Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Page 98

Christchurch (NZ) Team

Sunday afternoon was not only an Operation 513 outreach to Cashel Mall (in Christchurch NZ), but it was the first monthly “Outreach Sunday” for Redemption Church.  Not only did all four elders of the Church get behind this initiative (bringing their families out with them), but there were a total of 27 people from the church involved!  It was a sweltering 33 degrees celsius - but that didn’t stop the enthusiasm.

For me, as one of the elders, my biggest prayer was that those that got involved would have a positive experience of community/street outreach like this; seeing that people are indeed open and willing to discuss the important questions of life, and hear the gospel message of Jesus.  As far as I’m aware, God answered that prayer!

The most poignant memory from the outreach was the end of the very last flipchart conversation I had.  It was a harder one, with a young man from China.  I think the gospel concepts I was explaining were quite foreign, so I had to be patient - but I’m fairly confident he eventually understood.  As he left (with a Bible from me and various tracts that he had received earlier in the outreach from kids handing them to him), I looked up to see Anna, with Luke in the pushchair beaming a smile at me and giving me a double thumbs up.  I guess she was encouraged - and that greatly encourages me!

It was wonderful watching people walking down the mall, reading the gospel tracts as they were going.

It was also wonderful hearing people saying, “no thanks, I’ve already got one” - to an offered gospel tract.

I watched Jason (pictured) have a long chat with a young German tourist (who had turned down an offer to try the flip chart with me).  Although very resistant initially, he willingly stayed to the point where he came to understand the gospel.  I watched them exchange contact details.

Near the end of the outreach, Jason had another gospel conversation with a lady who had grown up in a Southern Baptist environment in the USA, but had (unbelievably) never sewn all the gospel concepts into an understandable whole.  The penny dropped today!

It was very encouraging to hear a report of Toby, who has only been involved with two outreaches prior (Tell Me Conference, and Canterbury A&P Show) being willing to initiate a walk up conversation!

May Redemption Church continue to grow in their confidence in sharing the good news of Jesus regularly in this way, and may that lead to more confidence in sharing Jesus in their personal relationships too.  May the other churches in Christchurch, NZ, and beyond get involved as well.  May Elders across the land - indeed the whole world - continue to show leadership in the area of evangelism.  May God receive glory through the obedience of His children sharing the gospel, and the salvation of the lost by His grace!

I was also in the city on Saturday: Cathedral Square and Cashel Mall.  The outreach started quite slowly - with plenty of people, but no one interested in stopping to chat.  But I eventually started my first conversation, and ended up having a good outreach.  At one point I ended up sandwiched between the Hara Krisina’s and a soprano singing trumpeter!  :D  I had to move!

Oh Lord, raise up labourers for the harvest!  Continue to encourage and equip Christians for the great commission.  All to the glory of your name.
 

---

Timaru (NZ) Team

We were a team of four from Covenant Grace Baptist Church in Timaru who went to our neighboring town of Temuka to help evangelise there. We met & prayed together at Temuka Baptist, before heading into the main street.

My friend and I talked to several people. The first was a young Asian woman, and despite a slight language barrier, my friend seemed to be able to communicate a clear gospel message to her.

Next we spoke to a young American tourist (Evan) for almost an hour. We tag teamed our way through the conversation and Evan was open to discuss and think about what we talked about. He admitted that despite a Christian influence in the past (family), that he has not and seemed not ready to submit and commit himself to Christ yet. He did seem moved by the conversation and thanked us for talking with him. He also left with a couple of tracts. Please pray for Evan.

Our last conversation was with an older gentleman who identified himself as a Catholic and no matter how I tried to keep the conversation Gospel centred, he just jumped all over the place in terms of topics, with little to no logical connection. He refused any tracts.

The rest of our team also had thought provoking conversations. 

We aim to do evangelism in Temuka every Saturday for the next few months. Thus continued prayers are appreciated. Thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

---

Redcliffe (QLD) Team

Today was just awesome !!!!!  We had 4 people on team James, Robert, Andrew and Col and everyone had such wonderful conversations.

