Battle Log

• Battle Log
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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong Village on Tuesday Oct 27, 2020 from 1330 -1500

Today the team of three, Johnny , Winnie and Hung switched our mission venue to the Sherwood Street on the front of the main entrance of the Toowong Village. It was to avoid repeated encounter with many gospel targets at the Benson Street bus stop. Yet we unavoidably still meet up a couple of them. The chance of stopping for a chat was much less than the Benson Street Bus Stop. Johnny might have three or four, Winnie just two and I had 5 full chat with many shorter encounter as recap below: -

1) Jacob UQ student was willing to let me walk with him to the Toowong shopping Centre giving me chance to finish sharing the full Gospel in a nutshell.

2) An Indian woman was hurrying to work, so she was not attentive enough to hear the gospel despite I finished sharing the nutshell of Gospel.

3) Brendon a Christian attending Hillsong has 100% assurance of salvation but the reason is not clear enough failing to answer the 2nd question that the reason being admitted to heave nis simply because of Jesus and Him alone.

4) An arrogant Filipino Christian top the tract but refused to answer the two diagnosis questions.

5) An Indian father rushed to leave as child on the car but he willingly took the tract.

6) An Aussie Office lady need to go back to work but willingly took the tract.

7) Erica an Singaporean Malay Muslim. She was humble and receptive to the gospel.

8) Another Chinese girl rushed to work though accepted the tract.

9) A Chinese couple, the girl rejected but the boy accepted the tract.

10) Sem Trim an UQ student from Bhutan doing part time job near by. She just finished work and was about to go back to UNi for exam. But she still willingly spent over 15 minutes to chat. She was very receptive to the Gospel and agreed that Buddhism and other religions are only good at appealing people to behave as a good person but could not resolve the problem of sin. Introduced her to Power to Change as well at the end.

感謝主今天的帶領，雖然今天下雨，但 Johnny 带我們到有庶蓋的地方，避免濕身。謝謝 Johnny. 這處行人非常衷忙，不願留下數分鐘，最初遇上澳洲女士，初時願意留下聽，但提到耶穌為我們的罪釘上十字架，她馬上婉拒，離開。第二次遇到也是澳洲婦女，她説她是基督徒，我便引用關牧師所教的，測試她，死後可否能够上天堂，她非常肯定回答。 第三位男士，相信是非洲人，他説上周已经聽了我們所講的福音。 願神憐憫，賜福今天所有聽到福音人士，打開心門，接受耶穌基督為救世主。真心仰望，信靠祂。阿們！

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

During the weekend, apart from an hour of letterboxing Christmas tracts, I was online.

In the morning on Saturday, the highlight conversation was with a lady from Colorado who labeled herself neo pagan.  She really liked to talk, and was telling me about all the things she believed.  I would gently interrupt her to ask her how she knows these things to be true and then I’d listen to her avoid answering the question.  But I didn’t let her off the hook, I just kept coming back to it.  I explained how we know that God exists, and then moved into the law.  She didn’t like the direction it was going and doubled down.  The last statement she said was: “I will not submit to your God - ever”.  May the conversation provoke her, and may she have further opportunities to wrestle with the truth - God have mercy on her soul.

Later in the afternoon, I joined the Aussie team for a couple of hours.

First up I was talking to a sharp thinker - even while drunk!  He was deeply resistant.  He allowed me to explain how we know God exists and then the law but wouldn’t let me get any further.  He bailed on me.

I then had a long chat with Muslim from the States.  He came to understand the gospel, but he politely rejected it - even though he couldn’t explain how God can be merciful in such a way that it doesn’t compromise justice.

Next up was a chat with a Christian guy who seemed to really appreciate the way the gospel was presented.  We focused our discussion on the motivation for doing good works - gratitude, not salvation.  And why we would want to discipline ourselves.

The last conversation I have a record of was one with a lovely lady.  She came to grasp the gospel and really appreciated it.  She had initially been hung up on the issue of homosexuality - so I was able to address this with her.

The picture is a collage of snapshots from each of those conversations.  Welcome to my world of talking to person after precious person about the gospel.  Praise God for the opportunity to do that.  Thank you to all those supporting this gospel effort!

