Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 20

Christchurch (NZ) Team

No action shots in the photos for this week.  But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an action packed week of street outreach in Christchurch.

 

I was too busy for photos Tuesday afternoon.  Roger was with me.  Friday afternoon was busy too.  Roger and Mark were with me.  On Saturday and Sunday I was on my own, so no one to take photos of.  But those outreaches were wonderful too.  Let’s start with Tuesday.

 

I decided to take notes, because I usually forget the chats from Tuesday by the time I write this on Sunday.  Haha, it must be old age!

 

So, there was someone sitting close to my usual spot, so I decided to set up my flip chart in Roger’s spot till he got there.  I hadn’t even finished setting it up when I heard, “Hi Glen”.  I looked up and saw a group of school kids from Christchurch Boys and Girls High Schools.  My look must have been blank, because she said, “you don’t remember us do you?”.  I didn’t.  She said, “that’s okay, it would have been a year ago when we last talked”.  So encouraging to know that people remember the gospel conversations you have with them.  The gospel is the power of God for salvation.  I started with a check question, and I was pleasantly surprised that they (a girl and I guy) knew the right way to heaven.  Yet, they had friends with them that didn’t.  And so, I was able to use the flip chart to share the gospel with them.

 

I went straight from that chat into another.  2 guys passed, and 1 of them glanced at the flip chart, so I said, “would you like to give the ‘good person test’ a go?”  He was keen, to his friends' surprise.  It was a good chat, but an intense chat.  They were intellectual types from the University.  And they wanted to play the agnostic / atheist card.  I didn’t want to bolster their suppression by giving them an inch.  I held my ground as to how they know God exists and what the true motivation for denying Him is.

 

By this stage, Roger was there.  And the intensity of the conversation, although polite, was attracting others to stop.  I noticed Roger busy in conversations, and I had multiple people queuing up to talk.  Sadly, I wasn’t able to get to them.  Eventually a friend of the 2 guys turned up and joined the conversation.  She gave me a long winded explanation as to why justice is not universal.  I gave up and let her talk.  You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.  If I pushed any harder, it would have just gotten nasty.

 

It was then that I noticed a young lady standing nearby.  She was either interested in our conversation, or she was looking for directions.  I decided to ask if I could help.  It turns out she is a Christian, and was very interested in the conversation.  I was able to peel away from the ‘agnostics’, leaving them with Roger, and engage her for mutual encouragement.  It turns out she remembered our ministry from the Rangiora A&P Show outreach 2 seasons ago (the flip chart was the link).

 

Once the Christian had moved on, I decided to leave the ‘agnostics’ to Roger.  But, with all the activity, an hour and a half had gone by, and I realised I was tired.  Once Roger had finished up, we went for a hot chocolate.

 

It was so good to have Mark with us on Friday, at the Bridge of Remembrance.  Mark is a local pastor.  He has a different approach to his street evangelism.  And yet, he is willing to work with us and learn why we do it differently, even if he is not fully convinced yet.  I really appreciate his humbleness.

 

Mark was keen to see the flip chart in action.  I didn’t bring mine, but Roger brought his.  Roger was quickly into a chat a short distance away, and so Mark and I paired up on the flip chart.  A lot of kids about - teachers only day.  I noticed 4 high school aged kids that I thought might be keen, and so I ran over to engage them.  They were indeed keen, and I was able to get them to come over to the flip chart.  It went well.  One of the girls had an audible penny drop moment as she seemed to grasp the gospel.  And another girl literally laughed out loud, when I asked if she would punch the fireman in the face.  It illustrated my point perfectly.  A believer will never use Jesus as an excuse to sin.

 

We then had 5 more High School kids go past - they engaged well on the flip chart too.  And then yet another group of kids, this time from a local Christian School - they did well in articulating the gospel - yet one of them had important questions we were able to address.

 

It was a busy afternoon.  Mark was asking why I had been skipping the first picture of the flip chart (Eiffel Tower) when a guy passed who (to my surprise) was keen to give the flip chart a go.  He wasn’t sure about God, and so, the perfect opportunity to use that first picture presented itself.  He dug his heels in, and so I was able to demonstrate the use of some simple apologetics, e.g., where did God come from?  I wasn’t going to let arguing about this hold back sharing the law and the gospel, and so I did that.  It was a great chat.  And Mark and I were able to debrief afterwards.

