Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 58

The last few months of evangelism in Toowoomba have been both challenging and encouraging.

On the encouraging front, we have never had so many Christians volunteer to labour with us for the first time. Sharing the Gospel with the people of our beautiful city is a wonderful privilege and seeing the passion in these newcomers is inspiring in so many ways.

On the challenging front, we experienced a number of difficult outreaches in this time, where the majority of people refuse tracts and don’t want to talk at all. On one particular outreach, I was able to give out 8 tracts in one hour. My teammate and I experienced a 90% refusal rate. Normally it’s around a 30% refusal rate.

The rest of our team had better numbers on that particular outreach, but each team member has experienced at least one tough outreach this semester. Whether it is in the indifference to the Gospel, stereotypical labelling or angry, rude refusals, we’re learning to crucify our pride and to trust in Him who loves us and loves our community. It’s very easy to idolise the acceptance of others but we’re progressively learning to lean on His unearned and never-failing acceptance of us through Christ.

On a related note, we had an interesting experience with an African street preacher this semester.
My team mate and I found a young African bloke preaching at the corner of Margaret and Ruthven, which has been a favourite spot for a number of street preachers over the years. We introduced ourselves and then asked him about his message.

S--- greeted us and said that he was preaching/reading from Romans 10. He then shared his testimony with us and how God had saved him in juvenile detention around the age of 15. It was a gripping story. He then told us how he demonstrates to people that Christianity is true. He said “I tell them that they can call out to the “gods/beings” of Islam, Hinduism, New Age etc, but because Jesus is the true Son of God, only He will actually save them from their situation. This is how we know God exists and that Christianity is true”.

In a remarkable display of humility, S--- then asked us “What do you think? Is there any way that I can improve on my approach?” I was surprised by his openness at first.
I gathered my thoughts and said to S--“I can see what you’re saying. But perhaps it’s better to tell people to come straight to Jesus first, rather than challenging them to try other religions? They will experience a lot of unnecessary pain as they find out the hard way that the religion is false. If we tell them to come to Jesus first and experience his saving/delivering power, then they can know him without all the brokenness that comes from road-testing false beliefs.”

S--- said that this approach made sense and that he would encourage people to come to Jesus first. We then chatted about a number of subjects, including church. He infrequently visits a church near his home and I urged him to relationally connect with this church family. I strongly advised that he get to know people there and to allow others to get to know him. I elaborated that the best way to do this is to join a small group and engage in the Church’s corporate worship.

S--- said that he would consider it and we parted on good terms.

One final interesting thing about this term is that one Saturday we came across a large group of protestors in the Toowoomba CBD. They were protesting the idea of mandatory vaccinations and were busy handing out leaflets to all who would take them. We exchanged literature with some members of the group, who appeared to be an intriguing mix of Christians and secular libertarians. As far as protestors go, they were quite friendly!

I’ve included some photos in this post.

This semester has been memorable for so many different reasons. Please pray for us as we welcome newcomers and seek to love and serve the people of our city.

Join us in praying for the Gospel to go forth, for people to be saved and for Jesus to receive all the glory.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

On both Thursday and Friday I was in Christchurch city for outreach.  I was also online, I wrote a separate report about that here.

I’ve only got 15 minutes of writing time left, and I’ve got so much to say.  I’m not going to get to it all.

On Thursday afternoon, I had Craig, an evangelist from Wellington join me.  Also, it was wonderful to have a local pastor join me as well!  The three of us had a wonderful time of ministry.

I had a wonderful follow up opportunity with a young man (pictured with thumbs up) who I’ve talked to multiple times before (the 2nd time of which he excitedly told me how I had made him believe in God).  He is clearly articulating why he would be going to heaven, but he is clearly not saved.  There are zero shoots of growth spring from his life, and he is too busy to want to get involved with a church.  There is zero fruit of repentance, so there can’t be any repentance.  I challenged him on this.  Again he took a contact card for my church, with my contact number on it.  Later in the outreach, I saw him again, and he stopped to talk further.  I’m going to start regularly praying for him.

