Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 33

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 12/7/2023 from 1300-1500

Praise be to God to move Qin Hao to join us at Sunnybank despite Bible college school term has restarted. He could not come on Tuesday as there is class at BST but he was moved to come on Wednesday to join the Sunny bank Outreach. The three of us made a good team supporting and supplementing each other’s. Qin Hao is very quick and determined to approach stranger without hesitation. So by sight, he got the most number of divine appointments to share the gospel. I took a relax approach and at time pick up some Christians outreached by Qin first but I continued on for clarification of their assurance of salvation. Johnny again had got fruitful result today leading many people including a HongKonger just a step away from salvation by accepting Jesus. Recap below is anyway the Battle Log of Hung.

1) I was moved to approached madam Xu. ? originally from Shanghai but migrated to New Zealand? and then now ended up in Brisbane Australia. She was actually waiting for her daughter to come to pick her up. When I approached her, she had the common initial reluctant to chat using excuse that she got a flu and really put on her mast. I was moved to stay put though keep a safety distance from her. She seemingly was impressed by my persistence and passion to share the gospel so God softened her heart to listen up my full gospel sharing. She even recognized Qin as my team members when he came to evangelize someone besides her. She was happy to take a tract and introduce me to her daughter who thought we were friend. Pray that this divine encounter will bear fruit in His time.

2) Gloria a Christian girl from Solomon Island of Seven-day Adventist background, I spent considerable time to test her assurance of salvation which was found lacking. Then I shared many Bible doctrines and strengthened her faith in Jesus. I even clarified some controversial prediction of Jesus 2nd coming by the Adventist denomination which was admitted wrong as such their doctrinal stand nowadays is no different from other evangelical churches.

3) Mia from Sudan was initially approached by Qin but prepared to quit after knowing she is a Christian. I took the chance to demonstrate to Qin that we still have a task to diagnose the assurance of salvation of every self-proclaimed Christians. Again, Mia was lacking of 100 % assurance of salvation which was clarified in length. She was moved to ask where my church is. I anyway advised her stay with her own church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

4) After Mia left, I approached a family of three but I mainly chatted with the daughter. The family was from Guangzhou for sight-seeing. That was the excuse the daughter young lady used to reject chatting as she thought I was trying to convert here and bring her to church. Another excuse was they are Buddhist but I insist to share the gospel message as a cross cultural concept. Basically, I shared the nutshell of the gospel to the daughter while the mum kept leaving the seat to check the Bus arrival schedule screen.

5) Then I was moved to approach Joseph and her girlfriend both from Indonesia Jakarta, They are not Christian but also possible not a Muslim. He appeared very friendly and open for a chat. I could only manage to make a start but the bus came. He anyway seriously asked for a tract to read himself. Pray for God's own follow up and change of heart work.

6) Then I was led to meet yet another Japanese girl who came to study English. I greeted her in very fluent Japanese to gain the right to carry on with the chat. Again, her bus came far too quick and cut our conversation short.

7) Daniel Liu was a mainlander but Johnny shared the gospel to him years ago. He obviously was moved to accept Christ and once attended the Rock Church at Church of Christ at Station Road. But he did not attend "The Rock" anymore. Pray for God's guidance to lead Daniel not just accepts Jesus to become a nominal Christian but a World Christian on mission.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday July 11th, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

It was a fine day for outreach and both Johnny and Hung had got Spirit led divine appointment with God's elected person to have good conversation with us. For Johnny, he first had consecutively talked with three group of Islamic Muslim, especially a group of three Muslim ladies who all appeared with an open mind and softened hearts to learn about the gospel of Jesus' salvation. Towards the end, Johnny had a long chat with Owen from Hong Kong and he showed great interest to listen to the full gospel and promised to take it very seriously to consider accepting Jesus as his Saviour after reading the tract again at home. As for Hung, there were mixed results to have good chat with Senior persons with Catholic background and non-believers from both Local Aussie, India and Indonesia. On the contrary, all the mainland Chinese we approached today were all rejective. Recap below is he Battle Log of Hung today.

