Battle Log
Battle Log > Gold Coast Team > Page 11
Sunday, 27 April, 2008
With all the regular Gold Coast team members unavailable to make it on Sunday, I thought it may just be myself there. However, thankfully, four others joined the team for the day - Kyosti, Ralph, Peter and Snowy.
So after some Bible reading and prayer as a team, we moved over to the regular preaching spot. However, there was man sitting on the preaching box who we had seen in the past. He obviously hated Christianity and so he was sitting on the preaching spot to prevent us from preaching. We tried giving him a tract but he immediately said, "All Christians are hypocrites. Please leave." So we just handed out tracts and had various one-2-one conversations for about 20 minutes until the man got bored and moved along.
After this I stood up to preach first, warning people of the judgment to come, but also explaining to them how they can be saved because of Christ's death. After about 30 minutes I tagged Ralph in to preach and not long after he had some hecklers who said that what he was saying is false because God doesn't exist. So Ralph tagged me back in and I explained to these gentlemen that there is logical proof for God's existence. The hecklers understood there must be a God, but they did not like being under conviction of sin, so they left. However, they came back later on and Kyosti managed to have a good one2one conversation with them.
After dealing with a number of other hecklers who had questions, I explained to the crowd why Christianity is the only true religion and what they must do to be saved. I then tagged Ralph back in and he preached for about 30 minutes, explaining the historicity of Jesus' death and ressurection, which lead into the gospel. Then he tagged me back in and I preached for the remaining 15 minutes we had.
Even though it was a bit quieter on the Coast today, many good one2one conversations were had, and a load of tracts went out.
Thanks to Peter Webber for taking the photos.
Sunday, 20 April, 2008
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Every
part of me did not want to preach today. I freely admit that I was
scared at the prospect of being arrested. But I also knew that we had
to be faithful in preaching the gospel. Ryan and I were the only team
members today, so we knew it was going to be some hard work.
Things got more interesting when we arrived to find that a big
international surfing contest was underway right where we preach. At
first I wanted to use that as an excuse for not preaching, since the
noise would drown us out. But then God showed us His Sovereignty over
all things!
A police sergeant walked past I thought I recognised
him, so I said "G'day Sarge" he turned looked at me and said "You're
Josh, right?" This was a shock, since a police officer knows my name.
It was then that I recognised him, he was the police officer that
arrested me last year on the Gold Coast for preaching. My first thought
was "That's it! We aren't going to be allowed to witness." But the
Sergeant was friendly, so I decided to ask him if we could preach. To
my surprise he said "Go for it!" What a shock, the police that want to
stop the Gospel gave us permission to preach it! To God be the Glory!
So
we did just that, we began to preach. I was the first preacher up, and
I began by speaking about the soldiers that died to give us the freedom
we have in this land. It didn't take long before some hecklers opened
up. First it was a bunch of British men, they were vile, and hated the
gospel. Yet I loved to speak to them. Even though they were hard to
preach to, I love dealing with those from the United Kingdom. We went
back and forth on a few topics, and crowd began to grow rather big.
After dealing with them for a time, a ‘false convert' came up and began to heckle.
I have dealt with this guy many times. So I opened up on him for not
being a true Christian but rather one who lives in sin. This caused a
few atheists to open fire, so I began to dialogue with them. They kept
claiming that the Bible was full of errors and contradictions, so I
handed them my Bible and asked them to find one. For the next twenty
minutes the searched my Bible, then they pulled out a book by
Christopher Hitchens, and searched it in the hope that they may find
something to use against the Bible.
During this time I
continued to preach and engage hecklers. The vileness of the crowd was
sickening. While you come to expect it you never get used to it. A
bunch of children were the worse. They were all around 7 or 8 and the
language they were using would make you go into shock. They were
cursing out God, and saying how they hated Jesus.
The crowd
seemed to love them, so I used them as a launch pad into showing the
depravity of man. They served as a perfect example on how we are
sinners from childhood to adulthood.
By now my atheist
hecklers had given up on the contradiction argument, and began to ask
about homosexuality. The crowd caught there question, and people began
to ask about it. So I answered it from the Bible, and provided the
Scriptures that show it was wrong. I also stressed that God would judge
the heterosexual as well for sinning, so they shouldn't think they are
being picked on.
One young woman came up with a mouth full of
curses, and then threw water over me. This started some in the crowd to
throw stuff at me. One heckler threw a full bottle of water at my head,
I was able to deflect it before it hit. Others just kept throwing
random stuff, but if you ignore it they eventually stop.
I
preached for about an hour, then stood down. Many in the crowd took
tracts after the open air. But by far the coolest thing was this young
woman approached me and said "Are you Josh?" I replied that I was, it
turned out that her and I went to school together over ten years ago,
and I haven't seen her since. It was an honour to be able to share the
gospel with her!
Ryan then began to preach, and he got a few
hecklers coming in who wanted to debate theology, and atheism. Ryan
went to the apologetic realm and showed the existence of God. A few in
the crowd loved this sort of discussion, and they wanted more. So Ryan
kept on preaching the Gospel. After 45 minutes of back and forth he
wrapped up, and we were able to hand out over 300 tracts in minutes to
those leaving the surf competition.
