Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 91

Online Evangelism

On Thursday, the team set out for an afternoon of conversations and it was wonderful. As usual there are people around who are hard hearted but God is still glorified. But one absolute stand out conversation was the final one with, a young lady named, Alexis.

The first chat was with an ex-JW who sadly still believed in God but had just decided to live however he wants. The next was a Brazillian man who would believe literally anything to not have to acknowledge God's existence. Then there was a young girl who saw the problem and left because it was too intense and another girl abruptly disconnected just before comprehending the gospel. There was also Abby who was high and didn't get the gospel as she was very distracted but the absolute standout was the conversation with Alexis.

Alexis professed to be a Christian but then stated that she thought it was her goodness that would be the reason that she entered Heaven. She said, "asking for forgiveness, obey God's rules and trying your best". A good amount of time was spent really displaying how that can't possibly be the solution because the standard is perfection, God says that sin deserves Hell and He cannot let guilt go unpunished.

She tried grasping onto anything she could but there came a point where she saw how serious the predicament is and that really is nothing she can offer God in order to be forgiven. Then the good news was shared and her first response was, "Wow! You're a genius. You really had me worried there but now this really does look like good news!"

She took a little while to further understand the level of forgiveness that is offered and that eternal life is a free gift but once she understood it, she acknowledged although she thought she was a Christian before this conversation she now understands that she wasn't and professed faith from today! She was also silenced and just couldn't stop saying, "Thank you!".

In the end she said, "I've got not more questions to ask but I must say it again, Thank you!" She was blown away but the goodness and kindness of God!

Please be praying for the earlier conversations that God would be drawing those people unto Himself through the fragments they received today but also pray for Alexis that should would start reading her Bible today and that there would be a total life transformation as a result of this conversation!

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Online Evangelism

On Wednesday the team had another wonderful day of evangelism. There were many great conversations had, some with people who were inconsisent and wilfully ignorant and others with those who were so open that they made every effort to engage in conversation!

One of the things that seems to bring good value to a gospel conversation is leading someone to a place where they realise that they have no idea of any possible solution for how someone who deserves Hell could get into Heaven. This is achieved by asking that question, seeing their answer (usually, "do good works") and then showing them how it doesn't work. This might take a couple of tries but there usually comes a point where they say, "I have no idea" or "Well I suppose everyone goes to Hell". Then the opportunity arises to present the gospel clearly and simply and usually it hits home with greater impact as they realise that it is the only solution.

In an attmept to achieve that today, after the second question this guy realising he had no answer, instead of hearing the good news left. A following chat was with a man who had spoken to another team member who understood the gospel, asked some clarifying questions and then said he'd consider it further.

The real stand out of the afternoon though was a chat with Lucas, Ian and three girls. They were all on together, sitting in the frame and the question was posed. Lucas gave his serious answer, "I think there's an afterlife", Ian said he wasn't sure and one girl said something silly and said, "skip this guy". But Lucas said, "No, I think I want to listen".

They were asked if they all believed in a God and a few said yes, others no, so to make it clear the building builder analogy was given and Ian was shocked! He said, "That makes so much sense".

The group were taken through God's law, their guilt and that all people are deserving of Hell and pretty quickly the girls tuned out but Lucas and Ian stayed on. At one point because of the noise the others were making Lucas picked up the laptop and headed into a different room to finish the conversation! In the end, Lucas was clear on the gospel and made a simple profession of faith, mentioning that he would read John in the near future. Ian stated that he wanted to chat more and so contact was set up for future communication.

Please be praying for those that heard this good news that they would come to faith in Christ alone paying for their sin as the reason they will enter Heaven and that the first two guys would consider seriously the eternity that's coming.

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Online Evangelism

The good news is that the Covid-19 restrictions in NZ are being loosened.  It looks like we will be able to get back to the streets - with some restrictions.  We are intending to test the waters, in Christchurch, NZ this coming Friday.

It’s actually been hard work adjusting my routine from work on the streets to online.  But it was such a valuable process - and we have learned so much.  Now that I’m established in this new routine, it’s going to be difficult to transition back again - especially with winter setting in.  But I’m hoping some kind of online outreach will continue to be part of my work week once things are back to “normal”.

This report covers online outreach on Tuesday and Wednesday.

