Battle Log

Page 89

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Saturday was a lovely sunny day, and there were LOTS of people in Cashel Mall.  It was great to have Andy Bell join me for the first outreach in the morning (before lunch), and I also ran an outreach after lunch.  If you live in Christchurch, I’d love to have you join me and get involved on a Saturday outreach - get in touch! :)

We set up our flip chart down by the bridge of remembrance, where we were in the sun rather than the shade, and after praying together, we were instantly rewarded with someone curious enough to start a conversation with us.  The guy was very smart, and it felt like God’s providence, cos Andy Bell is very smart too - and it led to a wonderful, long gospel conversation.  The guy was smart, but he liked to take his time to explain what he was thinking, it was very tempting to cut him off knowing what he was going to say, but I did my best to be patient and respectful.  Presuppositional apologetics was a powerful tool in this conversation.  The guy ended up offering to buy as a coffee!  But instead, Andy went with him and bought him one!

I stayed with the flip chart and marveled at all the people about.  By this stage, two other religious groups had set up on either side.

I had a group of polynesian guys go past who were keen to try the good person test.  I quickly learned that they were catholic.  I had a wonderful opportunity to challenge them on how they are justified before God.  If Jesus has 100% paid their hell fine, what role does works have in it?  (Answer: none; works come after.)  They understood after I used the fireman analogy.  I then challenged them, if they were trusting in their good works in any way to be justified before God - it hit the spot, and they really seemed to appreciate the chat.

It was nice to be out on Sunday afternoon in Cashel Mall after finally being able to gather as a church in the morning for the first time since covid-19 lock down!

I had to be patient to get into conversations, in spite of there being lots of people walking past.  In the first half hour, I had only had one conversation.

But my patience paid off, and I was able to have many good conversations for the rest of the outreach.  At one point, 3 young people, one of whom was a satanist stopped to talk.  Suddenly I had another 4 ladies stop with curiosity.  I invited them to join the conversation and suddenly I was sharing with 7!  And I noticed this big group was causing others to stop wondering what was going on.  I was able to share the law and the gospel with all 7, before the 4 ladies had to go.  I was left with the 3 original young people and I was able to continue with checking questions.

To my surprise the satanist said, “you’ve convinced me, I’m going to become a Christian”.  So I challenged her to count the cost of doing so.  After explaining, I challenged her, if she was willing to trust that Jesus had paid her hell fine, knowing the change this would bring in her life.  She agreed that she wasn’t - yet - but I could tell she understood and was challenged.

I give God all the glory for the wonderful gospel opportunities this weekend! :)
 

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Saturday night in Brisbane City was very exciting!

The first conversation of the evening was with Kristen and Dexter. Kristen had spoken with the team on three prior occasions over a year ago and remembered the content of the gospel. Sadly it seemed that although she knew the gospel it hadn't changed her life (which means she probably doesn't really believe it) but she was happy to converse about it anyway.

On the other hand her friend Dexter was a very exciting conversation, he mentioned that his family is Buddhist but he doesn't really believe. He came to see God's existence, his guilt, that he is heading to Hell and that in his own ability he could never make it to Heaven. Then grasping the gospel he noted that it was good news and he would really have to think about it.

It was then mentioned that as a team we had spoken to a love of Buddhists in Myanmar and Dexter mentioned that is where he is from! He shared that he had been training to be a monk in Yangon near the Hledan centre AND had even received a tract and had spoken to a team member at the Hledan centre around 12-18months prior!

How crazy is that! God had bought him, 8,000km to hear the gospel another time! This time it had impact and he said he'd consider it! Contact details were exchanged with the desire to discuss further.

There were two conversations with men named Lucas from Europe! Both rejected God's existence, saw that He must exist but said, "even if He exists I want to live my own way". They both saw they were headed for Hell and left with gospel tracts.

The finale of the evening though was with Tavis, a young man who had some initial arguments against God's existence even saying that he wanted to go to Hell but with some simple arguments and explanations Tavis came to see that it wasn't information or knowledge that was causing him to reject God's existence, it was the desire to live his own way.

He too came to understand the good news of the gospel and although hesitant accepted a tract and said he would consider it, knowing full well that it would turn his life upside down!