1) Jasmine a local Aussie I met last week and good to catch up with here. She was not in a mood to chat today but however thanks for my care and consideration to greet her. Pray that the seed sowed will sprout in His time if we can meet again.

2) Kevin Catholic Christian with his wife hiding behind the bus booth in the shade. He however was very open and delightful to have a l7 min chat with me under the sun despite he just finished a nose skin canner removal day surgery. His biblical understanding of many Christian teachings was not rock solid. Lacking assurance of salvation was one of the signs. He was happy for me to help him clarified his understanding of assurance of salvation.

3) Gloria a local Aussie girl who is a non-believer but was opened and receptive to the gospel message. She was happy to take a selfie with me to signify this divine encounter.

4) An India couples who have been here for a few years already. The girl friend was most sceptical, but the boy appeared a good listener to the full gospel.

5) Philip another old man seemed to be a non-believer, but still let me share with him the full gospel.

6) Then I met up with an Indonesian young man who look like a little bit of Chinese blood. Just kicked start the issue but no time to finish but still able to leave a tract.

7) Two mainlanders took English tract but cut short the conversation.

8 ) Another two groups of Mainlander, first three girls then later a boy all appeared to be afraid of being seen for listening to gospel.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Winter continues!  But we had a break in the wet weather for outreach on Tuesday (Riccarton with Roger) and Friday (City with Roger, Martin, and Andy).  The weekend was very wet again, so I just worked online.

But, the two outreaches were phenomenal.  Busy, no lack of opportunity!  I came away from Tuesday’s outreach in joy!  Part of me is happy there are so few Christians out joining me, that just leaves more opportunity for me!  But, of course that’s not right.  There is more than enough opportunity to share the gospel with the lost - come join us!  You are missing out in this joy.

So, the highlight conversation from Tuesday was the last one.  Two young lads went past.  I didn’t think they would be interested, but they surprised me by stopping.  There was an openness (respectful engagement), but at the same time a resistance (not willing to submit to the God they know is real).

I used the flip chart, but only sparingly, the conversation was basically me explaining the law and the gospel, and them hitting me with all the questions they had.  I can’t be sure how long the chat went for, but I’d say 45 minutes?  As they left, I noticed it was dusk, and it was cold.  Outreach time was over!

I learnt something interesting from the conversation.  At the start, I could tell these guys weren’t dumb, and so I said, “I’m not going to argue from what I don’t know, instead, I’m only going to rely on what I do know - no god of the gaps.”  They were happy with that.  But by the end of the conversation, as one of them was fighting to keep the wraps on their suppression of God tied down, drifted into what we don’t know: “But, in the future, we could learn something that proves there is no god”.  I instantly went back and said, “hold on, I told you at the start that I won’t argue from what I don’t know, but only from what I do know.  You are now appealing to what you don’t know”.  It was an accidental set up, but it was powerful, it hit home, and he struggled to keep his composure (but to his credit, he did).

I pleaded with them both to repent.  And they both took tracts, “everything I’ve said can be summarised into this little 8 page cartoon”.  That’s how simple the message of the gospel is.

Earlier I had some interaction with 3 youth’s.  The young lady was very sharp intellectually, but I don’t think she realised it.  Her rebellion against God was sophisticated, and yet simple minded.  I instinctively knew that it wasn’t wise to engage her further, as it would just lead to intense heat and no fruit.  I let them go, after a simple gospel explanation, and with tracts each.

Earlier in the day, while online, I connected with a lady from the USA.  I had a 19 minute conversation with her, in which she came to tears.  She professed faith in God early in the chat, but it was clear that she didn’t really understand the gospel.  You have to be gentle in these situations, because if you are too direct “you aren’t really a Christian”, then they just get offended and walk away.  So, I laboured with her to try to get her to see what I saw for herself.  Eventually she did flare up in protest, but I didn’t back down, and I made it clear I wasn’t backing down out of care for her.  As we continued to talk, I was surprised to see tears start coming down her face.  She opened up, and revealed her struggle: she is in a church that teaches baptism in the Spirit and tongues for salvation.  She doesn’t ‘feel’ the Spirit, and so she concludes she is not saved as a result.  I was able to bring the balm of the true gospel.  She continued to weep.  It was a special chat.  She thanked me for what I was doing.  When I suggested she look for a church that teaches the gospel and the Bible, she was eager to take down the details of how to find one.  I was very encouraged.

