Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 10

Christchurch (NZ) Team

It’s been a busy month.  I’ve just enjoyed going through the photo’s and remembering.  Some of them might seem a bit odd to you, but they have special meaning to me.

 

The one of Daniel and Bobby-Jean praying is special because they instigated a 6 am prayer time while we were in the Philippines.  Of course we were all praying anyway, but it touched me that they would make this extra effort.  We are so dependent on God, and prayer is so vital to everything we do.

 

The one with the green field & trees and the blue sky with the white clouds was taken on our last day in the Philippines, down at the University of the Philippines Dilliman - where we did all our ‘street’ outreach.  And then the one with the thrown away gospel tract in one corner, and then a discarded coin in the other corner - some people don’t realise the value of the treasure they are discarding.

 

Our site at the Oxford A&P Show outreach (29th March, one week after getting back from the Philippines) was between 2 sites both selling jewellery.  3 sites with treasure - 2 selling, and 1 giving away.

 

And then finally, the video.  I don’t think I’m going to be able to attach the video to this report.  If I can successfully upload it to Facebook, I’ll link to it here. <-- (if there is no link, then I haven’t done it yet, or I wasn’t able to upload it).  The video is amazing.  Taken at the Oxford A&P Show.  Daniel and Andy are in gospel chats, when a pipe band comes down the road.  Amazingly, they stop and start playing the classic hymn “Amazing Grace” - I’m not sure if they realised the significance?  But it was a special moment that I caught on video.

 

So, enough commentary on the photos.  What happened this month?  We spent a week or so in the Philippines.  And then the Oxford A&P Show.  In between that, our regular work has been happening.  Street outreaches, online outreaches, and we are continuing to distribute free gospel tracts across NZ via the web store (outside NZ here).

 

While in the Philippines, we spent 2 hours in online outreach, and 4 hours in street outreach.  There was a team of just under 20 from all parts of the world: NZ, Aussie, USA, Indonesia, and Chris from Norway!  Also, many from the Philippines who follow needGod.net via social media came to join us as well.

 

As I reflect, some of the memories are coming back.  I’ll highlight one.  Edson from the USA was a big encouragement to me.  There was a big group of students down in the ‘sunken garden’ and he challenged me to approach them.  He said he would take one side, if I do the other. Big groups can be very tiring, and I was tired!  But since he was keen, I swallowed my fear and just ‘did it’.  Normally with big groups you get people in different places, and 1 person will kill the dynamic so the rest don’t get to hear the gospel.  But that didn’t happen this time.  Instead, the whole group engaged.  Glory to God, it was like a Holy Spirit moment, where I had all their attention for about 10 minutes as I was able to minister the law and the gospel and then work through all the checks to make sure they were really understanding.  Thanks Edson for your boldness that enabled God to minister in that moment!  Glory to God alone.

 

There was much openness among the students, in spite of the intellectual environment that stands against the gospel.

 

I also had a random gospel opportunity on my day off.  I was at the mall with my youngest daughter (she joined me for this trip).  She was getting ice cream, and because the mall was so crowded, we ended up sitting close to a young guy.  He started the conversation, and it just naturally turned into a good gospel chat.  He accepted a gospel of John and a gospel tract in the end.  God is sovereign and uses us where we are at.

 

The Oxford A&P Show was a long hot day.  Plenty of people, but I wasn’t as busy as I normally am at outreaches like this.  Maybe that was God’s grace in knowing I was a bit tired?  Anyway, I still had plenty of chats.  But one in particular stands out in my mind as very special.

 

It was right at the start of the day with two young ladies who go to a local church - one even had a Bible on her sweatshirt.  They weren’t clear on the gospel, and yet they were very engaged in the conversation, so I was able to slow right down and work them through it.  One of the girls in particular seemed deeply impacted.  It was so good to see.  I treasure moments like that, because the gospel is such a treasure to me.  God is amazing, that he would die on a cross like me - it just brings me to tears.  I rest in this grace, and yet I’m driven to get out and share it!

 

Yet, I’m looking forward to a day off tomorrow ;)

 

This month we have Easter coming up.  We normally do a couple of hot cross bun outreaches for Easter, but we’ve decided not to do the hot cross buns this year.  Instead, I’m just going to do regular street outreach.  I guess I’m craving a bit of a ‘normal’ routine.  I’m looking forward to a winter with no ‘special’ outreaches and to recharge for the next year that God brings, if he wills.