On Sunday afternoon I decided to join up with the Aussie team for the training outreach.  It was great to be paired up with Ryan where I received much encouragement and sharpening - thanks Ryan!  It was a bit of a blur, but I remember the conversation with two Catholic girls the most.  They went from thinking that “going to church and doing your best” would get you to heaven, to understanding that only Jesus’ death on the cross would get you to heaven.  One of them asked me if I was Jesus!  It’s time for a shave!
 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Thursday was wall day for me.  I didn’t know how I was going to face yet another conversation.  To get myself rolling, I decided to go online and start with text chats.  Matt & Hope joined me online soon after and I was able to get some encouragement from Matt (thanks brother).  I also listened to Hope sharing the gospel (with Matt training) - so encouraging listening to her!  She got into a conversation with a hard line Catholic and Matt decided to take over the conversation.

It was an absolute joy to watch Matt going to the word of God to reason with this Catholic over the subject of justification.  Ironically the Catholic contradicted his intellectual argument (works are required for justification) with the filthy language he was using!

I soon disengaged and got back to my own gospel conversations, I was rolling now!  I had a long conversation (thirty minutes) with a guy from India who just couldn’t grasp the wonder of the gospel of grace.  I persisted in labouring as long as I could.  It was very discouraging.  May he have more opportunities to engage with the gospel - may the Spirit cut through the hard soil!

I then joined Andy at the Eastgate bus stops.  I was a walking zombie, he was a kid in a candy shop, having gospel conversation after gospel conversation!  So awesome to watch and listen to his encouraging updates between conversations.

I managed to have some good conversations.  The one that really sticks in my mind was a long chat with a guy drinking beer.  He used to be a “Christian”, but had “given up”.  He had never understood the gospel.  A laboured with him.  By the end of the conversation, he was asking me what church I went to - I gladly gave him a contact card, along with a tract and an encouragement to pick up his Bible again.

Andy & I decided not to go to Northlands, instead we would finish the day online - it would give Andy another opportunity to get used to the new tools he has for online evangelism.

The afternoon online was hard work.  Another chat with a guy inoculated by false Christainty - I had to labour to get him to understand the gospel.  Then a young girl who had grown up in “Christanity” who when heard Matthew 5:21-22 her eyes went wide.  She came to grasp the gospel quite quickly, but seemed completely disinterested.  It grieved me.  I then had a twenty minute chat with an intellectual who became very frustrated and was very resistant.  His standard was himself.  He was the judge of the universe.

Friday started with the gospel + abortion outreach outside the hospital.  A lot of the regulars were away, but we had three newbies join us for a team of seven.  In God’s grace we had a quiet outreach.  I had one conversation with a young man who didn’t seem too well mentally.  He was racist.  I was able to touch on the law and the gospel with him before he walked off.

Lots of Christians, and not many hecklers in Cathedral Square.  Marty preached really well.

Later I preached as well and I attracted an Oriental Orthodox Christian heckler - who denies justification by faith alone.  I enjoyed engaging him in the public square.  Later I was able to sit down with him and try to reason - but he just wasn’t open.

To finish the day, I spent three hours online.

I had an encouraging chat with a guy from Florida, he seemed to come under some conviction and seemed to deeply consider the gospel, which I had reminded him of.  After this, I had a string of really good gospel conversations - praise God.

The highlight was with a nine year old boy.  When I first saw him, I felt really sad that he was “online”.  He was text responding only, and I was amazed at how fast a typer he was.  He seemed to be very smart - it turns out he has autism.  He believed in God, and he through his good deeds would get him to heaven.  So I started taking him through the law.  He burst into tears!  Such a sensitive conscience is very rare!  He really felt his sin.  So I quickly shared the balm of the gospel.  It was a wonderful conversation where he slowly came to grasp the gospel (he kept reverting back to “good deeds” initially).  I pointed him to needGod.net and the Bible.  And he agreed he wouldn’t go “online” anymore.  I asked him to talk to his aunty (who looked after him) about the conversation we had had.  Oh Lord, save this young man for your glory.
 

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Bribie Island (QLD) Team

Saturday, October 17 — After a time of prayer, our team hit the beach at Bongaree for our monthly outreach.  The lovely weather brought local families flocking to the water for picnics and kept a constant flow of traffic up and down the pathways.  God blessed our time and allowed us to distribute several hundred Gospel tracts and a few of Bibles. 

