Battle Log
What is the Battle Log?
The Battle log is where the weekly reports from each of the Operation 513 evangelism teams are posted. It gives you a brief idea about what occurred during the outreach and some of the best moments.
Old Teams: Redcliffe, Skypecast, Sheffield.
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Please note: While we do endeavor to upload the evangelism reports from each week's outreaches, sometimes time does get away from us.
Latest Reports
Monday, 26 July, 2010
I have been away for a week on 3 seperate trips and had some amazing opportunities to witness and share the gospel with people, again knowing I will probably never set eyes on the people I spoke with again until possibly one day we may see each other in Heaven- but what an amazing thought that would be!
On Friday 16th July I travelled up by train to London to attend a one day Evangelism conference held by Avanti Ministries in Winchester. So on the Friday evening I went up to stay with a family who were putting me up for the weekend.
While on the train I managed to leave a few tracts places and speak to a few people, including an elderly semi retired Doctor who was sitting opposite me. I questioned whether offering him a mpn would lead to a conversation, but it opened up a great time of listening to his life and what he did and engaging him with spiritual questions. He had more knowledge than most about the Bible, but seemed to think the 10 commandments were a good moral standard to live by and try and keep, and so I tried to reason with him their use- not to kep as a way of earning our place in heaven, but to show us we are not good enough and fall so far short of the perfect standard, and so need a Saviour who is good enough to save us.
He took a couple of tracts and said he would read them, he was in his late 60's/ early 70's and so I prayed they would make sense.
The Avanti evangelism equipping day was a great chance to meet others and listen about the importance of sharing our faith, common misconceptions about evangelism and how these can sometimes hinder us, and a great way to fellowship with other believers from England and Europe.
At a break I went out and managed to start a conversation with 2 quite open Muslims who liked the MPN's. They seemed to acknowlegde they were depending their hope of Heaven on Allah being merciful to them on judgmen t day and had no assurance of where they would go, and were intrigued when I said I had a definate assurance where I was going, not based on my own good works or merit but because of what Jesus had done for me on the cross. They seemed to understand and took some tracts to read each and ended amicably.
When travelling from London to Bristol because I had 3 bags and was not up to scratch with the tube systems, I missed my connecting train only by a few minutes. I then spoke with a guard and he said it should be no problem having the ticket stamped at the desk. So I rushed to the desk with only a few minutes to catch another train, and pleaded with the ticket office my case and to have my ticket stamped. He was having none of it and was being very unreasonable, and so I was not expressing the fruits of the spirit under my breath as I then missed that train.
In my head I threw up some pretty angry and frustrated prayers as to why I had missed these trains and had to pay for another ticket, but knew there must be a reason and asked God to show me the reason why. On the next train I caught I managed to find a seat next to a lady and after collecting my thoughts for half an hour, and not really being in the best of moods, again I prayed for opportunities to speak with people. After some general chit chat with the lady, I offered her a tract and started talking and found out she had been brought up a Roman Catholic but after the age of 18 had said she was an atheist. I had put my current predicament on my facebook status and mentioned if maybe the lady next to me was the reaosn I had missed the train?
I managed to reason with her about death, shared my testimony and how God had changed my life and what a relationship with God was and why this was different to being religious and just keeping rules. I shared with her what had just happened to me missing my trains, and my facebook status, and that I had prayed for an opportunity to witness to someone and that I believed God had answered my prayer in speaking with her. After about 20 minutes she got off at the station and turned to thank me and shake my hand and took some more tracts. I was overjoyed and jumped for joy in the toilet afterwards, as knew it was worth missing 2 trains and buying a new ticket for that.
Again in Bristol I was waiting to get a later train to another station, but decided to wait and not get the earlier one but try and speak to some people at the station. I started talking to a guy in his mid 20's with a big rucksack called Alex who was an American travelling. He had some belief in God and liked the million pound note tract. After going through the law and the gospel and him understanding at the moment he was under Gods wrath because of his sin, but God had offered mercy to him in sending Jesus to pay his debt of sin on the cross, he was really thankful and took some tracts with him to read and shook my hand. Just as he was leaving, a guy on the bench next to him, who I found out was called Chris, wanted to ask me where I thought evil had come from?
