Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 70

Christchurch (NZ) Team

It was an epic outreach at Riccarton on Tuesday.  I love this spot, I look forward to coming here.

Yet, it was a grievous outreach as well.  Why?

Well, a young man & lady came past, I recognised him from multiple chat’s I’d had with him last year at this location and said his name in hello - please to see him.

The last time I talked to him, he had approached me.  He seemed to be deeply impacted by the gospel.  He had explained that, against his normal nature, he had started reading the Bible.  I was very encouraged, and I had started praying for him regularly.

I asked him about how things were going in his life, remembering the details he had shared with me previously.  He has finished school now, and will be starting a job in February.  But, sadly, he seemed dead inside.  He had forgotten the gospel.

I was able to go through it with him again, but I was directing my attention mainly to the girl that was with him.  She was resistant too.  We discussed why there is evil in the world - at an emotional level more than an intellectual one.  She had been to church in the past, but what good was God to her?  I was flabbergasted at this reasoning.  I gently challenged her on that.

They heard the law, and the gospel.  But they just weren’t interested - they had to go.  We said farewell, I was grieved, yet glad I had another opportunity to talk.

It was a windy day, I didn’t bring my flip chart, and Roger’s blew down once.  Yet, Roger had a busy outreach.  And so did I.  After my first chat, I decided to walk down to the bus stops to see if any would be willing to talk.  I told Roger that if I didn’t come back, I would be in a long deep conversation with someone.

Well, as soon as I had turned the corner leaving Roger, I sped two young people sitting on a bench on Riccarton Road.  I politely approached them, and we fell into a long deep conversation, with many many questions going both ways.  They seemed like senior high students or early uni students - on holiday.  The conversation must have gone for about an hour and a half, it was ten minutes past the finish time of the outreach before I made it back to Roger.

Due to all their questions, there was a lot of apologetics.  And yet, the law and the gospel was well and truly covered, with many checking questions.  They were both very intelligent, yet there was a resistance from her - wanting to go down rabbit trials, and getting the checking questions wrong; and an openness from him, wanting to get to the point and getting the checking questions right.

It was a wonderful chat, and yet a very tiring one.  The Sun was blasting on my neck the whole time, it was windy, and the traffic noise was loud.  I came away with a strained voice.  And yet, it was worth it.  May God be glorified in them coming to learn more about him - even if they reject him.

The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday I was online.

I talked to my first person from Japan!  Sadly, they didn’t stay for me to even be able to talk about the law, let alone the gospel.

I talked to a girl from Brazil who was completely deadpan in regards to the serious nature of what I was talking about - sadly completely uninterested, but polite enough to stay and listen.

I had a difficult chat with a girl who had been through some very hard times.  Her sister had been raped and committed suicide.  She was very angry at God.  With God’s help, I was able to navigate the emotions and amazingly have her come to some grasp of the law and the gospel.  She seemed very appreciative of the chat.

There was a nine year old kid, who seemed more like five.  He shouldn’t have been online - his parents were asleep and should have been too.  But before I learned this, he heard the law and the gospel.

I talked to a couple of Muslims.  One in particular was challenged and wanted to continue the conversation via Instagram.

But my highlight chat was one with a kid who wasn’t interested in his Mum’s faith in Christ.  I took him through the logic of God and his justice - and it really clicked.  He was open to hear the law, and his jaw opened when he came to grasp the gospel!  I worked through checking questions and finally I asked him - do you have any questions?  He said: “No, you actually changed my whole mind about everything”.  Lord, I leave him in your hands.
 

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Wednesday January 20, 2021 from 1300 - 1500

Following Toowong, the official Street Evangelism at Sunnybank was resumed today. Initially, only Johnny and Hung were there to serve, then Col joined in half an hour later. The team of three was later being paid a visit by Rev Henry and Gloria of Bread of Life Church as a surprise support for the day. Basically the weather condition was superb in comparison to the high noon heat yesterday at Toowong. The general response was however not as good. But we all got some special divine encounters : Johnny chatted with a Buddhist background lady for a long time and eventually the conversation was extended with final good result. It was made possible by Johnny walking the lady to her appointed venue to meet friend at Market Square; Col had a very long chat with a seemingly very rational and argumentative Asian man; Hung met with a Catholic background man from El Salvador where Hung 's father once work there for ten odd years. God does work in His mysterious way to call and save His elected ones by His sovereign power, in His time. Recap below were the few Conversations that Hung had.