Praise God for All He has Done!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Sunday, 13 April, 2008
Gold Coast Report this week is in two segments:
Keith Rochford's (2IC) Perspective & then Josh Mitchell's Perspective (1IC)
Firstly, Mr Rochfords Report:
"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you" Matt 5:11-12.
Sunday 13th April 2008:
Team: Josh Mitchell, Chris Robson and Keith Rochford
Well Sunday was one of those amazing days when a Sovereign God allows you to stand firm in the Gospel, we started with a small team this week due to team members being away and Josh and I were back to back preaching while Chris worked the Bible table, Josh was first up preaching and started out with an interesting sermon on the reasons people don't wash which was quite amusing and he related it to reasons people reject God.
I followed up by preaching on humanistic world views vs. the Christian world view. I covered morality, ethics and human responsibility focussing on the illogical evolutionary position marketed at schools and universities today.
Then I went into the Law and Gospel and engaged a group on English tourists in the Law presentation. These guys were convicted of sin, and completely taken in by the Gospel presentation. They took Bibles from us, and were visibly impacted by the message of grace. These guys were very repentant, and we need to pray that God grants them Saving Faith.
Josh stepped up to preach again and people were buying us drinks and thanking us for sharing the Gospel which was really encouraging, but things took a drastic nose dive. Josh had started preaching to a group of Goth's, when a Police officer gave us a nice shiny set of handcuffs each to put on and then arrested us, we were taken to the local Police station, searched and all of our belongings confiscated and charged with 2 separate offenses. (This was quite interesting as I have been preaching in Surfers for over 2 years and have verbal permission from the local GC law enforcement)
After our arrest we were driven to Southport watch house and placed in a holding cell, I was then taken out of the cell. Josh meanwhile remained, and I began to be heckled by the Police Sgt on prayer. Then he asked if I would like to be placed in a cell with a child rapist, and see where my God is then.
I replied, "I would like that, if it can be arranged" and continued, "It's funny how we are all guilty of breaking God's law, and have no issues with that, but we are quick to judge others if the offense is deemed bad enough in mans eyes."
I was lead off to be fingerprinted and photographed, and shared Law and grace with the officer responsible for this task. He told me he was a back-slidden Christian (even though that's an oxymoron) and became very convicted. He really opened up to me and said his mum always spoke him about the things of God. I reminded him that if he does not repent of his sins and believe the Gospel he will spend eternity in hell. He said he understands and thanked me for being so upfront (he even said he could not believe that I was in here).
I was returned to a different cell than before and prayed for the Police officers and people that heard the Gospel today, until Josh joined me. When my brother Josh arrived we went straight into prayer and the Lord was quick to answer.
Others joined us in the cell and we were able to witness to them extensively (thank you lord) I can really say I felt only joy and peace in this situation, and I am so thankful to God for placing a man like Josh at my side to share in chains for Christ. Our ordeal was well worth it.
Christian's WAKE UP, stop living your life for yourself, and start sharing the Gospel Biblically. If you have the absolute honour of being persecuted for what you believe, REJOICE, our sufferings are nothing, sin is a terrible thing. Look at what it cost God, look to the cross of Christ, how can we sit here as Christians and do nothing?
How can we preach softened FALSE GOSPELS? How can we read our Bibles and not want to plead with people to be reconciled to God? If you have never suffered for sharing the Gospel, are you actually sharing the Biblical Gospel? How will they hear without a preacher? How will they know of the hope that resides in us? The Gospel is the power of God for salvation! Are we going to grow fat feeding on His promises while sinners are sinking into hell? I don't believe any true Christians will excuse themselves from there duty, if you are unsure read 1 John and examine yourselves.
Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Luke 9:24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it:
but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
Luke 9:25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world,
and lose himself, or be cast away?
Luke 9:26 For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words,
of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory,
and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.
Josh Mitchell and I were then released on bail and met by Josh Williamson, Chris and Kyosti (hope I spelt his name properly).
Keith Rochford
Secondly Mr Mitchell's Report:
Sunday 13th April 2008
By the unmerited favour of God, through His vessels of mercy, His name was made known: Jesus the Saviour
Talk about open hearts! :)
We started out today with a small team of Keith Rochford and Chris Robson. I stepped up to preach, and launched into a short and sweet sermon, which got a few chuckles from those sitting nearby. Thanks to on the open air preachers from around the globe; I had an article on "Reasons I Don't Wash".
I preached the law of God (Ten Commandments), and then finished with the precious and powerful gospel of Jesus Christ.
Keith Rochford stepped up and began to preach, and as usual, a few drew closer to hear his British accent, and he began to show why evolution doesn't offer credible evidence, to undo the claims of the bible. He preached the law and the gospel, and stepped down to swap with me.
During our time preaching we had young and middle-aged people coming up thanking us, giving us water drinks and offering money.
I began to preach, and after a short time preaching, God gave me about thirteen darkly (gothic) dressed young ladies and a few fella's. They stopped and listen to me. I engaged them and we had quite a fun chat back and forth, during which I challenged them with a question.
Do you think you're a good person? Some thought they were good, some weren't sure, so I gave them a scale.. Hitler at one end, and a good guy at the other end.
