Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 100

We learned some very sad news while we were in the city on Thursday morning. And this report will focus on that, please keep reading.

The first week of the NZ Summer Mission, in Christchurch, is now complete.

On Thursday morning, we were back in the central city (team of six) - and in the afternoon, we were at the Northlands bus stops (three). On Friday we followed our usual schedule: with a gospel + abortion outreach in the morning (team of seven), preaching in Cathedral Square at lunch time (seven), flip charting and walk up conversations in the afternoon (seven), and an outreach to the city in the evening (four).

On Thursday, while I was in Cathedral Square, I noticed two construction workers sitting next to some flowers. So I approached them asking if they were selling them! 🤣 Of course they weren’t, but they said that someone had died and the flowers were there in respect of them. 😢 I was sad to learn of this, but it opened up an opportunity to talk about death and then share the law and the gospel with them. One was resistant, the other was open.

Afterwards, I was walking with some of the team towards Cashel Mall, when one of them informed me that Kelven had died! I was devastated. Kelven was the blind busker who was always in Cathedral Square. We had a friendly toleration of each other. He would stop busking to allow us to open air preach - but he didn’t agree with our views.

I remember at Christmas time, on a rainy Friday Kelven requested Andy & I sing a Christmas carol with him. We obliged. Even though we disagreed on religious matters, we could be nice!

In my last Christchurch report I mentioned how difficult the open air preaching had been (last Friday). I was on my own, and I had a lot of hecklers who were mocking. Sadly I remember Kelven laughing while this was all happening.

Here is what I wrote:

"I felt quite grieved at how people were mocking God (I don’t care if they mock me). God is not mocked. And one day they will face Him. But I’m thankful for the patience of God! I hope some heard the gospel and will be saved from His wrath."

I also specifically remember declaring that, although they are mocking now, there will be a day when they face God, and they won’t be laughing. I pleaded with them to accept the mercy of God while they can.

And tragically that mercy is no longer available to Kelven. Did he repent before the heart attack struck on Tuesday? Possibly, but all the evidence points to his rejection of the gospel. If so, Kelven will face a just God without the mediator: Jesus.

So it was with this in mind that I preached with a fresh passion and love for the lost of Christchurch today (Friday). I talked about the things I’ve mentioned above, I proclaimed the law (the bad news), and the wonderful good news of the gospel. And I afresh pleaded with people to repent and trust alone in the free gift of forgiveness found only in the sacrifice of Jesus paying the fine for sin.

Kelven heard the gospel many times over the years we have known him. What about you, have you heard the gospel and not responded so far? We don’t know when we will die - this is so important. Please understand and respond to the gospel today. You can read about it here: https://www.needgod.net/

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Day three of the NZ Summer Mission is complete. Today we focused on outreach at the beaches in Christchurch. In the morning we were at New Brighton, and in the afternoon we were in Sumner.

We were slightly late getting over to New Brighton, but it was providential that we were. When we arrived, the location was dead. We peered over a low wall to take a look at the beach, and the only person I could see was someone surfing! But then I turned around and noticed a young lady walking past, I mentioned to her that there weren’t many people around, and from there I ended up having the best gospel conversation of the day (for me)! If we had arrived earlier, I may have missed her. It felt like one of those divine appointments, and I knew I needed to focus on the conversation rather than getting the team organised. At one point, Andy tried to call me, but I ignored it. Eventually the lady said, “I think your phone is ringing”. I just responded with, “I know, but this conversation with you is more important right now”.

After that conversation, the team (of seven) gathered (in the meantime, some had distributed tracts to the people fishing off the pier, and others had gospel conversations with those they could find), and we prayed together before pairing up as usual. And by now, there were more people appearing - not too many, but enough to keep the team busy sharing the good news of Jesus for the morning!

And this just caused us to be brave and bold, and approach everyone we came across. This led to many surprisingly good gospel interactions.

