Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 90

The Brisbane team were very excited to head back out into the city once again for outreach! It is wonderful to see the excitement as the team gets to pray together in person and then evangelise together! The hours race by as the gospel goes forth and men and women come to grasp the good news of the gospel!

The evening started with a lengthy conversation with Paul and Maddi. They professed to believe in God but it became apart very quickly that it wasn't the God of the Bible, rather the god of the watch tower (JW's). They started sharing things that were seriously problematic. They would say things like, "forgiveness is a free gift" then in the next phrase say, "beneficial only for those who work". Paul could see the problematic logic with what Maddi was saying and yet Maddi seemed blind to it. They also would argue against the apostle Paul in Romans 3:10-12, in declaring that we aren't all bad infact, we're actually good we just make mistakes. The conversation came to a close but not before their preconceptions were challenged by the word of the living God! They were encouraged to read Romans 3-5 together and see what Paul says about how someone is made right before God.

Another conversation was wtih Joshua and his friend who shared that they were homosexuals but upon seeing their guilt and hearing the gospel rejected it out of what they called, "honour". They didn't want someone else to pay. It was shown that this was their pride, not really thinking they were helpless but they insisted that they did not want to be saved. A similar conversation also took place with David who declared simply that he "doesn't believe in a god like that". He has fashioned a god that he likes and to his own peril!

Then an encouragement came, Uma from last week was walking by again and was clear on the gospel! It had sunk in and she said it had been a blessed week full with rejoicing at the good news! Another man from her friends group Andre though was in the same predicament as she was. He professed to be a Christian but when asked, "Why should God let you into Heaven?" He had no idea, when pushed a little he shared that it was because he prayed, asked for forgiveness and the like. He was taken through a simple gospel explanation and came to grasp it quickly and said, "I am going to start trusting that Christ paid for my sins now!"

The evening finished off with two drunk girls who saw God's existence and their guilt but ran off before comprehending the good news.

Please be praying for those who engaged in conversations tonight that the words they heard would not be meaningless but that they would be the fragrance of life! Pray that God may be gracious to the hears that they may become believers!

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Two very busy days of ministry.  A very long report - sorry in advance for that! ;)

Thursday’s outreaches to the bus stops were amazing.  I was mildly hesitant to go, thinking bus stops might not be the ideal place for social distancing.  But I knew there would be spots where I could engage with those passing by and still maintain appropriate distance.  So Andy and I decided to give it a go.  Northlands early afternoon, and Eastgate in the late afternoon.

When I turned up at Northlands, there weren’t many people around, and I wondered if I had made a wrong decision and should have stayed home doing online evangelism.

I managed to get a conversation started, but their bus came.

So I prayed about this and then lo and behold someone came past and I was able to get a conversation started - they couldn’t stay, but they took a tract.  And then straight after, another opportunity arose (with a Christian lady), and then another (with a Catholic lady).

By this stage, Andy had arrived, and he fell into a follow up conversation with someone I had talked to on a previous outreach (pictured).  And then I fell into a follow up conversation with someone Andy had talked to on a previous outreach.  Andy ended up finishing up his conversation and took over my one.

I turned and noticed a lady waiting for a bus and so, respecting social distance, I started a conversation with her, that went long (pictured).  She deliberately missed busses so the conversation could continue.  She had Catholic, Maori, and Mormon religious background.  And when I tried to add Christianity to the mix, she confessed that she felt quite confused.  So I just spent time listening, and trying to bring clarity.  A lot of her questions were, understandably, around how we know what is true.  She gladly took a “Which one is right?” tract, as well as others.  Such a wonderful conversation.

The outreach was going better than I could have expected!  I had two more brief follow up opportunities before I noticed things starting to calm down again.  I mentioned to Andy that maybe we should split to Eastgate early when he suddenly got into a conversation, as did I.

And then the high school kids came!  And suddenly we were working harder than ever, with gospel conversation after gospel conversation.