Later in the outreach I stopped two young men (pictured).  It was a wonderful chat.  One of them, when he grasped the gospel, exclaimed, “Ohhhh, I get it now, that makes so much sense!”  I then moved into my first checking question, and he got it wrong, when I explained why, he exclaimed, even more fervently, “Ohhhh, wow, …”  They said there was nothing stopping them from trusting that Jesus died for them today, so I gave them contact cards for my church.  Lord, save them!

On Friday, we were back outside the hospital for the gospel + abortion outreach.  A team of six, and we had many wonderful opportunities to talk to people about both the gospel, and why abortion is wrong.  Praise God.

A team of five were at the Bridge of Remembrance in the afternoon.  Another newbie today, a look of joy was on his face as he heard testimony of the conversations, and while he was handing out tracts.  So good to see!  Oh Lord, continue to raise up labourers for the harvest.  All glory to you alone!
 

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Online Evangelism

It’s been a while since I’ve written a report.  I’ve been enjoying responding to direct messages on Instagram too much!  I still can’t get over the amount of opportunity God is trusting us with to engage people with the gospel.  It’s a big responsibility.  Please continue to pray for us.

I want to talk about one of those Instagram direct message conversations that I’ve had over the last few days.  It’s been fascinating.  I’ve learned so much from it.

So, here are some quotes from the early part of that conversation:

I think it just clicked
After all these years u just helped me so much!!
Thank you so much genuinely!!

Only Jesus Christ. You helped me realize that if I'm believing in Jesus Christ even if I sinned 10000x tomorrow and died, because of him taking my punishment of those sins I would've committed and will sometimes commit, I still go to heaven

Oh my gosh that's so insane
Idk how I've been over thinking it all these years

Wait wait wait
Gosh it just clicked and I almost forgot already 😂

If you're counting on anything other than Jesus Christ alone for the reason to go to heaven, then you aren't.

But obviously that doesn't mean you can't do good things, just don't be thinking that's the reason you're saved

Man you're genuinely doing the most important thing. Going after the one sheep (by texting me and others) while preaching to the whole world(social media)

Me: Join us, there will be sheep you can reach that we can't.

I'm seriously so excited rn!! I'm gonna go tell my family! I'll be gone for a little thank u so much!

Me: Right! So if doing good things doesn't play any part in getting you to heaven, why would you want to do good and not sin?

I'd do it to show God how grateful I am

Thank you genuinely so so so much. This is one of the bigger events in my life

So, that’s encouraging.  But, the conversation continued and it turns out he is Mormon.  So, I started explaining why he would not want to be a Mormon any more (because they don’t teach grace alone, faith alone) and would want to find a church that does teach that.  Well, he was resistant to that idea, and he insisted that the Mormon church does teach the same thing.  All my little tests to challenge that failed, e.g., does the Mormon church teach that you have to be baptised to be saved?  His answer: No.

I thought for a while, and decided I needed to back up a bit, zoom out so we can look at the bigger picture.  I needed to answer this question: why are we agreeing, when I know we don’t?  So I looked at three things: 1) Who is God?, 2) What is Heaven and Hell?, and 3) How do we know we know what God said?  I explained what I thought the answer was to those 3 questions, and he explained what he thought.

Instantly we hit important areas of disagreement.  1) I say there is 1 God: 1 in being, three in person: Father, Son (Jesus), Spirit.  God is eternal.  But he says the Father created the Son (Jesus).  2)  Hell is a terrible place of justice and punishment, a lake of fire that goes forever, even the smallest of our sins means we deserve to go there.  He says there are levels to heaven and hell, most people go to one of the levels in heaven, only the worst of the worst go to Hell.  3) I say it’s only the Bible, he adds the book of Mormon.

Zooming out like this made it really clear how he was misunderstanding the gospel.  He didn’t understand the holiness of God, and the seriousness of sin - that it deserved eternal punishment.  And, most critically, he didn’t understand who Jesus really is.  Only the eternal, holy, God could pay an eternal hell fine.  If Jesus is created, he is not eternal (and not God).  The Jesus he is trusting in can’t save him!