  As various team members spread out giving tracts to anyone willing to take or talk, the Good Person flipchart, positioned at the crossroads, attracted attention and conversations.  One group of young people took the test and quickly discovered they were not as ‘good’ as they had anticipated.  They heard the full Gospel, kept engaged throughout, but didn’t seem to grasp the seriousness of their situation before God.  They did take tracts with them, so we pray for God to stir them up to repentance and faith.

  Throughout the two hours, several people stopped to chat or do the Good Person test.  One of the team who was walking along the path spoke with Lewis, Matthew, and Zain.  These young teens thought they had their whole lives ahead of them to get right with God, until it clicked that they weren’t guaranteed a long life, and that they could die tomorrow.  Matthew was in a hurry to head off; Lewis looked more amused than concerned, but the third, Zain, kept the conversation going through the whole Gospel.  At the end, all three accepted for Bibles, and they were encouraged to make peace with God through Jesus.

  Two young women, Montana and Cassidy, had attended a ‘Christian’ school, but were totally ignorant of the true Gospel.  They listened quietly, and agreed to think about it.  One had a Bible at home, but Montana took a tract and a Bible.

  We ask you to pray for Bree, a young woman we spoke to a number of months ago, and with whom we were able to share the Gospel once again.  She remembered us as ‘the Christians,’ and appeared to be open and friendly towards the things of God.  We praise God for this, and we pray that she would come to faith.

  Later in the day, another group approached the chart.  These were deeply interested, and they followed along as they heard the Gospel.  It was encouraging to hear their logical questions which showed they had been thinking hard and listening attentively.  As their objections were met, they seemed to grasp what was being said, and they all took literature and promised to think very seriously about it.  This openness was a huge answer to prayer.

  We give thanks to God for a time of huge encouragement and for all the people who received the Gospel.  Please pray for those who heard the Gospel for the first time.  May their lives be changed by the truth, and may God bring them to Himself.  Pray for those who are hardened and angry about the Gospel.  May their consciences have been pricked, and may the light break through into their darkened minds.  God’s Word is powerful, so we pray that it would triumph here at Bribie Island.

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Oct 21, 2020 from 1300- 1500

We were grateful to have Andrew rejoining us on a regular basis at Sunnybank. It was proven that it was a right and wise decision as all of us got many chances to share individually and as a team. In between, we ourselves had time to share experience and fellowship. God is good and was with us all the time all the way.

Meantime, the Mormon missionary from overseas turned up in a group of three. It means more so we have to stand our ground to serve on the street regularly, not giving up ground to the Mormon as much as we can.

Recap below are the conversations I had for the day.

1) Daniel chatted with me some times ago. When asked if he has made up his mind to accept Jesus as his Saviour. He said he has not as he is scare of making the decision because he has no confidence he will sin no more. I clarified with him that Jesus redemptive grace covered the sin we committed before and after we received Christ. And it is God's design to save us by three fold salvation package. Receiving Jesus as Saviour only granted us the identity of God's children again which was done and in effect immediately which has become the past deliverance. It enables us to be under God's sovereign control for gradual life transformation process through the work of the Holy Spirit which represented the ongoing current deliverance until Jesus come again. Then we will receive a new perfect body then representing the future deliverance. Let's pray for Daniel to full understood this and will find no guilt or shame to receive Christ.

2) A Couple boy and girl friends took the took and allowed me to share the gospel to them. It was a pity the bus came a bit too early before I wrapped up. Pray that God will still have His way to follow up on their salvation.

3) A good old man happily took the tract and proudly declared himself a good person. He gave example of his good deeds is to pick up litter on the ground voluntarily. I challenged him with a lot of imperfect sinful thought but he seemed to have been convinced he is all good as such he does not need any god or religions. The bus also came before I can proceed to guide him to have self awareness on the sin he has committed. Pray that God will follow up this case.

4) Philip a fair dinkum Christian that Johnny approached first. When he found we went to the wrong direction and came back passing me. I walked with him to do the diagnosis to assurance of salvation and shared about the three fold salvation package of God.

5) An Indian girl took the tract while she was on the phone. She did read the tract after the call before the bus came.

6) A senior lady from China surprisingly stopped to have a long tract. She tried to excuse by claiming she has Buddhism as her religion. I nevertheless helped her to understand that all religions are good but could not address the issue of sin and there are no sense of punishment of sin. She was convinced and promise to ponder and decide. 中囯大媽佛教

7) Barack a young man from Congo. He was a bit hesitant to chat as his English level is not good. Nevertheless, I still finished the sharing after we finished walking the bridge.