 

Please continue to pray for us - we so need it and appreciate it.

 

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday Mar 25, 2025 from 1030-1130

It was an overcast day with intermittent sporadic rain and I still have to serve solo waiting for Johnny's back after his recovery from coughing resulted from his overseas vacation trip. I also decided to serve the scheduled street outreach ministry a bit earlier so I can go to have Birthday celebration Yumcha with Ivano for lunch. All these adjustments helped me to have a dry period to serve with rain both before and after my street outreach.

More miraculously, I was forced to park for the first time on the roof at floor 9 at Toowong. God did not just spare me from rain on the street for outreach , also when I had to walk in open air on the roof top for my car. If rain came that time, I will have no where to hide.

The people flow at the bus stop was lesser than the afternoon time. I anyway still got all gospel conversation divine appointments turning out to be all fruitful ones. Recap below is the highlight of them.

1) Gabriel from Filipin is a fresh grad student of Engineer. He migrated to Australia at the age of 6 month, so he is readily almost a fair dinkum Australian now of the age of 19yrs old. He is from a Catholic Family but seldom read and study the Bible. So it was no wonder he failed the test of Assurance of salvation with only 80/90% certainty. He was pleased to hear the clarification from me and was thankful to be able to become a fair dinkum Christian who is saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

File inheritance

2) Next was Miss Zhou周 from Wuhan武漢. She comes to study for Education教育.As a Mainlander, she is the rare ones who is willing and daring to listen to the full gospel. I encourage her to ponder when back home to accept Jesus, and get in touch with Power to Point people is she still have any faith related questions,

3) Daniel has a complicated identity. He is of Italian origin but dual Nationality of Aussie and New Caledonian. He is of Catholic background as well and his understanding of faith is also unclear but it was a pity his bus came and we could only leave it to other time in our next divine encounter.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday March 26th, 2025 from 1300-1500

Today I started first with Johnny joining me a bit later. Praised and thanked God that he has recovered from his coughing. Both had some long conversation and towards the end, God led two Muslim people to have a long chat with us hopefully with some impactful changes to their mind set about salvation by grace through face but not by works.

1) Mr Qiang強from Shanghai上海, claimed we chatted with him many times before多次. But his understanding again has faded as such I simply shared once again the full gospel message with him until his wife came back to reunited with him for the bus.

2) Next was a lady from Hangzhou杭州 coming to Australia to visit her daughter staying to live in Australia after her Uni study. Good rapport was built and full gospel was shared.

3) Then I was led to chat with an Indian girl who is a medical student of UQ doing practicum at Sunnybank Private Hospital. Only nutshell of gospel was shared.

4) Next was a Japanese young man from Osaka, and was surprised that I could greet him in Japanese. Time was also not enough for a full gospel but a tract was handed to him.

5) Mira a UQ student from Taiwan. She is non religious but still appeared very open and receptive to the gospel .

6) Zinta a Pakistan girl coming here to do high school study. She seems to be a fair dinkum Muslim very familiar with Koran. Yet she is very open to the sharing of the full gospel even though her mind has been brainwashed to stick to the Islamic faith. All I tried to do is to explain who Jesus is and what has he done for the human kind.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday March 19th, 2025 from 1130-1230

I started earlier to day as it seems that I am the only one to do outreach today while other team mated are still not available. The results was still considered good, with two stand out divine encounters apart from some other shorter conversation because of bus arrival interruption.

First, I was led to approach an elderly man from PNG who claimed to be a Christian but ended up finding out a Mormon. The Spirit led me to identify with him as we both were a cancer patient but healed by God through intensive prayers. All I could do is to emphasize Jesus as our Savior who is the triune God on mission to restore the fallen human race and to bring glory back to God.

Next, I was led to approach Rolene, a local Anglican Aussie who had fond memory of Hong Kong connection through trade and tourism. Good rapport was built and he passed the check of assurance of salvation having 100% certainty because of his faith in Christ.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday Mar 18, 2025 from 1030-1130

Johnny is yet to be back, So Hung continued to do solo outreach at Toowong at an earlier time than usual. The Bus stop were less crowded than the usual noon time. There were a group of 5 to 6 Mainlander students that I was not moved to approached as they tended to be avoidance especially when they have compatriot Chinese around that they do not want to be seen to appear receptive and open to gospel. Apart from the Mainlander groups, all other people groups are comparatively open and friendly for getting a chat. Recap were the three highlight conversations.