I explained this, and gently, yet firmly held him to it.

The last message he sent asked for bible verses - which I gave him, I haven’t heard back from him within the last 24 hours.

I’m not an expert on Mormon theology, and I’ve always struggled to know how to get them to understand the true gospel.  This conversation has really helped me with that.
 

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Wednesday June 23, 2021 from 1300 to 1500

Today our team was down back to the regular three , namely Johnny, Gary and Hung. Gary set up signs on both side of the road and he took position first on the Sunny Park East side of the bridge and Johnny & Hung worked together on the Sunnybank Plaza side at the bus stop with Gary joining us towards the ending hour of our ministry. It was a normal day with both rejections and some good chats with local Aussies, Korean, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese Australian born younger generations. We also met with Islamic people from East Africa, and Uygur of China and Hinduism people from India and Sri Lanka. So thanks and praise God to use us to be the light of the gentles of all nations. Recap below is my God led conversations.

1) Kalim is from an East African country he did want to disclose. He possibly is a Muslim but appeared very open to my sharing of the Gospel showing good receptiveness. He showed complete understanding of the Gospel and what Jesus did to die for us to take our place to receive the punishment of our sin. It would have been just a step away from receiving Jesus by grace through faith.

2) Helen a middle age lady from Shanghai and greeted me with warm smile claiming that she chatted with me a few month ago as such she fully recognized me. I then asked what was her result of reading the tract. She said she actually understood and in agreement with the gospel message that we all need Jesus to cleanse of our sins. Though she has not yet received Christ, she did attend church sporadically when she was in Sydney with her mum and brothers who are all church going Christians. After moving to Brisbane living near Garden City, she has been trying to look for a church. I recommended her to attend either the Sunnybank District Baptist Church or the South Side International Church both with a large Mandarin congregation with majority of members from China. She promised to make a move to join the church and let’s pray for her action of faith.

3) Kui kui is a student from Shanghai. He is an atheist rejecting to discuss anything about religion. But he still was willing to chat when I changed the approach to treat the Good Person question an a significant life issue, although he appeared very cool and emotionless while listening, God did soften his heart to follow the logic of the gospel message with no resentment. He finally took the tract when the bus came and pray for God’s continuous work on him.

4) Daniel a local Aussie who is Christian though not a church goer disguising as a non-Christian to hear what I was going to share with him. As soon as I knew he is a Christian, I posed the two diagnosis questions to check his assurance of salvation and he got it all right. So, he is a fair dinkum Christian but stopped going to church as a result of moving around for jobs. He admitted it is no good to not attend church and again I recommended both SDBC and SIC which he both had attended lately. I hope our long conversation would encourage and mobilize him to find a church for regular attendance.

5) Then I spoke to a Taiwan lady who appeared clam with not much emotional expression but politely listened to the gospel till the bus came. I could not be sure if she found the gospel appealing or not and I could leave it all to God.

6) Paul an Australian born Korean yet not a Christian. He has no religious view so again I share the Tract of “Are you a Good Person?” as an important life issue. He followed the logic and could not disagree with the assertion that we are all sinners that need Jesus as our saviour. Pray again for God’s follow up work.

7) Peter yet another Australian born Taiwanese. He actually had listened to our gospel sharing with other people around so he could give his responsive comment. Again, he could not argue the statement that we are all sinners needing Jesus as our Saviour. I asked him to read the tract and seek God’s revelation to guide his last step of faith to receive Christ as his personal Saviour.

( 8 ) Finally I approached a Uygur lady who answered me she is Chinese and was nominated to come to study as such she has a lot of constraint and restriction including not touching upon Christianity or other world religion. Despite of her outright rejection to hear the gospel, I still got a friendly short chat knowing above details about her but she still eventually chose to end the conversation and move away to avoid me. Pray that this unsuccessful approach still would bear God’s plan and will for that Islamic background young lady during her stay here in Australia.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong on Tuesday June 22, 2021 from 1330 to 1500.

