Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Woodridge (QLD) Team
• Page 10

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Woodridge Team (QLD)

Meets 2-5pm every Tuesday afternoon at the Woodridge train-bus interchange on Station Rd.

Contact Ryan Hemelaar for more information.

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One of the most encouraging things from Tuesday's outreach at Woodridge was that one of people who has become a Christian because of our ministry there (and has been attending a local church for past 6 months) was keen to help us hand out gospel tracts. He joined us for several hours.

Praise be to God!

 

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Praise be to God for a good outreach at Woodridge yesterday. We had a good size team which meant lots of gospel tracts went out.

At one stage I offered a tract to a young couple and the man refused it. But a few minutes later he returned and said he wanted to ask a question. His name was Ben.

He asked about why do bad things happen in this world. I told him about how God created the world and it was good, but then humanity said to God that they didn't want to live His way. So God basically said: "Ok, but there will be consequences. People will die, get sick, be in pain, etc. So in essence, humanity's to blame for the bad things happening in the world. Ben said, "That makes a lot of sense."

He then went on to say how he was released from prison just last week and wants to improve his life from now and was wondering whether going to church would do that for him. I explained how improving his life wouldn't get him to Heaven because God looks at our whole life and if we have sinned even once, we deserve Hell. He asked, "Is it too late then?"

I went on to explain the cross, how Jesus was so gracious to take our Hell punishment for us on the cross, and that the way we receive this is not by going to church, not by praying or improving our life, but by trusting only in what Jesus has done for us on the cross for our forgiveness. I then talked about how once we trust in Jesus, we of course want to turn from our sin because we love Jesus.

I asked a few checking questions to make sure he really did now understand the gospel, and it seemed he did. Please pray for Ben as he counts the cost of trusting in Christ.

We spoke to quite a number of other people during our outreach as well. It's never a waste of time when God's word goes out to people, regardless of their responses. Glory to God!

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We had a good outreach at Woodridge. As soon as I arrived, I saw some of the high school students I shared the gospel with the week before at the same spot, and so I started talking with them again.

It wasn't long before they asked one of their friends to join the conversation. He said he was religious. I asked him why he is going to Heaven, and he replied by saying that he has been taught by his church that baptism wipes away all his sin and that is why 2 weeks ago he got baptised. Thus he thought that he was all good to go to Heaven.

I pointed out Matthew 5:48 to him, how Jesus says we must be perfect. Then I went through some of the commandments with him asking if he had kept them. Just like the rest of us, he hadn't. He began to realise that he deserved Hell, but then said he would try be better from now on. I pointed out that doing that wouldn't get rid of the history of his sin. Neither would getting baptised or asking for forgiveness - I gave him the courtroom analogy to make this clear.

When I said that the only way of forgiveness is through a perfect person taking our Hell punishment for us on our behalf, he was beginning to understand it, but his bus then turned up. He said he wanted to continue talking with me next week.

Soon after, I had two other young men come over to ask me a question. They asked, "Is there a certain day you need to go to church?" I responded by quoting Romans 14:5-6 how the day of the week that one goes to church isn't a big deal. But I immediately recognised the bigger issue, I needed to find out whether these guys understood the gospel.

Desra, the one who liked my answer to the question, thought he was going to Heaven because he is reforming his life and starting to read the Bible.
While Bernard, the one who didn't really like my answer to the question, thought his own goodness and praying saved him.

So I talked about sin, the coming judgement, Heaven, Hell, the cross, repentance and faith with them. And it took about half a dozen times of explaining the gospel over again in different ways before they came to grasp it.

I could tell Desra was clearly counting the cost, seeing whether he was prepared to repent and trust in Christ. He asked if someone could come over to his house regularly to explain the things of the Bible. I could tell they were both really open, and so I went through a few key passages with them, such as Ephesians 2:8-10, Matthew 10:32-39, and Matthew 5:27-30. Please pray for them that they will truly repent and trust in Christ. I am hoping to continue going through the Bible with them in future weeks.

Other team members began to arrive during this time, we had four of us in total.

In the attached photo, Stephen is talking with a man about the gospel, but this man said he wants to take the blame for his own sin instead of having Jesus take it for him.