So many people clearly heard the good news. It's like every week God is touching the hearts of so many who are then open to the gospel.

Please pray for all those we talked to and please pray that God will continue to use the Redcliffe team for his purpose. Nothing we say can bring a person to repentance if God is not in it. Could you please put us on your prayer lists, thanks so much.

---

Christchurch (NZ) Team

It was an unusual set of outreaches to the Eastgate and Northlands bus stops this week, because, sadly, I ended up talking to a lot of people under the influence of alcohol: either drunk or hungover.  And all this on a Thursday afternoon!

Some may think it’s a waste of time talking to someone who is drunk - will they remember what was talked about are they worth it?  They are just as worthy as me!  I had a compassion for them, and a realisation that they are just as spiritually dead as the rest of us in our sin (apart from Christ).  It is impossible for me to save drunk people - or anyone, but Christ can, through the preaching of the gospel.  So I persisted.

It started with a man in a bus shelter at Eastgate, drinking a can of beer.  It turns out Andy has spoken to him before, and he had some recollection of that.  I patiently tried to reason with him and explain the bad news of the law, and the good news of the gospel.  There were moments, where he tried to comprehend, but he said it was confusing.

Suddenly, a lady - also drunk, barged into the conversation.  She wanted to sit right between us, so I shuffled over so she could.  Her language was really foul, and she was being rude.  But I ignored it, and patiently tried to include her in the gospel conversation.  She lied to the first man about not having any cigarettes, because later she tried to sell him one for a can of beer.  And she condemned her father for being a drunk, oblivious to her hypocrisy.

I’m not sure if I made much progress with either of them.  But God loved us so much, that he died for us, even when we were His enemies.  May He have mercy on them too!

Latter, after they had both left, I cleaned up four empty beer cans from the bus shelter.

I moved over to the next bus shelter, and started a conversation with a young man, he was happy for me to talk, but his eyes glazed over a bit, which was discouraging - he wasn’t interested.  He said he had a hangover, and the conversation was a bit too heavy for him.

But another guy came into the shelter whom I recognised.  It turns out I had spoken to him outside the hospital about nine months ago.  He couldn’t tell me the way to heaven, but he was keen to hear it - but his bus was three minutes away!  I didn’t make it to the gospel, but he happily received a gospel tract.

At Northlands, I had one of the most intense conversations I’ve ever had.  It was with an ex-soldier, again drunk.  He challenged me on why he should believe in a God, and after a few minutes was about to walk off.  Thankfully I was able to keep him engaged enough so he stayed to talk.  This guy had seen some horrendous stuff in action and was wrestling with some deep hurts and sin.  He was suicidal, and I often I had to bring him back to the knowledge that there is real hope (in Christ) and not to kill himself.  I didn’t let this guy justify his sin - he swung from talking about some deep sins, but then saying he wasn’t bad enough for hell.  At the same time, I was doing my best to explain how even the worst of sins could be justly forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus and faith in Him.  This guy took a contact card for my church, and a gospel tract.

Friday morning we were back outside the Hospital bringing the gospel to the issue of abortion.  The highligh for me was a conversation with an ex-muslim man.  He wanted to take a photo of us to post on social media - no problem with us.  We had a great conversation where I was able to explain the basis for abortion being murder and the hope of forgiveness through faith in Christ.

At lunch time we were in Cathedral Square where Marty and Andy both preached in the open air.  I had a good follow up conversation with a guy who had heckled my open air preaching a few months prior.

In the afternoon, we were at the corner of Cashel Mall and Colombo Street.  I got into a gospel conversation with a lady handing out flyers for Uber Eats.  She had listened to many of my gospel conversations on Wednesday, and had received a tract.  But now I was able to talk with her directly.