8) Another Lady from Henan, China also tried to excuse for my approach because she is a Buddhist. But after listening to my sharing, she also admitted the Gospel appeared sensible and logical, then the bus came.

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

On Wednesday, my first decent gospel interaction was at the corner of Cashel and High.

I approached a middle aged guy who was open to talk about deep things.  We talked about how we know God exists, and why there must be hell.  I was just taking him through the law when his wife (I assume) approached.  She had been shopping, he had been waiting.  She looked pretty shocked that he was talking to me.  I tried to include her in the conversation, but she didn’t want to have anything to do with it!  She said she was heading off, and was surprised when they guy didn’t follow - he wanted to talk about the deep things of life!  She walked off.  I didn’t want to come between them, and so I told him there was really good news in the tract I had given him - I summarised it briefly just before he turned to leave.

I turned in the other direction, and there was a young guy sitting just across from me.  So I striked up a conversation.  He was tentatively keen to chat.  He wanted to go to heaven when he died, but it was deeply rooted in him that his goodness would get him there.  I would explain the good news, and it seemed to deflect off - checking questions confirming.  As I was labouring with him, we were suddenly interrupted by two drunks!  I recognised one of them well - the last time I talked to him he seemed to be grasping the gospel well.  I was very sad to see him in such a state now.

The drunks didn’t scare off the young guy I was originally talking to, and I was able to keep labouring with him.  But he just didn’t seem to be grasping the gospel!  Amazingly, the drunk guy would answer correctly for him when I’d ask something like: “So what’s the reason why we can go to heaven?”  The young guy finally moved on, tract in hand.

I was then able to focus back on my drunk friend.  His other friend seemed to have ditched him.  He was making a real fool of himself, lying on the footpath and making people walk around him.  I took some photos of him, and he wanted to see them.  I said I’d show them to him if he came and sit next to me - it worked!  We sat and talked for a while, during the conversation he would show me ripped up bits of Bible pages he had in his pockets.

I really want to help this guy more, I’ll be praying for him, and hope to see him again real soon - hopefully in a sober state and able to reason properly.

Further down High Street I encountered an older gentleman who was keen to chat.  He was friendly and talkative, but deeply, deeply resistant to any kind of reason or logic.  I felt defeated and useless.  In the end I let him talk and listened to him, before gently ending the conversation and parting ways.

On Tuesday I was in Riccarton as usual and Roger joined me.  At the start of the outreach I was pondering on why people bother stopping to talk to me at all - it’s amazing, to me, that they do.  Sure enough, it was an outreach with good opportunities to engage people with the gospel.  With one guy, I was able to get all the way through the flip chart - it was a great chat, he was very open.

But the highlight conversation was a follow up with a guy that it turns out Andy had been talking to on Friday in the city!  Previously involved in gangs and crime, it seems he has turned a new leaf and is now a Christian.  But sadly, and amazingly, he seems to be subtly trusting his righteousness to get to heaven - even quoting Muhammad Ali!  I worked with him on this, him being both open and resistant at the same time.  Time will tell where he’s really at.  I hope to see him again.

I was online both days as well.  The highlight conversation was with a very intelligent young man who was agnostic.  The conversation went for nearly thirty minutes.  I was despairing that he wouldn’t open up (they usually don’t).  But to my surprise he did open up slightly.  I could tell he was challenged and needed to follow up on what I’d been telling him.  And, I was able to touch on the law and the gospel multiple times!

All glory to God.  Lord, keep us going, day by day, by your grace.  Help us to trust in you in the face of opposition and hardness.
 

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Operation 513 Battle Log for Toowong Village on Tuesday Oct 20, 2020 from 1330 to 1500

We, Johnny, Winnie & Hung, had the privilege to serve as a team again with God as our team leader. Before we realize, God is changing the pattern of out reach at Toowong. For consecutive weeks, God led many gospel targets we had outreached in the previous weeks to turn up time and again to let us do follow up on their journey of faith in search of the ultimate salvation. Another new inspiration we got was that we might have to change tactic of doing friendship evangelism with those who declined if not rejected our approach. We can withhold preaching to them right away for the time being but changed tactic to make friend first as many of them turn up regularly each week. Recap here below are the battle log for me and Winnie (in Chinese). You will notice some of this examples.