One young lady said she was bad and loved Hitler. I responded: "You have affections for a man who killed millions of little children, men and women who were Jewish and then some?" She went quiet. But nodded and said she was a bad person.
So I gave them the ten commandment test, and they were open and honest. Towards the end, I asked them, if you died tonight.. and I hope you life a long life, but if you die, the bible says there is judgement afterwards. Would you be innocent or guilty? They all sang out in unison: "GUILTY!!!" Their voices still ring in my ears.
Just as they did so, a police officer crossed the road and shut down the preaching. A short time later we found ourselves in handcuffs and being marched to the local Police Beat across the road, which we have been preaching in open view of, for almost two years.
Our shoes and socks and belts were removed and all our personal items, and with cold feet we had to wait for a body search.
After that we were driven to lockup, its weird watching your car slowly get locked in by security gates, and then personally escorted into a solid security cell. I began to realise what prisoners feel like.
We were then held in a cell together, while we waited for more police. Keith Rochford was called out of the cell, and I was left locked in. He held a plate up, and was photographed then quizzed.
I had to wait quite a while in this cell, where everyone could watch me from the outside, so I just sang hymns and waited patiently. Being barefoot I was conscious of the stains on the floor, and couldn't help wonder what disgusting material had permeated the floor surface.
After a long while I was released from that cell, given a plate to hold up under my chin. I was told to stand in front of a red line and then a lady officer photographed me. Then I was quizzed on many things, including had I been taking drugs, had I been suicidal lately, etc etc. This was followed by being taken (still barefoot), to a big cold holding cell, and a heavy door slammed shut behind me.
I knelt and prayed, committing the police officers into God's hands for conversion, and then sang hymns waiting for my brother Keith to join me.
After waiting a long time, Keith Rochford was brought to finally join me. An older policeman came and marched me to the fingerprinting room. My fingerprints were taken, and the officer pointed out the tiny little sweat glands on my palms.
People, I was completely amazed at the tiny designed machinery that is even found in our hands! Praise be unto God! We truly are fearfully and wonderfully made.
After witnessing for a short period of time to this gentleman, I was taken back to the big cold holding cell, to be reunited with my brother Keith.
Shortly afterwards, the Lord brought us two more men to share with, and by His grace we were able to do it. One had been involved as a young man in the worldwide church of God, and since had been living a life of sin, and was feeling the earthly consequences of his actions.
God graciously allowed me to share with him, and show him that his greatest problem right now in the lockup, was that he was God's enemy.
He was surprised, and he inquired what I meant by that. This was my opening to share him the Ten Commandments, and how he was an enemy of God, because of his wicked works. He understood, and I pray, that if it pleases God, this young man might be converted and used for the glory of God, in the not too distant future.
Shortly after, Keith Rochford and I were released from the holding cell, and we were ushered out of the building having collected our belongings.
Please pray that God will use our time in lockup, for His glory, and that God's glory might be known well, through the witness he gave by through his unworthy servants.
For Jesus name,
Josh Mitchell
Sunday, 6 April, 2008
- [Preachers made to be quiet] - [Money is now the root of all eeevil..] -
- [Young lady says she needs to repent] -
Date: 06.04.08 Sunday
Time: 1:00 - 4:00PM
Blog Report: Operation 513 Gold Coast City Team
Location: Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, Cavill Ave
Team Members: Keith Rochford, Nathan Hermann, Ryan Hemelaar, Josh Mitchell (writer)
ALL THAT WAS DONE IN THIS REPORT, WAS ONLY BY THE GRACE OF GOD.
Memory Verse: Matthew 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
PREACHERS MADE TO BE QUIET
Rain, rain come again.. today the heaven's opened! The ocean swell was a magnificent sight to see. I was soaked wet, by the time I got to the meeting sight, Praise God for the umbrella I had in my hands. We could not preach today. It was a God ordained thing.
Instead we took to the streets with pockets stuffed with tracts, and put them into the hands of those who would accept them. Lots of wonderful conversations were had, with many who might now, at the time of this writing be dead, and in hell...
Please pray for those who yet live, and know the gospel!
MONEY IS NOW THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL...
An Indian man confronted me, as he accepted a big money gospel tract. That didn't go down so well..
"Is this what people are presenting the word of God on, these days.. on money?", he shook his head, and expressed disgust with his face. "sharing the word of God on this evil stuff..".
He stared at me, and said: "don't you know what people do with money.. money is evil!".
His child was licking an icecream, thankfully God gave me the right words to respond with:
"Sir, there is nothing intrinsically evil in money itself.. after all, do you use money to buy gifts for your children?", smiling I continued, "sir, do you use money to buy a bed for your children, and food, and clothing?".
His response was one of shame.. "Don't put that on me".
I replied: "But you can see what I am saying.."
He nodded, and smiled.
Unfortunately, so many people have confused the teaching of Jesus on money, and claim that money itself is evil. This is a wonderful opportunity, for Christian's to do what Jesus commanded us to, and that is to teach all nations what he commanded.
Mat 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
This man had forgotten, that it is the love of money, that is the root of all evil. It is the hearts attachment to gain, advantage, benefit that is attached to means, that is the root of all evil. And you cannot serve God and mammon.
Our friend kept the gospel tract, and so did his child.
