Battle Log

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

Today, Ann and Hung turned up with Edwin occupied by church's Ad hoc ministry. It was an usual day that God led us to approach people from different cultural background.

1) Attempted to approach an Aboriginal family but the father decline my approach despite they still have to wait a long time for their bus.

2) Then I caught up with a UQ student from Taiwan doing a Master of business. It was a pity his bus came too quick.

3) Then I tried to catch up with a Chinese lady who had just missed her bus. But she was busy on the phone informing her friend about the lateness.

4) Then I was led to approach Kyle whose Mum is Chinese and Dad is Aussie. He is a Christian who has 100% of assurance of salvation but need brushing up on the why? Anyway, it was a delightful long chat to strengthen his faith.

5) Next was an Indian woman who did not want to chat but took a tract.

6) Next was a mainlander who allowed me to share the gospel but at the end claimed that he is a non believer.

7) Next was a chat with a UQ student from Thailand. Despite he is a Buddhist but he still remain open and objective to the gospel.

8 ) Last was a Filipino Catholic Christian, who is lack of assurance of salvation but clarified and showed appreciation by a selfie photo.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday February 19th, 2025 from 1300-1500

Today, Ann and Hung turned up with Edwin chipping in for a short while. It was an amazing day of outreach characterized by two outward expressions. First, several gospel targets without hesitation claimed that they have been watching me and the team to serve in Sunnybank at the bus stop, showing appreciation of our ministry there. Second, during the conversation, several target ended up asking and guessing my age that all of them thought I am around just 50 years of age but totally found dump to know I am already 72 getting to 73 in few months time. It certainly impressed them that the Christian faith and the Christian walk have compounded impact to my health both physically and spiritually speaking that I look just for ever young to live a life on mission with God. That fit with the teaching of Jesus as per Matt 24:14 that we do not just preach the Gospel to people of all nations towards the end of the world, we also bear witnesses for Christ when we proceed to do His work of global gospel outreach that people may recognize we are really the blessed ambassador for Christ. Recap below is the Battle Log for Hung:

1) The first Chinese woman I approached claimed to be a fan of our team, having been watching us serving there for years. So she said , she heard the message many times already and referred me to speak to another young guy from China.

2) The Young guy is a new student of QUT from China, he showed interest in my conversation with that lady. So I switched to chat with him for a while before the bus came.

3) Third was Terry a Catholic Christian lady who also claimed she just chatted with me two weeks ago. But she still patiently and humbly listened to my revision of the gospel. She out of the blue offered to guess my age as 50 and was surprised that I am 72 going to be 73. It was possibly because she felt the passion in side me to preach the gospel so earnestly.

4) Then I was led to approach a nurse from Sunnybank private. I jokingly said I am a loyal customer of the hospital because of my Bladder cancer treatment there in the past 4 years. She appeared a bit avoidance to cut the conversation short in view of the approaching bus that she did not want to miss.

5) Then I was led to chat with a matured man from Shangdong. China. After listening my gospel, he also suddenly offered to guess my age and said I am 50 like Terry. I supposed he was also impressed by my passion to share the gospel as if I am still young enough for this ministry.

6) Next was a girl from a city near Bangkok in Thailand. She comes to do TESOL study. She was also receptive to the Gospel.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday Feb 25, 2025 from 1230-1400

I served my roster duty street outreach at Toowong by myself again today. It is the beginning of the academic year of UQ, so I was given chance to connect with students of all Year from all cultural background including Local Aussie, Italian born Chinese but does not speak Chinese, Indian migrant and a longest conversation with a Catholic Christian of UK descendant.

1) First greeted mysteriously by a friendly local Aussie for a short chat before the bus arrived.

2) Next with an Italian born Chinese from Rome but of non-religious background.

3) Nic an UK and European mixed of Catholic background but gave me a perfect answer on the two diagnostic question about Assurance of Salvation. Building on his perfect understanding of Jesus' redemptive work, we chatted over half an hour about all doctrinal issues.

4) Last but not the least a full gospel sharing with an Indian migrant of Hinduism background. She was skeptical initially but become more convinced and receptive to to the logic and effectiveness of Jesus redemptive grace.