As I look at my notes from yesterday (Tuesday), I struggle to remember the faces of the people I’ve talked to.  The reason why is that, with online evangelism, it’s so easy to get conversations started, and so you just talk to so many people.

You get the same thing with street work, but often you’ll see people become interested, and then you can watch the penny drop - it’s so encouraging.  And then, after challenging them to respond, you have to leave them in God’s hands.  I occasionally say to people: “I’ll never see you again in this life, but I hope to see you in heaven”.

An interesting conversation that stands out was one with a guy who’s fire alarm was beeping, indicating it needed a battery change.  I was able to reference this when I was explaining the fireman analogy.  And I was able to remind him to change the battery!

The highlight conversation from Tuesday was a long conversation with a 17 year old kid who was very bright.  It turns out that he had grown up with a mum who had to learn life lessons the hard way - and so she was sheltering him from making the same mistakes.  This is not bad, but the effect on him was to moralise him.  Because he hadn’t gotten into trouble in his life, he considered himself a very good person.  This made what I said very confronting.  He was comparing himself to the wrong thing!  I had to labour with him on this, and he finally came to terms with what I was saying, and then I was able to share the good news with him.  He was highly engaged, and seemed to be really appreciative.  He said that no one had preached to him in this way before.  As always, I leave him in God’s hands.

Today (Wednesday), my first conversation was with a 14 year old “pastor”!  There was a problem with his mic, and I couldn’t hear him, nor him me, so we reverted to text chat while being able to see each other:

You: Can you hear me?
Stranger: Can u hear me ?

And so, instantly I wanted to check where he was at:

You: ok, can I ask you a checking question... don't be offended....
Stranger: sure
You: What do we have to do to go to heaven?
Stranger: obey his rules
Stranger: Commandments
You: ok, how you going with that?

Wrong answer, and very concerning.

Sadly, he didn’t want to talk for long.  But he gave me contact details, and I gave him needGod.net - saying he could contact me from there.

It finished like this:

You: pretend I'm a random on Omegle, what would you say to me?
Stranger: and I would say... no matter what u do, god loves u

If he’ll respond, I’ll try to follow him up.

PS, In the picture, I was able to use the sign on the wall in the conversation!
 

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Online Evangelism

Oh, it’s Battle Log time again.  My, how time flies.  A wonderful weekend of gospel outreach!

I spent four hours on Saturday morning, and I know the team in Aussie was on for at least four hours in the afternoon.

I was very encouraged to have three others with me right at the start.  Rob from Canada, Daniel from Christchurch, NZ, and someone new… and it turned out this person was from Mumbai in India!  It turns out that he was in a FB apologetics group - one that Grace had also been in.  Grace had told the group about the online outreach we were doing, and so this guy, Sherry, turned up.  Very, very encouraging.  Apologetics is great, but if it’s not connected to sharing the gospel, what’s the point?  Please continue to pray that more Christians will continue to hear about the online outreach, and get involved.

So I had intentions of taking notes of my gospel conversations, but I ended up being so busy discussing the conversations and answering questions of the team, between times, that it just didn’t happen.

Right at the beginning of the outreach, Omegle was having some technical problems, and I wasn’t able to get connected to anyone, but it wasn’t long before things were back to normal and I was into a conversation with a guy from Dubai.  When he found out I was from NZ he steered the conversation to the Lord of the Rings - something he was passionate about!  But I was able to steer the conversation to God's law.  Sadly, he bailed before hearing the gospel.

But I had some wonderful conversations.  There were a couple of girls in Palestine, who had a Christian background, but who weren’t clear on the gospel.  It was a difficult conversation because of bad feedback.  But I persisted, and one of the girls thanked me at the end, she said she needed to hear it.

And I had two people from the US (separate conversations) who knew of Christian things, one of them even went to church, but they thought their goodness would get them to heaven.  And I had the joy of being able to share the gospel and have them come to understand it.  I now enjoy asking people this: “So, at the start of this conversation, what were you trusting in to get to heaven?”, and they would say, “my good deeds”.  And then I will say: “So now that we have had this conversation, what do you now understand you need to trust in to get to heaven?”.  And they will articulate the gospel: “that Jesus died on the cross to pay my hell fine” (or something similar).  I will then challenge them to actually do that!

