Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 89

Christchurch (NZ) Team

Tuesday started with some online evangelism, before heading to Riccarton for the weekly street outreach there.  Roger wasn’t with me this time, so I decided to dispense with the flip chart and roam.

The heavy road works are now mostly complete and I had great access to all the bus stops.  I had a field day reaching many people with tracts and via conversation.  I completely underestimated the amount of tracts I would need and started to run low.

I talked to a lot of people who had either claimed to have been Christian or were currently Christian, but didn’t know the gospel.  Time and again people would look to their good works as the reason why they would be justified before God.  And time and again I would have to coach these people to remember the real reason for our justification: a faith in Jesus' sacrifice for their sin.  It is very deeply concerning.

The hardest conversation of the afternoon was with a guy who instantly said he didn’t want to talk to me, but then proceeded to engage me in conversation.  He claimed to have been heavily involved with a major church in Christchurch: youth and music ministry.  But then he said he went to university and did philosophy papers where the clear fallacies of Christianity were apparently exposed.  So I proceed to explain how everyone knows God exists.  It was a wrong move.  This man didn’t need evidence, he needed the law.  He became angry, and his pride rose.  He said he didn’t want to talk to me, so I went to move on, but then he goaded me for walking away - so I returned.  And then he proceeded to accuse me of a list of things I wasn’t doing that he was doing himself!  I should have walked off right at the start when he said he didn’t want to talk.  I felt like I had failed at my attempts to be extra cautious in light of the heightened tensions I’ve become acutely aware of last Friday.  A poignant reminder of how easily we fail, and how desperately we should be praying for God’s help in everything we do.

Wednesday I turned up in Cathedral Square to see a group of Christians open air preaching!  I had a chance to listen, and to get to know them.  I hope to see them again, and get to know them better.

I then headed off to Cashel Mall for one to one gospel conversations.  The highlight was a conversation with a young man from Indonesia with a Buddhist background, who was very open to me patiently explaining the gospel to him - it was very encouraging.

I finished the day by joining the Aussie team for online evangelism.  A conversation that stands out was one with a young man who came to understand justification by faith, but who slipped back into thinking his good works would save him.  This amazes me, and is a strong reminder at how foreign the concept of justification by faith alone is to the mind, and how important checking questions are.

All glory to God alone for the work He is doing!
 

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Online Evangelism

Wednesday online was a wonderful outreach! With 9 team members on over the course of the day and many gospel conversations taking place it was a great afternoon to witnessing.

The introduction started with three chats in a row, seeing God's existence and their guilt and then leaving when asked for the solution for sinners not to go to Hell. Sadly they left without hearing the good news!

This was followed by a conversation with Lillie who typed her responses. Over a slower conversation she came to see that she is in serious trouble, that even though she hasn't done too much wrong by the world's standards that God says the standard for Heaven is perfection. She then saw that her goodness would not be able to keep her out of Hell but that the only way to Heaven is if someone else pays what she owes.

She then was reminded about Jesus Christ and what He did to save sinners and she grasped the good news and was filled with thankfulness, acknowledging that prior to the conversation she was heading to Hell but from now on she would start trusting that Jesus paying for her sin was the only thing getting her into Heaven!

Next was a similar conversation with two teenagers. They both thought they were heading to Heaven and were shocked as they saw they deserved Hell and then grasped the gospel quite quickly and one girl said, "That is so beautiful I think I'm going to cry". She also realised that this would cause her life to change and said she wanted to start reading her Bible!

The last exciting conversation was with 6 teenagers all sitting next to each other on the bed. It was expected that they would disconnect at some point but what was so exciting is that over a fifteen minute conversation they all listened answered and the majority were able to comprehend the gospel. They were encouraged to start reading their Bible as well!

It was overall an exciting day and well worth it! As is the case with every outreach as God's word never returns void, rather it accomplishes all it was set out to do!

