Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 74

Christchurch (NZ) Team

A very busy couple of days of outreach.  Hot weather.

On Thursday morning I was in the City with John and Matty before joining Andy at the Eastgate and Northlands bus stops in the afternoon.

The stand out conversation at the bus stops occurred just after a guy refused a gospel tract.  I turned and another guy was walking past, so I offered it to him - he took it and I was able to ask him what he thought happened after life.  It caused him to stop and engage.  He wasn’t sure if there was a God, so I used the building / builder analogy - before I had even finished explaining, he understood what I was saying, and he had an ah ha moment (not the last one of the conversation).  Most people I talk to consider themselves good people, but he was rare in that he admitted he would be going to hell right off the bat.  I confirmed this by explaining God’s law.  I then had the joy of sharing the gospel with this guy, where the real ah ha clicked!  So wonderful.  He understood that the gift of Jesus would change him.  He had the tract I gave him (with a way for him to get in touch), and I told him how he could easily get a Bible for free.  He turned and continued walking - Lord, I leave him in your hands, only you can change him!

The gospel + abortion occured on Friday morning.  It was a public holiday in Christchurch, so there weren’t as many people about.  But due to counter protesters, we had a very busy outreach.  You can read about it here.

There were a lot of open air preachers in the Square at lunch time.  At least four of us preached.  I went first.  One of our regular hecklers became vocal - I tried to engage him without much success.

I also had some great one to one conversations in the Square.  The highlight was with a lady - there was a guy and another lady with her.  The guy refused my tract and walked off, but the lady accepted it and I was able to get a conversation going - her friend stayed to listen.  When she grasped the gospel, she also had an ah ha moment.  She said she had never had it explained that way and it made sense.  I challenged her, that now she understood the gospel, that she must urgently respond to it, as we don’t know when we will die.

We moved to Cashel Mall - it was very busy due to the holiday.  Some West Indies cricket players were there.  I had two opportunities to try to engage them - they pretty much ignored me.  I tried.

I was handing out Christmas tracts.  All I did was say, “Merry Christmas” to people and offer them a tract as they walked past.  I was surprised how willing people were to take them compared to the regular tracts I hand out.  You can get these tracts for free on the NZ web store.  Get some, find a public spot and start handing them out with a “Merry Christmas” - it couldn’t be an easier or friendlier way to share the gospel!

My tracting lead to a wonderful conversation with two ladies who lived the “lier” page on my flip chart so much, one of them took a photo of it.  They came to realise their good deeds would not get them to heaven, but that it was the gift of God - but I had to labour with them.  They came to understand the correct place of good works in the equation.  It was a lovely chat.

I finished the day of outreach with two hours online.  I hadn’t been online since Tuesday (the start of my week) and it was so good to be with the team again.

I ended up having one last conversation before calling it a day, and it ended up being the highlight conversation of this whole report!  It was a short chat with an ex-Mormon kid.  The gospel blew his mind (his words).  He said that from today he was trusting that Jesus died on the cross for his sins, and he said he would start reading the Book of Mormon again!  I was able to explain that what I was explaining was not Mormonism!  And he could see that, I pointed him to the book of John in the Bible, I specifically pointed him to John 3, and Romans 3, 4, & 5.  Lord, don’t let the seed be plucked away, save him for your glory!
 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

A very interesting two days of outreach.  More street outreach then usual.  The Canterbury A&P show would have been on this week - if not for cancellation due to Covid-19.  A couple of evangelists from the top of the South Island came to join me in outreach anyway.  So good to be able to work with them today!

On Tuesday I spent some time online before heading to Riccarton.

I had a wonderful chat with a Muslim man from Algeria in North Africa.  He was open enough for me to be able to share the grace of Jesus through faith alone - but he was deeply resistant to it, the idea was so foreign to his thinking.  But he was nice about it, and I was able to gently labour with him.  He would talk for a while, and then I would bring him back to the serious reality of our sin and the only hope for forgiveness.  Slowly it started to dawn on him.  I think he started to grasp what I was saying, but he was still resistant.  He started gently attacking the concept of the Trinity as illogical.  We parted on good terms - him with a link to needGod.net.

I also had a long chat with a guy who was quite self focused.  He’d had Christian instruction in his life, but didn’t understand the gospel.  So I was able to share it.  He also left with a link to needGod.net and encouragement to start reading his Bible again.