Unfortunately, that conversation was interrupted by a new atheist (one who believes religion has no benefit for society).  He was in attack mode and talking very fast, I could barely keep up!  Eventually I was able to get him to shake my hand and exchange names.  And by the end of the conversation, we were talking about our children with each other.  He eventually received a phone call and had to go.  I didn’t get to finish that conversation with the Uber Eats girl, but hopefully I will have another opportunity.

I found the evening outreach difficult, I was struggling with a fear of man.  But I persisted in my attempts to share the gospel with people.  I was able to challenge four men from Ethiopia, who claimed to be Christian, about what our hope for forgiveness was.
 

---

On Australia day, God has faithfully sent 3 laborers to share the ‘Are you a good Aussie’ gospel tracts. The weather was lovely and pleasant. We started from 12pm which was just after Parade so there were still many people in the city

As I was handing out gospel tracts in front ZARA shop in Bourke st. one guy with wireless mic passed by so I handed out gospel tract and he took it and he started to interview me. Later on I found out that his name was Avi Yemni , conservative Jewish who is part of Australian Liberty Alliance. Avi is not a Christian. Please pray for Avi to trust in Jesus Christ that Jesus died and rose again.

The second interesting conversation I had was with lady called Mary. She was from France, she responded with respect and honesty however she seemed like she was struggling to believe in this gospel although she said “yes” to my urgent calling to repent and believe.  Gospel tracts were given to her after the conversation. Please pray for Mary as you read this report.

I also had a chance to talk with two teenagers but as I was going through the law they seemed offended and said “we have to leave sorry” and they left but they took the gospel. I pray that they will read the gospel tract so that they may know that bad news is no longer bad news when we put our trust in the good news that Jesus Christ died and rose again for our sins !

SOLI DEO GLORIA ! 

---

Redcliffe (QLD) Team

We give thanks to God that the Australia day celebrations at Suttons Beach is always a great day for outreach and today was another exceptional day. God provided 5 team members - Andrew, Gary, Kane, Damon and Col. Every team member had very many conversations and approximately 1000 tracts were handed out to the huge number of people along the foreshore.

Very early in the afternoon Damon had a very special conversation with a young guy by the name of Ben. In the space of 20 minutes Ben changed his opinion with regard to the existence of God and was seriously considering a relationship with God and putting his trust in Christ alone. Praise God for the way God turned this young man around and he certainly understood his need for a Saviour.

This encounter just reminded me again that it is God who saves and it is the Holy Spirit working in someone life who soften and changes a persons heart. We give God the glory in every conversation. Please remember our team in your prayer lists. We can do absolutely nothing apart from the Holy Spirit touching hearts. Please come and join us if you are feeling God is leading you.
What a wonderful Saviour we have in the Lord Jesus !!!

---

Christchurch (NZ) Team

Wednesday in Christchurch dawned with rain - which was actually good, because the day developed into a very hot and sunny day and the cooler weather was better while I did some more letterbox dropping in the morning.

And for two days in a row, I was able to get into a gospel conversation while letterbox dropping!  Here is a pro tip: smile.  Everytime I pass someone on the street, I give a friendly smile, if they respond with their own smile it can easily allow for a conversation to start, which can lead to a gospel conversation.  Well today, my smile to a gentleman walking the other direction led to him receiving a tract and asking what it was.  When he learned I was a Christian, he quickly declared his Atheism - but was keen to chat.

Like yesterday, I wasn’t able to have a full gospel conversation, but I was able to challenge him on why evolution wasn’t sufficient as a creative mechanism, and why only God explained the existence of the universe and the life found in it.  I was able to give him a basis for morality, and show him how none of us met the standard.  But, sadly, he didn’t want to hear the good news of the hope of eternal life found in Jesus.  I hope he was challenged, and reads the tract that he put in his pocket.

Once I made it to Cathedral Square to start the first outreach of the day, I was able to catch up with one of the stall vendors.  I was encouraged to hear that some Christians had been preaching the gospel (a few days prior) in Speakers Corner using Ray Comforts’ trivia/money technique.  I hope I get to encounter them one day soon.