At lunch time, we bought cans of soft drink and some ice to fill a chilly bin with before moving over to Sumner. The team enjoyed lunch together before we headed onto the beach for round two of the day armed with the chilly bin as a means of blessing people with a free cold drink and starting gospel conversations (that is, if they wanted to talk - some took a drink but didn't want to talk, which was fine, but most would at least take a tract).

A highlight conversation for me was with a family of four from the Philippines. They were very grateful for the drink, and were keen to chat about what happens after life. This was a great opportunity for Julia to try using the mini flip chart for the first time. She did a fantastic job! Well done Julia! She got stuck a few times, which was fine as I was there to help her through. It turns out that this young family had a Catholic background, and so the conversation focused on salvation by faith alone (not works) - and what the right motivation for good works should be (not trying to earn salvation). I gently challenged them to trust in Christ alone for their salvation, and to come away from the Catholic church. Their young son, engaged in the conversation very well. I was surprised that when the conversation ended, he gave me a hug! How precious was that!

But the afternoon had it’s trials as well. One lady was so offended at us giving away free drinks to “dupe” people into a conversation that she made a bit of a scene about it. This was out of the blue and I wasn’t prepared to deal with it. I could have handled the situation better, and it was a good learning opportunity for me. Unfortunately it spoiled the conversation that had started but, praise God, another team member was able to share the gospel with one of them later in the day. And it certainly didn’t stop our efforts to continue the mission! It was a reminder of the battle we are in, and the desperate need to have our armour on and to be in prayer. We need your daily prayers also - thank you!

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log for Toowong Village on Tuesday Jan 14, 2020 from 1330 to 1500.

I was seriously held up by traffic jam caused by a serious accident on M3 as such I arrived only after the team started. There were five persons serving today, namely Capetian Johnny, Col, Kiateck , Yuen Han and Hung. Johnny chose to go to the main entrance side of Toowong Village and served at Sherwood Road while all others still took our position on the Benson Street front with Kiateck later changed site to the Eastern corner of the Toowong Village.

No matter how, we all were still blessed with significance conversations with our Gospel sharing targets. Our fresh blood sister Yuen Han was doing very good since day one. Today was her 2nd participation and she could still mange to get many conversations though many rejections as well. She will have a separated post of sharing later.(*)  Col got three consecutively long conversations particularly the last one with a young Aussie girl. As for me, despite my late arrival, and walking around to check on team mates status, I still got 5 divine appointment to chat as recap below: -

1) While checking of the status of Yuen Han, with her haring with other person at the bus stop, I took the liberty to share with two young Aussie Girl Seth and Natalie. They looked a bit funky but turn out to be two willing listeners. It was the first time for both of them to hear the Gospel and they find it sensible and logical to get saved through Jesus and Him alone. Pray for God's continuous work on them.

2) Then I caught up with another local Aussie Steve. He is a rational man who knows the Bible a fair bit but missing the point of salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ. Through his fragmented understanding of the Bible, he has utterly no assurance of salvation and wonder how the sins of every one can be forgiven. It was a pity that I could only rush to explain that only through the atoning death of Christ that the punishment of our sins can be taken over by Christ as such we are all pardon to become right with God again regaining our lost heavenly citizenship right away with 100% certainty through accepting Christ as our Savior and Lord of our born again new life.

3) After that I walked up to look for Johnny with Kiatecj who felt like switching place across the road back to the Shopping mall side. On the way, I handed a tract to An Aussie skinny lady. She accepted it with reluctance and hurried off to her errands.

4) Afterwards, when I returned to check on Yuen Han, I followed up on Matt an old Aussie man who had received a tract from Yuen Han but did not stop. Again I got his permission to walk him to the Shopping mall across the foot bridge. He walked very fast despite of his heavy body, so I had to speak with faster pace to finish the gospel sharing just upon our entering to the shopping mall. He anyway still thanks for my message and hopefully it will has God's impact in his life.