Later in the week, I had a 1 hour online chat, with a young man and his friend.  It was funny, because his response to my question, “what do you think happens after life”, was to say, “You’re on, I want to talk about this… hold on, let me move my mouse so I don’t accidentally skip you”.  He was all questions and resistance initially, but I found an opportunity to swing to the law and suddenly I had control of the conversation.  I shared the gospel, and then moved straight to my first check question.  He instantly got it wrong, and when I pointed that out he understood, “Oh, man, this takes time to correct your thinking”.  Actually, it doesn’t have to take a lot of time.  I continued working through the checks.  He kept getting them wrong, but this just caused him to process and correct his thinking.  By the end of the chat he was not only articulating the gospel perfectly, but he professed that he was “110% sure that he was going to heaven when he died, because Jesus died on the cross for my sin”.  Both he and his friend were grateful for the chat, and were willing to start reading the Bible for themselves and find a local church.

Friday’s outreach in the city was amazing.

I had Martin (from Hamilton way) with me.  We arrived at the outreach location, and I instantly spied someone who I thought would be good to chat too.  She was!  And we ended up talking for exactly 1 hour!  She claimed to be open, but very much hated the idea that God was allowed to make rules and tell her how to live.

I went for a wander, and encountered 3 young people at the corner of Colombo and Hereford.  I’d apparently talked to 1 of them before (but I don’t remember it), he said, “Faith that Jesus died on the cross for your sin”!  Well, he had an understanding, but it was clear he wasn’t doing that - he didn’t want to chat.  But 1 of his friends did.  I was able to give a short gospel presentation, at the end of which, he asked, “can I give you a hug?”  No problem!  What a blessing.  He really seemed to appreciate the chat, and he left with a gospel of John.  And all 3 of them left with tracts.

I got another hug later on, from a streetie, also whom I don’t remember - but he knew my name!  He even remembered the gospel too.  We talked for a while, I’ll work on remembering his name, and hope to see him again.

Well, I’m out of time to write further.  Thank you for praying for this ministry, and please, come join me out in the harvest!  It’s such a joy to labour in it.
 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 5/7/2023 from 1300-1500

In contrast to an all wet and rainy day yesterday, praised be to the Lord we have a bright and sunny day for Street Outreach at Sunny bank. It was a pity Qin could not join us to day in his last week of term break from BST study. So just Johnny and I teamed up as usual. God led us into different gospel sharing divine encounters or faith building sharing with Christian of varying spiritual maturity level. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung: -

1) First I was led to two ABC high school girls of grade 9 who claimed that they had spoken before with possibly Qin Hao last week. They claimed they had other religion but nevertheless they had understood the message through the chat and the tract. However, it seemed that they were not yet getting the point. But they were very opened to the gospel sharing and not that resistant to the message about our need to be redeemed by Jesus.

2) Madam Zhang ?an ex-EMP Methodist member but now is with Hill Song. She has enough Bible knowledge but is still struggling to have full Assurance of salvation. The root cause is not at all clear about the salvation package by God in three stages, namely the 3 fold deliverance in the Past, Current and future. We had a long chat and hopefully cleared up the myth of God's grace in her mind.

3) Madam Li ? from Henan appeared very friendly as I connected with her in her by greeting in her local dialect. She showed no uncomfortable talking to me as a Christian Pastor. Time run out when her bus arrived but she happily took a tract to read.