I ended up settling on the corner of Cashel and Colombo for the outreach and had four great gospel conversations.

An Indian girl heard and understood the gospel, but wasn’t willing to let go of her Hinduism.

I had a long conversation with a man who was a big fan of Jordan Peterson.  I had to be patient as the man processed the reasoning that undergirds the gospel.  He heard the law, but (again) didn’t want to hear the gospel.  But he seemed to really appreciate the chat.  He took a tract, and it would be great if I get to see him again.

At this point, the heat of the day was starting to take its toll, so I had an energy bar.  I went to put the rubbish in the bin, and to my surprise people had started to gather around my flip chart in my brief absence.  This led to a solid gospel conversation with two young ladies.

To finish off the morning outreach, I had a guy and girl show interest in the chart.  It turns out she had already done it about six months ago.  I asked her if she passed the test, and she said she hadn’t.  I asked if she knew the good news, and she didn’t.  So going from there, I took them through the chart.  Sadly, they were understanding, but not understanding.  They really weren’t interested in the good news.  And not surprisingly, they both failed my first checking question.  They had to go.

After lunch, the second outreach of the day started.  I ditched the flip chart and looked for shaded areas to approach people to chat.  I ended up having five gospel opportunities.  The two highlights were: a conversation with a young lady with a Catholic background who seemed very open to the foreign concept of salvation by faith alone: good news!  And a wonderful conversation on my first walk down High Street for the year (I only made it halfway due to this conversation).

The conversation was with an Atheist and was going really well, when a guy I hadn’t noticed came and interrupted.  He had overheard me say: “Jesus said ‘anger is like murder of the heart’”, and so his interruption was to ask if I knew Aramaic.  I was initially confused by this, but soon understood what he was getting at.  Interestingly, I think this guy was expecting me to get into an argument with him - he looked tensed up and ready to fight!  I think he was surprised when I responded gently.  We ended up shaking hands.  Maybe I broke his street evangelist stereotype?  I hope so.  Unfortunately, the conversation with either men wasn’t able to continue - the first guy had to go back to work.  But I hope these guys get more opportunities to hear the gospel - maybe from you?  You're ready to share the gospel - right?

I’m starting to get back into my regular schedule post some holidays and the NZ Summer Mission.  As always, thank you for your prayers and support!
 

---

Christchurch (NZ) Team

Sunday afternoon was the first outreach after the completion of the NZ Summer Mission in Christchurch & Dunedin (you can read the reports from the mission here).

It was a nice day, and there were lots of people in Cashel Mall.  But for whatever reason, it was really difficult to get a conversation started (in stark contrast to my experience in Dunedin).  Oh, how I miss being in Dunedin!  My three daughters were with me, and it was a good lesson in perseverance for them.  Evangelism is not easy - but Jesus is worthy!  Yet some tracts were received and I did manage to get into one conversation.

Mike joined us later in the outreach, and armed with his new mini flip chart, he went off in search of a conversation (paired up with Haley).  He came back with a wonderful report of a conversation with a tourist.  He was able to go through the whole flip chart with him - and the checking questions really helped the guy to understand the gospel.

On Tuesday I was doing some letterbox dropping before heading to Riccarton for the late afternoon outreach, when I was challenged by an older lady about what I was doing.  I looked up and informed her that I was putting gospel tracts in letterboxes.  She asked what a gospel tract was, so I explained that I was a Christian and that I wanted people to know the good news about Jesus - and a gospel tract communicated that message.  I was very surprised by her response.  I was expecting her to tell me not to put one in her box, but instead she was delighted!  She was doing some gardening, but was obviously very keen to talk, and so I sat down to oblige.

She had a Catholic background, and figured that her goodness would get her to heaven.  So she was deeply challenged when I showed her what Jesus taught about goodness.  She kept changing the subject to political issues, and how bad the world was, and how much people like me are needed.  But I kept gently bringing the subject back to the problem of her own sin.  She wasn’t open to a full gospel conversation, and so didn’t hear the good news.  But she did receive a tract.  As I moved on, I came to the end of the road, and crossed to come back down the other side to deliver tracts.  I was going to wave to her, but to my surprise she was gone.  I hope she went inside to study the tract.