Today we had a bad start without any successful approach within 15 to 20 minutes in the beginning period. Johnny quickly resorted to extra prayer assembling us to pray to God asking Him to turn around the situation. It was really a lesson that God wanted us to learn that as a servant of God in street evangelism, nothing of our skill and experience will count if God does not open door for us to work with Him. We have to always humble ourselves to follow His guidance and be patience to let Him lead and open up opportunities according to His timing and plan.

After the extra prayer time, God did turn around the situation to let us picking up chat with more people even though stern rejection and hostile response against our approaches could still be experienced. Because of the initial slow people turn up rate and high rejection rate, I intentionally let Johnny and Winnie to grasp all gradually increasing chances first. As a result, I got fewer chats than normal conditions. My first successful chat was somewhat 30 to 40 minutes after we started. So, my Battle Log and Winnie’s one are recap as below: -

1) Shade an Indian girl whom I made a first successful approach. She appeared very friendly and open. I could take my time to share here the full Gospel and she seemed to be receptive to the gospel message admitting she is a sinner though regarded also as a good person. She did not show unwillingness to accept Christ before her bus arrived. So, I can only assume she will positively ponder to accept Jesus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

2) Anna and Aussie girl and another Indian origin Singaporean girl both showed no rejection to let me chat with them about the Gospel. Like the previous Indian girl, both appeared very open mind with true interest to listen attentively and understand what I share. It was a pity their bus came a bit too early before I could seek out their responses. But I believe God will take care of the rest.

3) Debbie yet another Indian girl but claimed to profess Hinduism. She told me she had received the tract and had a chat with one of us. I asked what was her impression about the tract if it is logical, rational and sensible. She said yes but seemed to think that her Hinduism belief was no big different from Christianity. When I asked her how salvation will be ministered to sinners like us then sh showed that actually her mindset was still blocked by Hinduism that as long as you follow the teaching to be a good person, you will be blessed and saved. It was again a big pity I could not have time to explain the differences between Christianity and Hinduism before the bus arrived. Let just pray for next time when we met.

4) A Vietnamese man showed no interest first to Winnie. As usual I made a second approach. He chatted with me a short while but still politely decline to have any more conversation on religion which I had to let go.

5) Then God vindicated my persistence to approach reluctance people on first approach by Winnie. It was two Chinese Student from Shanghai 上海. They had been chatting amongst themselves as such they did not want Winnie to interrupt them making a move to go to the far end of the bus stop to continue on with their chat. The Holy spirit moved me to make a 2nd approach and it turned out to be a success this time. I had time to share the full gospel and got positive response from both of them when the bus arrived. So again, I have to let God to do the follow up and harvesting job.

6) A Taiwanese Christian girl first approached by Winnie sharing her full gospel before knowing she is a Christian. Then she invited Johnny to join the conversation. He invited her to attend the Sherwood Methodist Church when he knew she has not attended any Chinese church here. I nevertheless took the chance to check about her assurance of salvation which was well passed.

今天雖然很多人不接受單張及聽福音，但 神都给我遇到十一人，講述福音的機會。

第一位 Jean, 中國來的少女，當我講完福音，巴士到逹。

第二及第三位 印度來的青少年，他們接受單張。當我講到罪的問题，他們不願意聽，行去别處。

第四位，中國少女，接受單張，當我問她信仰問題時，她沒有回應，所以我便繼續傳講福音，見証。直至巴士到來。

第五位，Robin, 澳洲女士，基督徒。完全明白救恩。

第六位，澳洲少女，當我傳福音给她，她開始咀咒 神 耶穌基督，説我是罪人，随處講耶穌。我回答她，我們的確是罪人，我傳福音目的是想救人的靈魂。神祝福妳，願妳平安。我便離開。