5) Finally, Han a Malaysian Chinese old man was first rounded up by Col. But Mr Han speak no English, so Col refer him to me despite it was already time for us to go to do our closing prayers finishing for the day. I chose to stay behind and quickly found his family has Christian background in the older generation. And Mr Han appeared very interested to start pursuing God even as this old age. He recognized the CCCB St Lucia Church which is close to his home in St Lucia. I pointed at Kiateck across the street and took a photo with him so that Kiateck know to follow up on him when Mr Han really plan to attend CCCB St Lucia. So God timing is always the best, not too early and not too late for us to get connected with needy lost souls.

(*) Yuen Hang Tsui  14/01/2010

This time I could only share the good news with two people, few of them were happy to receive the tracts and some of them even refused the tracts. I thanked God that I could have the chance to be involved in the Street Evangelism.

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The NZ Summer Mission has started! We have now finished the first two days of outreach, and they have been better than I could have imagined. We had a total of nine people involved on Monday and eleven on Tuesday. That’s a lot more people than the regular outreaches - so very encouraging. Not only that, but it’s been wonderful seeing all those people having many opportunities to share the gospel with people. Those with more experience have been encouraging those with less - everyone is growing. And most importantly, God is being glorified in his people obey the command to go!

Monday started with a morning and afternoon outreach within the central city - and Andy open air preached during lunch time too (pictured).

After prayer, we split into pairs and made our way around Cashel Mall, Cathedral Square, and everywhere in between sharing the gospel with anyone willing to listen.

 I was initially paired up with my wife, Ruth, and one of the first people we had a good chat with (pictured) worked with her step brother! It is a small world. :) He stayed to talk for as long as his break allowed. We didn’t get to fully unpack the gospel with him, but he did take two types of gospel tract.

By about 10:30 am, lots of construction workers were also taking their breaks providing some great opportunities for gospel witness with them. Ruth and I had three conversations and many of them received tracts.

The second conversation was with two of them sitting down by the Avon river. As I was approaching them, I looked at them and the thought went through my mind that they wouldn’t be interested. Thankfully I didn’t let that stop me, because they were very interested in the conversation and were very engaged! They heard the law and the gospel.

The third conversation was with three more construction workers - and it was one of those conversations where it just clicked. They seemed deeply impacted as they heard the gospel and my impassioned pleas to respond to it!

In the afternoon, we continued our gospel work. The conversation that stands out to me is one my daughter and I had with a lady (pictured). Firstly, as a Dad, it was wonderful watching my daughter taking this lady through the law and the gospel with the mini flip chart - she did a wonderful job.

But this lady, kept getting stuck on the checking questions. She kept defaulting back to saying that her good deeds would get her to heaven! Eventually she started giving the right answer (it’s faith alone not works), but I suspect that she was just saying it rote. I don’t think she was understanding. She left with two kinds of gospel tract, and I hope she was challenged enough to start thinking about this more deeply - she is in God’s hands. But I was afresh challenged in realising that a) without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we will be blind to the truth, and b) my responsibility as a Christian to labour with people in getting them to clearly understand the important concepts of the gospel.

Tuesday saw us at the Eastgate bus stops in the morning, and in Riccarton in the afternoon.

Initially there were way more evangelists than people to share with, but us the day grew hotter, buses brought more and more people to talk to.

The highlight conversation from this outreach was with a man who was going to prison, so the courtroom analogies had high impact. He was very engaged, and seemed to really appreciate the conversation. He wanted to be able to get in touch and so we connected on Facebook. He left with gospel tracts.

In the afternoon in Riccarton we set up four flip charts in various spots, and had people also doing “walk up” at the nearby bus stops. And everyone was really busy sharing the gospel.

Near the start, one of my daughters noticed a girl and asked if she should offer her a tract (did she really need to ask?! 🤣 ). But I told her to try taking her through the mini flip chart, she looked really nervous, so I said a tract would be fine. I was busy getting flip charts set up, but a few minutes later, I glanced over and noticed that my daughters were taking the girl through the mini flip chart together! (pictured) Go girls! I was so pleased to see them getting over their fears, giving it a go, and seeing the fruit of it. Praise God. What about you?

