Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 42

Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday Nov 22nd 2022 from 1330 – 1500

Hurrah, Chi Ming Lin and Di Tseun Zeng couples from Taiwan re-joined the Toowong team today. We praise and thanks God for their faithfulness to come as soon as they arrived in Brisbane after a gap year of 3 ever since the pandemic happened. They chose to hand out tract near the main entrance of the Toowong Village on the Sherwood Rod front. Winnie and I team up to do the Bus stop as usual. Both of us got many divine appointments to share gospel to people of all Nations, including Korean, Brazilian, Indonesian, Singaporean, Local Aussie, and Australian Born Chinese from Cairns. Ouch, just noticed that there was no Chinese in the list and I remembered all the few Chinese I approached all rejected the gospel. But Winnie seemed to have a better result with the Mainlanders. God is always in control.

1) I was led to approach first a Korean who appeared a bit reluctant to chat but still listened on my full gospel sharing.

2) Bento, a half Japanese and half Brazilian declared himself a Catholic Christian. Apparently, he knows little about the Bible and effect or meaning of salvation. I did an assurance of salvation diagnose which eh failed. Clarified anyway with him and he is grateful for this.

3) Helen an UQ student from Java Indonesian but is a Christian, yet she also lacks the assurance of salvation. The bus just arrived as such I could only told Helen the conclusion that our salvation is made true only through the redemptive work of Jesus which is 100% effective to earn us the long-lost heavenly citizenship.

Assurance not 100%

4) Johnny another Brazilian young man coming here to learn how to fly an aeroplane at UQ. He seemingly is not yet a Christian, but he appeared very opened to the gospel and thanked me for it.

5) Then I approached an elderly Aussie man who question me if I am a Jehovah Witness. I said no then I expect he would be happy to chat with me, but curiously, he bet for my pardon to let him be alone to clear his mind which I of course could not reject.

6) Then I approached a Singaporean who declared himself a Christian and had talked with us before, but he seemed to have lack of assurance of salvation which again I only had flash moment to clarify for him before his bus left.

7) Joshua is a local young Aussie. Though he appeared indifferent to the gospel, but he still politely listen to full gospel message.

8 ) Lastly I was led to approach an ABC from Cairns. He is a young man with a stone heart who showed no patience to listen to the Gospel.

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International travel is back on!  Five Kiwi’s have flown over to the Gold Coast to join five Aussies for a week-long outreach to Schoolies 2022.

As I write, we are into our 3rd day of outreach, but this report will cover the first 2 evenings of outreach.

I flew over from Christchurch with Andy.  The flight was smooth.  We come out of the airport just in time to catch the next bus into the city.  We had to make a transfer to a tram, and manage to purchase our tickets just in time to catch the next tram out.  Kane & Harry were there to pick us up from the stop and we made it to the apartment that the team would be based at for the week.  It was a wonderful reunion, catching up with people we hadn’t seen physically for a while!  They had saved some dinner for us, and we had enough time to eat that before heading out for the first outreach!  No mucking around.

Some of the Kiwis were pretty tired, esp. Phil and Emma who were up at 4am to catch a flight and then coping with a 3 hour time zone change.  But we have a mission that is worth the sacrifice.  We prayed together and then got into the flow to start up gospel chats.

The first evening's outreach went REALLY fast.  It was non stop conversations which made the 2.5 hours fly by.  My first chat was a long one, with a guy called Hayden.  He could see the logic of the reality of God, but then he fought hard to reject it.  He insisted he was innocent of any sin, but the standard for judgement was himself, not the true God of the universe that made him - and his idolatry was the source of his rejection in spite of logic.  I decided not to give up on him, and laboured with him, even sharing the gospel even though I knew he wouldn’t appreciate it right now.  Who knows, this chat may be a seed of future conviction.  The rest of my chats for the evening were difficult.  Many of the people I talked to had no Christian background, and so were impressed by the building builder analogy, but the love of sin suppressed this knowledge.  Most of my conversations would be interrupted as friends would come past and they would completely forget me in light of the moment they wanted to ‘enjoy’.  But many of them would accept a tract before they walked off.

