Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 106

Twas a delightful Lord's day afternoon with a breeze wafting across Wellington Point as we embarked on the Lord's mission for a brief time.

     We prayed and left our praying post.

     Lee-Anne and Railee barely made it past the J.W.s 'bad news' stand, when they engaged Samuel, Connor and Jayden. They listened to the law and gospel and interacted in a manner that suggested that they may have had some background 'church' experience. Jayden needed and received a Bible.May our Lord bring His word to bear in their lives that the fruit of righteousness may result.

     Later, a young Indian couple were offered a tract but produced a 'Law tract' that they had received earlier from another team member. They offered to return it but instead were challenged with their own goodness according to God's standard of righteousness. They showed no concern for their sins as their 'god' was different. They were given the court room analogy where the person charged with offenses tries to persuade the judge to let him go if he promises to do better from now on, The judge cannot let him go unpunished as long as his record of guilt stands. They were shown the need for Jesus to be their Substitute as only He is perfect, or absolutely righteous,  and only His death satisfies the demands of God's justice, 2 Cor 5:21.  They kept the tract. May they forsake their false god and receive God's salvation. God help them.

     The latter part of our time was spent talking with 2 of the Maltese ladies we have befriended over the years. They got a bit excited when told they were bad (semi-Pelagian teaching). However we were able to show how they were good but not good enough to get to heaven. Did they hear savingly this time? God knows and He knows that we are unable to change their rebellion against Him 

We give God the glory for He alone is worthy of all praise. Yes! we went home, a bit weary, but rejoicing.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Toowong Village on 2019 Nov 19 1330 to 1500

The Schoolie Outreach has impact in many other regular Outreach in Brisbane, but not Toowong. Today we even had a new member Gary together with other 4 regular members, Johnny, Col, Winnie and Hung.

In fact our outreach here has been adversely affected by the finishing of academic term of UQ so we readily could meet much less UQ students.

Anyhow, individual member still had enough grace to get significant divine appointments to do His work. Winnie came back after two weeks break from family travelling. She only got one opportunity to share with the "Good Person" flip chart. But I encouraged her to submit to God's sovereign task assignment and took this as a lesson to have patience and to submit to God's plan. Gary had got a number of chances that were good enough to serve as encouragement for first timers. Like-wise both Col and Johnny had got good number of divine appointments especially Col.

As for me, I still got 5 chats despite I kept walking around to take pictures for other team mates for the sake of compilation of Battle Log.
This was a great team Work for the Glory of God sake.

1) Peter an Aussie Christian who rode bike to work but was willing to stop to chat with me. Once he declared he is a Christian, I ask him the two diagnosis questions. He was unsure initially. But once I gave him some hint and three options , 50%, 90% and 100%, than he picked the right answer of 100% assurance of salvation. In this connection, I felt the need to give him some apologetic clarification on the three folds salvation package of God.

2) Stephanie an UQ student from Wales was in her folk costume. She does not have any faith, but was very responsive to listen to my Gospel sharing and ended up fully convinced of the need to receive Christ as her Savior to take her place for the eternal death punishment. I encouraged her to take time to quiet before God seeking for His guidance to be saved through Christ. I referred her to seek support from Power to Change.

3) Joe an atheist who sternly rejected my tract. But he did not reject me to share. So I had a good debate with him in a very healthy and assertive manner. Despite he was still hard in his heart but at least he heard my version about faith and salvation and I believe God grace is sufficient to convert him eventually in His time.

4) Star and Tea are UQ students from Thailand. So they possibly are Buddhists. They showed initial impatience but God still moved them to stop for a short while long enough for me to share the nutshell of the gospel and they left with tracts taken home.

5) Jabe a Qut student from Hong Kong coming to do part time work at Toowong Village. He walked with a non -believer friend but his friend left when Jabe chose to stop to chat with me. It was found out he is a Christian baptized as a baby. His knowledge about the Bible and the doctrine of salvation is completely weak. I gave him a briefing and helped him to re-establish the correct understanding of salvation with full assurance. I also encouraged him to go back to church or at least to get connected with Power to Change at QUT first.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Thursday and Friday saw the final two days of the three day Canterbury A&P Show outreach.  There were no more slow starts, with many people stopping to chat keeping the team busy.

It was wonderful to have some newbies join the team on Friday.  It can be pretty daunting when you are new so some training occurred, and observation is fine.  When ready, parts of the conversation can be handled by the newbie.  But, to my delight, it was wonderful to see them all stepping up and doing full gospel presentations with the flip chart in no time!  Well done!