1) An Indian girl was lost for direction. I was able to show her direction to Market Square and in the meantime gained an opportunity to share here the nutshell of the gospel before she hurried away for her appointment.

2) After many rejections, God stopped an Espanol guy to have a chat with me. He was in a hurry but still let me share the message of the gospel tract with him. He quickly identified himself as a Christian. So I switched to diagnosis his assurance of salvation. He appeared to have 100% assurance of salvation but stopped short in telling me the reason he is sure going to heaven. Actually, as a Catholic Christian. He completely missed the point and thought it was all gained by his good deeds. He excused to end the conversation as he was really in a hurry, but before we were apart, he told me he is from El Salvador where my father once worked there for over 10 odd years. Because of this remote affiliation , he was happy to take a photo with me. God did send him back to have another short chat to wrap up on the real meaning of salvation by faith through grace in Christ.

El Salvador

3) Then I bumped in with two PNG young brooks from Sunnybank District Baptist Church. They were going to meet with other guys to have a basket ball game. But I still managed to checked upon their assurance of salvation. Again they have 100% assurance but took sometime to give me the correct answer of the reason of salvation was because of Jesus alone. Col actually later caught up with one of the PNG guy on the other side to have a long chat.

4) At the bus stop, I caught up with a Filipino lady. I managed to go through the assurance of salvation test with her but the bus arrival interrupted this attempt.

5) I met Teresa again a Taiwanese girl doing Postage of good back to Taiwan as a means of earning money for her study . Just encouraged her to keep pursuing the faith in Christ.

*) Teresa a Taiwanese student coming here to study but uses her spare time to do bulk purchase for shipping back to Taiwan. I met her on Sep 2, 2020 . She was first approached by Johnny, but quickly we recognized each other and continued on chatting along. She showed great interest in Gospel and asked me to have her more tracts to hand out to her friend. She bided me good bye and looking forwards to meeting me same time next week.

6) Finally I caught up with a Chinese basket baller minding him that the basket ball court may have been fully occupied by the PNG guys. He thanked me for the alert and I took the chance to have a brief gospel sharing with him which he originally declined to stop for Johnny. God has his way to stop anyone even with initial intention of rejection.

感謝天父把中國的鄧同學，印度的Anna Ryan帶到我面前，他們聽到了福音，祈求天父賜福給他們，讓他們真認識上帝，為自己的罪悔改來信靠耶穌得永生。

 

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong Village on Tuesday January 19, 2021 from 1330 to 1500.

This was our official resuming of street evangelism after a New Year rest as well as the interruption by the new out break of Covid-19. It was a very hot afternoon. Johnny and I nevertheless march on to the street with mask on as Brisbane people have now mostly get used to wear mask all the time. People either did not stop to chat under the sun, or preferred to stay under the shade behind the narrow space of the bus station. Despite of all these constraint if not obstacles, both Johnny and I got almost non-stop opportunity to share the Gospel though most of them were between 5 to 10 minutes because of the frequent bus arrival. Recap below were my gospel sharing conversations: -

1) Ishmael 以實馬利，an UQ student from Malaysia 馬來西亞, he is Muslim by birth. He was quire opened to the gospel and find it very sensible and logical. I appeal to him to keep an opened mind to let the Holy Spirit to work in His heart.

2) Marissa, the daughter of sea, is a Tri-care worker from Philippine. She is a committed Christian and passed the test of assurance of salvation having 100% certainty. Although she could not articulate clearly the reason of her full assurance is because of the work of Jesus alone but none of our credit. She could quickly grasp the explanation of God's three fold salvation that are assured of our heavenly identity upon accepting Jesus as our savoir and our Lord of life. But our life is still imperfect and subject to transformation by God through the work of the Holy Spirit. And God has given us His 2nd assurance that He will make us perfect by completing the work on our life. We bid farewell with joy in both of our hearts.

3) Catching up with Allen again. We met several weeks ago and he appreciate our commitment for God. He shared a bit about his ministry with a Social care ministry group based in south bank looking after the homeless and poor families.

4) Then I caught up with a young man from Bangladesh. He is of Hindu background but again appeared very opened to the gospel. Like Ishmael, he found no reason to reject the offer of free gift of eternal life by Christ. I could only leave it to the Holy Spirit to follow up with his final conversion to Christ.

