Battle Log

The Battle Log is the place where 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.

Christchurch (NZ) Team

It was a privilege and an honour to be enabled to be on the streets of Christchurch this week to proclaim the gospel.  Thank you for your prayer support.

I ended up not heading to the streets today (Sunday).  I forgot my jacket, and it was cold!  I decided to work online instead.  But all the other usual outreaches went ahead: Tuesday afternoon in Riccarton with Roger.  Friday afternoon in the city with Andy, Greg and John, and then Saturday lunch time period on my own.

I’m going to have to start taking notes for Tuesday, because I can’t remember any of the specific details now!  (Oh, I found a picture I took - Roger had a long chat with that person).

Friday’s outreach was interesting.  Andy had a divine appointment to talk with John’s son to start with!  And so, John and I decided to pair up for ‘walk up’, while Greg would go with Andy.

As John and I went down Cashel Mall, we encountered a group of teens - about 12.  I had plenty of energy, so I decided to engage them.  They took the bait, but I had to work hard to keep their attention.  I knew I wasn’t going to be able to keep it up, and so my law and gospel message was brief.  I was also able to answer a few questions.  They left with many of them receiving follow up tracts.

Next we were able to have a brief conversation with a young man who was obviously very resistant but trying to be polite.  I’d love to know what the deeper issue is, but he didn’t stick around for long.  I was then able to briefly share with an African man, who had a Christian background, but was trusting in his works (prayer and church).

After that, I experienced a lot of false start chats with people who didn’t really want to talk.  By this stage, we were back at the Bridge of Remembrance and John and I split up.

I finally got a decent chat going, with a man sitting on a bench.  He was happy to talk.  Sadly, his friend had just committed suicide - so sad.  I started out by doing a lot of listening.  But, as the chat progressed, I learned he was an atheist who never did anything wrong.  He had never been angry with anyone.  And yet, amazingly, just after I raised the issue of anger with him, he started using bad language and talking about politicians in very unsavoury ways.  He was justifying all his sin and therefore declaring himself good.  He was very blind to any kind of reason.  I made sure to summarise the law and the gospel, using myself as an example, because he was so closed.  And then we parted ways on good terms.

Saturday’s outreach was very interesting.  Partly encouraging, and partly sad.

I turned up to the outreach, thinking on how useless prayer and evangelism can seem, and yet how powerful we know they are.  I was thinking about how foolish I looked, standing on the corner of the street, trying to engage people to share Christ.

I hadn’t talked to anyone yet, when one of my ‘regulars’ came past (I actually hadn’t seen him for a long time).  I asked him how he was.  And then he teared up.  We sat down, and he was willing to open up about a crisis he was having in his life.  I felt honoured that he was willing to talk with a foolish street preacher like me!  I did a lot of listening, and I instinctively knew I couldn’t push the conversation to the law or the gospel.  (I’ve shared it with him before anyway.)  I’m glad I didn’t push, because I ended up learning things about him that I don’t think I would have learned otherwise.  To my surprise, he used to be part of a local church, and he used to do street evangelism!  But now, he barely believes that God is real!  He was able to talk about some of his fears of death (not the process, but the loneliness of it).  In the end, I gave him my contact details on a church card and told him, if his crisis eventuated, and he was going to die, I would come and sit with him so he didn’t have to be alone.  Later in the day, he messaged me to thank me for the talk.  I’ll be praying for him, and hope to see him again.  That he would gain true understanding of the gospel, and that God would have mercy and save him.

Later, I ended up talking to 2 young lads.  A gentleman joined the conversation - and I initially thought it was the Father, but they weren’t related.  The lads moved on, and I was able to focus on the man.  It turns out he had a familiarity with the Bible, and yet he was thinking his works would save him.  Nothing registered when I clarified the gospel.  And then, sadly, I found out he had been involved with the cult: World Mission Society Church of God.  At this point, a 3rd person joined the conversation.  I initially asked if they could wait till I had finished the chat with the man.  They listened for a while, but they couldn’t hold back.  They wanted to ‘preach’.  He wasn’t abrupt, but he liked to talk.  My honest evaluation was that he was mentally unsound.  He thought God was talking to him, but what he was saying contradicted scripture.  Sadly, the 2 guys seemed to get on well together.  I ended up having a 4th person join the conversation!  Actually, he just wanted to talk to me, I had talked to him a few weeks prior - and by God’s grace, I was able to remember details from that previous conversation.  Sadly, this 4th guy hadn’t remembered the gospel, and so I briefly shared it again, before he moved on.