One kid said he thought about the after life a lot.  I asked if he believed in God, and he said he wasn’t sure.  And so I used the Building / Builder - Universe / Universe Maker analogy and he was stunned, he turned to his friend and said, “did you hear that, it makes so much sense”.  I didn’t have much time (as I could tell they needed to go), but I was able to share the law and gospel with him and his friend - they both left with tracts, but part way through, another friend turned up, and so I was able to share the law and gospel with him as well.  So much plowing and sowing - it was so good.  Glory to God.

My final conversation at Northlands was with a young man (20 years old), who used to be a youth pastor but now didn’t believe in God.  I guessed two things: 1) he had been deeply hurt by witnessing an extreme form of hypocrisy 2) that he had never understood the gospel.  I carefully asked questions that confirmed that I was right in both instances.  So I backed up and started by explaining how we know God exists and how we know who God is.  He was open and following the logic, but his bus came.  I gave him a tract and pleaded with him to contact me, the conversation was so important.  I leave him in God’s hands.

Maybe you know some of these people I talked to.  Are you ready to follow up with them and reinforce the gospel information they are learning?  I can’t do this alone. :)

Andy and I then made the move to Eastgate - a little later than we expected, but praise God that we had so much opportunity at Northlands.

It was just as busy at Eastgate.  I had six significant gospel conversations.  The highlight was the second to last one, it was with a young Catholic high schooler.  I don’t remember it, but I had talked to him twice before.  He still couldn’t articulate the gospel, so I went through it with him again.  I warned him that this was the third opportunity he had to hear the gospel, he may not get another, and while I was challenging him to count the cost, I asked him what was stopping him from trusting that Jesus died for his sin.  He said, “I am trusting that Jesus paid the fine for my sin”.  I was surprised, and I said, “when did you start doing that?”  He said, “Today”.  I pleaded with him to get in touch with me (we want to see people knitted into a good local church).  I leave him in God’s hands.

Friday was a big day of outreach.  The weather was wonderful.  We spent two hours outside the hospital bringing the gospel to the issue of abortion.  You can read about that here.

We then moved to Cathedral Square for open air preaching.  Marty preached first, and that was the only opportunity we had.  We attracted a lot of hecklers, and one of them got up to “preach” after Marty leaving no time for anyone else to preach.  We didn’t waste the time, we ended up getting into wonderful one to one gospel conversations with those walking past instead.

Moving on to Cashel Mall, again it was busy!  I had a wonderful follow up opportunity with a guy I’ve been talking to on and off for well over a year now.  It turns out he has cancer in a finger!  And he may lose it. :(  He still isn’t grasping the gospel, so I had an opportunity to continue challenging him on that.  As we were talking, Radio NZ approached me for comment on a political issue.  I took the opportunity to give a gospel sound bite!  I doubt they will use it, of course, but the interviewer took a tract.

We then had a non stop couple of hours of gospel ministry down by the Bridge of Remembrance.  Even before I got there, I had a wonderful walk up gospel conversation with a young couple.

But the highlight (for me) was a long conversation with two young girls.  I laboured with them for a long time, and although I think the effort was worth it, there was a resistance and a blindness to what I was saying.  I pray they will have more opportunity to engage with the gospel - maybe with you?  Are you ready to share?

 

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Online Evangelism

On Friday Brisbane was almost ten degrees cooler than the previous days, meaning it was a privildge to be inside in the warmth of our homes to evangelise! This really is a great day to be a Christian and evangelise!

The day started with a conversation with two teenagers, Payton and Kaia who attended a church but hadn't grasped the gospel. They knew of Jesus but the gospel had never made sense to them before. After seeing the serious predicament they are in they were grasping for answers and the Gospel was shared and they were so thankful for it! They professed that today, right now they would start trusting that Jesus had paid for their sins and this is the only reason they are going to Heaven!

The next excitement was with Mariana and Karen, two American ladies who slowly had their worldview broken down and rebuilt with Christianity! They came to see God's Holiness and therefore their desperate state before him and starting saying maybe there is no hope or maybe God will lower his standards but for them too the gospel came and they were gob-smacked! On a number of occasions Mariana said that it had blown her mind and they were also so thankful for the chat! They said they were keen to read their Bibles and were certain that the conversation was not an accident! They said that this was a conversation they'd had a few times but never had it made so much sense and were glad they'd be able to chat with someone seriously about it!