4) Then I was moved to approach Elizabeth a young non-believer girl but also appeared very receptive. Thanks God I had just enough time to share her the full gospel which she admitted that she heard it for the first time but found it sensible logical and rational. She seemed to have no resistance at all to make her last step of faith to accept Jesus as here Saviour and Lord. She showed her appreciation to take a selfie with me though the bus was ready to go. Pray for God's last follow up work to send the Sprit to bring her the conviction to receive Christ as Saviour and Lord of her life.

5) Then I came across a Hongkonger , but he was all resistance to any religious talk. Yet by the Spirit I still managed to share him the full gospel in a nutshell.

6) Then I picked up a Pakistan mum and daughter who again appeared very friendly. But time ran out for me to share as her bus came quickly. Just managed to leave a tract.

7) Last but not the least, I was led to connect with Madman Guo? from Shandong Tsing Dao. We clicked in many way and I even shared with her my mission trips in China. She was happy to take a tract and promised to understand the message I am so passionate to convey to her.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday July 4th, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

It was a rainy day with down pouring all day long, but the team spirit of the Toowong Street outreach was not deterred an iota to give in stopping our weekly regular outreach. The rain did cause some inconvenience as people mood generally were no good and we have to struggle hiding away from the rain under the bus stop cover. Above all the energy and passion of Hao Qin was extraordinarily high to keep him rushing for any gospel target turning up at the bus stop. Johnny and Hung both had the understanding to give Qin the priority to make the first approach. Under those circumstances, Hung and Johnny both got less conversation. Hung however got a couple of interesting and important follow up conversation with some previous target checking on their status. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung.

1) Teresa a devoted Catholic Christian who seriously rejects all protestant teaching but deemed that the catholic teaching handing down from Peter as the first apostolic authority teaching to the pop of each generation. I tried my best to point out the deficiency of Catholic teaching that still requires producing enough good deeds in earning the status of eternal life apart from the redemptive grace of Jesus. She simply shut her ears up refusing to listen to my side of story. So, I think I would not approach her any more in future at this very bis stop.

2) Jessie a local Aussie was open with a soft heart to listen to the full gospel.

3) A Local Aussie Nic we met last week was approached by Qin first but I took over the conversation to double check if he still has 100 % assurance of salvation. Praise be to the Lord he is all clear and promised to do likewise in the campus to share the gospel to others.

4) An ABC not knowing her parent’s country of origin but still was polite enough to let me share the gospel with her. Her Chinese is exceptionally good as she and other sidling were taught to speak Chinese at home.

5) An English-speaking girl possibly Korean was not willing to chat initially rejecting Johnny. a moment later, I approach her again to take a soft and friend making approach. It works and we started chatting though she still emphasizes our conversation should not be religious. But at the end, I still manage to start the gospel yet covering the nutshell when her bus came.

6) The last one was on Phone for a long long time till the bus came.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

A full week of street outreach this week.  Roger was with me on Tuesday in Riccarton.  Roger, Andy and myself on Friday in the City.  I was in Riccarton on Saturday.  And then Mike joined me in the City on Sunday afternoon.

The forecast for Tuesday was for rain in the evening.  Roger was keen to get out, and so we did!  But sadly, the rain came early.  I didn’t bother with my flipchart, hoping to steal chats with people in sheltered spots.

But the outreach was worth it!  I managed to get into a short chat with three young high school students.  One of them took the lead in the talking, but another one of them seemed to be soaking in the gospel.  But, thinking of the talker, he started out very agnostic, and so I was surprised to learn he was actually a church goer.  It’s a reminder that we need to keep the gospel, front and centre in our churches and our family devotion times.

We had a couple of Police officers come on the scene.  But thankfully it wasn’t because of Roger or I.  A homeless lady has been camping in Riccarton (I think I’ve mentioned her in previous reports), and she has taken up residence where we do outreach.  It turns out people have been laying complaints, and so the Police want her to move on.  But she won’t.  Even in the rain, she is sleeping on the sidewalk (pictured).  It’s so sad.  There are no simple solutions to issues like this.  You can’t help people that don’t want it.  I’ll pick this thread up again later in the report.