Personally I had a number of wonderful gospel opportunities through the outreach, but I’m out of time to write about them. And I know all the other team members had wonderful gospel opportunities as well. Many are hearing the gospel, because a group of feeble Christian are stepping past their fears and giving it a go. It’s wonderful seeing God show His strength through us! All glory to him.

And thank you for all your prayers and support! Please keep praying for us! We need His power. God bess.

 

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On Saturday, by God’s grace we had total 11 labourers praise God!. The weather was great and accommodating for evangelism. As we all gathered, the word was shared on 1 Cor 15:1-4 and we prayed for outreach. 

We had quite a few interesting conversations, I met a lady called Nina she was waiting for her friend. When I approach her to give gospel tract and asked her if I could ask a question she said “yes” although she was little bit shy. So, I asked what was her idea on after life she laughed and said “um.. I don’t know” also she made the point that she was more of atheist. Simple apologetics and Romans 1:20 were shared to show that why creation is not only true but also scientific. It seemed like she was uncomfortable but wanted to keep the conversation going. Law was displayed by asking ten commandment questions and gospel was shared, she responded well and promised to think about it. please pray for Nina  

Carl was a interesting teenager, he was very honest with his answers, bit aggressive but engaged really well throughout the conversation. When the ten commandment was being shared, on the second question “have you ever stolen anything?’ he said “yeah” so what will you call me if I stole your stuff?” Carl answered “I will knock you out” but he got the point at the end that he is really not a GOOD person in the sight of God. We urged him to turn away from his sin and put his trust in Jesus Christ as we really do not know when we are going to die. Overall, Carl took the message quite seriously and understood the justification by faith. Please pray for Carl as you read this. 

From Huy Do:- 

This day’s evangelism was very productive, a conversation was wrought with two teenagers who was very attentive to the message of the Gospel. They understood the implication of the law, they understood that they are under the condemnation of God for their sins and that their only way out was that of Christ crucified at Calvary. Yet the thing that stood out was that they had encountered Operation 513 when they were at Gold Coast, Queensland, they had been preached to in regards to the Gospel already. This very much shows that God indeed is sovereign, that He is calling and commanding men to repent. Please pray that the Lord will continue to work on their hearts and regenerate them unto salvation.

From Daniel Supek :- There was a Maori guy who I had a chat to that wasn't going to any church who believed he was going to heaven by works so I asked him the question what was the reason Jesus died on the cross? He said to die for my sins. I said correct, for the forgiveness of sins, so I asked him how can you go to heaven by works if Jesus died to forgive you of your sins? I think he noticed the problem. I tried to make it clear to him that you cannot go to heaven by your own good works if Jesus died on the cross for you. You cannot enter heaven by works when you're good works aren't good enough, the standard for heaven is perfection since God is perfect. Romans 3:23 all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. We fail to keep the 10 commandments perfectly showing us we are incapable of keeping it and thus fail to make it to heaven by works, but Christ's finished work gets us to heaven. Then he thanked us for the chat. Then I told him how it was important for someone who is a believer to go to church, that God designed the church so believers can meet together to encourage, correct, worship together, he agreed.

SOLI DEO GLORIA !! 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

A busy few days of outreach for the Christchurch (NZ) team.  Thursday @ the Eastgate and Northlands bus stops.  Friday: the first gospel + abortion outreach of the year outside Christchurch Hospital, open air preaching in Cathedral Square, flip charting in Cashel Mall, and the evening outreach in the city.  Sunday: afternoon Cashel Mall outreach.

Thursday at the bus stops:  Being the school holidays, there were periods where there weren't many people around (as per the picture), but as I’m looking back on my log of gospel interactions - it’s very long!  The most encouraging thing was all the follow up conversations I had.  I would approach people to start a conversation, and I would get responses of: “oh, you’ve already talked to me” - I’m just not remembering all the people I’m talking to!