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Online Evangelism

Monday on Omegle was an encouraging day and a good reminder! When it comes to evangelistic techniques you can hear "seasoned" or "professional" evangelists share their ideas and thoughts on the best way to communicate the gospel. You can meet a faithful Christian and they will share theirs but the issue is in practice we can often all fall into the same trap, whether by accident or thinking we need something better than the gospel. When trying to draw someone to Christianity we can often forget that it is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, not apologetics.

There is a sense in which knowing answers to common objections is important or being able to ask good questions to draw a person out and get them engaged whilst learning about who they are and what they believe but we must never trade good answer and good conversational skills for the God appointed weapon of the law and the God provided solution of the penal substitionary and atoning death of Jesus.

There were three good reminders of that today the first, penultimate and last conversations. The first was with a guy whose phone froze and he didn't return. He was shown God's existence, his guilt via the law but he through a smoke screen and the conversation ended up on a tangent, defending the reliabiity of the Bible but after twenty minutes of conversation instead of hearing the gospel and having an opportunity to trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of his sins, he was left having some understanding of why we can trust the Bible but no idea what it really had to say. Although this wasn't a complete failure, it would be a struggle to call it "evangelism".

The second last was with an American student who said he had zero Christian friends. He took was being relatively stubborn on the existence of God but instead of getting caught there, the information was left, the law and gospel was shown and then the objections were returned to at the end after he had comprehended the way to Heaven! He was extremely surprised and quite impressed that Christianity was such a complete worldview and was glad for the conversation and he too said he had much to think about!

A similar conversation took place with Emily though at the end of the evening. She had a Buddhist background but wasn't super into it. About 15 minutes was spent trying to establish God's existence and little progress was made until it was pointed out with a simple analogy that her rejection of God was on the basis of her desire not to be accountable to Him, with the simple, "You can't leave the area of His authority" analogy. To which she responded, "Yeah that makes sense I suppose I believe in God now". Then she was taken through the gospel and each little objection was answered briefly the bigger ones brushed aside till then end to the point where she comprhended the gospel and said, "I really will have to think about this, thanks for the chat!"

It was a good day of reminder, the gospel is the power of God for salvation to those who believe. So why not join us, you don't need great apologetics, just the gospel! We'd love to have you along!

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Bribie Island (QLD) Team

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, some of us from the Bribie Island team were privileged to attend the practical training outreach using Omegle.  And wow, what a tool!  We were so encouraged by watching others from Op 513 sharing the Gospel live through this website.

  So...we decided to give it a try.

  After setting the safeguards in place, we started Omegle up, taking turns so that all of us could have a chance to share the Gospel, as well as to listen from the back. 

  It started with:

“Can I ask you a question?“

CLICK!  Ok, new person.

“Can I ask...”

CLICK!

“Can I...”

CLICK!

It took many “strangers" before someone was happy to talk. 

  This 35 year-old man spent close to an hour with one of the team.  He heard the Gospel several times, but refused it.  He eventually said, “You’re a very nice person; you are a good person, but what you believe is @#$! rubbish!”

  But the amazing thing is that he stayed to talk.  Some of his objections were met and answered, but still he was very hardened.  It seemed he had been hurt before by “religion.”  He said Christianity was dangerous and that Christians taxed others, but at one point, you could hear the doubt in his voice.  He wasn’t as sure of himself as he would like to think.  We finally left him with a link to a Christian website and encouraged him to think about what he had heard.

  Our next “stranger" was a young girl who had never thought about the afterlife.  No one had ever shared the Gospel with her, and she didn’t know who Jesus was.  She initially said she believed in Satan, but not in God.  She changed her mind within the first few minutes.  She already knew she wasn’t a good person because she said she “was mean.”  Going through the law of God, she had no doubt she was heading for hell and her solution was to reverse her bad deeds.  When we explained why that wouldn’t work, we also gave her the real solution to our problem of sin—Jesus.

