Battle Log

Thursday, 25 December, 2008

Posted 2 January 2009, 9:31 AM by Josh Williamson. Permalink

Wednesday, 24 December 2008

After months of planning and a lot of prayer the time had finally arrived for me to fly out to the United Kingdom. As I packed my bags and as I prepared to leave, there was a sense of sadness as I knew that I would be away for a couple of months. Which is something I am not overly keen on, however, my comfort and desires come second to that of preaching the gospel.

As I checked in for my flight I was delighted to find out that my flight was half empty, which meant that I would get to have a whole row to myself, which would make it easier for me to get some sleep. While waiting for departure I walked around Brisbane airport handing out a few tracts and wishing my fellow travellers a Happy Christmas, I was a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to engage in any one to one conversations, but nevertheless I was still happy that people were taking gospel tracts.

Thursday, 25 December 2008 - Singapore

After a seven and a half hour flight we landed at Singapore airport, upon arrival we were told that we had forty-five minutes in which to stretch out legs before departing. As I walked out into the airport I was struck by how many Christmas decorations there were those who worked at the airport were extremely friendly and walked around greeting everyone with "Merry Christmas". This friendliness provided me with great opportunities to hand out tracts to all the security, police and cleaners at the airport. It was a real blessing to see all these people reading about the true message of Christmas on Christmas Day.

After forty-five minutes of handing out tracts I re-boarded my aircraft, I was once again disappointed that I didn't have a chance to get into any one to one conversations. As I sat down in my seat I prayed, "Lord, please let me get into a conversation about you. Amen." Then, within seconds of praying that prayer the young man who had been sitting behind me on the flight from Brisbane tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I had gotten any sleep. I replied that I hadn't slept as yet, but was planning to sleep during the next leg of the flight. We chatted for a few minutes about general things, it turned out that this young man was going home to Bahrain to surprise his family for Christmas. He had been studying in Australia at Griffith University on the Gold Coast, and now had finally gotten some time to go home. As we sat on the tarmac in Singapore I began to swing the conversation around to the spiritual realm. I found out the young man I was talking to was a Muslim, and that he was still very strict in his submission to the teachings of Islam.

Achmed told me about how in Islam he has to do the five pillars in order for Allah to consider him for Paradise. This was quite interesting, so I asked him about how did he know if he had done enough good in order to merit Paradise, he replied that he didn't know, but rather he had to trust that Allah was merciful. This then led me into a discussion about how a Just Judge must punish wrongdoing, and how no matter what we do we can not ever do enough good deeds to outweigh our bad. Achmed agreed with me, but then stated that he wasn't that bad, so he didn't have too much to worry about. This statement didn't surprise me, as it is very common for people to think that they aren't overly bad. In order to show Achmed that he was indeed a sinner in the sight of God I took him to the Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments. And as we sat in the aircraft that was preparing for take off I should him from the Law of God that he was a sinner. Achmed's mouth was stopped, he had nothing to say, he realized that his sin demanded punishment, and he realized that a Just Judge would never let him go free. Then, I spoke about how as a Christian I know that my sins are forgiven, and how I am assured of heaven. Achmed was hungry to find out how he to could also have assurance of forgiveness. So then, as the aeroplane began to lift off I spoke to Him about Christmas, and how God Himself came down in the form of a man in order to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). I spoke to Achmed about the cross and about how even though we sinned against God, and how we all deserved to go to hell, God loves the world so much in that He sent Jesus to pay our fine if we would repent and trust in Him. Achmed was stunned, he had never heard that before, he was excited about the idea of assurance of salvation. As I wrapped up the conversation Achmed said, "You have given me much to think about, Thank you". Please pray that God would grant repentance and faith to him.

The rest of the flight to Dubai was really quiet and I slept most of the way.

Thursday, 25 December 2008 - Dubai

I was awoken by the announcement that we were about to land in Dubai. Slowly waking up I looked out my window and saw below me lights everywhere, the cool thing was we were over the water, and all those lights were row upon rows of ships waiting to get into the Persian Gulf.

Upon landing in Dubai I made my way through the security where sadly my watch got dropped and was smashed. Being hungry I made my way to the food court where I found a MacDonald's. As I sat in this foreign country I noticed that a young Asian man sitting next to me was reading a book, the book he was reading is called "The Shack". (For those who don't know, "The Shack" is a heretical book that teaches that God is a woman, Jesus is a bumbling middle eastern man, and that the Holy Spirit is an Asian. It also teaches the heresy of Modalism, which basically says that the Father is the Son etc. And denies the Trinity. Even though this book is heresy it is sold at Christian bookstores.) As I watched this man at the other table I thought perhaps he was a Christian, that had just bought the book since it is a ‘bestseller'. The man got up to leave his table so I called him over to me, and asked "Are you a Christian?" The man shook his head, "No, I'm not a Christian." So I asked about the book and it turns out that he had bought it at Dubai airport. Which shocked me as they won't allow Christianity to advance in that country, but they will allow a false Christian message to spread.

I was limited to what I could do in Dubai due to the fact that it is illegal to witness to a Muslim, and their was literally security everywhere. This place is so enslaved to Islam, and it will only be the light of the gospel that will set this nation free. We must pray for the middle east, we must beg of God to open doors to allow the gospel to be advanced in these countries.