Please also pray for:

• Jonathan - he said he believes in Jesus, but said he needs to do a bit of good to be saved. He was receptive to the message of salvation by grace through faith alone.

• Raw & Nimrod - heard whole message. Said they really appreciated the chat and would think seriously about the message.

All the glory goes to God!

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A good number of gospel tracts were handed out and many good gospel conversations were had at Woodridge yesterday.

We had one guy who was really confronted about the tract "You may not have tomorrow", and by making threats towards us he was hoping we would be intimidated by him. But he ended up softening majorly and we had a great long gospel conversation with him.

Please also pray for:

• Tour - gave gospel of John, knew already he wouldn't go to heaven because of how he has been living, heard gospel.

• Clay - Jordan had a good conversation with him, and gave him a gospel of John. He said he would count the cost.

We sow the seed, but God gives the increase. So to Him be all the glory!

 

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Many gospel tracts were handed out today at Woodridge, and some good conversations were had.

The place where we evangelise is where lots of school students hang out after school. Today I had good chat with a large group of high school students, some who were Muslims, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses in the one conversation.

Please pray for all who heard the gospel including:

• Tadila - thought works saved. Heard gospel. Would consider message.

• Oscar - faith & works, came to understand gospel. Gave him gospel of John.

• Lelan - tradie, listening intently, gave him gospel of John.

Photo: Wilter is explaining the message of the cross to this gentleman.

To God be the glory!

- Ryan Hemelaar

 

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It was blowing a gale when I arrived for the Woodridge outreach on Tuesday. But it didn't really hinder people stopping and talking about eternal matters.

The first conversation I had was with one of the Mormon missionaries who I met several weeks ago. He had brought in assistance from someone outside their area. This missionary too however didn't really know what the Bible taught. 

They were arguing that the Bible has been changed, and the reason they gave to back this up was: "Because that is what Muslims say."

I was shocked to hear them rely on an argument like that. So I explained how we have thousands of manuscripts of Bible from all over the world in the original languages and so we can know for certain the Bible hasn't been corrupted. I then showed them in the Bible how salvation is by grace through faith, but they were very stubborn in holding on to their works. Please pray for them.

Please also pray for:

• Banjo & Beni - school kids, one thought his asking for forgiveness would save him....both came to understand the gospel and said they would repent and believe.

• Deanna - young lady, talked to her November last year after her dad passed away. Just this week, her mum had a heart attack, and was in hospital. 

She said she loved her sin and knew she would be going to Hell. But the recent events regarding her parents has been making her think about God a lot. Explained gospel, urged her to come to saving faith. She said she would seriously think about it.

Photo: Jordan is speaking to a young man who didn't mind if he ended up in Hell.

 

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It was another good afternoon of outreach at Woodridge on Tuesday.

There was a lady I spoke to named Jo. She said that she had just been 'prayed over' earlier in the day, and so she thought she was definitely going to Heaven. She thought that her goodness was good enough for God.

After talking about sin and the judgement to come, she saw her badness. But then I explained the message of the cross, and she came to understand the gospel. Please pray for her.

Also please pray for David. He thought it was his keeping of the commandments that would save him. But after going through some of them, he realised he hadn't actually kept them.

He too said he would repent and trust in Christ. We also recommended a good local church for him to start attending.

All glory to our marvelous God!

Photo: Stephen witnessing to a young man near the end of the outreach.

 

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It was another interesting outreach at Woodridge on Tuesday.

Once the team arrived it was not long before we got into conversations. The first conversation I had was with a Jehovah Witness from Africa. She thought was going to paradise because she door knocks every Saturday. Her name is Telsee.

I showed her that no matter how many good things she could do, God could not overlook the history of her sin. This was very new to her. And she was listening intently as I explained the gospel. I encouraged her to check that what I was saying lined up with the Bible.

At this point a drunk aboriginal man interrupted our conversation saying to her that she doesn't need to worry about any of the things we talked about. He then said to me "Don't you try and convert any of us black fellas with your white fella religion." I pointed out that Christianity is for everyone, for Jesus wasn't even a white person but instead a Middle Eastern.