   

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Toowong (QLD) Team

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

I serve my roster duty street outreach at Toowong by myself again today. It is the Orientation week of UQ, so I was given chance to connect with several fresh first year students from Indonesia, China and India etc. There were mixed responses with both friendly and open chat to reluctant connection or even blunt rejections. That is really part of the training by God to deal with all sort of situation knowing God has played His part in all these divine encounter, if not appointments. Recap below is my Battle Log: -

1) First approached a fresh first year student David from Indonesia. He was the only one did not bury his head in the smart phone texting. He is a Muslim but holds very open mind about other religion especially Christianity which is the 2nd largest in Indonesia. His view about Jesus is comparatively assertive than Muslim of older generation. He showed appreciation for our chat by taking a photo with me.

2) Next was Joelle From UK, who is a 2nd year student. We built rapport quickly because of my UK business involvement and later the post graduate study experience. She also show openness to religious issue and receptiveness towards Gospel as such she also took a selfie with me.

3) Third came a first year fresh student girl from Beijing. She showed uneasiness toward the chat on life issue and reluctance all the more into Gospel. After a brief sharing of the nutshell of the Gospel, she found excuse to join with her friend to end prematurely the conversation.

4) Then my approach to another Indonesian young man was failed he simply walk off from my approach.

5) Yet the next outreach to a fresh first year student from Calcutta of India was quite all right. She appreciate the sharing and took a tract when her bus came.

6) Then there was only one guy left at the bus stop, but he was occupied by his phone conversation. I thus call for the day to go to visit Joe Tam.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

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

It was an extremely hot day. Johnny advised me to start first and he joined me just a little bit later. It was yet another fruitful day that we were led to outreach to many least reached people groups we rarely encounter like Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia. Johnny also got some interesting conversations. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung.

1) A lady UQ student from USA of Egyptian origin and Muslim faith initially tried to avoid me by standing at a distance from the bus stop. But the scorching sun forced her to come under the shade of the bus stop as such I finally could approach her. It ended up a success to share her the full gospel which seemingly was receptive to her.

2) Next was an Indonesia man but of no religious background. He also appeared open and receptive to the gospel.

3) Then Johnny referred a family of three from Hong Kong to me. They seemed to be receptive to religious issue and admitted they are Christian but eventually found out they are of Mormon faith. They were trained to mislead people to think they accept Jesus as God and our savior but they actually does not accept trinity and regarded Jesus as a saint or at best a lesser god.

4) Next I connect with another Indian but our conversation was aborted as I helped him to find out that he was actually on the wrong direction of the bus route as such he needed to go the bus stop on the other side of the street heading to CBD.

5) Then I approached yet another Indonesian who use excuse of being on a phone call to decline my approach.

6) Next were a pair of Local Aussie girl. I use the Aussie slang fair dinkum to start the conversation but interrupted by the bus arrival.

7) Next I was led to approach a matured man Sophia from Southern Jordan. We connected well despite his English level is too basic that took him lone time to get a message through. But the Christian love was expressed and conveyed to him.

8 ) The last Local Aussie I approached was a very young man but appeared arrogant as such very reluctant to have a chat on religious issues. In stead I use fair dinkum slang to get the conversation going.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday February 5th, 2025 from 1300-1500

Today, Johnny, Ann and Hung were available to team up at Sunnybank for Street Gospel Outreach. There was intermittent rain, but as usual, it never could deter the fire of the Gospel warrior squad to retreat from the fore front battle line preaching gospel to people of all nations. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung: -

1) Lin林 from Singapore gave hung a big hand wave while we were doing our opening prayer. I was thus attracted to approach him to check if we had met before but found out it was an innocent mistake, Mr. Lin was only waving to stop the bus from leaving but he failed as such it became the first divine appointment for me to chat for a long while with Lin. He is non-religious, but embrace freedom of religion. He has open mind and rational thinking to grasp my gospel presentation logic that as long as we are not perfect, we all need help from a perfect third party human to be our atoning savior taking our place to received punishment of our sin. Who ever in our life time accepted Jesus as our Savior then his/her life will be saved with heavenly citizenship granted to us with immediate effect 100% be3casue of Jesus' redemptive acts, none because of our good deeds. Lin admitted it made a lot of sense and promise to ponder to make his final step of faith to grab the gift of grace of eternal life offered for free by Jesus.