By this stage, the outreach was over.  When you are deep in conversations, time goes fast!

Well, that covers the week on the streets.  The online work is as busy as ever.  God bless you as you seek to make Christ known to those around you.  All glory to God alone.
 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 31/5/2023 from 1300-1500

Today, again only Johnny and Hung were available for the Sunnybank Street outreach. Amy and her too kids were all sick at home. Today, we again were mostly occupied with a chat. And today especially for Hung, I had less but many more long chats which were so obviously arranged by God with elected people that we had met before but carried on this time for a very long and deep chat on the gospel as well as my personal life witnesses. Another phenomenon today was that majority were Mainlanders coming here for UQ study but they all live in Sunnybank with two even coming from the same city of We Xi in Jiangsu China.

1) First, I was led to approach Boyd a Filipino Catholic Christian. He was very appreciative for my help to have his assurance of salvation clarified, as such he was happy to take a selfie with me to signify this divine encounter.

2) Then I was led to approach a girl by the surname of Wang ?from Wu Xi ?? Jiangsu. He was of Buddhism faith but found the gospel appealing. She was amaze to know that Buddhism??is not a religion as it worships no god in its original form. Budda Secamuri only promote a way of life to uplift himself to reach Nevera, a state that he become immune against temptation?I also proved to her the scientific aspect of Bible using 6 days creation as an example. She really found it interesting and convincing. She took a tract ??to read before we were apart when the bus came.

3) Mark an unofficial atheist believing in no god but aliens. I used again the 6 days creation to prove to him the trustworthy and scientific aspect of the Bible and left him with a tract to contemplate.

4) Then I caught up with a girl by the name of Yao?from Guangzhou??. She said she met me 3 weeks ago ????with her male classmate. ????. They are UQ students but all live in Sunnybank to take 139 bus to cross the Green Bridge to UQ. Thanks God that the bus was late as such I had almost half an hour time to share here the full gospel and then went through my personal salvation witnesses. She was very moved with a very softened heart and willing to ponder to make her last step of faith.

5) Then I was led to chat with yet another girl from Guangzhou??????she was willing to listen to my full gospel sharing ???????, but at the end declined my offer of the tract.

6) Daniel is an Australian born Indian ABI. He is a timid boy but appeared all receptive to the gospel message.

7) Finally, I caught up with yet another man from Wu Xi ???, he was willing to listen and raise no question about the gospel. ??????? But at the end, he did not take a tract.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday May 30th, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

It was a hectic period for us as both the family of three of Amy, Josiah and Joshua all fallen sick with high temperature, sore throat and body rasp. And meantime Ivano was diagnosed with suspected relapse of cancerous polyp in the neck with Biopsy yet to find out if it is benights or vicious nature. Despite of all these hardships enduring by our beloved church family members, the duty to preach the Gospel has still to be discharged steadfastly and faithfully with ministry as usual. The team of four of Johnny, Winnie supported by husband Vincent and Hung still served as usual. It echoed with the down side of Amy and Ivano that more rejection and indifference reaction were experienced. We nevertheless still took all the hardship to embrace it with trust and faith and God's grace was still enough for us to made many useful if not very fruitful approach. The work of the Spirit of mission power was evidenced that many initial rejections were turned around to become a full gospel sharing outcome. My few approaches with initially unwelcoming non-believer all ended up with good reception of the message, especially the last one with a Hong Kong non-believer admitting he find the gospel message appealing after so many people moved by God to share with him. So, he happily accepted to take a selfie photo with me to signify his appreciation of our work for God.

1) A Bangladesh pair of father and son with opened mind and softened heart to listen to the gospel and took a tract to read afterwards.

2) An Indonesia man with a not so welcoming facial expression still showed patience to let me share half of the gospel when the bus came and he also accepted the tract and let God follow up on him.

3) Then a lady from Guangzhou initially rejected Winnie for a chat. I pray and felt moved to have a go and was successful through a softer approach identifying with her life in China and here in UQ. At the end, I shared the full gospel to her and she even took a tract. So, the work of the Spirit was evidenced softening her heart thoroughly.

4) An Indonesia Lady rarely show disagreement that good person is not enough to go to heaven. It was a pity; the bus came and I did not have time to check out her logic to see if she has the same sense of sine and punishment that no person can escape the judgement of God on not just our action but our fallen human character.