Roger joined me in Riccarton.

I was into gospel conversations pretty much straight away.  I had three highlights, with: a Christian, an Atheistic Philosopher, and a Hindu.

Two teen girls went past, one wanted a tract and so approached, the other decided to take one too.  When asked: “what do you think happens after life?”, the second girl said, “heaven, of course, I’m a Christian”.  Amused, I asked her what she had to do to go to heaven, and she said, “be a good person”.  So I explained God’s law to show them that we weren’t good.  And then explained the gospel.  It clicked very quickly for her.  She seemed a bit sheepish.  She said she would discuss this with her youth group.  I encouraged her to do so!

The philosopher (studying at the university) had a religious background, but had moved away from it.  We talked about knowledge, how we know God exists, theodicy, and how we know right from wrong.  Amazingly, I was even able to touch on the gospel.  But he really wasn’t open. I could see him gently digging in and I could see it just being a mental battle.  He was blind to how he used himself as the judge of things over and over, and he didn’t even realise it till I gently pointed it out.  It was a good conversation, but I decided to end it with a handshake that he accepted.

The last conversation, with the Hindu, was fascinating.  He was extremely open to the conversation, but he was the most resistant to the idea of salvation as a gift of anyone I’ve ever talked to.  Over and over I would explain, and then ask a question to see if he was starting to grasp - and over and over he would revert straight back to the idea that his goodness would get him to heaven!  At one point I put my hands on his shoulders and looked him directly in the eyes as I pointed out that he’d done it again!  But it was a pleasant conversation, and I didn’t mind labouring with him till he finally seemed to grasp and hold the gospel in his mind.  But still, he just wanted to add it to his patheon.  The final page on the chart challenged him on the cost of accepting the gift, and when he realised he would have to let go of Hinduism to trust that Jesus had died on the cross for his sins - he admitted it would be difficult.  I was able to explain why it was worth it!

John and Matty were with me on Wednesday.  With a change to my schedule, we were in the city in the morning, and I took them to Riccarton in the afternoon.

We all had some great opportunities to share Christ.

In the morning I had two great walk up opportunities.  And I had a great chat with a lady who was intrigued with the flip chart and wanted to go through it.  No real resistance, she tracked with me through to the end.  After explaining the cost, she said she wanted to accept the gift.  So I pointed her to the Bible and left the ball in her court to get in touch.

In the afternoon, I left John and Matty with their flip charts and walked down to the bus stops to see who would be open for a chat.  I stopped at a road crossing, and waited to cross.  Two girls came and stood behind me.  We crossed, once we got to the other side, I knew it would be a bit awkward, but I turned to offer them tracts.  One of them was so glad I did!  She had talked to me a year ago and wanted to talk again.  She remembered that I’d shared the law, and then I’d shared some good news.  I asked her what the good news was, and she couldn’t remember.  So I took the fresh opportunity to go over the law and the gospel again.  They even skipped a bus so the conversation could continue.

Meanwhile on his flip chart, Matty had a very long chat with a lesbian couple.  I then set up my flip chart and I had a great chat with a couple of guys who were Bhudist.  They came to grasp the gospel and were challenged to count the cost of accepting it.

Glory to God alone.
 

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Wednesday Nov 11, 2020 from 1300 -1500

Today I was supposed to go solo as Johnny had to stay at home for Termite treatment. I struggled for a short moment if I should still go by myself. God was gracious enough to move Andrew to come without my pre-knowledge. So we still could start our ministry as a team in prayer. I went over to the west side of the foot bridge to join Andrew for mutual back up and support. God made us work non-stop. I got 8 divine appointments amongst which the one with The Sibling form Hong Kong was most inspiring and movement because of our empathy as the Hong Kongers going through the toughness moment in the history of Hong Kong.

1) I started first while Andrew went to fill out his drinking bottle. Hence when he joined me, he took photo for me with the Hindu couples. The man claimed to have Christian family background but obviously had forsaken his faith in Christ. He was very arrogant to dismiss the significant of Jesus salvation, but the lady was more polite and actually willing to listen. But I could only manged to utter the key nutshell of Gospel before the husband dragged his wife away.

2) Then I left Andrew at the footbridge and walked over to the bus stop where I found only one Chinese sitting there. He was not interested and virtually refused to hear the gospel but I still had managed to have a chat bringing in all the elements of the gospel until he reached the limit of his patience to ask me talk to somebody else.