YOUNG LADY SAYS SHE NEEDS TO REPENT.. with displeasure on her face
Five young ladies, stood watching the magnificence of the waves crashing upon each other, and the sand being turned up into the water. Five minutes later, they were starting to get really uncomfortable as the power of God's Ten Commandments, began to work upon their conscience. One girl, walked away and came back. Three girls looked away, for something to distract themselves. I asked them, now what does it take to be forgiven by God? I hadn't told them yet.. they couldn't answer, and then out of the blue..! One girl said.. "Repent".
"Turning from sin, and trusting in Jesus good works, and person, instead of your own", thats right I continued. These young ladies were not Christians, but at least one had had a christian influence in her life, so that she knew she had to turn from her sin.
It is nice, when you find the Lord of the harvest, has already sent labourer's to work with a person, and your along the way with them. Please pray for the conversion of these young ladies and those we work with.. you never know who you will see in glory, and who you may see depart from God's judgment seat to that terrible place of punishment.
A final word:
Perhaps the language, in this report, confused you? Perhaps it didn't make sense..
Maybe a cartoon can explain it to you more easily, click on the picture below:
I hope that helps :) Let me know what you think,
Until the next report, have a wonderful week,
For Christ and His Covenant,
For the glory of God,
josh mitchell
PS. Big thankyou to the boys who faithfully come out and work with us each weekend, to those brothers and sisters around the world, who faithfully share the gospel as oft as they can. God bless you!
Credit: Raw images (excepting comic) used on this webpage were taken from Wikipedia Commons.
Sunday, 30 March, 2008
Date: 30.03.08 Sunday
Time: 1:30 - 4:00PM
Blog Report: Operation 513 Gold Coast City Team
Location: Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, Cavill Ave
This report will be more of a photo report, thanks to Peter Webber.
ALL THAT WAS DONE IN THIS REPORT, WAS ONLY BY THE GRACE OF GOD.
Team today consisted of:
Keith Rochford, Ryan Hemelaar, Victor "Frosty" Barwick, Nato Herman, Chris Robson, Peter Webber.
In case your wondering what this report is all about.. click here first!
Roman Catholic agrees with preaching, but struggles with repent from sin and religion, to trusting Christ.
One of the wonderful things about street preaching, is that it creates a wonderful environment, for talking to people who are just wondering around, about the things of God.
Please pray for our Roman Catholic friend, who was encouraged by the young men preaching morality, and Christ. I spent a good bit of time with her, and can only trust in God to convert, if he pleases, on his timing.
Young lad, "Ash" returns
Ash keeps coming back. One of the lads had a good chat with him. Please continue to pray for his church, that they will understand the law, and the gospel, and stop inoculating him against the truth.
Kiwi, argues with Kiwi
Well I am the New Zealander by birth, and this fellow was a Kiwi as well. He offered some very good persuasions against the law of God, but he humbly took correction from the words of God itself. Please pray for his conversion. It is a beautiful thing, to see people come out of their shell, and actually express thier opinions, for the purpose of discovering truth, without resorting to the crazy violence that some people seem to resort to at night time. I hope we see more of this.
General Encouragement to the Team
The whole team did a wonderful job, of preaching the gospel as best they could, and the people responded really well. It was a hot day, but the public mostly seemed to enjoy resting on the chairs and listening to the words being preached. Obviously when the law enters, every gets uncomfortable, but people must by taught by God's law of thier sin, and lack of righteousness. It is by this that they see their dire need of Jesus Christ, the greatest substitute in law, that ever died in our unholy world. 
Frosty videotapes the open air preaching, and Chris handed gospel messages to the lost.
Ryan Hemelaar, our hardworking webmaster, engages a crowd of young ladies, and dialogues with them about evolution, morality, and the personal need of the Saviour Jesus.
Nathan witnesses to a nice lady, while offering free AV New Testaments, bibles and tracts.
Keith shares the gospel with some men, about the gospel.
Josh (me) strikes another strange preaching pose, and Ryan is "caught" giving gospel tracts to people.
That's our report for the week,
Seek God's face, and beseech him for mercy and grace in time of need,
A little servant of the Most High King Jesus,
josh mitchell
Sunday, 23 March, 2008
Date: 23.03.08 Sunday
Time: 1:30 - 4:00PM
Blog Report: Operation 513 Gold Coast City Team
Location: Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, Cavill Ave
ALL THAT WAS DONE IN THIS REPORT, WAS ONLY BY THE GRACE OF GOD.
Team today consisted of:
Keith Rochford, Kyosti Tiovola, Chris Robson, Josh Williamson, and "Frosty" Barwick.
Muslim's dialogue with Christians
As you can see above two Muslims ladies, dialogged with me for a good ten minutes, but after taking them through the ten commandments, they both turned on their heel. They were both very nice ladies, and it is good to see people willing to say someone else is wrong, in such a relativistic age. Some people are intolerant and will bring whatever force to bear to shutdown freedom to express yourself, these Muslims weren't like that. Please pray for their conversion.
Later
on a Muslim man came up and took a tract and spent time trying to
explain about Islam, and how Christianity has no right to claim the
Islam is false. I spent time with him, and he took my email, to ask
more questions. May God bring him back to me, if it pleases Him.He attacked the bible, and said it had errors. I asked him to name, even one. He couldn't do it. Please pray for his conversion.
