Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 102

Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log for Toowwong Village : Dec 31, 2019 1300 - 1500

Today, we had four team members of OPN 513 to serve. They are Col, Gary, Winnie and Hung. Despite it is already holiday period. God still gave each of us many divine appointment to preach the gospel to those hard reach people such as student from Mainland China and Hindu background people. I had just five as recap below, they were all unexpected targets that stopped and listened the full gospel. I could even had time to show them the First Ancient Novel revealed by God through the names of the ten patriarchs. They were all amazed at the all knowing almighty power of God ahead of time. By the way, they are all UQ students that still hanging around despite school term is over.

1) Indian girl stopped under the scorching noon sun and willingly engaged in conversation by moving to a shaded spot. She listened with full interest and agreed the salvation package of God is infallible. She is surrounded by Christian in her living circle. So I am sure it is only about time that she will submit herself to Christ.

2) A girl from Nanjing China, struggled with her shopping trolley that had lost balance because of bad stowage while crossing the road. I helped her to tow it to the bus station and share the gospel along the way. The Bus also just arrived as soon as we walked to the Bus stop. She had heard the nutshell of the gospel but possibly she was more impressed by my care and help.

3) Salina an UQ postgraduate from Zhuhai, China珠海. She was riding pass on a bike but was stopped by Col to accept a tract and prepared to ride on to her way. But the spirit urged me to stop her to hear the full gospel as well as the explanation of the first Ancient Noel. She was very friendly to me not like other Mainlander who keep a distance. She even encourage me that my Mandarin is perfect. After knowing she is from Zhuhai, then I know she identify with me being people of the southern part of China客氣. The sharing was good and she was all impressed. So pray for God's further nurturing action to harvest this first fruit.

4) Two girls got off the bus and appeared looking for the way to their destination. Again I volunteer to help and walked them to the student hostel they seemingly are moving in on their fresh arrival to Brisbane.兩女，One girl is from Yunnan雲南，and one from Beijing北京. Both appeared very friendly to me and listen to the full gospel as well as the First Ancient Noel. The girl from Yunnan actually asked for referral to near by church (CCCB St Lucia) and Christian group ( Power to Change)

5) Finch from Beijing also lives at the same hostel of the two girls. 北京 I stopped him for a chat right after my conversation with the two girls. He willingly listen up every thing I share and politely thanks for the gospel message. This was definitely yet another divine appointment that may bear fruit in His time.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

It’s Sunday afternoon.  I’m slipping into holiday mode, I have a bit of a headache, and I’m leading my daughters on outreach again - which is great! - but is more work.  So, admittedly dragging my feet a little, we headed out to share the gospel in Cashel Mall.

And then we met up with Willem (Operation 513 Team Leader in Timaru) - I forgot he was joining us today - and so I was encouraged by that.  And then Jermaine turned up with his children!  So it ended up being a team of eight.  Praise the Lord.  So there were three flip charts running, and heaps of kids handing out tracts.  I was also very encouraged to see Willem and Jermaine into gospel conversations quickly.

For me, it was a little harder than usual to get gospel conversations started.  I’m wondering if the new front page of my flip chart is too direct: “What happens after life?” - I guess a lot of people don’t like thinking about the afterlife.

But an old man did approach me.  One of the kids had given him a "good person" tract, and he wanted to talk about it.  It turns out he was a seventh day adventist, so he wanted to talk about the fourth commandment.  I had to be patient and listen a lot.  Eventually, I cut to the chase and asked him what he had to do to go to heaven.  His answer was: “Love the Lord and follow His commandments”, and so this was my opportunity to explain that it was impossible for us to follow His commandments - we needed a saviour and we are saved only by faith in His sacrifice!

My last conversation of the outreach started without the assistance of the flip chart, I ended up talking with two English tourists about the gospel.  It was a short conversation, but they took tracts as a follow up.

So things don’t always go the way you hope, but Jesus has given the command to go.  And I want to obey out of my love for Him - no matter how I’m feeling or the results.  And He is a wonderful master and is worthy to be served.  I’m grateful for the rest I am able to have over this holiday period!
 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

There were many people in Cashel Mall hunting Boxing Day sales.  A team of three set up flip charts to have gospel conversations with any willing to stop.

For me, there were three highlight conversations.

The first came very early in the outreach.  It was with a young couple: he was interested, she was not!  But they stayed to go through my new flip chart.  It turns out they both had Catholic schooling, so there was a focus on getting them to understand the grace of God through faith alone in Jesus' sacrifice for their sin.