1) Sonia , a tall Aussie Uq girl appeared very friendly who let me chat with her about the tract. I had just enough time to share the full gospel to her, but no time to get her direct response though she appeared very receptive.

2) Munich a Hindu young man who was humble to listen to the gospel and found it sensible and logical. He promised to seriously ponder about the need of his sin be forgiven by accepting Jesus.

3) A young man from Henan, who initially declined to chat with Winnie but accepted the tract and started reading it. I approached him a short while after he started reading the tract and changed tactics to make friend first to reduce his alertness against stereotype religious preaching. He turned his attitude to become more receptive to gospel message which I had run out of time to share when the bus came. Pray that God will use the tract to follow up on his pursuance of faith.

4) Jia Peng 賈蓬 was met by Winnie last week. I followed up on her understanding and had gone through the full gospel again. It appeared she now understood she is a good person but not good enough to hit the perfect requirement of God as such she also need redemptive grace of Jesus. Hope we will have chance to chat again next week.

5) An UQ student from Taiwan 台灣who initially also refused to have a chat about the tract. God inspired me to make friend first by switching into more causal chat. So again pray for next meeting to see if her heart is more opened for the gospel.

6) Gail is a Hindu man from India. He turned down to chat with Johnny at the traffic light and Winnie when he got to the bus stop. But When I approached him as he arrived at the bus stop. He recognized me that we had a chat before at least once or more times. He took initiative to talk to me defending for his Hindu faith which I of course responded with a listening ear. Basically he deemed that Hinduism also advocate there is only one God but they can incarnate and appear in human world in many forms in different cultural groups. They all came with a purpose yet they cannot stipulate. On the other hand , they rejected that there is a supreme being God as they cannot rationalize that there is a God who exists by Himself. God head in Hindu people's mind are just spiritual being created in heavenly realm. After I heard his explanation, I challenged him with the question what is the purpose of the Hindu god for coming to live as a living being. Before I can lead him to know that Jesus came with a mission to save us from hell punishment by dying on the cross. Yet the bus came at this moment in time. No doubt God will have another divine appointment arranged in near future.

7) Another girl from China was reluctant to chat but my new tactic of making friend first worked. She took the tract when the bus came.

8) After we finished for the day and did the closing prayer. We noticed an old woman from Shen Zhen 深圳 sitting on the ground waiting for her daughter who had gone to the Toowong shopping centre. We took the chance to share the gospel briefly to her and gave her the tract.

Battle log of Winnie:

感謝主今天的带领，除了兩位數周前遇到的，主今天讓我遇上七人傳福音的機會。中途遇見了香港來澳洲讀書的偉行，問及他的信仰程度，再次複述上次我們講的福音。

遇到印度基督徒女學生，上次關牧師曾经测试她信仰程度。我再次問她，死後能否上天堂，她猶疑不答。我再次解释给她。

第一位，Marion, 基督徒。不太清楚能否上天堂。我解释给她，她完全明白。還接受我给她的單張傳给朋友。

第二位，Joshua，UQ 學生，願意回教會，尋求更多真理。

第三位男士，不願聽福音。我問及他是否認識耶穌，跟着傳福音给他，送给單張。

第四位，Alex 來自India, 天主教徒，我講及基督教與天主教分别。

第五位，Sam UQ 學生，來自香港，當我講完福音後，願意接受主耶穌，還很高興遇到我分享福音给他。感谢主。

第六位，Oscar，UQ 學生。會细心想想。

第七位，Lindy UQ 學生，來自 馬來西亞，明白真理，願意信靠主耶稣基督。

感謝讚美主。願主祝福今天聽到或再次聽到福音人仕，打開心門，讓主進入他們心中，尊崇敬拜祂。…

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Saturday I spent two hours online in the morning, and two hours online in the afternoon.  In between I watched this super encouraging video on YouTube.