He said his parents were Christians but he didnt believe yet as he always had this mental block in his mind about it. I managed to share some things I had listend to on Todd Friels 'Drive By Theology' about the origin of evil and The fall of Satan, the sovereignty of God and Mans free will. We chatted for about 20 minutes and he took some tracts and he said it made sense and would talk about it more with his parents.
In Birmingham I stayed with a friend who I had gone to University with a few years agao, who again was brought up a Roman Catholic and was 'religious' but was now a self confessed Atheist and Evolutionist.
I had brought up my open air preaching kit with me and so thought it would be good to set up in Birmingham city centre. I had spoke with a council worker on the streets and he said Open air Capmaigners go out regularly and as long as I didnt cause an obstruction it would be fine. So I set up the Ray Comfort Intelligence and Good person test on an easil, prayed, and then fortunatly a 17yr old student enquired about what it was about and volunteered to do it.
I had a tiny fold up stool, and things went well, with about 10 people stopping and others walking past curious, a few were Christians who were encouraged and had stopped to listen, one an Atheist, a confused Roman Catholic not knowing what was the true interpretation of the Bible to read, a Muslim, a Hindu who works with inter faith programmes and a few others. Afterwards a couple of the Christians wanted some of the tracts to take for others, and it also led to them talking with some of the other members in the crowd more. It then led me on to talking with a couple of teenagers who said they were Christians but didnt attend a Church as such but met for Bible study house groups with other Christians regularly, and so I pointed them to the back of the comic good person tract with 'save your self some pain' as thought this may help them.
A girl out trying to get people to sign up to donate to the red cross called vicky listening to me speak to 2 guys, and so afterwards I shared with her and gave her some tracts, and she said her Dad was a Christian. A man named Carl was listening to music at a fountain by the library and I had offered him a tract and left, but he called me back after to talk about it,which led to a 15 minute conversation. He was really nice and listened to the whole gospel and it definatly gave him something to think about. He said he had the DVD of the Passion of the Christ at home but had not watched it yet, and so I said maybe to watch it and understand it in light of what the tracts said.
Just before I left Birmingham and was in town waiting for my friend to get his hair cut, I saw 5 kids almost get hit by bus across the street as it whizzed past, and they were walking up the street laughing about it. I thought this was a prime opportunity to speak with them about death, statistics about how many people die a day/ second around the world, and how that could have almost died then. I showed them the scars on my legs and eplained about my accident when I was their age and how I never thought it would have happened to me. I laid the point pretty thick in regards to sin, death and hell and could see they were thinking about things, before I then shared the gospel with them. It turned out they were all from Christian homes and one guy from a Muslim home- they only believed cos their parents did.
I explained thats what I was like but explained what it meant to be born again and shared my testimony and asked if they then thought they were born again, and they said no. They took a few different tracts each and shook my hand before leaving.
God really opened up so many opportunities for me while away, but again I could not have done it without the tracts to engage with people and they were an invaluable resource, which is why I am always encoraging other Christians to get them and learn how to engage with someone.
The woman on the train was the highlight of the week, but again know I will never see them again this side of eternity, but prayed God would grant them a humble and contrite spirit to turn to him and for God to get the glory in it all.
I am travelling to Glastonbury again next weekend with Shirley and another friend as there is a big spiritualist and pagan festival going on which should lead to lots of witnessing and preaching opportunites.
Friday, 16 July, 2010
It's getting to that time of year again, where it seems as though every second person at the Gold Coast is a Muslim. From July to about September, lots of people from the Middle East travel to the Gold Coast for holidays and so that is why it is essential to have Arabic gospel literature on you.
When we arrived outside Hard Rock Cafe, a busker was playing already there with his loud amp. So after a bit of fellowship and prayer together, we made our way to the middle of Cavill Ave. We thought it would be a good idea to begin preaching at the same stage as we preached last week.