I then had another follow up conversation with someone I’ve been talking to since the start of the year.  This will have been about the 7th time we’ve spoken.  They already understand the gospel, so I didn’t try to swing the conversation to spiritual things.  But they eventually did.  And we ended up talking for at least an hour.  The focus of the conversation was on whether we are saved by faith alone.  This person was arguing that it’s not faith alone, because they also have to turn away from sin.  They wanted to know why I could sin and still be a Christian, where he couldn’t.  The issue was that there is a particular sin this person wants to keep enjoying as well as accepting Christ.  The answer is that, it’s about our attitude towards sin.  Yes, sadly, Christians sin - but we hate it.  Yes, we are saved only by our faith alone in Jesus payment of our sin on the cross - but faith is always connected to repentance.

It was at this point that I turned to the last page on the new flip chart.  It has two pictures on it: a man wearing a backpack, and a picture looking out a plane window.  This flip chart page is new to me - but this was the perfect time to use it!  I literally pulled out my phone and read the description on how to use this page verbatim:

“This man carries his backpack with him everywhere, and has done so his whole life in fact. But one day he is on a plane and pilot announces that the plane is going to crash. Someone hands him a parachute to put on. Problem is, it won't go on with his backpack still on his back. So he needs to make the choice, does he take off the backpack and put on the parachute and be saved, or keep the backpack on, and reject the parachute and so die in the plane crash.

In the same way, with your Buddhism (or new age beliefs or particular sin you love), you may have been believing it your whole life. But now you have come to realise that it won't save you from the judgement to come, and instead you need to trust that Jesus died for your sin. But trusting that Jesus paid for your sin is incompatible with still believing in Buddhism which says you need to work your way to heaven.

So what are you going to do? Keep your Buddhism and therefore reject the free gift of forgiveness offered by Jesus, OR put away your Buddhism and trust only in Jesus to pay for your sins?”

It was timely!  Their response to this was: “can I wear my backpack on my front, and put the parachute on my back?”  But they understood the message.  We parted ways with them still counting the cost of following Jesus.  I will continue to pray for this person.

The last conversation was with a young man who had a Christian grandfather, but the family has drifted from church life.  This guy figured he would be good enough to go to heaven, and so was shocked to learn that the standard of good was perfection.  He was relieved to see the flip chart page which shows Jesus taking the fire ball (representing our sin) on his back.  He came to understand how we can be forgiven, through faith in Jesus.  He had good questions, which we spent time answering.

Very grateful for the opportunity to share the gospel on this Boxing Day!  The results are in the hands of God.  But thank you for continuing to pray for this ministry.  And be encouraged to get involved!  It’s a joy to be able to share this good news, we can’t keep it to ourselves. :)
 

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On Saturday, as usual we gathered at Starbucks and started with word and prayer. It was great weather and the sun did not go down till 8pm so there were many people to share the gospel and hand out the gospel tracts. Also, God has graciously sent eight labourers this week, Praise God!. 

We had privilege to talk to Indian couple who were traveling in Melbourne and it was their last week in Melbourne. They were very gentle, kind and willing to examine the message we shared. They heard our message with patience and answered the questions honestly but they kept on saying “yeah, I believe Jesus also” it was typical Hindu response, Polytheism. So, we shared John 14:6 and explained that Jesus did not say he is ‘one of the way or one of the truth or one of the life’ but The Way, The Truth and The Life when the couple heard the exclusive claim by Jesus Christ they seemed to be quite uncomfortable and said “I respect your religion so I would like my religion to be respected also” but we shared that his eternity is at stake and we really do love them to share the truth although it might be uncomfortable. Please pray for the Indian couple with us. 

We also had chat with a person who said he knew the gospel and that he is practicing Catholic and seemed very confident in his religion. but when we asked Him if he could explain to us what the gospel or good news is, He could not give proper answer so we shared the summary of the gospel once again just to remind him that our salvation is by faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ that He died and rose again for our sins. This person had to leave shortly after conversation but we thank God that we could have shared the gospel. please pray for him.