 

Saturday I was back in Riccarton.  Warm weather for the first day of winter.  I had many wonderful opportunities to engage people with the bad news of the law, and the good news of Jesus.  I even saw the young couple from my first chat on Tuesday again (from Boys / Girls High School)!

 

Sunday was sunny but cold.  I was on my own, and feeling a bit tired, so I decided to hand out tracts.  My first chat really stands out in my mind.  A young man slows as he walks past.  I could tell he wanted to talk.  We engaged (even though his girlfriend didn’t want to stop).  It was a short conversation, but a powerful one.  He heard the law and the gospel.  He was interested, it was like God had already been preparing him.  All that was needed was a Christian to be in the right place and ready to share.

 

Are you ready to share?  Are you willing to go?  Yes, it’s hard labour, but is it worth it?  Absolutely!  Be encouraged.  Glory to God alone.

 

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3) A late middle age man by the name of Liu ? from Taiwan he seemed to be open and willing to listen?, took? the tract but his heart was seemed not in there to take the message.

4) Jrest an Australian born Colombian and was born here in a Christian family. But surprisingly he got 100% assurance of salvation with the concept crystal clear. So I laud praise to him as a Fair Dinkum Christian. He was happy to take selfie with me.

5) A Filipino Catholic Christian with girlfriend who has only 20 % of assurance of salvation. Issue clarified and hopefully may become more active in living a world Christian life for the Gospel sake.

6) Next was a Japanese girl who was surprised when I greeted her in pure Japanese. She was happy to chat about the gospel and took a tract when her bus came.

7) Arrogant youngster ABC but still finished listening the full gospel. She had tendency to find out loophole in your conversation and launch attack. They were all fenced off but the Bus arrived and ended this gospel attempt.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

A bit of a disrupted week for me, I had to take some time off.  But that’s all sorted now, praise God!  Back to normal schedule, now.

 

So I did less outreach this week, but I was still able to do the 2 city outreaches: Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon.  Both cold days.  Sunny on Sunday, but wet on Friday.  Yet still very fruitful outreaches, glory to God.

 

Every picture in this week's report has a gospel conversation in it, even if it’s hard to spot!  Feel free to play a game of ‘where’s Andy’.

 

So, on Friday, it was overcast, cold and wet.  Not many people were out, and those that were didn’t want to be out for long.  Yet, the 2 hour outreach was productive.

 

Roger set up his flipchart near the Bridge of Remembrance.  Andy and I decided to head down to Ara.  It’s a great spot, and it didn’t disappoint on this day.

 

Andy was quickly into a chat with 4 Sikh’s from India.  It was interesting watching the dynamic of the group.  2 of them were very engaged - but 1 did most of the talking.  A 3rd was interested, and even engaged, but was easily distracted by the 4th, who didn’t want to be involved, and stepped back and away to make his disinterest clear, in spite of Andy trying to include him.  They had to get going (to catch a bus), so Andy quickly shared the gospel, as I distributed follow up tracts to all of them.

 

As they moved on, I noticed there weren’t many people around for the moment, except a guy who was sitting on a seat in the distance.  So I decided to go and talk to him.  He was open to chat, and so I sat next to him to do so.  He was Korean, and went to church, but he wasn’t sure if God was real, and so starting from there I was able to explain how we know God is real, the law and the gospel.  He seemed to appreciate the chat.  It reinforced things his pastor had been teaching him.  I guess it helps to hear it from someone else?

 

Heading back to the street, there were lots of students hanging around now.  Andy was busy, and I got into a chat with a young lady (pictured sitting in the number artwork).  Others joined and left the conversation throughout, but she was my main focus till she left (great chat), and then I was able to follow up with the others.

 

Andy and I eventually made it back to where Roger was.  I spent the last few minutes of the outreach handing out tracts.  As I left, Roger and Andy were both still in chats.

 

Sunday afternoon was sunny, but I was so glad I brought my jacket, because it was cold!  Esp. in the shade, and by the end of the outreach, the shade had almost enveloped everything.

 

Thomas & Mike were with me.  After prayer, we set up the flipchart (in the sun), and I hadn’t even finished getting ready, when we were instantly into a conversation with a guy (Belgian) and his partner (English) and their little daughter.  They lived in India (Goa) and were on holiday in New Zealand.  They were interested in the front page of the flipchart and we discussed it for a bit, before getting into a conversation about unrelated things (naturally building a rapport - it just happened that way).  He speaks French! (as does Thomas).  So it was great to have that connection.