I was the first man up, and started off telling a true story about something that happened to someone in the UK just earlier that day. Bekk let me know about it right before I preached. There was a lady in the UK who had been battling breast cancer for years and just today she had been told that she has beaten it. She would have been thinking, I've beaten breast cancer, nothing will be able to stop me now. But on her way back from the doctor's office, she ran off the road in her car and drowned in a river. Death came so unexpectedly. I told this story to show that death could happen to anyone at any time and that is people should be thinking about eternal things.
I transitioned from that to talking about how what we do here matters forever. And since we have all sinned, by breaking God's laws, we are all deserving of Hell. But I then spoke of the cross and how if someone repents and trusts in Christ's death alone for their forgiveness, they would be saved. I noticed there were quite a number of Muslims listening, so I stressed that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, and that in no other religion can a person have forgiveness of sins.
After I stepped down from preaching, a young Muslim man came up to me saying, "I have no problem with what you are doing, but you shouldn't say Jesus is the only way to Heaven. Because I wouldn't say to you Islam is the only way." I responded, "The reason why I say Jesus is the only way is because He is. That means that if someone dies a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu or part of any other religion, they will end up in Hell. For example, imagine if there was a blind man walking towards a cliff listening to some music, would you not go up to him and warn him off the cliff ahead (even though he may not want to be interrupted from his music). I would, that is the loving thing to do. In the same way, the loving thing for me to is to warn you and others who are not Christians that they must repent and trust in Christ alone to be saved." The man seemed to understand my point. I then discussed with him why Christianity is true as opposed to Islam.
Josh was the next one to get up and preach. God has blessed him with a really loud voice, and so he could be heard quite clearly even at far distances. However at the end, Josh commented that the stage is not a very good spot to preach, because it is so open and so your voice doesn't rebound. He found his voice was hurting even after 15 minutes. Also people seem to think that they can't heckle when we're on the stage.
We then moved further down the mall, where it was less open and Yarran preached solidly for about three quarters of an hour. After this, Jeremy faithfully preached for about 20 minutes. Since the night was rolling on, he had lots of drunk hecklers. At one stage, a guy who came up to Josh while he was just talking to someone else punched Josh in the stomach. Then moments later he went up to Jeremy who was preaching and pulled him off the soapbox. Josh and I immediately went up to him to get him to stop pulling Jeremy and we told him to move along. Jeremy then got up again on the soap box and started preaching again. At one point, some hecklers even pretended to bow down before Jeremy.
The rest of the team did a great job handing out gospel tracts and talking to people.
To God be the glory!
More photos from this outreach
Friday, 9 July, 2010
The past two weeks we have been hassled firstly by the police, and then last week by the council. But in the end, both gave us permission to be there and do what we do. Praise God! So we were thinking that we wouldn't have to deal with them tonight and we didn't.
For when we met together for a time of prayer, one of local law officers from week was walking around with a different local law officer. That new officer was about to say something to us about us handing tracts, when the other officer tapped him on the shoulder saying that we were alright.
In our usual spot, a busker was already playing. So we decided to move up to the middle of the mall in a big open area and preach there. So I set up my soap box and started preaching. I had a few hecklers, mostly Muslims. One of the Muslims seemed a liberal, not even believing that Jesus existed! After showing him why it is indisputable that Jesus lived, they all got stuck on the idea that Jesus died on the cross. This is strange, because Muslims think that Jesus is coming back in the future and then He will die. So why they get all up in arms about Him dying 2000 years ago is beyond me.
The spot where I was preaching was fairly decent, with lots of people in hearing range. But after I got down, we decided that preaching on the permanent 'stage' was probably a good idea too. So Blake got up and preached faithfully about the cross of Jesus. As did another guy named Ryan after him.
After this, we noticed that there was a guy in the middle of the mall who had decent crowd around him. We thought he must be a busker. I decided that it would be a good idea to preach closer to him, so the crowd could hear the message too. As I was getting up to preach, the man in the middle of the crowd and the crowd too started moving towards me (probably heading past me). But as they were right at me, Rhoi wolf whistled and said, "Everyone, listen to this man" (pointing to me). Then I began preaching, and went through the good person test with the man who had attracted the crowd (he was wrapped in plastic). So this meant I had the man and all the crowd now listening to me. Praise God how it worked out! I was amazed. I preached about how there is a judgement to come, and since we have all sinned we need forgiveness that is only offered in Jesus.