Please be praying for these people that the gospel would not just be a message but would take root and be transform their lives. Not only that they would trust that Jesus paid for their sin and therefore be on their way to Heaven but that it would effect them so greatly that they would live differently and desire for others to know this same Jesus!

Now that lock-down is slowly easing, why not join us sometime?

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As I write this, I’m feeling really raw.  I think I had two of the hardest gospel outreaches in my life - ever.  Positions #1 and #2.  And they both occurred on the same day!

And you have to expect it, so I’m not complaining.  God is with us, even through the hard days.

But it still hurts.  After the first outreach, the gospel + abortion outreach outside the hospital, I said I felt like I was lying on the ground with multiple bullet wounds, and I was bleeding out.  That was the 2nd hardest outreach ever.  You can read about it here

It was about now that I noticed my throat was very dry. After facing that. I felt like I could face anything. I was very keen to get to Cathedral Square for some open air preaching.  I didn’t know what was coming.

Our usual gaggle of hecklers had gathered, and I gladly stood up to start proclaiming the good news of the hope for eternal life found in Jesus.  I’ve decided I want to get better at addressing the hecklers, so while preaching, I kept one ear on what they were saying, and did my best to try to address them, without losing the flow of the law and gospel presentation I was giving.  Marty preached after me.  Andy decided not to preach today, and so we moved to Cashel Mall early to start reaching people in gospel conversations.

Roger joined Andy and I, and it was a bit slower than the first few weeks after lock down - back to a normal amount of people on the streets.  But we still had many opportunities to talk to people about hope.

It was coming nearer to the end of the outreach than the start when we had a disturbance.  I was talking to three guys from the USA when I noticed Andy was in a bit of an intense conversation.  Next thing I notice is that Andy is walking away - always a good option when appropriate.

My conversation with the three guys ended and then I noticed that the guy that had been hassling Andy was now abusing Roger who was in a conversation with two high school students.

I pulled out my phone and started recording, and told the man to please leave us alone, and that I was recording him.  It had the desired effect, he stopped disturbing Rogers' conversation, and started abusing me instead.  He was drunk.  It was worse than anything I’ve ever experienced.  Even worse than the abuse hurled at us at the gospel + abortion outreach earlier in the day.

The guy made a real scene.  I told Roger to calll the cops.  Little did I know, Andy had already done that, and I’m sure others were too.  People were stopping to watch this guy verbally abusing me and others.  I’m sure many of them were hanging around to stop him if he started getting physical.

And that threat was very real.  I remember a moment when he started pacing towards me.  I was stepping back, so he stepped forward.  I realised what was happening, and I knew I had to stop, so I did.  I looked him in the eye and said not a word.  He came right into my face.  I tried not to flinch, but I knew there was a very real possibility that he was about to punch me in the face.  He didn’t - thank God for that.  But the verbal abuse continued to stream out of this man.  He was angry that we tell people that they are going to hell - something we never actually do, we are always careful to present the truth of hell in such a way that they draw their own conclusions in relation to the logic and context we give.  And we then share the amazing good news of how to go to heaven - which is a gift of God.  We don’t want anyone to go to hell, and that is why we are there, desperately pleading with all to get on the ark of Jesus.

Members of the public started getting involved.  I remember two ladies coming to my defence.  One said she didn’t agree with my religious convictions, but that no one should be talked to like this.  I did my best to keep them back (I failed).  The best response is no words, or calm words.

Finally the Police arrived, and I could start to breathe again.  I was in shock, and I wasn’t thinking straight, but then I calmed myself and started responding to the Police.  I realised I was still recording on my phone.  So I stopped it and managed to play it back for the Police.  They arrested the guy.

The Police were wonderful.  I’m so grateful for them.  Thank you so much!  And thank you to all the citizens that stopped and supported us.  I appreciated your presence - thank you.

We still had about fifteen minutes of outreach left, and I refused to shut down early.  This was not going to stop the gospel.  So we kept going till the scheduled end.  I noticed Roger had another conversation with an elderly couple.

After the outreach, we gathered around hot chocolate and coffee to discuss and pray.  What a day!

But it wasn’t over yet.  Mike and I had scheduled our first evening outreach post lock down.  They say these things happen in threes.  What was going to happen during the evening?