5) Then God gave both Johnny and Hung a test with an emotionless man completely ignoring our approach eswith not even a glimpse of his eyes on us treating us like empty air. It was still a God led approach for us to know to let go of such hopeless case.

6) Then God led me to interrupt a Pakistan Couple of Muslim faith. They are intelligent learner of the Muslim faith and also understand Christianity a bit. So, we had an interesting dialogue about original sin and if we need a saviour. Time only allowed us to touch of original sin, where most Muslim believe we are born sinless and perfect but only become sinner and lead a sinful life when we applied our freewill to do some transgression against God and man. For us we believe we were created originally good and perfect without blemish but ever since Adam and Eve sinned against God, the whole human race has since then fallen to become a fallen people and such identity if fallen human race with the expression of enemy of God will be inherited by any single new born human which is the so-called original sin we carried the moment we was given birth to this world. It may lead to the way how we sinner can be saved by Jesus dying for us to take our place for the eternal punishment we originally should bear ourself. It was a pity they had to go but again that Muslim guy politely took a tract to read and pray that we can have chance to continue with our dialogue.

7) An Italian origin Aussie girl got clarified for her Catholic faith that does not know we are saved by grace through faith in Christ as such she also has no assurance of salvation. She showed appreciation for our facts finding chat.

8 ) Finally a Hongkonger pagan big boy but was open to gospel and show great appreciation for me to be the one repeating the message of salvation to him. He seemed moved to seriously consider to make the last step of faith to accept Jesus as Saviour and took a selfie with me to allow me recognize him net time for follow up chat.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

A regular, yet wonderful week of street outreach this week.  Roger was with me in Riccarton on Tuesday; Andy, Roger & Elena were with me in the City on Friday; I was in Riccarton on Saturday, and Tanush and Susan were with me in the City on Sunday afternoon.

I’m going to go in reverse order - hopefully that will get my memory going!

No flipcharts on Sunday.  The focus was on walk-up, which seems to be Tanush’s preference.  She emboldened me!  We started with a chat with a young filipino - he said he only thinks about the after life sometimes, late at night.  He wasn’t really engaged in the conversation.  So it was good when his parents joined the conversation.  His dad was more open.  Turns out they come from Oamaru, which is where I grew up!  Sadly I didn’t get to talk to the parents for long - they had to go, but both the Father and the son accepted tracts.

Tanush led the next chat, it was with 2 chats, 1 of them was very resistant.  She passed the convo to me, but it didn’t last long.  We parted on good terms, and the non-resistant 1 took a tract.

Tanush tried again, and this time I left her to it and got into my own chats.  Tanush ended up in a long chat with a guy.  And I was able to have a follow up chat from last week - they had 3 others with them this time, and 1 of them seemed impacted by the law and the gospel.  He accepted a copy of the gospel of John.

Susan was with us by now, and we decided to head to the sunshine nearer the bridge of remembrance (it was a nice late autumn day).  I saw Tanush and Susan have 2 more conversations, and I was able to have 2 more too.  My last one was great.  It was with 5 young lads.  They were joking around a bit, but I could tell I was getting through to them, because they were asking really good questions.

Saturday’s outreach was great.  In 2 hours I had 2 conversations (plus change) for about 45 minutes each.

The first was with a man with an accent.  It turns out he had German descent.  He is a medical doctor working at the Hospital and for the medical school.  Most of the conversation was focused on how we know God exists.  I challenged his assumption that we can’t be sure - because that is clearly what he needed.  He was obviously very familiar with Christian concepts, but he’s been hoodwinked away from it.  I didn’t forget to make sure I shared the law and the gospel.  As the law brings the knowledge of sin, and the gospel is the power of God for salvation - apologetics can’t save.  He was very engaged, because part way through the conversation, he got a phone call.  This often kills chats, but not this one.  He took the call, and then we got straight back to our conversation!

The second was with a young man with Russian descent.  He has only just arrived in the Country.  He is going to study communications at UC (University of Canterbury).  Previously he had been at a Catholic High School in Brisbane.  But it seems like he grew up in Russia.  He believed in the Nordic gods (philosophically, not literally).  For him, religions were like a candy shop, he takes what pleases him.  Sadly, that is idolatry.  Part way through the chat, he started reacting negatively (emotionally) when I had been engaging him purely on a logical level.  I could tell what I was saying was making sense to him, and he didn’t like it (he doesn’t get to make god, instead, God made him).  I decided to disengage at that point, I shook his hand thinking he would move on.  But to my surprise, he wanted to keep chatting, and stayed for a lot longer.  I was able to finish sharing the law, share the gospel and move into check questions.  We ended up shaking hands quite a few times at the end of that chat - I’m not sure why!  God willing he will have many more opportunities to engage with the gospel at UC.