I was led to approach Harry from Bundaberg as he was nearest to the big group of Mainlanders. He was a bit shy but still polite and friendly enough to engage into a chat with me. He was from a Christian family, but upon checking his assurance of salvation, he is not sure at all even if he is a Christian. So I virtually has to share the full gospel to him once again which he was very appreciative and receptive to help him affirming his faith in Christ alone.

Then I turned around to chat with a Filipino lady who is a Griffith student coming to meet a friend in UQ. Her family was of Catholic background but she herself is non-religious. I was able to share her the nutshell of the gospel as her bus came pretty fast.

Then I was led to approach an Indian girl who studied engineering. She was friendly and open for gospel sharing and appeared also very receptive. Again time was not enough but just the nutshell of the gospel and with a tract.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday March 12th, 2025 from 1300-1430

Brisbane has basically returned normal from the aftermath of Cyclone Alfred. Ann and Hung were both back to Sunnybank at the normal time. The work of thew Holy Spirit was vividly apparent there as such most people we approached, Christians and non-believers inclusive, were all very open, friendly and receptive to the message shared. Recap are the highlight of some of the conversation in those divine encounters.

1) I was ;ed to approach Ken from Jiangsu, Suzhou江蘇蘇州. He is a UQ student waiting for his two classmates, rapport was built nicely through sharing first my China travelling experience including Suzhou. It provide a smooth leading to sharing of Gospel of which Ken appeared open and receptive.

2) Next was Queenie a Catholic Christian from Filipine. She comes for college study in English,, Through the assurance test, she was diagnosed to have only 20% of assurance of salvation but has been joyfully clarified.

3) Same applied to Junior an UQ student a Tonga origin guy but from New Zealand and now also called Australian home. He got 95% of assurance of salvation which of course is not right. Again he felt blessings to have it clarified and now he embrace 100% assurance of salvation purely because of Jesus' redemptive work.

4) Then attempt was made to approach an Indian lady with half success as she was in a hurry for meeting a friend else where but still nutshell of the gospel with a tract was given out.

5) Another highlight was with a Japanese lady Semi from Tokyo coming to Australia as a working holiday after she worked for 4 year as a teacher in Japan. She chose to come back to refresh her memory as an exchange student of an Australian State High School. Thus her English and my Japanese are both good enough for gospel sharing.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday Mar 11, 2025 from 1230-1400

This was a rare near fruitless day of street outreach despite the weather of Brisbane has returned almost normal with bright sun shine after the mass destruction of the cyclone Alfred. I could hardly engage in a full gospel conversation. People used all sorts of excuses, like being on the phone, having chatted before, or simply straight ignorance if not blunt rejection. While I pondered upon the poor outreach effect, a terms suddenly rang the bell in my mind, which is complacency which we heard very frequently during the approach and after landing of the Cyclone Alfred that people are strongly urged to not losing complacency even though the wind and or rain might not have picked up very severe in some area.

In retrospect, I could observe a general spiritual warfare status of complacency amongst common people who lead a "Good Person Life" Perhaps the weather condition has returned to normal too quick and too smooth, the sense of crisis situation are in general being blurred in most people mind as such they focus more on the present temporal thing rather than the eternal spiritual destiny.

Nevertheless, I basically approached people from Vietnam, several Mainlander from China, Local Aussie from Mackay and Philippine. I had a comparatively long conversation with the last two persons though without apparent immediate effects.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday March 5th, 2025 from 0930-1030

Because of the imminent direct hit on Brisbane by the typhoon Alfred, I decided to do the street outreach earlier in the morning and let other team members who live farther away to take a rest. The wind was stronger but still not threatening yet. However the people flow was significantly less. I had to wait at the bus stop empty without persons for many long period. Nevertheless, I still managed to have several quality chat as recap below.

1) Perlman is a migrant from India. He received Christ here in Australia. So I switched to test his assurance of salvation which is 100% but the reason for it is not absolutely clear as such I need to clarify by giving him a recap of the gospel which he humbly accepted with appreciation.