My last conversation of the day was with someone using a professional looking microphone - I wondered why, but figured I had nothing to hide and proceeded with my usual attempt to share the gospel.  He was a very thoughtful guy and gave good responses.  Slowly, but surely I was able to work him through the logic of how we know God exists, and why there must be a place of punishment after life: hell.  He heard the law, and then I moved to the gospel.  He had a very encouraging “ah ha” moment as he came to grasp it!  At this point he really opened up.  He mentioned something about being at a crossroads.  So I said it was no accident God had paired us up out of 50,000 people.  He started weeping.  I reflected afresh in my awe of God and his amazing Gospel.  I asked the guy if he had any questions, and he said: “You’ve answered questions I didn’t even know I had”.  Glory to God!  My hope is that those tears were tears of repentance - but that is God’s job, not mine, so I decided to leave him, after pointing him to needGod.net.

I felt overjoyed!  The wonderful opportunities we are having to share the gospel, and see it deeply impact people.  Glory to God, it’s so wonderful.

Andy and I headed into Cashel Mall on Sunday after church for a couple of hours.  Andy is becoming a “walk up” pro.  As soon as he finishes a conversation, he seems to be straight into another! All that’s needed is some gentle boldness.  People want to stop and talk!  Pictured are a few of those conversations.

Andy got into a great conversation with some Christian kids out doing healing evangelism, he pulled me into the conversation and we ended up giving them a demo of the flip chart and how the gospel message is the only power of God to save.  Healing and apologetics are great - but they don’t save people.  Only God does, and he condescends to do so through us sharing the gospel.  It was a great chat, and there were handshakes all round.  I invited them to get in touch and join us out on the streets!

An interesting conversation for me was with three people heading out to busk with a guitar.  They were intrigued by the flip chart, and I was completely upfront with what it was about.  As we worked through the law, they became very resistant - they wanted to insist on their goodness getting them to heaven.  I verbally came alongside them and tried to coach them that there was good news for those that were humbled by the law, rather than fighting it.  Sadly, it didn’t work.  They insisted that they would be going to heaven, simply because they didn’t want to go to hell!  They disengaged, and I knew it was futile to persist.  They all took tracts.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support of the street / online work of Operation 513. :)
 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Thursday: Online in the morning before joining Andy at the bus stops.  Northlands and then Eastgate.

One of the most interesting conversations I had was with a young high school student from the Philippines.  He wanted to talk, but he was extremely softly spoken.  I took him through the law and the gospel, and he conceded to the logic of what I was saying.  I then moved into checking questions and I wasn’t surprised when he gave “good works” as the reason he would be going to heaven.  So I tracked back and started trying to explain things in different ways.  It wasn’t that he was disagreeing with me, but every time I would ask a checking question, he would rebotically respond with “good works”.  It’s the first time I’ve really encountered someone so entrenched in their thinking.  Early on I learned that this guy was one of Jehova’s Witnesses, and eventually he said, “we don’t believe in hell”.  It was an extremely difficult conversation: I was standing in an awkward spot, I could barely hear what he said, and I was feeling pretty tired.  I ended up giving up :(  But looking back that was wrong.  He wanted to talk - I should have calmly persisted.  Five minutes later, his bus came and he left.  He had a tract.

Friday started with the abortion outreach.  It was sunny, but the wind was strong and cold.  So strong in fact that we could barely hold our signs without the wind trying to whip them out of our hands!  Andy and I had been discussing repentance when a guy came to shake our hands and talk with us.  We have talked to this guy many times before, but I moved the conversation to the gospel again.  I explained how we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus' sacrifice on the cross - he seemed to understand, and so I explained the concept of repentance.  It was interesting seeing his response, he instantly started saying, “yeah, I need to try harder”.  I can’t be sure, but was he thinking he needed to try harder to be saved?  So I re emphasised justification by grace through faith.  The take away for me is that everyone we talk to is different, and finding the right balance in explaining faith, repentance and obedience in relation to salvation can be quite a tightrope.  But we must labour to get people to understand the paradox clearly and correctly!

Due to the strong wind turning our signs into sails, we decided to cancel the outreach early.  Andy and I headed back to his place, where I got him set up for online evangelism on his new computer.  Andy had a long friendly chat with a Muslim who was keen to engage, but ended up being resistant to the gospel.

We headed back into the city for open air preaching in the Square.  There were eleven Christians there, and only one heckler!  The heckler was in a deep one to one conversation with one of the Christians, so the preaching proceeded unopposed.

I decided to hand out tracts and I ended up getting into a wonderful conversation with a lady passing by.  She was Catholic and confident she would be heading to heaven because she is a “good person”.  I just said, “well, if it’s good deeds that gets us to heaven, then I’m not going there”.  She was intrigued, and came back to talk to me.  It was a short conversation, but I was able to explain the gospel, and how we are justified by grace through faith, and not by works.  It started to really click on the second explanation.  She had to go, but she seemed genuinely impacted by the conversation.  Thank you Lord.