This is a video filmed a little after that happened:
After it all settled down, Luke got up and preached a location further down the mall and almost immediately had some atheist hecklers. This was perhaps Luke's first time preaching in the open air, and he did a great job.
To God be the glory for another great night!
Friday, 2 July, 2010
This was now the second week having the Gold Coast team on a Friday night instead of Saturday afternoon. We thought we shouldn't have any problems with police tonight, after they gave us permission to preach last week.
It was a drizzly night, however there were still lots of people about. The good thing about the rain is that it kept the buskers away. So this week we didn't have to try and compete with them.
On the team tonight we had: Josh, Blake, Jeremy, Bekk and I. We began preaching the gospel and had a few hecklers. However, while Josh was preaching the rest of us were handing out gospel tracts and then two council local law officers came up to Bekk and I. They said that they have no problem with the preaching, however the handing out of gospel tracts they considered touting. I asked how that could be so and pulled up the Gold Coast City Council local laws on my phone, and went to the one that defines touting.
“tout” means to approach another person and publicise either verbally or in writing a business, commercial or trade activity. (Local Law 5)
So I told them that under the Gold Coast law, handing out of gospel tracts is not considered touting. One of them responded, "But I still think it is." I said something to this effect, "You a local law officer, and so you can only make judgement based on what is the law, not based on what you want the law to say." They said, "Look, get approval from the council to do it and then that will be fine. Then we can know you are not handing inappropriate materials behind our backs as well as these gospel tracts." I responded, "We have tried investigating it with the council, and other local officers we have talked to say it is not illegal, therefore it is not possible to get a permit for something that is not illegal. Moreover, how will getting approval stop the possibility of someone handing out something different behind your backs?" They couldn't really respond and just said, "We are giving you an order to stop handing them out or we will fine you."
I then let Josh know about what they said. And Josh thought it was the silliest thing he has heard! He wanted to go up to them and hand out tracts right in front of them, but they had already left. But a bit later we made a strolled up the mall, and found them in a restaurant. So we decided to hand out tracts outside the restaurant they were in so it would be hard for them to miss us.
They then came up to Josh and Jeremy and said that they couldn't hand out tracts because they thought it was touting. Josh said, "Really? According to Gold Coast law it's not. Go ahead and fine us, and we'll make sure to take it to court. They were like, "Na, we don't want that." In the conversation, they kept changing the reason why we couldn't do it - from 'touting' to 'people could slip on it if they step on it'. Then they decided to call their local law HQ, and they asked the person there about handing out of Christian literature. The person on the phone (who was loud enough to hear) said, "Handing out of Christian literature is exempt from the touting law." At this point the law local officers' manner changed dramatically and they began being friendly, probably realising that we could report them for hassling us and trying to make us to stop doing something that is not illegal.
We were very happy with the outcome, and so began handing out tracts even more fervently in the remaining minutes left of the outreach.
We have now received approval from both the police and council, so hopefully next week we won't have any hassles.
To God be the glory!
Saturday, 10 July, 2010
The Bible is a Neolithic book! It was written in the Neolithic period! You cannot trust it!
Wayne was in fine form tonight. The heckling began while Alex (not the Atheist) was preaching. I stood in back play listening to the ramblings that is Wayne. Yarran and I were discussing some of the arguments that Wayne was using, and we both found it interesting that in the Neolithic period (allegedly) there was no alphabet or writing, so we were both confused how the Bible was supposed to be written some 4000 - 5000 years before the invention of the alphabet. But let’s not let facts get in the way of a good heckle.
Alex dealt with Wayne for some time, and then Wayne must have been on repeat because once again he went back to the Neolithic argument. It was at this point I jumped in and began to deal with the heckling.
I asked Wayne for proof of the Bible being written then, and his best argument was, “Genesis says there was a talking snake and unicorns”. But then his argument changed slightly to say that the oral tradition began in the Neolithic times.