My sleep that night was full of repetitive active dreaming as my brain tried to process the routine change of the day, and all the new experiences.  It didn’t feel restful.  Luckily, the next day was Sunday and the team headed off to a local church in the morning - a wonderful time of fellowship and teaching, and a rest from the intensity of gospel conversations.

After the formal part of the meeting, Paul got into a chat with a lady who was keen to join us for the evening outreach - which she did!  So encouraging.

In the afternoon we did the usual online outreach, and then some relaxation (swimming and tennis) before dinner and heading out on the streets again - this time for 3 hours.

It was again tough out on the streets.  Resistance to the gospel and tiredness.  But the gospel is the power for salvation, so I persisted in faith.  We started with prayer.

But at the end of the evening I had a breakthrough! I got into a tuff chat with a group of Muslim lads.  It was quite intense, the main talker was in my face.  I had to work to focus on what he was saying and responding with calmness.  I hit a ‘zone’, and it was fascinating watching the young man's world being deeply challenged, and seeing him so flustered that he could see the faults in his own analogies before he finished them.  We parted on good terms, but sadly none of them would accept a tract.  I pray this chat will open them up for the gospel in the future.

The next chat after that was also epic.  Three young men, all in different places.  1 silent, and the other 2 resistant in different ways.  Yet, with the help of the Spirit (being in the zone), I was able to address all their objections and share the law and the gospel.  They were open to tracts at the end, and thanked me for the way I explained it.  I was so encouraged and excited.  I was really tired, but my mind was clear.  I knew I was going to have a good sleep that night.  And I did!

Thank you so much to all who are praying!  Please continue holding us up in prayer.  The Schoolies desperately need to hear the gospel.  Pray for conviction and conversion.  And pray that the team would be sustained in this gospel labour.  Thank you so much!

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Just a short report for this week, because it was a short week of regular outreach in between the Canterbury A&P Show last week, and Schoolies on the Gold Coast, Australia starting tonight (Andy & I are flying over this afternoon).

Just 2 street outreaches this week: Riccarton on Tuesday, and in the City on Friday, and both of them were shorter than usual.  I was on my own for both outreaches.

I’m struggling to think of any of the chats I had on Tuesday - I’m sure I did, I just simply can’t remember any of the details!  But, one thing from that outreach really stands out in my mind.  At the Canterbury A&P Show last week, I had 2 teenage girls come up to me and start mocking me.  I recognised them from gospel conversations I’ve had with them in the past, in Riccarton.  Well, what was interesting is that during this outreach those very same 2 girls came past.  Sure enough, they threw some light barbs at me as they walked past and then went into the SoYo frozen yoghurt place.  I continued the outreach, but later on I heard some tapping from above.  I looked up, and the girls were looking down at me from the window, again mocking.  I find it interesting that an insignificant man like me, telling people about Jesus is worthy of mocking.  I guess there is power in the gospel – and the gospel is a great offence to people.  I think I understand that better now.  It’s offensive to people to understand that they are not good, and it’s offensive to think that those that are bad could be forgiven.  Our pride and idolatry is a great stumbling block.  I’m glad God has the power to break through that; I pray that he will with these 2 girls.

It was raining on Friday, but the forecast was that it would break for the afternoon outreach.  Unfortunately, by the time I arrived at our usual spot, the rain was still falling.  I prayed, and started handing out tracts.  There were plenty of people going past, and so plenty of tracts were distributed, but no one was keen to stop for a chat.  I decided to move further down the mall.  I saw Duncan Webb, who was collecting for a charity, like every good politician should, so I called out hello as I went past – I’m still keen to have a good chat with him, please pray that I would get that opportunity.  I handed out more tracts, and then did a trek through Cathedral Square - it was empty (lots of construction work going on).  Back in Cashel Mall, I ended up getting into a chat with an older Christan couple.  It was mutually encouraging - then nailed the few checks that I asked, and the guy nearly came to tears in anticipation of being with Jesus one day.  Amen!  After handing out a few more tracts, I decided to leave early and head home to continue outreach online.  Who knows, someone may read one of those tracts.  The time spent was worth it, because the power is in the gospel!