Thursday, 25 December, 2008 - London

Finally after about 30 hours in transit I landed at London Gatwick airport. The first thing that struck me was the freezing cold weather. It was bitterly cold, but I was still excited to be here and was keen to get out and start witnessing. The airport was nearly empty know one was around. This was good in one sense as it meant I would clear border security really quickly, but it was also bad as it meant that I couldn't witness to anyone. However, I did manage to hand out a few tracts.

After waiting for awhile Peter Webber arrived to pick me up from the airport. It was good to be back with Peter, it is a real honour to work alongside him and to witness with him. Once he had picked me up we made our way across to London Heathrow airport to pick up Melissa and Fredee from the USA.

Once we met up as a team we caught a taxi to where we are staying in Tooting, and then we started to make arrangements about having dinner. Since it was Christmas day many places were closed, but we still found plenty of people out walking around the streets, so as we looked for somewhere to eat we handed out many tracts. The outreach was off to a great start.

Friday, 26 December 2008 - London

Today we decided to spend a bit of time resting from our journey and to also take in some of the sights in London. Of course all our sightseeing was accompanied by the handing out of tracts. When we arrived at Buckingham Palace we found out that it was a changing of the guard ceremony, which meant that there would be many people there. This was good as it meant that we would be able to hand out many tracts. We had a great time playing tourist and also witnessing to people.

In the evening we met up with the Operation 513- London team, and joined them for outreach in Leicester Square. It was going to be a hard night of preaching as there was a carnival set up in the middle of the square. This mad a lot of noise and made it hard to preach. After setting up for the night Rob Hughes preached first, he stood up and began to expound on the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has really improved as a preacher and I was quite impressed with his preaching. He preached for about thirty minutes and a few people stopped to listen to him proclaim Christ crucified. One young man was really interested, so Rob dialogued with him, and afterwards I was able to give him a gospel of John.

Once Rob finished preaching it was my turn to get up and preach. Due to the cold my voice wasn't fully ready to preach so I was only able to last about twenty minutes, but during that time God was kind and He brought a few   people in to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

One thing I noticed about the night was how awesome the London team is, they work together well, and they are all passionate about the gospel. Rob Hughes has done a good job in building this team. And, it is an honour to serve alongside him.

The rest of the night for us was spent in handing out tracts and talking to people about how Christ can forgive all their sins if they would repent and trust in Him.

Saturday, 27 December 2008 - London

Today we had the privilege of working alongside Rob again, this time we preached in Tooting, which isn't far from Rob's church - Trinity Road Chapel. Once we had set up Rob began to preach the gospel. Once again he did a brilliant job, as he preached we handed out tracts and were able to get into some great discussions. While Rob was preaching Peter took a few photos, but since we were outside of an underground station this brought the attention of the police. The UK police are very wary of photos being taken of public transport due to all the terrorism that is going on. Peter explained what he was doing to the police officer. While Peter was talking this   man approached us and said, "This guy is having a laugh isn't he?" I replied that he was preaching the gospel, at that the man we ballistic. It turns out he is a British solider just returned from Afghanistan and he was furious that people could preach when he didn't have the freedom to stand up and abuse Islam. He was so mad that the police officer called for back up, and the man began to make threats of physical violence towards Rob.

The man moved on after ranting for awhile. We continued to minister in Tooting. After Rob finished preaching it was my turn to preach, so I spoke about being slaves to sin, and about how we are all bound in sin. A few people stopped to listen, and as I preached I noticed a few Muslims were listening to the Gospel. While it was a slower day it is my prayer that God will save all those who heard the gospel.

After I finished preaching I noticed two Mormon elders walking by, since I have done a lot of apologetics with the Latter Day Saints I decided to stop them and have a discussion. We spoke for some time in regards to salvation.   The LDS teaches that you can earn salvation, and that we are only saved by God's grace after all that which we can do. This of course is opposite to what the Bible says, the Bible makes it clear that salvation is 100% of God's grace and not of any thing we do (Ephesians 2:8-9). The Mormon elders became uncomfortable and wanted to leave, so I pointed them to the gospel, and we parted ways. Although they did promise to call and arrange a time to have lunch.

Sunday, 28 December, 2008 - London

This morning we went to church at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, which is the church that Charles Spurgeon was the pastor of. It was a good service, the pastor preached good a message.

After the service we went over to the famed Hyde Park, not to preach but rather to witness and to talk watch the going on of speakers corner. As we entered the park I noticed a Christian preacher with a few atheists opening fire on him. He seemed to be a bit lost on how to answer them, so I asked him permission if I could engage the atheist, the preacher gave permission so I engaged in an apologetic showing that atheism is incorrect. The atheists seemed stunned, as one of them later told me they very rarely have preachers engage their arguments. During our discussion a palaeontologist from the USA decided to jump in to disprove Christianity. She used the argument that Dinosaurs disprove the Bible, this is a very bad argument and it actually shows that those who argue it haven't studied the Bible. I took her to the book of Job, to chapter 40 and showed her of Behemoth. I described the beast mentioned in Scripture, then asked her, "Could you explain to me how a man from thousands of years ago could see and describe something that apparently died out millions of years before?" She went silent, and wasn't sure how to answer. But, then he husband jumped in with an answer, "Well, he probably found a fossil. That is how he knew what it looked like!" At that the Palaeontologist jumped in again agreeing with her husband. The atheists in the crowd grew in excitement at this statement. Their answer wasn't a surprise to me, and in fact I actually had expected it. That is why I didn't fully describe the beast in Job 40. I said to them, "Sorry, I didn't fully describe Behemoth, the author says that this beast ate grass as an ox. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but you cannot determine from a fossil that something eats as an ox." The palaeontologist, her husband and the atheists fell silent. I continued, "So, the question still stands, how did the author describe this beast which he had seen if it had died out millions of years earlier?"