When I challenged Wayne on these points and made an apologetic showing how unicorn, doesn’t have to mean a mythical one horn horse, but rather it could be a one horned animal and that the talking snake was actually Satan talking via the snake. I concluded by saying for you to disprove the Genesis account, your main argument has to be against God, you have to disprove Him.
Well that sent us on another round of heckling. Wayne the atheist started to talk about how some things are immoral etc. So I asked him on what basis does he make a judgement on something being immoral? His reply was that society determines what is right and wrong. So I took him a step further and said, “What if one society condones child rape, is that ok?” And Wayne replied by saying that it is universally wrong. Now he had an issue, how can right and wrong be determined by individual societies and yet there still be absolutes?
This was a question Wayne was unwilling to answer. So I put to him, “To say that something is immoral requires there be a universal moral law, which is not tainted by our own society values, if that is the case then there needs to be a moral law giver, who is outside of our domain, that is the being we call God. For there to be right and wrong, there must be one who determines right and wrong. An atheist cannot have a moral basis apart from God.”
At this stage Wayne was happy to let another heckler take over, this heckler had the deep theological thought of “What happens to the souls of cars when they die?” To which I simply replied, “Well that depends if they run on LPG or Petrol”.
The rest of the heckling for the night was fairly tame. We had some good one to ones and many tracts were handed out.
Praise God for a good evening.
View photos from the outreach, here.
The following is from Ryan Hemelaar about a certain conversation he had:
Doctor S backslides from atheism?
On Saturday, I got into a conversation with "Doctor S" from the Brisbane Atheist Group. We started talking about the Ontological argument - specifically Plantinga's formulation of it. Not sure what that is? Read it below:
- It is possible that a maximally great being exists.
- If it is possible that a maximally great being exists, then a maximally great being exists in some possible world.
- If a maximally great being exists in some possible world, then it exists in every possible world.
- If a maximally great being exists in every possible world, then it exists in the actual world.
- If a maximally great being exists in the actual world, then a maximally great being exists.
- Therefore, a maximally great being exists.
A maximally great being would a necessary being, therefore if he can exist is some possible world, he must exist in every possible world (because he's necessary), including our own. Doctor S admitted that the argument is logical and he knows of no way of refuting it. So I asked whether he now believes the conclusion of the argument. He answered, "I'll have to go home and see whether anyone else has refuted the argument." I responded, "If no one has, will you then believe it?" He answered, "No, because it doesn't mean that no one has been able to refute it and just can't find it." So I said, "This shows you actually have a vested interest in not believing in God because you are unwilling to believe under any circumstances. For this argument is logical with its premises supported, so therefore it is not just a matter of the conclusion possibly or probably following from the premises, it means that the conclusion to the argument logically and necessarily follows."
After a bit of further discussion, he said, "I can admit there is a maximally great being, but that doesn't mean a 'God'." I asked, "But is not a being who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, and so on, 'God'?" He refused to admit this. He tried to maintain that admitting that there is a maximally great being does not mean he is no longer an Atheist. I disputed this point with him, letting him know what is the standard definition of atheism in the field of Philosophy (according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) - it doesn't mean lacking a belief in God, it rather means the belief that there is no God.
He then went on to try and deny logic to get around the predicament he was in, but I pointed out to him that logic is the basis for all rational discussion and so he cannot do that.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Saturday, 3 July, 2010
As I made my way into the city I couldn’t help but wonder if tonight was going to be the night that I get seriously injured. The reason for this thought was not because I had experienced some strange prophecy or because I had feelings, but rather it was because the week previous a young Muslim man came in with a couple of his mates. For the most part they were loud, hostile, but yet non-violent. However at the end of the night one of them went to pull a knife on me. He left with a promise that he would be back the following week with a gang to take me down. Ahh… the religion of “peace”.
David and I were both on the look out, but by God’s grace nothing major happened from these jihad wannabes, in fact the Muslim gang was as scarce as a pork chop in Mecca. There was no sign or Allah Akbar from them.