 

Anyway, they wanted to know what the flip chart was about.  And so I was up front, we are Christians wanting to share about Jesus.  He was keen to chat.  They had an Eastern religious influence in their lives.  And so, going from there, we were able to share the law, the gospel, and move into checks.  He was very smart, and I could tell he grasped the gospel because he instantly said, “if that’s true, we can do what we want”.  I was able to address that with the fireman analogy, and then I went back to the ‘crossing the road’ analogy so he could see the contrast of the tension of how we are saved by a gift, and yet the gift will (willingly) cost us everything out of our love for the gift giver.

 

It was an amazing chat, and a great way to start the outreach.  I knew I had to give Thomas some space, and so I left him with the flip chart while I did ‘walk up’.  Thomas was soon into a chat (a difficult one), and so was I (also difficult), young guys coming to ‘have a go’, yet they were nice about it.  No problem with me, I was still able to reason with them, share the law and the gospel, even if they were subtly hostile.  The gospel is the power for salvation.

 

The outreach went quick, because we were busy.  2 other chats that stand out in my thinking were short but powerful opportunities.  A young Catholic kid who couldn’t stay long (he said, “will you be here next Sunday?”).  I was able to give him a brief law and gospel summary and a follow up tract.  And then with a young Asian lady.  She thought about what happens after life, but didn’t have any answers.  I was able to explain how we know God is real, the law, and then quickly the gospel before she also had to move on.  She took a tract.

 

We finished in prayer.  Great week!  All glory to God.  It’s about him, it’s for him.  I rest in his grace.  Please keep the team in prayer.  We appreciate your support.

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

With Roger still away, I decided to leave Riccarton fallow again this week, using that time to focus on online outreach.  But both City outreaches went ahead.  I was with John and Andy on Friday afternoon, and Joseph and Elijah joined me on Sunday afternoon (today).

 

So today’s outreach was very special.  With the rain, I didn’t think it would go as well as last week.  But to my surprise it was the opposite.  I set up the flip chart and was still trying to get organised and pray, when instantly people took interest and a conversation was away.  Amazingly, we had 3 separate conversations before we had a chance to pray!  The chats literally rolled one into the next.  It eased off a touch after that, but the outreach was still very busy right to the end.

 

So, thank you for praying for this feeble outreach, we are getting so much opportunity, glory to God!

 

I’ll come back and talk about the chats later.  But first I want to talk about Friday’s outreach.

 

We started at the Bridge of Remembrance with prayer.  We didn’t have any flip charts, and so we were freestyling.  We decided to go down High Street towards Ara (tertiary education institute), since we had such a good time there a couple of weeks back.

 

I never made it.  Andy and John did.  Andy said he had some good opportunities down there.  But I approached a guy on High Street, and it turned out to be a guy I had talked to a few Sunday’s back.  He was keen to continue that chat, and we ended up speeding over an hour in conversation!  I won’t go into details.  But it was clear that, even though he was able to articulate the gospel, that he wasn’t converted yet.  He didn’t yet have any appreciation for the serious nature of sin.  And so a good portion of my time with him was in relation to this.

 

He ended up receiving 2 more varieties of tract (over the one he had received on the Sunday), a gospel of John, and a church contact card with my contact details on it.

 

John and Andy came back, just as our chat was wrapping up.  I introduced him to them, and it turns out Andy had shared the gospel with him recently too, because he remembered Andy.

 

This young man ended up walking with us back to Cashel Mall, and then Andy bought him a hot chocolate and we were able to continue the chat with him in a cafe.

 

He said he would come to church on Sunday, but I’m not surprised when he didn’t contact me, and he didn’t turn up.  Like I said, I think he has some processing to do.  He is in God’s hands.  Pray that the Holy Spirit would eliminate the law and bring conviction of sin in his life, and that he would truly see the treasure of Christ.

 

So, back to today’s outreach.  The very first chat was special, because 1 of them came to see a critical misunderstanding she had about the gospel.  When I say 1 of them, it was a group of at least 5 people.  And I think 1 of them wasn’t even with the other 4, he just became interested in what we were discussing.