2) Next was Wang from Guangzhou, China but his Cantonese is not fluent. He was taking a rest at the bus stop so it gave me plenty of time to share him the full Gospel. He appeared open and receptive to the gospel possibly also because there was no other Chinese around when we chatted.

3) Then I approached An UQ student Ma from Shandong doing study on Economics like myself. It quickly helped building rapport and receptiveness of gospel till his bus arrived.

 

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday Mar 4, 2025 from 1230-1400

Because of the imminent approaching Typhoon Alfred, I set off earlier to do the regular outreach at Toowong as well as hospital visit to Ivano at PA.

Basically, there were many fresh Uni students amongst those was Lisa from Johor of the Western Malaysia. She dressed typically in Muslim woman code, but was still friendly and open enough to let me share her the full gospel.

Another long conversation was with Liam from Perth WA. He comes to study at UQ to accompany his girl friend a Canadian of Palestinian origin. He is non religious but have a free mind set open to discussion of Christianity. At the end, he shares the view that no human is perfect as such we all need to address this imperfection or sinful status in the human nature.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

I like the quote: “preach the gospel; die; be forgotten”.  It’s not about me primarily, but it’s about God and his glory.

 

I write these reports to encourage.  But, do you need the encouragement of these reports?  Don’t we already have the book of Acts?  Is that not sufficient?  It is sufficient.

 

Yet, I also appreciate the prayers of the few of you who read these reports, and so I will continue.

 

When I was in Dunedin, I read Matthew 6:1-4.

 

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 

- Matthew 6:1 (esv)

 

And then, once back from Dunedin, during my last weekly bible study with my local church small group, we were studying the very same passage.  It’s amazing how subtle we can be in stealing glory from God and boasting in what we do!

 

And yet, the balance can be found earlier in Matthew:

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 

 

- Matthew 5:16 (esv)

 

The bible study leader summed it up brilliantly: if you are tempted to hide it, you probably need to show it; but if you are tempted to show it, you probably need to hide it.

 

So, in writing these reports, there has been great temptation for me to boast in my efforts (which is crazy, because it’s only by the effort of Jesus that I’m even alive, saved and able to do anything at all).  I’m aware of this when I go back to the Facebook post and see how many ‘likes’ the post has had.

 

Rather than writing these reports, I could be telling more people about Jesus (one of the reasons I’ve dropped down to monthly reports).  And, rather than you reading these reports, you could be doing the same.  Something to consider, right?

 

And yet, all things in balance.

 

That all said, the team has had a very encouraging month.  The focus of this report will be on our week down in Dunedin, but we have also been busy on the streets of Christchurch and online.  There is *unlimited* opportunity for the proclamation of the gospel.  All glory to God alone.

 

So, we went to Dunedin during the University O (orientation) Week.  Dunedin has a big university, and is 1 of 2 medical universities in New Zealand.

 

We went in conjunction with Cornerstone Church, and also worked alongside members of OAC and other like minded ministries.  There was a lot of work in preparing for this trip.  I had to coordinate with the elders of the church, the local student ministries (who were working independent of us) and the other evangelists I would be working with.  That was hard work!  It led to much prayer on my part.  And did God answer that prayer!  As far as I know, the week went really smoothly from the coordination perspective.

 

But God also answered the other prayer: that He would be glorified in many hearing about Him and His gospel.

 

There were about 10 of us on the team.  Each day we would generally split into 2: half down at the Museum Reserve, where a big Uni O Week event was happening.  And the other half at the Octagon and everywhere in between (George Street, bus stops).

 

I’m going to relate a few experiences from my perspective.

 

Saturday morning we were in the Octagon, the foot traffic was a bit light, and so I ended up approaching everyone that came close.  This included 2 separate conversations with elderly people.  Generally, older people can be pretty resistant to new ideas.  This was no different with these 2 conversations, but I was encouraged that they at least stopped and continued talking with me in spite of the resistance!  We sometimes have no idea what’s going on in the heart.  I didn’t use my usual ‘script’ with them, instead I went at their pace and challenged them with where they were at.  They both took tracts for follow up.