  When she was asked the checking questions, we could see she still believed her good works could save her.  We did another loop through to re-explain the Gospel.  Still she believed that to be saved she had to “respect others and obey God.”  We went through it again, and then asked the same question.  Her answer was to “trust in Jesus and respect others.”  On the fourth time explaining the free gift, unearned and undeserved, we asked what she must do to be saved.  She said, “Trust in Jesus.”  When we asked if there was anything else we had to trust in, she seemed to understand that Christ had paid it ALL.  It was like the penny suddenly dropped, and she was excited.

  She said that what she had heard had really helped her.  She said she had a Bible, and that she would read the book of John and think about our conversation.  She was urged also to act on it and to put her trust in Christ.  We also left her with the link to needGod.net.

  What an amazing tool!  We are one click away from a person who is just sitting and waiting to talk to us.  Please pray for the conversion of these people we have spoken to; pray for wisdom, guidance, and protection for us; and pray that God’s kingdom would grow through this internet evangelism.  May there be many more Gospel conversations.  

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Saturday was a lovely sunny day, and there were LOTS of people in Cashel Mall.  It was great to have Andy Bell join me for the first outreach in the morning (before lunch), and I also ran an outreach after lunch.  If you live in Christchurch, I’d love to have you join me and get involved on a Saturday outreach - get in touch! :)

We set up our flip chart down by the bridge of remembrance, where we were in the sun rather than the shade, and after praying together, we were instantly rewarded with someone curious enough to start a conversation with us.  The guy was very smart, and it felt like God’s providence, cos Andy Bell is very smart too - and it led to a wonderful, long gospel conversation.  The guy was smart, but he liked to take his time to explain what he was thinking, it was very tempting to cut him off knowing what he was going to say, but I did my best to be patient and respectful.  Presuppositional apologetics was a powerful tool in this conversation.  The guy ended up offering to buy as a coffee!  But instead, Andy went with him and bought him one!

I stayed with the flip chart and marveled at all the people about.  By this stage, two other religious groups had set up on either side.

I had a group of polynesian guys go past who were keen to try the good person test.  I quickly learned that they were catholic.  I had a wonderful opportunity to challenge them on how they are justified before God.  If Jesus has 100% paid their hell fine, what role does works have in it?  (Answer: none; works come after.)  They understood after I used the fireman analogy.  I then challenged them, if they were trusting in their good works in any way to be justified before God - it hit the spot, and they really seemed to appreciate the chat.

It was nice to be out on Sunday afternoon in Cashel Mall after finally being able to gather as a church in the morning for the first time since covid-19 lock down!

I had to be patient to get into conversations, in spite of there being lots of people walking past.  In the first half hour, I had only had one conversation.

But my patience paid off, and I was able to have many good conversations for the rest of the outreach.  At one point, 3 young people, one of whom was a satanist stopped to talk.  Suddenly I had another 4 ladies stop with curiosity.  I invited them to join the conversation and suddenly I was sharing with 7!  And I noticed this big group was causing others to stop wondering what was going on.  I was able to share the law and the gospel with all 7, before the 4 ladies had to go.  I was left with the 3 original young people and I was able to continue with checking questions.

To my surprise the satanist said, “you’ve convinced me, I’m going to become a Christian”.  So I challenged her to count the cost of doing so.  After explaining, I challenged her, if she was willing to trust that Jesus had paid her hell fine, knowing the change this would bring in her life.  She agreed that she wasn’t - yet - but I could tell she understood and was challenged.

I give God all the glory for the wonderful gospel opportunities this weekend! :)
 

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Saturday night in Brisbane City was very exciting!

The first conversation of the evening was with Kristen and Dexter. Kristen had spoken with the team on three prior occasions over a year ago and remembered the content of the gospel. Sadly it seemed that although she knew the gospel it hadn't changed her life (which means she probably doesn't really believe it) but she was happy to converse about it anyway.

On the other hand her friend Dexter was a very exciting conversation, he mentioned that his family is Buddhist but he doesn't really believe. He came to see God's existence, his guilt, that he is heading to Hell and that in his own ability he could never make it to Heaven. Then grasping the gospel he noted that it was good news and he would really have to think about it.