But thankfully the evening outreach was uneventful, apart from many opportunities to sow gospel seed.  It was a successful outreach, with plenty of people out and about.

The highlight conversation for me was a follow up right at the start with two high school aged kids out skateboarding.

I also approached a guy who said, “I know you, you are my neighbour!”  I was shocked.  It turns out he was my brother's neighbour - I obviously look a lot like my brother!  I got to share the gospel with him and a lady with him.

And I haven’t even had a chance to talk about the wonderful gospel opportunities from Thursday at the Eastgate and Northlands bus stops.  The highlight was a conversation with a kid whose grandfather is a pastor.  It was a wake up call he needed to hear.  I also got to share with his girlfriend.  So many other fascinating conversations occurred, where God’s providence was on display.  But I don’t have time to write about them.  I need to get back to the streets, where the harvest is ripe.

God is with us.  With Him, we can face anything.  Oh, may there be fruit to bring glory to God alone.
 

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Praise God for 2nd Saturday Outreach after restrictions have been eased!!! 

On Saturday, it was raining and cloudy so we were expecting quite a few people in the city however there were lots of people in the city. God has faithfully allowed 3 laborers for the el on Saturday. By God's grace, I had really good chats with people than usual despite of raining weather, people were willing to stand on the street and engage in conversation. 

I remember two ladies who kindly stopped as they were heading to their destination, when I questioned about their opinion on eternity one of them said "I am Jewish" and that Jews are still waiting for their messiah but it seemed like she did not have much knowledge in Torah. I went through the law and the gospel they look quite surprised and engaged really well in conversation and they asked questions out of genuine curiosity on God's sovereignty such as if God exist why there are sufferings and evil in this world etc. Furthermore, I had a chance to explain Isaiah 53 to them and ask her to think about it as Isaiah 53 is direct prophesy about the messiah who will come and suffer for transgressions of guilty sinners. I honestly cannot remember if one of them said they will believe in Jesus (who was not Jewish) but please pray for those two ladies ! 

I had a privilege to speak to group of people (Around 6 people) from Spain, they seemed quite excited as I approach them with afterlife question. As I started to state the ten commandments they started laughing and admit that they have all the things that I have asked and one of them said very confidently "I am gay", gospel was shared how Jesus Christ died and rose again. There was one word that I knew in Spanish 'pecado' (Which i heard from Paul Washer and remembered ...) which means 'Sin' in english and tried to used that word so that they may grasped the gospel even further, they did not say that they will believe but I pray that as they travel around Australia God will be gracious to them to think about their afterlife and come to faith in Jesus Christ !! 

 

From Huy Do:-

During this week, I spoke to two Muslim gentlemen, they were quite cordial and willing to converse with us. They agreed on the moral law and by that extension, their shortcomings, this is a wonderful propeller into a Gospel centered conversation. In their acknowledgment of their own sinfulness, I confronted them with a question “what can you do to avail/atone for your sins?” - they gave the answer that they will do good works, go to pilgrimage...etc… in order to pay for their sins. I replied that since they believed the Qu’ran and since the Qu’ran affirmed the validity of the Bible, they must, by necessity agree as well with the truth of scripture that all of their works are filthy rags before a righteous and Holy God because their hearts are sinful. I then progressed again with the previous question “so what can you do?” and they were silent. To which I stated that “you probably do not believe this, but Christ died for the sins of guilty people on the cross, taking the sins of guilty men and satisfied the wrath thereunto, that if you repent and trust that He died for you, you will be saved”. They had some objections, but I praise God that He gave me the correct words to reply and their thinking of what was said. They objected that if God limited His divinity that He wouldn’t be God, I said that it is not so, for God merely took on human form. Regardless, I concluded the following to them, that considering their sinfulness and inability to avail themselves before God of their sins, if Jesus is not God and did not die of the cross, they are going to h***, that either Christ is God and died on the cross, or He is not God and did not die on the cross and they, because of their sins, go to h***. They understood my point and graciously accepted the tracts and documents given them.