Lastly was a conversation with Dominic who late in the conversation shared that he had recently in the last few months started reading the Bible for himself due to some life circumstances and it was making some sense but it wasn't that clear. He initially shared that he believed in God but not in the traditional sense but with a good conversation he too came to grasp the glories of the gospel in light of his sin and was so thankful for the chat as well! He too mentioned that he didn't think it was an accident and was so pleased to have had the conversation! He mentioned he'd been desiring to attend a local Church and was able to find a recommended one right near his place!

God was very kind to these five people this afternoon, please be praying that God would continue to work in their lives. That this wouldn't be the beginning of a slow fade but rather would be the beginning of a live sold out in service for Christ, trusting only in Him as their means for right standing before God!

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Online Evangelism

Thursday was a wonderful day of witnessing with on Omegle!

The team had many good conversations and here is a quick snippet of some conversations.

The first conversation of the day was a lengthy one with Emilia. She was initially saying she didn't believe in God but mentioned that she was open minded. At the beginning she was arguing against God's existence but there came a point when she said, "I've had this conversation many times but never before have I not had an answer". She was seriously challenged by it.

She then came to hear the good news and was greatly encouraged in how she would respond as this is very important news. She said, "It makes sense and is very logical but I don't think I want to give up living my own way". It was a sad end to a long conversation but she said she wanted to stay in contact and would talk more in the future!

A surprising conversation was with Santosh an Indian man who was Hindu and initially had rejected God's existence but surprisingly with the analogies he turned around, saw that he was guilty and heading to Hell and then said, "Tell me how I can get to Heaven". He grasped the gospel quickly and said, "Thank you for sharing" he was encouraged to read the Bible and said he would!

Lastly was a second conversation with Andrew who had spoken to the team on Omegle previously! He had a solid comprehension of the gospel but what was most worrying was that it hadn't changed his life. He could articulate it and correct himself but there seemed to be very little fruit.

Please be praying for these three, that Emilia doesn't remain resistant as the pleasure this world has to offer isn't worth going to Hell for. Pray for Santosh that his profession is genuine and that his life transforms! Pray for Andrew that he would take this second wake up call and desire to live a Godly life.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

Tuesday saw the first outreach to Riccarton since the Covid-19 lock down had eased.  It was a late afternoon outreach, sunny when it started, but by the end the sun was setting, and it was quite cold.

But it was great to be back at this spot, and I had four sets of conversations.

My first was with a Hindu guy who came to understand the gospel, and was challenged to count the cost of following Jesus.

I then had a Catholic high school student go past - she looked like she wouldn’t be interested, and so I was surprised that she stopped at my opening question.  She was actually very engaged, and I had a long conversation where I had to carefully explain that it was not our good deeds in any way that saved us, but only Jesus' sacrifice on the cross that we accept by faith alone.  I think she came to grasp what I was saying, but she didn’t look convinced.  As always, I left her in God’s hands.  I can only hope that the plowing and sowing I did would lead to growth at some point in the future.

The last conversation of the outreach was with two Polynesian girls.  They were heading to the bank when they passed the first time, but they said they would come back - and they did.  One said she was Christian, the other Mormon, but neither seemed committed.  So I was able to share the law and the gospel with them.  It was a lovely conversation.

Even though Riccarton wasn’t as busy as the city had been the previous Friday and Sunday - it was still good to be back on the streets!

Today (Wednesday) I went back into the City in the early afternoon with Andy.

As soon as I was out of my car, I had a wonderful opportunity to talk with two guys walking past - so the outreach got started early!

I then met Andy at the speaker's corner where we both open air preached.  I had someone sit down to listen, and to my surprise, as soon as I started talking about the resurrection of Jesus the listener became angry and started heckling me.  Similar to what happened on Friday.