 

So these people were all in different places.  The couple were not interested, and even walked away as I was about to switch to the gospel - I was able to get them to come back to hear it.  But it was 2 young ladies that were engaged, 1 more than the other, but the one that was less engaged ended up gaining the critical information.  What was that?  I’m struggling to remember exactly what I said now, but her response was to say something like: “Oh, I’ve always heard about Jesus, but I’ve had this nagging doubt that I’m not good enough” - yet, she said it in such a way that seemed to be seeing that she was missing what Jesus was all about - that we don’t have to be good enough to get to heaven.

 

By this stage, the couple had walked off again.  I wanted to follow up on this revelation she was having - but I wasn’t able to.  The seed had been planted.  And I have to leave her in God’s hands.  I rejoice, because God has the power to follow that up, so pray for her.

 

I’m not going to have time to talk about all the opportunities from today, but another special chat was with a young man who had been influenced by Buddhism growing up.  I had to labour with him to see that salvation was a gift.  He did come to grasp it, and then he started to nail the check questions (except 1: 2 things).  At the end of the chat he articulated that he understood that he can be 100% sure he is going to heaven, yet at the moment he is 0% sure (because he is not yet willing to repent).  Yet, he very much appreciated the conversation, and happily received a copy of the gospel of John and a couple of tracts.

 

Joe And Elijah had opportunities to get involved in conversations too.  You guys did so well!  Keep it up.

 

Joe had an opportunity with 3 young guys (pictured).

 

And Elijah joined me at the end for the last chat with a German guy (chat occurred just after I took the picture of him).

 

I didn't get a chance to take pics from Friday.

 

My mind is still processing all the chats from today.  But I’m out of time and energy to write about them.  I’ll leave it at that.

 

Again, thank you for your prayers, and support.  It amazes me that anyone stops to talk to me at all, so your prayers for this ministry are certainly effective!  The fruits of our feeble efforts, for God’s glory alone, will be known in eternity.  Till then, let's keep our heads down, and rest in the joy of the labour.

 

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of the Gospel Outreach of Gold Coast Chinese Christian Church in the proximity of Australia Fair, South Port on Thursday May 16th 2024 from 1300 to 1430 and the Extra Toowong Outreach by Rev Kwan at more or less the same time period.

Today , only Paul and Fernanda were available for the weekly street outreach . All other regular team members were all occupied by some other appointment. i.e. Rev Kwan had to send his wife to Brisbane Private Hospital for the last rehab body check up at 1 pm that will last for 2 hours. So Rev Kwan switched to do street outreach at a near by place at Toowong. Thanks God stopping the rain and let me share with many non believers with good result. As soon as Rev Kwan finished and had to rush to hospital to pick up his wife. The rain fell down poring again. So virtually, God had opened up a window of opportunity to allow Rev Kwan serve in a dry condition for His Kingdom sake,

1) Ahmed, an Iranian Muslim but not a firm Islamic follower. I could feel his initial resistance to talk about Jesus, but was moved to build rapport first rendering praise for the Iranian Christians while receiving Christ overseas like in Australia, majority of them chose to return to Iran to plant church and some even send themselves to near neighbor country like Türkiye having so far built 100 or more Iranian Christian churches to cross culturally evangelize the younger Türkiye generations. It gave him the sense of pride for the marvelous thing his compatriot have done. It consequently has softened his heart by the Spirit to open up to understand and appreciate the Gospel. We end up happily taking selfie to leave a mark in this divine encounter.

2) Then I was led to catch up with Zheng ? from Guangzhou . He was open for chatting from a materialism advocate point of view . I nevertheless only had time to share half of the gospel. Pray for God's follow up work.

3) Then I was led to approach a local Aussie girl with a wig of purpose color. It implies she is an attention seeking person. Before I started sharing the gospel, I use the clue of Fair Dinkum to build rapport. But curiously, she suddenly turned irritative when asked something she does not know and appeared scared? It was a very rare reaction. Just pray for God's continuous guardiancy to lead her to salvation.

4) Next I caught up with an UQ student from Indian. He was open and friendly, but was able to share the nutshell of the gospel.

5) Finally, I was led to connect with Achars, an Indianan of Hinduism but was born here in Australian. But the family religion affiliation heavily impacted his religious and world view emphasizing that it is up to individual to lead a righteous and fruitful life. But at the end , he admitted no one is perfect and righteous enough to earn our way to heaven. It was a significant and good shift of world view paradigm.