Another conversation was wrought earlier to some young ladies, one of them was Greek Orthodox and the other was neutral but the third was quite aggressive. They all agreed to the depths of their sins, and their inability to avail before God. This was when the third lady came in and tried to drag me down a rabbit hole, I briefly addressed her point but proceeded to say that I would like to get back to the main point, and proceeded. I had preached the Gospel that Christ died for sinners, and if they would trust He died for them, they will be forgiven. They listened, I knew they listened because they asked question in response of the proclaimed Gospel, their question was that if salvation was a free gift then “does that mean you do that and then do whatever you want?”. This is always a good sign that they understood the message of the free gift of salvation in Christ, that they asked the question of whether such free gift mean they can live in the world. My reply was that if they truly repented and believed in Christ then their lives will change and they will not live in the same way, they will have new desires. The conversation dragged on a bit more until one of the friends dragged them away, some of them took the tracts as they walked off. Praise God for His mercy and favor upon us, despite our shortcomings

 

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Overall, all the glory to God who enabled us and compelled us by the love of Jesus Christ to share the gospel to many people ! 

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Tuesday and Wednesday saw the Christchurch team in outreach to Riccartion, in the city, and online.

I had some wonderful opportunities online.

My very first gospel conversation was with a classroom of high school kids!  I could only see a few of them, but I could hear many more.  Their teacher must not have been there.  With so many of them commenting on the conversation, it got quite chaotic.  I wasn’t sure if anyone was really following.  So I mentioned needGod.net early.  I managed to get through the law and the gospel.

I got into a conversation with a guy with a strong accent.  I thought he was putting it on and that he was making fun of me!  But I persisted.  He considered himself a Christian, but was trusting his good deeds to get to heaven.  The conversation was a real wake up call for him, he seemed genuinely impacted.

I also had a couple of conversations with Muslims.

Heading to the streets of Riccarton, I had Roger join me.

I had four high school girls stop to chat.  One of them was a Christian, and had a fairly good grasp of the gospel, and yet she didn’t.  She thought some people would be good enough for heaven - even without Jesus.  What it boiled down to was that she didn’t want her friends to go to hell, and rather than tell them the good news of Jesus, she’d come up with her wrong conclusion.  I was able to use the flip chart to demonstrate the serious nature of sin, the severity of God’s justice, but also the amazingness of his mercy and grace.  She was challenged, and she didn’t like it.  Most of them took tracts - including the Christian girl (eventually).

I had a great gospel chat with some Phillipine kids - they seemed deeply impacted by the law of God, which is encouraging - and they heard the gospel.

I then had a guy stop who was very keen to chat.  Long story short, it seems he was converted about six months ago, and has been avidly reading his Bible but is in some desperate need of some sound discipling.  The conversation turned quite pastoral, but I had to be careful, as I don’t know him.  He took my contact details - I hope to hear from him.

The outreach ended with a frustrating conversation with a philosophy student from the university.  He wouldn’t take the conversation seriously, to his detriment.  I can only hope the law and gospel was hitting home behind a facade.

Wednesday’s first outreach was in the city.  Andy preached in the Square, which led to me being able to have three wonderful follow up conversations.

The first was with a construction worker I talked to last Friday.

The second was with a young man I’ve spoken to at least twice before.  He has been thinking about what he has learned about the gospel.  And he has been reading the Bible.  But he is not converted.  I gave him my contact details, he said he would contact me.

The last one was with a young couple who weren’t going to stay to listen to the preaching, but one on one they stayed to hear the law and the gospel.

The final outreach was online & I was able to join the team from Aussie.

The conversation that really sticks with me is one I had with a young Catholic guy who I was able to challenge on how we are justified.  He considered himself good, and it was a real shock for him to hear me explain why he was heading to hell.  I hope his conscience is activated and that he is truly converted, to the glory of God alone.  Afterwards he played some piano for me!  Pictured.  I will never see him again in this life, I hope to see him in heaven.
 

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I’m still transitioning from as much online outreach to a normal street outreach schedule.  So I spent Saturday morning on Omegle sharing the gospel there.  (Next week, I intend to be back in the city on Saturday.)

It was great to have Rob from Canada with me in the Jitsi room.  Some stand out conversations include:

One with a muslim from Setif, Algeria.  Afterwards, I looked up that city on Google Maps and marvelled at how easy it is to reach people in such a foriegn place.  Praise God!  His spoken English wasn’t great, and I was about to give up, when we started communicating via typing - his written English was much better.  So I was able to challenge him with the wonderful news of the gospel.