Now that isn’t to say the night was boring, far from it. Instead of Afghani teenage terrorists we had loud mouthed drunk atheists. While Ryan was preaching this one rough looking bloke came up and began to scream and curse. Normally hecklers like this are golden as they draw a crowd, however, this guy would yell, rant and rave but then walk away and start ranting to the crowd. So after Ryan tried to deal with him in the open air, I thought it wise to go talk to him one to one.
The drunk atheist got in my face and began yelling at me. As he yelled I found myself being covered in spit and chewed up dinner, but apart from that he wasn’t too bad. It turns out that this man had some deep hurts. His mother had died recently and his wife was tragically killed in a car accident. He wanted to know why God allowed death and suffering. When I tried to answer he just became more hostile, so I said to him, “You don’t really want an answer do you?” To which he agreed, he was just after someone to blame and God seemed like a good scapegoat. He then said Christianity didn’t have any answers and walked away calling me a coward. A title that confused me, since I was the one who came up to him and tried to answer his questions, and he is now walking away. I guess that makes one a coward…
The rest of the night was fairly tame. Ryan preached, Dave preached and Blake preached. There wasn’t much more heckling, but there were some great one to ones.
To God Be the Glory!
Saturday, 3 July, 2010
On Monday I had finished my Bible teaching course at a Church and so went on lunch. There were lots of Kids at Plymstock broadway from the local school- sixth formers, about 20 all eating lunch in various places. So I went up to a group and offered a million euro note to them and starting going through the intelligence test and good person test questions. The crowd increased with more students wondering what was happening, and as I went through the Law, judgment and Hell before going onto the cross, one girl got upset and angry as she though God was love why do bad things happen if there is a God- she ran off angry and upset as it turns out her uncle had recently died after being hit by a drunk driver at Christmas. As I tried to explain to the group who were now a bit more hostile, another girl was upset that there was only one way to God and I tried to explain to her we all agree there are some things right and wrong in life, one way is true and all others are false, like me believing 1+1= 3, am I wrong? If I believed the sun was square, blue and cold, am I wrong?
This has been effective in getting people to understand about the nature of valid objective truth vs subjective personal beliefs. We can all hold dear to our beliefs, but it doesnt make them necessarily true. She reluctantly took a tract and a few others did, and my heart was sinking inside as a few people around in the area were now looking at me wondering what was going on!
However after the group dispersed, 4 lads were walking towards the area, some with their shirts off, wondering why all the other kids had been around talking to me. They were really open to the message and took tracts for them and their friends after one shared he had an accident on his bike and almost fell off and could have died, and again I reasoned with them suign my scars on legs about how important it was to get right with God today, because we all assume we are going to die when were an old person, but unfortunatly that might not be the way.
On Saturday 3rd July I was meeting Shirley in Truro to do an outreach and also to go to Noel Richards concert at a local Church. Whilst there I asked 4 Kids at Truro train station for directions for the skate park I had seen on the train, they told me, then I had a chance to speak with them and they were very open as well and took the million eeuro tracts offered to them.
I met Shirley and we went to the skate park- it was packed with about 50 skaters and teenagers hanging around the sides talking and eating, all secondary school kids aged 11+.
The first group I spoke with were all very open to the message, they had lots of questions about creation, heaven and Hell, and some Bibles handed out. I also spoke to some of the girls about what they were wearing and how boys can sometimes go after girls for all the wrong reasons, they understood and covered up a bit more!
The Second group in the skate park sitting down to the sides went from about 10-20 in a short space of time. There were some angry kids there who claimed to be Atheists, I tried to reason with them about creation through their skate park, that it didn\\\'t evolve, was purposefully built, then showing creation is intricatly detailed and designed, there is no way it could evolve no matter how long a a period of time you had.
They got more annoyed, so they called over the Park worker who was a big guy and complained to him. Shirley had already given him a tract which he had looked at, unknown to me, and he said to move on your annoying the kids and scaring them, if they want to hear about God they can go to Church. He was an Atheist as well and believed in evolution and scoffed when I said the world was only about 6000 yrs according to the Bible. He thought this to mean I therefore didnt believe in fossils, but I reasoned I did, it was the supposed age of them I had issue with. I said I was not breaking the law standing there speaking with them, it was a public place, I was a youth worker and the kids had the whole park to skate if they wished, as most had been listening before 2 or 3 got more irate. As I was handing out more tracts and answering questions getting thrown at me like \\\'who made God, where did Cain get his wife- was it incest, and is Homosexuality a sin\\\', the park worker phoned the Police saying I was causing a disturbance and scaring the kids, I think because I had mentioned Hell and showing them scars on my leg and talking about when they thought they may die and about the seriousness of life.