It was then mentioned that as a team we had spoken to a love of Buddhists in Myanmar and Dexter mentioned that is where he is from! He shared that he had been training to be a monk in Yangon near the Hledan centre AND had even received a tract and had spoken to a team member at the Hledan centre around 12-18months prior!

How crazy is that! God had bought him, 8,000km to hear the gospel another time! This time it had impact and he said he'd consider it! Contact details were exchanged with the desire to discuss further.

There were two conversations with men named Lucas from Europe! Both rejected God's existence, saw that He must exist but said, "even if He exists I want to live my own way". They both saw they were headed for Hell and left with gospel tracts.

The finale of the evening though was with Tavis, a young man who had some initial arguments against God's existence even saying that he wanted to go to Hell but with some simple arguments and explanations Tavis came to see that it wasn't information or knowledge that was causing him to reject God's existence, it was the desire to live his own way.

He too came to understand the good news of the gospel and although hesitant accepted a tract and said he would consider it, knowing full well that it would turn his life upside down!

Please be praying for these people that the gospel would not just be a message but would take root and be transform their lives. Not only that they would trust that Jesus paid for their sin and therefore be on their way to Heaven but that it would effect them so greatly that they would live differently and desire for others to know this same Jesus!

Now that lock-down is slowly easing, why not join us sometime?

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

As I write this, I’m feeling really raw.  I think I had two of the hardest gospel outreaches in my life - ever.  Positions #1 and #2.  And they both occurred on the same day!

And you have to expect it, so I’m not complaining.  God is with us, even through the hard days.

But it still hurts.  After the first outreach, the gospel + abortion outreach outside the hospital, I said I felt like I was lying on the ground with multiple bullet wounds, and I was bleeding out.  That was the 2nd hardest outreach ever.  You can read about it here

It was about now that I noticed my throat was very dry. After facing that. I felt like I could face anything. I was very keen to get to Cathedral Square for some open air preaching.  I didn’t know what was coming.

Our usual gaggle of hecklers had gathered, and I gladly stood up to start proclaiming the good news of the hope for eternal life found in Jesus.  I’ve decided I want to get better at addressing the hecklers, so while preaching, I kept one ear on what they were saying, and did my best to try to address them, without losing the flow of the law and gospel presentation I was giving.  Marty preached after me.  Andy decided not to preach today, and so we moved to Cashel Mall early to start reaching people in gospel conversations.

Roger joined Andy and I, and it was a bit slower than the first few weeks after lock down - back to a normal amount of people on the streets.  But we still had many opportunities to talk to people about hope.

It was coming nearer to the end of the outreach than the start when we had a disturbance.  I was talking to three guys from the USA when I noticed Andy was in a bit of an intense conversation.  Next thing I notice is that Andy is walking away - always a good option when appropriate.

My conversation with the three guys ended and then I noticed that the guy that had been hassling Andy was now abusing Roger who was in a conversation with two high school students.

I pulled out my phone and started recording, and told the man to please leave us alone, and that I was recording him.  It had the desired effect, he stopped disturbing Rogers' conversation, and started abusing me instead.  He was drunk.  It was worse than anything I’ve ever experienced.  Even worse than the abuse hurled at us at the gospel + abortion outreach earlier in the day.

The guy made a real scene.  I told Roger to calll the cops.  Little did I know, Andy had already done that, and I’m sure others were too.  People were stopping to watch this guy verbally abusing me and others.  I’m sure many of them were hanging around to stop him if he started getting physical.

And that threat was very real.  I remember a moment when he started pacing towards me.  I was stepping back, so he stepped forward.  I realised what was happening, and I knew I had to stop, so I did.  I looked him in the eye and said not a word.  He came right into my face.  I tried not to flinch, but I knew there was a very real possibility that he was about to punch me in the face.  He didn’t - thank God for that.  But the verbal abuse continued to stream out of this man.  He was angry that we tell people that they are going to hell - something we never actually do, we are always careful to present the truth of hell in such a way that they draw their own conclusions in relation to the logic and context we give.  And we then share the amazing good news of how to go to heaven - which is a gift of God.  We don’t want anyone to go to hell, and that is why we are there, desperately pleading with all to get on the ark of Jesus.

