Battle Log

Tuesday 7 March 2023

Posted by Posted 8 March 2023, 7:44 AM by Glen Richards. Permalink

We are 3 quarters of the way through our evangelism trip to the Philippines!

There is a public transportation strike happening this week, and so some of the universities we were to minister at are running online classes only.

Today we were at the University of the Philippines (UP). Sadly not many people around. BUT, we are not going to let that stop us. As long as there are a few people around, there are conversations to be had!

I was paired up with Joshua today. We prayed that God would lead our steps and allow us to glorify him with many conversations today. He answered our prayer! I thought about which direction might have the most people, and I decided to go in the opposite direction. All the other Christians out sharing would be going that way.

Instantly we were in our first chat, with 2 older gentlemen and a younger guy. Then some medical students.

And then a cyclist went past (he delivers food for Grab, pictured). As he was biking past, I asked him our usual opening question. He stopped to respond, and we fell into a very good gospel conversation. He heard the law and the gospel, and I was working through check questions when I asked: “So, if someone says to you, ‘I believe that Jesus died on the cross, but I think I’m going to heaven because I’m a good person’, where would they end up, heaven or hell?”. He thought about it for a while, and then gave a slight nod. He was still thinking good deeds would get him to heaven! I had to back up and labour with him to understand that being good can’t save him. He was quite shocked, but I think he eventually came to see how it made sense and was truly good news!

I had an encouraging chat with a young man who had obviously received a gospel tract recently, he knew that he didn’t meet the standard of the law, and he understood that anger is like murder in the heart already. He was also familiar with the gospel, so I laboured with him to see the seriousness of his sin and why he needed the gospel urgently. Gospel tracts do get read!

Next we encountered a couple of marine biology students. One of them engaged me, and said that after we die, our atoms are just recycled! I gave him the building builder analogy and it struck him, from this moment on, all his Christian background came out - he was answering my questions flawlessly. He already knew the gospel, but he hadn’t repented (believed it).

Joshua had the final chat before lunch. In spite of the lack of people, we still had a busy couple of hours of ministry.

After lunch we were at the shopping mall near the university. I had an amazing chat with two young men. Again, I had to labour with them to get them to realise it’s not their good deeds that save them, but Jesus alone. They seemed genuinely stoked by the end of the chat, and were willing to pose for a pic taken by Pastor Jeff.

To finish the outreach, I distributed some tracks to some motorcycle cart drivers while Joshua shared the gospel with one of them, and Pastor Jeff shared with another group of them. Joshua and I then went for a wander down the road, and found 2 high school age boys willing to talk. One spoke good English, so I talked to him, and Joshua spoke with the other in Tagalog. Pictured is from my BeReal.

God honoured our feeble efforts in providing many opportunities to declare his gospel, in spite of the transport strike! There is so much gospel opportunity, be encouraged to go out and engage!

Please keep us in prayer for the final 2 days of outreach and then the long travel home. SDG!
 

View previous Philippines Short Term Missions report (5 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.