We continued the outreach with “walk up”.  We went down Cashel Mall, and then moved to the courthouse.  Outside the courthouse, first Andy, and then I fell into good gospel conversations.

The guy I was talking to professed to not be interested in spiritual issues, and yet, he stayed to talk with me for a long while.  He resisted the logic of how we know God exists, but kept coming back to it.  I held my ground refusing to let him off the hook, and kept using the same argument.  Eventually, to my surprise, I was able to get through the law, and even share the gospel with this guy.  There was still much resistance though.  He wouldn’t take an After Life tract from me, but when I said I had a different one titled: How we know God exists and why it matters, he said he would be keen for that!

Our conversations ended at different times, and so Andy and I became separated, but we ended up meeting again outside Ara.  Andy had a great chat there with two high school students (pictured).

And I had a wonderful follow up opportunity with a guy I’ve talked to a few times before.  I was able to walk back to my car while talking to him (we were going in the same direction).  He seemed more open than the last time I talked to him.  We were discussing the sermon on the mount.  He really seemed to appreciate something I said and accepted a tract as we parted ways.  God willing I will be able to talk to him again.

Both Tuesday and today, I was also doing some online evangelism - it is such a wonderful way of reaching people.  The stand out conversation was with two guys from California.  They came to understand the gospel, and what repentance really means.  They seemed deeply impacted.  Yet only God knows.
 

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Online Evangelism

On Tuesday afternoon the team had a wonderful outreach! It started with two good conversations on the live stream and was continued with another ten or so after that! (All conversations are good conversations).

One sad but enlightening moment was an early conversation with a young man who had rejected God's existence. Then he was shown the building builder analogy and the moment he comprehended it he disconnected. The truth was too strong and he ran! But this was followed by a conversation with Sarah.

Sarah was going through confirmation with the Catholic church and due to this struggled for more than an hour to comprehend the gospel! She kept popping her works into her justification. At the end she finally seemed to grasp that she deserves Hell and that there is nothing she has to offer God that could make her worthy it was finally then when she was able to understand why Jesus had to die.

A following conversation was with a young man named Andrew he grasped the gospel more quickly but his struggled was that he desired to live his own way still. Not as explicitly as many people but it was still quite strong. He saw that trusting that Jesus had paid for his sin was free and going to Heaven is free but when he comprhended the life that would result he seemed pretty keen to keep living his own way. It was sad to watch and he was warned about the seriousness of his choice and was left with a decision to make.

The following conversation was with two girls who were professing Christians but also hadn't grasped the gospel previously. They thought it was their goodness that was getting them into Heaven and were hoping that asking for forgiveness would be enough to get them out of Hell. One girl grasped it and a big smile shot across her face. The other girl took a while longer but she too came to understand. But neither of them seemed drastically moved by the gospel. Their comprehension seemed to arrive but that didn't spark the joy you would expect. They ultimately got a little bored with the conversation and disconnected a few minutes later.

Please be praying that these girls were just tired as it was the early hours of the morning where they are. Please be praying that Andrew would see the seriousness of this decision and trust in Christ this day for the forgiveness of his sins and may Sarah no longer love the teaching at the Catholic church and find a church that will seek to teach her, God's word not the doctrines of man.

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It has been quite a while since I wrote battle log, so praise God !!! for enabling us to go out into the street again to preach and share the glorious gospel. During stage 3 lockdown time in Melbourne by God's grace we were able to share the gospel almost daily basis through OMEGLE, we met various people from different countries from US to Saudi Arabia and surprisingly people were very receptive and welcoming to the gospel than we expected I remember one teenager who lived in Mexico and spoke only spanish so I had to use google translation as fast as I could and share the gospel and the teenager responded well and said He will believe, if i was out in the street this could have been bit harder but through online it was fairly effective. 

Once again, I realise how God is so faithful, He is always working and He makes a way when there seems to be no way. Operation 513 Brisbane, New Zealand and Melbourne teams are planning to meet online regularly as we have seen global impact through this online evangelism. As Ryan (Brisbane leader) have received many encouraging messages from believers and non-believers from different countries and people who have actually started evangelising to people through Omegle after seeing Operation 513 live in Youtube.