Mr Williamson was the next preacher up, and he began a short sermon, which gained the audience of a few more hearers. Please pray for Josh's voice, as he has been preaching the past few days, and today had the taste of blood on his mouth. Josh does a great job preaching the gospel, and sometimes this is what happens with busy Christian's. I wish all our throats were as sore, because of how much we preached the gospel!
Next preacher up, was Mr Rochford the Gold Coast 2IC. He does a great job watching the team, while I preach, and I am thankful to God, that he has been sent to work with me here in the Great Commission of Christ.
Keith preached on, and God answered our prays in bringing in a small crowd to hear the gospel, and dialogue with the preacher. It was quite a pleasant afternoon, which has been a bit of a change from a few weeks ago.
Keith showed the faultiness of Evolution, and began to present professors and doctors who also disagreed with the foolishness of the evolution theory.
He preached in the gospel, and then tagged Josh Mitchell back in.
We preached on for a short time, but stepped off, since people were watching a person be brought in by the Surf Lifeguard's.
The team did a great job tracting, and young Robson was a tract
machine! Please pray the people would continue to think about their
sins against God, and the judgement to come.. and then of Christ's
death and resurrection.
May the Lamb that was slain, receive the reward of His suffering.
If you haven't taken the good test yet, please click here.
Credits:
Images taken from Wikipedia Commons.
Photo's of Gold Coast from Josh Williamson.
Sunday, 16 March, 2008
Date: 16.03.08 Sunday
Time: 1:30 - 4:00PM
Blog Report: Operation 513 Gold Coast City Team
"The wicked heart of man is as black as ink.. man cannot change his own nature, as a leopard cannot change his spots.. he needs Christ"
Young man is mocked and jeered at by 6-7 young ladies his age
Zach is a young man who was with a crowd of young ladies, took upon himself to take the good person test and was subsequently laugh to scorn by these girls. I was dismayed at such a pathetic attitude of young girls their age, but then I was reminded by the bible verse that the heart of man is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. It's no surprise a human creature would ridicule someone, when it makes them look better.
It is the contrast of me against you, I am accomplished and you are not there yet.
It is the heart of hatred, and it pulses in every human being like a rotten overture, governing the tides of human desires.
This young man was humble enough to hear the law, and we looked at what Christ did at Calvary. He didn't want to take a tract, as his pride was high from these ladies mocks.. but then God can humble the proudest sinner.
While I was sharing with our young friend Zach, another heckler interjected and wanted to take me for an intellectual ride.. after thanking Zach for graciously giving me some of his time, I turned to our new friend.
the Atheist raises his head
The new fellow fired questions at me, and his girlfriend helped him, as follows:
- If God is good, why is there so many babies being born deformed and sick?
- What evidence is there for God's existence?
- Who made God?
- If we are all guilty, doesn't that mean we are going to hell?
The questioning came thick and fast, although they did give me the grace to respond, which is not something I get often from atheist's. I think the reason for this is that the position "There is no God", is not an intellectual position, but rather it is an offensive position.
What I mean by that is, that there is no way of "knowing" that there is no God.. 
"Atheism has to demonstrate infinite knowledge, which is tantamount to saying, "I am omniscient that there is no omniscient being."
.. rather what atheists are naturally prone to do, is to attack any Theistic or Deistic positions, and try to show that they are invalid instead.. but that simply does not in and of itself.. disprove the existence of God.
By the grace of God, by the end of our encounter, these two were concerned about their fate after death, and promised to consider it my presentation and they accepted gospel tracts.
Please pray for them.
Our old acquaintance Ash returns
Keith was given the preaching stage, and Ryan joined him, as preacher, while I moved to support the team. Very shortly Ash our old acquaintance arrived.
For those of you praying, he still loves his sin, and is making excuses for it.
With all my heart I believe that the church he attends, is inoculating him against the gospel.. and the probably do not even realise the danger they are subjecting this young man to, by their ignorance of scripture.
Ash
tried to tell me that violent video games were ok, because they were
not in the bible. He was also tried to distract the issue, by saying
that he was angry at people who commit paedophilia against little
children, and wanted to bash them.
I explained that in Genesis 6, God destroyed the world because they imaginations of men's hearts were wicked continually, and that he was immediately open to the wrath of God, because of His wilful desire to enjoy imagining killing people, and destroying the flesh of imaginary creatures on a computer screen.
Ash disagreed with me, and so I can only pray God will grant him repentance that he might recover himself out of the snare of the devil. Ash took the good test again, and as we persevered through the law, he found he was again guilty of all ten commandments. His heart is hard, but God's word is able to break the hardest rock in pieces. I trust God will not allow this young man on judgment day, to escape the wrath of His holy nature, if he attempts to tell God, he should be let into heaven. Please continue to pray for Ash. God may yet grant him repentance..
We worked through a number of issues, but ultimately he does not want to repent yet.
Are you in a band?... and what do you think of man-on-man action..??