I had two positive follow ups, and two “negative” ones - but all of them encouraging.

The first was with a young man at Eastgate he remembered the building / builder, universe / universe maker analogy - and it stuck with him, as he said it back to me right at the start.  But when I asked him what the good news was, he said that we had to be good people - wrong answer!  So I was able to go over the law and the gospel with him again.  He is very open, and so I challenged him to respond to the gospel today.

The next follow up was with the older man I mentioned in a recent report that I had talked to at Northlands.  This time I saw him at Eastgate.  I challenged him about the way to heaven, and he responded with: “I don’t want to talk about it”.  Fair enough, so we parted ways.  Funnily enough, later in the afternoon, once I had moved to Northlands - I bumped into this man for a third time!  I promised him I wasn’t following him.  :)

The third one was with another young man, but this guy he had a good grasp of the gospel.  He had obviously been reading the tract and pondering it.  After a good conversation, he gladly took more tracts and a Bible - he seemed very keen to start reading it.

The last one was with a young man who wasn’t really keen to talk, and yet stuck around to engage with me.  It turns out he was a muslim.  He was challenged about the problem of how God can give justice and mercy - before he moved on to catch his bus.

I was also very encouraged to bump into a friend that I hadn’t seen for years.  I used to play indoor cricket with him.  We had a good catch up.  The last time I talked to him about spiritual things, he had said he had been involved with churches, but wasn’t interested any more.  Well now, his tune was different.  He had recently lost some loved ones to death, and was really pondering the after life.  I challenged him on if he would go to heaven - and his response was: “I’ve said the sinner's prayer” - as though it’s some magic spell.  Sadly, the sinner's prayer has inoculated many people into thinking they are right with God when they are not.  So we had a discussion on how we get right with God (a repentant faith in Christ) and how we can know that is genuine.

One last interaction that stood out to me at Northlands was with a lady whom I asked if she had ever thought about what happens after life.  She said that she had been talking about that very subject with someone in the cafe at her work.  She didn’t want to chat, but she did want a tract and said she would read it!

Of all the gospel ministry that occured on Friday, I will focus on the lunchtime open air preaching.  It was one of the most difficult times I've preached.  For a start, I was on my own.  Next, I attracted lots of hecklers, which was great - but some of our regular hecklers stirred things up which made interaction really difficult.  I felt quite grieved at how people were mocking God (I don’t care if they mock me).  God is not mocked.  And one day they will face Him.  But I’m thankful for the patience of God!  I hope some heard the gospel and will be saved from His wrath.  Near the end, a young man approached me and started asking me questions about climate change.  I said I would talk to him once I finished.  He waited, and we ended up having a one to one discussion where I tried to share the gospel, but he seemed so blind - his focus was on the fact that there was no planet B, that he couldn’t see that there was no life B, which is a much bigger problem for everyone!  Sadly he refused a tract on environmental grounds.

I know this report is getting long, but after a rest on Saturday, I was feeling really fresh for the Sunday afternoon outreach in Cashel Mall - the weather was hot.  A team of six were out - including my three daughters.

The highlight conversation was a walk up with five young people.  I managed to get them to stop, and then get them to engage through apologetics.  Reading their reactions, I could tell one of them was really uncomfortable - she was one of the professing ‘atheists’.  And so I gave them the option to end the conversation, and they took it - two tracts were taken.  But I was really surprised when one of the girls didn’t leave with her friends.  She wanted to know what church I was from, and she said it was really brave what I was doing.  She said she had been a Christian, but wasn’t any more.  But I could see that she was really thinking heavily about the important questions of life.  She was one of the ones that took a tract.  She wanted to know how she could get in touch - which I told her.  I could tell she had deep questions, but she had to go.  I pray that her questions will be answered, and that she would understand the gospel from the tract - that she would be saved by God and for His glory.  Amen.
 