There are many things to share what God has done through this lockdown period but if I want to share them I might have to write an essay.. so I will practice self-control from doing that :). 

On Saturday, I was very excited to go out into the city again after about 8 weeks as I held stacks of gospel tracts, started my car to go to the city and seeing this beautiful weather. To my surprise, there were lots of people and.. lots of police officers in the city and I actually thought that it could be hard to practice social distancing properly. Brother Huy Do and I shared scripture and prayed for evangelism as we start. 

We met 4 teenagers who were sitting in front of state library, all 4 of them had different beliefs which was interesting. When we asked about their thoughts on afterlife they laughed and gave different answers which included 'becoming energy, heaven hell, nothing happens etc' there was one guy who professed to be a catholic as well so he believe in hell and heaven. After the laws were shared and questioned they answered very honestly saying that they would go to hell if God judge them according to ten commandments so we shared the gospel and we did checking questions. They have grasped the gospel but did not say that they will believe but please pray for those 4 teenager boys as you read this report. 

We also met one man at the end of outreach who called himself 'freemason' unexpectedly he was quite humble and receptive to the gospel. After the law and gospel was shared he promised to think about it. Please pray for this man as you are reading this report. 

From Huy Do :-

This week’s evangelism went relatively well, it was our first time back after Quarantine, and we took to the streets. God was faithful in providing people by which the Gospel might be shared. I spoke to some Vietnamese young men, they appeared understanding but they were quite apathetic, I ended with a plea that they would repent and trust in Christ for salvation. On another count, I spoke to three young men in front of the state library, I shared with them the Gospel. One amazing thing in this entire talk happened was that as I was laboring with them to show them the magnitude of their sins, the man on the left was arguing and denying and objecting while the man in the center of the three started to rub his head profusely, appearing convicted, I perceive that they were pricked to the heart, then as I continued, the man on the far left, whose name was Diego, said some thing along the lines of “if God punishes good people then He’s not good”. I had to labor with them a little more until I asked “how many times did Adam and Eve sin for God to punish them?” they answered “once”. Then I spoke to them about the Gospel, that Christ bore the sins of and satisfied the full wrath of God for guilty people, and if they should trust that He did so for them, they will be saved, God will wipe their slate clean of all sins, past present and future. At this point, I perceive Diego opened his eyes a little wider, this provoked me to think about Whitefield, how he preached and he could observe people’s faces, their expression that it did something. Pray that they will repent and believe.

Another witnessing conversation happened at the end of the evangelism, I spoke to another group of three gentlemen. One of them, after having been shown their sins before God, stated jokingly “I need to get back to church”. I labored with them in regards to the law a bit more, then showed them the Gospel, that Christ died for sinners, and if they trust He died for them, they will be saved. One of them who jokingly remarked about getting back to church then said “that’s it? Just believe and that’s it? You can live however you want?”. I answered that it is a free gift that they need not toil but receive by faith that what Christ did on the cross was sufficient and was for them, but that if they truly received Him, then their lives will change. Pray they will repent and they will believe, that God would make them say on their tongues “I felt my Lord’s atoning blood, close to my heart applied, me, me He loved, the Son of God, for me, for me He died”.

Overall, it was great Saturday ! by God's grace, Huy Do and I had many great conversations that we could not write it all here. Our prayer is that God will raise more labourers as harvest is plentiful but labourers are few. Soli Deo Gloria.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

It was a lovely sunny, crisp Sunday afternoon in Christchurch today.  I headed to Cashel Mall for a couple of hours of gospel outreach.

Before the outreach started, I was able to catch up with Sonny and Mark - two guys that run stalls in the mall.  It was good to see them again.