Friday was great!  Martin from up north joined me for some outreaches during the Christmas period, and his friend, Elena, was in Christchurch - so she joined us for outreach.  It was great to have her with us.

There was a climate change protest happening.  I always love that, it attracts passionate young people to engage with the gospel!  Elena and I ended up having a great chat with a very thoughtful young man called Luc (french descent; he wasn’t actually involved with the protest).  Andy had a long chat with a young high school age girl who had been involved with the climate change protest.  Roger was busy as well.

I found it interesting that when the protest actually went past, how few people seemed to be in it, compared to previous times.

And that leaves me with Tuesday’s outreach.  Now, I’m sure I had some interesting chats - but I just can’t remember them.  But, I do remember Roger having a conversation with 12 (I counted them) high school students at one point.  They were all at different places.  Some of them even came across the street to talk with me.  One girl seemed genuinely stoked to have heard the gospel: she told it to me unprompted!  But there was resistance in the others.  Some of them were Muslim: one of them said he had talked to me before in the city - in hindsight, I remember the chat.

Anyway, they are the highlights of the week.  All glory to God alone.  Thank you for continuing to pray for us!
 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 24/5/2023 from 1300-1500

Johnny originally thought he would still be caught up in other matter as such sent me his apology to come. So, Amy and I start the ministry first. To our surprised Johnny quickly re-join us only half an hour later after his personal matter was done. Amy first served at the Western Bus stop and later moved to serve as the Easter Bus stop with Johnny and me left behind. Together, again the Spirit led us to have long and fruitful conversation with many non-believers. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung alone: -

1) The first woman I approached is from Cambodia ??? who said she had many chats with most of us before.??. Anyhow, I still managed to revise the message with her.
2) The next I approached was Brendon who claimed he had chatted with me at least five times before. He is an ABC with parents from Hong Kong and China. He claimed he has underst00d the full gospel but he still deemed his time to make the last step of faith has not come yet. I promise will keep praying for this last moment for him to come in His time.
3) Then I was moved to approach Wu ?from Mainland?? China with his partner. Initially he was very reluctant to listen but I use a soft approach to share my past experience in China for first earthquake relief then care for disabled orphans then Mr Wu ' attitude was changed to become receptive and listening the full Gospel. He even got both Chinese and English version of our tract. Pray for God's follow up work through the Spirit.
4) Then I got connected with to Taiwanese??. The younger one showed openness and willingness to listen the full gospel with an open mind and humble attitude. He took the tract and pray for God's follow up work.
5) Then I chatted with Catherine a Catholic Christian from Philippine. To mu surprised she has very clear understanding of the gospel with 100 % assurance of salivation. She was delighted to take a selfie with me.
6) Then the Spirit led me to pick up the same man from Xiamen?? I?chatted briefly. I was able to learn more about him who came to accompany his son for study???he said he has read the tract and find interest in it. So, I pray I can meet him again next week for more chat.
7) Then I connected with a young man from Chung Shan??. He sat at the very far side of the side bench smoking so that it will not affect another person. He was even willing to skip a bus to let me finish the full gospel and expressed a rational and open mind towards Christianity. Pray for another chance to chat next week. ?????????????
8 ) Finally , I had a longest chat first time with a German from Frankfurt. I quickly can identify with him with my past visit to Germany visiting my PHD brother studying and teaching there as well as my tourism visit including the historic breaking sown of the Berlin Wall. Joshua admitted he was a nominal Christian with no live connection with God in his grown-up life. But the Spirit led me to revive his soul to understand his once decision to accept Jesus is still for ever effective to be granted back the loss heavenly citizenship and the life of born-again Christians are all not yet perfect but needed to be transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit back to perfection. I thus also helped him to re-establish the assurance of salivation and pray that he will be moved to reconnect with God personally first then back to have normal church life.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday May 23rd, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

Right after I conducted the funeral service for my late elderly member Percy Lee, I declined the Lee Family's invitation for lunch but rushed to join the Toowong Gospel threesome team. It was a blessed outreach with many fruitful conversations with both non-believers and nominal Christians who are not clear and sure about their assurance of salvation. It is always our belief that God is the one who elected, moved, and convicted people to humble, repent, and make the last step of faith accepting Jesus as our Saviour and Lord of our life. Recap below is Battle Log of Hung

