Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 69

Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Wednesday Feb 3rd, 2021, from 1300-1500

After a gloomy overcast Tuesday, God gave us a sunny Wednesday afternoon. Again Johnny, Andrew and Hung team up on the East side (Sunny Park) to share the Gospel. God gave Johnny and Hung several gospel opportunity with some fruit bearing ones. But for Andrew, he had a record breaking long chat from the beginning to the end of our service hour meaning lasting over 1.5 hours. The hearer was a Christian, so possibly they had engaged in deep doctrinal exchange. For Johnny he had several success including with a Chinese Couple who are attending the Hope Community church but have not received Christ as they have not heard the holistic gospel yet. After the gospel sharing they joyfully have received Christ. For me, God gave me variety of gospel audience ranging from self righteous atheist , Christian without assurance and a young man from a Christian family as such having illusion he is a Christian already but actually still a nonbeliever. Details are recap as below: -

1) Laura is a high degree paralyzed lady but is still managing to be independent on her motorized wheel chair. She could not speak smoothly at ease so I chose to give her the tract first and ask her to read at home when she is fully settled down. I could not speak much as the bus came quickly for her but still I assured her salvation is from Jesus. The Bus driver did not see her as such I had to signal him to open the front door for releasing the ramp for her to board the bus. Laura thanks me for that little help in action love and pray that the tract will be a tool by God to convict her to receive Christ.

2) An arrogant lady from PNG believes in reincarnation as such she has all the time and 2nd chance to do good deed to compensate for bad deed. She thought God is just a referee to watch on the sideline how we play the game of life. Win or loss are in full control of us. I patiently counteracted her wrongful thought to show that our sin cannot be off set by good deeds and all human are sinner that need the salvation of Jesus. Pray that God will soften her hardened heart to accept the gospel.

3) Matt from China and Christian from USA took the tract but did not stop for a chat. So instead I walked them across the bridge to share the nutshell of Gospel which was regarded as sensible by them.

4) Jack and Briski from Thailand are high school students. They are both very receptive to the gospel I shared with them.

5) 尚恩 is from a Christian Family as such he also claimed himself a Christian. But he actually has no concept about gospel and lack assurance of salvation. More serious is that he actually has never been a Christian with a personal moment of repentance accepting Christ. So I encouraged him to read the tract and surrender himself to God and accept Jesus as his personal saviour and new Lord of Life.

6) A lady from Taiwan called Celine Ning凌 claimed herself a Christian after hearing my gospel sharing. Yet she failed both diagnosed question and seemed to have very little understanding about what a Christian should behave.基督徒觀念薄弱 Even worse, she has not been attending church since came here to Australia. So I gave her my recommendation and prayed that God will let us meet again for mutual edification.

感謝天父上帝的帶領和祝福，今天有許多人聽到了福音，祈求天父打開他們的心眼，讓他們因信耶穌，罪得赦免，得永生。其中有寧姓中國中年夫妻，蘇丹的Sono，還有三位本地青年人和台灣台北木柵的陳弟兄。請為他們禱告。

On Wednesday at Sunnybank, I had a few small chats with people, but one long conversation dominated the afternoon.

Jesse is 23 years old and had been raised “a bit religious” by his mum. He had also been connected to some churches and been baptised as a young adult years but had largely walked away over the hypocrisy that he had seen. He knew many of the right answers to the questions I was asking, but other things he said gave me the distinct sense that something was not right in his spiritual walk. We worked our way through the gospel and at each step, he affirmed the truth of what I was saying about our sin and what Jesus did for us. However, as we talked about the need to repent and surrender to Jesus, it became clear that this is where the problem had been. It was obvious that he was living entirely for himself and as such, there was a distinct lack of fruit in his life. At this point, I was able to challenge him about the fact that there was little evidence that he was saved and that there was a need for him to repent and trust in Jesus. He agreed and stated that he needed to very closely examine where he stood with God. I pleaded with him to not delay because he did not know the date of his death and he thanked me for taking the significant time to speak to him about this.

Please pray for Jesse that God would grant him repentance.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 Battle Log for Tooowng Village on Tuesday February 2nd, 2021 from 1330 to 1500.

Today was a rainy day, we narrowly escape from a morning big storm which though passed away quickly but had left behind a cloudy sky with scattered rain. The Toowong Team of three Johnny, Winnie and Hung had to bring either umbrella or putting on rain coat to serve on the street with intermittent rain. It made every body very gloomy and not in any mood to chat. Thus, it was a general response of initial rejection by the hearer. God nevertheless moved us and strengthened us to make 2nd attempt which normally result in successful conversation for Gospel to be shared at the end.

After we called for the day, God let us met with Miss Chang that Johnny met last week. She is a JW follower. Johnny asked her to check on the internet why JW is consider a heretic Sect. She said she had not done so yet, so Johnny asked her to do so and we will meet next Tuesday. Pray that this God ordain divine encounter will bear fruit to lead Miss Chang to Christ.

