Battle Log

The Battle Log is the place where 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 highlights.

Even though there is not a report from each team on the Battle Log every week, all these teams do meet according to the schedule (usually weekly). So please keep them in prayer and consider joining one if it is in your area.

The Lord had some prepared to be challenged in various ways today. An Indian lass who works locally, read the tract thoroughly before we had a brief chat before her bus arrived. She was agreeing that God is perfect and we cannot meet His standard. I was able to introduce the substitutionary work of Jesus on behalf of His people but the rest is in the Lord's hand.  Thankfully He always has the final word.

      There were a few chats with people that other team members had met before. They seemed to be hardened to the point where I challenged them to seek out God in His word.

     There was a man passing by as he pushed his wheelie-walker and wanted to know what the tract was about. His face light up when he heard it was God's good news. Pray that those sitting would be stirred up as they saw his appreciation.

     A day for scattering seeds in some small way. 

When our great God does His work, who can foresee what the eternal ramifications will be. Thanks for the privilege of serving. To you alone is the glory and thank you for those who pray - not forgetting the team in Myanmar!

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It was another interesting time that the Lord gave us; all glory and praise to Him who loves us and freed us from our sins by His blood. We had one large flip chart in action on the western side and a pair who tried engaging people on conversation as they sat or lay around. There was a long conversation with a Lutheran man who said that he could not keep God's moral law (the 10 commandments) but stated that he did not consider the Bible to be God's word but man's. He proved to be immovable from this erroneous position. When he said that he did not subscribe to 'faith plus works' to become saved, one has to wonder what does he mean? He attends a church but does not read the Scriptures and would not receive a tact. He thinks he has a relationship with Jesus but does not think God will 'let him in'!  Please pray that God will reveal his inconsistencies to him so that he starts to seek the Truth.

     A group of about 12 adults in their 20s seemed eager to do the test and as the test began I could see that they wanted to have a bit of a go at grandfather - praise God! We got as far as the court scene before they had to leave for a swim. However, there were 2 who thanked me and took tracts. {How the Lord has equipped me over the few years I have been learning this style of evangelism)

     Another group of 3 teenaged girls asked if they could do the test. One was atheistic but  entered into the conversation and left with a specialist tract. The other 2 were thankful. (There was a moment that only God could arrange. They were sure that they had never stolen anything. After a brief pause, one confessed that she was wearing her friend's jacket that she had left behind after a visit. At the end of the chat, I suggested that she let her friend know that she had her jacket = restitution or part of the fruit of repentance)

     A mother, Esther, brought her 12? year old son, Noah, to do the test. Obviously they were trying to live with reference to God's moral law. Hopefully by the end, they understood how we need to trust in Jesus perfect work alone to save us from our sins. Then after beginning to repent, we show our love for God by using His grace to live more and more His way. They left thankful.

     Until He returns, may we be found giving Him all the glory as He build His church.  Amen!

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As Hobart slowly comes out of its winter hibernation the outreach in the mall has become busier and we are seeing more response to the preaching and more conversations happening around the Bible table. In the last couple of weeks, I have had so many coming to talk some days that it seems I walk from one gospel conversation to another around the city. It is a wonderful experience to see God working in the hearts of so many.

Mr B. and Miss M. have become regular visitors to the work in the mall. Mr B. comes with many hurts from a rough background but gets on very well with Mr T. who has been helping me for some years. He has been coming most days for the last two months and while he is not converted there have been some wonderful signs of God working in his heart. Please pray for him that God will heal his pain but more importantly that God will open his heart to trust and faith in Jesus Christ.

Miss M. and Miss J. are a lesbian couple that initiated a conversation/debate with me some months back and since then they have been semi-regularly coming to see us. Miss J. has moved away but Miss M. still comes to see us. She often hangs around the Bible table with us and just chats, but she also listens carefully and ask pointed questions from time to time. There have been a number of times they have been prayed for by Christians and many sermons they have heard now. Please pray that God will lead them to see the great love He (and we) have for them both and the rightness of living for Jesus.