2) Then I was led to approach Henry from a small Islander country near Fiji called Kiribati. He was of Catholic Christian family background as such his answer to the 2 questions for testing assurance of salvation all failed. It indicated he seriously is not yet a genuine Christian without the step of repentant from sin and overtly accepted Jesus as Savior. He however is a very lay back and humble person, who like to share a lot about his Chinese blood background. His Chinese name is sort of Chi feng and his father name is Choi Kwong. Both a native born in Kiribati. He came to Australia for a short course and has not decided yet if he want to stay for ever. I urge him to consider migration to Heaven even more seriously than to migrate to Australia. And he laughingly agreed.

3) Ben is an Australian born Vietnamese. Because of his upbringing in Australia with less influence from Buddhism, he appeared all open and receptive to the Gospel.

4) A Landscaper of heavy duty labor job who has to start working from 5am to mid day, as such he leads a very healthy sleeping habit turning to bed at 7pm and waking up 1 or 2 am for the early start of landscape work. He absolutely did not want me to share gospel or anything religious to him , but I used his work and his discipline healthy life as an analogy that we also need a very healthy and pure spiritual life which have been contaminated by sin. He ended up giving me a fist pump on setting apart for the bus to acknowledge his acceptance of me as a friend.

Don’t want to chat religion but life is ok sleep by 7 pm

5) Lastly I caught up with Genti from India now staying in Australia on a TR permit for a short course. Her English is not good but we still manage to communicate to let me share the full gospel to her.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday Feb 4, 2025 from 1230-15400

You may wonder how come only two pictures were taken? and posted! Yes it is. Because I forgot to bring my only iPhone as such I asked Johnny my forever gospel outreach team mates to take the opening photo after the opening prayer. And the other was a picture he took for me.

in Hind sight, the all knowing God knew that I only needed to two people today, one Indian born man who came to Australia at the age of 4 years old, so his ethnic identity is more local Aussie that Indian. we shared briefly before his bus arrived in 2 minutes. Then next, there were very few people and most of them were Chinese so I let Johnny to chat to them in Mandarin. My chance came at last with Ahmed, a man from Djibouti (east of Ethopia). He claimed himself a Catholic Christian, but with very heavy pro-Muslim and Anti Christ background. So his faith system is very mixed and uncleared. It also explained why he really has spent many times to read the Bible and other religious writing with a view to find an unified sete of faith believe. God actually let us met over 1 years ago here, and he still remember me despite I could not be sure who he was. His understanding of the Bible is very biased often time reading it out of context and without a big pictures. He even accused Jesus also have sin and his example was Jesus explicitly reject to help a Canaan woman in Phoenicia. I explained patiently with him that it was actually a tactic of Jesus to use initial rejection to test and train His disciple if their attitude toward outreaching and relating to gentile for gospel has been firmly changed. In effect, all the disciples failed the test and thought Jesus now was doing the right thing as per the ritual law of Jewish people to keep gentile out of their reach in their life. So Jesus at the end still entertain the request of the Canaan woman to heal her daughter as he had done these many times before to all sort of gentile people.

It ended up like a religious education class for me to answer all the query of Ahmed, which hopefully many have changed the mindset of Ahmed to look at the Bible in a oneness unison manner. If it was not Johnny calling me to leave when time was up, Ahmed and I may go on much longer. His seriousness to seek the truth is adorable though obviously he lacks the real salvation of Jesus so that there is still no indwelling of the Holy Spirit in his heart to guide and enlighten him to understand the Bible correctly.

God is praise worthy to reconnect me with Ahmed for such meaningful apologetic conversation.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

It’s been an encouraging month.  I actually have a few details to talk about for this report (rather than general memories and pointing to the pictures).

 

So, I took 2 weeks leave, which was refreshing.  I watched a lot of cricket (because it’s free to air on TV in NZ at the moment) - which I find very relaxing.  I even went to a local game to sit on the bank and chill.

 

But, we are back to work again.  It was wonderful to have Carole from the UK join us for a couple of outreaches in Riccarton this month - I hope you got home safely!

 

I want to start with the biggest encouragement.  It occurred 2 days ago, during our Friday afternoon in the city.  Roger was with me.  Due to the loudness of the Buskers Festival event happening at the Bridge of Remembrance, we moved down to the other end, corner of Cashel and Colombo.