3)I did find a Korean girl besides me and she appeared very receptive to the gospel. I was able to finish sharing just in time before the bus arrived.

4) Then came a Malaysian Chinese 馬華 girl Chai Chin彩琴，she was very polite，and appeared very receptive 接納 to the gospel.

5) Then I moved back to the footbridge and met another Korean girl by the name pf Ishin. She is doing working holiday here and quickly claimed herself a Christian. She has almost 100% assurance of salvation but the reason was a bit blurred not pointing to Jesus directly but mentioning other good deeds like attending church. After clarification, she was happy to assured that now her concept of salvation is very clear now.

6) Then I met up with a middle aged Chinese woman by the name Hu胡大媽 from China中國，She was willing to listen 願聽

so I walked with her to the bus stop. I was lucky to waste no time but shared her the full gospel first before the bus arrived.

7) Then Ben and Emily who are sibling and are student of QUT & UQ respectively from Hong Kong. I spent no time to find out our common root and it helped them to associate with me as Hong Kongers. I was able to use the dark power now ruling ove Hong Kong and USA to demonstrate the need for all people to seek light to expel the darkness in our life. And Jesus is the only means ad avenue for us to leave the darkness of sin into the brightness of our faith in Jesus. They were happy to take selfie group photo with me to commemorate our encounter by the divine appointment.

8 ) Lina from Goodna who is a Mormon. But she claimed she believed and accept Jesus as God and as her Saviour though she only have 70% of assurance of salvation. I took the chance to supplement teaching about the three fold salvation as such our certainty of identity changed because of the redemptive work of Jesus will be guarantee despite our temporal life have not yet been transformed back to perfection. So the temporary imperfection will not affect our assurance of being saved by Jesus. God anyhow have guaranteed to make us perfect one day before the New Heaven and New Earth come.

Recap below is the battle log of Andrew Walkington

Yesterday in Sunnybank there were a few great conversations and at least 2 young men seemed to really grasp the gospel for the first time.

Danny has a Christian upbringing but as I dug into what he believed, it was clear that his hope was in good works to make him right with God. He tries to live a very moral life and hoped that he would be ok when he stood before God. I showed him that even as moral as he had tried to be, he would never be perfect and that his relative goodness could not save him. I then walked him through what Jesus did on the cross and why this changes everything. He came to understand that his trust needs to be not in himself but in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and he stated that this is now where his hope lies.

I then spoke with a very proud man who gave a convoluted label for his beliefs that had something to do with messianic understandings of Judaism, though he wasn’t Jewish at all. He talked and talked about how most people miss the meanings of the texts and how the church has it wrong. He denied hell, denied that God is angry with people and argued that we are all God’s children. When I read several passages to him about how we are enemies of God in our natural state he argued that this was just my interpretation. He then started arguing that our judgement is only going to be based on the quality of our works and brought up the story of the widow’s offering as an example, which happened to be the very passage I preached this past Sunday! I pleaded with him to study Ephesians 2 and Romans 1-8. He thanked me for chatting and said he would read Ephesians 2 that night.

Harris is 17 and from a non-religious home. He had gone to church a bit as a kid and said straight up that he believes in God, Jesus, heaven and hell. When I asked him about the afterlife, he really hoped that he was good enough for heaven and had not understood the cross at all. I shared the gospel with him carefully to show him that we will never be good enough and that what we need is a saviour who will die in our place. He then asked a heap of really great questions about why we should be good if our goodness can’t save us and I was able to clearly explain how our repentance is a heart desire to turn from our rebellion, not the quality of our works. He ended up clearly understanding salvation and took a gospel of John to read.

Please pray for each of these folks that they would place their trust in Jesus and not in their works to save them.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong Village on Tuesday Nov 9, 2020 from 1330 to 1500

It was a very fruitful afternoon with the three of us Johnny , Winnie and Hung serving together as a team. All of us had got numerous chance of long chats with good results. For instance, the first chat that Johnny had led to a conversion readily. It was also an afternoon of apologetic discussion with people of deep catholic Muslim and Jehovah Witness background.