5) A Korean girl Kim Suk but not yet a Christian despite 75% of Koreans have now become Christian. It was a pity the bus came too quick but seed of Gospel was sown, in His time.

6) Finally I met up with a Singaporean by the name Eugene. He listened to the Gospel and expressed consent to the logic even though he grew up in a Buddhist family back ground. Just pray for God's work to guide him to make the step of faith to receive Christ.

感謝天父上帝的祝福和帶領，今天下午在Toowong 的福音事工由我和關牧師展開。分別有從中國來的曹姓博士生,北京沈姓女同學、上海王姓男同學，緬甸來的UQ 男學生May ，還有澳洲女生Sunday 。他們都聽到了福音，求上帝打開他們的心眼，讓他們真知道神，為自己的罪來悔改信靠耶穌成為他們的救主，得永生。

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

I’m talking to more and more kids online, who already have a grasp of the gospel - obviously babes in the Lord, desperately in need of discipling.  Where are these kids hearing the gospel?

The last chat on Saturday was with a kid who said he first heard it about a year ago… on TikTok!  He couldn’t tell me who he heard it from, but he heard it from somewhere.

From what I know, TikTok is a social media platform that originated from China.  And yet, God seems to be using this to spread the gospel!

There was another chat I had with a kid back on Tuesday who had reasonable gospel answers to my questions.  He also had been following a TikTok channel and learning from it.  I pointed him to a Bible and a local church.

There was a third recent similar chat that I’d had - I can’t remember the details now, nor can I find the recording.

And now that I think about it more, I remember getting into a conversation with two people (within the last few days) and one of them said, “I’ve already watched a video where he talks about God, skip him”.

And that reminds me of yet another conversation I had, about a week ago, where a kid said he had already watched a video with his Mum where I was sharing the gospel.

It’s starting to dawn on me the reach the gospel is having online.  It has its drawbacks - no doubt.  But it’s truly amazing seeing what’s happening - glory to God.

As an example, here is a sample video of a gospel chat Grace had recently.  It’s really worth heading over to watch it.  It’s a one minute summary clip of an online gospel chat.  The power of the gospel is truly epic!

So, watch this space.  Please pray that the gospel would continue to prosper online.  That many would be saved, and get connected with a Bible and a local church - wherever they are!

Anyway, I’m supposed to be writing about the weekend outreaches for the Christchurch team.

I was online on Saturday for three hours.  I had a lot of chats - 12 in total.  One of them started with two girls asking me to wave to their TikTok followers - one had a mobile phone and was recording me.  So I waved and simply asked them (and their followers) what they thought happened after they died.  She kept recording as I took them through the law and the gospel - it was a great chat (pictured)!

I had a couple of tough chats too.  One in particular, the guy started bucking against sound logic.  I was just too tired to argue, so I simply said so and skipped him.

On Sunday afternoon, after church meeting, I headed into Cashel Mall for some street outreach.  It was great to have Mike join me!  I had three solid chats.

The first was with a lady and three older kids - they all had a Christian background, but she seemed a bit confused by the gospel message I was sharing where I was emphasising the fact that works DON’T save us, but only Jesus does by his sacrifice on the cross, which will lead to good works.

The next was a lovely chat with a Christian down from Auckland on holiday.  He seemed impressed with what I was doing.  We discussed evangelism and theology among other things.  He had seen American Gospel on Netflix, and had been impacted by it.

The last chat was with a guy who had served time in prison for violent crime.  We talked for a long time, where I had to do a lot of listening, and gently folded the law and the gospel into the conversation.  He ended up leaving with four different types of gospel tract to read.

I made it home in time for online outreach with the team.  I was paired up with Riley from the USA.  He did such a wonderful job in sharing the gospel - always ready with a great analogy and always keeping the conversation on the gospel.  I ended up having two conversations with Muslims.  One from the Philippines, and the other from Egypt.  Both were open to hear the gospel.  The guy from the Philippines was very open, and seemed impressed by the gospel.  But then he remembered that he was a Muslim, and he suddenly closed up tight - I lost him.  Yet, the seed has been sown.  When I got into the second chat, I could see the same thing happening, so I raced away from talking about Islam and back to the gospel as quick as I could.  He said he would check out more online.
 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Evangelism is terrifying work.  I understand why most Christians avoid it.  Today I had to deal with a new atheist (a “new” atheist is one that says religion is bad) who started the conversation by belittling me.  I hate conflict, so I want to avoid evangelism too!  And yet, when I wrestle with the Bible, theology & logic and I understand what is at stake: eternal life in hell - this motivates me to push past my fears.  I think of those that have gone before me: Jesus, Stephen, Paul - and I go anyway.