I’ve been talking to a lot of Catholics lately, and I was again paired with one on Omegle.  This was a stand out because he seemed to come to grasp the gospel and seemed very appreciative of the conversation.  May God change his heart.

Another great conversation was with a group of at least two guys.  One of them was mocking me, but the other was tracking with me.  They heard the gospel.  I don’t care if people mock - the stakes are too high - may God have mercy.

On Sunday, there were three of us in Cashel Mall for a couple of hours in the afternoon.  For me it was a pretty much non stop time of ministry.  I was able to share the gospel with multiple groups of teens.  Group conversations can be hard work, because the individuals can be in different spaces.  You’ll have the attention of some, but others aren't interested.

I had one situation with a group of five girls where one of them was responding to the law, and feeling the gravity of their conscience, but another was bored and distracted.  I did my best to hold the attention of all of them, but I ended up losing all of them before I could really share the gospel clearly. :(

I had a group of five guys where 3 ended up leaving, but to my surprise, 2 stayed.  It ended up being a good thing that the 3 left, as I was able to focus on clearly explaining the gospel to the 2 who stayed and were interested.

The last conversation of the outreach was with yet another group of five girls.  This time they were all interested and engaged and stayed to hear me out.  They all took tracts.  And then one of the girls started asking really good questions about how people have different beliefs.  I sensed that she had a postmodern world view (what’s true for me is true for me) and so I gently challenged her on that.  I ended up seeing her later in a coffee shop, and so I gave her the tract “Which one is right?”.

I thank God for all the gospel opportunities on the weekend.  I’m looking forward to a new week of outreach, to the glory of God alone.

Oh, I nearly forgot, I also had an opportunity to share the gospel with a friend (and his son) who I’ve known since I was a baby (family friends).  I’ve tried in the past, but he’s just not interested.  But I gently pushed the boundary - the stakes are so high.  He survived, and we are still friends! ;) (literally just before I posted this, Andy sent me a picture of that conversation - which I've included in this report!)
 

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The Brisbane team were very excited to head back out into the city once again for outreach! It is wonderful to see the excitement as the team gets to pray together in person and then evangelise together! The hours race by as the gospel goes forth and men and women come to grasp the good news of the gospel!

The evening started with a lengthy conversation with Paul and Maddi. They professed to believe in God but it became apart very quickly that it wasn't the God of the Bible, rather the god of the watch tower (JW's). They started sharing things that were seriously problematic. They would say things like, "forgiveness is a free gift" then in the next phrase say, "beneficial only for those who work". Paul could see the problematic logic with what Maddi was saying and yet Maddi seemed blind to it. They also would argue against the apostle Paul in Romans 3:10-12, in declaring that we aren't all bad infact, we're actually good we just make mistakes. The conversation came to a close but not before their preconceptions were challenged by the word of the living God! They were encouraged to read Romans 3-5 together and see what Paul says about how someone is made right before God.

Another conversation was wtih Joshua and his friend who shared that they were homosexuals but upon seeing their guilt and hearing the gospel rejected it out of what they called, "honour". They didn't want someone else to pay. It was shown that this was their pride, not really thinking they were helpless but they insisted that they did not want to be saved. A similar conversation also took place with David who declared simply that he "doesn't believe in a god like that". He has fashioned a god that he likes and to his own peril!

Then an encouragement came, Uma from last week was walking by again and was clear on the gospel! It had sunk in and she said it had been a blessed week full with rejoicing at the good news! Another man from her friends group Andre though was in the same predicament as she was. He professed to be a Christian but when asked, "Why should God let you into Heaven?" He had no idea, when pushed a little he shared that it was because he prayed, asked for forgiveness and the like. He was taken through a simple gospel explanation and came to grasp it quickly and said, "I am going to start trusting that Christ paid for my sins now!"

The evening finished off with two drunk girls who saw God's existence and their guilt but ran off before comprehending the good news.

Please be praying for those who engaged in conversations tonight that the words they heard would not be meaningless but that they would be the fragrance of life! Pray that God may be gracious to the hears that they may become believers!