Recap herewith is my six divine appointments : -

1) MacLaylup is a country girl from Townsville to study here at UQ. She is from a Christian family. But she came to faith by herself as an adult. She claimed to have 100% assurance of faith after initial hesitation as it seems to be of spiritual realm issue that people seldom contemplate above it., she anyway asserted that she is 100% sure she is saved but the reason is not clean cut just have faith in God. After some hints and guidance, she eventually understood her reason of salvation is purely because of Jesus only as such she should have 100% assurance of salvation. After that ,she was drawn deeper in understanding why Christians are not yet perfect after conversion as it is part of God's three fold salvation plan that the redemptive grace of Jesus only changed our identity back as God's people. It enables God to exercise His sovereign power in our life to start the sanctification work to transform us back to perfect through the work of the Holy Spirit. She was so grateful for the educative conversation and was delighted to take a selfie with me.

2) Betty a Chinese non believer girl took tract from Johnny but did not stop to chat. Until she arrived at the bus stop, God changed her mind to stop and listen to my full gospel presentation. She found it logical and sensible. I introduced her to join Power to Change even if she is still at the stage of seeking.

3) Juline an old lady who did not prepare to stop claiming she got the tract and had a conversation with Winnie last week. She thanked us anyway indicating she is a Buddhist as such there is no need for Christianity. I anyway felt the urge to share again the nutshell of the gospel and was able to convinced her that even Buddhist need Jesus. She was impressed and promised to ponder seriously and thank for my sincerity to share the importance to be saved by Jesus.

4) Then a couple of Chinese guy and Aussie girl carrying heavy shopping goods getting passed Johnny without stopping. I anyway approached them when they got to the bus stop. The Aussie girl was more open while the Chinese Guy was not so keen to hear the Gospel. I anyway rushed to give them the nutshell but cut short by the arrival of the bus.

5) Betty another UQ students unexpectedly stopped to chat. She was from Chongxiang showed great receptiveness to the gospel. She also was happy to take the Power to Change info slip to get in touch with them.

6) Fiona is a very serious Catholic Christian with the righteous attitude to defend for the orthodox Catholic belief against all biased and distorted accusation on their faith. She was impressed with my opened attitude to give her the benefit of the doubt to see what is her perspective of orthodox Catholic belief that has long been misinterpreted by Protestant Christian. She came specially for me and give me a list of information source as well as Catholic Father that I can make inquiry with.

As for Winnie, she had 9 conversations as recap below that kept her very busy throughout the 80 minutes of ministry time.

感謝主今天的帶領，讓我遇到九人傳福音的機會。今天有六位是來自中國，一位是馬來西亞，一位是菲律宾與澳洲混血兒，一位是澳洲婦女。 第一位，Gloria,UQ 學生。聽完福音後，願意去教會尋求更多真理。 第二位名叫芝，馬來西亞女學生，需要時間想想。 第 三及第四位也是中國留學生，講完福音後， 巴士到逹。 第五位，Mary，UQ 學生。聽完福音，會细心想想。 第六位，Benda,中國留學生，也是需要時間想清楚。 第七位，Joe, 菲律宾與澳洲混血兒，明白我們是罪人，需要耶穌基督拯救。會看完單張後，思想這個問题。 第八位澳洲女士，天主教徒，我們談論很長時間關於基督教與天主教的分别。後來她也與關牧師談論這問题。 第九位，中國女士，會想清楚免费禮物及天堂與地獄問题。 感謝讚美主！願神赐福给今天聽到福音的人士，打開心門，接受耶穌基督為救世主。阿們！

Recap herewith is the summary by Johnny Hsieh

感謝天父上帝的帶領和祝福，今午Toowong 的街頭福音事工有ㄧ位從蘇格蘭來的UQ學生 Wirll聽完福音之後願意信靠主耶穌。請為他禱告，另有Isaac 澳洲青年，還有一位張姓JW 耶和華見證人的女信徒試著想改變我的信仰， 我拿出手機上的聖經與她討論。

         

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

I spent my weekend outreach time online with the team.  I was intending to be in the city on Sunday afternoon, but there was heavy rain - so online it is!

First up was a conversation with a lady who came to grasp the gospel.  I then talked with a young man from Sydney - he loved the logic I was giving him and also came to grasp the gospel.

I then had a long conversation with two Catholics.  The guy on camera wasn’t really taking things seriously, but the one off camera was quite devout and staunch.  It was quite hard dealing with them both at the same time.  I decided to focus on the guy on camera, and directed my questions to him specifically.  He slowly started sobering up.  The guy off camera was very much still listening though - interjecting from time to time.  In this way, they both came to grasp the gospel and came to really appreciate the conversation.  I was patient in dealing with the devout guy as he worked through things like why purgatory is not necessary.  They both thanked me at the end.