Recap below were my chances of gospel sharing: -

1) Alex is a Chinese looking Aussie who responded to my request for chatting after many previous rejections. He did not show full willingness initially but the Spirit softened his heart opening for Gospel. He grasped the idea of Gospel and appeared in agreement that it is the only sensible and logical solution for sinners like us to be saved.

2) A Mongolia lady who is a Christian chatted with Johnny. I joined the conversation for a short while. She basically showed appreciation of our work.

3) Grace rejected Winnie but finally entered into a short chat with me. The bus came very quickly so I only managed to shared with her the nutshell of the Gospel.

4) Midy is a Sri Lanka lady studying at UQ. She initially did not want to chat as she claimed

she is a Buddhist. But God gave me wisdom to affirm Buddhism is good for teaching people to be a good person but that is not enough to resolve our sin. It appeared the gospel has triggered some deeper thought in her mind.

5) Jay is a young lady from Northern Queensland . She appeared very weary and tired. Thus she simply had no mood to chat. But I changed tactic to identify with her feeling and had earn a long chat till Johnny had to come to tell me to call for the day if I want to leave together with the team.

感谢 神 賜給我們 天陰，沒有很大的雨，當我們驾車從停車埸上到街上，非常大雨。感謝主保守我們。 今天很多人 都不接受單張及聽福音，感谢神 给我有八人傳福音的 機會。

第一位是中國少女，遇到她時，正在聽電話，我给她單張，她接受 指示稍后會看。我等她講完電話，再去問她，她説不相信耶稣，我説死后會受到神審判，不信會落地獄，她説不介意落死獄。我説地獄像火湖，不停的燃燒。

第二位是澳洲少女，又是不接受單張及聽福音。後來關牧師再和她倾談。

第三位是中國來，UQ 學生，Megan, 聽完整福音，願意找教會，我叫她去大學裏找教會，找牧師，明白更多主的愛。

第四位是中國來，Matt, UQ 學生，初時不想聽，當我説，不信的人會落地獄。他説會到大学找教會，㝷求更多真理。

第五位是澳洲年青人，Frank , 聽完整福音，會到教會，尋求更多真理。

第六位是澳洲女士，正在通電話，接受單張，巴士到達。

第七及第八位是澳洲男女青年，拿着東西等巴士。我行去傳福音给他們，當我講完福音，他們説是基督徒，我問他們死后可以上天堂嗎？他們説不清楚，可能會的，如果 時常 去教會，做多的善事。于是我從新再講多一次福音给他們聽，解释给他們。這是今天最後，神给我們三人一起， 分别傳福音的機會。

感謝讚美主 今天的带领，願今天聽到福音的人仕，認罪悔改歸向神 阿們！

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Saturday I was online with the team.  It was a great outreach.  For me it started with a wonderful chat but then it started to get harder.  At one point I had chats with three likely false converts in a row.  And it ended with a very difficult chat with a couple of lesbians.

First up the easier / wonderful chat was with a guy who said it was 10 pm, and too late for such deep questions!  I managed to convince him that it was quite simple and proceeded to take him through the law and the gospel.  He seemed to be deeply impacted and very appreciative of the chat.

I had a chat with a girl who seemed sad and introspective - didn’t know the gospel.  Part way through the chat she said that it was an interesting ‘coincidence’ that she was talking to me, because she was going back to church tomorrow.  She came to understand the gospel by the end of the chat.

Next up was a Catholic kid who was super glad to hear the gospel.  He asked good questions at the end which showed his engagement.

It was at this point the conversations became harder and I had to confront (as gently as possible) some people about if they were really Christians.  This often leads to explosions.  Thankfully that didn’t happen.  One of them even thanked me!

The chat with the lesbians started with one of them saying that she was angry at God for making a law against homosexuality.  But then, actually people had misinterpreted the rule - so God is actually ok - as though she was the judge of what is ok!  So going from there we talked about who God is, why he gets to make the rules, and why the rules are the way they are.  In the process I was able to go through the law and the gospel.  I did my best to communicate both truth and love.  It was clear they were rejecting the gospel at this stage.

On Sunday there was a team of three: Mike, Andy and myself.  Lots of people out due to the buskers festival.

I had an interesting chat with a guy who accepted the Old Testament and the Gospels, but rejected the writings of Paul!  He was subtly believing in faith + works to save him as opposed to what the Old Testament and the Gospels teach!  We are justified by grace through faith alone!  We parted on good terms, but I pretty much terminated the discussion.

Mike and I had a great chat with 3 teen Christians, again possible false conversion?  I was able to be razor precise on dealing with the question: “why do we go to heaven?”.  I hope it helped them.

In the late afternoon I was paired with Grace for ‘training Sunday’.  As always it’s so good to be able to listen to and discuss the gospel conversations we were having through the outreach!