In the midst of this it seems that Mr S. has found other things to do with his time, as he has not been around for months. Except, that is, for two halfhearted attempts to disrupt the outreach in the mall. Both times the approach is the same. Aggressive leading questions and repeated accusations, all of which have been answered many times previously. While we all pray for him no-one in the team believe that debate with Mr S. is helpful any longer. He merely uses any attempt to discuss God's truth as an encouragement to more sin and slander of God. Please join us in praying for this troubled young man. What he needs only God can give, he needs liberation from his slavery to sin, he needs salvation.

In complete contrast to Mr S. was my conversation with Mr K., a friend of Mr W. a Christian who has come many times and thought we would enjoy interacting on veganism. Mr K. is a vegan and believes that it is immoral to support the slaughter of animals for meat. He equates this to killing and causing suffering for the purpose of pleasure only. Our conversation was great and respectful at all points, he listened as I spoke and I listened as he spoke.

I firstly laid out for him my concern was not in his vegetarian diet, rather I wanted to know why he who did not believe in God thought it was Wrong to eat meat. This seemed to be a new consideration for him as he paused for some time to think. Then he said it was because of the unnecessary death, dismemberment and suffering of the animals. Why is suffering wrong I asked. Well I wouldn’t want that done to me so doing it to them is wrong he replied. I replied, that is just your subjective preferences not a reason that suffering of animals is something that aught not be. As a veterinarian I am committed to preventing suffering in animals if it is humanly possible, but that does not make a basis for morally opposing suffering. Subjective morality is always open to someone else to say what right do you have to tell me what I aught not do? Who are you?

We talked for sometime about the contrast between subjective standards coming from individuals or societies and the absolute standards of God who is over all people. Subjective standards are logically inconsistent and ultimately no-one lives that way. Our conscience will not us get away with living according to our own standards, it comes at all our justifications and accuses us when we do wrong. We can shut it down and suppress it but it still speaks of a standard we aught to keep but do not.

I encouraged Mr K. to consider what God says: that we have done wrong and failed to keep even our own standard; that we have rebelled and sinned against Him our rightful ruler; that we should face justice for this wrong doing; but His love has made a way to give hope to the hopeless and grace and love to the sinner and rebel; that this way is found in Jesus Christ alone and He must be sought in humble faith. I encouraged him to humbly come to Jesus in faith and ask for forgiveness and salvation. We parted with a handshake and Mr K. was smiling as he walked away.

Praise God for good conversations! Praise Jesus our great God and savior!

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Hear two team members share about Gospel conversations they were able to have on Saturday night. 

The Square had no other events in it this weekend freeing it up entirely for Gospel conversations.

Hear one team member share about a conversation she had with a man who was Hindu, had considered Islam but was still searching. 

Hear another team member share about the conversartion he had, using the intelligence test, with a Muslim.

It was an encouraging night in the city. Please keep those in prayer who received tracts and heard the Gospel.

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We had a shorter-than-usual time at the bus stop today due to the departure later tonight of the team to Myanmar.

There were only a few conversations to commit to prayer:

     - Ryan had an 'indifferent' mature age man who admitted the Builder/building analogy made sense. He heard the good news. He seemed to be uninterested in taking it to heart. Pray God stirs/awakens him up to his dire situation.

     - My wife was praying that the Lord would grant encouragement today. Meet Charlotte from the Belgian Congo. She very succinctly & correctly answered the diagnostic question, "If you died today, why would God let you into His heaven?"  I gave a little summary about how science has shown that there is no reasonable possibility for a starting point, i.e. a cell randomly forming (protein + dna) and so macro-evolution is a dud theory. She replied with a demolishing of the Big Bang theory. After swapping some details of what we believed the Bible taught, we prayed as a brother and a sister-in-Christ. We went on our way rejoicing. Thanks for praying.

May God do His sovereign work through our efforts and the tracts. To Him alone be glory and praise. 

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This evening with the rain, there was a worry that few people would be out in Surfers Paradise but God bought along many people to hear His glorious Gospel!

Hear Mark share about a conversation with a German man who understood the Gospel and was interested in finding out more.

Hear Harry share about a conversation with a young couple who had never heard the Gospel before, spoke for almost thirty minutes and also wanted to know more.

Lastly, hear Matt share about a conversation he had with Vinnie, a man he had spoken to years prior in Woodridge. Hear how Vinnie had been thinking about it seriously and wanted to head along to a local Church!

Please be praying for the people in these conversations as well as the many more that took place tonight!