I got up and Ash headed to Ryan who was preaching, and asked him what he thought of violent video games.. I guess it must have been playing on his conscience :)
Taking Chris Robson to hand out tracts on the street, I was interrupted by a nice young lady.. who wanted to know if I was in a band? Never been asked this before.. apparently I look like someone important! hehe
The young lady was joined by three others her age, and one threw this outrageous statement at me: "what do you think of man-on-man action? because I think it's beautiful". By the grace of God, I said the question was ok to ask.. since her friends were especially shocked that she would say something like this to a preacher.
The
conversation quickly turned to, "how do we know what is wrong/right"..
arriving at God as being the only possible determiner of morality,
which led to the law.. the girls after some work, seemed to be really
concerned about their eternal fate.
God knows only what was in
their hearts. One seemed to want to leave options open to sin in
future.. but God is the determiner of men's salvation, not men's hearts
;)
Old man reached by Kyosti.. who I couldn't get to for over a year!
There is this old man, that I have been trying to give tracts to every
now and again, and he simply wasn't interested. God let Kyosti get a
tract to him, and he had a decent chat about salvation! I was so
chuffed. God answers prayers.. though sometimes it takes a long time to
see them happen! :)
May God save the old fellow, and use him mightily for His glory!
Ryan Hemelaar, our faithful web developer, had the privilege of preaching, while the rain clouds started to roll in. He did a good job, and faithfully preached the gospel, even though
people seemed to have left the beach and reached the dryness of the
mall.
Thankyou to all the labourers who came out to serve on the Gold Coast Operation 513 Field Team, may God bless you for your faithfulness to Him and His word:
Keith Rochford
Kyosti Tiovola
Nathan Hermann
Chris Robson
Ryan Hemelaar
Author's final thoughts:
Could I possibly communicate to you, how many times the Sovereign King of Creation, the majestic Jesus of Nazareth, has impressed me, as I reflect upon His holy invasion into my human experience. Probably I wouldn't have time.
I am increasingly impressed by the providence of God, in keeping the work of evangelism alive.. even now, in this Atheistic and Roman Catholic dominated part of the world.
As a repentant believer in Jesus the Saviour, I have joyfully observed the work that Jesus is doing by His Holy Spirit, in this dark, gloomy, hateful world. I have seen Him bringing people to tears by conviction of sin, and the knowledge that he suffered terribly, dying in their place.
Till next time, have a brilliant week, and seek the face and pleasure of the King Jesus!
Ps. If you want a bit of an idea, how we preach down the Gold Coast, here is a recording (thanks to Ryan Hemelaar), from our worldwide broadcast on Sunday nights.
Sunday, 9 March, 2008
Darwinism Undermined - Large Crowds Hear the Gospel
Date: 09.03.08 Sunday
Time: 2:00-4:30PM
Blog Report: Operation 513 Gold Coast City Team
Team Members:
Keith Rochford
Ryan Hemelaar (our cherished hardworking webmaster)
Nathan (our new friend and labourer in Christ)
Special Credit: This report was taken from Keith Rocheford, as Josh was absent from the
field, due to his wife's serious but temporary sickness on Sunday. Big
Thankyou to Keith, who faithfully held the line for the gospel in
Surfers Paradise on Sunday. May God bless Him for his labour, for
Christ's name's sake.
Preachers: Keith Rochford / Ryan Hemelaar:
'For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables' 2Tim 4:3-4.
Today
Ryan opened up the preaching and drew a good sized crowd within a few
minute's he had some hecklers straight away who were asking "If God
made the world, who made God?' this is a classic category mistake
question, it is like asking 'what is the smell of blue?' only finite
things require a cause, infinite things do not require a first cause,
Ryan answered the crowds questions and then delivered a gospel message.
As
I jumped up to preach some of Ryan's previous hecklers returned to ask
more question's we covered the validity of the Bible, why
christianity is the right religion among all the man made efforts and
then things started getting very interesting, a Catholic started
asking if we need to keep the Sabbath? Which is a strange question
from them as you would expect that from a seventh day adventist, I
countered the question by quoting Romans 14:5-10 and Col 2:16 we are
not to let others judge us regarding Sabbaths/days of worship, he got
very angry and said I am quoting the Bible out of context as Paul was
only speaking to the Jews, I reminded him that Paul was the Apostle to
the Gentiles and he left. This gave a great opportunity to preach on
the false gospel of the Catholic church i.e Justification by work's
infused grace, treasury of merit and idol worship and allowed me to
close with the true gospel. Any other gospel preached is 'Anathema'
(accursed, eternally condemned) Gal 1:8-9
Ryan
jumped up for his second bout of preaching and after about 45mins he
wrapped up and had to leave as he was speaking at Church , this left
Nato and myself, Nato continued on tracting duty and I stepped up to
preach again, things really started to happen here, I instantly had a
few excellent hecklers one claiming to be a Physicist another a
relativist and finally a new ager, I debated and undermined the
theory of evolution based on its own claim as a theory and as agreed by
the Physicist Phil its lack of evidence biologically and in the fossil
record I then quoted a few world renowned evolutionary scientists that
agree they have no evidence but except evolution on faith.
The relativist Craig was one of the best hecklers I have ever had, he was calm, asked great questions and most importantly was willing to listen to reasonable plausible and logical argument's by the end of our discussion he agreed there is right and wrong and that absolutes exist, more importantly his whole attitude changed when the Law and grace were preached, he became quite emotional, please pray for Craig as he has been through some difficult times recently and really needs God to grant repentance and faith.