The rain became heavy, and so Roger and I decided to finish up the outreach early.

Friday’s outreach was amazing.  All 3 of us had stellar gospel conversations.  Roger had a young couple go to tears on him (in a good way).  And Andy had a lady go to tears as well - although she was a Christian, tearing up about how good God is!  He is indeed!

I went for a wander, and ended up encountering a young man outside the KFC on Colombo Street.  He seemed primed for the chat.  He was down from Auckland visiting family, and he had time on his hands.  He’d gone to a Catholic school, and believed in heaven and hell. But not surprisingly he was trusting in his works for salvation.  He heard the law, and then the gospel, and then we worked through the suite of check questions I normally use.  He kept getting them wrong, but each time it was just a learning opportunity for him.  He really seemed to come to grasp the gospel through it, and he seemed genuinely stoked by it.  He lived in Southern Auckland, and so I pointed him to South City Reformed Baptist Church and gave him a gospel of John.  What a joy to be able to deliver the good news of Jesus!

There were other great chats, including one Andy & I teamed up with a couple of kids walking past.  And at the end of the outreach I had a wonderful five minute chat with a young man who also seemed primed and ready.  The chat finished just as his friend came from a shop and was ready to move on.

It really felt like people were praying for us on Friday, so if you were, thank you!  And please keep us in your prayers!  This ministry will be ineffective without the power of Spirit, through the prayers of the Saints!

Saturday was bright and sunny.  The homeless lady was still there (yes, I know her name).  And so I set up my flip chart on the other side of the street.  I had some good chats, including with a soldier and his friend, and tracts were distributed.  But I kept thinking of the homeless lady, she was sitting in the sun, and seemed to be having a conversation with herself, but then she lay down on her bedding and went to sleep, eventually flicking the top blanket over her head (pictured).  But before she did that, I went over to her side of the street to hand out tracts, and I was able to say hello.  She was friendly in response.  That’s good, ice broken.  Next time I see her, I’ll try engaging more, and see if she is open to conversation.  Since she was asleep when I left, I left a gospel tract for her, beside her soft toy.

Sunday was sunny, but bitterly cold.  It was like the wind was running over ice!  I focused on tracts and conversations at the corner of Colombo and Cashel.  The JW’s took the sunny side, so I took the other!

When Mike turned up, he had something new with him!  He has been designing a new flipchart stand - well, God has been designing.  His design didn’t work, but amazingly, the very thing that was breaking his design, ended up being the very thing that made a stable stand (when used in a different way)!  God is sovereign!

Mike set up the stand, and had the honour of getting into the first chat with it (pictured).  While that was happening, other people started stopping to look at what was happening (pictured), and so I was able to get into a good conversation with them.  I’ve been using the flip chart for years, and it’s such a powerful tool.

Well, that’s a wrap for another week.  This morning, I processed a few Instagram direct messages.  At the time, we had over 450 unread messages, and nearly 70 new message requests.  Each one is a gospel conversation.  We now have 8 people working to share the gospel with all these people.  The online gospel opportunity (needGod.net) that God has blessed us with is amazing, and we get to point every one of them to a local church.  And it’s very apparent where in the world more local churches are needed.  We need more pastors / missionaries to be raised up to plant churches in these locations.  The job is not complete!  Till the nets are full, go serve your King!
 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 281/6/2023 from 1300-1500

Praise be to God that Hao Qin joined us for the consecutive 2nd day. He seemed to be deeply driven to work with us as a team for the long haul, not just for two tern break weeks as previously thought. He actually had the first taste of street outreach under Andrew Walkington when he did the Evangelism course with BST in 2021. We missed the chance to meet each other then as Andrew might have brought them to Sunnybank at a different time. Anyway, after two years, God moved him to respond to Johnny’s calling to join our weekly outreach. It seemed that God even has moved him to summon more capable younger brothers& sisters of the Sherwood church to build an outreach team in His time like what God has raised up His gospel outreach team in GCCCC, SCCCC and Antioch Lutheran most recently. Hao Qin was apparently gifted in cross cultural evangelism in both language wise and boldness in making a quick approach as led by the spirit. We formed a good team complementing each other’s. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung.