Evangelism is, therefore, lonely work.  Very lonely.  Ironically, if more Christians could push past the fear, it wouldn’t be so lonely, and it would actually become easier - we would have each other to lean on when we encounter those difficult situations - that will come!

So, from a lonely Christian to the terrified Christian - come and be terrified with me (and the few others), trust in the strength of the Lord - who knows what it’s like and will always be with us.

Thursday and Friday were long days of outreach for me.  But I feel like I’ve pushed through a barrier in the amount of outreach I do.  It seems like the more I do, the easier it is to do more.  And this life is so short compared to eternity.  I’m grateful to the Lord for provision to be able to do what I do - and I’m grateful to the Lord for those he uses to provide - thank you!

The gospel + abortion outreach is still happening, but due to the amount of counter protesters we’ve been attracting - and the hostility they bring.  The ability to actually engage people with the gospel has been diminished.  For this reason, this outreach will be occurring at non regular times (for the time being at least).  This weeks outreach was wonderful - with many opportunities to engage people in respectful conversation about why abortion is murder, and the hope for true forgiveness found in Jesus.  We had the usual support, and non-support.  One lady yelled from a car window as it drove past: “Stop abusing people!”  The irony was lost on her - I just shook my head and said nothing in return.

Andy and I were in Cathedral Square.  Andy open air preached to a decent lunch time crowd.  He attracted a heckler who he started to engage with.  Sadly, others became involved and it started escalating out of control.  For this reason, I decided to head over and talk directly with the heckler.  It defused the escalation.  Andy was able to continue preaching, and I had a great conversation with the heckler.  He was obviously extremely resistant, so I didn’t have an opportunity to share the law and gospel with him - but we did exchange names and parted with a hand shake.

Before the open air preaching I had some great walk up opportunities.  I engaged two construction workers, who it turns out Andy had talked to on a previous day!

But the highlight was a conversation with a couple of ladies who, sadly, it turns out were high on drugs.  Yet, they came to grasp the gospel - one slower than the other as she processed the implications.  At the end of the conversation, they both wanted tracts - and they were excited about how they could learn more on TikTok.

I had thirty one solid law and gospel conversations online over this period too.  With people all over the world, including: the UK, South Africa, Argentina and the Dominican Republic (for the first time).  I’m out of time to write about any of those chats.

Again, thanks for your prayer & support.  But most importantly, be encouraged to get involved - as scary as it is.  Think of the God you love, think of eternity, act out of love - no matter the cost!
 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

On Tuesday I was back in Riccarton for a couple of hours, before joining the team in online outreach.

It just so happened that the Unicef team were in Riccarton at the same time as me.  Of the three of them, I’m already familiar with one - whom I didn’t really talk to this time.  But God gave me opportunities to chat to the other two - one of whom is new.  The new guy had a Hindu background but wasn’t religious - he heard a brief summary of the law and the gospel and happily accepted a follow up tract.

In spite of Unicef being out there trying to talk to people as well, I had a pretty busy outreach.  A young mother stopped and came to grasp the gospel - she obviously had a familiarity with Christian terms, but I don’t think she’d ever really understood the gospel (I could be wrong).  She seemed impressed.  She had to move on, but she put a follow up tract in her wallet.

I had a couple of guys from India stop to chat.  One wasn’t interested and moved on (and ended up getting into a conversation with one of the Unicef team), but the other stayed to talk further and heard the law and the gospel.  Sadly, he wasn’t grasping what I was trying to say and eventually decided to move on himself.

The highlight chat was at the end with a young Irish guy with Catholic parents who wanted him to discover the truth for himself.  He thought keeping the ten commandments would get him to heaven - well that set up the conversation well.  He came to grasp the gospel well, and then see it in contrast to the message of works of the Catholic church.  He took a tract and even followed up, posting a comment on one of the needGod.net videos: “Spoke to Glen today outside riccarton mall.  Amazing stuff has really changed my way of thinking.  Thank you Glen”.  Don’t thank me, thank God!  I’m just a messenger.  But it was encouraging to hear the after thoughts of someone I recently talked to!  May he truly be repentant, to the glory of God alone!