第七位 Jason, 中國青年，聽到這位澳洲女士大罵耶穌。當我傳福音给他時，他説是基督徒，我想测试他是否明白救恩，但巴士來到。

第八位 Anne, 中國來的 UQ 學生。初時不願意聽福音，後來我問及她，如果死後你知道往那裏去嗎？在緊急的時候，沒有人幫妳，妳會怎樣？她沒有回答。跟着 我傳講福音及見証给她。問她願意悔改信靠耶穌基督為救世主嗎？她説會認真想想。

第九及第十位 中國來的 UQ 學生，當我傳講福音给他們，他們不願意聽，説巴士來到，我以為他們真的上了巴士。當關牧師問及我這兩位青年人站在巴士站旁邊，我才醒覺他們還在，可能他們看錯巴士。便請關牧師向他們傳講福音吧！

第十一位 Nora 台湾來的少女。基督徒，不明白救恩，我解释救恩及講我的見証。我們很投合。因為她是台湾來的，便叫 Johnny 來，一起倾談。Johnny 介绍她到教會。關牧師也來到，講述長细的救恩及基督徒的生命歷程。

感謝主的带领，願今天聽到福音人仕，悔改回轉歸向 神。阿們！感謝讚美主！

 

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Online Evangelism

As I’ve been doing online evangelism with the team, there has always been at least one person dedicated to responding to direct messages on Instagram.

Well, on Thursday, I was introduced to helping with this task.  It was a real eye opener.  As I write this (Saturday morning) there are 107 unread messages, and 17 new message requests (that’s a lot).

I spent most of my Friday dealing with these messages.  What we are doing is: sharing / clarifying the gospel, answering questions, pointing people to their bible and a local church.

So, why are so many people contacting us?  Well, every day, we are sharing the gospel, one to one, with strangers on various online video chat platforms - so follow up messages come from that.

But not only that, we are live streaming some of those conversations on YouTube and Facebook.  So people who find us there may message in.

And then there is TikTok where regular short videos, taken from some of the online chats, are posted.  By the grace of God, this has really gained traction.  And so a lot of messages come from people who have seen these videos.

How did this happen?  Well it certainly wasn’t planned!  It started with Christians with a passion for the great commission, deciding to do something.  Getting out on the streets to talk to people about Christ.  And then Covid happens, and lock down is suddenly a thing.  Well, we can’t go to the streets, so let's go online.  Through trial and error, we discover online chat platforms.  But there is a lot of bad stuff there, so we (actually, Ryan) build tools to shield us.  And it grows from there.  All glory to God!

So, based on my first day of dealing with these messages, I have a fresh appreciation for the wonderful work that Pastors do, shepherding the flock.  Many Christians are messaging in asking good questions.  We clarify the gospel with them, try to answer their questions, and point them back to the bible and their local church (because we are not their pastors).  But I’ve also dealt with questions from people who don’t believe God exists.  It’s a real mix!

What a privilege and responsibility it is to represent Christ to all these people.  We certainly don’t take it lightly.

Since starting to write this post, there are now 109 unread messages and 18 new message requests.  I’m going to finish this report now, and get to work responding.  Please continue to pray for us!
 

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 from 1300-1500

What a glorious day of Street Evangelism augmented by God. Our prayer for more gospel warriors has been answered so prominently today that a team of three from the Rock Church nearby i.e. Pastor Shu He David Zhang, wife Zhen Zhen, and member Linda turned up to day. Meantime, Hai Yue the graduate of the 6th Online Kairos also came for the 2nd time on her rest day of the busy rooster duty schedule of an Intern Doctor of the Royal Brisbane Hospital. So together with Gary, Johnny and Hung, God has raised up a big team of 7 persons to serve and partner with God. We spread out to two spots, one being the foot of the pedestrian bridge outside the Pharmacy Warehouse and the other at the bus stop. Actually, Haiyue who arrived a bit late served without boundary but all over the place as God led her to get hold of people between the aforementioned two spots.

It was so obvious that the Spirit was with us all the time empowering all of us to get many divine appointments to share gospel to many people of different nationality. Most were first encounter but some were reunion with persons having a chat before for us to do follow up and giving away encouragement and blessing for them to get a step closer to receiving Christ.