Their answer was to turn and walk away without saying a word. Many of the atheists wouldn't engage in discussion after that, but a few of them came up and said I had won their respect. Once the atheists fell silent the preacher once again opened up on the gospel.

The thing about Hyde Park is that you can go from one debate to another. Today I had to deal with Atheists, False Christians, and Muslims. The Islamic invasion is in full swing in the UK, these guys in Hyde Park were militant in their attacking of Christianity. The thing is they all use the same arguments, and none of them will listen to the answers you give. The arguments they used were fairly basic, but they were never willing to listen to the counter view points.

During the time in Hyde Park many of the Muslims threatened to kill me, beat me up, and even cut of certain parts of my antimony. Overall it was a good day in Hyde Park, we got to have many great discussions about the gospel.

Monday, 29 December 2008 - London

The began fairly early today, the plan was to head into Covent Gardens and there do some outreach, however, when we arrived we found it nearly impossible to hand out tracts as many people were there handing out many different leaflets for shows and clubs. With this in mind we decided to change locations, and head to Leicester Square. Upon arriving in the square we found it to be jam packed with people, so we broke up into two groups and began to hand out tracts to as many people as possible.

While Peter and I were handing out tracts thins man in a wheelchair stopped to talk, so I knelt down on the cold pavement beside him and began to share the gospel with him. This man turned out to be a Roman Catholic who believed he had never sinned. So I explained to him that we all have sinned, and the man seemed to grasp it. But he continued to trust in his good works. I begged of him to trust in Christ alone for salvation, but sadly the man was blinded by the lies of the Roman Catholic Church that teaches that one can merit salvation by doing good deeds. It is always heart breaking when this happens, as it just shows how people would rather trust in self than God.

Later in the afternoon we were joined by Carl, who is a preacher with Operation 513 - London, he took us down to Piccadilly Circus to do preaching. It was quite a good place to preach, we set up under the Eros statue. First to preach was Carl, he did quite a good job of making the gospel of Christ known. He presented to all those who would listen why they needed a Saviour, then he showed them that Christ was that Saviour.

After Carl finished preaching, I began to preach also. I spoke about how the year was nearly over, and how in the course of the year we suffer many hardships. I also pointed out that over the course of the year we may have had someone close to us die. This then launched me into talking about how we all die one day, and one day we will all give an account for all our sins. A few people stopped to listen including a group of young males, I engaged the males in discussion, one of them seemed rather open so I took him through the gospel and explained to him the need of the Saviour.

The crowd was listening as I explained how each and everyone of us has sinned, and how we all need Jesus Christ to save us. Afterwards quite a few people took tracts. May God be glorified in the saving of their souls.

Tuesday, 30 December, 2008 - London

Today we once again returned to Piccadilly Circus. While Peter and Melissa stayed there to witness Fredee and I had to make our way down to Oxford Street. This turned out to be a very good opportunity to hand out tracts and witness to people. So many people in London are open to taking tracts, and even though this city is big and is renowned for being anti-Christian, I have found most people that I have spoken to, to be very open and friendly in regards to the gospel.

After spending some time around Oxford Street, Fredee and I headed back to Picadilly Circus, and there we re-joined the rest of the team. Once again we continued to hand out tracts and witness to many people.

Later this afternoon we had to head back down Oxford Street, since it was peak hour we decided to position ourselves either side of the footpath, since we were using million pound note tracts, I began to call out to the people walking past, "Free Million Pound Notes! Get one for New Years!" So many people swarmed around us trying to grab a tract. People from different cultures, religions, and social status all wanted one of these tracts. May   God get the glory in bring these people unto Himself.

Wednesday, 31 December 2008 - London

The last day of 2008. Today we decided not to do anything during the day since we planned to be out in London witnessing at the New Year Eve celebrations. We arrived at Trafalgar Square at just after 6:30pm, since it was freeing cold we found a café to get something warm to eat. We then went out into the cold and began to witness and hand out tracts.

Melissa and I were down on a busy intersection and in no time at all we had been able to hand out thousands of tracts. The other guys throughout the square were also experiencing similar things. At one stage we were worried that we would not have enough tracts to survive the night.

Also, during this time of witnessing many one to one conversations occurred. Peter was able to talk to a group of Muslims, and Rob had several really good conversations with people who were really open to the gospel message.

At midnight we stopped to watch the fireworks of London, then the mad dash occurred as thousands of people tried to get home via the underground and buses.

The night, while it had no preaching, and only a few one to ones was a very good night. Approximately 5,000 tracts were handed out during the course of the night, which was fairly good.