6) And finally I caught up with a lady from Jiangxi Nanchong . She admitted she is an Athiest but she once received the OOPN 513 gospel tract at the kGS possibly from Ryan's week end physical team. But she took initialtive to take two tract Chinese and English so in a sense she was half open to know more about God though her preoccupation of atheism limited her to think beyond the box of our limited human mind and awareness. . Yet evidently, she was moved to re-examine the message of Gospel in a serious manner. Pray for God mercy and grace to guide her to make her last step of action faith.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday May 15th 2024 from 1300-1500

Johnny and Hung teamed up again to serve at Sunnybank. Many gospel sharing conversations were incomplete as the bus came too quick. Apart from new gospel target. There were also many opportunities to catch up with those who we had shared before to follow up their status and progress. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung:

1) A lady from Shanghai , who claimed to be a Taoist follower. . She showed reluctance to chat once she realized it is about Jesus. She emphasized the Taoist teaching is all about living a full present life. . Her heart was stone hard and closed to gospel.

2) Jacky is an ABS Australia born Singaporean. He was sceptics about religion and opined that everyone can have a fair chance to heaven if they could achieve good enough changes.

3) Next was a woman from Tianjin who has just migrated to Australia. She appeared opened to the gospel perhaps because she is now a free person no longer bounded by the Communist atheist teaching.

4) Then I caught up with Madam Leong from Eastern Malaysia Sabah. She seemed to be a non-religious person but quite opened to chat about religion.

5) Next was a New Zealander girl who has migrated to Australia. She has graduated and was open to the gospel.

6) Wilson an Australian born Taiwanese who had chatted with Johnny before. I still invited him to share about his thought on the issue of eternal life through accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior. He seemed to have been pondering on this though not yet have a decision, but he seemed to be on the way to make this action faith any time soon in God's timing.

7) Aries. a Filipino lady that I have chatted twice before. But today I had all the time to have a more In-depth sharing on the substance of salvation and finally helped her to fully grasp the 100% assurance of salvation. God let her experience many of His presence to save her and her parents as such she was fully thankful and be ensured that God is determined to keep her saved and growth in relationship with God.

8 ) Ho a young lady form Guangzhou but no Cantonese speaking she is a student of Griffiths and showed openness to gospel

9) Finally I caught up with another young man from Guangzhou it was a pity I had not enough time to share him the full gospel and he was left with the wrong impression that being a good person is OK. . Pray for God's follow up work or a future 2nd chance to correct this wrong understanding.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

A fantastic week of street outreach in Christchurch.  Roger is away, and so I let Riccarton lay fallow this week.  So 2 city outreaches this week on Friday and Sunday afternoons.  The rest of my week was filled with online work.

 

I had a special opportunity online yesterday.  I was live streaming with Ryan, and so I had my ‘live’ sign up behind me.  I connected with a lady who didn’t have her camera on, but she could see me and my sign, so she knew I was live streaming (this will become significant later).  So anyway, her initial response to my question of, “what happens after life”, was really good, and so I moved straight into checking questions.  I detected a wobble when she raised the issue of repentance but wasn’t able to clearly define what it meant.  So I backed up to the law and then moved to clarify the gospel.  It turns out she was defining ‘repent’ as ‘ask for forgiveness’.  And it was clear she meant that as a work, because she talked about needing to ask for forgiveness every night.  I was able to labour with her to come to gospel clarity.  Initially she was confused, but she could see how it made sense.  I continued with other check questions.  She got the 2nd to last one wrong, but that only led to more clarity, but then she got the last one right!  It was such a good chat, when all of a sudden the connection dropped.  I prayed for her and we moved on.  God knows what the fruit will be.

 

But, and this is really encouraging, half an hour later, Ryan posts a YouTube comment.  It was from the lady!  She was engaged enough to be able to search for and find our live stream, and she wanted to thank us for the chat!  God is good.  May the gospel clarity lead to her salvation, for God’s glory alone.

 

The takeaway here is to be precise.  People are so subtly missing the good news!  We need to esp. be careful in explaining repentance.  It’s not a work we do, instead it’s a change of mind about sin and Jesus that WILL lead to a change of action.  Asking for forgiveness is good, but it’s not what saves us.

 

You can actually watch this for yourself on YouTube, just find the 2 hour live stream for Saturday, 11th May 2024 on needGod.net

 

So, on Friday, I was with Andy, John, and Mark at the Bridge of Remembrance.  Since Roger was away, I decided to take my flip chart and use his usual spot.  After prayer we got into a very busy outreach.

 

I was pretty much straight into a chat, and I noticed the other guys were all busy too.