It’s such a joy to be able to do this as a full time job, my deepest thanks to Operation 513 for the support, and specifically to those that are donating to Operation 513 to make that happen.  Thank you!  And also to those that are praying, and supporting in other ways.  We can’t do this alone - we are a team!  Yet, we all have a responsibility to share this wonderful gospel - get encouraged and equipped to do so, consider joining an online outreach - you will be very welcome.

The Sunday afternoon outreach was as wonderful as ever.  Great to see so many new faces.  I was late!  I was taking an afternoon nap, and it was my eldest daughter Haley who woke me to see if we were still doing outreach.  Thanks Haley!  And it was great to have Haley with me for this outreach too.  She was able to share the whole law and the gospel in a conversation today, and she did really well!  She was nervous, but the practice we had been doing as a family kicked in, and I was there for support.

But before we split up into pairs, Bekk did a demo to the whole team.  She did a wonderful job of getting a false convert (most likely) to understand the gospel.  All glory to God.

Haley & I were paired up with Matt, and he had a long and wonderful conversation with a very smart young man from the States, who was a PK (pictured) who had rejected God.  It was a bit of a battle of the titans, yet Matt was very gracious with this guy.  And a couple of times, the guy was willing to concede that Matt had made some good points.  Matt succeeded to get to the heart of the guy's rejection of the obvious - his love of sin.  Haley and I were praying while we were watching.  I just kept thinking of this guy's parents, who were most likely praying daily for his salvation.  He never heard the gospel, as he wasn’t open to it.  But we just pray that the logic and the law would cut deep.  That he would be challenged to actually pick up and read the book he derided and that God’s word would strike true.  That he would open up to, hear and understand the gospel - and be saved.

We give all the glory to God for the opportunities to share His gospel, and for any fruit from the weekends effort.  May His kingdom come.
 

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Online Evangelism

It’s Battle Log time again already.  Next thing you know, we’ll be in eternity.  Can’t wait.  But till then, we have the opportunity to tell more people about Jesus.  Over the last two days we have had many opportunities to do just that.  Thursday for 6 hours, and Friday for 7 hours.  I’m re-establishing my outreach log, not perfect yet, but let’s see how I did…

Thursday was harder than normal.  I had a mild headache, and my voice was scratchy.  On top of that, I started the outreach with a string of tuff conversations.  I feel back to prayer (and thank you to those that are praying for us).

I then managed to get into a conversation with a young man who looked Philipino.  He was Catholic, and seemed to follow the logic of what I was saying flawlessly and went from thinking his good deeds would get him to heaven, to understanding that it was faith in Jesus' sacrifice that would get him there.  It was a really encouraging conversation, and I was grateful for it.

And that’s all I wrote in my notes for Thursday!  But I know I had many other conversations, and the rest of the team were busy too.  All glory to God.

Friday started with a conversation with another young Catholic.  He was resistant, but followed the logic and opened up to what I was saying.  He heard and seemed to understand the gospel, but a few checking questions later and he reverted back to thinking it was his goodness that would save him - I was so surprised.  It was this point that I learned he was Catholic.  I stopped and went back to re-explain the gospel, and it finally started to dawn on him.  He seemed to really appreciate the conversation in the end.  I challenged him to respond to the gospel.

I then had a string of three conversations where they bailed on me before I could share the gospel.  And then I had a long string of people who didn’t even want to start a conversation with me!

I decided to add the tag “Jesus” so Omegle would pair me with people who had the same tag.  I finally got into a conversation with some teens who heard the law, and then bailed.  Fifteen minutes later, they were reconnected to me! (I guess not many people use the tag “Jesus”.)  So they got to hear the gospel after all!  Praise God for that.

About three gospel conversations later, I ended up getting into an interesting text conversation (I talked, they typed) with someone who claimed they had murdered 7 people.  I ignored it and continued to attempt to share the law and the gospel but they were very resistant.  It ended like this:

Stranger: No
Stranger: I’m done
Stranger: But thanks
You: needGod.net
Stranger: No
You have disconnected.

I then had a very bizaare conversation with some young guys who were out fishing in California.  They were inoculated to the gospel and very resistant.  One of them mentioned Mormonism at one point.  It was really hard to engage, some of them were being hostile, but one of them wanted to talk - seemed to think they were already Christians.  This conversation ended up having a focus on repentance.