Oh, and earlier, I had an interesting follow up opportunity.  The first time I encountered this guy, he had some fish’n’chips and wouldn’t stop to talk to me.  I’ve seen him walk past with fish’n’chips about another 3 times since then (on different days!) - I would always say hi, and make a comment about what he was having for dinner.  Well, today he walked past without fish’n’chips, but he actually stopped to chat!  I was able to attempt to share the law and the gospel!  Sadly, he just didn’t seem interested or open.  God willing, I’ll have further opportunities to chat with him! :)

The rest of Tuesday and all of Wednesday were spent online.  About ten chats per day, with all sorts of people - even skeletons and dinosaurs!  May God receive glory through people coming to understand who he is: holy, just, loving & merciful - even if they reject that mercy.  Lord, help us in this task.
 

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Wednesday Jan 13, 2021 from 1300 -1500

It was an all time first for street evangelism evangelist like us to wear a mask and chat with people all wearing masks. Andrew invited me to join him to serve in Sunnybank as he anyway had to come to Brisbane South to work in the OAC office and I anyway had to do Narrow Band Light treatment getting pass Sunnybank thus we both made this our excuse to keep serving at this new wave of Covid-19 new virus mutation threat. We just let God to show us if outreach can still be effectively done with imposed restraints by the fear of people contracting the newly mutated virus. It was evidenced that God's work cannot be stopped despite of all those obstacles. Both Andrew and me got similar chances of conversation of different kind of people all wearing masks. Recap below were my chances of outreach which many of them were initial rejection to Andrew's first approach but OK for my 2nd approach : -

1) Two ABK Australian born Koreans missed the bus by just second. I misjudged that their next bus would come many minutes later. After handing them the tract , I wasted sometimes to understand their background but their bus came very quickly when I was about to start the gospel sharing. But considering their positive response and openness to the gospel message, I believed God certainly has His way to start working on them by letting them to read the tract themselves first.

2) The 2nd person was a Japanese man who rejected Andrew's initial approach. I nevertheless still was moved to have a 2nd approach checking if it was because of language problem. Miraculously, he opened up completely to chat with me and quickly let me know he is Japanese but his English is good enough for unhindered two ways communication. I was tempted to share a bit more about my Japanese experience to get identified with him as a Kansai Japanese from Osaka. So I ended up only having limited time for sharing the full Gospel.

3) My third gospel target was a Hongkonger(港人)，despite this coonection 縦如是，this person was very unwilling to open up for a chat.不願打開，He claimed he once chatted with some other OPN 513 colleagues, got the tract and read it with fair good understanding, so he did not want to waste time to go over it again. Obviously the was cheating himself and was as far away from Jesus before he read the tract. I anyway still chose to stay in a friendly mode to induce him to show me his real understanding of the gospel. I failed but still manage to brief him again the nutshell of the gospel( 簡述). Just pray for God's work to soften this man's stone heart.

4) Then I bumped into with Nanny Yim 嚴婆婆 who claimed she and her other family members are all Christians living in Cleveland area. I was surprised when she told me she once visited CFC and quoted a number of names that I did not recognized initially. I anyway first managed to stress the importance of assurance of salvation before the bus arrived. after a while , I finally came to my sense she referred to Amy Yim and her daughter Nicole who did once played piano for us. I pray that she may be moved to visit CFC again in His time.

5) A Couples Hong Kongers possibly still courting. It was a pity they were not friendly for an unhindered chat. It was weird to find out that the girl claimed herself a Buddhist while the boy friend claimed himself a Christian. He asked me in return whether I am protestant or Catholic Christian to show off his Christian knowledge. But his lack of Christian witness to not bearing the same yoke with non-believers already sold him out. I tried a bit longer to try to test out his understanding of salvation but failed as he turned to have his personal conversation with his girl friend.

6) Then God led me to speak to a Mandarin speaking young man from China. Surprisingly he was very open and receptive to the Gospel. He thanks me for the gospel sharing and promised to read the tract in detail when his bus arrive. It made my day for a positive result when I called off for the day to leave for my Narrow Band Light treatment appointment.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

A nice Sunday afternoon to be out sharing the gospel with people in Cashel Mall in Christchurch.  Sophie joined me, and we spent a couple of hours.

It was an eventful outreach.