 

My first one was with a guy who had ethics I strongly agreed with: abortion is murder.  He called himself Protestant.  But something wasn’t right.  He liked to talk, and so I had to be patient, but the more he did, it was clear that he was resolving things in his thinking politically, rather than biblically.  Eventually I was able to touch on the law and the gospel, which he agreed with.  But then I started popping check questions.  The ‘out of 100% how sure are you’ one did the trick.  His response and my counter question caused him to stop and really think.  After that, he started talking less, and I was able to talk more.  I was able to point him back to his Bible, that he hasn’t been reading, and I even invited him along to church, which he isn’t currently involved with.

 

Next I had 3 German tourists.  Actually, now that I think of it, the first chat was with a German guy too.

 

2 of the 3 were not interested, but 1 of them was intrigued enough with the flip chart to stop and engage, and so his friends did as well.  2 out of the 3 were resistant, but 1 was listening.  Interestingly, it was a different 1, and so his friend inadvertently enabled him to hear the gospel!

 

Next, I had a chat with a young guy who was also interested in the flip chart.  He started out by saying that good and bad is subjective, but then in his very next breath he talked about good and bad objectively.  I pointed this out to him, and instead of doubling down, he smiled in acknowledgement of this fact.  He opened up at this point, to hear about the objective basis: God, and then to hear the law of God.  But then he started to close up.  He heard the gospel, but he resisted it.

 

I’m struggling to remember any of the other chats, but I know there were more, because I was busy for the whole 2 hours of the outreach.

 

On Sunday, Thomas was with me.  We decided to bring the flip chart, and I’m glad we did.  We had an exceptionally fruitful outreach.  Nice winter weather, plus it was mothers day, so lots of people were out and about for that.  We literally had people queuing to do the flip chart multiple times during the outreach.

 

Some of the chats were short but sweet, with follow up tracts to take away.  Some were resistant.  But many were very open.  1 In particular, the first one, was very providential.  A young lady with a Christian background was struggling with issues of conscience that had caused much division in her family: tattoos, but esp. Vaccines.  This was all related to ‘the mark of the beast’.  And sadly, this was all a distraction to the gospel for her.  By God’s grace, I was able to give her answers that were very helpful to her - she really appreciated it.  And not only that, she gained some gospel clarity.  I pointed her to the Bible and a good local church.  Words don’t describe it, but it was a special chat.

 

Another outstanding chat was my last.  A young couple were queuing to do the flip chart (Thomas was having a great chat with a young man who was now rejecting the new testament - I don’t have time to talk about that, but I’m in email contact to follow up).  So, I approached the young couple.  She was a professing Christian, and wanted me to ‘convert’ her boyfriend.  She was pointing to her goodness for her salvation, and so I initially focused on him, but I was speaking to them both when I shared the law and the gospel.  Great chat.  They are from Timaru, and so I was able to point them to Covenant Grace Baptist Church.

 

Thomas and I were rejoicing after a busy, but wonderful outreach.  All glory to God!

 

Well, I’m out of time.  Be encouraged to be salt and light where you are.  Be open about the fact that you are a Christian, and then take opportunities to actually articulate the gospel.  How can they trust without hearing, and how can they hear without you speaking!  It’s not about your ability, God shows his strength through our weakness, so all the glory is His.  Be encouraged.

 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday May 8th 2024 from 1300-1500

I still had to do solo today as my regular gospel partner is still away visiting family. Rain has stopped to day, so the weather is fine for open air outreach, but the people flow was abnormally less than normal. Nevertheless, recap here below is my Battle Log.

1) Anthony has been a familiar face over the past few years. Every Wednesday he bounds to arrive around 1:15pm and look for us to ask about the time. Today, I purposely stopped him for a chat to show my care for him and how Jesus also cares to love and save him.

2) Next, I approached a Mainlander for a brief chat and handling him the tract when the bus quickly arrived

3) Then I was led to caught up with a Hongkonger who comes to study at UQ. He appeared to be a very introvert person who are uneasy in socializing especially with stranger. I nevertheless still manage to share him the full gospel and gave him the tract.

4) Next was a Mainlander woman, she pretended not speaking Chinese nor English. I had to learn to let go and move on after sharing a nutshell of the gospel.

5) Next, I was led to approach another Mainlander UQ student from Shandong. She appeared to be open and friendly to listen to my gospel message. After touching on the nutshell of the gospel, she politely asked to be excuse to take a phone call without come back.