Please keep the team on the Gold Coast for next week, reaching out to drunk high school leavers (Schoolies), in prayer.  I’ll be sure to post a report in due course!  SDG
 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 for Sunnybank on Wednesday Nov 9th, 2022 from 1300 – 1500

Today it was the 2nd time I had to do solo which possibly will remain a norm for a while when Johnny is now back to Taiwan. Other potential team mates were all not available today. Praise be to the Lord, the weather was cooler than yesterday at Toowong, but the people flow was also quite low leaving me waiting at the bus stop for prolonged period. By the grace of God, I still made several meaningful contact especially the last one which was so obviously a divine appointment leading me to meet a person not waiting for the bus but his car under maintenance service as recap below.

1) I was led to approach a Sri Lankan by the name Innocent. We quickly identified with each other as we came to Australia more or less the same time. He is a cleaner but he is proud of his work even though back in Sri Lankan, cleaner is regarded as a grass root low level job. I use this to kick off the gospel sharing that whether a good person with a good job as a dignified good person would be save enough to launch himself into heaven rather than hell. He was in total agreement with the logic or rationality of the Gospel though finally he indicated he is a Buddhism follower though his dad is a catholic Christian. I emphasized to him that religions are good but incapable of bringing g a solution to address sin and punishment. He promises to ponder further with my tract.

Agreeable to the gospel

2) Then I was led to approach a lady from Henan. She was opened to the gospels but it was a pity the bus came too quick. But she asked for a tract and pray for God's follow up work.  

3) Next came a young man from Shandong, he was very serious to listen and showed genuine interest to know more about God and the gospel especially when I told him Shandong have experienced many wave of revival. The founder of the Back To Jerusalem" BTJ movement was also from Shandong.

4) Then I was led to approach another lady from China she said she was in a hurry but I said as long as you need to wait for the bus, I can chat with here as long as possible until the bus came. So finally, she turned relax to listen to the full gospel and find it convincing and acceptable. At the end, she got a tract for revision of the message I shared.  

5) Finally God led Thomas, a Slovakian Catholic to come to the side bench near the bus stop. But he was there not waiting for the bus yet his car under maintenance service. So he was in complete relax mode for a long chat. I started to identify with his country and their Father of the Nation Václav Havel OC (Czech pronunciation: 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident.[1][2] Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then as the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003 and was the first democratically elected president of either country after the fall of communism. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays, and memoirs. 

Havel's Civic Forum party played a major role in the Velvet Revolution that toppled the Communist system in Czechoslovakia in 1989. He assumed the presidency shortly thereafter, and was re-elected in a landslide the following year and after Slovak independence in 1993. Havel was instrumental in dismantling the Warsaw Pact and enlargement of NATO membership eastward. Many of his stances and policies, such as his opposition to Slovak independence, condemnation of the treatment of Sudeten Germans, such as the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II, and granting of general amnesty to all those imprisoned under the Communist era, were very controversial domestically. By the end of his presidency, he enjoyed greater popularity abroad than at home. Havel continued his life as a public intellectual after his presidency, launching several initiatives including the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism,[4][5] the VIZE 7) Foundation, and the Forum 2000 annual conference.

Then I returned to the diagnosed question testing for his Assurance of Salvation which sadly is very low. I took the chance to revisit the plan of God and how all people are saved by grace through faith in Christ as such we should have 100% assurance of Salvation. He thanks me a lot and we took the only selfie for the day.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

 

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday Nov 15th, 2022 from 1330 – 1500

It was a new period without Johnny who has gone back to Taiwan. Just Hung and Winnie keep partnering at Toowong. It was a scorching high noon with temperature shooting up to over 33C. Thus, the heat had played a negative factor that turned people off for any long conversation. Nevertheless, under such hardship background, God still let us to have nonstop conversations with people of all nations, i.e. Serbia, India x 2, Mongolia, local Aussie, Mainlander Chinese x 4. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung.