Next up was a chat with a young lady - the first thing she said was: “how old are you?”.  I ignored it and asked her what she thought happened after life.  She forgot her question and was engaged.  She came to hear the gospel.  Praise God.

God then brought me into the presence of three guys with Christian / Catholic backgrounds.  It was a short, ten minute, conversation where they came to grasp the gospel for the first time.  “Thank you for this”.  “Appreciate it man”.  “God bless, honestly, God bless you - I really appreciate it”.  “Thank you”.  Lord save them!

A guy with a Hindu background who didn’t believe in God, but did believe in “energy” mixed with scientific knowledge.  He ended up asking questions of his own philosophy - so I just said, “how do you explain that without God?”  He just said, “true” - and opened up from there.  He heard the law and the gospel.  He was genuinely impressed - it made sense.  But then he started slipping back to his “energy” thinking again.  I cut him off and brought him back to the gospel.  By the end of the conversation, he seemed to be counting the cost of accepting the gift.  He is in God’s hands.

Sunday was online training outreach.  I was paired with Ryan on the livestream.  Over the last two weeks I’d been practicing the things I had learned when I was paired with him last time.  We had a wonderful two hours of outreach, watching people come to grasp the gospel - even professing faith in Christ!  Glory to God.

One chat that stands out in my mind was one with a young man who started talking about (sinful) stuff you don’t want to hear!  Ryan promptly cut him off and moved the conversation forward.  He came to grasp the gospel, and then said he was trusting Jesus' sacrifice from now on!  He then started asking baby Christian questions!  Like: how do I know how God wants me to behave?  Ryan pointed him to a Bible, and he immediately pulled out his phone and downloaded one, Ryan was able to direct him to the book of John, which he found.

Latter I was connected to a young Muslim who insisted that in “his” religion: x, y, z.  I addressed the fact that there is only one truth, and then marched on with the gospel - he heard about Jesus and then disconnected.  We leave him in God’s hands.

Ryan chatted with a girl with a Christian background who had never grasped the gospel.  The penny dropped - “oh, that’s actually so cool”.  She had someone with her, and Ryan was able to include them in the conversation too, and make sure they understood the gospel.

The whole livestream can be reviewed here.

All glory to God.  Grant us the strength to keep running this marathon in honour of you.
 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

It was a hot day on Thursday and a cold day on Friday but there was lots of gospel ministry both days.

Andy and I meet at Eastgate for the bus stop outreach on Thursday afternoon - our intention was to head to Northlands half way through.  But we never go there.  Everytime I would finish a conversation, I’d look up and see Andy in a deep chat, so I’d start a new conversation.  I had a couple of highlight conversations.

The first I want to mention was a chat that had started with three guys.  One of them had already received a tract from me earlier and they were discussing it as they came past me again.  I was able to stop them and start a conversation (the other two received tracts as well).  But they were all in different places making the conversation difficult.  Andy came to my rescue and engaged two of them (pictured) leaving me to focus on the other guy.

This other guy was very engaged in the conversation, he heard the law and the gospel and then he started asking good questions.  It felt like he was probing for a weakness in the logic of what I was explaining - was he going to resist and attack?  Or was he genuinely interested?  It turns out it was the latter - although he admitted that his sin was hindering him from accepting the gift of Christ - he knew he would change, and he was counting the cost.  We departed ways - he left his two friends who were now in a deep conversation with Andy.

So I moved down and approached two teens waiting for a bus.  They accepted tracts and were open for a conversation.  And it was a wonderful conversation - although a bit odd.  The first girl would get the answers to my questions right but then forget the answers.  The other girl struggled with the questions - but a conviction came over her.  They were smoking a cigarette and she became very aware that it’s something she shouldn’t be doing.  But she came to an understanding of the gospel.  Interestingly she had a desire to start reading her Bible again.

Near the end of the outreach, I fell into a flow with my gospel sharing.  It was like I was mentally standing back and watching the interaction - amazed at how it was unfolding.  Really, all the glory is Gods!