I had a long conversation with a lady before lunch.  After lunch, two conversations stand out.

The first was with a young teen guy who had it deeply ingrained that he was a really good person.  He was not hostile, but he was very resistant to hearing the law.  It’s like his brain couldn’t compute it.  He couldn’t see himself as someone who was guilty compared to God and deserving of Hell.  But I laboured with this young man.  I shared the gospel, and I thought he was understanding.  But then I turned to checking questions, and it soon dawned on me that he thought that it was two things that saved him: Jesus and good deeds.  He was very engaged at this stage, so I stopped, and wound back all the way to the beginning and went through it again with him.  I’m pretty sure he was starting to grasp the gospel.  At one point, he asked if I was an angel - which was pretty funny.  I clarified that I wasn’t!  Oh that he truly understands and trusts Jesus.

My day ended with chat with three Muslim girls.  It started out as a funny joke for them, but by the end of the conversation they were all sitting back and deadly serious.  I could tell I was making progress with them, as they didn’t leave the conversation when normally people would by this point.  So I just keep going over the gospel, and coming back to how, by their own religion, they wouldn’t be going to heaven, because they weren’t good.  Our only hope is Jesus.

As I’m writing this, the team is still going strong online.  Really encouraging to watch them all silently talking to people about Jesus (pictured).  We appreciate your prayer support.  Please join us!
 

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Online Evangelism

Today in the double outreach, the team of around ten rejoiced the have the opportunity to speak with many more people about the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ!

The afternoon started with a strong conversation with Patonia. She initally professed faith and then it came out that she believed her goodness was a part of her justification. She was a part of the movement called, "The Last Reformation" who believe that baptism is required for salvation. She then went through a range of emotions from anger to sadness as she came to terms with the lies of this movement and came to grasp the simple message of the gospel. She was looking for the truth but wasn't sure if she would start reading the Bible for herself.

Please be praying that she would respond to the gospel in faith and start seeing what God has said in His word!

A following conversation was with Huan, a man who came to grasp the gospel very quickly and said this day he would trust in Christ for the forgiveness of his sins! He was so thankful for the chat and rejoiced that we'd had it.

Lastly worth noting was Ben a Jewish man who noted at the end that he was really glad we'd had the chat. He started professing atheism and saw the foolishness of it and came to acknowledge God. Then he was taken through the law and shown how desperately he falls short and then when asked for the solution he had no idea and said, "You tell me".

He was thankful for the chat as he came to see and acknowledge that his Tanakh pointed to Jesus as the only savior for the world and was thankful for the conversation. He said he would read Isaiah 53 and would consider opening up the New Testament for himself afterwards!

Praise God for these three stand out conversations and please pray that God would be drawing these sinners to Himself through the gospel they heard this day!

And since you're probably stuck at home, why not come and join us sometime?

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Online Evangelism

Routine.  That’s a big key for me.  Sharing the gospel with people, as a full time job, can be tiring, and difficult, it can even be boring, sometimes, when you're repeating the same information over and over to people who often don’t seem interested.

And, other than dependence on the strength of God, a regular routine really helps me to keep going.  In fact, my online evangelism routine is so solid now, that I find that I enjoy the work more now.  I pray, and start a conversation, the conversation ends, I pray, and repeat.

And I feel my routine is in balance.  I take regular breaks through the day, and take walks.  And I take a whole day away from it all, to focus on rest and family (because we homeschool, my family makes Monday our day off).

I think back to the years when I was new to street evangelism, and the learning process.  I remember being terrified when “evangelism day” would arrive.  And relieved when it was over.  But, my passion for God and telling others about Him overrode my fears.  And the routine helped.

So this is an encouragement to you, to try using routine as an aid in evangelism.  Pick a (regular) time and place and stick to it.  At the moment, there are online outreaches happening daily, with a team of people to work with and learn from.  So feel free to come and join us - you will be welcome, no matter your current experience or ability. :)

(With online evangelism, it’s so much easier to get a conversation started, and you can just get into the “flow” of conversation after conversation.  It’s good, because you can just power through many gospel conversations (and if you are new, learn fast).  But you have to be careful you don’t become too automatic.  These are real people we are communicating with, and we need to take what we do seriously.)