 

I ended up in a long conversation right at the end of the outreach.  So I was blessed with an extra 30 minutes of gospel ministry.  A young guy went past whom I stopped with the polite but deep question: “can I ask you, what do you think happens after life?”  He was keen to engage.  We were in the hot sun, and so we moved back into the shade - he was leaning against a shop window for the whole chat.

 

He was resistant, yet open.  He was trying to play the Atheist card, and so a lot of the conversation was spent reasoning with him on that.  But he also hated the idea of punishment (understandable because we love our sin).  Instead he thinks people should be given therapy (amazingly, there is mercy available instead!).  I didn’t let these issues distract from the meat and potatoes: the law and the gospel.

 

Near the end of this conversation I heard someone say, “Glen, is that you?”.  I turned and looked at a couple of guys.  One of them said, “It’s me, Byron, do you remember me?”.  Initially I didn’t, but then slowly my memory came back.  It must have been about 2 years ago.  Byron had been in Cathedral Square listening to the preaching (of other ministers, not us) and had made a profession of faith.  Later (or was it the next week?), he was at the Bridge of Remembrance and I was able to have a gospel conversation.  I was able to use our standard check questions to make sure he was really understanding the gospel.  Things were clicking for him.  He even came to my local churches gathering the following Sunday.  I remember my Pastor and I were encouraging him to join a new believers small group.  But sadly he moved to Ashburton (I think it was) and we lost touch.

 

Anyway, he said to me, “We were talking about you this morning.  I want to let you know, I just got baptised, I’m going to Grace” (I assume he means Grace Vineyard, a local church).  I was overjoyed!  He introduced me to his friend, and he wanted to talk more, but he could see I was in the middle of a gospel conversation with someone else and decided to leave me to that.  But he said he would catch up with me again and wanted to know what my street schedule was.

 

Glory to God!  One person ploughs, another sows, another waters, but God brings the increase!  We can rest in our labour and leave God to His.  I hope to see Byron again soon and learn more about his journey.

 

Going back to the young man that I was talking to, he had watched this whole exchange.  I think it impacted him too.  He ended up by saying, “actually, I’ve really appreciated this conversation”.  And then he said something that surprised me, “I’m thinking of joining a youth group”  I was very surprised by this change of heart!  Even in the face of resistance, we just don’t know what’s going inside of a person.

 

Another very encouraging conversation this month was with a young lady at the Riccarton bus stops.  She watched me approach a guy and listened to our brief exchange, so she knew what I was about.  When I approached her, she was polite but hostile.  I wasn’t put off, and she was happy to talk, so I sat down next to her (you often spend time sitting on the pavement when you do street outreach).

 

She tried to shock me, by saying she was a Satanist.  I didn’t flinch, I just asked her, what kind of satanist she was, a philosophical one, or a spiritual one.  From there we had a decent chat.  She was still hostile, and I had to do a lot of listening.  But slowly I was able, with God’s help, to help her think through some of the things she was saying.  By the end of the chat, she was calm (glory to God), and yet challenged.  It turns out she is also ‘gay’, and using Psychedelics (a very deceptive sin).  I rejoiced over this chat, because she also came to understand the serious nature of her sin and the amazing mercy of Jesus.

 

Of course, there were many other wonderful chats over the month.  Just one more that I want to mention.  I think it occurred on the same day as the previous chat I mentioned.  I was talking to 2 bright University students (they were girls).  One was studying communications, and the other biology.  Their world views were of their own creation (idolatry), but they were a mix of atheism with eastern influence (reincarnation, etc).  The conversation centered on how we know God exists.  They came at me hard, but I stuck to my guns.  At multiple times I would say, “fault the logic”, and they would go silent as they could see I had already addressed their arguments (all glory to God).  I was able to touch on the law and the gospel, but they weren’t open to it at all.  Eventually one of the girls said to the other, “hey, we have an appointment at five thirty, right?”.  The other girl looked at her strangely and said, “No”.  She didn’t get the hint, she wanted out of this chat.  I understood and so I gave her the out, I think my job was done for the time being, they had plenty to consider.