I wanted to set up at the corner of Cashel and Colombo - it was so good there on Friday - but there were people hanging around my usual spot.  As I waited I prayed that God would bless my feeble efforts - without Him I can’t do anything.  Eventually, one of the groups moved on, and I was able to start setting up my flip chart, while I was doing that, the other group wanted to know what I was doing!  A great opportunity to start a gospel conversation.  :)  It was a nice conversation, but they weren’t keen and decided to move on.  I offered tracts, but one of them said “I’ve already got one” (I think he said he received it after a gospel conversation with someone else in a past outreach).  So I said, “well, give it to your brother”, he said, “oh, he has been to a Christian school, he already knows.” and then he was gone.

Soon after, an old flatmate, from years ago, passed.  (Matt, it's a flatmate, not a housemate. ;) )  It was good to see him again.  When we flatted, we went to the same church, but now he is married to a guy and wants nothing to do with organised religion.  But he still wants to go to heaven, and hopes he will get there.  And so I had a wonderful opportunity to explain how we know God exists, and why there must be a heaven and a hell - none of which he disagreed with.  But he still considered himself to be good, by his standard, and resisted the logic of the law written on his heart.  I was gentle and loving in how I expressed the truth - but I refused to compromise that truth, as unpopular as it is - it is the loving thing to do.  Sadly, he left before I could explain the gospel - but he just wasn’t interested.

I then had a string of conversations with Christians.  Firstly with a young man (and his girlfriend) who I had taught in Sunday school when he was a little kid!  It was great to catch up; then I had a youth pastor from Queenstown go past, and we fell into an easy conversation; before a Christian family wanted to check out the good person test flip chart.

That led into a conversation with a guy who had been overhearing the flip chart demo I had just done.  He was waiting for his wife to come out of a shop.  We fell into an easy conversation.  It turns out he had been a telephone technician like my Dad.  But he was resistant to my attempts to swing the conversation to the gospel.  Once his wife came, he left - refusing a tract - he said it would just go into the fire.

But then I had another guy sit near me - he was also waiting for his wife - we also fell into an easy conversation, but he was more open.  His wife also came (before I could share the gospel), but he did take a tract.

To my joy, Mr. Angry then came past.  If you’ve read any of my earlier reports, you will know who I’m talking about.  If not, well my name for him tells all.  To my increased joy, he was actually nice to me (compared to normal), even though he didn’t stop.  I will continue to pray for him, and hope to get an opportunity to actually share the gospel with him.

The final two sets of gospel conversations of the outreach were actually connected.  A group of high school aged kids passed, one of whom I’ve talked to before.  I asked if they wanted to try the good person test, and two of them were keen (the rest were not - including the one I’d talked to before).  It was a wonderful conversation where they followed the logic easily, came to hear how their sin is serious, and then the wonderful good news of Jesus.  She seemed to be deeply impacted, he really appreciated the logic of it.  I left them both in God’s hands as they left with gospel tracts and contact information.

Soon after, two more wanted to talk (initially, I didn’t realise they were connected to the first group).  And then I had two more join (and a third briefly) - including the one I had talked to before.  It turns out they were homosexual and they were setting me up to trap me in my words.  But it didn’t work, and they were confronted with the reality of sin (something that God defines) and the amazing grace of Jesus - even for homosexuals - yet I was clear that their life would change if they accepted the gift.  They refused tracts.

So a wonderful couple of hours where, all glory to God, I was able to have many gospel interactions.  I love my job.  Thanks again to those who are supporting me in what I do.

I forgot to take any photos for this outreach, so the picture is of my desk after outreach. :)

Oh, and on Saturday, I was doing online evangelism with the team.  We had many wonderful opportunities to share the love of Christ.  Pictured is a young man looking for John in his Bible.  He had grown up knowing about God, and thinking he would go to heaven, but he didn’t understand the gospel.  I really had to labour with him to get him to unlearn some things that were confusing things for him.  He then played amazing grace for me on his keyboard!  Before he left, he agreed that Omegle was not a good place for him to be (“it scars me”) and that he would stop going on it.

Looking forward to a day off tomorrow.  :)
 

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On Saturday the team excitedly headed back into Brisbane City, being careful to follow the social distancing legislation and sought to find people to engage with, regarding their eternity.