1) First approach was to a person from Jie Jiang China who showed no interest but still I shared him the nutshell of the Gospel.? ,

2) Anna a Vietnamese lady who chatted with Johnny before has assurance of salivation but need a bit more clarification as her English is not good enough to explain why she has 100 % assurance of salvation. But it was really a very rare case for a Christian from an originally Buddhism country.

3) Approached two Mainlander first by Johnny and then me later but they were scared off.

4) Then I connected with a Vietnamese lady of Buddhism background. She expressed no interest to chat but I still manage to chat and share the gospel until the bus came.

5) Morehead and Queenie are from a city North of Mumbai in India. Initially they rejected our approach, but I did not give up and found out that they were new comer to study at QUT who had just arrived and need to take a bus to garden point of the CBD. They were lost for direction and was about to make a wrong turn. I stopped them in time and guide them to take the next bus to Queen Street Bus terminal. They turned around become very appreciative for my help and took the initiative to take a tract when their bus came. They also were very happy to take a selfie with me and pray that God will lead them to meet with another evangelist hopefully with OAC guys at Garden Point QUT campus.

6) Met again with Catherine a Catholic Christian from Philippine whom I met her first time on May 24th. To my surprised she has very clear understanding of the gospel with 100 % assurance of salivation. She was delighted to take a selfie with me. It was good I met her again today and recognized her for mutual encouragement.

7) Two ladies rejected Qin but I caught up with the Spanish speaking lady later. We had a good chat as I could connect with her in a bit Spanish. I managed to give her a tract to read when they had to leave the bus stop.

8 ) Then I approached a Vietnamese couples. The wife appeared not tolerance and left while the husband still want to listen.

9) I Met with another Filipino lady of Catholic faith. She was open to the gospel and was happy also to have assurance of salavati0on clarified.

10) Last but not the least I connected with a lady by the name Zhang from Wenzhou of Jie Jiang. It was the Jerusalem in China because of greatest proportion of Christian as well as the number of missionaries sent out. She is from a Christian Family, and boldly admitted she is Christian. But her teaching about salvation is not sound as such she did not have assurance of salvation. which I clarified for her thoroughly. . She thanked me for that and dared to take a selfie with me which is the first ever for me with a mainlander Christian.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday June 207th, 2023 from 1330 – 1500

What an amazing way God answered the prayer of Johnny to have at least even one member of his Church o come forward to join our Street Outreach. Johnny had even reached a point that he would not bother to share anything about evangelism, not to mention cross cultural outreach with his own church members. But this week Hao Qin just emerged out of the blue to join us today at Toowong and possibly tomorrow at Sunnybank. He is now a 2nd year MD student at BST and is now at the school term break fortnight. God moved him to join us today. He actually had prior street outreach practicum under Andrew Walkington of OAC who was tutor of a evangelism class by BST in 2021. So Hao once did street outreach at Sunnybank under the supervision of Andrew K. Now God moved Hao to come out from his comfort zone to join us today and possibly he is moved to form a gospel outreach team at Sherwood Methodist Church. So Johnny's prayer for more gospel workers will be greatly accomplish over his expectation.

Today the people flow was still low due to term break for UQ as well. But we still had enough opportunities to share the gospel to non-believers and to Christians helping them to remove doubt and secure their assurance of salvation in Christ. Today God gave me predominantly Christians and only one non-believers and amongst them 3 are Indians. Recap below is the battle log of Hung.

1) Grimson an Indian Catholic Christian. Just in time to check her assurance of salvation which was not established. No time to clarify in details but just affirm her that the moment she accepted Jesus, she should have already got back the Heavenly Citizenship through Christ sacrificial death taking our place to receive eternal death punishment.

2) Olivia the 2nd Indian girl, also declared a Catholic Christian and also clarified her assurance of salvation just in time when the bus arrived.