 

In the afternoon, I started with a 45 minute gospel chat with a young man from Germany.  He was a carpenter on a working holiday.  His name was Mathias.  He resisted the building builder analogy, but I stuck to my guns, attempting to pry his hands off his suppression.  He opened up, and I was able to go through the law, the gospel, and all the checks.  Yet, he couldn’t help going back to his suppression.  I didn’t let him, reminding him of the certainty of the things we were discussing.  He said he needed time to think (which is fair to a degree – I can’t force him!), but I warned him he could die today and what I was sharing was simple.  I urged him to repent.

 

On Sunday we were at the church gathering in the morning, and then rested in the afternoon.  From Monday till Thursday it would be 6 hours a day of gospel labour.

 

It was wonderful to have a newbie with us Monday and Tuesday.  Xavier was paired with me on Monday morning.  We were in the Octagon.

 

We ended up getting into a very long chat with a high school student.  Early in the chat, I mentioned that I didn’t want him to be late for school, but he just said, “it’s okay, I’ve got an appointment”.  Near the end of the chat, he looked at his phone, so I checked again, “do you have to go?”.  “Oh, no”, he responded, “I’ve still got time to talk”.  So he was very engaged.  He was partly resistant, and yet partly open.  There were certain sticking points for him that we needed to labour on.  It was a wonderful chat.  As he finally left, Xavier turned around and rejoiced!  He was so encouraged.  And I was encouraged that he was encouraged!  From then on, you couldn’t hold Xavier back!  In the afternoon, he was paired with Roger, and Xavier ended up taking over his flipchart in his enthusiasm!

 

There are so many more stories I could write about like this.  I would encounter people in the Octagon on one day, and on another I would be able to follow up with them down at the Museum Reserve.  The bus stops were amazing.  In the late afternoon, they were teaming with fish - all in a barrel and I had a gospel shotgun to fish with.  So good!

 

This is where I have to be most careful about boasting.  A young man came up to me to say that the conversation I had had with him a year ago had impacted him - esp. The Fireman analogy.  He is now a Christian, being discipled by one of the student ministers and connected with Cornerstone church.  He wanted a selfie with me, I wanted to refuse - he should get a selfie with Jesus instead, but I conceded.  We already know this, but the gospel is truly the power of God for salvation, the Holy Spirit is truly active today!  All glory to God alone!!!

 

This report is long, and I have so much more to write.  I’m going to let those words drop.  Instead, I’ll finish up with this.

 

Andy and I have a good friend, Thomas, who has just moved to Timaru to take up a Pastoral role at a local church there (Covenant Grace Baptist Church).  On Friday, we did 2 hours of outreach in Dunedin before starting the long drive home.  We were going to do 3 hours, but instead we arranged to stop in Timaru for an hour of outreach with Thomas.  We parked on the top of the hill and prayed together before moving down the main drag to start gospel chats.  I was paired with Thomas.  There were 2 guys from a local high school walking towards us, and so I started a chat with them.  We talked for the whole hour.  And it was the best chat of the whole week.

 

One of the kids had already been learning about Jesus online, and had been reading the Bible.  Our conversation seemed to join the final dots for him.  We had to labour longer with the other guy.  We used all the analogies and check questions.  Before the chat was over, they had shaken our hands at least 4 times.  Thomas gave one a tract with his # and the name of his church.

 

Thomas let me know that they both came to church on the Sunday, and the sermon was just what they needed to hear.  The last I heard Thomas was going to be catching up with them again on the Wednesday following.

 

Oh, that they are good soil, oh that those seeds won’t be plucked away.  That God would not only be glorified through his justice, but by his greater mercy in their lives!  May they grow up and be able to continue the task of making disciples: proclaiming the gospel.  Either way, God will be glorified.

 

Please continue to pray for this feeble ministry.  We are weak, but He is strong!  In a couple of days we are flying to the Philippines for a week and a bit of ministry there.  We need God’s help!

 

All glory to God alone.  SDG.  To Him be all the glory, forever and ever!  Amen!!!

 

Edit: I have to mention the picture with the guy holding the pro life signs.  Lovely guy, been laboring for the cause of life for decades.  I think he mentioned since the '70s!  But, he is Catholic.  He said he was earning brownie points for heaven.  I spent 30 minutes with him, as I left, he was at least correctly articulating the gospel.  Pray that God would save his life, as he endevours to save lives.

 

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