Thank you for your prayer and support of this ministry.  To God alone be all the glory!
 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

On Thursday morning I awoke refreshed with a clear head (no tension or residual ache).  I was very grateful for this facing two busy days of outreach.  Due to the rainy weather, I spent the whole day in some very fruitful online evangelism.  Friday we were online and in Christchurch (NZ) city.

So, Thursday, I had about twenty five gospel conversations through the day (no technical hiccups this time).  Here are some highlights:

I was connected with a guy from India, who was Hindu.  He was very resistant to the gospel, but he was nice and it was a great chat.  We ended up talking for about thirty minutes.  The resistance was clear from him pretty much refusing to answer my questions.  Yet, he heard the law and gospel.

A wonderful twenty minute chat with a teen guy.  By the end of the conversation he said, “I need to sit and process this”, “but I want you to know, though, there is a good chance I’ll remember this for the rest of my life”, “we do online school now because of Covid… I think I’ve learnt more in the last few minutes than the whole last semester of school”.  I pointed him to the Bible.

A lovely twenty minute chat with a Muslim man from Morocco.  Sadly, he was a tour driver before Covid, but now there is no tourism he is out of work and living on savings.  He came to hear the gospel and he then wrestled with the cost of conversion.  He said: “It’s impossible for me”.  I instantly thought of Mark 10:27: Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Soon after I had another conversation with a Muslim man from Morocco.  He seemed impacted, but resistant.

Yet another twenty minute chat - this time with a recovering addict.  He seemed irritated at the beginning of the conversation, but then when understanding of the gospel took hold, he lightened up and opened up.  He had some good questions about hypocrisy in the church.

The last chat I’ll mention from Thursday was one with a lady who was a dentist in Sudan - I think that’s the first time I’ve talked to someone from there.  She was Muslim and very resistant to the gospel, sadly.

Friday morning I spent a couple of hours online before heading into the city.  Some great chats:

Two boys being silly online.  One became engaged and was trusting his good deeds and church going to get him to heaven.  After hearing the gospel, he had a very visible ‘I get it now’ reaction.  The other kid had been listening, and wanted me to wait so he could look up needGod.net before I left.

I had yet another chat with a guy from Morocco!  Before heading into a wonderful chat with a 17 year old guy who had just this year started rejecting his Catholic faith.  He heard the gospel and said: “I think I’m a Christian now”.  He encouraged me to keep doing what I was doing - I told him to join me!

We were in Cathedral Square and Cashel Mall from lunch time and into the mid afternoon.  Andy preached wonderfully!  He’s turned a new leaf.  He is navigating the paradox of repentance and faith so clearly.  And he is handling the hecklers so respectfully, gently yet faithfully dealing with their questions one by one.  A week or so ago I wrote about a heckler who almost came to blows with another member of the public during Andy’s preaching.  Well, today he came up to Andy and shook his hand!

I have to admit I’m still smarting from the difficult encounter I had on Tuesday.  I’m feeling shy, and flinching a bit in one to one conversations.  Yet, I had a nice long chat with one of my regulars in Cashel mall.  He has heckled my preaching in the past.

In the late afternoon and early evening I was online again.  Something weird happened.  I hit a “gospel flow”.  I used to get this a lot in my previous career as a software developer.  You would hit a vein of productivity, and you would mentally stand back and wonder where it was coming from!  Well, I started having wonderful gospel chats.  I was talking with two guys, and after some initial apologetical sparing, one turned to the other and said: “He’s icing you man!” (or something like that).  They both came to grasp the gospel, then slip and lose it (thanks to checking questions for detecting), and then had it re-explained.

The final chat of the day was epic.  With a deeply hurting guy who’s mum had died a few months prior and whose wife had left him a few weeks back.  He was drinking alcohol.  He was very angry, and he was directing it at me because of who I was representing.  I didn’t address his anger intellectually, but with empathy.  He wasn’t expecting that, and it completely deflated his anger.  We then ended up switching to the intellectual side of things - it was still a battle, but it was different.  I was no longer his enemy, but a friend saying some hard truths.  I had to try to rein in my passion.  By the end of the conversation he said: “you haven’t changed my mind, but there were multiple times I was nearly in tears.  Thank you so much for what you are doing.” (Or something like that).

I don’t write this to boast in myself, but to boast in God.  His gospel is amazing!  The gifts he gives us are amazing.  All glory to him alone!
 

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Bribie Island (QLD) Team

Australia Day Outreach 2021

  With an extra boost of helpers, our Bribie team gathered at the jetty to share the Gospel with those celebrating along the waterfront.  There was constant flow of people walking up and down, every picnic table was taken, and gazebos full of families were everywhere.  We were thankful to see that God had prepared the way before us and that people were very open to hearing us and accepting tracts.  About 800 tracts went out, along with a number of booklets and other literature.  We were amazed and encouraged to see so many people come and take a copy of Scripture.  15 Bibles were taken, and around 25 Gospels of Luke, plus many Gospels of John.