Members of the public started getting involved.  I remember two ladies coming to my defence.  One said she didn’t agree with my religious convictions, but that no one should be talked to like this.  I did my best to keep them back (I failed).  The best response is no words, or calm words.

Finally the Police arrived, and I could start to breathe again.  I was in shock, and I wasn’t thinking straight, but then I calmed myself and started responding to the Police.  I realised I was still recording on my phone.  So I stopped it and managed to play it back for the Police.  They arrested the guy.

The Police were wonderful.  I’m so grateful for them.  Thank you so much!  And thank you to all the citizens that stopped and supported us.  I appreciated your presence - thank you.

We still had about fifteen minutes of outreach left, and I refused to shut down early.  This was not going to stop the gospel.  So we kept going till the scheduled end.  I noticed Roger had another conversation with an elderly couple.

After the outreach, we gathered around hot chocolate and coffee to discuss and pray.  What a day!

But it wasn’t over yet.  Mike and I had scheduled our first evening outreach post lock down.  They say these things happen in threes.  What was going to happen during the evening?

But thankfully the evening outreach was uneventful, apart from many opportunities to sow gospel seed.  It was a successful outreach, with plenty of people out and about.

The highlight conversation for me was a follow up right at the start with two high school aged kids out skateboarding.

I also approached a guy who said, “I know you, you are my neighbour!”  I was shocked.  It turns out he was my brother's neighbour - I obviously look a lot like my brother!  I got to share the gospel with him and a lady with him.

And I haven’t even had a chance to talk about the wonderful gospel opportunities from Thursday at the Eastgate and Northlands bus stops.  The highlight was a conversation with a kid whose grandfather is a pastor.  It was a wake up call he needed to hear.  I also got to share with his girlfriend.  So many other fascinating conversations occurred, where God’s providence was on display.  But I don’t have time to write about them.  I need to get back to the streets, where the harvest is ripe.

God is with us.  With Him, we can face anything.  Oh, may there be fruit to bring glory to God alone.
 

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Praise God for 2nd Saturday Outreach after restrictions have been eased!!! 

On Saturday, it was raining and cloudy so we were expecting quite a few people in the city however there were lots of people in the city. God has faithfully allowed 3 laborers for the el on Saturday. By God's grace, I had really good chats with people than usual despite of raining weather, people were willing to stand on the street and engage in conversation. 

I remember two ladies who kindly stopped as they were heading to their destination, when I questioned about their opinion on eternity one of them said "I am Jewish" and that Jews are still waiting for their messiah but it seemed like she did not have much knowledge in Torah. I went through the law and the gospel they look quite surprised and engaged really well in conversation and they asked questions out of genuine curiosity on God's sovereignty such as if God exist why there are sufferings and evil in this world etc. Furthermore, I had a chance to explain Isaiah 53 to them and ask her to think about it as Isaiah 53 is direct prophesy about the messiah who will come and suffer for transgressions of guilty sinners. I honestly cannot remember if one of them said they will believe in Jesus (who was not Jewish) but please pray for those two ladies ! 

I had a privilege to speak to group of people (Around 6 people) from Spain, they seemed quite excited as I approach them with afterlife question. As I started to state the ten commandments they started laughing and admit that they have all the things that I have asked and one of them said very confidently "I am gay", gospel was shared how Jesus Christ died and rose again. There was one word that I knew in Spanish 'pecado' (Which i heard from Paul Washer and remembered ...) which means 'Sin' in english and tried to used that word so that they may grasped the gospel even further, they did not say that they will believe but I pray that as they travel around Australia God will be gracious to them to think about their afterlife and come to faith in Jesus Christ !! 