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Bribie Island (QLD) Team

On Saturday at the outreach, our team was joined by a Christian brother and his family from Ipswich.  This was a great encouragement for us.  Together we distributed a large number of Gospel tracts, as well as several Bibles, Gospels, and other booklets.  It was a privilege to be able to stand together for the furtherance of Christ’s kingdom in this country, and we pray for the freedom to continue to do so.

  Several conversations were held during the course of the afternoon, with both individuals and groups.  Two groups of young people went through the Good Person flip chart and took tracts.

  An elderly gentleman we had spoken to last year stopped by in his motor scooter for a chat.  We were able to present the Gospel to him, and he shared stories from his life, which opened up further opportunities to talk about God.  He has had a very difficult life, full of pain and trouble, but even now the Lord can soften his heart and lead him to the place where He shall “wipe all tears from their eyes.”

  One youngster came alone to the flip chart and was honest and open about his sin.  He understood he would have to pay the price for his lawbreaking.  In the distance however, his friends were calling him to come away.  He stayed long enough to hear the full Gospel before he re-joined his friends.

  David from Burkina Faso was hardened and angry against God.  He bitterly said that all he wanted us to pray for was freedom for his country, because the British had stolen their liberty.  We also pray that the Lord would free him from his spiritual blindness.

  At our last outreach, we met a retired man who said he wouldn’t read anything we had, that he wasn’t a big reader.  So this month we gave him a Christian DVD which he took and promised to watch.  We pray this will play a part in opening his eyes to the truth of the Gospel.

  As we were about to finish up, an older JW couple tried to convince us that they believe the same thing we believe, we’re on the same path, we’re going to the same place.  With open Bible, Michael showed Rodney how different their belief was, how dangerously different from what the Bible teaches.  To be converted, one must believe in the person and work of Christ, but the Jesus they believe in is simply not the Jesus of the Bible.  They denied the Trinity and believed that Jesus is a (created) kind of lesser-god.

  While this conversation was happening, another team member engaged with his Filipino wife, Francis.  Over and over again, the conversation was brought back to the most serious question—how can a person be made right with God?  What must one do to be saved?  Her answer was that you must have faith and follow in obedience, follow the regulations, work.  Everything she said took away from the perfect and complete work of Christ.  When she was asked what must a dying person do to be saved, she shrugged and said that was up to God.  A person must not only work to get saved, she said, but they also need to work to stay saved.  How sad to think that these people have no firm eternal hope!  Yet this is what JW doctrine teaches people.  How much sweeter and purer is the Gospel which says that Christ had paid all, once and for all!  Please pray for Rodney and Francis' conversion.  They have been tragically deceived by this false teaching, but may they begin to see the light of the Gospel.

  Please pray for conversions from this outreach.  May lives be changed, may Christ’s kingdom grow, and may a new awakening begin right here at Bribie Island.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

“But that’s impossible for me,'' she said.  She didn’t realise how insightful her words were:

And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” - Mk 10:24–27

This is what I deal with daily, on the streets of Christchurch, people hearing the gift of Jesus, but counting the cost and knowing that it is completely impossible (in their own effort) to be saved.  And yet, I trust in the wonderful words of Jesus in Mark 10:27: “With man it is impossible, but not with God.  For all things are possible with God.”

And yet, this young Muslim girl had a similar reaction to the rich young ruler:

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. - Mk 10:21–22

The difference with her was Islam, instead of riches.  She understood that she would have to let Islam go - that was impossible for her “, but not with God.  For all things are possible with God.”

This was the last gospel conversation of an eventful afternoon outreach in Riccarton on Tuesday.  A great way to start back after a holiday.  The conversation was actually with two young Muslim girls.  They smiled and accepted offered tracts - which surprised me.  So I asked if they ever through about the afterlife, and a full and friendly gospel conversation developed.  The conversation ended up focusing on how God can be just and merciful without either being compromised.  The only solution that made sense was the perfect sacrifice of God the son: Jesus for the sin of the world.  They understood, but were (naturally) resistant.