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This afternoon in Sunnybank the team got a little rained on but thankfully nothing too severe. There did seem to be fewer people around than usual though as people were less interested in waiting for their bus in the wind and rain. But despite this the team had a range of lengthy and important conversations.

Two guys the team has spoken to before at different points in the afternoon dropped past. The first named Mitchell. He is having a really tough time with some things but has recently headed back to Church. Sadly he is still struggling to understand that we are saved by the work of Christ alone, not based on anything we can do.

He was reminded of the Gospel and its call to repent and believe and was encouraged to dwell on that truth and rely on Christ alone. He was also encouraged that God in His absolute sovereign authority doesn't leave us alone. Mitchell is having some troubles with his living situation and past friends and was wondering why God would let him suffer like he is.

It was explained, with compassion that God's plan for our lives may be harder than we desire but better than we had hoped. God's plan for His children is not for them to have a worry free life and rarely rely on Him. Rather He often places us in circumstances and situations in which our only hope is to cling to Him, teaching us that through it all, He is a only true hope! 

He was also encouraged with the wonderful promise of Romans 8:28-29, that God plans all things for the Christ-likeness of those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose!

Another conversation was with a JW, Darnell. He had spoken to another team member a week earlier but was having a real struggle understanding. The same this week. The reason wasn't because of his English ability. Rather, he had been sown seeds to falsehood and he had been mis-taught theological words. For instance, "Salvation is simply deliverance from danger or destruction, and often specifically referring to deliverance from sin".

This poor understanding of salvation cuts the heart out of the Gospel message. Equally a misunderstanding of who punish Jesus on the cross, God's judgement for sin and many other things were missing. It was a scary conversation with a man who is "very religious" and even reads the Bible but has little to no understanding of what it actually is!

A final conversation and one that was lengthy and encouraging was had with a woman named Beth. She at first when asked, "Where do you think you will go after you die, Heaven or Hell?" declared, "Definitely Hell". She said she was too bad, too sinful to be forgiven.

This is a relatively uncommon response to the Christian message so the team were interested to hear why. We engaged with her in discussion for almost an hour. Answer questions about Noah's Ark, The Tablets, Heaven, Hell and many other topics. 

At one point she declared that some Jehovah's Witnesses had been visiting her mother and saying there was no such thing as Hell. She then said, this doesn't make any sense and she thinks that they are wrong.

This was encouraging to hear and also good to know that she wasn't just looking for any false hope or false religion. With a lengthy conversation coming to a close, the team once again reiterated the simple beauty of the Gospel, the command it has upon our lives, to repent and believe and the offer of forgiveness it brings.

Beth left with a Bible, a tract, an encouragement that this conversation didn't happen for no reason and was encouraged to read her Bible.

Please be praying for Mitchell that he will come to understand the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice and trust in Him alone for salvation. Please pray that Darnell will see the glaring issues with JW teaching and doctrine and instead will seek to understand what the scriptures say. Please be praying that Beth will understand how deeply she has sinned but instead of wallowing in guilt will be able to rejoice with great joy that there is a God who loves to save the most despicable sinners.

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We were blessed by today's outreach at Speakers Corner . Tim, Trevor and myself, by God's grace, each had an opportunity to preach.

Like last week, we weren't sure about the foot traffic, as the University students are on semester break. It seemed quiet at first as people were spread out and you had to walk to get to them. Then in mid sermon a whole crowd of approx 20 high school students going through a tour of the University walked past us, all listening to the preaching.

As they passed I was preaching on God's law. The point was made that we would be judged by a Holy God for every sin that we've committed. I expanded quickly on the 5th and commandment and how even those things that we've looked at on the internet, facebook, instagram we will have to give an account to God who is judge.

Then I preached Christ and Him crucified for sinners and as that happened some of the students asked and took our gospel tracts that brother Sam was handing out. 

May the Lord get glory from this work. 

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This afternoon the sky seemed to threaten rain as the team arrived but thankfully none came, except a couple of stray drops. The afternoon did come with a number of exciting conversations though.

An early conversation and a very sad one was with Roger. He declared that God did not exist. Then after the building, builder analogy he declared that God did exist, followed quickly by the statement, "He will let me into Heaven because I am a really good guy".