My
new age heckler Troy was quite amusing, when asked if he had ever lied?
He said 'yes', but would not admit that made him a liar, he was very
happy for anyone else to be labeled one though, I just kept thinking of
what the Bible tells us in Proverbs 'all the ways of a man are pure in
his own eye's but the Lord weighs the spirits' Prov 16:2 We can kid
others and ourselves about what is right and wrong, but our God given
conscience will not tell us what we want to hear, it bears witness to
the Truth of God's Law.
After around 1 hour of preaching I wrapped up with a gospel message and covered freedom from slavery to Sin through Christ, there was a large crowd present to hear all that was preached so please pray for everyone present.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Keith Rochford
Second in Command
Gold Coast Team
Operation513.com
Sunday, 2 March, 2008
Date: 02.03.08 Sunday
Time: 2:00-4:00PM
Blog Report: Operation 513 Gold Coast City Team
Team Members:
Ryan Hemelaar (our cherished hardworking webmaster)
Nathan (our new friend and labourer in Christ)
Team Visiting Assistants:
Victor Barwick (long time friend)
Kyosti (hilarious friend!)
The REPORT:
Tears were falling..
Your preaching your heart out, but people aren't stopping. Then you notice to the side, a middle-aged women quietly wiping tears away from her eyes. Time stops. We often have no idea what it is God till we get to heaven and He shows us. Preach the word, be faithful.
Sin was calling its servants to obedience..
Two young teenage ladies held each other pationately, and embraced with thier lips.. an attempt to discourage the preachers from thier listeners and the message of Christ: Repent and Believe.
Tutankhamun made an appearance:
While Ryan preached a young man of 24 perhaps, argued that Tutankhamun had revealed truth to him, and attempted to explain some ridiculous and contradictory reason for why we were alive.. stranger things happen when you preach the gospel. This was probably an attempt to distract the preachers from preaching the truth, and get them into a useless discussion over an irrelavent peice of information with no eternal value.
Copies of the written word of God were requested..
Weekly copies of the scriptures are placed into the hands of those who are keen to read its words, and understand its message. This is a free service I offer at personal expense, and by the generous contributions of those who support my personal ministry. None of which I could do of course, without the Independant Baptist Press who subsidise, import and print the resources I use as an Indendant Baptist Missionary to Australia. All this is accomplished by the manifold and diverse grace of God. God's word is relavent today, and is still powerful, able to break the hard hearted rock in pieces.
Ash returns, but completely under the influence of alcohol..
Ash a common participant in dialogue with the Open Air preachers was back today. Sadly he was drunk. Nathan spent some valueable time labouring with him this week.. this is our job. Preaching the gospel in season and out of season... are you?
Man stands at traffic lights, talking to Victor Barwick, while the lights went green ten times..
Victor, or Snow as his friends affectionately call him, was handing out gospel tracts. Then a tattoed man came along, and was about to cross the road, when Snow offered him a gospel tract. A million dollar note.. the lights changed ten times, before the man crossed the road. He listened intently and asked question's as Snow presented the gospel of Christ to him. God only knows the end of this man, and we plead for his salvation.
Lesbians talk to Preacher:
They asked was homosexuality wrong. To which I posed them the question, how do we know what is wrong. They had no answer. I explained that all the in's and outs I could about the athiest's morality, and then showing it flawed with no basis for judgement. Then I moved to show that God was the definer of right and wrong. Then I showed them the scriptures regarding homosexuality. God has made his opinion clear in scripture. I urged them to repent towards God.
There is a theme here..
As I contemplated the lack of people who stayed to listen on Sunday, as opposed as to the large crowds we have seen of late, a thought began to enter my mind and then stayed there for a long time.
I could literally list off a long long record of events that occured on Sunday. In every single one of them, you would notice that Christ Jesus by His Spirit was labouring in the Gold Coast for the glory of God.
So often, we get caught up in the unbiblical trap of pragmatism. How strong are we, how many troops do we have, how many people are turning up in the crowds.. and we make the mistake of King David. We count ourselves, to see how strong God is. What fools we are.
God is stronger than all the strength you could percieve with your fleshly eye.. He is greater than ten thousand armies, boasting of millions of soldiers in each. He is more powerful than ten billion solar suns. He is more glorious than all the beauty of the Universe. He is the King who made all things, for the glory of Himself.
Further more, I considered that we could have three hundred men stand and hear us preach.. but I find its better to see one man repent.
For we find the scriptures record that all the angels in heaven rejoice when one repents.. and we find that all the christians rejoice when we get a big crowd. Did you notice something quite markedly different here?
We are rejoicing about the wrong thing.
How many of us get excited, buzzing to celebrate about one person who came to repentance? How wonderful is it to us? Of course we like to see it.. but don't most of us get really really excited about the wrong thing.
When large crowds stop to listen, it can easily be us, a thrill beyond words, and yet the Spirit of God, is grieved. Why? Because we have made the work about us, and not about Him.
The theme of Evangelism, is Christ. The theme of scripture is Christ. The theme of your life, must be Christ or it shall be lost from the sight of the saints, one day, into the fire of His eternal wrath at wickedness.