And routine helps me to keep writing these reports three times a week.  But they often feel like I’m just saying the same old thing each time.  I’m at a point now where I feel the time would be better spent just sharing the gospel instead - and I’d probably find that more enjoyable.  I dunno, I guess it’s good for me to do so much writing (and it’s a nice change of routine).  Has my writing improved?  I hope so.  But is it worth it?

Well, I guess I should write about the last two days of outreach ;)  Tuesday (6 hours on Omegle) and Wednesday (4 hours).  So many conversations, I just can’t remember them all.  I normally take notes, a routine I need to re-establish! ;)

But something that has encouraged me is seeing others growing in confidence in online evangelism, e.g.:

“It's really thrilling to read your accounts of the gospel going out. I have been praying for you guys. Keep up the great work.  I've been doing some Omegle text chats. Can't quite get myself to plunge into a video chat yet!”

And then on Tuesday morning: “I had my first VIDEO chat yaay!” and then “Just spoke to two 11 year old girls can you believe.  It was like talking to my Bible Club kids!  God paired me up with the right demographic haha.”

And from another team member, this: 

“
Stranger: Jesus is right
Stranger: U r right
Stranger: From now on
Stranger: Cause after this chat u have made me believe
”

I finished my outreach today with a very long conversation with a guy who was very intelligent, but so easily distracted, and just all over the place.  I had to stop him multiple times and just give him wake up calls to try to get through.  I would warn him that he was suppressing the truth out of love for his sin.  It was a video conversation, but at one point he dropped the following comment via text chat:  “these r the words i needed to hear”.  He took a look at needGod.net, and was impacted by the opening line: “What happens after we die?”.  In the end, I needed to end the conversation, as I don’t think I was making much progress.  I was able to share the gospel.  I hope something I said sticks.  He is in God’s hands.

By the way, the picture shows the stats for needGod.net.  Since we have started online evangelism, there has been a big increase in traffic.  May people read the content on needGod.net and come to understand the gospel.  May people be saved from our feeble efforts, to the glory of God alone.
 

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Online Evangelism

The last few days of online witnessing has been of great encouragement in many ways but also confirming other worries about the state of the church in the west.

If there has been any learning experience from this it is that the church needs to be clearer in explaining the gospel and more explicit in what is a result of the gospel. Church attendee's who the team has spoken to in large part have never understood why the cross is good news. They often have heard of Jesus dying on the cross and even know the phrase, "Jesus died for your sins" but they have never heard why that is good news.

The predominant issue isn't that people think they can live however they want. Rather it has exposed itself to be that people have never grasped the gospel. Most of the people are "hearing" that it is asking for forgiveness, confessing sin, trying to obey the laws that is the reason that God will save them and then often in the next sentence mentioning that we are saved by grace.

This has been making evangelism easy in many senses because the people already think that God exists and are interested in what He says. (It also sometimes makes it harder because they are more resistant in their pride to acknowledge that they have been wrong). But usually this results in a really encouraging conversation where the person goes on to say, "No one has ever explained this to me before like this".

One stand out like this was with Amy a young Asian girl who attends a Christian school adn church her whole life and after a twenty five minute conversation she came to grasp the gospel and said that she was very thankful that it was explained to her this way. She said she wanted to start reading the gospel of John today.

Another was with Tye a Church attending American who said that it was his goodness that would be the basis for Heaven and after a good conversation, (all the while taking notes) he came to be really clear on the gospel and was so grateful for the chat! Once he understood it he mentioned that it would be wise to move to a different church (who prize the Bible) and he would start reading the Bible for himself.

Please be praying for Amy and Tye that they (and the many others who are like them) would upon grasping the gospel would come to believe it for themselves.

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Online Evangelism

On Saturday I (in NZ) was doing online outreach in the morning, and the team in Aussie were on in the Afternoon.

I had a lot of great conversations, but three stand out.  One brought me to tears.

The first was with a young man who didn’t want to talk, just type.  I could see him and talk to him though.  So in this way, I was able to share the law and the gospel with him.