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Two very busy days of ministry.  A very long report - sorry in advance for that! ;)

Thursday’s outreaches to the bus stops were amazing.  I was mildly hesitant to go, thinking bus stops might not be the ideal place for social distancing.  But I knew there would be spots where I could engage with those passing by and still maintain appropriate distance.  So Andy and I decided to give it a go.  Northlands early afternoon, and Eastgate in the late afternoon.

When I turned up at Northlands, there weren’t many people around, and I wondered if I had made a wrong decision and should have stayed home doing online evangelism.

I managed to get a conversation started, but their bus came.

So I prayed about this and then lo and behold someone came past and I was able to get a conversation started - they couldn’t stay, but they took a tract.  And then straight after, another opportunity arose (with a Christian lady), and then another (with a Catholic lady).

By this stage, Andy had arrived, and he fell into a follow up conversation with someone I had talked to on a previous outreach (pictured).  And then I fell into a follow up conversation with someone Andy had talked to on a previous outreach.  Andy ended up finishing up his conversation and took over my one.

I turned and noticed a lady waiting for a bus and so, respecting social distance, I started a conversation with her, that went long (pictured).  She deliberately missed busses so the conversation could continue.  She had Catholic, Maori, and Mormon religious background.  And when I tried to add Christianity to the mix, she confessed that she felt quite confused.  So I just spent time listening, and trying to bring clarity.  A lot of her questions were, understandably, around how we know what is true.  She gladly took a “Which one is right?” tract, as well as others.  Such a wonderful conversation.

The outreach was going better than I could have expected!  I had two more brief follow up opportunities before I noticed things starting to calm down again.  I mentioned to Andy that maybe we should split to Eastgate early when he suddenly got into a conversation, as did I.

And then the high school kids came!  And suddenly we were working harder than ever, with gospel conversation after gospel conversation.

One kid said he thought about the after life a lot.  I asked if he believed in God, and he said he wasn’t sure.  And so I used the Building / Builder - Universe / Universe Maker analogy and he was stunned, he turned to his friend and said, “did you hear that, it makes so much sense”.  I didn’t have much time (as I could tell they needed to go), but I was able to share the law and gospel with him and his friend - they both left with tracts, but part way through, another friend turned up, and so I was able to share the law and gospel with him as well.  So much plowing and sowing - it was so good.  Glory to God.

My final conversation at Northlands was with a young man (20 years old), who used to be a youth pastor but now didn’t believe in God.  I guessed two things: 1) he had been deeply hurt by witnessing an extreme form of hypocrisy 2) that he had never understood the gospel.  I carefully asked questions that confirmed that I was right in both instances.  So I backed up and started by explaining how we know God exists and how we know who God is.  He was open and following the logic, but his bus came.  I gave him a tract and pleaded with him to contact me, the conversation was so important.  I leave him in God’s hands.

Maybe you know some of these people I talked to.  Are you ready to follow up with them and reinforce the gospel information they are learning?  I can’t do this alone. :)

Andy and I then made the move to Eastgate - a little later than we expected, but praise God that we had so much opportunity at Northlands.

It was just as busy at Eastgate.  I had six significant gospel conversations.  The highlight was the second to last one, it was with a young Catholic high schooler.  I don’t remember it, but I had talked to him twice before.  He still couldn’t articulate the gospel, so I went through it with him again.  I warned him that this was the third opportunity he had to hear the gospel, he may not get another, and while I was challenging him to count the cost, I asked him what was stopping him from trusting that Jesus died for his sin.  He said, “I am trusting that Jesus paid the fine for my sin”.  I was surprised, and I said, “when did you start doing that?”  He said, “Today”.  I pleaded with him to get in touch with me (we want to see people knitted into a good local church).  I leave him in God’s hands.

Friday was a big day of outreach.  The weather was wonderful.  We spent two hours outside the hospital bringing the gospel to the issue of abortion.  You can read about that here.

We then moved to Cathedral Square for open air preaching.  Marty preached first, and that was the only opportunity we had.  We attracted a lot of hecklers, and one of them got up to “preach” after Marty leaving no time for anyone else to preach.  We didn’t waste the time, we ended up getting into wonderful one to one gospel conversations with those walking past instead.