1) First was a lady from Sichuan, , we connected immediately when she knew I had been the earth quake disaster relief team in Sichuan. It was a pity there was not much time for gospel, but she was happy to take a tract with a briefing of the nutshell of the Gospel when the bus arrived.

2) Pac is from Serbia but have been in Australia for 20 years. He is a Christian but not church going. Upon testing he was diagnosed lack full assurance of salvation. He appreciated for my explanation. I recommended him further to join activity of power to change to boost his spiritual life again.

3) Then I approached a tall girl from North Eastern China. She was opened and willing to interact even on religious issues.

4) Then I approached a "girl" but noticed that she has a male voice. "she" anyway was on the phone but was still polite enough to let me know she is not available for chat for the time being.

5) Then I caught up with a man from Jiang So small town. He basically was also receptive to the gospel message.

6) Bateman is from Mongolia doing undergrad. He said he heard the gospel before but he is more in favour for Buddhism. I asserted to him Buddhism and all other religions are good but none can address the issue of sin. He took a tract after we finished and the bus came.

7) Covina is an Indian of Hinduism background. He though being a good person is fine enough and was surprised to know that it is not good enough to wipe clean our sin. He is opened to listen the full gospel.

8 ) Then I approached a young man from Luoyang, Henan China . He was welcoming and receptive initially, but the scorching high noon sun just dried up his patience so I could only left him with the tract.

9) At the end I connected with another Indian Pahoa who was a willing listened but again the heat of the scorching sun got him flatted out. He was too tired to continue on the gospel sharing. So, we finally let go and finished for the day.

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

The Canterbury A&P Show (a farming event where people buy / sell all sorts of things from tractors to food, as well as having displays and a carnival) would be the biggest and longest (3 days) show we attend (by hiring a site / stall) to share the gospel mainly via flip chart and conversation.

And it happened this week: Wednesday (with a team of 6), Thursday (team of 6) and Friday (team of 18!) - Friday being the big day as it’s a public holiday with LOTS of people.

Volunteers to run the site represented a total of 5 churches (Redemption Church, Beckenham Baptist Church, Grace Baptist Church, Riccarton Community Church & LIfe Church) from around the Christchurch area.

The support from Christians was super encouraging.  So thank you to all that gave up their time to serve God by telling people about Jesus!  Also, many thanks to all those that were praying for us on the front lines during these 3 days!  Without the power of the Holy Spirit, our effort is truly in vain.  All the glory is Gods!

So, let me give a summary of the 3 days.

Day 1 (Wed) was hot!  God, through the organisers of the show, decided to give us a little tree outside our site which cast some nice sun shade through the day - that was a real blessing!  The team of 6 was busy all day sharing the gospel with all sorts of people, including many school groups.  I can’t remember all the conversations I had, but 2 memories from that day stand out.

First was an opportunity to engage in conversation with 3 Roman Catholic Friars.  1 of them was a priest, the other 2 were ‘just brothers’.  It was the priest that I conversed with, 1 of the ‘brothers’ listened, and the other didn’t want to engage.  It was interesting that the priest tried to claim that the Catholics teach justification by faith alone, where their official doctrine does not teach such.  And this was betrayed in his initial description of how one gets to heaven.  So I challenged them on this and had opportunity to share the law and the gospel in the process.

Secondly, 2 of my daughters: Julia and Dani were helping run the site today.  My fathers heart was overjoyed in seeing their willingness – no, eagerness – to be involved and share the gospel!  They worked together, and I think I heard Julia say they had 10 gospel conversations throughout the day.  3 of those conversations were quite challenging – and so with 2 of them, they were able to pull Greg in to help, and the other one they got me involved, where they listened to how I dealt with the man's objections and learned.

Day 2 (Thu) was cloudy, which actually made it easier than the day before in the heat – the sun in NZ is harsh.  Four conversations stand out.