Jesus Christ is the one who was working today, and if he chose to use Josh Mitchell the worm, or any of the brethren in Christ on the Gold Coast.. he did so for His glory.. and we are grateful to be expended for His name.
Lord Jesus, the Gold Coast is yours, what shall you do with it? Turn our eyes upon thee, and help us to obey your all commandments.
Thank You List:
I want to express my heartfelt thankfulness to those who come out weekly to labour and be made fun of for Christ's sake. I am encouraged every week by the presence of those who faithfully take the word of God to the streets, for the glory of God. God bless you friends.
I also want to thank those who silently, and visibly support the ministry of myself and the Gold Coast Team. Also to those in leadership with me, and web team and so on who labour in the dark hours of the night to get the work done that is so needful. May God bless your sincere efforts for His glory, in the way that pleases Him most.
Also thankyou to the Police Officers who keep the Surfers Paradise region free from criminals, and keep citizens free to do what we enjoy most.. publicly enjoy the moral freedoms we have been given at the hand of God.
Also a thankyou to the cleaners of the Gold Coast. You guy are also an encouragement and an example to me. You do a difficult job, and often at the end of mean people's jokes. Thank you for your work, we appreciate the unsatisfying work you do in attempting to keep clean the Surfers Paradise area, despite the public leaving rubbish everywhere. Thankyou :)
An Invitation:
If you would like to take part in the work of evangelism on the Gold Coast, und er the authority of Josh Mitchell, then contact me when you are able. We are careful to make sure trained Christians come out with us, so that we may comfortably give account to the authorities and local churches, that the gospel preached and the attitude by which it is preached is good and godly. To do this, Josh likes to meet with people for coffee, and then suggest a training day, or listening audio's to bring you up to grade, so that you are a workman who needs not to be ashamed. Josh's mobile is 0412 759 536.
Sunday, 24 February, 2008
Date: 24th February 2008
Time: 2PM - 4:30PM
Reader, if you are a Christian, and therefore Love and Obey the Lord, please listen to my request.
Please pray for a young man named Ash.
Ash is a young man
He
has been returning back to the Open Air preaching site over and over
again, during the last 14-15 months that I have been preaching at
Surfers Paradise. His heart seems to be hardened against the gospel,
and his soul seems to be filled with bitterness and hate towards other
human beings. I don't want to say too much about him, so that I don't
embarrass him, but please take me at my word, that this young man needs
a lot of prayer. Please pray for his salvation.
Young Ladies need prayer
The
young ladies of Australia, seem to be consumed with sexuality, dressing
perversely for the lustful eye, and seeking the affection of those
around them, while spurning the audience of those, that they take no
pleasure in. Please pray for the young ladies of Australia. I met with
a young lady in the Open Air Preaching, and she was very frustrated by
the law of God. When the law enters, people get upset. Please pray for
this young lady and her friends, who laughed off the presentation of
the gospel.
QUOTE: "It is our duty to pray for all who trouble us; to desire the salvation of all men." [John Calvin]
God in my perception, was doing something special this Sunday
There
has been a lot of hard ground being broken up, by preaching week after
week in Surfers Paradise, and today we saw the softening of many
peoples hearts. A lot of people seemed to be really open to the gospel
of Christ, and its defense as the only logical world view that lines up
with reality. Please continue to pray for the people passing through
Surfers Paradise on Sunday afternoon. It is exciting to watch God's
Spirit move obviously to us, during the evangelism efforts of His
people. Often I suspect we do not know of His work, and it is precious
to observe Him working when he lets us perceive the work he is doing in
people's hearts.
An Unfortunate Scene
Unfortunately,
while preaching to a small gathering, a man of about 28 removed his
shorts and mooned me for about 10 seconds. He seemed to have no shame
doing this in front of little children, which was a real pity. I
cautioned him, that his actions were criminal, and that the police
could arrest him for indecent exposure in front of children. Please
pray that these sorts of incidents would be prevented by God, for at
least the children's sake.
A Little Child
There
was a young girl of about four or five, who wandered around taking
bibles and disappearing. I have no idea what she was doing, but I
suspect she might have been binning them, since I found one bible on
the ground later with a page ripped out. This is disrespectful, but not
uncommon amongst people, who are intolerant of others, and seem only to
respond immaturely by bring force to bear to silence a person they
disagree with, or destroy property to express their annoyance. The
little children learn quickly, and find it fun to copy-cat.
Workers for Christ's Glory
Ryan Hemelaar, and Keith Rochford, both preached today; and Nate tracted the area.
It
is good to see men, who are faithful to evangelism under authority, and
will do their utmost for the glory of God in a team environment. Please
pray for us, that we might have humility of heart, and opportunity to
present the gospel and defend it freely at Surfers Paradise. Please
pray that God will bind us together in love, that we might be known as
true disciples of Christ Jesus.
If I may offer a final prayer
request, please pray that we might be guided by God, to present solid
common-sense gospel introductions and presentations, that the people
will understand and be willing to listen to. We are men, we fail, we
need God's help unquestionably. Without Him, we can do nothing.
Faithfully, for the Salvation of the people who visit and live in Surfers Paradise each Sunday,
For Christ and His Covenant,
For the glory of God,
josh mitchell
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