3) Ang an UQ postgrad student from Singapore now attending CCCCB at Lucia. He was the only person today that have clear and correct understand of assurance of salvation. It is in credit to his Christian family teaching at young age. He was impressed of our gospel work and is contemplating to join Power to Change to serve in the campus.

4) A Local Aussie Nic did not has 100 % assurance of salvation. It was clarified at length before the bus arrived.

5) Approached the 3rd Indian girl but just only had time to pass on to her a tract.

6) Hao Qin approached a Filipino Christian and did not know yet to pursue checking his assurance of salvation. Not of any surprise for most Catholic Christians from Filipino, he does not have assurance of salvation. I just barely have enough time to make a clarification in a nutshell.

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Another week of God’s patience, that could run out at any moment.

And I just witnessed this online evangelism stat pop up, we have just hit 10,000 hours in gospel chats as a team:

Team Milestone: Had 10,000 hours in chats as a team across 43,997 chats in 2 years 3 months!
191 Countries reached (76%).  58 Countries to go!

All glory to God alone.

Well, in regards to the street work.  This week I was at all the normal outreaches, except Riccarton on Saturday - due to rain.

On Tuesday afternoon, I was in Riccarton with Roger.  I had significant chats with people from overseas.  They came to hear the gospel!  One of the guys was from Chile (if I heard him right) and another from France.  They were both open to a conversation, but they were both resisting the gospel due to idolatry (they want to make God rather than acknowledge that God made them).  Yet, they both clearly heard the law and the gospel.

Roger was busy on the other side of the street.  As the outreach came to a close at 5:30 pm, I noticed that whoever was talking to Roger was being pretty intense.  In his face.  I packed up my flip chart a little early and headed over to see what was going on.  Sure enough, an Atheist was in attack mode - Roger was holding his own.  Ya know, most of the people I talk to are not Atheists - it’s logically silly to hold that position.  I want to push this guy back a bit, and couldn’t help joining the fray (verbally).  I could tell the guy and his friend were not open to reason, and I could give a fair guess why: again Idolatry - ‘I want to be god and make the rules’.  So I shut the conversation down, with an offer to continue the chat online.  They both received tracts with how to get in touch.

One of my daughters has started a job at McDonald’s in Riccarton mall just round the corner from where we outreach.  I had to wait for her to finish her shift, and so I shouted Roger some McDonald’s so we could catch up while I waited.

As we were talking, suddenly a fight broke out behind Roger.  Right in the food court, in Riccarton Mall, about 15 teen guys started having a very serious fist fight.  It was horrible.  Chairs were thrown, children were crying, people were standing round stunned, or trying to calm things down.  I was one of the stunned ones, Roger was in there trying to stop it.  I felt very unsafe.  The fight went for at least 10 minutes.  And it moved up and down the mall.  Security didn’t seem to be able to do anything to stop it.  I took some video footage as evidence, and then I called the police (yet again).

I felt angry.  I wanted to do something about it.  I could see some of the problems, and political policy started formulating in my mind.  Yet, as essential as sound political policy is, it’s nothing without getting to the root of the issue.  The root of the issue is sin.  And the only solution is the gospel.  This motivates me, even more, to focus on reaching people with the good news of Jesus.  It’s God’s will that his mercy be demonstrated, and we need to be praying that his will be done, and get out to proclaim the gospel!  God, have mercy on my city, nation, and the nations of the world!
Finally the fight stopped (or moved out of the mall, I don’t know), and things started to return to normal.  To my horror, a couple of the kids came back.  They were looking for a phone that was lost.  They should be in prison after what I saw them do.  One of them was a chair thrower.  One of them approached me to ask if I’d seen the phone.  I gave him a tract and asked if he believed God was real.  “Yeah, I believe in God.”  I was angry, and so I said, “So, do you believe in hell?”  There will be consequences for our actions.  My daughter finished work and I didn’t want her near these guys after what I had witnessed.  I queried the security guard as to why they were let back in.  He seemed to think they weren’t at fault!?  Out on the street.  As I was walking towards my car, with my daughter, I spotted another group of them.  I didn’t feel safe.  It took me a few days to process this.  The gospel is the ultimate solution!  I want these kids to know God's mercy.  Yet, God will also be glorified in demonstrating his justice.