 

From Huy Do:-

During this week, I spoke to two Muslim gentlemen, they were quite cordial and willing to converse with us. They agreed on the moral law and by that extension, their shortcomings, this is a wonderful propeller into a Gospel centered conversation. In their acknowledgment of their own sinfulness, I confronted them with a question “what can you do to avail/atone for your sins?” - they gave the answer that they will do good works, go to pilgrimage...etc… in order to pay for their sins. I replied that since they believed the Qu’ran and since the Qu’ran affirmed the validity of the Bible, they must, by necessity agree as well with the truth of scripture that all of their works are filthy rags before a righteous and Holy God because their hearts are sinful. I then progressed again with the previous question “so what can you do?” and they were silent. To which I stated that “you probably do not believe this, but Christ died for the sins of guilty people on the cross, taking the sins of guilty men and satisfied the wrath thereunto, that if you repent and trust that He died for you, you will be saved”. They had some objections, but I praise God that He gave me the correct words to reply and their thinking of what was said. They objected that if God limited His divinity that He wouldn’t be God, I said that it is not so, for God merely took on human form. Regardless, I concluded the following to them, that considering their sinfulness and inability to avail themselves before God of their sins, if Jesus is not God and did not die of the cross, they are going to h***, that either Christ is God and died on the cross, or He is not God and did not die on the cross and they, because of their sins, go to h***. They understood my point and graciously accepted the tracts and documents given them.

Another conversation was wrought earlier to some young ladies, one of them was Greek Orthodox and the other was neutral but the third was quite aggressive. They all agreed to the depths of their sins, and their inability to avail before God. This was when the third lady came in and tried to drag me down a rabbit hole, I briefly addressed her point but proceeded to say that I would like to get back to the main point, and proceeded. I had preached the Gospel that Christ died for sinners, and if they would trust He died for them, they will be forgiven. They listened, I knew they listened because they asked question in response of the proclaimed Gospel, their question was that if salvation was a free gift then “does that mean you do that and then do whatever you want?”. This is always a good sign that they understood the message of the free gift of salvation in Christ, that they asked the question of whether such free gift mean they can live in the world. My reply was that if they truly repented and believed in Christ then their lives will change and they will not live in the same way, they will have new desires. The conversation dragged on a bit more until one of the friends dragged them away, some of them took the tracts as they walked off. Praise God for His mercy and favor upon us, despite our shortcomings

 

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Overall, all the glory to God who enabled us and compelled us by the love of Jesus Christ to share the gospel to many people ! 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Tuesday and Wednesday saw the Christchurch team in outreach to Riccartion, in the city, and online.

I had some wonderful opportunities online.

My very first gospel conversation was with a classroom of high school kids!  I could only see a few of them, but I could hear many more.  Their teacher must not have been there.  With so many of them commenting on the conversation, it got quite chaotic.  I wasn’t sure if anyone was really following.  So I mentioned needGod.net early.  I managed to get through the law and the gospel.

I got into a conversation with a guy with a strong accent.  I thought he was putting it on and that he was making fun of me!  But I persisted.  He considered himself a Christian, but was trusting his good deeds to get to heaven.  The conversation was a real wake up call for him, he seemed genuinely impacted.

I also had a couple of conversations with Muslims.

Heading to the streets of Riccarton, I had Roger join me.

I had four high school girls stop to chat.  One of them was a Christian, and had a fairly good grasp of the gospel, and yet she didn’t.  She thought some people would be good enough for heaven - even without Jesus.  What it boiled down to was that she didn’t want her friends to go to hell, and rather than tell them the good news of Jesus, she’d come up with her wrong conclusion.  I was able to use the flip chart to demonstrate the serious nature of sin, the severity of God’s justice, but also the amazingness of his mercy and grace.  She was challenged, and she didn’t like it.  Most of them took tracts - including the Christian girl (eventually).

I had a great gospel chat with some Phillipine kids - they seemed deeply impacted by the law of God, which is encouraging - and they heard the gospel.