1) I was led to approach a girl by the sure name Poon ?from Hong Kong.??? There was a sense of sadness on her face which I assume I understand her feeling of helplessness. Gospel is the ultimate solution for all the imperfection and corruption of this sinful world that accounted for the down turn of Hong Kong from an international city of freedom to an ordinary city of China. The edge we used to have for international trade and finance have all gone and replaced by Singapore. Anyway, as a Christian and gospel warrior, we are not to solve the human broken-down systems but to restore the kingdom of God on earth by proclaiming the gospel as far reach as possible to people of all nations.

2) Then I connected with a man from Serbia. He claimed he chatted with me before on April 4th and some of us had also chatted with him before and he was busy in doing some last-minute revision to his assignment so excused me from a chat last time. This time, we did have time to connect and claimed he is a Christian. His assurance of salivation is also 100% correct. He showed appreciation to our work for God and with God.

3) Then I caught up with a father who came to study Science in UQ and the daughter to do state school here. ????They are from Guangzhou and I am glad for them to be able to come to the open world to receive much better education here. Hope that the gospel trac will also bring them new hope in life.?

4) Then I approached a girl from Nepal who appeared a bit suspicious of what we were doing. Anyway, it was the election of God for us to approach her.

5) Ashi an Indian Hinduism follower but has remain a very open mind for Christian gospel. She admitted there is nothing she could argue with the rationality of the gospel and admitted we are all imperfect as such everybody is liable to ask for salvation by Jesus. She does have Christian friends and it appeared she is ripe for harvest at any time soon by the Will of God.

6) Aman a Canadian born Sikh coming to do medical study at UQ. Although he was born in the Western open free world, but because of family heritage, he was bounded by the culture to remain dressing as a Sikh with a typical long hair but wrapping up by head scarf. Though wise, he actually was still quite open and did not strongly reject Christianity. He accepted the rationale of the salvation mechanism designed by God, but still only treat it as one of the religious expressions that he is happy to understand but not changing his own Sikh faith. So the Bottomline is still about the election and predestination of God for any of us to be saved. All we can do is to faithfully share the Gospel in-discriminatively.

7) Grace, a lovely local Aussie girl with full gospel shared.

8 ) Copper, another fair dinkum local Aussie boy, hearing the gospel from the first time and showed interest and receptiveness to the Christian faith.

9) Then I was led to chat with a Singapore girl by the name Barden who looks of Indian origin. Just managed to give her an introduction and the bus came so just left here with a tract.

10) Tom a Christian of orthodox background who surprisingly has no idea about the salvation and why we can go to heaven. He is from NSW then moved to Toowoomba and now come down to study at UQ. He though he became a Christian upon his baptism which of course was wrong. I anyway managed to recount the nutshell of the gospel to him and left him a tract. I must pray for another time to wrap up all the confusion he has about the Christian faith.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Due to rain on Friday and Saturday, I decided to do my 2nd favourite thing: share the gospel online!  But, on Tuesday afternoon I was in Riccarton, and on Sunday afternoon I was in the city with Susan.  So, this report will only cover those 2 outreaches.

I’ll start with Sunday’s outreach.  It was a cold winter wind, but the sun was hot.  I was layered up and so for the first part of the outreach, I was too hot!  I was also feeling tired, and so I decided I was just going to focus on tract distribution - if a chat got started, great!  But I wasn’t going to push myself.  The start of the outreach was slow.  Tracts were going out, but no chats.

Then I saw Mary.  I hadn’t seen her for a long time.  I had long chats with her partner, Michael, many times on the streets.  Sadly, he was very resistant to the gospel, and yet, he seemed to enjoy engaging with me in regards to the gospel.  The first thing I asked Mary was, “how is Michael?”.  She said, “Oh, he passed away 2 years ago - liver failure, he was refusing treatment, because he didn’t want them to put holes in him, he was trying alternative treatments”.  I felt devastated.  That is the 4th person I’ve ministered the gospel to on the streets who has since passed away (that I know of).  And thinking of all 4 of them, from what I could tell, they were rejecting the gospel.  So sad, when God’s mercy is free.  It really makes me reflect on how important it is to continue sharing the gospel, as we can.  Life is so short, everyone is going to die, and they need the gospel.  And yet, God is in control, and it’s not my responsibility to save anyone.  I rest content, that either way, God will be glorified, either through his mercy or through his justice.  God, we pray for mercy!