From Huy Do:

Praise God for His faithfulness in this Saturday’s evangelism, I talked with a man called Daniel, he spoke of how his mother was spiritual and he used to go to church but has since left. He denied the existence of the God of the Bible, which provoked me to challenge his presuppositions. This greatly displayed the folly of his world view, the absurdity of claiming that there is no God. The Gospel was preached and he was greatly intrigued by that Gospel. He had to leave soon but told me to meet up with him the following day at the same location, praise God for His mercy. I also met up with a person that I had talked to a while ago by the name of Morris, he had talked to nearly all the evangelists in the city, yet he still had not found faith. I never knew much about his personal life until today when he revealed that more, that he was in a prosperity gospel church and was bitter at God at how others were succeeding at how he was not and left bitter at God for that. I told Him that despite how he feels about God not loving him, God still manifested His love towards him in Jesus Christ, and how his demands for the temporal blessings of God is absurd when He has already offered His eternal blessing of everlasting life in Christ. I had told him that although he seeks after worldly riches and earthly pleasures, the only true place where he can find actual riches and pleasure is Christ. After what I had said in encouraging him to run back to Christ, my fellow worker, Riff, told him about a local church in his local suburb where he will hopefully hear the biblical Gospel preached. All in all, thank the Lord for His faithfulness in shutting our lips, that He might speak in our place.

                                                   

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Thank you for praying for our Christmas outreaches in Brisbane city over the past 2 weeks. It was a great success with over 40,000 gospel tracts going into people's hands and plenty of gospel conversations had.

We rejoice that God even raised up new labourers to join us for a number of the nights. It was exciting to see these new labourers step out of their comfort zones to hand out tracts for possibly the first time and even start conversations with the lost, asking them, "What do you think happens after you die?"

Please now pray that those who heard or read the message would come to salvation. To God be all the glory!

If you have been considering coming along to an outreach but haven't yet, why not come along to an outreach near you: https://www.operation513.com/street-evangelism-teams/

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On Tuesday, It was Christmas Eve there were lots of people, especially families out in the city. It was such an great opportunity for us to share the gospel and overall people were more openly engaging into conversation than usual as it was Christmas Eve. 

I have encounter a person called ‘Simon’ who was agnostic. As I started the conversation he was laughing and smiling and said “you are talking to a wrong person” but strangely, he did not tell me to go away or to walk off. Simon shared that he believes in multi-verse where there should be another form of life like human exist and furthermore humans are limited being and that we are really good at creating our own God which includes the God of the bible and BIBLE itself so when I tried to reason him from the scripture he was asking me not to use the bible but rather philosophy or other reasoning. It was great opportunity for me to tell Simon why I believe BIBLE is God preserved words and shared the Gospel with him. Through out the whole conversation Simon seemed very uncomfortable and defensive but at the same time I could see his underlying interest and willingness to hear what I have to say about God and the cross. Please pray for Simon with us. 

There was young tourists from France, as I was handing out gospel tracts they showed interest so I had privilege to share the gospel with them. One of them were Muslim but not a practicing Muslim, he had quite limited knowledge about Quran itself but he asked me a question with genuine curiosity “how can God become a man?” I explained to him how it was necessary for God (Jesus) to come to the earth as a human making reference to Hebrews 2 and shared the gospel in detail. He really did engaged into conversation. please pray for these young tourists from France with me ! 

Overall, by God's grace all the team members had really good conversations and we were able to hand out all the Christmas gospel tracts ! Soli Deo Gloria ! 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

On Sunday afternoon, a team of four were in Cashel Mall: my three daughters joined me.

We split into pairs.  Haley and Julia found spots to hand out tracts, while Dani and I ran a flip chart together.

Dani and I had two good gospel conversations on the flip chart during the hour we were out.  I would pass over to Dani to do pages of the flip chart, and then she would pass back to me - a great way to get practice sharing the wonderful good news.

The first conversation was with a man with a Catholic background whom it was ingrained that, as long as he was good enough - he would be going to heaven.  Going through the law, and an explanation of the seriousness of sin, was very foreign to this man - and concerning.  He stayed to hear the good news.

The last conversation started when two teens were scooting past, and one of them saw the flip chart and wanted to give it a try.  They were engaged, and so a long conversation occurred.  They clearly understood the bad news, and then the glorious good news - and were able to repeat it back multiple times.  When asked what would stop them from accepting the gift of Jesus, nothing was - even after considering the cost.  So they were challenged to do so.  The accepted follow up tracts.

Haley and Julia were able to give away a number of tracts before we packed up and headed home.  So wonderful to see my daughters growing in their desire to communicate the good news of Jesus to the lost!

On Tuesday afternoon, I was able to find time to finish building a new flip chart (front page pictured) - with the help of my brother and his power tools to drill the holes for the metal bracket at the top.

I was able to use it for the first time on the Christmas Eve outreach in Riccarton.  There weren't as many people out as I was hoping - I guess most people drive into the mall for parking.  But I still was able to have a number of good conversations.