  Our team split up into pairs, covering a good length of the Bongaree waterfront footpaths.  While distributing Gospel literature, we were able to engage in multiple conversations.  Various groups approached the Good Person flipchart and heard the Gospel.

  A number of people we met considered themselves safe and “all good" because they were decent people, Roman Catholic, confirmed, baptised, or having done some form of works.  May the pure, undefiled Gospel shine its light in their lives and reveal their sin and need of Christ.

  As one team member was in a discussion with an elderly gentleman and his friend, a man from across the path began to berate him angrily.  While our team member calmly and peacefully held his own, answering the man whenever he could get a word in, the first two gentlemen looked on.  At last, after they shook hands and parted, the angry man remained a few minutes further to speak with the two men on the bench.  While this seemed disheartening, we were encouraged to see one of them come up later to check out the literature table.  He said that he often saw Gideon Bibles in hotels, and he said he always tried to read a bit.  Then he proceeded to take a Bible over to his friend.  Praise God!  Now we pray for the seed of the Word to find good soil in his heart.

  A young woman sitting by herself was approached and took a tract.  She then engaged in a conversation where she was able to hear the Gospel.  She went from not believing in God to having a pretty good grasp on the Gospel.  It was a beautiful moment as her eyes lit up when she realized that all she had to do was repent and trust in Christ.  She had several valuable questions, such as “If a bad person like Hitler repents and trusts in Christ, will he go to heaven?”  She also admitted that because she knew so little, she didn’t know what questions to ask.  She took some literature and was encouraged to not only think seriously about the importance of this, but also to contact us if she had any questions.  May God’s rich truth take root in her open heart.

  Pray for Finn, a young man who heard the Gospel and seemed to take it extremely seriously.  He appeared to understand, and he asked for a Bible when he left.  May God do a work in his life.

  A friendly Anglican man stopped by to encourage us in what we were doing.  On being questioned, we found him to have a good understanding of the true Gospel. 

  James’ wife made him come to take the Good Person test.  He listened to the law and the Gospel with a fairly open mind.  Over the last few years, he said he’d had a number of people share the Gospel with him, and he wondered why it kept coming back to him.  This came as a reinforcement of its truth.  We pray that he would consider the impact of this truth on his life, and that he would be saved.

  Praise God for blessing our time on Tuesday.  Continue to pray that God will use His Word which has gone out to bring souls to Christ, and that He would grow His kingdom here on Bribie Island.

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Wednesday 27/1/2021 from 1300 to 1500

It was a quieter day after a spirit anointed day yesterday. But God taught us to be patient and waited for His planned divine encounter opportunity to turn up. Anyway the three of us Andrew, Johnny and Hung still got our chance. For me, All apart from the last one, are divine appointment to train me to do not just the "talk the talk" but also the "walk the walk" . I had to show compassion to share the gospel to walk with the gospel hearer across the foot bridge as they all claimed they were in a hurry but did not mind me to chat with them while we did the walking across the bridge. S0, my six encounters were recap as follows:

1) After many many rejections in the beginning, a Chinese lady stopped to take the tract but immediately asked if this is from Jehovah Witness. Obviously she has been a follower of JHW. I took this chance not just sharing the gospel but hitting on the point that Jesus is God but he incarnated to live as a perfect man and died on the cross for us all taking our place to received the punishment of sin. I trust God will illuminate the darkness spot in her mind to realize Jesus is really the Saviour and the Lord of all.

Then came Ryan an middle aged Aussie. He was very polite and genuinely welcome me to walk and talk with him. He appeared very open and receptive to the gospel.

3) Then I Caught up with two Pakistanis Muslim Tafe students by the name Shani and Muneeb whom we met in Nov 4 & 18. This time they were with a third new friend but he had to hurry for work. I did pray that this was a stepping stone for me to meet them soon to have a proper chat again.

4) Woobi was a senior Hindu man lacking good English level as such having difficulty for communication. But the Spirit moved me to stay put to walk and chat slowly with him in simplest form of English about Jesus. At the end, he seemed to have fully understood who Jesus was and why he died for us and show great appreciation for my sharing. I did thank the Holy Spirit to urge me not to give up on this senior Indian man as perhaps he will hardly have another person willing and daring to chat with him.

5) Then God led another Indian woman by the name Myminya. She walked very fast but surprisingly accept my offer to walk and talk with her about the gospel. I was not sure if she really took heart to listen, but I nevertheless share her the gospel out of obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

6) Then Teresa the Taiwanese student turned up to do here weekly bulk shopping for mailing back to Taiwan to earn her living and Tuition fee. She was happy I greeted her by name. Johnny anyhow took up to have some follow up chat with her while she was waiting for the bus.