 

Anyway, I’ll leave it at that.  We are still very busy with online outreach: responding to an endless stream of conversations via Instagram and TikTok Messenger (and other social media platforms), training people for online evangelism, and having online video chats of our own.  This is all via needGod.net, led by Ryan.  I leave one TikTok comment (as a picture) I captured during the month, for your encouragement.

 

Next month we have 2 special outreaches coming up: a week of outreach in Dunedin in conjunction with OAC and Cornerstone International Bible Church, and then a week or so in the Philippines.  PLEASE pray: 1) that we would be a blessing to the church, 2) for favour with authorities, 3) that the lost would understand the gospel, and finally 4) that God would be glorified.  Please also pray for the interactions between Christians in organising and conducting these outreaches, that there would be understanding and love in spite of disagreement on secondary issues and methods.

 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday January 29, 2025 from 1300-1500

Today is the Chinese New Year Day, or the first day of the year of snake.

歲首年終，龍去蛇來，祝願大家：At the end of the year, the dragon is gone and the snake is coming. I wish you all:

靈巧像蛇，馴良像鴿子。（馬太福音10:16）Wise as serpents, innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:16)

意思就是要像蛇那樣機靈敏捷，懂得按機行事，隨時應變；然而我們也要像鴿子一樣，心存善良、純潔之念。 正是「害人之心不可有，防人之心不可無」，所以，《聖經》一再提醒我們說：「你們要謹慎，免得有人迷惑你們。This means that we need to be as shrewd and agile as snakes, knowing how to act according to circumstances and to adapt to changes at any time. However, we also need to be like doves, with good and pure intentions. It is true that “you should not have the intention to harm others, but you must be on guard against others”, so the Bible reminds us again and again: “Be careful so that no one especially Satan may deceive you.

Edwin was occupied by family affair to take care of in law on the eve of her returning to China. So only Johnny and Hung were available. As for Hung, he hurt his back for doing over an hour of garden tidy up as such he retired earlier. But all in all, it was a good start for the Gospel outreach ministry that the team in majority keep having at least one to serve as their commitment to God in the long haul.

For the shorter time of about an hour of street outreach. Hung made following approaches: -

1) Chatted with an Australian Born Mainliner high school kid that does not speak Chinese, used Australian slang ,"fair dinkum' as gag to convey the message that we have to be perfect for admission to heaven.

2) Then connected with an Australian born Japanese girl of UQ first year. My Japanese is better than her. Also used the same fair dinkum slang.

3) Then approached a Family of 3 with a young kid migrated to Australian from Fujian. Chatted mainly with the father though using the tract as a gift of cartoon pictures to the kid first. The conversation went well and the father appeared very open and receptive to the gospel message.

4) Last but not the least I connected with a Fiji born Chinese but he could speak fluent Chinese. He is non religious but has studied Bible of both the Mormon and Biblical version. His interaction and response again is all positive.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday January 28, 2025 from 1300-1500

Today is Chinese New Year Eve so, a time stamp to close another chapter of our life on mission with God year in year out. It was still a very hot day of high noon with scorching heat near and around the Toowong Bus Stop. People tended to high behind the covered booth under the shade.

I got to Toowong bus stop a bit later than usual as I have to deliver stuff to the Toowong Baptist Church ready for their meeting tomorrow that I am not available to attend. But when I arrived by myself (all others are not available to day because of the Chinese New Year Eve family reunion affair) the bus stop was empty except with one lady sitting on the bench under the scorching sunshine. It was apparently a divine appointment as my chat with Lawrence an Australian Born Sri Lankan lasted over half an hour which is too unusual. She is a QUT student as such she was taking a bus to go home, not to UQ, that could explain that route may be not a frequent one compare to those heading for UQ. She is non religious but is very open minded, friendly and polite in conducting interactive talk with me. She like majority of the good persons, have not thought of the consequence of being good but imperfect in her human character. The gospel message does present to her an one of a kind rational logic that every human being, as long as we are not perfect, may all need external help to rectify the effect of imperfection or sin. At the end, she graciously ask for a tract and promise to ponder this important issue by herself. I though her had come , but later found out she was still left alone at the bus stop perhaps missing her bus because of our long conversation. I any way, did not want to give her pressure and wanted to leave her alone for personal meditation. So I called off the outreach earlier than usual.

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