Early on Friday we had a mini emergency!  A young lady collapsed while doing the flip chart with one of the team.  I had to call 111 - but the sister of the lady had managed to fetch an ambulance team in short order.  Luckily she was ok.  She was eventually sitting up, and then hopped onto a mini ambulance to be taken to the first aid station for observation.  We are not sure of the reason for the collapse, but it is a reminder of the fragility of life and the urgency to share the gospel.

So many conversations occurred over the two days, it became very tiring and some pacing was required.  On Friday, all I had to do was stand next to the front flip chart for a few minutes, and someone would stop and want to know what it was all about.  One of the team described it as being like a bear fishing at the edge of a waterfall, and just opening its mouth and letting the fish jump in!  Hundreds of people will have heard the gospel!  Praise God.

A highlight from Thursday was being able to follow up with an international cricket player whom I had handed a tract to outside the hospital earlier in the year.  It actually started with his older daughter being very interested in the flip chart - another of the team talked to her, while I talked to her father about the gospel.  At the end of the day, the daughter came back, as she had been processing the gospel message she had heard, and had questions she wanted to discuss.  How wonderful!

The highlight from Friday was probably sharing with two young ladies who had a Christian background, but hadn’t heard the gospel articulated so straightforwardly.  She seemed to grasp that it is by faith in Jesus' sacrifice that saves us, and not our works.  It turns out she had gotten involved with a Mormon church - which doesn’t teach this - and she could now see the contrast.  She was asking about good churches in her area and was encouraged to get in touch so that we could help her with this.

The good thing about so many conversations is that time goes by fast.  And so before we knew it we were packing up the site and praying and giving God the glory for the opportunities we had.  Thank you Lord!

Saturday was a much needed break for me, and I’m now in Brisbane (flew over early Sunday morning) and about to head down to the Gold Coast for a week of outreach there.  Your prayer is much appreciated for the Operation 513 team.  Thank you!
 

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South-East England (UK) Team

Operation 513 was in Romford today on the Highstreet. The crowds were good today.  Jacob Moswa, his son Israel, Andy Noble  and I were handing out tracts and talking to various people.  

Jacob spoke to a number of people. Andy and Israel handed out tracts to people as the passed by.  Israel, who is 5 years old, has fun handing tracts to the people passing by.  

I preached after a while from Proverbs 16:  A man's way is pure in his own heart.  A man's way is right is in his own eyes, but it leads to death.  But Jesus has opened a new and living way with His blood to the holy places.  (Heb. 10)  I also included words from John 14:6 that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.    

There was a break from rain today, but it was about 8 C and the cold got to us after two hours.  

God bless, 

Chuck Bosio

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Tuesday was different to usual for the Christchurch (NZ) team.  Matt and Ryan from Brisbane were with me and so we decided to make the most of the day with outreach to four locations: Eastgate bus stops, Northlands bus stops, Riccarton, and finally in Cashel Mall.  Others joined us for the last two outreaches.

All the outreaches were eventful.  Some highlights from Eastgate include: on the negative side - an elderly man raising his stick and tell me to f--- off multiple times (I turned to him after he had listened to me sharing with a couple who had just left to catch a bus).  I was actually encouraged by this - it just shows the reality of the battle we are in.  But: on the positive side - I had two wonderful conversations with mothers with young babies in prams (at different times).  One understood the gospel and responded expressing a desire to accept the gift of Christ.  The other let tears flow down her face - I asked what was going on, and she indicated it was that she was understanding the good news of the gospel.  Praise God for that!  But she is in a battle, as she currently has other influences in her life: including from the JWs.  She was so grateful when I offered her a Bible - and she accepted it.

Riccarton was fascinating.  We got into some long conversations with some high school students - including with some who had an understanding of the gospel, but were currently rejecting it.  I also had a wonderful conversation with some other high school students - including one who was a Muslim, but who seemed very interested in the gospel.  Everyone else in the team also seemed to be having good gospel conversation opportunities as well.

Wednesday was the first day (of three) of the Canterbury A&P show.  Nine and a half hours of tiring but wonderful outreach for a team of seven.  It was a slow start, but eventually everyone was busy with sharing the gospel.  At one point, six sets of conversations were going on at the same time.  And even when the stalls next door had closed up for the day, we were still going strong.  So many gospel conversations, they all blur together in my memory.  God knows them all, and we leave the results in his hands!