My first conversation was with a young man who said he was going to Valhalla.  But he said he loved talking about this stuff (the after life) and had grown up with a Christian background.  He got through the law before he had to go - he took a tract.

I had another guy interested in the flip chart immediately after the first conversation.  Sadly, he too bailed after hearing the law - he also took a tract.

But the highlight conversation was with three young men.  It was a challenging conversation, where they were grilling me with multiple questions at the same time.  It started off light hearted, but once they started understanding the logic of what I was explaining they sobered up.  Part way through the conversation, I had another two guys join in, and start peppering me with questions too!  It was too hard to deal with the new guys as well, so they took tracts and moved on.  The original guys heard the gospel before they moved on - but at least two of them were very resistant to it.  I would have loved to have more time with them.  They also accepted tracts.

Well, Merry Christmas!  God willing, some of the people talked to, or who received tracts will come to a proper understanding of why Jesus was born and will trust in His sacrifice!  Soli Deo Gloria!
 

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log for Toowong Village : Dec 24 , 2019 Tuesday 1330-1500

Praise and thanks God, the chance to have a chat , especially with UQ students were still plentiful despite of school holiday had started. Winnie in particular had 8 conversations as recap below in Chinese. All the other team member for today, Col, Johnny and Hung had all got their share of Gospel opportunities. For my eight conversation, they are recap as follows: -

1) Indian Christian family with the Mum walking ahead to be approached by me, did a brief chat and the other family members caught up. They seemed to be of Catholic Christian background that typically are lacking assurance of salvation. But they were pleased to be greeted with Merry Christmas with an explanation before they went on with the family happy hours.

2) Susan an English lady was polite to hear explanation of Merry Christmas.She also had clear 100% Assurance of salvation.

3) Amin, was an Indian man. I walked him to the bus stop across the shopping mall. He was torrent enough to hear the nutshell of the Gospel.

4) Liza, a middle age English lady who was so kind to take the tract and showed me the way to toilet.

5) Paul, Joy with three children from PNG. They are a Christian Family but was not clear about salvation. Yet they are Very happy to stay for a short while to chat and let me correct all mis-concept by the secular culture about Christmas.

6) A girl from from Xiamen who were willing to take my tract and let me explain. But Winnie asked to swap audience with Mandarin speaking Mr Ku.

7) Mr Ku from Hebei must have heard the gospel before.. It appeared that he is more than willing to receive Christ as his Savior and Lord.

8) Mother and daughter both with Tattoo appeared as non religious. Still happy to learn about the old meaning of Merry.

Winnie's battle Log : --

感謝讚美主 ！回家後才傾盆大雨。在 Toowong 傳福音後，多謝 關牧師載我們到醫院探望大哥。我為他傳福音，禱告。希望神憐憫他，醫治他。亦希望大哥能早日回轉，信靠主耶穌基督。

感謝神的带领，讓我今天有機會向七人傳了福音。數錯了，應該是八人。

第一對是中國少女，學生。Lillian & May. 第二位 是印度人，他説他信印度教。我解释他 耶稣基督與他的神是不同的。第三對，是中國來的大学生及女友來澳洲遊玩的。他們得到福音，正準備問及教會地址。我記得上次 Kenneth 给我咭片，我從手袋找给他們，可惜巴士到達，他們馬上上車。之后有一中國男學生叫 Bie 及女留學生叫 Grace，他們都接受了福音。最后一位是澳洲老年人，他説，他和太太曾经去過教會，但他們被教會欺骗，因此便永遠不再去了。我説 信耶稣基督 是你與神的關係，與教會無關，得益是你。你可以找另一教會。談了一輪，看他開始軟化，求神憐憫他們，讓他們重回主的懷裏！

感謝神 今天讓我有更多的考验，練習。這都是神的恩典。感謝讚美主！

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

This Thursday we were at Northlands before heading to Eastgate for bus stop outreach.

Again, I relied on tracts to get conversations started.  And, sure enough, God brought along some people who were willing to chat.

I had a great conversation with two young ladies - one of whom said very early on that she thought she would be going to hell, which was surprising.  We dialoged through the law and the gospel, and then I started working on confirming that they understood it.  A few times through checking questions and I think understanding was coming.  But at the same time, there was a hardening to the message.  The cost to accept the gift seemed too great.

There was an encouraging encounter with a Christian who recognised the Eternity tract I handed to her - knowing the story behind it.  As she left, she said warmly: “this is the first time I’ve ever received a gospel tract!”.  God willing, as the years go by, may many people continue to receive tracts for the first time in Christchurch (NZ).