And yet

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. -Ro 1:16

So I leave these young ladies in His hands.  I pleaded with them to read through the Afterlife tracts they had received and to respond to the gospel.  We couldn’t shake hands (due to their culture), but we parted (pictured) with smiles.

The outreach started with a conversation with three young high school students enjoying their summer break.  They were keen to give the flip chart a go.  Two of them became resistant, and so some apologetics were deployed.  But the other guy was interested, and arguing on my side.  Eventually, I said, “Look, I have some good news to share, do you want to hear it?  Because your friend does.”  They disengaged, and left their friend to me, where I was able to slowly but surely explain the gospel - it was wonderful seeing him come to an understanding and saying that there was nothing stopping him from trusting Christ’s payment for his sin.  I challenged to do so, and asked him to get in touch.

Later, something special happened.  Mr. Angry walked past!  I pray for this guy approximately weekly, and I had just been praying for him in the morning.  I hadn’t seen him for quite a while - and now he comes past, I was very encouraged.  He started spewing his usual scorn.  But I just couldn’t stop smiling.  At one point he started to cross the road to get away from me, but he didn’t see a van coming round the corner!  I had to warn him, and when he saw it, he was forced to walk back to me, giving me some more time to interact with him.  I still don’t know his name, but I’ll keep praying for him, and God willing, I will continue to see him and that I’ll have more opportunity to share the truth of Jesus.

As Mr. Angry left, I turned around and got a fright!  A young couple were standing right in front of the flip chart.  She was even touching it - they were very curious.  So I was straight into another gospel conversation.  They seemed to understand (I used plenty of checking questions) but there was no interest that I could see.  And yet, they have heard the gospel - it is the power of God for salvation!

Today I was in the city for two outreaches, one before lunch and one after.  I had a number of conversations, including a few follow ups.  I had two highlights.

The first was encountering two young men who had already been primed having heard the gospel from some Christian friends at their high school!  I was very encouraged.  So after re-explaining the gospel, we ended up spending time discussing some very good questions they had.  Unfortunately, one of them received a phone call and they had to go.

The last conversation of the day was with another two Muslims - this time young men on holiday from Singapore.  I was able to share the gospel before learning they were Muslims, and then the conversation ended up going down the same track as with the young girls the day before: how can God be merciful and also just.  The only answer that makes sense is Jesus.  Sadly these young guys were not interested at all.  But yet, they have heard the gospel!

Great to be back to work!  Thanks for your prayers; and also your financial support that is allowing me to do this.  Please be praying for labourers for the harvest - and I encourage you to be an answer to your own prayers - come and join me in the joy of sharing the wonderful good news of Jesus our King! :)
 

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Redcliffe (QLD) Team

Today at Redcliffe was such an exciting time for the whole team. We had seven (7) on the team, Hannah, Richard, Gary, James, Joseph, Andrew and Col. There was lots of gospel conversations and many tracts given out. 

One young guy by the name of Benson, said he had never really thought about God before and was quite amazed when I told him why Jesus had died on the cross. He was so receptive to the gospel it was amazing !!! I went through the law with him and also explained that being a good person would not get him to heaven. He seemed to understand his need for a Saviour and salvation  straight away. Andrew joined the conversation and explained how to find a  good church to encourage him further. 

Others on the team were also enjoying fruitful conversations further up the street near Bee Gee way. So many people were willing to talk today. Andrew had some great conversations including a discussion with one lady who said she wanted to put her faith in Christ for salvation.

If you have a prayer list could you please pray for our team at Redcliffe, that God would be pleased to use us for his Glory not ours. We want to always to give God thanks and praise for his kindness in giving us people to share the gospel with. 
We have a big outreach happening on Australia day Sunday 26th January at Suttons beach so please come and join the team in the afternoon if you can.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log for Toowong Village : January 7, 2020 from 1330 to 1500.