Two guys stopped and engaged - joking around.  But by the end of the conversation the smiles were gone and they were seriously contemplating what was being discussed.  While I was explaining the gospel, I was using checking questions to make sure the message was being grasped - it wasn’t.  One of them kept reverting to “being a good person” as the reason he was going to heaven.  I would patiently roll back and re-explain.  At the end of the conversation, the other guy said, “look, I’m not going to do this now - not for a few years”.  He wanted the gospel, but he wanted his life his way too.  I challenged him multiple ways on how faulty that logic was.

In the morning, before heading to Eastgate I was sharing the gospel online for a few hours.  My last conversation was amazing.  It was with a girl from Brazil.  She thought her good deeds and keeping the commandments would get her to heaven - and so I took her through the law and then the gospel.  She came to grasp the good news.  She started to cry.  And then she said that the reason why she was crying was because she had been praying to God for help the previous evening, and now God was using me to answer that prayer!  What a privilege and honour to be used by God like this!  I encouraged her to stop trusting in her good deeds to get her to heaven, and to instead trust in Jesus alone.  I then encouraged her to become disciplined in her Bible reading.  She was already a part of a conservative evangelical church (Presbyterian).

Friday had a weather forecast for rain, and there was light rain in the morning - so we cancelled the gospel + abortion outreach.  Andy and I spent time in online gospel ministry instead.

But the rain never really materialised.  We ended up heading into the city for open air preaching and one to one gospel chats.

While Andy preached, I did my usual rounds among the construction workers.  I had already talked to many of them, but I encountered one who I hadn’t.  He came to hear the law and the gospel, and he thanked me - he said he had something to think about.

I then approached two more who were happy to engage.  One of them became disinterested and said he had to go back to work.  His friend needed to go too - but he wanted to stay and hear the gospel.  He had a Christian background but had never understood the central message of Christianity.  He thanked me before he too had to head off.

In Cashel Mall, the highlight conversation I had was a walk up.  The guy smiled as I approached.  It almost felt like he wanted me to come to him.  He was very open and followed the logic of the law and the gospel easily.  At the end I asked if he had questions - he did.  One of them was: “where does confession come into it?”  Before I left him, I challenged him to respond to the gospel.

I also had a sad conversation.  I saw a guy I recognised, and I approached him.  Many years ago we had been part of the same local church.  But sadly, he is an apostate.  Gospel ministry today is very discouraging - not seeing fruit -- and setting rotten fruit.  And yet, God is incontrol of the seasons of life.  We can trust his word, and leave the results in his hands.  Lord, help us to be faithful in spite of what we see!
 

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Wednesday November 4th from 1300 - 1500

Johnny and Hung were pleased to have Allan joining us today. All of us were given many divine appointments of long chat of which many of apologetic nature to explain the difference between Christianity and other world religion. Without exception, God used both of us to convey the truth about God , His salvation and the Bible teaching while maintaining a lively and friendly two way conversation with people of other faith. For Johnny, he had his first chat with a Buddhist from mainland China for 40 mins, then one after another over 15 minutes chat ending with a pair of Muslim youngsters from Pakistan. Johnny first then taken up by me to have a long chat over 45 minutes. They even asked us to leave our contact so that they can refer some of his Muslim friends to chat with us.

Recap herewith are my seven conversations:

1) Miss Mong 孟，from China 中 is a QUT year three student. She admitted she has been brought up as an atheist in China. But ever since she came to Australia to study, she started to have many opportunities to get in touch with all sorts of religion. She once went to the Mormon meeting eager to know more about Jesus. She did not stay at Mormon but attended the local Australian church at Annerley where she lives. With piece meal bit of knowledge about God and Jesus, she was not able to make further meaningful pursue. But the long chat with me today have cleared up all her trivial understanding and was convinced that Jesus is the only way to eternal salvation. I recommended her to go to SIC when the church reopen after rebuilding construction is finished.

2) A Nepalese old man let me walked him across the bridge and have listen a nutshell of the gospel message.

3) A Chinese old woman at the bus stop had initial reluctant to hear the gospel, but God moved her to change heart and let me finish the sharing of the nutshell of the Gospel.

4) An Aussie Career and the old man he was caring passed by. He stop the old man to take tract from us, but God changed his mind to take the tract from me and have a short and brief chat of the gospel message.

5) An Indian old woman with initial reluctant but still let me share the gospel in brief and I let her read the tract at home when the bus came.