6) Reilly, a Sunnybank State School year 12 post-modern young school girl with nose ring but appeared open and pure to listen and accept the full gospel message. She was thankful for my eagerness to show her the way to be saved by grace through face in Christ and happily took a selfie with me afterwards before she got on to the bus.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday May 7th, 2024 from 1330-1430

Today my regular outreach team partner is away to Melbourne for a week. So, I went to do solo again with amazing divine encounters obviously orchestrated by God as recap below. The weather was down cast but fine. Yet the sky turned dark and with rain down pouring in the middle of my outreach ministry. Eventually I had to end a bit earlier because of the heavy down pour got everybody hiding for shelter not coming yet to the bus stop. God grace was sufficient and the sky turn bright half an hour later when I was on my way home.

1) 1minute only left for my first approach. It was a young Aussie guy who walked past me on our way to the bus stop. I was urged still to approach him despite his bus was coming in a minute. He was all open and friendly and mistaken that I will also take the bus with him to continue our chat. I anyway can manage to just give him a tract. I can only trust God that this hasty contact is still a meaningful one.

2) Then I was drawn to approach first a young English-speaking lady from Malaysia. She is a non-believer but appear receptive to the gospel message I shared that have led to a conclusion that as long as we admit no one including ourself is perfect, we all need a Savior to die for us and take our place to receive the punishment of our sins.

3) Then her friend came and is from Indonesia. To my surprise, she is a Christian back home in Indonesia. And I encouraged her to follow up with her Malaysian friend towards final conversion. And I also took the chance to test for here assurance of Salvation when the bus arrived. Though in a hurry, she was good and spot on to have 100 % of assurance with the right basis of trusting in Jesus alone. We hurriedly took a selfie to record this special divine encounter.

4) Then I was led to approach Lucas, again was the 2nd Indonesian for the day. What surprise me was that he is also a Christian from a Christian family in Indonesia but also a practicing Christian attending his own denominational Presbyterian church in the City here in Brisbane. What further surprise me was, he also got perfect understanding of salvation and 100 % assurance of salvation. It really encouraged me that Gid can reign in Indonesia a Muslim country with an extraordinarily higher than average ratio of Christian. He was also very happy and pleased to take a selfie with me.

5) Then I was next led to meet up with Flora, yet another Malaysian for the day. She is also non-Christians and possibly a Muslim and she is Malay rather than Chinese. She showed initial hesitance to chat with me a stranger but stay put to let me share her the full gospel. It seemed that she was overwhelming convinced and eventually lost for word to show any disagreement.

6) Then I was led to approach a Mainlander girl by the name of Zheng ? from Beijing I was moved to start with my personal testimony especially the time and work I served in Sichuan China as an earthquake disaster relief volunteer . She was amazed by the power of Jesus helping vulnerable people to get healed from their early life emotional failure. Even though I did not have time to share the gospel, but she willingly took the tract and I believed God might have a better way to touch her heart.

7) Lastly, I approached the only Mainlander girl left at the bus stop because of abrupted rain fall. Her reaction was fear and rejection to hear the gospel. It was a big contrast to Zheng showing that it was really by the grace of God that some are elected to turn away from sin but to Christ.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

What a great week of outreach.  I made it to all four regular outreaches.  I feel like I’ve got a lot to write about, but only an hour to do it in; so I’ll write till I run out of time and leave the rest to discuss in eternity.

 

I guess I’ll go in reverse time order.  So, starting with today’s outreach (Sunday), I was in the city between church gatherings.  I was out alone, but I quite like that sometimes.

 

As I was walking in from where I parked, I encountered a lady I’ve distantly known for a long time.  I used to be involved with a kids outreach known as Te Mapua Child and Youth Trust.  Believe it or not, my ugly (younger) mug is still on their homepage (at time of writing)!  Well, this lady’s son was one of the kids in the weekly program I was involved with.  Sadly, 2 years ago, he passed away at the age of 19.  And so, I was able to spend about 15 minutes with this lady.  It was another opportunity for her to process her grief.  Through the conversation I was able to touch on the hope of eternal life.  But she has heard it plenty of times from me, and so I didn’t push it.  It was great to be able to catch up with her.

 

I thought the outreach was going to be more pastoral, when my next chat was with a church goer who wanted to talk.  I instinctively knew trying to push a ‘scripted’ chat wasn’t going to be fruitful, and so I let him talk.  He did leave with the tract that I had given him at the start of the conversation.