Friday (Roger, John, Andy and myself) and Sunday (Susan and myself) the team was in the city.

On Friday I was saddened to talk to a lady with a Christian background.  I try to be really gentle in checking gospel understanding, but she gave me the anti-gospel (works) as the reason she gets to heaven.  When I gently tried to point this out, she doubled down.  Resistant and not open to talk about it.  I ended up having to shut down the conversation.  I also received ‘tracts’ from 2 different people.  One was against a cashless society.  The other was against vaccine mandates.  I was able to get into a conversation with the anti-vaxxer, but she didn’t want to talk about the deeper issue of what happens after life.  The thing I learnt most through the Covid period is how to love those I strongly disagree with - and I told her this.

Sunday was cold, but Susan and I had some good opportunities to engage people with the gospel, through conversation and tracts.  We weren’t far from the JW’s with their stands.  And I caught them glancing at me multiple times.  I think they were able to hear the gospel conversations I was having.  I hope to see them again, and God willing, have meaningful gospel conversation directly with them too.  May God open their eyes.  Have mercy on our land!
 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday 21/6/2023 from 1300-1500

Amy was able to join Johnny and Hung today at Sunnybank and God used us to bless many people abundantly. In particular, Amy brought Holly an Aussie young girl to Christ on the spot. It is an observation through our usual outreach experience that people of all other nations are far easier for reach out to have good quality conversation then the mainlanders. Situation has changed a bit in the past 6 months that more younger persons from Mainland China appeared more softened and open to the gospel. But there are still a majority of Mainlander do not want to be bothered by the gospel sharing. Today, as a team, we felt awarded with real person receiving Christ on the spot and promised to follow Christ by finding a church as their spiritual home and school. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung.

1) First approach to a Filipino, despite of their Catholic background, I was rejected for a chat.

2) Next, I approached a Mauritius lady. She was willing for a chat, but her bus came too quick that I could only touch on the nutshell of the Gospel as such she only took a tract.

3) Then I approached another African who was busy in texting as such he also only took a tract

4) Then came Sister Susan Zhang of Logos Church from Fuzhou Johnny chatted with her many times before but I met her first-time last week. She greeted me as such I originally attempted to test and clarify if she understands gospel completely and has assurance of salvation. But then Johnny chipped in and took over the conversation. I overheard anyway that Sister Zhang actually has no assurance of salvation and does not understand the gospel correctly.

5) Then I faced two more blunt rejections from one Korean and one Mainland Chinese.

6) Then God led me to reunion with a Couples boy and girl friends , Wu ? & Yao?from Guangzhou. Followed up and refreshed their memory and understanding of the gospel and the both showed great receptiveness of salvation. Keep praying for God's timing to guide them to make the last step of faith .

7) Then God led me to cross over to the other side of the Main Road to check how Amy was doing. I was glad to find out that Amy had led a local Aussie girl Holly Samways to Christ. I took the chance to share my testimony as part of the conversion instant discipleship.

8 ) Two Chinese girl of UQ student. Both appeared opened for a chat and one is from Tian Jin. But they declined to take a track.

9) Moses Li who attended our CFC 26th Anniversary introduced by Ruth Liao greeted with me while I was chatting with the two Tianjin girls. Tried to double test his understand of the gospel and if he has assurance of salvation but the bus came too quick.

10) The I was led to chat with Roma a Russian form Eastern Asia but already migrated to Australia. We clicked in many aspects as such he is opened for the gospel.

11) Towards the end, another Chinese girl declining to talk religious issues but still managed to share the nutshell of the gospel.

12) Finally connected with a guy from Henam Changzhou. He is studying at Griffith. He appeared very nervous to listen to the gospel and scare to take a tract though I still managed to share the full gospel to him.

 

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