 

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Warwick Blog 25/10/19 & 1/11/19

This week on our Friday outreach I was able to attend for the whole day as the company I work for let us swap the Warwick show day public holiday earlier in the year for the annual Rodeo at the end of October. We had just set up the bible table when D a guy from out of town just happened to pass by the table where a long chat with him began to take place.He was friendly and didn’t mind discussing with us these very important issues about life.He told us his aging mother was a Christian and that he was brought up in a church going home but he is not a believer and puts his trust in science and evolution.We took him down the road of law to reveal to him his sin before a holy God and the Judgement to come when he leaves this world through deaths door and then asked him if he has heard the good news of the gospel.He knew about Jesus from childhood,but wasn’t sure what he did, so we explained what our Lord did to save  sinners (Christians are sinners, but saved by God’s grace) and that he laid down His life in the place of all who would repent (turn from sin) and trust in Jesus to save us.After about an hour of talking with him Glenda had to leave to attend a funeral so we continued chatting about many things including science,evolution and his life in general while interjecting truths from God’s word along the way.The time went so fast and discovering we had been talking for 2 ½ hours we wrapped things up with a challenge for him to check into the things we talked about and to come by again which he replied that he just might do that and hit us with some more questions.

 

We were very blessed to have a fellow worker, a brother in Christ come from Brisbane to help us with sharing the Gospel this last Friday. He challenged me as I could see he was so effective in starting conversations. He was saying hi can I ask you a couple of questions and he had a good handful of one on one encounters. Everything and everyone who we get to chat with we know the Lord has brought to us and even if it's a few words or a Gospel tract we pray that the Lord will use our feeble efforts to do His amazing good work in their hearts in conviction of sin to bring them to true repentance and a saving knowledge of faith. It is all God's work.

Col asked a young woman if he could ask her a few questions and I heard her reply..."why not "she said..."I have a bit of time to kill"  Wow you don't hear very often of that sort of response. So it was a great opportunity for him to share the truth of God's Word. I was handing out tracts but heard Col asking all the good and provoking questions to see where she was in her understanding. She was taken through the law and was humble in her admitting her guilt. Col used the flip chart and when she heard the solution to her dilemma and when she saw the illustration on the flip chart, of Jesus bearing the punishment we deserve J stated that it made sense to her. Col spent a good deal of time with her and he brought her over toward me as he suggested that I could help with information about the church we attend. I had some time with J it was an absolute privilege to see God at work in this young lady she was so open and wanting to know about the most important news ever she was listening intently. So we talked about the Bible and gave info how to read it and she gladly received a Bible from us. I went over a few things briefly one being how we must be born again. I showed in Ephesians 2 how God's Word tells us we are all spiritually dead and how we are all dead in our sins. The Bible tells us it is from the time of conception. I explained the origin of sin from Genius and the fig leaves of self effort to hide guilt and shame of sin. It was explained that sin is what separates us from God who is Holy. All the good things we do are but filthy rags no good we do can make us right with a Holy God showing her Ephesians 2 :8 & 9...J actually read it out. Then again pointing ahead to the cross in showing how only God can do the work to save us from eternal punishment of sin. Repentance and faith in Jesus  the saviour who is God and who became flesh to save sinners. Jesus is risen and victorious and has blessed our day to be able to share so much truth with J.

 Col had explained well to her she was seeing the seriousness about all she was hearing. I told her about our church and gave her info and shared that we are here for her if she would come back and see us that we would love to see her again. 

She was challenged to think about her sin speak with God in prayer and seek Him for her Eternal salvation. We also gave her a booklet of John and pointed out the first few pages where there is an illustration and words to read about getting right with God. We need His righteousness the great exchange!!!  our filthy rags in exchange for His pure righteousness is His gift to us by His Spirit. Pray for J that she will hear the command of Jesus to repent and trust him alone. for her salvation

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log : Toowong Village Tuesday Nov 12, 2019 1330 -1500

With few core members overseas who will be due back next week, we continued to have 3 die-heart members , namely Johnny, Col and Hung only this week attending this Evangelist mission spot. Despite of scarcity in hands, all of us had near non-stop divine appointments especially Col who had 7. Most of them led to willingness to consider to receive Christ and eagerness to receive Bible to know more about God.