One year ends, and a new one begins.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Friday, 12 December, 2008

Posted 24 December 2008, 1:04 AM by David Gee. Permalink

In true Yorkshire style this week it was dark and wet and some how managed to be below zero and yet still be raining rather than snowing. Jim, Carl and Jemma joined me for the night and many others prayed for us through the night. There were construction work going on in the square we normally witness, this was causing a lot of noise and when added to the wind it was a rough night for witnessing.

Our little band gathered together to pray to the Lord God and plead for the lost (and also for the weather). We then went to it with tracts and before long we were running short, Jemma and Carl are both excellent at getting gospel literature into the hands of others. A couple of atheists stopped to quiz them about what we were doing. Unfortunately they couldn't stay to talk as they were going to a concert but promised that they would come and see us another week.

After much looking around we found a spot in the square where there was not too much noise and enough people to preach and set up under a tree on the corner. I preached first, not many wanted to stop and heckle but encouragingly there were quite a few who stood nearby and listened to what was said. I was particularly encouraged by one gentleman who nodded and gave the thumbs up as I affirmed the need people have to trust in Jesus alone for salvation.

Jim also got up to preach after I had and likewise struggled to get a heckler, after a period a lady did stop to have a heckle. Unfortunately she was very drunk and would only keep repeating “where is your evidence?”, and then not listen to the explanations Jim tried to give. After a period she left and Jim closed his message.

Everyone was now frozen to the core and very much needing to go home, so we prayed together (in particular for the drunk lady) and headed for home. In these dark times when it is easy to be discouraged we look to our saviour who for the joy that was set before Him endured more than we ever will and scorned any shame. May we think like Him and run our course in this world with joy knowing in every battle that the Lord is the one who will conquer our every enemy!

SDG!

Saturday, 20 December, 2008

Posted 24 December 2008, 1:03 AM by Josh Williamson. Permalink

Saturday, 20th December, 2008

Once again we returned to Brisbane city. There was a sense of festivity in the air as it was only a few days before Christmas. As I walked through the mall I handed out Christmas tracts. Every person took them and wished me a Merry Christmas. It is always good when people are happy about receiving tracts.

I met with Dave and Ryan, we then had a time of prayer and Bible reading. After that we headed up to the mall to begin the night of preaching. It was good to see other team members there ready to go out and make known the gospel.

With it being so close to Christmas I gave members of the team packs of Christmas tracts to hand out. These tracts came from a dear brother of mine named Tommy Bell. He is based in the US and is involved in a ministry known as Custom Tract Source, he was so kind to send me some tracts free of charge. I would encourage all our readers to order tracts from www.customtractsource.com (of course you should order tracts from Operation 513 also!)

The night went well, with people preaching and making known the gospel of Christ.

Since it was Christmas, I decided to preach from Luke 2 and the birth of Jesus Christ, in fact it wasn’t just I who preached from this passage, but the Christmas theme was something that was in all the preachers messages tonight.

I focused heavily on the fact that Christ was born as Saviour, and this of course begged the question, “A saviour from what”. From this point I expounded the law of God and showed that we all needed Jesus to be our Saviour. A few hecklers yelled things, but there wasn’t much engaging. The crowds were smallish tonight, and I think it is due to it being the festive season.

Even though things were slow many great conversations occurred. For instance Nick was witnessing to this one young man who had stopped only to mock Christianity, Nic was so patient and kind to this man as he shared the gospel, but this man kept up his attack. Once Nick finished talking to him, I began a conversation with him. And for the next 40 minutes both Rick and I pleaded with him to be reconciled to God. This man left screaming abuse at Christ. Please pray for his conversion.

Tonight was a good night, albeit a little slow. This was my last night in Brisbane preaching for about 8 weeks, as I am heading to the United Kingdom for outreach. Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to minister the gospel to those in Britain. The teams in Australia will operate as per usual so please pray for them also.

May all of you have a very safe and Christ centred Christmas!

Saturday, 13 December, 2008

Posted 24 December 2008, 1:03 AM by Josh Williamson. Permalink

Saturday, 13th December, 2008

After a hard day on the Gold Coast, I made my way to Brisbane city. It looked like it was going to be a good night on the streets.

The team was few in number, but the passion to reach out the lost was evident. The regulars were their like Alex the Agnostic, and a few more people who seem to come out each week. It is always good to have the same people come back, it is our hope that God will save them.

Ryan was the first preacher up for the night, and he preached a bit different than he usual does. Normally Ryan has a lot of apologetics in his preaching, but this time he spent less time on apologetics and more time reasoning with people from the gospel. This was really encouraging to me, while I love to hear apologetics, I prefer to hear the gospel more. A couple of hecklers stopped and shouted a few things. Ryan engaged them and presented them with the claims of Jesus Christ.

After Ryan finished preaching, Michael got up and preached. It was his first time preaching with us. The first thing that struck me was his projection, he had great voice control and great voice projection, truly gifted in public speaking. As he preached a man approached, this man was scruffy looking and had most of his top teeth missing. He walked right up to the preacher and stopped about one foot away. With that the man began to rage in an unknown language. The man then began to rant on about people being preachers and him being a trained preacher. His heckling was vile, and his threats of physical violence were hard to ignore.

The heckler began to yell that he could defeat any preacher that we had as we couldn’t answer his questions. Michael was struggling a little so he tagged me in and I began to deal with the mans questions. His questions were very basic however this man I am convinced was full of demons, so his cursing and blasphemy came after every answer I gave.