Three Christian teen guys stopped to chat.  They recognised me from previous outreaches in the city and Eastgate.  I encouraged them to get involved with the great commission.  

Then a man stopped, intrigued by Sophie’s flip chart - I took the conversation which turned into a bit of an apologetics battle - I was able to drop the law and the gospel in - but he wouldn’t relent in the argument so I could really talk with him.  He was nice, and interestingly he hugged me!  He had to go, but I gave him a tract and asked him to get in touch so I could continue the conversation.

I then had a lovely chat with an Irishman who was trying to teach me Māori!  I was able to swing the chat to what happens after life and he stayed to hear the law and the gospel but then disengaged.

I went for a walk to wave hello to Lance the busker, when I came back to my flip chart, Sophie was in a conversation on her chat, and there was a guy sitting close by who seemed interested, so I went to say g'day - it turns out he is also a Christian and was interested in what we were doing.  We had a friendly chat where I was able to challenge him on some of his evangelism methodology.

The outreach ended with another apologetical exchange with two teen guys I stopped with: “what do you think happens after you die?”.  We talked about how we know God exists, why bad things happen to good people (actually, the question should be: why do good things happen to bad people?).  In the end, in his resistance, he started denying logic principles.  I let them go - it’s hard to debate with people who aren't being logical.

We ended going overtime, which made me slightly late for the online outreach.  I was paired up with Matt, and it was great listening to him share the gospel and get feedback from him on the chats I was having.

On Saturday I was also online and had 15 solid gospel conversations with people.

Lord, thank you for life, and salvation.  May you save some of those talked to over this weekend for your glory alone.
 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Since my last report on Wednesday I did some extra online outreach on Wednesday evening (11 conversations), Thursday I was online (22 conversations), and Friday I was online in the morning (6 conversations), before spending a couple of hours in central Christchurch in the early afternoon (open air preaching & tract distribution), after which I spent more time online (12 conversations).

I don’t report this to boast - I have nothing to boast about!  But that is over 50 conversations online in a period of just over 2 days.  That’s 50 solid law and gospel conversations - not including all the short encounters with people who might get challenged with apologetics, or the law before they disconnect.  I’m now in the habit of praying before and after every conversation.  I often see a lot of resistance or indifference, so I pray that God’s word will be powerful and effective - even if I don’t see it.  That the law would bring conviction and that the conscience would be activated, that God would be glorified because of the conversation, and that he may save people, in his timing, by his grace alone, through the power of the gospel.  Sometimes people seem deeply impacted though, as they learn something they had never thought of before.  Some are very thankful, some say there is nothing stopping them from accepting the gift of Jesus, even after considering the cost.  They are pointed to avenues for follow up: the Bible, a local church, and needGod.net - where many conversations are had via Instagram direct message with the team there.

I guess with this report, I’ll try to touch on some of the highlights over the last two days.

I’m going to start with my time offline - in central Christchurch.  The weather wasn’t the best, rain.  But I decided to go in anyway.  I’m glad I did.  I had a unique opportunity to touch on the law and the gospel with 3 Pakistan cricket players who were walking through Cathedral Square.  I’ve been to Pakistan to watch cricket (in 2003) so I used that as a way to start a conversation with them.  I quickly swung the conversation from the natural to the spiritual - maybe too quickly.  One of them, Shaheen Afridi was instantly put off and disengaged.  The conversation petered out after that.  But one of them took a gospel tract from me.  Oh for the days when there were many tourists coming to Christchurch to hear the gospel!  In the meantime, I’ll do my best to take the opportunities that come.

Before this, I open air preached in speakers corner to the people passing by.  Not many people were there due to the weather - but there were enough.  No hecklers, so I was able to freely work through the law and the gospel without interruption.

Later, Binu joined me for tract distribution in Cashel Mall.

Ok, now for the highlights of my time online.

A lady who wanted to be a Christian, but was subtly self righteous - seemed to agree with the gospel, but bucked against the law and disconnected.  A Hindu guy who spoke Telugu, Hindi & English (pictured).  The concepts I was explaining were very foreign to his thinking, and he was very resistant.  I was lovingly honest with him, he couldn’t take it and disconnected.
I then had a string of four wonderful conversations.  The first was with a “Christian” lady who was trusting her good deeds to save her.  She was super appreciative of the conversation - having come to grasp the good news of grace.  The second was with a couple of girls, one of whom said that from today she is believing that Jesus died on the cross for her sins!  I then had a very effective three minute conversation with a lady who said her goodness would get her to heaven.  I took her through the law, and she responded with “you’re making me cry”.  I then explained the gospel, and she started to grasp it when she suddenly disconnected.  The last one was with a Christian guy, whom I encouraged to join us in sharing the gospel.