The last time I had been in Riccarton was two weeks prior during the NZ Summer Mission.  There were about ten Christians there and I was amazed at how many conversations the team were able to have.  Now I was back on my own, and I struggled a bit to get conversations started.  Yet tracts were received, and over the outreach I was able to have three good gospel conversations.

The first was with a young lady, who was intrigued by my question about the afterlife, and stayed to hear the gospel via the big flip chart.  The second was with a guy (pictured walking away reading a tract) whom I had to really labour with to get him to understand the way to heaven.

The last was a wonderful conversation with another young lady, who had some Christian influence in her life, but had not really been able to sew it altogether.  Many times through the conversation I was able to observe the penny drop as she joined the dots and understood the gospel.  She would say things like: “It’s making sense now!” (multiple checking questions confirmed this).  At the end she was challenged to respond to the gospel.  She was keen to accept a free Bible and start reading it, and wanted recommendations for a youth group.  We talked about church options for her area, she also received a contact card for my local church.
 

---

As Monday was a public holiday (also known as a governement sanctioned evangelism day), the team of twelve headed into Brisbane City for an outreach. The team managed to have many conversations over the course of seven hours and overall it was a wonderful use of a day free from study or work.

After a few attempted conversations that were turned down a young Brazillian man, named Juan, stopped to chat. It was a valuable conversation and after comprehending the law and his guilt out of nowhere he mentioned something incredibly honest! He went on to explain that whilst he lived in Brazil he always felt dissatisfied and always thought that moving to another country would fulfil him. So he left Brazil and came to Australia and said that all his friends looked at his photos and were really jealous but once he arrived he just felt empty again!

This was used to show him that his greatest need wasn't his personal satisfaction but that he is still God's enemy and on his way to Hell, the gospel was explained and then it was pointed out that truth satisfaction will be found in knowing God. It was made clear that we shouldn't come to God to get satisfaction, we should come to God to get God but a life and eternity that is satisfying will result. He was able to articulate the gospel back and was encouraged to think about it seriously!

Eleven conversations later, the final conversation of the night took place with Freddie and Clement two German young men. They had grown up in a liberal church in Germany who rejected Hell and the sufficiency of scripture. It was interesting because at first they were arguing that God doesn't exist but they were shown that was simply an attempt to convinced themselves they really could live however they wanted and they both agreed. They saw that God because He is good must punish evil and that they are in very grave danger. Then they good news was shared, they came to grasp it and were able to explain the way to Heaven and it seemed like they really understood it!

Both commented how the conversation had really challenged them in many ways and therefore they would be thinking a lot about it as they headed on home. Usually European's are quite heard to the things of eternity but God is His kindness allowed these men to have some time of openness to be willing to consider that what they had hoped for was wrong.

Please be praying for these three guys that they trust in Christ alone for their forgiveness and as a result forsaking their sin and living for God!

What a wonderful day of outreach it was! Why not join us next week!

---

A battle log report of the New Zealand Summer Mission from an Australian perspective, part 2.

The week in Dunedin started very differently, the first morning of outreach consisted of three conversations with three heretics. The first was a lady who had been lead to believing that because she could utter phrases out of her mouth that she couldn't understand and had been immersed in water, although she was living adulterously and in direct rebellion toward God, was pretty sure she would be ending up in Heaven. The next was a lady from the same group (Revival Centres, an Australian export of false Christianity) except she was even further in, she was so sure that was how she would be saved that she rejected what God's word says in Romans 4:1-6, Ephesians 2:8-10 and every analogy about how gifts work. She was insistent, even after reading John 3 for herself (which she claimed talked about baptism) that it was her obedience toward God that would secure her eternity in Heaven. Lastly was a man who also was from Australia and was preaching that the life one lives after beliving in Christ was what would determines someone's entrance into Heaven. Thankfully despite the initial sadness bought by people professing the name of Christ who had been sucked in by cults the week began to improve significantly.