His hatred for the gospel and for Jesus Christ was coming through loud and clear. He kept threatening physical violence, so I sent a team member off to get the police. The police officer told them it wasn’t illegal for the man to threaten us. Of course the police officer was wrong. So here we were in the middle of the Queen street mall with one of the most hostile hecklers I have ever seen. To make things more interesting another man claiming to be god began to work with demoniac one.

I pushed through their heckles and still presented the gospel, but these two hecklers were manifesting big time. So after preaching I stood down and they quickly surrounded me. The first heckler once again began to abuse me, and this time he put a lit cigarette onto my hand. I challenged him on that to which he just laughed. Again the police were sent for and again the members of the Police Beat near the Queen Street Mall failed to respond.

After awhile another preacher began, but once again the demoniac went after him, finally I had enough so I got on the phone and called the emergency number. I explained to the operator what was happening, and held the phone so she could hear the heckler. She agreed that it was a dangerous situation and the police needed to be there. While I was talking to her another heckler come running in and tried to kick Ryan. But, then help arrived finally two members of the Queensland Police showed up on scene and took away the demonic heckler.

The rest of the night was spent handing out tracts and talking to people. Even though things were hard, God still allowed His word to go forth.

Saturday, 13 December, 2008

Posted 24 December 2008, 1:02 AM by Josh Williamson. Permalink

Saturday, 13th December, 2008

The sun was high in the sky and the temperature was soaring. Another beautiful sunny, hot and humid Australian day. What more could we expect, it is summer and the people were out and about.

We arrived at our usual place of witnessing on the Gold Coast, and to no ones surprise Ryan was already off running around handing out tracts to people and having conversations about the gospel. Seriously, this bloke is an evangelist with way too much energy, he puts everyone else to shame! ;)

Dave Strachan was the first preacher up for the day, he stood to preach in the blazing sun, and began to expound on who God is. Dave has written out some notes for him to preach from, so he went through those a few times. The crowd seemed a bit slow today, I would put this down to the heat. But it was good to see a few people stop to listen to the gospel.

After Dave finished preaching, it was my turn to stand up and preach. I started off by talking about Christmas, and how many people love the idea of having a day off, but they don’t stop to think about why we celebrate. This then launched into a sermon about why Jesus had to come to earth 2000 or so years ago. While I was preaching this man walked by, he had no shirt on and he was really well built. He had so many muscles that his muscles had muscles. He was a tank. This man was furious at what I was saying, so he turned to me and pointed at me. As he pointed he began to yell, “It is because of **** people like you that other **** people don’t believe in **** God!” He then turned and began to walk off, so I challenged him, I called out after him, “Sir, do you believe in God?” The man once again began to curse, and then affirmed his belief in deity. So I asked another question, “Are you a Christian?” The man began to seethe in anger, he turned to me and his face was red. “**** you! **** you! **** because of you people don’t believe!” Again, I repeated my question, “Are you a Christian?” To this the man began to swear and say that he was a Christian. I then turned to him, and declared, “It is not because of preachers that people aren’t Christians, it is because of hypocrites like yourself that people hate Jesus Christ. You say one thing, but your actions show you are not a Christian!” At this all the mans veins began to stand out on his neck, and his friend had to restrain him, the man yelled, “**** YOU! I AM GOING TO PUNCH YOUR **** FACE IN!” A few people stopped to watch, so I said, “Go ahead, punch my face in, show everyone how much of a Christian you are, show people the love of Christ as you beat down a preacher.” The man turned and stormed off. From there I began to preach on how one becomes a Christian, and how we cannot just give God lip service.

After I finished preaching I was able to have some great one to one conversations. One encounter was really good, but the problem was the man I was speaking to only spoke Farsi, so I witnessed to him via his translator. At the end of the conversation the translator declared herself to be a Muslim, and stated that Australia will belong to Islam one day.

Overall the day went quite well, many heard the gospel.

Thursday, 4 December, 2008

Posted 14 December 2008, 3:39 PM by David Gee. Permalink

Wet and cold were the themes for the night on Thursday this week and that is exactly how it stayed, thankfully God was kind to us by giving us a short reprieve from the rain while we witnessed. I was joined again by Jim and Sucraj; and we began the night in prayer for the work ahead of us.

There were very few people around as the weather was cold but praise God there was a concert of some form at city hall just across from the war memorial. We were able to give many people tracts as they went to there evening's entertainment. During the interval I preached on the emptiness of Christmas and life at that without peace with God. Many people go through this Christmas season without peace with God and so there festivities become frivolities and the sacred joy of this time degenerates into drunkeness, greed and gluttony.

It being such a cold night not many stopped and few people listened for long. No-one seemed keen to heckle, not supprising with a new location though. After proclaiming the word of eternal life in Christ Jesus our saviour for a period I stepped down and we continued to handout tracts.

After a sort period Jim got up to preach, unfortunately I didn't get to hear what he said as I spotted some young girl's I'd spoken to the previous week. We were able to chat further about their objections and questions (they were interupted last time). During this conversation a group of guys decided to hit on them and so I gave them all tracts and engaged one of them in conversation. This young guy was raised in a Christian home but had so many questions about the faith that he had no answer for. We spoke for some time, often fending of some of his mates who didn't want him seen talking to the wacked out street preacher. It was a great conversation and I hope that we will be able to meet again to talk further. He left with some tracts and I pray some answers.