Of the 22 conversations on Thursday, the one I’ll mention is the one I had with a guy in Pakistan.  I think my first (online) conversation with someone from there.  He was surprisingly open, expressing that he had never heard such news before.  I pointed him to needGod.net.  Oh, this was interesting, I had a chat with a girl who had a Ukraine / English Bible - sadly she didn’t understand the gospel, I was able to labour with her for some time.

Oh, and another highlight from Thursday was a chat with an Asian looking girl, who sounded American, but was actually German.  She had all the right answers initially, but as the conversation progressed it became evident that she was actually looking at her good deeds to save her.  I confronted her to start trusting alone in Christ alone to save her.  It turns out she is a Baptist PK and leads worship.  She opened up about the pressure she feels to perform.  She came to tears as I encouraged her.  I challenged her to confront the hypocrisy in her environment - as hard as that will be.  I pleaded with her to reach out to some of the girls on the needGod.net team via Instagram.  It was a wonderful chat.

On Friday morning, a long chat with a guy who had a Hiindu / Bhuddist kind of belief, yet a Muslim father and a mother who had maybe become Christian?  He had a lot of apologetical questions to ask after coming to understand the gospel.  An interesting chat with two girls sitting in a car - I think from the USA.  One of them in particular became engrossed in the conversation.  They heard the law and the gospel.  Oh, and then a wonderful chat with two ladies who spoke spanish and a touch of English.  In a 12 minute conversation, with the assistance of translation tools on both ends, they came to hear the law and gospel!

On Friday afternoon, first up was a chat with a Muslim from Morocco via Arabic translation.  He was pretty resistant, but he connected the needGod.net team via Instagram.  A wonderful chat with a Catholic kid.  He was so appreciative of the conversation, declaring that he was going to skip, but he was so glad he didn’t.  “This is amazing”.  Later, another wonderful chat with a Catholic guy from Nigeria but living in the USA.  He had a lot of good Christian lingo, often going on about grace, but it was obvious that he was trusting in his works.  I was pretty stern with this guy as he tried to resist and fight, but he relented seeming to understand that I was doing it in love for him.  He has much to process.  Lord, save him!

The 2nd to last chat of the day was with a young man who considered what I shared very seriously.  Another wonderful chat.  And the final chat of the day was with a young man who gave stellar answers to my initial questions.  I was surprised, because he didn’t have a Christian background.  It turns out he had become interested due to various reasons - including friends, and had obtained a copy of the Bible and started reading it!  It seemed like he had become a Christian, and was in need of discipling!  He wasn’t part of a church, so I pointed him to one.  It was a very encouraging chat, showing the power of God’s word in someone’s life.

Well, if anyone has made it this far, well done! :)  Thank you for praying for this gospel ministry.  May God receive all the glory alone.
 

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Wednesday January 6, 2021 from 1300 to 1500

Despite it was still the "New Year Rest Period" for Street Evangelism at Sunnybank and Toowong, I still went to join Andrew who decided to turn up after his OAC office work in the morning. We stayed together at the Bus Stop on the west side near Sunnybank Plaza, We both got many chat opportunities while having short break to allow us to take photo for each others. Today, God led majority of Cantonese speaking people to hear the gospel with a rare exception of an African man and a girl of Australian/Japanese cross breed. God definitely has His special plan and election of those to hear the gospel for their goodness sake. The weather was as hot as yesterday, but Andrew and I had no time to bother about the heat but concentrated on catching up with people for gospel seed sowing work as recap below: -

1) MY first target was an African man. He half jokingly asked me to not waste time on him but talked to some body else. Despite of this, I did not give up but relate to him as a person first to remove the self protection armor. Although full gospel had not yet been shared on arrival of his bus. Nut I was sure the love of God might have been impart to this man.

