them both received a “How we know God exists and why it matters” tract, and a “Life is precious” tract.  Do you have tracts at your door ready to give to whoever comes knocking?  Order some today: NZ, AU, UK.

I also spent four hours in online evangelism.  I was able to join the Aussie team’s online outreach.

Some of the conversations I remember include:

A chat with a young man who instantly started calling me grandpa!  But he sobered up quickly when he realised why I was on Omegle.  He was quiet and didn’t ask many questions, and yet he seemed to grasp the gospel very quickly.  He was very appreciative at the end.

I also had a good chat with a Muslim guy who seemed to be challenged.  Although resistant, there were moments where he was quiet as he contemplated the gospel.  I pleaded with this guy to respond to it.

Sunday was outreach Sunday for Redemption Church.  I had two families join me.  And we also had an old street evangelism friend from years back join us again.  Great to have you with us Daryl!

It was a difficult outreach.  In last Sunday’s report, I mentioned a guy who got arrested (and I didn’t know why).  Well, today he was out again, and I understood why he may have been arrested.  He was obnoxious, and threatening.

Sadly, he disrupted one of my flip chart conversations.  Because of this I lost an opportunity to share the gospel, and also an opportunity to demonstrate how the flip chart works to some team members.

The guy finally went away, but it wasn’t long till he was back.  For this reason, we decided to pack up and move locations.  God in his providence used it for good, as we had some wonderful gospel opportunities in Cathedral Square.

Andy was going to open air, but ended up having a great one to one (well, one to two actually) instead.  Pictured is that conversation - it shows Andy using the “Says Who?” tract.  It has a great “cross” illustration that you can see him using.

I ended up falling into a very long and intellectual conversation with a fellow software engineer.  I kept coming back to how we know that God exists, and it started to frustrate him.  Yet the logic is sound and I refused to budge.  He did get to hear the law and the gospel and he left with a “Says Who?” tract.

While I was in that conversation, some of the less experienced team members had some great opportunities to use the flip chart and share the gospel!  Well done team.  :)
 

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Covid-19  brought some radical changes to our evangelism in Toowoomba. We had one Saturday before the social-distancing restrictions kicked in and we used it to share the Gospel in the CBD. 

I had a really interesting encounter when I gave a gospel tract to a young man with long black hair. He was dressed like an academic at the beach.  After skim-reading the tract he came up to me and said with a thick European accent "If your Jesus was to come back today, do you think He would recognise the Christianity as taught by the institutional Church?

 I replied "That's a good question. I think it depends which Church you're talking about. There are a lot of "Churches" who weaponise religion for their own gain. There are also a number of solid Churches who continue in the faith handed down from the Apostles."

The young European bloke then came over to me and stood next to me. He draped his arm over my neck. It was now getting intimate. Real intimate. "What if I said to you...." continued the man "...that Christ would completely disagree with your Christianity?"

 "Really?" I responded "How do you know?"*

At this question, the bloke disengaged his arm and quickly walked away. I was so taken aback by his sudden reversal that I didn't know what to say as he made his speedy exit. I was somewhat disappointed by such an outcome, but my hope and prayer is that post-COVID we shall meet again someday and continue our discussion.

After this memorable outreach, the social distancing restrictions began and we needed to change the way we shared the Good News about Jesus with the wider community. Our team undertook OP513 on-line evangelism training which taught us how to use Omegle. Using Omegle is not for the faint of heart and requires appropriate safeguards. However some of the Gospel conversations that I saw on this platform were incredible.

After a significant amount of prayer and discussion, our team decided to instead focus on "tracting" suburbs i.e placing tracts that explain the Gospel in household's mailboxes across certain suburbs. 

So far this year we have tracted Rockville, Harlaxton and Drayton. This month we will be tracting Newtown on Saturday the 29th August from 10am-1130pm. There are unique benefits** of this particular approach of evangelism, and if you would like to join us you are more than welcome. You can contact us through the OP513 contact page***. The harvest is indeed plentiful but the laborers are few. Please be in prayer for us as we seek to bring the truth of who Christ is and what He is doing in our world to the people of our community.

 

* Special thanks to Greg Koukl for this insightful question. I highly recommend his book:

https://www.koorong.com/product/tactics-a-game-plan-for-discussing-your-christian-convictions_9780310574750?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.koorong.com%2Fsearch%2Fresults%3Fw%3Dtactics%2Bebook#product-tabs

 I've found the question "How do you know?" one of the most useful questions to ask anyone when they posit their opinion on a controversial topic. It respectfully allows a person to present the justification for their position and it very quickly reveals to all parties just how well-thought out (or not) a person's position actually is. 
 

**If you're skeptical about the effectiveness of Gospel Tracts, check out:

http://appalachiacry.com/2017/04/09/the-benefits-of-handing-out-gospel-tracts/#:~:text=A%20gospel%20tract%20can%20be%20used%20by%20God%20to%20convert,encourage%20believers%20in%20the%20faith.
 

*** https://www.operation513.com/contact-us

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