Firstly, an older gentleman came right on to our site and seeing one of the camping chairs we had set up, came right in and sat down!  It turns out he was trying to get back to his car and was in pain in his hip. :(  So, I focused on helping him with that first.  I knew the St. Johns ambulance service had a presence at the show and they had a little cart to help get sick people from a to b.  So I asked one of the security guards to call up the ambulance cart for me - which he did.

As I was in discussion with the gentlemen, I tried to turn the conversation to spiritual things - but he instantly shut me down: “I don’t want to talk about that, I might be facing death soon”.  I find that interesting, because it’s exactly for that reason that I DO want to talk about it!  But I respected his wishes and talked of other things till the ‘cart’ came.  As he was leaving, he thanked me for the assistance I had given, and so in response, I offered him a tract.  He took it and shook my hand.  I hope he reads it!  He is a farmer from down south (Waimate), please pray that he does!

At the end of a day, when the site is quieter, certain people seem more willing to approach and engage, including another older gentleman – not our most common demographic.  It was a fairly standard gospel conversation, but he asked about why there is suffering and evil, which we were able to discuss and I was able to give him the biblical answer.  He left with a tract, but he sticks in my mind, I’m praying for him too - please join me!

The 2 other chats were with kids.

In the first one, I asked her to go and check with her parents if it was okay to chat about Jesus.  She did, and was soon back saying it was okay!  So, I gently took her through the law and the gospel.  She quickly grasped what I was explaining about Jesus, and she admitted, without any prompting from me, that before the chat she would have been going to hell because she was trusting her good deeds, but now she is trusting only in Jesus' sacrifice so will go to heaven.  She joyfully received a Bible.  Later, she went past again with her Mum, and she turned to give me a beaming smile and a wave.  What a privilege to serve God and others in this way!

In the other one, about 5 kids came up to the chart and wanted to give it a go.  Their parents were not far away, so I sent them to check if it was okay.  They came back smiling!  All good to go.  So, I shared the law and the gospel.  I didn’t need to go heavy on the law, as I could see that one of the little girls had a sensitive conscience and seemed deeply convicted by me simply asking if they had ever disobeyed their parents!  So I swung the conversation to the good news of Jesus!  At the end, I gave them 2 tracts (2 families were represented), and told them to give them to their parents and to discuss it further with them.  They ran off to do just that!  One of the Mum’s looked up at me, and so I went over.  She thanked me for the way I had gone about it, getting their permission, etc.  I was so encouraged!

Lord, save those kids, and their families, for your glory!

Finally, day 3, Friday.  It was WINDY!  I’ve never done evangelism in so much wind before!  We had to be holding the flip charts at all times, otherwise they went crashing down!

So, a team of 18 active evangelists (not including vital family support!) running the site throughout the day.  And it was so busy!  We had 6 flipcharts, and at least once all 6 flip charts were in use + 1 mini flip chart!  It was good having such a large team, as it gave people good opportunities for breaks and rest.

The day is a bit of a blurr, I can remember many great chats, some of them quite hard, including one with a Maori guy who viewed Christianity as white man imperialism.  I really had to work to disconnect the message of Jesus (which is universal) from his world filter.  I think I succeeded, because he hugged me at the end, out of respect, considering how hard he was coming at me (which was not nasty, just forceful).  We had kids who were mocking, including 3 girls whom I’ve talked to before during a Riccarton outreach.  But also many many chats with open hearted people as well.

In summary, that would have to be one of the hardest outreaches I do, just purely based on the amount of hours of evangelism.  But it was so worth it in seeing so many Christians encouraged in evangelism, and so many unbelievers hearing the gospel!  Again, all the glory is to God alone.

To rest, I didn’t do any street work on Saturday, or today (Sunday).  But on Tuesday, I did do the regular Riccarton outreach with Jermaine.  It was a bit of a slow start, but it ended up becoming quite a busy outreach with 1 stellar conversation in particular.  But I’m out of time to talk about that.