7) 金輝 Fai Kim was a member of the EMP Methodist Church. He passed my two diagnosis tests about assurance of salvation. He actually was members of several other Chinese Churches before ending up at EMP methodist after home relocation. He was surprised to find that I have a wide inter-person network knowing all his past pastors as well as Mark Loi and Gloria Ling the current clergy of EMP Methodist. I think the reason God let us meet was to raise his awareness of the responsibility of all Christians to live out a mission oriented life sharing gospel in our social community circles.

Battle Log by Andrew: On Wednesday at Sunnybank, I joined up with Hung and Johnny to speak to people about Jesus.

Micah, Julian and their other friend are 17 years old and all called themselves Christians. I asked them why God should let them into heaven and they gave me a bunch of Christian clichés, but ultimately they were unsure of the gospel. They regularly attend a church where the Bible is barely referenced, and they admitted that there is not much fruit in their lives to suggest that they are living for Jesus. I walked through the gospel in depth with them and challenged them to consider Jesus’ words about false conversion. They appeared to grasp the gospel and so I called them to examine themselves in truth and make sure that they are saved.

Lucy is from Vietnam and has no real religious background at all. She was not sure that God exists and so I shared how we can know that he is real and why that matters. I then explained that we can only know who God is and what he wants from us if he has spoken to us and how the Bible is his way of speaking. I was then able to share the gospel with her in great depth and showed her why she needs to repent and place her trust in Jesus. She grasped the message well and confessed that if this is true, she is headed for hell, but I reminded her that since this is true, God is merciful and gracious and willing to save her.

Please pray for those who heard the gospel this past Wednesday.

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Tuesday and Wednesday were very hot days in Christchurch (NZ) - 36 degrees Celsius.

Yet, the temperature seemed quite pleasant when I set up my flip chart in Riccarton on Tuesday afternoon.  As usual, Roger joined me.

I started out with a difficult conversation with two guys from Christ College - a prestigious boarding school - enjoying the last days of school holidays I assume.  They were both quite resistant to start with.  So we sparred with apologetics to start with.  One of them softened, but the other hardened.  I was able to touch on God’s law during the conversation.  One of them shook my hand, shared his first name, and took a tract.  The other refused all three.  The conversation ended when I said, “well, I’m not holding you here”.

The next conversation would have to be one of the hardest I’ve had in a long time.  Harder than with the gospel + abortion outreach - in that case you can expect it.  I think it was harder than the couple of times the Police have been called.

So, five late teen girls come past.  Four of them are very interested in the flip chart, and we fall into an easy discussion.  The other goes and sits down some distance away.  During the conversation, they say they are Christians, and as I’m learning what that means to them, they declare that they are gay - interesting.  So I ask if I can back up and explain what I understand Christianity to mean.  We start working through that when we start discussing the logic of hell - one of the girls didn’t believe in hell - no problem so far.  But at this point, one of the girls leaves the conversation to go talk to her friend sitting some distance away.

She comes back and says that they need to go - apparently I’d upset the fifth girl a month ago.  I was surprised, but didn’t have any problem with them leaving - but I just confirmed, “do I look like someone who would aim to upset?”.  One of them agreed with me, and they moved on.

Well, a few minutes later, the fifth girl comes back, in tears and starts giving me an emotional filled verbal assault worse than I’ve experienced in as long as I can remember.  I decided the best approach was to say nothing - I let her say what she wanted to say.  Apparently I’d told her: she was going to hell, she had been in deep pain for the last month, this stuff deeply impacts people, and you shouldn’t be out here talking about it, I’ve had to talk to my boyfriend about it, etc.  Then she started cursing and calling me foul names.  It was this point that she crossed a line into hypocrisy.  Sadly, my listening just enraged her more - I guess she was expecting me to fight back.  She then questioned the way I was looking at her.  So I dropped my eyes to the ground.  By this stage, one of her friends was with her.  Well, me looking down didn’t help - she just got worse and then claimed I was ignoring her, so I looked up and said, as gently as I could, “I’m hearing you”.

Eventually a lady who worked in the bank came out and asked the girl to calm down.  “Everyone in the bank can hear you.”  That didn’t help.  Roger had finished his conversation, and he came over to help.  I told him not to say anything - and he wisely ignored me.  He stood in front of her to talk.  Soon she was yelling at him to step back.  He ignored her.  She said something about me not letting her go.  Roger denied that, and said, “you are free to leave”.

I turned to the lady from the bank and said, “I’ll pack up and move” - anything to get this girl to stop and calm down.  The lady from the bank asked if I was okay.  I said I was, but I don’t think I was.  Outwardly I was calm and analytical.  Inside I was a blubbering mess.  There was a huge disconnection between the two.  I packed up and moved across the street.  Soon after Roger was with me.

Roger wanted to take me to get an iced coffee, but I felt obligated to finish the outreach as best as I could.  Roger soon fell into another chat, and I noticed a homeless guy sitting not far from us, so I decided to go and talk with him.  He asked how my day was, I smiled and said it wasn’t the best.  But then I swung the conversation to him.  I found out his name and started to learn about why he was on the street when a friend came past.  Suddenly I was in two conversations.