When I came back to the memorial Jim was engaging some young bible college students regarding the third chapter of Romans and what it says regarding our natural state before God. Sucraj was deep in conversation with an asian man (muslim?). I spotted some people gathered outside one of the local pubs nearby so went to discuss with them. The conversations were short and largely useless, most people were too drunk to speak coherently and so I left tracts with as many as I could.

We ended the night with prayer and went our sepparate ways warmed by the thought of God's word now at work in the hearts of those who had heard. May He use it to save many!

SDG

Friday, 5 December, 2008

Posted 14 December 2008, 3:38 PM by Rob Hughes. Permalink

Friday evening saw a record turn-out in terms of people joining the team for our time of ministry. The team was as follows: Carl, Wesley, my bother James, Philip, James (a friend of Wesley’s), Oliver (a friend of Carl’s), Jannah, Steve, and I. James has only been once before and Oliver was joining us for the first time. It’s wonderful to see the team growing like this, and had Andrew and Adam been able to join us there would have been eleven of us in total, which is really awesome.

After enjoying a time of devotions and prayer together in our new-found café, we headed up to the square. It was quite a sight. The square had been turned into a carnival and there were various rides and stores all over the place. Needless to say, the area was amassed with many people. It was also very noisy. But hey, that’s what happens when a carnival comes to town. We set up in our now usual spot and got ready to minister. I stood up to preach first and asked the people if they knew what an amusement park is. A few people said entertainment and things like that. Well, the word “muse” means to think and “amuse” literally means to not think. The letter “a” placed in front produces the antithesis to the word “muse.” So, simply put, an amusement park is simply a “not thinking park.” It is a centre of entertainment devoid of thinking. Man is always running away from responsibility. As a moral agent and rational being he is obligated to examine his life in view of God’s standard. Ah, but this he would rather not do. Entertainment is far too fun. That’s what sin is to man: fun. Yet oh how temporary that “fun” is.

My intro helped to springboard me into talking about the need for us to think of the big questions we all face in this world: why are we here, what we ought to be doing while we are here, and what will happen to us when we die? Because of the atmosphere and entertainment going on I did not draw a big crowd. However, a number of people did stop and one man in particular was a great encouragement. He was quite willing to engage with me as I took him through the good person test and reasoned with him of sin, righteousness and judgment. (John 16:8) He listened as I told him of the good news of Jesus Christ; that we can be saved from the wrath of God because of what Christ has done by dying on a cross. (John 3:36) The time came when he had to leave and it was a great joy to see him take both an in-depth gospel tract and Bible as he left. Please pray for him. Unfortunately I did not get his name, but the Lord knows who he is and so do pray that God would grant him both repentance and faith unto salvation.

After I finished preaching open-air we all turned to talking with people and handing out tracts. After a little while Carl stood up to preach and he delivered a faithful and solid message. Many of the Bibles were taken as were many of the tracts. People were hearing the gospel and there is nothing more important in this world than that. Praise the Lord for yet another fruitful time of ministry.

Soli Deo Gloria!

To Listen to an audio of Rob Hughes preaching in London visit: http://chroniclesofanevangelist.blogspot.com/2008/12/operation-513-london-leicester-square_13.html

Saturday, 6 December, 2008

Posted 14 December 2008, 3:00 PM by Josh Williamson. Permalink

Saturday, 6 December, 2008

The word “tired” doesn’t do justice to how exhausted I felt today. All of last night was spent on the streets of the Gold Coast talking to many people about the gospel, and then my morning was spent at church doing my yearly CPR and First Aid training. Finally after all that I was able to fall into bed and get about three hours sleep in the stinking hot weather and high humidity.

While I would have loved to sleep on, I knew I had to get up and prepare for tonight outreach in Brisbane city. I can’t think of a great privilege that we as Christians have, than that of sharing the gospel with someone else. And, for that honour I would gladly go without sleep as long as I can make known the grace of my Master, the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was good to meet up with the team and spend some time in prayer and Bible reading. It was also good to spend time as a group having fellowship.

Normally when we set up we see Alex the Agnostic walking around, however tonight he was missing. This concerned us and we hoped everything was well with our favourite agnostic heckler. (Alex if you are reading this: Repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ alone to save you, He is the one who died in the place of sinners and was raised from the dead, so turn from your sins and trust in Christ)

Andrew Hsu was the first preacher up for the evening and he spoke about the good news of the gospel, and how God gave a gift to humanity, and that gift is Jesus Christ. He did a good job in making Christ known. A few people stopped to listen, but overall the mall was fairly empty.

After Andrew preached for some time then it was time for Ali to preach, I have said it before and I will say it again, I do not think I have heard a preacher fit so much theology into his preaching apart from Ali. He is awesome when he preaches, while he isn’t the loudest open air preacher, he does bring his message with a passion and once you have listened to him there is no room for confusion, he explains his points and builds his case to show that Jesus Christ is the Saviour, and is the only one who can forgive sin.