 

After that, I had some great opportunities - not full chats, but misunderstandings about God were corrected.  One girl believed in heaven, but not hell and came to understand why both made sense.  Another guy came to see how he was sure God was real.  A guy from Mexico thought he was going to heaven because he had done nothing wrong - a few questions about the law seemed to have a deep impact on him, and so I was able to drop the seed of the gospel.

 

I was feeling tired of staying in one spot and trying to get chats started, and so I decided to go for a walk to see who I could find to talk to.  I finally made it to Cathedral Square, and found a young lady sitting on her own, enjoying the sun and listening to something on her headphones.  She accepted a tract and was willing to chat briefly.  But she had stuff to do in life, and didn’t want to consider the afterlife.  I gently challenged her that she may not get tomorrow, and how she knew God was real.

 

Moving back to Cashel, I encountered a young man, also relaxing in the sun.  He refused a tract, but let me ask my question: “what do you think happens afterlife?”  He smiled, thought, and turned down my offer to discuss it.  No problem.  I pray that even that approach will cause him to think, and that he will be willing to discuss it with another Christian before it’s too late.

 

I went down High Street, and then turned down Cashel Mall when I noticed two cultists walking in front of me.  They were boldly approaching strangers for conversations.  I partly admired them, and wished the true church would be so bold.  But I was grieved that they have such zeal without knowledge.  Anyway, I sped up to get closer to them, and then managed to overtake down a different path and then get in front of them on their path.  They took the bait, and one of them approached me.  We had a great chat.  I let him start his presentation (it was interesting that he clarified that he is ‘Christian’ but now JW or Mormon) and from there I was able to engage him with the true gospel.  I was encouraged to see him show signs of doubt.  I pray that the gospel will be the power that breaks through on his thinking.  That God would have mercy on him (and his friend).

 

The outreach didn’t end there, I ended up encountering a man who turned out to be a Christian.  We even had mutual friends.  Yet, we had a robust conversation about various important Christian concepts.  The time wasn’t wasted (it never is).

 

On Saturday, I finally made it back to the Riccarton lunch time outreach.  Again, on my own.  I set up my flip chart.  It started out as a slow outreach, I had 1 conversation with a man who just wasn’t willing to engage.  I knew if I pushed, it would become a fight, and he would get angry.  So I decided not to push, and let it de-escalate to a natural finishing point.

 

I was able to catch up with a church friend and her brother who has recently come to Christ!  Praise God.  He has an evangelistic edge about him, so it was great to be able to discuss that.

 

Immediately after they moved on, I got into a wonderful chat with a Chinese Bhudist lady.  She was very intelligent, and open.  She was very interested in the gospel.  She accepted, not only a tract, but she was keen to read the gospel of John (which I gave her), and she took a church contact card.

 

After that I had a busy outreach, I distinctly remember 2 solid chats with 2 sets of young people.  God is good!

 

On Friday afternoon, I was with Andy in the city.  Roger is overseas for a couple of weeks, and so we decided to pair up for ‘walk up’.  We wandered down Cashel, and then decided to head down High Street towards Ara (tertiary education campus).  We ended up having 4 great gospel conversation opportunities on High Street alone, and then when we got to Ara, the fish were swarming!

 

Of those 4 chats, the stand out was one with 3 students.  One didn’t want to stay and walked off.  One was very engaged and talked with Andy.  The other was in the middle, but decided to stay.  We listened to Andy for a bit, but then I decided to engage her separately.  I’m glad I did, because she was in such a different place from the guy Andy was talking to.  I was able to drop the gospel seed to her, while Andy did the same with him.

 

At Ara, we spent the rest of the outreach engaging various people on the footpath outside the main entrance.  I ended up engaging a big group of students (maybe 10 of them).  They were all in different places, and asking different questions, but it was fun.  Many of them took follow up tracts, even though there was much subtle resistance.

 

On Tuesday, I was in Riccarton with Roger in the afternoon.  And I’m struggling to remember anything from that outreach now.  I guess I’ll leave it at that then.

 

Well, a whole lot of labour, for God’s glory.  Even if everyone rejects the gospel, we have still succeeded, because the goal is primarily God’s glory, and our obedience is enough.  Leaving the results with him.  I love God so much.  Thank you for your prayer and support.

 

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