1) Mr Zhou 周 from Mainland China 大陸 came to Australia to do primary school 小學 as such he is more or less a fully integrated Australian. He is now doing first year 大一 at QUT as such he appeared more open to gospel message than other Mainlanders. Thanks God I had enough time to share the full gospel before the bus came just falling short of a final wrap up to seek for his instant response. But God certainly will follow up on him through his apparent receptiveness to the gospel message.

2) Then I shared with two local Aussie young ladies. They look like the modern generation with stylist dress code. Yes , they also appeared very humble and a good listener. They also were able to respond and interact to show their understanding of the sinful human nature that we are all good but not perfect that still need the salvation of Jesus. So they left with a more positive indication to accept Jesus in God’s timing.

3) Then I had a long chat with a middle age lady from Hong Kong referred to me by Johnny. I share a bit of my background to identify with her as Hongkonger. But she has a lot of superstition biased mindset derived from Buddhism. 佛教，she refused to admit that she is a sinner but kept insisting she has done her best not to sin. And she certainly will be saved through cumulating her life account with good deeds. I challenged her with the analogy of speed fine to a good driver breaking no law for 10 year but would she be waived with the fine by a good past driving record. She could not argue but then turn irrational insisting that what she is practicing to gain credit by good deeds is the right way for her to conduct her life without regret or worry of eternal judgment by God. Despite of the unfavourable final response, I still have faith in God to soften her heart and turn around her bias mind one day.

4) Two elderly were not that positive to have a chat, but I still managed to share him the nutshell of the gospel before the bus came.

5) An old man seemingly from Shanghai 老上海 was very talkative but he held the stance that he will only believe in what he can see like Thomas in the NT time. 見才信. I used many analogies to tell him that in actual life situation, there are many instances that we just believe first before we see or understand the logic or functionality of some product/ device.

6) A Filipino old lady 菲老太 claimed to be a Catholic 天主教 Christian, but she has no knowledge of the Bible and no understanding of Jesus salvation passage. She just does not bother to understand why she is saved but just blindly adopted the label as Christian given to her by her family. Her heart and mind is as hard as many non-believers so I have to let go after doing my best to clarify the real meaning of being saved by grace through faith in Christ.，

7) Two English speaking Asian looking persons reluctantly took the tract and listened to the gospel for a short while before the bus arrived.

( 8 )Then at the end , I met Vienna a local Aussie and Colene a Vietnamese origin both are high school girl of the Sunnybank State High School. Actually, Vienna recognized me and smiled at me first. I took a while to recall and ascertain I chatted with her two weeks ago. She read the tract and have no reason to have objection to the gospel message. She anyway just uses the excuse that she is not a religious person as such there is not immediate urgency for her to make up her mind. But I shared with her that no human can have full control of our life like myself having got Bladder Cancer all at a sudden out of the blue. So, it is important to treat each day as out last day of our life and to make decision critical for securing our eternal life before we pass away. I guessed my sharing touched both of them and we parted by taking a group selfie so that I will recognize them next time we met if not in this world and hopefully will certainly be in heaven in eternity.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Tuesdays Stats:

4 hours online - 6 chats for a total witnessing time of 2 hours and 59 mins & a total time in decent chats of 2 hours 36 mins - an average of 26 mins per chat.  All but one of those chats was with people in the USA - the other guy was in Colombia.

1 hour 45 mins outreach in Riccarton with Roger (pictured).

Wednesdays Stats:

5 hours online - 15 online chats for a total witnessing time of 3 hours 43 mins & a total time in decent chats of 2 hours 54 mins - an average of 11 mins per chat.

Conversation Summary / Highlights:

I had a completely non standard, yet fascinating 5 min chat with a Muslim guy who instantly picked up on the fact that I was a Christian.  He asked great questions which quickly got to the heart of the differences between our worldviews.  My answers revealed the gospel to him - although I have no idea if it was taking hold because he had a customer walk into his shop and he had to go.