While Ali was preaching a guy that I witnessed to from the week before was standing behind the preaching talking to me. This week he was dressed up as Santa Clause, and he wanted to know what the preachers would like for Christmas, so in between him taking our orders and giving everyone he could see a hug, we were once again able to make known the gospel to him.

It then came my turn to preach the gospel, so I started off by talking about Christmas, and talking about how we celebrate the birth of Christ, but so many people fail to realize that the Christ of the cradle is also the Christ of the Cross. Within a short time of starting to preach a man began to heckle me saying that we should not say that Christmas is about the birth of Christ, as some people don’t believe in that. I challenged his thinking, and then tried to swing the gospel. But this man was not interested he wanted to argue politics, he wanted argue everything other than what I was talking about.

After awhile, I was able to move from him to another person, I did a call out on one man who was standing at the back of the crowd. It turns out he was an atheist from France, so I took him through the Good Person Test to see if where he would go when he died. This man went from “There is no God” to “I am going to hell!” I was able to explain to him the gospel of salvation and how he could receive forgiveness of sins. It was then that his new wife fired up and fired a few questions, and as soon as I answered them she ran off. It seems to me that those questions are the reason she refuses to believe, but the moment they were answered she had no defence and no excuse, that is why she ran.

The rest of the night was spent with preaching and handing out tracts. Many great conversation happened during this time. Overall it was a God glorifying night! May He receive all the praise!

Soli Deo Gloria!

For audio of the Josh Williamson preaching in Brisbane go to: http://sovereigntybaptist.blogspot.com/2008/12/operation-513-witnessing-to-gangs.html

Friday, 5 December, 2008

Posted 14 December 2008, 2:59 PM by Josh Williamson. Permalink

Friday - Saturday, December 5th - 6th, 2008

For the past couple of weeks the local news has been carrying stories about all that was happening on the sunny Gold Coast. It was that time of the year again when all the students who graduated from high school converge on the Gold Coast for a week of parties, sin and regrets. We had already run some smaller outreaches during the Schoolies celebrations, but tonight was going to be our big night, the night in which we arrived at 6pm and left in the early hours AM.

Ryan and I arrived at the Surfers Paradise to prepare for the outreach, and as we began to walk up Cavill Avenue, the heavens open ed up and the rain began to fall. At first it wasn’t that heavy, but it gradually became heavier. We quickly took shelter, and we were a bit concerned to see that the streets were empty. “This is the famed Schoolies festival, where are all the Schoolies?” I thought, and inside of me I began to wonder if tonight was going to be a waste of time and energy.

Since it was so quiet we decided that now would be a great time to go and grab some dinner, and then hopefully, after we finished eating the mall would be a whole lot more busy. As we sat and munched on our chilli chicken burgers we noticed that a few more people started to come into the mall, and most of them were Schoolies. So quickly after finishing our dinner we grabbed some tracts and began to hand them out and talk to people.

Within seconds of handing out his first tract Ryan was engaged in a one to three conversation with some young guys. The guys he was talking to seem genuinely interested in all that Ryan was saying, and after listening for awhile they asked a few questions. Ryan answered the questions of these young men, and after some time they parted company. As the group left I couldn’t help but notice that none of them were offended, in fact it was the complete opposite, these guys were thankful that Ryan took the time to explain the gospel to them, and as they walked past me I could hear them still discussing amongst themselves about forgiveness of sin.

During this time I was just handing out tracts and having the occasional one to one conversation with people. It was still slow during this time so we were only able to hand out a few hundred tracts. But, during this time of tract work I was approached by two men, as I observed them coming towards me I knew they weren’t Schoolies, and by the way they were dressed I could tell they were Gold Coast City Council officers. One of them stopped me and asked what I was handing out, I replied that I was handing out gospel tracts that explain how we can be forgiven of all our sin. The man looked at me, and said “I have spoken to you before haven’t I?” When he said that I remembered that two years ago during Gold Coast Indy, he had stopped me for preaching, but when he checked the law he found that we had legal right to preach and witness. We spoke for a bit about what I was doing, and he told me that there had been another group of “preachers” in Cavill Avenue who had been causing trouble by abusing people and using a PA to scream “hate” at people. Then this local law officer said something quite interesting, he said: “The problem with Christians is that they don’t read their Book, and they certainly don’t live by it!” To which I sadly had to agree with him. It is such a major stain on Christianity, when those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ fail to read God’s Word, and if they do read it many of them refuse to live by the standards laid out in the Bible.

After speaking for awhile both council officers took gospel tracts and then left. I continued to talk and witness to people. Not long after speaking to council I noticed this man standing in the middle of Cavill Avenue with no shirt on, but with a red bandana on his head. I recognized this as one of the gang colours from not far from where I live, so I approached him and said “G’day”. The man was friendly enough and it turned out that he was from New Zealand originally, I spoke to him a bit about life, death and life in a gang. He was fairly open and wanted to talk, and he was especially interested in the words of Jesus Christ. So I began to witness to him and explain the gospel, when I got to repentance he didn’t like the idea of him having to turn from his sin, so I stressed to him from the Bible, that Jesus said “Unless you repent you will perish” (Luke 13:3). As far as this man was concerned the conversation was over, he wanted forgiveness of sin, but he wanted that forgiveness to give him license to sin all he wants. It was then that another group of young men approached all wearing the same red bandana. This man’s gang had arrived, and it was then that I found out that I was speaking to the gang leader. As his gang assembled around me, I quickly handed out tracts to all of them, and greeted them all. These guys were quite shocked as I wasn’t scared of them, but rather I was being friendly to them.