I then had a guy stop who was very keen to chat.  Long story short, it seems he was converted about six months ago, and has been avidly reading his Bible but is in some desperate need of some sound discipling.  The conversation turned quite pastoral, but I had to be careful, as I don’t know him.  He took my contact details - I hope to hear from him.

The outreach ended with a frustrating conversation with a philosophy student from the university.  He wouldn’t take the conversation seriously, to his detriment.  I can only hope the law and gospel was hitting home behind a facade.

Wednesday’s first outreach was in the city.  Andy preached in the Square, which led to me being able to have three wonderful follow up conversations.

The first was with a construction worker I talked to last Friday.

The second was with a young man I’ve spoken to at least twice before.  He has been thinking about what he has learned about the gospel.  And he has been reading the Bible.  But he is not converted.  I gave him my contact details, he said he would contact me.

The last one was with a young couple who weren’t going to stay to listen to the preaching, but one on one they stayed to hear the law and the gospel.

The final outreach was online & I was able to join the team from Aussie.

The conversation that really sticks with me is one I had with a young Catholic guy who I was able to challenge on how we are justified.  He considered himself good, and it was a real shock for him to hear me explain why he was heading to hell.  I hope his conscience is activated and that he is truly converted, to the glory of God alone.  Afterwards he played some piano for me!  Pictured.  I will never see him again in this life, I hope to see him in heaven.
 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

I’m still transitioning from as much online outreach to a normal street outreach schedule.  So I spent Saturday morning on Omegle sharing the gospel there.  (Next week, I intend to be back in the city on Saturday.)

It was great to have Rob from Canada with me in the Jitsi room.  Some stand out conversations include:

One with a muslim from Setif, Algeria.  Afterwards, I looked up that city on Google Maps and marvelled at how easy it is to reach people in such a foriegn place.  Praise God!  His spoken English wasn’t great, and I was about to give up, when we started communicating via typing - his written English was much better.  So I was able to challenge him with the wonderful news of the gospel.

I’ve been talking to a lot of Catholics lately, and I was again paired with one on Omegle.  This was a stand out because he seemed to come to grasp the gospel and seemed very appreciative of the conversation.  May God change his heart.

Another great conversation was with a group of at least two guys.  One of them was mocking me, but the other was tracking with me.  They heard the gospel.  I don’t care if people mock - the stakes are too high - may God have mercy.

On Sunday, there were three of us in Cashel Mall for a couple of hours in the afternoon.  For me it was a pretty much non stop time of ministry.  I was able to share the gospel with multiple groups of teens.  Group conversations can be hard work, because the individuals can be in different spaces.  You’ll have the attention of some, but others aren't interested.

I had one situation with a group of five girls where one of them was responding to the law, and feeling the gravity of their conscience, but another was bored and distracted.  I did my best to hold the attention of all of them, but I ended up losing all of them before I could really share the gospel clearly. :(

I had a group of five guys where 3 ended up leaving, but to my surprise, 2 stayed.  It ended up being a good thing that the 3 left, as I was able to focus on clearly explaining the gospel to the 2 who stayed and were interested.

The last conversation of the outreach was with yet another group of five girls.  This time they were all interested and engaged and stayed to hear me out.  They all took tracts.  And then one of the girls started asking really good questions about how people have different beliefs.  I sensed that she had a postmodern world view (what’s true for me is true for me) and so I gently challenged her on that.  I ended up seeing her later in a coffee shop, and so I gave her the tract “Which one is right?”.

I thank God for all the gospel opportunities on the weekend.  I’m looking forward to a new week of outreach, to the glory of God alone.

Oh, I nearly forgot, I also had an opportunity to share the gospel with a friend (and his son) who I’ve known since I was a baby (family friends).  I’ve tried in the past, but he’s just not interested.  But I gently pushed the boundary - the stakes are so high.  He survived, and we are still friends! ;) (literally just before I posted this, Andy sent me a picture of that conversation - which I've included in this report!)
 

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