Anyway, eventually, after a few false starts, I was able to get into a gospel chat with 2 young ladies.  As this chat was happening, Susan arrived and listened in.  Immediately after this chat, I was able to get a chat rolling with 6 young lads.  3 of them instantly disengaged, but 3 of them stayed.  The first was atheist.  But his 2 friends were agnostic.  It was such a good chat, because the building / builder analogy clicked for all 3 of them, and then I challenged the atheist to the good person test - he was keen!  When I asked if he had lied, he said, “no”.  And his friend instantly looked at him, “yes, you have, it’s a lie to say you’ve never lied!”.  By this stage, the other 3 guys were back.  This time I asked if he had ever disobeyed his parents: “Nope”.  And then one of those 3 said, “yes you have!”.  Haha, my point was being made clear to all!  Sadly, this is where the chat broke up, the 3 guys pulled the atheist away, but the other 2 guys were keen to stay.  I was able to share the good news of Jesus with them.  One of them in particular seemed very interested.

Finally Susan and I were able to have a time of prayer, when immediately I was approached by a Christian man I haven’t seen in a few years, I was able to have a catch up with him, and then another Christian guy came to catch up - I broke that chat off, because I want to talk to unbelievers on the street!

To finish, I want to point out the picture in this report.  Note what was written on the back of his top: “Dream Big.  Live Larger.”, but, underneath it says in small writing: “Pursuit of Happiness”.  There is nothing wrong with being happy!  But, this is the god of the age: self.  It is so meaningless.  I wish more people would read Ecclesiasties.  God, again, I pray for mercy, have mercy upon Christchurch, New Zealand, and beyond.

Now Reflecting on Tuesday’s outreach in Riccarton.  I turned up and set up my flip chart when soon after a homeless person turned up with their shopping cart and parked it directly behind me (pictured).  It’s the first time I’ve ever seen them.  I said hello, but they didn’t want to talk.  Anyway, they stayed there behind me for the whole outreach.  God willing they listened into the gospel chats I was having!

During the outreach, someone in a car was stopped, waiting for traffic, right next to where I have my flip chat.  He wound down his window and started talking to me like I knew him.  He told me he was moving to Melbourne.  As I reflect on that now, I think I know who it is. His name escapes me at the moment, but it was a unique name.  I’m pretty sure I had a few long gospel chats with him over time.  From memory, at one time he was very open, but then later he became resistant as he counted the cost - if I’m remembering right.  Oh well, it was nice of him to say goodbye.  May he forget me, but I pray he doesn’t forget that his sin is serious and that Jesus came to save sinners!  I wished him all the best as he drove off, there wasn’t time to say anything more than that.

I simply can’t remember any of the details of the other chats I had for that outreach, except I remember that it was cold!  Glad I had my jacket - I even had to put my beanie on.  And at the very end of the outreach, as it was getting dark, a lady came to talk to me.  She is a Christian and trying to help a local homeless person.  She was asking me for advice on what services are available to help.  We discussed the gospel being the greatest need!

Anyway,  I’ll leave my report at that.  Again, I thank you for supporting this ministry through prayer!

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 17/5/2023 from 1300-1500

It was great to have Johnny re-joining the Sunnybank Street outreach on a weekly basis. I will not need to do outreach as a singleton anymore. Today, God again used us mightily to connect with large variety of people including non-believers, Christians but back flipped and Christians leading a nominal life without assurance of salvation and finally the fair dinkum Christians with 100% assurance of salvation anchored by the atoning death of Jesus as our Saviour and Lord of Life. Recap below is my Battle Log:

1) A Hong Kong Lady???once was a Christian but deserted her original faith in Christ??????simply because of the bad witnesses of other Christians especially those Pastors who fails to live out a sanctified life to glorify God. ???? I spend hugh amount of time to guide her to see that Christian if in flesh will still vulnerable to sin against God and each other. But as long as we have a right beginning of admitting we are sinners as accept Jesus as our saviour and Lord of our born again new life, then our eternal identity will be changed back from enemy of God to children of God or a heavenly Citizen. Yet Gid still has to take time to transformed us back to perfect through the gentle work of the Holy Spirit. In this journey of Sanctification, we should focus on letting out life be remoulded in God’s hand, but not picking on the mistakes or lack of life witnesses from other Christian brothers and sisters. Anyway, the arrogant and subjective through of the lady rendered a stone heart for the Spirit to let her humble herself to focus on her own life journey.