The gang leader said to his gang “This guy is a preacher, he is talking about heaven, hell and all that Jesus stuff.” The gang looked at me, so I asked them, “Alright guys, if you were to do die tonight where do you think you would go? Heaven or Hell?” The gang leader turned to me and said, “These are my guys you don’t talk to them!” To which I replied, “Mate, be quiet, you think you tough, but one day you will face God and give an account for all your sins. And on that day if you die without Christ you will end up in hell.” The leader seemed stunned, the gang seemed stunned, so I continued, “Now, you have heard the gospel and rejected it, so I am now going to explain it to your boys, and you will not interrupt, understand?” The gang leader at this stage was in shock, I doubt if he had ever had someone speak to him like that before. As I spoke thoughts began running through my mind, “Josh, you idiot! You just angered a gang leader, RUN before they STAB you!”

The leader turned to his gang and said, “Preacher is right, listen to what he says!” So all the gang turned to me and asked, “What is heaven about, how do I get there?” This opened up a door for me to present the glorious gospel of Christ to those who may never have heard it. While they looked tough, they turned out to be just like everyone else, in that they had done wrong, and they needed a Saviour.

As I was explaining the gospel to them, members from the Queensland Police came and surrounded us, I presume they were getting a bit nervous with having a gang assembled in the middle of the mall. The police formed around the group I was speaking to, and then they all took the tracts off the gang members, the police wanted to know what was going on, so they all read the tracts. The gang didn’t seem to mind as they were all still listening to me present the gospel. The police officers read the tracts and then gave them back to the gang, and for the next few minutes a group of police stood with a group of gang members and listened to the gospel also. This was such an awesome opportunity to have law enforcers and law breakers standing together at the foot of the cross, and hearing about Jesus Christ who died in the place of sinners. The police moved on at the end of the gospel, but a few of the gang members stayed behind and thanked me for telling them about Christ. Please pray for the gang and also for the police. May God grant them repentance and bring them to the knowledge of the truth.
The rest of the outreach was spent in handing out tracts and having many great conversations, the Schoolies were very open to discussing the things of God, and also many of them seemed to want to debate Christianity. This was good because as we provided apologetic answers to their questions many more seemed open to hearing the gospel.

Tonight was a great night with many hearing the gospel, and many thousands getting gospel tracts. All Praise to the Author and Finisher of the Faith!

Friday, 28 November, 2008

Posted 5 December 2008, 4:27 AM by Rob Hughes. Permalink

Friday night was a night with a difference. I was very excited in that the youth from my church were set to join us. This would be a bit of an eye-opening experience for quite a few of them. I believe it is important that young people understand that sharing the gospel is not restricted simply to what is commonly called “friendship evangelism.” We need to be taking the gospel to people we do not know as much as we are taking the gospel to those we do know.

Barney, who leads the youth group, asked if I would give a talk to the youth before travelling up. This was no problem; however it meant that I travelled up with the youth instead. The team was there to meet us when we arrived, which was a little before 9pm. Philip, my brother James, Steve, Andrew “the Kiwi”, Andrew “the Aussie” and Jannah, were all there to meet us. Because the youth were not able to stay long I kept my preach short. After I came down from preaching we all got stuck in handing out tracts to the people passing by. It was such a blessing and so encouraging to see the young people handing out tracts. The girls, in particular, were really getting into it. It was really wonderful.

It came time for the youth to leave and it was a shame to see them go, however they could not be out too late as it was important for them to get back to meet their parents. We spent the rest of the evening talking with people. I was going to preach open-air again, however Andrew the Kiwi (who has now left to go back to New Zealand – sob, sob!!) and I got talking with a young Muslim gentleman named Umer. He had stopped to listen whilst I had preached open-air. Andrew and I had a good chat with him. He did not seem to be committed and practising Muslim, however he knew enough of the objections that Muslims are taught with regards to Christianity. These tend to centre on the issue of the Trinity and the veracity of Scripture. I often find it quite amazing that they so attack the veracity of Scripture. It is far, far authentic and reliable than the Qu’ran and can hold up under the weight of scrutiny far, far more than the Qu’ran could ever hope to do. Still, they persist. I put the challenge to Umer and told him that the Qu’ran contradicts itself in that it mentions the gospel and that the gospel was delivered through Jesus. The Qu’ran refers to the Bible, and since it does not explain the gospel, the only place for a Muslim to turn to in order to understand the gospel is the Bible. Since the gospel is talked about in the Qu’ran, the Muslim is duty bound to find out what the gospel is. Now, this is where the Qu’ran contradicts itself: the Bible is before the Qu’ran and the Bible clearly says that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6) There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) There is only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5) It is clear. How then can the Qu’ran be true, as it affirms that the gospel comes through Jesus, yet presents a path to salvation that is completely different to the path of salvation of the Bible?

We had a great chat with Umer. We could see the wheels turning in his head. What we were saying was causing him to think. This was affirmed for us when he asked for a Bible before saying goodbye. Praise God!

It had been a fruitful evening. Praise the Lord for His bountiful blessings.

Soli Deo Gloria!

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