I had three other conversations at Northlands before heading to Eastgate: 1) A follow up with two guys I had talked to outside the bus exchange a previous Friday night - they were not interested in the gospel.  2) With two guys who had just finished high school - the building; builder / universe; universe maker analogy really helped and they listened well.

But the last conversation was with an older man who walked past and asked something about going on holiday.  I offered him a tract, and he said he already had one - so I asked him what he thought about it.  It turns out that this man had been part of a church all his early life (at least), but when I probbed him on what Christianity was all about he was clueless.  He suddenly didn’t want to talk, and turned to go.  But I stopped him, and said that this was the most important thing to think about.  I gave him a detailed tract (After Life) and asked him to read it through.  He accepted it.

At Eastgate, I had many conversations, including with an atheist, and a young man who was wrestling with some life struggles but who heard the gospel.

Friday followed the usual schedule, starting with the gospel + abortion outreach in the morning (which I posted about on the Project 139 Facebook page)

The weather changed to sour near the end of that outreach, and by the time we made it into Cathedral Square, there weren’t too many people about.  Andy and I sang a Christmas Carol with Kelvin the busker, before we headed off in search of gospel conversations.

Andy had a long conversation with a very resistant tourist (German I think), And I had conversations with two sets of people from Holland: a Christian couple, and then a young man who heard, but was resistant to the gospel.

Later in the afternoon, I open air preached and immediately following that Andy & I had a great follow up conversation with three young people.

We finished the afternoon outreach with Andy open air preaching.

The weather had improved for the evening outreach, and there were lots of people out  - I guess many were celebrating the last day of work?  There was a team of three: Andy, Mike and myself.

Andy and Mike seemed to have some great (long) conversations (as pictured).

I had two noteworthy gospel conversations: the first was with a German tourist, but the stand out was with a man who was very drunk.  He couldn’t believe I was asking him about God, but he sat me down wanting to talk.  Verbally, he was very resistant to the gospel, but he wasn’t hiding how deeply he was being impacted - the muscles in his jaw were working over time, as he processed and understood what I was saying.  He kept reflecting back to his mother who was “very spiritual”.  He took a detailed tract, and I told him to put it in his pocket and read it in the morning - I hope he does.
 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Thursday - just after midnight - saw the opening of the new Star Wars movie.  The Christchurch (NZ) team had some Star Wars tracts left over from an outreach a few years ago (pictured in storm trooper outfits) and so it was time to give them away (minus the outfits this time)!  A team of two: Jermaine joined me.

Our plan was to turn up a couple of hours before the movie started and hand out tracts to those heading in.  We were too early - there was no one around, but God provided some wonderful follow up conversations while we waited.

The picture theater is opposite the bus exchange, and a couple of guys I’ve talked to many times before (and who I regularly pray for), were heading into it.  We headed over, and we were able to continue the conversation - they had a friend I hadn’t met before.  They invited me into the bus exchange to talk further... when I encountered yet another young man that I’ve had two good gospel conversations with before - he had some other friends I hadn’t talked to.  And then a security guard walked up… because she wanted a Star Wars gospel tract!  I couldn’t talk to all of them, so Jermaine talked with the new group, while I talked with the original group.

The two guys I have talked to many times before were still no more interested in the gospel.  But their friend was curious and so I focused on taking them through the law and the gospel.  It was difficult, because one of the other guys kept interrupting and trying to take the conversation off track.  In the end, I only had time to go through the law as their bus came.  But a detailed tract (After Life) was received.

The guys Jermaine was talking to had also left, so we headed back over to the picture theater to start handing out the Star Wars tracts.  It worked out great, as there was only one entrance - So Jermaine took one side, and I the other.  And, sure enough, plenty of Star Wars fans started appearing (many in costume) and the tracts started going out.  I had a gospel conversation with one young atheist while he was waiting for a friend.

At one point early on, one of the people that worked for the picture theater came out wondering what we were doing, when Jermaine told him his response was: “Oh, that’s wonderful - we need more people doing this!”  He was a Christian!  He helped us by collecting discarded tracts (inside the theater) and giving them back to us so we could give them to someone else.

All the tracts we had were distributed - about 200.  And the guy who worked in the theater took the last few and said he would give them out.

This outreach was a bit of a risk, as I didn’t know if it would work.  But God was faithful and brought us many opportunities for the gospel as we stepped out in faith.  I was very encouraged.  May He save some through these feeble efforts - all glory to Him!
 

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