2) Michael from Taiwan. a fair dinkum Christian with 100% assurance of salvation and 100% understand of the gospel.

3) Then I was led to approach another Mainlander ?? with just a brief intro of the gospel then the bus came to cut the conversation short. Still managed to give out a tract.

4) Allianz a Filipino Catholic girl with assurance of salvation clarified.

5) Philip another Hong Konger???, just have time for a brief mutual intro and a nutshell of the Gospel then the bus came and he was given a tract to read on seeing each other off.

6) Then I was lead to meet a man from Xiamen??? but again just a brief chat with a tract as conversation ended again by the quick arrival of the bus.

7) Kevin an American Born Chinese from South San Francisco who again has 100 % assurance of salvation and 100 correct understanding of the gospel.

8 ) Then I came across a Chinese Christian but was not yet able to test for his faith status.

9) Sylvia from Nanjing?? who claimed Christianity is not scientific enough for things presented in the Bible. I thus chose to use 6 days creation to show her the science aspect of it and she was convinced. It was a pity the bus just arrived to end our conversation????????????

10) Capella from Stretton State high School was friendly and open to the gospel message, again just managed to preach the nutshell of the gospel with a tract.

11) Then I was led to approach a Korean girl who end up also taking a tract with bus came quickly.

12) Zhou a mainlander who claimed himself once a Christian but no more after has done Philosophy and Theology simultaneously. He has a lot of incorrect and incomplete understanding of the Bible and prejudiced view of God's character and nature. I managed to draw him back to the right track but his wrong comprehension of the whole paradigm of God rendered him great resistant to really understand the truth.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday May 16th, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

It was great to have Johnny re-joining us so quick, the next day after he returned to Brisbane from Taiwan. With three persons, we could cover more people at the bus stop of Toowong. We thank God to call and guide us to do street outreach which we think, is the most direct way to reach out to non-believers instead of evangelistic crusade meeting which often time have become a gathering of more Christian with a a few non-believers. By doing out reach regularly at a fixed spot, God started to let us see His continuant work leading us to meet up with people we chatted before for good and useful follow up. This exactly happened to me twice as per Battle Log recap below: -

1) I was led to approach Arak from Indonesia with every good English as he is a cross breed of a USA father and an Indonesian mother. Even though he is a Muslim, but he was very open to the gospel and admitted the salvation God rendered to save us is logical and sensible.

2) Then I chatted with A girl Wang ?from Shanghai?? who has just come for a year. ?? Despite a mainlander, she also appeared open and receptive to the gospel message.

3) Then I briefly in contact with an Australian Born Indian girl for just a brief chat handling out to her a tract.

4) Jeremy is a Brisbane Local. He is a Catholic Christian and claimed to have chatted with Winnie from Gold Coast before. I anyway still managed to check his Assurance of Salvation which was not there but got clarified. He was delighted to take a selfie with me.

5) Then I approached another Mainlander man who appeared not a willing listener but still did not reject me to carry on with my gospel sharing.

6) Pie a girl from Thailand was a good and receptive listener of the Gospel. She was surprised to learn that Buddhism is not a religion but a religious education without worshipping any god head. She find the gospel message very sensible and appealing to address the issue of sin.

7) Then I was repeatedly declined by several persons who was either on the phone ort busy in some other things.

8 ) Finally I caught up with Philip who recognized me right away claiming I had a good long chat with him. I then did a revision on the gospel message and follow up on any issues that still pull him away from making the final step of faith. He was frank and all receptive to the gospel message I revised with him help him a step closer to the final faith decision.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Another week of God’s patience, another week of outreach.  God is good.  All the normal outreaches went ahead.  I was on my own in Riccarton on Tuesday and Saturday.  Roger & Andy joined me for the Friday afternoon outreach in the City.  And Mike was with me for the Sunday afternoon outreach in the City.

I’m going to start with Sunday’s outreach and go backwards.  I set up my flip chart down from the JWs.  It was a bit of a slow start.  I was able to catch up with some regulars before I had a guy approach me.  He was handing out tracts (Ray Comfort)!  He was feeling nervous, and so was asking for some tips, which I gladly gave.  Good to know that others are out sharing the good news!  Sadly, he is not connected to a church, but I decided not to push that for the time being.  Mike arrived, and we started talking about making more flip chart stands, when 3 young skater lads went past - I was able to get them interested in the good person test.  I gave the chat to Mike, and he was away (pictured).