A follow up chat occurred with a guy I had talked to a month ago (for 8 mins), and who Kiera had talked to 18 days ago (for 2 mins).  He must spend a lot of time here like us.  He is a DJ (pictured) and also a paramedic.  He had a Catholic background and stubbornly held to his self righteousness as I laboured with him.  Yet this time he lingered in the conversation - we chatted for 25 mins this time.

The chat with the guy from Colombia was one of the longest I’ve had, 1 min shy of 1 and a half hours!  A Catholic background, which he is rejecting - yet he can’t deny a creator.  He seems to be searching and so he very much appreciated the conversation.  Multiple times it would seem that he had grasped the gospel, and then checking questions of one kind or another would raise doubt in my mind.  By the end of the conversation I couldn’t be sure he was grasping it.  What was making the conversation longer / harder was that his English was at about 95%.  I sometimes had to engage Google Translate to clarify things.  I was absolutely exhausted after this chat.

My mind is blanking on who I talked to in Riccarton.  The one thing I remember clearly is 3 guys going past and stopping to engage for a few seconds before 2 of them decided to move on, taking tracts.  As the 3rd guy took the tract, he stopped and wanted to talk.  Questions were in his eyes.  Sadly, he looked back and saw his friends waiting across the street for him - he had to go.  I told him to read the tract - he said he would.

I remember, now, my first conversation was with two high school students who were Chinese.  I was impacted by the fact that one of them had never heard about Jesus.  I was struck by the reality of how secular our society is becoming for that to happen.  Sadly, they heard the gospel for the first time from me.

I know Roger was busy across the street.  At one point he had a large group of high school students surrounding his flip chat - 9 of them?

I was feeling very unusually tired on Wednesday.  I really had to fight to be able to maintain conversations with people.  At one point I just couldn’t muster the energy to engage, skip after skip started occurring.  I reached out to Matt and let him know how I was feeling.  I could tell he was praying for me, because my very next chat was different.  I felt like I was back to my usual self.  After that chat I asked Matt if he had prayed for me.  Indeed he had.  I feel like I’ve got a lot to learn about effective prayer.

Anyway, I ended the outreach with 2 long chats: 22 mins, then 45 mins.

The 22 min one was with a kid with a Catholic background who now called himself an Atheist, yet the very first thing he said, when he read the question on my wall: “What happens after we die?” was, “that is a great question”.  He opened up to the logic of the gospel, and then became resistant as he understood the implications.  Yet it was a great chat.  I had to rush the gospel at the end, as his mum had a limit on his WiFi access which was running out.

The 45 min chat was great.  I highly suspect I was talking to a false convert and the chat ended up focusing around precisely how we go to heaven.  He really engaged, and admitted his Dad was concerned about his ‘faith’.  I told him that his Dad was probably praying for him, and that it was no coincidence that we had paired for this chat.  He is now articulating how we are saved well.  I encouraged him to start reading his Bible daily and to engage in his local church.  It was a great chat to finish the day!

I’ve now survived writing this report and am ready for bed.  Please keep praying for stamina in this gospel work.  SDG
 

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 battle Log of Toowong on Tuesday , June 15, 2021 from 1330 - 1500

There was a big storm in the morning but the weather turned very fine in the afternoon best for Street Outreach. Today we encountered a moment of stagnation that none pf us can get a chat. So Johnny as leader called us to have a second round prayer to break the spiritual deadlock which proved working. Team work was evidenced that I provide back up for Winnie when she faced some intentional argumentative target. IN short, God let us learn once again to have patience and to persevere despite of momentary persistent rejections to keep trusting Him.

Recap below are the Battle Log of Hung and Winnie: -

1) Mimica from PNG was a fair dinkum Christian having 100% assurance of Salvation and perfect understanding of faith in Christ despite she has a father of Catholic background and a mother of the Uniting Church camp. We shared and rendered mutual edification by fellowship in Christ.