As for me, I had five quality conversations as recap below: -

1) Harry, a QUT local student who passed by to go for a part time job. He was very pure in heart and stopped voluntarily to listen. At the end he was very convinced of the need to trust in Jesus for cleansing our sin. I referred him to look for Power To Change once he decided on his own accord to receive Jesus as his personal Savior.

2) Beverly and her disabled husband were waiting by the road side for pick up car. Beverly has weak eye sight as such she can only read with a magnifying glass. Thus she was happy to listen to my sharing patiently. And at the end, she also appeared very impressed and convinced that every one including herself need Christ.

3) Angela and Scythania are both UQ students from Cairns . They are friends who were both born here as an Australian Born Chinese. Unlike most of the other Chinese from the Mainland, they both showed genuine interest and politeness to let me share with them. Despite they are both non-believers without any religious faith, they both showed deep receptive to the gospel message and were fully convinced that both of them need Christ. Again, they were referred to contact Power to Change as soon as they make the step of faith to receive Christ.

4) Raul a QUT student from Spanish speaking Republic of Paraguay. He was about to leave and politely declined my invitation to talk by claiming he is a Christian already. I of course will not easily let go any self claimed Christian by checking their assurance of salvation faith. He right away told me he has 100% assurance simply counting on the redemptive grace of Jesus. So I applauded him for being the minority group of Christians I contacted on the street who have clear understanding of salvation. He explained it was all because of his mother who brought them up with all the crucial biblical Knowledge. It causes him a problem to get adapted to many of the Australian churches that care only about emotional feeling but not biblical truth teaching. He however is not feeling over disappointed as there is no perfect church. I encouraged him to not stopping Sunday worship even he has readily a strong biblical knowledge foundation. It was a most mutually edifying conversation in Christ I ever have on the street with a stranger. We ended up chatting for a long while despite he initially wanted to ride away with his bike.

5) Finally I talked to Hu 胡 from China. He, unlike most Mainland Chinese, cheerfully accepted my tract and prepared to listen. But our conversation was cut short by the arrival of the bus.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Saturday saw the sixth annual Tell Me Conference happen!  It was a real blessing to have people come to hear Ryan Hemelaar, Evangelist with Operation 513 in Brisbane speak on common gospel analogies he uses in witnessing conversations, Nick Clevely, Elder of Covenant Grace Baptist Church in Timaru speak on the doctrine of repentance, and Phil Johnson of Grace to You answering various questions.

After the conference, many of those who attended also joined in on an afternoon outreach in the city.  We started with an open air gospel presentation using trivia, and giving away money to draw a crowd and give an illustration of the gift of salvation found in the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins.  I was pretty nervous with all the people watching, and wanting to give a good example.  It could have gone better, but I made it through.  The lady who offered to go for the five dollar note was a good sport, in spite of the fact that she was uncomfortable.  We shook hands afterwards.

Matt also preached, and one of the attendees of the conference also had a go!

After this, we moved to Cashel Mall and spread out to share tracts, use flip charts, and pair up for one to one gospel conversations.  There were so many Christians in the mall that the people walking through were getting approached multiple times!  So wonderful to see.  Many tracts were distributed, and it was wonderful to look down the mall and see many gospel conversations happening.  For all those first timers - well done!

It was also wonderful to see my own daughters freshly inspired to share the gospel with the lost!  They paired up with others and were boldly offering tracts to passers by, in spite of their fears.

A team of eight also gathered for the Sunday afternoon outreach in Cashel Mall.  Light rain did not damper the enthusiasm of the team.  Again we paired up, those with experience mentoring those with less (my daughters!)

I was very proud to watch my youngest daughter start a gospel conversation via a flip chart for the first time (with assistance from Thomas) - pictured.  I was also very encouraged to hear that my other two daughters had also been bold enough to start gospel conversations.  Well done!

Thank you to all those involved with the Tell Me Conference.  May Christians continue to be encouraged and equipped for spreading the good news of Jesus' sacrifice for sins to all those that need to hear it (everyone!).

God bless you as you step out and faithfully and lovingly share of the hope within you wherever you are!
 

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Pink in "Practical Christianity",p. 160, "Love is the fulfilling {not a substitution for, still less the abnegation} of the Law,."  - on Rom. 13:10 for it inspires its performance."  

     Fynn had a long chat with Z., a young Muslim man. Although Z had some knowledge of Christ's death, he did not seem to progress. Perhaps he did but with his father sitting beside him, it is unlikely that he would have let on.  Regardless of our analysis, God arranged the rendezvous and He has a glorious purpose in everything He does.