I managed to start sharing with my friend about the experience I had just been through - the homeless guy listened in.  Part way through, the homeless guy said: “wow, you really do have problems!”  So he packed up and moved on (after a handshake).  In hindsight, I found that quite comical - there is no way my problems are worse than his!

Eventually, the outreach came to an end, and I went with Roger for an Iced Chocolate.  It was then that my emotions started to kick in.  I was a bit of a wreak for a few hours after that.  I couldn’t do online outreach.  I reached out to some people as a way of processing my emotions - that really helped.

And writing this report has helped.  That girl was emotional & irrational.  Obviously in a lot of pain or under conviction of sin - or both.  She made a lot of false accusations.  I have no recollection of talking to her before (I don’t deny that I did - I just don’t remember it).

I am always very careful in how I present the law, and talk about hell so that it doesn’t come across as me judging.  Not to say that I don’t make many mistakes - I’m sure.

I was feeling okay by the evening.  And I was back to work on Wednesday.  Many wonderful chats online.

I’m so dependent on God.  I’m so weak.  And it’s hard to be faithful to the gospel - which is so offensive.  I don’t want to be the offence.  God help us!
 

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong Village on Tuesday January 26, 2021 from 1330 to 1500.

Today was the Australian Day. It was a national holiday, but God did not signal us to take a rest but prompted us to serve with business (Ministry) as usual. It ended up really a day of miracles for the three of us Johnny, Winnie and Hung experiencing the real team work with God apart from amongst the three of us. All of us experienced initial rejections, but the work of God turned around the hearts of stone to listen to the Gospel. God gave us each a special divine appointment :

Hung : A Christian Kid took the tract with his mum but did not stop. I saw him read the tract right away as he walked away and his mum immediately grabbed the tract to verify it is not bad stuff. After half and hour , before we called off for the day. They returned from the Toowong shopping centre and verbally thanked me for the tract. It took me a while to associate her word with the previous encounter. God suddenly made her dropped the water jar without noticing it. It gave me the chance to pick up the dropped jar and chased her up to have the full conversation clarifying what had just happened with God as the director. God used the tract to call and remind the Christian Mum to teach her son to follow God and acted by example to do similar Gospel sharing work as situation permitted.

Winnie : For the first time God moved a person who rejected an evangelist i.e. Winnie today, but after a while that person was softened to let Winnie to approach her the 2nd time and listened to the full Gospel.

Johnny: He had a difficult time with few conversations. His last conversation was obviously the result of God's work stopping and calling back a Muslim man to come back four, five steps to talk to Johnny.

So we really praised and thanked God in our closing prayer to move us to come despite today was a National Holiday.

Recap were my others divine appointments.

1) A Muslim look man who initially rejected Johnny at the traffic light and showed great reluctance to accept my tract. But God showed me what He can do by softening his heart and allow me to share the full gospel to him. He admit the message of Gospel is sensible and logical with no reason to reject. So I strongly believe that he is just a step of faith away from salvation. What surprised me was that he actually was no overseas student from Muslin country but an Australian born man who is already at work.

2) Then came John an UQ student who also showed great reluctance to listen teo gospel. Again, I was empowered to changed his heart and attitude and we entered into a meaningful conversation covering the full gospel message before the bus came.

3) Marion who once was a Christian but has relinquished her faith. I did not challenged her action and respected her decision yet reiterating the real faith of trusting in Jesus Christ alone. She showed changing heart to re-examine her given up faith after our chat.

4) Adin is an UQ student from Malaysia and claimed he is a Muslim, . I showed respect to his faith but stress that it is good at only guiding us to be a good person but cannot resolve the issue of sin. He looked receptive to the Gospel message when the bus came. Pray that the tract will trigger more soul searching thought to bring him closer to the salvation by Jesus.

5) Angela the Mum and stallion the son are Orthodox Christian. For God's miraculous work, please refer to narration above.

Battle Log by Johnny: Australia Day, preaching day! One Aussie name Arthur, one Indian guy name Chi, one Muslim name Aberaham,. They all heard the gospel, may God open their eye and mind, let them trust Jesus Christ.

各位弟兄姐妹，澳洲日快樂。感謝主今天 的带领，讓我遇到七人傳福音的機會。今天，讓我看到神的同在。神的大能，祂令不願意聽福音的人仕， 使他們乖乖的聽完祂的話語。 第一及第二位 的是澳洲女仕，Lily 及坐輪椅的 Katy.當我講完福音後，他們 説是基督徒。我問及他們，死后可以上天堂嗎？他們不大清楚，于是我解释给他們。 我再次遇到一澳洲女仕，當我拿單張给她，問及她認識耶穌基督嗎？她説不想聽，我問她知道我們是罪人嗎？她説不要再講，否则我會離開。她拿着東西行了别處。 第三及第四位是中國少女，Alice 及 Ruby. 我問及他們認識耶穌基督嗎？他們説不認識，及不想聽。我繼續講我們是罪人，講述全福音，我给他們中文單張，讓他們更加明白什麽是罪及神的愛。他們説會閲讀單張及想清楚。 第五位是，剛巧離開，不願聽福音的澳洲女仕。回來 坐下等巴士。神 使用我再次回去，問及她認識耶穌基督嗎？跟着傳主要的福音给她，及给她單張，讓她更加明白什麽是罪。這是神的大能，讓我看到五分鐘后的轉變。感謝主。 第六位是中國青年，講述全福音给他。他説會想想。 第七位是中國少女，聽完整福音，需要時間想清楚。 感謝主的带领，讓我們親身看到神的大能，無人能阻止。只要我們行出第一部，神 會幫助我們完成祂的工作。感謝讚美主🙏

