Battle Log

Sunday 5 March 2023

Posted by Posted 5 March 2023, 11:03 PM by Glen Richards. Permalink

Wow, we are over half way through the trip already! Time goes fast when you have your head down and working hard in service of our great king and lord, Jesus!

And it has been such a joy working with the members of Rock of Refuge Church. Today we had a wonderful time of hospitality and fellowship with them. And their dedication in evangelism during this trip has encouraged me so much! It’s been such a pleasure to work alongside them.

I’m going to briefly write about Saturday’s outreach. We had a wonderful time of outreach at the University of the Philippines in the morning. And then in the afternoon we were at some gardens where families gather. I was paired up with Alvin. It was a joy to watch Alvin so calmly and confidently approaching strangers and getting conversations started. He was gentle and used questions to keep people engaged. He was an expert in language switching between Tagalog and English to keep me involved. We had some great chats. But there were distractions and sometimes a bit of a lack of engagement from those we were talking to.

The outreach was nearing its end when we approached a group of young people. Alvin handed out tracts, and I decided to show one of the guys my flip chart and asked him who he thought was ‘good’. He instantly engaged. And wow what a chat. I think I had to go back to the law once to clarify why we are not good enough for heaven, and then I was able to move into the false ways. He seemed impacted. When I finally revealed the only way to heaven: Jesus, he was visibly and audibly impacted. It clicked! It made sense to him. So, I then immediately moved into checking questions. He got the “sin again” question right, which was an encouraging sign. He stumbled on the “2 things” check, but this only turned it into a powerful teaching opportunity. “Ohhhhhh” he said as the gospel message was reinforced.

I then moved to the important concept of repentance (in regard to sin) using the fireman analogy. The “what would you say” check allowed me to use the “water via the straw analogy” to clarify that it’s not our faith that saves us, but through our faith IN Jesus. He nailed the “out of 100” check, and then I challenged him to respond to the gospel. He seemed genuinely happy for the conversation and to have heard the gospel, and this filled me with immense joy!

To finish off, I asked him about his friends (near to us) - what about them, what would they think they have to do to go to heaven? “Be good”. So, where would they go if they died? “Hell”. So what can you do to help them? “Tell them what you told me”. Right! He wanted some tracts to share - he requested 10!

His name was Prince. Please pray that he would be convicted and converted. And if so, that God would get him into a good church (he knows how to get in touch). I left him with a copy of the gospel of John.

The check questions we use are a powerful tool in making sure those we share with understand the gospel. If you would like to learn more about what these check questions are and how to use them in your gospel conversations, please check out this document: https://tellmeconference.org.nz/gospel-flipchart/
 

View previous Philippines Short Term Missions report (1 March 2023)

Philippines Mission Trips

For more information on why we do missions in the Philippines and how you can even come along on a future trip, click here.