     Meanwhile Railee and I handed out tracts but had not one protracted conversation. Still, we took what opportunities came along to plant a seed of doubt in a young atheistic mother's thinking. We also had a little time with a Indo-Fijian Hindu from Labasa, Fiji  where we began our married life a few years ago {But a very short time of married life, if it is possible to compare it with eternity ) This man 'tears up' every time he hears the gospel. He teaches comparative religion in private schools.

     We left rejoicing knowing that God always has His word do His inimitable work. As always, we thank him for the privilege of serving Him - such a privilege - and to Him be all the glory. 

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Thursday and Friday produced some very special gospel conversations.  Three in particular.

The first occurred at the Eastgate bus stops.  I had offered a tract to a man who upon reading it became very hostile.  I tried to calm and reason with this man but was unsuccessful at both.  I ended up taking his tract back and ending the conversation for this reason.

Dejectedly, I turned and saw a lady waiting for a taxi with her dog.  I assumed she had observed my exchange and therefore wouldn’t be interested in talking to me, but I approached her anyway, and offered her a tract.  To my surprise she accepted and was keen to chat.  She was waiting for a taxi that would let her dog in the car.  I was able to show her how we know God exists before a taxi came to end our conversation.  But she had become very interested, and said she would read the tract.

I moved away from the taxi’s down to a bus stop, looking for a new conversation, before heading back past the taxi’s.  I was surprised when one of the taxi drivers called me over.  To my encouragement, he had some of our tracts already!  We had handed them to him on previous outreaches.  Well he had read them, and wanted to talk.  So I hopped into the taxi and we started discussing the gospel.  But then one of his regular customers came out of the mall needing a ride - so our conversation was cut short.  But he gave me his card with his number and asked me to call him.  As he drove off, I sent him a text message so he had my number.

Ten minutes later, he called me.  He had dropped off his customer and wanted to finish the conversation.  He drove past, picked me up, and then he parked in the Eastgate car park.  He was on a thirty minute break and wanted to hear the gospel, so I pulled out my mini flip chart, and took him through it - beginning to end!  He was happy to receive a Bible!  He then drove me back around to the bus stops where we parted ways.

I’m confident, God willing, that I’ll have opportunities to see him again and follow up.  A very encouraging conversation!

The second started as I was driving from Eastgate to Northlands.  A guy (that I’ve mentioned in multiple logs before) that I’ve had the opportunity to witness to multiple times since I first met him on the last Summer mission (just under a year ago) contacted me wanting to catch up.  He said he would find me the next day when I was in the city on outreach…

On Friday, we had some great conversations with people outside the Hospital during the abortion outreach, where the third conversation was had.  A guy who works at the hospital, and who I’ve talked with multiple times as well came out and wanted to chat.  It was wonderful to see how positively challenged he has been by our conversations, and also by our witness standing against abortion.  To us, it doesn’t seem like what we are doing is very effective.  But he confirmed that it actually is.  He took my contact details.  I hope to see him again.

… and now I come back to the second conversation.  It’s now Friday afternoon on Cashel Mall - and it’s hot!  Andy & I had set up a couple of flip charts when the guy who contacted me the day before turns up.  The three of us found a shady spot and sat down to talk.  And that talk went for the rest of the outreach.  This young man had previously adamantly said he would never be a Christian, because a specific sin is too precious to him to let go.  Well it was clear that he had now moved on from that position and he seems to be seriously considering Christ.  We spent the time answering his questions, trying to clear his confusion on various things, and going over the law and the gospel again.  He left with one of my last Gospel booklets - he received one previously but indicated that he hadn’t read it, and didn’t have it any more.  But he took this one with a different attitude saying he would read it this time - and I’m confident he will.  I will continue praying for this young man, and the two other men I talked about in this log entry.

I don’t know if my writing has conveyed how incredibly encouraged I am by these three conversations - so I’m explicitly saying so now.  These three men sought me out to talk, as the Holy Spirit seems to be working in their lives since they were first challenged by the truth in the gospel!  As part of my job, there is a lot of rejection, disappointment and discouragement - and so encouragement like this is extra special.  Yet no matter the result - the work is worthwhile.  Be encouraged church!  The gospel is the power of God to salvation.  Join us out in the harvest to share this amazing good news!
 

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