Roger, was so blinded by his sin and hatred of God that even when taken through the law he was unwilling to admit that God would find him guilty. Sadly at this he was left with a tract and encouraged to honestly read it.

Another conversation had soon after this was with Tristan. His mother was Jew by descent but non-practicing and at some point they had joined the Mormon church. They weren't overly religious but had gone to the Mormon church on and off during his childhood.

This was an interesting conversation as Tristan at first thought he would possibly go to Heaven but after hearing God's law and engaging with God's perfect standard he saw that no one in all of human history is good enough to get there. This then entered into a discussion about the Gospel and what God has done, so that the guilty and underserving can be forgiven.

Tristan later shared about some of his sins and he said he thought that he was too bad to be saved. It was explained that Jesus' sacrifice can save the most vile and wicked of sinners, because sin is primarily against God, and it was God's wrath satisfied at the cross.

He later went on to describe, that he probably wouldn't want a God that wouldn't let him live as he wanted. It was pointed out that this very thinking is the root of all sin. Sadly even though Tristan seemed to understand by the end of the conversation he wasn't (at this point) interested in God's offer of salvation. He rejected God's call to repent and believe.

Two other conversations were had with young men. One named Blake and the other Josh.

Blake said he liked the idea of reincarnation and explained his thoughts about the universe then with the simple building, builder analogy agreed that there must be a God. He heard the law, saw his sin, understood the desperate position humanity are in and heart the Gospel. 

It was a real struggle for him to understand that the Gospel called us not to be good and fix ourselves but to simply trust in God that He can pay for our sin and will fix us. It was explained four times but Blake seemed to understand it by the end! He also expressed and interest to trust in Christ, please be praying that He does and gets right with God, tonight!

Lastly a conversation was had with Josh. He had some Christian background and could declare that Jesus died on the cross for our sins but he didn't really understand what that meant. Through a lengthy discussion including an important one about how he was wrong regarding what God has said about salvation, Josh seemed to understand.

It was tough going through the conversation with many side tracks and misunderstandings but it seemed as if the Gospel was understood by the end. 

Please be praying for these four men that they would heed the call God has given them to turn in repentant faith and trust solely in Him and His accomplishments to save them. May they be humbled by God's Holiness and fall in love with Him!

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This afternoon at Woodridge was filled with some scattered showers and some Gospel conversations. As usual at Woodridge, there was the opportunity to converse with people we had chatted to before, as well as new people.

One repeat conversation was had with Afful. He had heard the Gospel a few weeks prior and had been challenged to make a decision. He was left to decide whether he would turn to Christ or continue in rebellion. Sadly Afful has still not turned to Christ. Again this afternoon the Gospel was reiterated and the importance of finding salvation in Christ was stressed.

He was left again, with an encouragement to read his Bible and to turn to Jesus. Please be praying that he does this!

Another conversation was had with a young man named Jake. He had a Christian background and had some Gospel understanding but his primary issue was that he just was non-commital. He sort of liked the idea but was more interested in living his own way and doing his own things.

This was another sad conversation as it shows the scary reality that you can grow up in the Church, understand the Gospel and yet be completely unchanged by it! May we never get so complacent that we forget the importance and seriousness of the Gospel.

A final and very exciting conversation was had with Aaron. Three years ago, on this day, a conversation was had with Aaron. It was on similar topics and had similar themes. Today, the Gospel was clearly shared with Aaron and he listened and understood. The importance of it being a gift to the underserving was stressed a number of times and Aaron said he understood.

Then some simple explanations and answers were given to a range of questions that he had. Some regarding events in the Bible, or things that he had misunderstood from the Bible. Others regarding why evolution is faulty and cannot explain life and a range of other things. It was an exciting conversation as Aaron understood and was left to ponder the challenged, "When will I turn and trust in Jesus?"

He is in contact with the team and will interact via email with any more questions. The first email was sent this afternoon to touch base and send some preliminary Creation resources.

Please be praying for Jake that he will heed the Gospel's call that he would turn and repent of his sin, finding salvation in Christ. Please praise God for the work he has done in Aaron's life up until this point and please be praying that this conversation will be a turning point where he decides to seek to understand God's Word and what God has said, rather than trying to work out this world by his own rationalisation.

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