2) The Vietnamese old man was the person that the African man refer me to have a chat. SO naturally I caught up with him after the African man left. Despite he is a Vietnamese, yet he can speak perfect Cantonese as he had spent long time in Hong Kong. He is a man of rationality emphasizing that there is no absolute right or wrong as it is determined by the individual life perspective and personal experience. I pointed out to him that exactly because we all rejected God and live a self centred life, it appeared there is not absolute truth and rigid definition of universal core values. But God our creator did have set His law through the Bible. Failing to observe God's law will end up committing sin against Him which needed to be judged and punished. The Nutshell of Gospel has accordingly been conveyed this elderly Vietnamese man.

3) A family of three possibly from Beijing consisting of the Mum and an elder son called Siu Hwa and a much younger brother took their seat at the bus stop. Before they entered into their family chat, I intercept and talked to Siu Hua and he was quite open to talk unlike most of the people from Mainland China. The bus scheduled arrival allowed me 6 minutes to share the full gospel to Siu Hua who appeared very receptive. Pray for God's blessing for this family starting from Siu Hua.

4) Three High School (三高中) girls did their transit at his bus stop. Again I intercepted their conversation and was able to chat with the one sitting next to me. She is from Shenzhen (深圳的妹) who looks more simple and pure from her dress in compare to her two friends both in more fancy dress and made up. She showed good interest (有興趣) in the gospel message and indicated this is her first time hearing the gospel. I trust God will have further work on her then here friends while they are still in Australia ，

5) Then I met my next two targets who are both from HKG(香港二人)，Andrew jokingly said one of the guy looks like a mini Hung with same dressing of mine symbolized by our vest. (他郷遇故知) It was a pity we only have very brief time to chat but I left them each a Chinese Tract and English one.

6) Nina looked to have a western looking face profile. Normally young Aussie show little interest in religious topic. But she appeared very friendly and opened as such I was able to go through the full gospel presentation. Then she disclosed she actually is half Japanese(Mum) and half Aussie (Dad) and her father is a Christian, yet she has no knowledge whatsoever about the gospel, so obviously her father only keeps his faith to his own personal life without sharing with the wider public including his family members.

But I believe the divine encounter with this Aussie/Japanese cross breed girl will open up a new page of life for this young and beautiful girl.

7) Then after being Rejected by a Chinese woman, God let me catch up with another Chinese woman to chat. She appeared open to the gospel but it was a pity the bus came too quick to have interrupted the chat.

8) Finally I caught up with an arrogant and self-righteous old Chinese Christian also from Hong Kong. He use the excuse he is readily a baptized Christian to decline further conversation. I tried to use the two diagnosis questions to review his state of faith and assurance of salvation. Unfortunately, he refused to answer and reiterated he is all good. But I really have doubt if he is a fake Christian from mainland China but claiming he is from HK.

Battle Log for Sunnybank by Andrew: -

On Wednesday, Pastor Hung and I again headed out to talk to people about Jesus at Sunnybank and though there were several good conversations, it was the final one that was most encouraging.

Shung Hui is 21 years old from a Chinese background and shared that he had no real religious upbringing. He had heard a few things about Christianity before but not really understood why it mattered. I shared the gospel with him at length and he came to clearly see how Jesus’ death on the cross is the much needed answer to our guilt.

Larry only heard half the gospel before his bus came, but he was intrigued enough that he said that he would read the tract immediately once he was on the bus.

Voiter is 29 years old and from Poland, and like most, was raised Catholic. We took some time to make sense of the gospel and to show how God would be just in condemning us, but how he extends the offer of forgiveness to us because of the finished work of Jesus. I challenged him to consider the claims of Christianity because ultimately, we will all die.

Helen is 78 years old and has some Christian upbringing and beliefs, but trusted that she was a good enough person to get to heaven. We talked through the commands and we both agreed that if God is good, we were all in big trouble because we have all done bad things. I then showed why it makes no sense to hope in the good things we have done because those good deeds can never erase our sins. At this point she said that she just needed to hope that God would be merciful even though she could see no reason why he would. I then explained how Jesus’ death on the cross solves our problem and how God’s offer of forgiveness needs to be received. I showed that mere belief in God was not sufficient and that we instead need to repent and place our trust in what Jesus did for us. Though it was hard for her to consider, she admitted that there was a good chance that she was not saved but that from that moment she intended to no longer trust in her goodness but in the finished work of Jesus! I encouraged her to read John’s gospel and she said that she really wanted to do that as soon as possible.

Please pray for all those who heard the gospel and the many who took tracts. May God save many for his own name’s sake!

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