After some more one to one gospel conversations, we moved to Cashel Mall.  It was great to have Binu and Graeme with us.

I didn’t bring the flip chart due to the wind.  Andy and Graeme were busy in walk up conversation after walk up conversation.  I had two highlight walk ups.

The first was with a guy sitting near the Bridge of Remembrance.  He had a Catholic background but didn’t seem to be convinced by it all.  So I took him through the logic that there is a God and a hell, and then through the law and the gospel.  He listened and asked great questions.  He then made this statement: “you shouldn’t be sharing it like this, people will think they can live their lives any way they like”!  He was understanding the grace of God!  So I then explained the concept of repentance to him (mainly using the fireman analogy).  He seemed genuinely impacted and thankful, he shook my hand a few times.  I could tell he had some thinking to do.  Lord, change him by your grace!

The second conversation was with a Muslim teen girl.  It was a long, respectful conversation with a focus on how God can be both just and merciful, and how Christianity has an answer, and Islam does not.  She started asking wonderful questions related to the Bible and the Quran.  I ended up pulling Andy into the conversation who is reading the Quran at the moment.  She agreed that she needed to read the Bible and find out what it says.  Suddenly, two girls butted into the conversation.  They focused on the Muslim teen and asked: “are you ok?  You don’t have to listen to these men if you don’t want to, you can walk away”.  I was deeply hurt by the insinuation.  But I just stepped back - I wasn’t holding her against her will, I would let her decide if she wanted to keep talking to us.  Not surprisingly, she did want to keep talking to us, much to the shock and hatred of the two ladies who left but kept watching from a distance.  The conversation was pretty much over anyway.  We gave her four types of tract, including “Which One?” and explained how she could get a Bible in a language that suited her.  It was so wonderful talking to a very bright minded young lady.  Lord, we leave her in your hands.

Andy and I finished the day of outreach online with the Brisbane team.  It was so great having Andy joining us!

Thank you for your prayers and support of the Christchurch (NZ) team!  God bless you.
 

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Operation 513 Battle Log for Sunnybank on Wed Oct 14, 2020 from 1300 to 1500

Praise God that he withheld wind and rain for us to have a dried period of street evangelism ministry at Sunny Bank, despite there was rain all the way when I drove there. We also had Andrew rejoining us today making a team of four including Johnny, Col, Andrew and Hung. God used us to display good team work to supplement each others . It was particularly obvious between Johnny and me. At the end God used us to help out an overseas visiting Chinese lady to find info and the way to have the Covid-19 test enabling her to board the plane departing Oct 5. I actually already shared the gospel to her last week when she was in great worry of losing Wechat for external communication. I gave her words of comfort and directed her to the greater need of salvation. God used someone to help her restored the faulty Wechat account. And led her to meet Johnny then me to help her to find and book Covid-19 testing to enable her to board her flight back to China on Nob 5. During the process, God used me to impressed and reinforced again the imperative need for salvation by every one. I trust she was moved this time by both the message and the action love exhibited by the som many Christians God sent to help her out. Recap below are my others divine appointments today.

1) Madam Pang 彭 was born in China but raised in HKG. Lived in Taiwan then migrated to NZ and finally came her. She noticed my HKG accent so volunteer to speak in Cantonese with me. With the common home town, she was very talkative. I manged to drag our conversation back to Gospel and Salvation. Curiously despite of her mixed Christian 基 and Catholic 天 background, she has 100 % assurance of salvation but for a vague reason including the elements of good works. So it was good that I could guide her to understand her 100% assurance of salvation was built on Jesus and Him alone.有確據但不十分清楚, but it was a bit fishy she declined to take a tract. , 定意不拿單張

2) William and Ifun Two students , one a local Aussie another a Malaysia school boy. Both understood but no move to make decisive action to receive Christ immediately.

3) Johnny talked to a BCAC new Christian by the sure name 蘇 who is yet to be baptized. He referred her to me as she is Cantonese speaking.

4) Another anonymous target took the tract , have a chat but decline to leave any name.不願告名

5) Madam Chai 柴，from Heibei 河北. Story as shared above.

 

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