So when Shirley and me left the park, the Police drove past and stopped to speak to us about what we had been saying, and we said we had freedom of speech, the kids didnt have to crowd around and listen if they didnt want to, and we were just talking and giving out tracts etc. They said that was ok but just to be careful in the future.
At the Noel Richard\\\'s Concert in the evening, lots of people came and there was some good worship there- I managed to give some tracts to people leaving to read and to give to their non Christian friends. On the Train on way home- I met Anthony, a student from YMCA where I work. We chatted about the football and world cup etc, and then I managed to Share the gospel with him, gave him lots of tracts and a lift home. I explained that repentance would mean not sleeping with his girlfriend until they got married etc, wghich he seemed to understand. While in the van on the way home, he said his Mum could have died a few weeks ago- she left something in oven and fell asleep, she felt something poke her to wake her up, but when she awoke, no one was there? But she went into the kitchen to discover the oven almost catching light. Hopefully Anthony therefore understood the need to get right with God and then start sharing this message with others as we all dont know how long we have.
I dont know what woke his Mum up- was it the dog, or an Angel? Whetever it was, hopefully the message sunk in to him and he managed to talk with her.
Yet again God answered my prayers by putting people into my path to speak to and share the gospel and my testimony with, praying for those kids who had the tracts at the skate park etc, and that they took them home to read away from the scoffers and that a seed was planted that in time may grow. Yet again we may not ever see the growth of the seed or the fruit of the labour but know that God will give the increase as his word never returns void!
Saturday, 3 July, 2010
We met a cafe nero Brentwood High st, for a quick revision of what the Gospel was and how we ought preach it. The team consisted of Ruth, Nina and myself (Andrew). After a brief chat and prayer we headed to the main pedestrian areas to try converse with people.
We all found people rather unresponsive but still managed to hand many tracts out. I happened to run into a hare krishna who was also handing out books and chatting to folk. Initially he didn't want to talk to me but after I offered to by a copy of the bhagavad gita he opened up a little.
His name was Prima and he was born into a hare krishna family.
It was evident that Prima didnt like discussing the nature of truth or whether hare krishna beliefs were objectively valid, so I took the conversation very carefully so as not to challenge him with too much too quickly. Surprisingly to me, he use certain Christian terms like "sin" and "repentance" and they appeared to carry the same definitions.
The major differences arose when the Moral Law was discussed and how one atones for their law breaking. Prima felt that God was going to turn a blind eye to his sin and I gently tried to explain from Isa 64.6 and Mark 7.20-23 that both he and I are more wicked than he is concluding. He felt that chanting his krishna lines dissolved his sin and he would get to a higher consciousness.
Prima took a tract and I left him with a number of things to consider, but I'm quite certain he is very closed to the Gospel at this moment. Only the Holy Spirit can do this impossible work!! Lord grant Prima repentance!!! Amen.
Saturday, 19 June, 2010
This saturday I was reluctant to go up the street and witness. I was tired and I had things to do, the weather was patchy rain and I figured I was the only person going up the high st to evangelize. Well, I was the only person on the high st evangelizing but I had one of the best afternoons sharing the gospel yet...
I began with handing tracts out and eventually two young teenagers both called Tom stopped and chatted. They really seemed to be listening to my words and clearly perceive the weightiness of the matter. They both took more tracts and I encouraged them to read their Bibles and seriously consider the problem of sin and eternal punishment vs repentance and faith.
I next encountered a young man named Mark who was hanging with his emo friends. He got a concise Gospel message and when his friends came over to see what I was talking to him about, they all got tracts and a brief Gospel message too. Next a young man named Adam stopped to see if He was a "Good Person".