      

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

A wonderful weekend of outreach for the Christchurch (NZ) team.

A team of two on Saturday morning in Cashel Mall and Cathedral Square.  The foot traffic was a bit light at the start, but it picked up as the outreach progressed.  It was also unfortunate that there were windy gusts at times.  The highlight chat occurred during one of these gusts, so strong it nearly knocked the flip chart over even with me holding it; and it made turning the pages hard - yet it didn’t put the three young men off hearing the law and the gospel - the oldest one was particularly engaged (whom had been involved with the Ratana church in his past).

In the afternoon, I was online for a few hours.  10 chats, including:

• A Muslim.
• A young girl passionate about her atheism!  It was great engaging with her.
• A wonderful chat with a young lady (whom I couldn’t see - only hear) who I really had to labour till she grasped the gospel.
• A ‘Christian’ kid, who was mucking around, and yet stayed to hear the law and the gospel.
• A chat with a Christian kid who gained gospel clarity.
• An interesting chat with a lady who only spoke Spanish, yet using translation tools we were able to communicate.
• A Jewish guy who heard the law and the gospel.  His sticking point was, “a Christian can do anything then”.  Actually, we don’t want to as per Romans 3:31
• A fascinating chat with a guy who couldn’t fault the logic of the gospel and yet rejected it - wanting to be his own God.

On Sunday afternoon I was very encouraged to be in a team of six - including two newbies.  The weather was great, and there were lots of people out and about.  We split into pairs to engage with the gospel - flip chart, tracts, and walk up.

My first encounter was a follow up with a young man who seems to be responding to the gospel.  He can articulate the gospel, and there seems to be change in his life.  Yet, there is a desperate need for discipleship.  I challenged him to get knitted into a church and to actually contact me in this regard.

I had a number of great walk up opportunities.  The first with a guy on a skateboard.  The next one was cool: two guys - one not interested, the other was.  The one that was caused the other to wait and he became engaged as well.  At least twice I heard the comment: “that makes sense” as we went through the law and the gospel.  And then, suddenly the conversation was over - they didn’t want to miss their movie start.  Yet they went with the seed of the gospel and tracts to read later.

It was great watching Andy engage with group after group.  Eventually he fell into a long conversation with a group of kids that kept changing - kids would join the conversation, then leave, while others would join and leave.  There seemed to be a couple of them that were deep in the conversation and stayed for the whole time - one girl in particular seemed very engaged.  The chat was still going when I left to join the team online!

It was great to see the newbies have opportunities to witness gospel conversations and be encouraged!

I made it home in time for online training Sunday.  I was paired up with Javier (in California) and we had a great time watching each other's gospel chats and discussing afterwards.  Javier had a long chat with a young (lonely) man.  Javier did such a wonderful job in clearly explaining the gospel and working through his suite of checking questions.  It’s so wonderful seeing these young ones learning to so clearly articulate the gospel.  Raise up an army Lord!

My two chats were both with Muslims.  One in America, the other in Jordan.  They were both very open to hearing the gospel.

Praise God - all glory to God alone!
 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

On Thursday, Andy & I were going to go to the bus stops - but due to the weather, we ended up going online instead.  So my whole Thursday was spent in online outreach.

In that time I spoke to:

• Suicidal girls
• A Muslim man (+ someone off camera) living in northern Israel.
• A man who spoke in riddles and would turn everything I said into a riddle - avoidance?  I gave up.
• Another Muslim who was up to no good (based on what he said at the start) - he heard the law and the gospel before disconnecting.
• A Hindu who heard the law and the beginnings of the gospel.
• A great chat with a guy from the UK who was struggling with why there is suffering and evil in the world (God is “mean”).
• An epic text chat (I talked, they typed):