Thanks so much for your support and prayer!
 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 for Sunnybank on Wednesday Nov 9th, 2022 from 1300 – 1500

We were overjoyed to have Joe re-joining us after a period of his overseas trip. It was a pity he messed up the time and came an hour earlier to do solo. I was barely OK to meet with him for a short while then he had to leave for his own work from home office hour. Johnny missed meeting Joe, not just this week but for a long time to go as he will leave for Taiwan on Friday. SO, in a sense God is good to move Joe to re-join us to take the place of Johnny so that we still can manage to form a team.

Again, Johnny experienced many gracious divine appointment meeting new and old people with good fruit bearing result. As for me, it was a normal day with mixed result of blunt rejection or opened mind opened arm reception. Of course, there were even more gracious kind of conversation started with initial reluctance of even rejection but through the work of the Holy Spirit, the gospel message still could be conveyed to the gospel target elected by God. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung>

0) I first approached a lady for a short chat before I caught up with Joe. The bus came too quick to get her away.

1) Mzra an Indonesia young students whom Johnny had contacted before. But he appeared still very polite to let me follow up on his understanding and perception of the last conversation as well as the tract. Basically, he tried initially to uphold the Islamic teaching but later he did find difficulty to discount the sensibility and logicality of the gospel especially about the treatment of sins. He was in obvious struggle, so I left him to the hand of God to bring eventual conviction to the truth of the salvation of Jesus.

2) A mainlander from Hebei Boding was waiting for friend as such I had a long time chatting with him. His initial reaction was blunt rejection but I changed my tactics ) sharing with him my Chinese travelling experience to Beijing doing Walk on the Great Wall for charity. I led on to share about counselling for earthquake victim in 2008 and how the Counselling class can help people to fix their character changing life issues by means of the grace and power of God. He basically was moved by all these lives changing testimony and become receptive to the gospel at the end.

3) Then God led me to approach a young man by the name of Chung from Canton.?. He came to do visual design at QUT , and was opened enough to take in the gospel message in quite receptive manner.

4) Then I was led to approach a Filipino middle-aged lady who was also receptive to the full gospel message and took a tract.

5) Then I had a long chat with a Chinese descendant named Chan from Cambodian who is Cantonese speaking. He declared he is a Buddhism follower But was willing to listen with good responses.

6) Then Sister Chang eventually turned up and this time God allowed enough time for me to clarify the confused understanding of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christa.

7) Then I was led to approach Mr Yang from Canton. ? He came 10 years ago and was shocked by the aggressive way of Mormon . Now he came again but was conscious to avoid Mormon. He is not yet a Christian but is open and receptive to Christian gospel.

8 ) Lastly, I was led to approach a young man from Somalia called Ali and declared himself a Muslim. But he is still very open minded to listen to the full gospel with the stressed on the work of Jesus dying for our sins.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday Nov 8th, 2022 from 1330 – 1500

Today was the last day Johnny was to serve with us at Toowong as he will leave for Taiwan on Friday till February next year. By the grace of God, both Johnny and Winnie got many chances to share the Gospel while I had mixed result to have a few long and fruitful chat but also straight rejections or initial reluctance. Recap below is my Battle Log.

1) A person from Taiwan just got the tract as the bus came

2) Rejected by two

3) Caught up with a Local mature Aussie who was not religious but still opened enough for discussion and took a tract.

4) Rejected by an elderly lady with excuse having a cold.

5) Approached two ABC whose parents are from mainland. They were still ok to have a chat with nutshell of the gospel shared.

6) Thomas is from , China?who had met both Johnny and me recently. I had a long chat to follow up on his understanding of the message we shared last time and explained in the tract. He studied IT at UQ and I asked him to feedback if he found any loophole in the logic of the gospel that we shared and he agreed that it is all sensible and logical and showed great willingness to pursuit.

7) Then I was led to approach an elderly Aussie man with army background wearing a poppy flower. Thanks God allowing enough time for me to use many Army analogies to finish the gospel that otherwise he would have rejected using excuse of not a religious man.