6) A Korean Christian man can speak limited Mandarin but no English as he is married to a Chinese wife. I checked his assurance of salvation and he replied correctly to have 100% certainty. But the reasons he could have that certainty was not clearly communicated to me due to limited Mandarin.

7) Two Pakistanis Muslim Tafe students by the name Shani and Muneeb started to have a apologetic debate with Johnny for a long time. I took over as Johnny had to leave earlier. They are very serious and sincere to explore the real truth though they still endeavor to uphold their Islamic faith which they do not have a full understanding either. We leave contact for him to invite more knowledgeable Muslin friend to find out which way is the way.

感謝天父上帝的祝福和帶領，我們Operation 513 共有三人參加今天的街頭福音事工，第一位停下腳步的是一位從湖南就讀QUT的賀同學， 他第一次聽到了福音，我們聊了三十分鐘，請為他禱告。另外有丹麥來的Nelson ;馬來西亞的謝先生，台灣邱同學，兩位回教徒青年，祈求上帝憐憫恩待，拯救他們，另外有兩位信仰堅實從南非來的Philip； 澳洲老太太Bev,祈求上帝繼續保守看顧他們，將來在天上再相聚，一起同聲讚美上帝，數算上帝的恩典。

 

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Tuesday.  First up I talked with a very bright young lad who came to understand the gospel.  But then I was transported into the dorm room of a young man half stoned waiting for his next online class and frustrated by the pandemic.  I gently reasoned with him.  He understood and resisted.  Eventually he fell off his chair!  I didn’t know if he was joking or what.  Assuming he could still hear me, I continued to share the hope of the gospel.  After a minute, he sat back up and re-engaged.  I decided to bail from the conversation.  I dropped a link to needGod.net into the chat.  He looked at it and said: “needGod.net”.  I disconnected.  God have mercy.

Two ladies heard the gospel, before I was transported to Morocco to have a gospel conversation with a young muslim who was resistant.  We fell back to text and Google Translate to take us between English and Arabic (pictured).

Next up a very bright young lady who clearly understood the logic and law I explained to her - she couldn’t argue with it.  I shared the gospel, she came to understand why Jesus died on the cross.  She stared at me and disconnected.  She understood it, and rejected it.  Wow.  Then I was transported into a chat with a guy who had a nice sounding keyboard but didn’t want to talk.  I talked, he typed.  He was very intelligent - but it was blinding him.  He loved philosophy, and so was very engaged, but he blocked all attempts for me to explain the gospel.  He eventually bailed on me.

Another kid was open to hear the gospel - praise God.  And then yet another kid was too!  I asked if he had any questions, he said: “no, but thank you”.

Next up was a Mr. Angry.  Actually, I very rarely encounter conversations like this.  He hated religion with a vengeance and he was completely closed to reason.  I bailed quite early.  But then I was connected with a guy from Alabama.  He thought he understood the gospel, but he didn’t.  It was a long and wonderful chat where he came to grasp grace.

On Wednesday I spent an hour online getting conversations started, but no opportunities to share the gospel.  People were resistant (like a Muslim from Palestine) or would bail on me early.

Later I spent a couple hours online with the Aussie team.  My first chat of note was with two young ladies (one of whom did all the talking).  She had seen some of the video’s on TikTok and was excited to be talking to me.  She heard the law and the gospel and said, “Thank you for that message” at the end.  Next a very thoughtful young 14 year old guy followed the logic of what I was saying - something he hadn’t heard before.  After I’d shared the gospel, I asked him if he had any questions.  He thought for a moment and then said, “no, this is one of the more interesting conversations I’ve had with a random stranger.”

Another young muslim was next, this one from Egypt.  Friendly but resistant.  Then a Catholic girl who was trusting her good deeds.  She came to grasp the gospel and seemed deeply impacted.

There were more chats.  Praise God for the wonderful opportunities to share his love.
 

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong Village on Tuesday November 3, 2020 from 1330 to 1500

Today Winnie could not come as her hearing aid was out of order taken to repair that can be back next Monday. So only Johnny and Hung teamed up to serve again at the Benson Street Bus Stop. The afternoon sun was very bright though temperature was 28C, but the backdrop condition was a bit rough for street evangelism. People all tried to hide under shaded area to avoid the high noon scorching sun. As a result, both of us had less than average number of completer chats. Nevertheless, God still had His sovereign Will and Plan

For me, I spent some time to catch up with Mark Reeve before I had the five divine appointments of which the chat with a Catholic Christian seems to have a special apologetic bearing that will continue in to next weeks or so as the lady Fiona seemed to have been impressed by our steadfastness to share the good news which she thought a right perception of the Catholic catechism would make the message more complete. I was inspired by God to lend her a listening ears first. So next week she would bring some more reference info to share with me.