He walked off but it wouldn't be the last we would see of him that day. For later on there was a group of about 15 aborigines drinking nearby and this guy started a fight with someone else. They were throwing punches and kicks. We had to call the police who came and gave them Move On directions. It didn't stop them though, they continued the fight a little further down the street and more of them got involved. Even by the time we left they had started another fight and more police had to show up to sort it all out.

During this time, Luke and I had a great conversation with two Mormon missionaries who we have never met before. They were 21 months through their mission, one from Hawaii and the other from Tonga.

We asked them why they think they will go to Heaven, and their answer was their works.

We showed them some verses in the Bible about how it is only grace through faith that we are saved. We gave the example of the thief on the cross, did he do good works? Did he get baptised? How then was he saved. The Mormon from Hawaii said, "I guess it was by faith he was saved." They were beginning to understand it.

But the other Mormon was saying that he has a 'feeling' that the Book of Mormon is true because he prayed about it. I explained how that that is a circular argument. For the Book of Mormon itself is setting the 'test' of how you know the Book of Mormon is true. But how do we know that that is the right test?

For example, if I wrote a book and said in it that the test to know the book is true is whether the sky is blue. The sky is blue, therefore my book is true. That's circular because the very book I'm trying to say is true contains the test to know whether it is true. Same with the Book of Mormon. This shows that the test these Mormons are relying on is faulty.

Instead I showed them how the proper test is to compare the Book of Mormon with what came before, that is, with the Bible. And since it contradicts the Bible, it is clear the Book of Mormon is not true.

Please pray for these two Mormon missionaries and for all the other people who heard the gospel today.

To God be the glory!

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It was an interesting day at Woodridge on Tuesday.

There was a lady who came up to me and grabbed the front of my shirt near my neck and said, "God loves me." She was drunk, and her friends had to pull her away.

Then right near the end of the outreach, after all the other team members had left, she returned and at the time I was witnessing to someone. She was yelling things like "Stop talking about God. No one likes God. Go away."

It looked like she wanted to get physically violent again, but her friends were holding her back. So she started pulling out things from a nearby bin and started throwing them at me. I am thankful that she didn't find any glass bottles in the bin.

After ducking for cover, she eventually left and the person I was witnessing to said, "I think I have to go..."

Things like that are to be expected for a Christian, because people hate God, so it shouldn't be a surprise that they will show that hatred towards his followers.

Nevertheless, it was another glorious day where the gospel was proclaimed. There were 4 of us on the team.

Please pray for the following people from the outreach:

• Everston, Ethan, Lethan and Sam. - thought good people, came to profess faith in Christ.

• Elaina - her mum's a Buddhist, initially very stand-offish. Didn't believe in God. After showing her why it makes sense God exists, she was a lot more willing to talk. After talking about sin and the judgement, she was concerned about ending up in Hell, so she wanted to know the way of forgiveness. I explained the gospel, and she was happy to take a gospel of John to read.

To God be the glory for another great outreach!

 

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It was another interesting outreach at Woodridge on Tuesday.

The aborigines were sitting near to where we were having our outreach drinking alcohol for most of the afternoon. At one point, one of them stole a team member's drink bottle, emptied the water from it and filled it with alcohol and proceeded to then drink from it.

After asking for it back, we were met with threats of our noses being broken. Thankfully the police were on the train station and they quickly sorted out the issue.

There were plenty of good conversations with people. Here are some people to pray for in particular:

• Mooki - I spoke to him at length last week, when he came up to me and said that the week before (that is, 2 weeks ago) he was rude to me when he just walked straight past saying that he followed Satan, but said that now he wants to hear what I have to say. So I explained the full message clearly to him last week. This week he came back again and he had been thinking about what I said, but admitted he loves his sin.

• Catherine - from NZ, been giving into sin a lot recently. Thought following God's will saved her.

• Ayuel - took a New Testament Bible. Seemed to realise that he was guilty before God.

• Julian - heard full presentation, he at least intellectually came to understand the gospel, please pray he is genuine.

God's word is so precious and all the people we encountered on the outreach this Tuesday will never be the same again in eternity because they have heard the truth.

All glory to God!

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