8 ) Last but not the least a caught up with a man from Suzhou who initially rejected to chat as we had many chat before and he thought he had heard enough. But the Spirit softened his heart and ended up revising once again the gospel message with a receptive attitude showing his full understanding of the message I repeated this time.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

It was great to have a week off last week, but it was also great to be back to work this week. :)

On my holiday, I found time to buy a new cap!  As per the picture, the old one was due to retire!  Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit as well - but, oh well, I’ll get used to it.

So, all the usual outreaches this week.  Roger and I were in Riccarton on Tuesday afternoon.  Andy, Roger, Daniel, John and I in the City on Friday afternoon.  I was on my own on Saturday lunchtime, and Susan and I on Sunday afternoon.  Plus all the online work.

Tuesday’s outreach in Riccarton was rather slow for me, unfortunately.  Yet, on the other side of the road, Roger seemed to be in non stop chats!

Yet, I was still able to have 2 solid chats.  The first felt like a bit of a set up: in hindsight, the girl was a little too enthusiastic at the start, and it soon became very apparent that her mind was set and nothing would change it (except the power of God).  She was in fact there to teach me something.  I spend a lot of time listening.  I interjected appropriately, and I’m sure I explained the law and the gospel (I can’t really remember now).  But I do remember deciding that the wisest course of action was to end the conversation.

But, the next conversation had a stark contrast.  It was with two high school girls.  It was ‘text book’ in the sense that they didn’t resist the logic of the gospel, instead they seemed to really embrace it.  They were classic church goers who thought good deeds would get them to heaven.  When they came to understand the gospel, one of them used the term, “mind blown” multiple times.  They agreed they would be going to hell before the chat, but they were now professing faith.  It was encouraging.  They both took bibles, with tracts marked at John.

Friday’s outreach was hot, but busy, and the 2 hours went fast.  Due to the heat, I ventured over to the trees next to the bridge of remembrance and approached all the people sitting in the shade.

I had an interesting chat with an older guy with a very new age outlook - believed in reincarnation and karma.  I reasoned with him, and I could see he was challenged, but he had to get going so I wasn’t able to ‘complete’ the chat.  Initially he rejected a tract, but as he was going, he accepted one.

But before that, at the start of the outreach, a lady took great interest in Rogers flipchart, and I was next to it, so we fell into a long chat.  She wanted to talk about political issues initially, but I was soon able to go deeper into issues of religion.  We had a great chat!  She had a very Christian background, even went to a church, and could very well be a Christian, but there were some critical concepts she hadn’t been fully able to process yet.  I didn’t push it, because I know some of these things take time to process.  She left with a tract, and directions to my church.  She was actually a tourist on holiday from Germany, I’ve said it before in recent reports, but it’s so good to have the tourists coming back!

I had a follow up chat with a young busker.  The first time I shared the gospel was without the flip chart, but this time he saw the flip chart and wanted to know what it was all about.  When I asked him if he had ever lusted for someone, he said, “no”.  It turns out he is ‘asexual’.  I’ve never encountered that before.  He claimed to have zero sexual desire.  Anyway, he also had zero desire for the gospel.  He seemed to understand it, but just seemed completely unimpressed and uninterested.  Oh well, he is a nice guy, God willing I will see him again and be able to continue the chat.  Please pray that he starts to feel conviction for his sin.

After the outreach, the team went for some cold drinks in a cafe where we had some great discussions about soteriology and the practice of evangelism.

Saturday in Riccarton was a reasonably busy outreach.  I had good chats with a Christian, and a Hare Krishna, among others.  But the highlight chat was the last one, and it was a rather grievous one.

Two young asian ladies went past earlier, and they accepted tracts.  But later they came back and were keen to do the good person test.  One of the girls did all the talking (well, most of it; I tried to include her as much as possible).  The main girl expressed disgust at Hitler (good), but as the conversation progressed, she was becoming subtly resistant.