Stranger: Be good in life and just even at your lowest always be the best person you can be
Stranger: Yes
Stranger: It’s not good to lie
Stranger: Yeah
Stranger: It wouldn’t be the best
Stranger: None
Stranger: Heaven
Stranger: I totally agree I didn’t see it that way
Stranger: Heaven
Stranger: To be truthful in some sort of way or be able to speak to Jesus and not only rely on him
Stranger: Yeah that’s true
You: Trusting
You: Jesus died for your sins
Stranger: Yeah thank you for that I didn’t see it that way but that’s really encouraged me
Stranger: To be good in life and be the best person you can be
Stranger: To be able to rely on Jesus and take the punishments we make for us to go to heaven
Stranger: Trusting?
You: needGod.net
Stranger: Heaven because Jesus took their punishment?
Stranger: Honoured and respectful towards him
Stranger: No way
Stranger: Because I may have done bad things in life but Jesus took those punishments for me to be able to go to heaven
Stranger: Nothing I totally understand now
Stranger: Yes
You: start in "John" in the second half of the Bible
Stranger: Yes but closed because of corona
Stranger: Yeah
Stranger: It’s a Christian one
Stranger: No I think you’ve covered it all to be honest
Stranger: Can i ask
Stranger: Do you make content
You: needGod.net
You: insta: needgod.net7
You: Tik Tok
Stranger: Yeah I’m gonna give you a follow thanks for that I appreciate it have a good day my friend
Stranger: Hopefully see you too
You have disconnected.

• A South African
• Claire from the UK, and her friend Jordan.  Working with the elderly and suffering was her sticking point too.  She was making a case for Euthanasia - which I stood firmly against.  I thanked her for the awesome and important work she was doing in caring for the precious elderly in our community.
• Someone from the Czech Republic
• An excellent chat with a lady who also struggled with evil and suffering.  “Why weren’t my prayers answered?”
• A chat with a guy from Afghanistan - I think my first with a person from there.

Just to name a few.  I had some technical troubles during the day, that sadly slowed me down a bit.

Friday was a busy day of outreach.  I was in the city in the morning and into the early afternoon.  It was great to have Jermaine, Roger, Gary, Mike, Steve, my Mum, and others join me at various times through the day! :)

My first chat was with someone whom I thought was a construction worker - but he turned out to be homeless.  He had really good answers to my questions - he seemed familiar with the gospel.  He then said he had been “anointed” a few months ago - it turns out he was talking about Baptism!  Sadly, he had had a turn for the worse in his battle with sin - so I was able to encourage him with the gospel!  It was a lovely chat.

The buskers festival is on in Christchurch, so I was able to have a great follow up chat with a busker who was biding his time before his first act started.  I didn’t really have an opportunity to get to the law and the gospel - there was a lot of discussion about worldview and apologetics.  God willing, I’ll have yet another opportunity to talk with him.

I set up my flip chart (as did Roger).  Jermaine had a gospel chat with some kids (pictured).

Later, I had a gentle chat with an older lady with a Catholic background but was leaning Bhudist.  She took a tract.

Just before lunch time, I headed to the Square.

I approached a few people.  Tash had been to a church, but through “being kind” would get her to heaven.  She grasped the gospel very quickly.

I then talked to Tony.  He said I didn’t need to talk to him, he was already a Christian.  So I turned the conversation to other things.  But as the conversation progressed, it became very clear that this guy was trusting in his works for salvation - he really didn’t understand the gospel.  I knew I had to be very gentle and careful in communicating this - and what the gospel really was.  Finally I asked him how sure he was of going to heaven.  He said, 99.99%.  I asked why he had 0.01% doubt?  He thought about it and said: “I might sin”.  So I said, “what are you trusting in to get you to heaven then?”  Sadly, he erupted: “I don’t like this conversation”.  He sneered and gave me the fingers when I offered him my hand to shake.  I really tried to be gentle and respectful - but I love people too much to not confront them with the truth (I know I fail to do this too often).

After this I moved into open air preaching.  One of our hecklers had told me he had been researching the web site of the church I’m a member of - he was ready with ammo.  And yet, he seemed to misfire?  He did have a few goes at me, I did my best to listen and respond appropriately and then just proceeded through my usual law and gospel presentation.  Andy preached as well.  There was much discussion afterwards.

In the late afternoon and early evening, I was back online.  My first chat was with a guy with “a very religious family - they will be glad you’re talking to me”.  He heard the law, the gospel, the reason why God has done things the way he has, and the real reason why people reject it.  During my explanations I said something that “can’t have been a coincidence”.  There are no coincidences - there is God.

I had an interesting live stream chat with a kid who said: “I need to believe in Jesus and stop sinning” to be saved.  Going from there I clarified that it’s only the first part that saves us: Jesus paying our hell fine, and we accept that by believing he did it for us.  It seemed to click for him.  I was clear that, of course, we will want to stop sinning - but that does not save us.  Later I asked him how sure he would be of going to heaven.  He started by responding with 80% - but he stopped himself, and corrected by saying - now I’m 100% sure.  Christians can have assurance of salvation - because salvation is not dependent on them!

A tiring couple of days.  I’m about to head into the city for a Saturday morning outreach - Ravi is joining me.  I’m feeling encouraged, because more Christians are contacting me to get involved.  Long may that continue!  SDG
 

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