It turns out he use to go to church but since moving out of his parents house, he seemed to have fallen away from fellowship. (I am guessing he may have been a false convert or just never submitted to Christ in the first place) The Law and the Gospel was discussed and he had much to think about afterwards.
I also met another local pastor who was very keen to hook up and chat regarding evangelism. I am always keen to see local churches unite to continue the Great Commission of our Lord.
Before I went to leave, I saw a lady from my church that I had recently met. Her is Jane Robb and she is 62. She suffers from arthritis but still spends 3 days a week evangelizing the people who sit on the benches in the high st. A further 3 days in the week she stays at home and studies the Bible and Sundays are for Church! She has been doing this bench evangelism for 10 years. I felt very humbled and encouraged to see someone so passionate to share Christ in their later years.
Even though I was sharing Christ solo, I was blessed by having some of the best and most enjoyable conversations with many locals in my town. May God grant repentance, Amen.
Friday, 25 June, 2010
Tonight was the first time we have had the Gold Coast team on a Friday night. We made the change because more people seem to be available on Friday nights than on Saturday afternoons.
The car was packed as we made our way to Surfers Paradise for a 7pm outreach start. When we were trying to find a park, we noticed that there were a lot more cars, so once we finally found a spot, we had to walk quite a bit further to get to Cavill Ave.
Once Josh, Jeremy, Bekk and I arrived, we met up with Rick, Joel, Kyosti, Oliver and Blake. We firstly sought out the best place to preach. For our usual spot is not good at night, as it is not lit up, so not many people hang around that part. We chose a spot in the middle of Cavill, but then a busker decided to start setting up right next to us before we started preaching.
So we decided to go down to the bottom of the mall outside Hard Rock Cafe, and this seemed like a perfect location. For there was enough room for a crowd to gather, and there was lots of people flowing through.
After a time in prayer, Jeremy was the first man up to preach. He did a great job proclaiming loudly the message of the gospel. During this time, the same busker who had started setting up while we were at the other area came over and started setting up next to us here! So Josh went over to him to let him know that we got to this spot first and it wouldn't really work with both of us being here. He agreed, and then went to another spot.
I then got up to preach and a bunch of young girls began to heckle. I asked them whether they thought they'd go to Heaven and they thought they would because they are good people. After going through the commandments with them, they realised that they didn't deserve Heaven and that wasn't good news to their ears. So some of them wanted to leave, but I was able to quickly get the gospel in before they left. Some of the girls returned later however.
After I finished preaching, another busker came and was starting to set up his amps. I went over to him and said that it wouldn't really work having both of us here at the same time. We told him that we'd be here till 10pm. He was only allowed to busk till 10pm, so we made an agreement that we'd stop preaching at 9:30pm, and he'd get a good solid half hour after that to play without us preaching nearby.
By this time, Josh had already started preaching. After not too long, Josh had a vocal heckler that was asking questions like, "If God is loving, why did He make Hell?" and saying things like "Since we've all sinned, we all deserve Hell, so why are you preaching?" Josh was able to repond to his questions and then start going through the commandments with him. But as he was getting to the gospel, two police officers came over and had a chat to Josh. They were wondering whether the hecklers were giving him grief. Josh said no. They said they had received a few complaints, but then said that there was nothing wrong with us preaching here. They mentioned that they could hear Josh preaching all the way down the street. Josh took that as a great complement. They then suggested to Josh to maybe lower his voice level down just a touch.
Thank you to the Gold Coast Police for giving us permission to preach.
Here is a video of the events that took place:
As the police were leaving, Josh started preaching again. However, the busker then just started playing his music, way before our agreed time. So Josh had to preach at his loud voice level again to try and compete with the amp that the busker had. It was very hard to compete with him. And once Jeremy preached after Josh, it was very difficult to hear the preacher. So we decided to just hand out tracts and have one2one conversations until the busker left.
After the busker left, Blake then got up a preached the message of the gospel faithfully, even while having a few hecklers asking him questions.
It was a great night overall! Praise God for His faithfulness. Friday nights 7pm-10pm is the perfect time to have this team.
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