Eventually she changed the subject and asked me about abortion: “is it okay for a girl who has been raped to have an abortion?”  That’s probably the most common question I get in regards to this issue.  Today I tried to address it differently, so I said, “Good question, I’ll answer it only if you answer my question first: if a girl has sex for pleasure, but then gets pregnant which is simply an inconvenience for her, is it okay for her to have an abortion?”  With a completely straight face, she said, “yes”.  Interesting, so I switched the baby for a toddler.  There was no convincing her.  She is blind, her worldview is based around self, and nothing but the power of God will change it.  So, I went back to the gospel.  I ended up ending the chat, as she just wasn’t open at this stage.  But the chat grieved me, as many of them do, when I see how idolatrous people are.  God, have mercy!  We don’t deserve it, please have mercy.

Sunday’s outreach was slowish.  I handed out a lot of tracts initially. I had an interesting encounter with a young couple - the guy said he already had one of the tracts - so I asked if he had read it.  He had, he even knew the title: “how we know God exists”.  They didn’t want to stick around, so I asked why he would go to heaven, he said, “because I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins”.  I was surprised he gave that answer, he must have really been paying attention to that tract.  So, I ended up discussing the change that will occur as a result, and asked if he had a bible.  They didn’t and were keen for one each.  They also took contact cards for my church.

At the end of the outreach, I had a good chat with a young man who was keen to chat, and didn’t really fight anything I said, but who was dearly counting the cost of the gift of Jesus.  We discussed homosexuality for a while.  He wasn’t willing to accept the gift at this stage, but he seemed to appreciate the chat.  He left me with a firm handshake.

Thank you so much for praying for this gospel ministry.  Next week is going to involve 3 long days of special outreach at the Canterbury A&P show: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  Praise God, we have 3 solid teams; 1 for each day.  And about 15 people for Friday, which is a public holiday and very busy.  Apart from the power of God, our effort will be in vain, so please be praying for us on these 3 days, that many would hear and understand the gospel, and that God would be glorified in that, and the way we conduct ourselves (faithful, yet with gentleness and respect).
 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 for Sunnybank on Wednesday Nov 2nd, 2022 from 1300 – 1500

It was a tough day, facing a lot of rejection and indifference. Nevertheless, it was a test of faith for us the blessed messenger to pass on the blessing to other people, same and or cross culture likewise. It was a day of mixed result, but also a day of submission exercise. Recap below was my Battle Log.

1) Three mainlanders ; The first was single but appear very cocky and refused bluntly?the latter is a couple appeared a bit better with minimum politeness. They are from Suzhou but still cling to declining for any more conversation.

2) The second I approached is a Hongkonger couple. They however claimed that they know the gospel and decline to have any more conversation

3) Then I was rejected consecutively by an Indian woman.

4) Then by the grace of God, I caught u with Jade a local Aussie girl who has heard the gospel before but she still was willing to listen and was engaging quite well into our conversation. She indicated her understanding of the gospel and promise to ponder further.

5) Then God led me to catch up with a cute follower the Five in One I first spent time to build relationship and connection letting her to share about her faith in the cult and tried to pick up points to show their faulty teaching.

6) Then I faced another round of rejection first by an old Chinese woman then a western people. ; ;

7) Then I had a comparatively long chat with an elderly woman from HKG 55 years ago. 55 I tried to keep her interest by telling my personal salvation witness as well as the gospel.

8 ) Then I chatted with a man from Shandong who has just finished Uni here major in Database Science. He actually is leaving Australia to do a PHD at Ireland. He showed great interest in Christianity and attended a local Aussie Church at Woolloongabba. He has not yet made the last step of faith and I hope our conversation would push him over the line to receive Christ.

9) Madam ? from Hong Kong and was led to Christ by her daughter. Both of them are attending the Hope Church of Malaysia English speaking background. Her knowledge in the Bible is shallow and her faith is a bit young to have good enough understanding to establish assurance of salvation. She thanks for my sharing of the gospel anyway.

10) Have a chat with siter Chang and pray continuously for her real understanding about salvation.

11) Then I approached a Muslim lady who asked for more tracts to hand out to her friends.

12) Helen a member of SDBC yet have a faulty understanding of salvation by grace through faith. So despite she has 100% assurance of salvation, yet it was built on the wrong understanding of good deeds. Time was not enough to correct all her wrong thinking about faith and Christ.

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