An early convesation was with a man who'd been chatted to before and he had a Church background but sadly he kept defaulting to thinking it was his actions of obedience and response to God that would save him. There was a beautiful moment in the conversation though when he came to understand that believing that Jesus took the punishment he deserves is the one way of salvation and the resulting obedience is a by-product of that faith rather than a part of the salvation. He was thankful and said he would believe it from today.

A following conversation was with Alex a man who came to grasp it clearly and yet wanted to remain a rejector. He saw that is was logical and reasonable but he said (initially hiding behind his Buddhism) that he preferred to live his own way and that he wanted there to be no judgement day. The seriousness of his declaration was pointed out to him and he was left with the challenged, knowing that whatever he thinks he can gain from this life isn't worth going to Hell for and yet currently he is choosing that.

A final and most exciting conversation of the evening was with a lady named Uma. When asked if she was going to Heaven she said, "I hope I will". This revealed that she wasn't trusting in Christ alone as the one who made her right before God. It was interesting to see that a professing Christian, who attends Church regularly and had even previously evangelised before, was not clear on the gospel! Over the next few minutes, questions were asked, analogies were given and there came a moment of joy as a smile crossed her face. She came to see that she can be certain she is going to Heaven because it isn't her obedience that enables her to enter. As long as her trust is in Christ's perfect life and sacrifical death, she has nothing to worry about as it is already finished.

She was beaming with joy and so thankful for the conversation and was keen to learn how to evangelise better herself, especially in light of coming to understand the evangel for the first time herself!

Praise God for such a wonderful night on the streets and you're welcome to come along in the future! At this stage the Brisbane team is just looking to head back on Saturday nights and annoucements will be made as other locations are re-opened.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

I’m so excited to be writing this report!  Today was the first time back on the streets of Christchurch in many weeks - and it was so good.

We started with the gospel + abortion outreach outside the hospital.  I wrote about that on the Project 139 Facebook page.

We then moved to Cathedral Square for open air preaching.  There were no stalls, or food trucks - and so there weren't many people around.  But to my surprise, once Andy started preaching, plenty of people came out of the woodwork.  We had a guy walk past who stopped to listen, and then he came over to engage.  He asked really good questions, which Andy addressed.  And then the hecklers started arriving - it was like old times again!  So good.

After Andy finished preaching, I was able to engage the guy who had been asking good questions one to one.  The conversation started with, the subject of suffering.  Afterwards he accepted a tract.

I then preached open air.  It felt so good.  There were plenty of people, sitting at a distance and listening.  So I preached my heart out.  The hecklers were surprisingly tame, until I talked about the resurrection of Jesus being a historical proof - that set one of them off.  Afterwards, I offered tracts to the people hanging around.

I then moved to Cashel Mall with my flip chart, and met Roger there.  Compared to the Square, there were heaps of people!

Roger and I prayed, then we set up our flip charts at the corner of Cashel and Colombo.  It was pretty much non stop gospel conversations for just over two hours.  People were walking up to the chart and wanting to give it a go.  I had great chats with:

• 2 guys with a Catholic background
• 2 young girls - 1 with a Christian background, 1 that didn’t believe in God.
• A wonderful chat with a young Christian who believed healing was the way to do evangelism.  We deeply disagreed, but I was careful not to turn the conversation into a fight - granting him the benefit of the doubt - and working with him from there.  I friended him on Facebook, and I intend to follow up with him.
• 3 young ladies who were very switched on yet resistant but very open to discuss the gospel.  This was a wonderful conversation.
• A follow up with a security guard that I had apparently talked to months earlier.

I was able to say hello to a number of people walking past that I’ve had various levels of interaction with in the past.  It’s so good to be back on the streets!!!

In the evening, I did just under two hours of online evangelism.  And I haven’t had a chance to write about the wonderful online gospel opportunities from Thursday.

My body is not used to being on the streets.  Very tired legs by the end of it, but I will quickly readjust.  Come and join me in the harvest fields on the streets of Christchurch.  SDG!
 

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