I had made sure the guy understood the cost of following Jesus, and to finish up, I asked him a final checking question and he said:

Stranger: I need to trust that Jesus died on the cross for us and paid for our sins

He seemed to be understanding, which is great - praise God.  I then asked if he had any questions:

Stranger: No it's just that I would never expect this you just changed my life thank you

It touched me deeply.  I know it’s nothing I do that will change someone's life.  All glory to God alone.  But, the deepest desire of my heart is for people to be saved.  So I had a good cry, and I’m not ashamed to say it - I’m passionate about this.  It’s so serious, and so real.  He is in God’s hands, may he really be changed by God.  May you be encouraged to see what is important in life, and get out to share the amazing news of Jesus with people.

The second conversation I want to mention was with a lady who was a scientist who worked in nanotechnology!  I don’t come across many people like that on Omegle!  She also didn’t want to talk, only type.  But she was deeply atheist and resistant to any logic of the reality of God.  She was even mocking.  I knew I wasn’t going to make progress and sure enough, she bailed from the conversation.  The reason why this conversation is so significant is because of the third conversation…

About fifteen minutes afterwards, after a string of rejections, I get into another conversation with someone that only wanted to type!  I turned on their video and I was shocked.  It was the same lady from the second conversation!  There were 50,000 people on Omegle at the time, and I’ve never ever been paired with the same person twice.  I said, “I think God wants me to talk to you!”  It felt like an amazing piece of providence.  And I instantly thought to take the conversation on a different tack.  I went with my testimony, to try to find ground she would identify with, so that I would be able to gain the trust to be able to get to the law and the gospel.

Praise God, I was able to at least get to the law, before she bailed again.  But before she bailed, I was able to drop a link to needGod.net.

I sat back in wonder.  May something I said stick, may she look at the website.  May God use it as He wills - for His glory.

Sunday saw the usual practical training outreach online.  Ryan asked me to do the initial demo to the group, and I was nervous - mainly because I didn’t want to get into a long conversation that would hold everyone up from getting to their own harvest opportunities.

I ended up getting into a conversation with two French guys.  Their English wasn’t the best, and it was hard to establish a clear line of reason with them.  I managed to get through the law and the gospel, yet I’m not confident they understood - sadly.

The team then broke into smaller Jitsi groups and we took turns sharing the gospel on Omegle, while sharing our screen for the rest to observe.  It was wonderful getting to know some of the other team members better in between, and we were able to discuss afterwards to learn from each other.  Praise God.

My eldest daughter is still keen to be involved, and so she sat next to me while she had a few goes.  I was really proud of her!  She was so nervous, but it was great watching her confidence grow as she got into it.  She managed to get two people through the law before they bailed on her.  But praise God, he uses our efforts.  We will continue to practice sharing the gospel in our family devotion times.

Glory to God for the weekend of opportunity to share His gospel.  Glory to God, alone, for any fruit.
 

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Online Evangelism

Online evangelism is like nothing you've ever experienced. Any rejection is minor and the reception glorious!

The team has found that the vast majority of the people on Omegle (from America) a professing Christians who know little of the gospel or a people who are pretty sure they're done with Christianity when they haven't even started. Neither group seems to have a good understanding of the gospel and almost all seem to be believing that it is their own goodness and what they have to offer God that is the reason for their entry into Heaven or their rejection of God.

But over the past weeks each day around ten people from Australia and New Zealand have been gathering digitally, praying together and then heading out into the harvest field to proclaim to good news of the Kingdom!

There have been so many beautiful conversations. Ranging from gang members who professed faith knowing that they could die for it, to ardent atheists turning 180 and saying that today they want to trust that Jesus has taken the punishment for their sin!

A highlight from today was with a man named B, he at first was being silly and then with a bit of warning about the seriousness of eternity and the reality that it could begin for him at any moment he tuned in to listen. Early on in hearing the gospel he noted that he had heard it all before but it was just moments later the he remarked, "Oh that makes sense now". He came to profess a desire to trust in Christ, as the propitiation for his sin and said that he would read the gospel of John.

It was a beautiful day, of outreach and among other conversations a Muslim came to hear of the gospel but rejected it and atheist said, "This is the first time I've ever heard of this and now I will have to consider it" and a third man originally proclaiming his own righteousness was so cut to the heart by the law, seeing his guilt said, "I have to go now".

Please be praying for the many who heard the good news today, that this hearing would result in faith and that they too would desire to see others come to a saving knowledge of the truth!

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