The first guy spoken to after lunch was named Cody. Over the course of the week the opportunity to have three conversations with him took place. This first conversation he came to understand the way to Heaven. After a morning with hard hearted people, he was open, willing to chat and grasped the good news very quickly. Two days later when he was chatted to again he said he had been wrestling with it. Not because the gospel wasn't good news but because he wanted to live his own way and specifically disagreed with God on the area of sexuality. He was given some simple answers and explanations from scripture as well as being asked some strong questions, the one that bought silence, was this, "Who knows better, Cody the twenty year old from New Zealand, or the eternally existing, all knowing, good and loving Creator of the universe?"

It is a pretty simple question to answer and Cody saw that his attempts to argue against God were folly. He was checked in with a final time on Friday and said he was really thinking it over. He knew that it was imoportant to consider, he was going to have a read of the gospel of John he was given and was very thankful for the opportunity to chat with someone who was patient, had simple and clear answers and really believed what they were saying.

Another exciting conversation was with Nelson who had moved away from the UK for work and left his wife behind (to follow when he got a job). He didn't really profess to be a Christian but was seriously challenged after a short conversation, was able to articulate the good news and how someone is saved and then asked a few questions about how to answer his wife who had started arguing some things about what meats "Christians' are meant to eat as she had started attending a SDA church. He was given the simple answer but was more importantly encouraged to start reading his Bible for himself (starting in John through Romans) to get a good grasped of the Christian message and lifestyle. I was able to speak later in the week and Nelson said he had a really tough chat with his wife about it. I encouraged him to pray for her, to keep reading his Bible to grow in knowledge and love for God so that he could lead and serve her well when they were back together.

A final conversation worth noting was with Gunja. A man who had been influenced by the JW's and was certain that if the Bible did not say what he thought, it must be "bodgey". He said the NWT was the only real Bible. In the first conversation he had two serious issues, firstly that people are made right before God by their own righteousness and secondly that Hell doesn't exist. Gunja, the discussion about Hell came first (as it was written on my tshirt) and it was answered simply by getting Gunja to read Revelation 20:7-14 in the NWT. He read it, asserted that it doesn't mention the word Hell and it was agreed that instead we could call it Gehenna, the Lake of Fire or the Second Deeath if he would prefer but that the idea of God's eternal judgement for sinners was clear in scripture.

Then he started to declared his own righteousness as the reason he would enter Heaven. He declared that he was definitly good enough. It was pointed out that he had blasphemed God multiple times by name during the conversation, had sworn, lied and been rude and angry and therefore he had no grounds upon which to declare that he would be good enough but Gunja in his pride determined he was fine. He was warned seriously about his eternity without Christ and he went on his way. He made a few stops by over the course of the week to stir up trouble but was mostly ignored because he already knew he was wrong and tried to justify himself with the declaration, "Hell does not exist".

A quick mention to God's sovereign will is regarding a young man named Ahmed. Glen approached him on Thursday and asked him what he thought happened after life, to which he responded, "Someome has already talked to me about this". When asked when and who, he mentioned it was in Brisbane and it was a guy with a camera. Glen pointed me out to him and he was pretty quickly wanted to leave. I spotted him and went to chat to him but he ran away. When he returned, I had a quick chat to him, he wasn't able to articulate the way to Heaven but I assured him that God was serious in getting his attention, this was now the third time we had spoken in as many cities. He was given a gospel of John and a tract and was challenged that he would have no excuse on judgement day when God had given him three very clear opprotunities.

Overall it was a week 89 conversations with 112 people and a wonderful time was had with the local Christians who hosted us and joined us for the outreaches. May God build His church in Dunedin!

---

« Prev | 1 | 2 ... 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 ... 282 | 283 | Next »

---