Recap below are the four other conversations.

1) Waruna a UQ student from Sri Lanka who claimed himself to be a Buddhist. As usual, I did not attack his religion belief and assert that all religion are good but only good at appealing people to be a good person. Yet none of the world religion provide solution to the judgment of sin. He was convinced, but the bus just came to end our chat.

2) A student from China 中國學生, he was also all receptive to the gospel shared 都對. Only leave it to God the convert him at His time.

3) Laxa of Scottish origin was from Sydney. She has never hear Gospel before. She was with another Caribbean girl who left her key at the shopping centre. Thus Laxa was left at the bus station to have a thorough chat with me. She was also fully convinced by the gospel. I encouraged her to get in touch with Power to Change if she finally decided to accept Christ or at least want to pursue. When the Caribbean girl came back, she refused to take our tract as such it was obvious the act of God to send her away for me to have a deep chat with Laxa.

4) Billy a self proclaimed Vegan. Johnny chatted with him first and I joined later. He was baptized as a baby, and he admitted that means nothing. He seemed to think good deeds or good life style may play an important factor in salvation. It was a pity we did not have more time to correct his wrong understanding because of the arrival of the bus.

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

A busy Sunday afternoon of outreach.  There were lots of Christians out sharing the gospel.  At least four churches were represented.

I turned up slightly early and before I knew it one of my old regulars appeared.  I was grateful I remembered his name.  Sadly he is homeless again.  The last time I talked to him, he was still resistant to the gospel - denying the logic of the reality of God.  And nothing has changed.  At least he was willing to sit down and talk to me.

By this stage, Sophie and her brother had arrived.  It’s so good to have Sophie back after over a year overseas.  Welcome back Sophie! :)

I was just starting to show them the new flip chart when we were interrupted by a man.  He was deeply hurting - he had lost his wife in the Mosque shooting last year!  He was rejecting his religion, not able to comprehend why God would allow such a tragedy.  I did my best to listen to this guy, and express my care and sympathy - he accepted a sideways hug from me.  I did my best with my words, knowing that cold hard logic is not always the best.  I was able to touch on the hope of the gospel, and answer some of his questions about suffering.  He had to move on, but he accepted a tract, with an explanation of how he can get in touch.

By this stage more Christians were turning up - many who were new to street evangelism.  So I did a quick demo of the flip chart.  A crowd draws a crowd, and in the middle of my presentation I had people from the street getting involved!

It wasn’t long before I was into a conversation with four teens.  Christians gathered to watch.  It was a great chat with the teens asking great questions and giving me great opportunities to demonstrate things I’d been explaining in the training earlier.

After this, other Christians took over the running of the flip chart, and I paired up with Sam for some walk up evangelism.  We had quite a few rejections, but managed to have two conversations.  The first was with a guy who was stoned (according to Sam) - that might explain why he didn’t seem to be grasping what I was sharing!  The second was with a guy who was resistant.  I did my best to share the gospel.

On Saturday I was online with the Aussie team.  I live streamed first.  I had a conversation with a group of guys who included works in their explanation of why they would be going to heaven.  So I shared the law and the gospel.  They didn’t disagree - one even seemed impressed with the way I explained it.  Another wanted to chat further.  We were talking about the bad things that can be encountered on the online service we were using - and so I explained the tools I had in place to protect me.  I was shocked to learn, at this point, that he was a youth pastor!  I was grieved.  By this stage, the guy impressed with my gospel explanation had left the view of the camera.  Oh God, convict them - save them!

Later, while no longer live streaming, I had a great conversation with a Jewish boy who was religiously all over the place (post modern, reincarnation).  He was smart and was also impressed with the gospel presentation I gave.  He called me a scholar!  But he was completely unimpacted by the wonder of the gospel.  Just so grieving.

And yet, I had at least two gospel conversations where the person I was talking to did seem deeply impacted. The second guy thanked me - “it was what I needed to hear”.

Glory to God alone.  Lord, thank you for using us, in spite of us.
 

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