Praise the Lord, while Winnie our regular and committed member could not come today, God brought three new members to join us. Mrs Yuen Hang Tsui from BCCC, also a BCQ alumni same as Johnny and myself. The other two are the twin daughters of Pastor Lily Emmanuel and Deborah. With Col and Gary our two local Aussie regular team members, Johnny our captain decided to resume splitting into two group. He led Emanuel and Deborah to work at the main entrance to the Toowong Village with Lily joining them later to form a sub- team of four. Col, Gary , Mrs Tsui and Hung, we continued to work at the Banson Street from the foot of the footbridge to the traffic light and covering also the bus station.

Johnny gave the twin sisters a demo using the Good Person flip chart while I briefed Mrs Tsui the gospel nutshell using the "Are you a Good Person" Gospel tract.

Praise and thanks God all of us including the first timer Mrs Yuen Hang Tsui had got many opportunities to share the Gospel. She will brief us later by a separate message. (*)

Johnny as usual ,got many conversations of which two led to confession to receive Christ. One by Mady an Aussie girl and another Indian lady.

Col had got one extra long conversation with Rick over an hour touching upon many question about faith. Trust that it help a lot to bring Rick closer to accept Jesus as his Savior.

Gary to day was doing exceptionally well despite of his comparative passive and not enforcing manner, that he got many conversation of considerably long length.

As for me I only got three quite significantly long conversations as recap below: -

1) Stephen, an UQ student from Bangladesh, stopped from reading his iPhone to chat with me. I went through the gospel explaining why being good persons alone cannot guarantee us to heaven but we have to be perfect as God is perfect. We will be punished for the imperfect thing we think or do to suffer for ever in Hell. Unless some one who is perfect willing to take our place to receive the eternal dead punishment. And there is no perfect person in this world so only Jesus incarnated as Human is perfect. His crucifix on on the cross was taking our place to receive that eternal dead punishment. But he rose three days later to prove he has conquered the power of death as such he is God and has authority to forgive sin. Stephen was convinced but possibly because of his Hindu background, he may need a bit push from the Holy Spirit to make this magic last step of faith to receive Christ as Savior and his Lord of life.

2) Next was an angry Middle East people who initially rudely declined to chat claiming himself not religious. In His strength, the Holy Spirit still work with me to get the conversation going until the bus come. He kept asking question trying to prove there is no God but ET Alien and if God exist, why He let terrible thing keep happening like the great bush fire that caused over 20 human lives and 500 Million animal lives. Why only human go to heaven , not the animal. Of course I have answer for each question he asked. But he actually did not care to hear my answer, but just raising numerous questions. to avoid the issue of the sin of human which is the culprit of giving rise to all those environmental disaster and war. If God was to stop all this bad things happening, all He has to do is to get rid of the cause of tall these problem which are in effect us the sinner. So out of God love and grace He wants to save us, but because of righteousness, he cannot let sins unpunished. The only way out is for sinners to rely on Jesus to die for us as well as our sin so that we can reconciled with God through Jesus atoning grace. From initial rejection to allowing the conversation to go on for 10 to 15 odd more minutes before the bus came was itself a miracle.

3) Caleb also politely tried to decline my invitation for a chat claiming he is a Christian. And he did pass my two diagnostic question with the 2nd one not clearly spelled out with clarity. Amazingly, he was getting more and more interested to hear my apologetic sharing to have explained and clarified many of his doctrinal questions. He was from USA and is doing working Holiday. His profile anyway was not common USA but of Spanish blood background.

4) There were a number of brief encounters all claiming they had chatted with me before and still felt appreciative for my gospel sharing.

(*) Yuen Hang Tsui - 07/01/2020

The first day when I joined the Mission group at Toowong, I got the chance to approach twelve people. At first I was a bit hesitated how to tell people the good news, with the grace of God I could share the good news with six people even though I could not finish the story with two as the bus had arrived. Three of them refused to talk, three of them were happy to accept the tract. I thanked God that I could have the chance to share the good news with people, I wish that I could continue the mission as long as God permitted.

 

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