Moving on to Cashel Mall, again it was busy!  I had a wonderful follow up opportunity with a guy I’ve been talking to on and off for well over a year now.  It turns out he has cancer in a finger!  And he may lose it. :(  He still isn’t grasping the gospel, so I had an opportunity to continue challenging him on that.  As we were talking, Radio NZ approached me for comment on a political issue.  I took the opportunity to give a gospel sound bite!  I doubt they will use it, of course, but the interviewer took a tract.

We then had a non stop couple of hours of gospel ministry down by the Bridge of Remembrance.  Even before I got there, I had a wonderful walk up gospel conversation with a young couple.

But the highlight (for me) was a long conversation with two young girls.  I laboured with them for a long time, and although I think the effort was worth it, there was a resistance and a blindness to what I was saying.  I pray they will have more opportunity to engage with the gospel - maybe with you?  Are you ready to share?

 

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On Friday Brisbane was almost ten degrees cooler than the previous days, meaning it was a privildge to be inside in the warmth of our homes to evangelise! This really is a great day to be a Christian and evangelise!

The day started with a conversation with two teenagers, Payton and Kaia who attended a church but hadn't grasped the gospel. They knew of Jesus but the gospel had never made sense to them before. After seeing the serious predicament they are in they were grasping for answers and the Gospel was shared and they were so thankful for it! They professed that today, right now they would start trusting that Jesus had paid for their sins and this is the only reason they are going to Heaven!

The next excitement was with Mariana and Karen, two American ladies who slowly had their worldview broken down and rebuilt with Christianity! They came to see God's Holiness and therefore their desperate state before him and starting saying maybe there is no hope or maybe God will lower his standards but for them too the gospel came and they were gob-smacked! On a number of occasions Mariana said that it had blown her mind and they were also so thankful for the chat! They said they were keen to read their Bibles and were certain that the conversation was not an accident! They said that this was a conversation they'd had a few times but never had it made so much sense and were glad they'd be able to chat with someone seriously about it!

Lastly was a conversation with Dominic who late in the conversation shared that he had recently in the last few months started reading the Bible for himself due to some life circumstances and it was making some sense but it wasn't that clear. He initially shared that he believed in God but not in the traditional sense but with a good conversation he too came to grasp the glories of the gospel in light of his sin and was so thankful for the chat as well! He too mentioned that he didn't think it was an accident and was so pleased to have had the conversation! He mentioned he'd been desiring to attend a local Church and was able to find a recommended one right near his place!

God was very kind to these five people this afternoon, please be praying that God would continue to work in their lives. That this wouldn't be the beginning of a slow fade but rather would be the beginning of a live sold out in service for Christ, trusting only in Him as their means for right standing before God!

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Thursday was a wonderful day of witnessing with on Omegle!

The team had many good conversations and here is a quick snippet of some conversations.

The first conversation of the day was a lengthy one with Emilia. She was initially saying she didn't believe in God but mentioned that she was open minded. At the beginning she was arguing against God's existence but there came a point when she said, "I've had this conversation many times but never before have I not had an answer". She was seriously challenged by it.

She then came to hear the good news and was greatly encouraged in how she would respond as this is very important news. She said, "It makes sense and is very logical but I don't think I want to give up living my own way". It was a sad end to a long conversation but she said she wanted to stay in contact and would talk more in the future!

A surprising conversation was with Santosh an Indian man who was Hindu and initially had rejected God's existence but surprisingly with the analogies he turned around, saw that he was guilty and heading to Hell and then said, "Tell me how I can get to Heaven". He grasped the gospel quickly and said, "Thank you for sharing" he was encouraged to read the Bible and said he would!

Lastly was a second conversation with Andrew who had spoken to the team on Omegle previously! He had a solid comprehension of the gospel but what was most worrying was that it hadn't changed his life. He could articulate it and correct himself but there seemed to be very little fruit.

Please be praying for these three, that Emilia doesn't remain resistant as the pleasure this world has to offer isn't worth going to Hell for. Pray for Santosh that his profession is genuine and that his life transforms! Pray for Andrew that he would take this second wake up call and desire to live a Godly life.

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