2) Dean an agnostic but disguised himself as a God fearer. Winnie approached him first but was trapped in apologetic debates diverting Winnie to discuss if Mohamad is a lesser Saint than Jesus. I intervened and took over the conversation drawing Dean back to the prime issue of the sin of all human beings though we are considered as good persons. Dean cannot denied that he is imperfect as such he also have to face the issue of Judgement by God after death for our sin. Then I introduced Jesus to show Dean the great difference of Christian faith against all other human made religion including Islamic faith that he tried to quote to degrade Christianity. Before the bus came, Dean acknowledged that only Jesus provided a solution for shouldering our sin by His planned sacrificial death. Mohamad was just a human being who was not perfect ass such could not played any role of our saviour like Jesus did. Dean conceded his argumentative attitude by accepting my tract at the end. Pray for God's continuous work harvesting his lost soul.

3) Chris is a middle age man with no religion background. But God has made him humble and behaved politely towards my invitation for a chat. He listened to the gospel with patience and interacted rationally showing great receptive at the end to the gospel message. He also changed mind to take a tract to read at home. Pray also for God's continuous work on him.

4) Finally an Indian girl getting off from the bus heading for connecting train. She was in a hurry, I anyway walked with her for a short while to convey the nutshell of the Gospel and gave her a tract.

Battle Log of Winnie Choi: -

數日前收到醫院短信，通知檢驗眼睛须要改期，所以馬上参加 Toowong 傳福音的工作。感謝 神的帶领，今天雖然很多人不接受單張及聽福音，神賜给我遇上九人傳福音的機會。有些人願意聽，但是巴士卻來到，令他們聽不到福音。

第一位男青年人，講述福音後，他問及穆罕默德的信仰，我解释他們基督教信仰是信三一神，後來關牧師來到，長细解释给他。

第二位，Lance 澳洲少女，聽完福音及我的見証後，願意信靠主，反教會尋求更多真理。

第三及第四位，Joe & May, 中國來 UQ 學生，聽完福音及我的見証後，願意信靠主，找教會。

第五位 Jean, 澳洲少女，基督徒，解释救恩。

第六位 Bella 穆斯林，推着Baby 車，我講述基督教信仰是三一神，耶穌基督為救贖我們脱離罪 牺牲死在十字架上。只要我們信靠祂，罪得赦免。她接受我所講的及見証，會認真想想。（謝謝關牧師的教導，怎样應對穆斯林）。

第七位澳洲少女，她説上次聽過福音，我想問她進行怎様，可惜巴士到達。

第八位 Buda, 印尼男士，福音講了一半，巴士到達。

第九位 澳洲女士，願意接受單張，及聽福音，當我開口傳揚福音時，巴士來到。

感謝主，雖然撒但時常想辦法阻止我們傳福音，但靠着 神的大能，我們一様可以做到的。感謝讚美主！

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Ended up with a team of six in Cashel Mall on Sunday afternoon.  We had a flip chart set up, tracts were distributed and walk up conversations were had.  I spent my time during the outreach pairing up with different members of the team.

I spoke with a guy dressed in a suit and bow tie.  He was familiar with biblical concepts, but he wasn’t able to clearly articulate why he would be getting to heaven.  He danced around various terms, but missed the center of the gospel: Jesus.  Later when I asked if he had to do good deeds to go to heaven, he hesitated for a while and then said, “It’s part of the package”.  I clarified that works are NOT required for salvation, but will follow.  It turns out he is a modalist (denying the trinity of God).  He heard why it is essential to understand who God is, as it impacts our understanding of the gospel.

I approached a young couple, who stopped to listen.  Reading their body language, I didn’t think they were interested in the conversation - and I gave them an option to leave.  I was wrong.  The guy esp. was keen to keep talking.  They heard the gospel.  It turns out they had Christian backgrounds, but weren’t part of any local church.  I encouraged them to change that.  The guy thanked me for the chat as we parted ways.

I had other good opportunities to interact with people - but for various reasons, the gospel wasn’t delivered.  But tracts were taken.  Seeds were sown.
 

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