I moved away and started handing out tracts when I got a great opportunity to have a conversation with a young couple.  She was studying philosophy at Uni, and he is studying law.  When I asked if they thought about what happens after life, she responded with, “oh, that’s deep, I think I want to be ignorant”.  Starting from there, I was able to explain why this is NOT something you want to be ignorant about, and then I proceeded to explain how we know God is real, the law, and the gospel, and a few check questions.  They seemed impacted, and I enjoyed the chat.

Mike had a whole lot of the King Charles Million Pound Tracts from Living Waters, and so I decided to start handing these out.  They were popular!  They gave many people a chuckle, at the very least (pictured).

Later, a deaf man and 2 of his children approached the flip chart.  He just wanted a million pound note to read, but his kids were keen to go through the flip chart - it was a good chat, if not a short one.

As I had the Jesus page of the flip chart up, an Asian lady stopped and stared at it.  We were able to engage her in conversation afterwards.  She was from China, and her English wasn’t the best, but Mike had a gospel tract in Chinese on him!!  Mike was able to use it as a bridge to have a conversation (pictured).

The day finished with me encountering a young man that I haven’t seen in a while.  I first met him about 4 years ago, and at one point he made a profession of faith.  But sadly, he went AWOL.  The next time I saw him, he was in the Mother god cult.  After reasoning with him on that, I eventually had to block him on Facebook due to his intensity.  Well, it was good to see him again, at least he is out of the cult now, but he is still not converted, and he is still intense.  In the end I wanted him to leave, and he did.  But, as I was walking home from outreach, we providentially encountered each other again.  He seemed to be humbling himself, and so I agreed to unblock him so we could continue talking.  While we have breath, there is still hope!

Saturday’s outreach was good.  I’ve got a regular there now: Kelvin.  He is retired, and he enjoys chatting, but he is very resistant to spiritual things.  But, I’m there to talk about spiritual things, and he knows it, so I decided to push today.  He rolled with it.  He wants to deny the reality of God, but he can’t.  And then when I took him through the law, he resisted hard.  Insisting on his innocence.  A laboured the law, because he needs to hear it.  I didn’t get to the gospel, and he wouldn’t take a tract, but we parted on good terms.  Hopefully I’ll see him again next Saturday, God willing.

I had a long chat with a young Filipino lad.  He had a Christian background, and yet the gospel wasn’t clear to him, in fact, he seemed to be subtly trusting his works.  I worked through the simplicity of the gospel with him and a number of check questions.  He had a number of questions that I was able to address with him.  It was a good chat.

I had a number of other opportunities on Saturday. I ended up leaving a little early, as I was feeling a little bit sick.  I think I just needed some lunch, as I was fine after that.

Friday’s outreach was great.  Roger and Andy are both pictured.  I ended up having a follow up chat with a guy I hadn’t seen for 3 years!  I had talked to him many times before the gap.  He now lives in Auckland, hence why I haven’t seen him for 3 years.  Sadly, he was resistant - probably the most resistant I’ve ever seen him.  And yet we had a good long, but intense, chat.  God in his mercy has allowed him to hear the law and the gospel again, and it’s his power for salvation.  God can change the heart!  We parted on very good terms.  Lord, save him!

Tuesday was busy!  I arrived at the outreach spot, and instantly saw a group coming past.  I got out my tracts and prayed quickly, before engaging them.  It was a big group, and they were all in different places.  But I was able to hold the attention of 3 of them.  One in particular was resistant yet engaged.  I ended up talking for about 30 minutes.

I then headed down Riccarton Road and got straight into a chat with a young man.  Soon, his friend joined him, and then later another.  We ended up talking for 1 hour.  The 2nd friend was asking all the hard questions, and before I could even finish answering, she would ask another, and then another.  Whew!  But after 20 minutes, she felt comfortable enough with the conversation to say she was gay.  And so we discussed that for a while, me trying to hold the balance right: homosexuality is a sin, Jesus came to save sinners.

After the chat, I realised how tired I was, and ended up going home early.  I did some Insta conversations to make up the time.  I love the balance the online work brings to my energy levels.  God is good.

Well, that’s a wrap for this week.  Thanks so much for your prayer.  We appreciate it so much.  All glory to God alone.

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