Battle Log


Sunnybank

Sunnybank Team (QLD)

Meets 1-3pm Wednesday afternoons at the Sunnybank bus stop on Mains Road.

Contact us for more information.


Wednesday 10 June 2020

Posted by Posted 10 June 2020, 5:32 PM by Hung Kwan. Permalink

Battle Log for Sunnybank on Wednesday June 10, 2020 from 1300-1500

It was yet another day full of the amazing grace of God.

First , God stop the rain for us to have a window of about 80 minutes to do our street ministry. Despite the rain came again at around fifteen past two pm  to cut our work short, He already left behind numerous if not a major three amazing stories(Chats 2, 5, and 7) for His glory sake. OK, let me count our blessings one by one:

1) A much bigger team than expected had turned out with 3 more apart from Johnny and Hung, i.e. Ann Yeo, Col and Gary.

2) Great team work

2.1 One of our team mate  got rejected but other unknowingly still approach notwithstanding to the initial rejection and got a great turn around of acceptance for a long and deep chat fruit bearing chat. ie the Chat (3) with Madam Wang from China.

2.2 Some one already approached before but did a follow up chat with an effect of confirmation of their faith status/progress. i.e. Chat (1) with the Taiwanese lady, & Chat (5) with Kaspar from Estonia

3) Changing hard heart for some but not all as per Chat (6) and Chat (7)

All team members have good chat, especially Johnny whom I normally paired up to keep on watch for each other including taking pictures.

As for me, I had 7 divine appointments within the cut short ministry time of 80 minutes.

1) Taiwanese lady talked to Johnny before

Johnny yelled out to a lady in a distance from the sloped ram of the pedestrian path to get her attention yet the lady seemed to have given a dead ear making no response. I suggested to Johnny may be she is a Filipino. Anyhow I just managed to check her out to see if she would like me to chat with her in English. But surprisingly, she is a Taiwanese and claimed she actually had chatted with Johnny before Covid-19. That was why Johnny failed to recognized her. It was a pity that I did not have long enough time to do a thorough follow up, but my gut feeling is she is still receptive and in pursuant to the gospel or else she would have refused to talk with me.

2) Mary an Asia woman with an Aussie husband

The lady took the tract despite the Aussie Husband did not show interest. I nevertheless still invited them for a chat and again the Husband refused to stop, so I compromised by sharing the gospel while walking with them across the bridge. The Asian lady appeared very impressed for the message and thanks for my sharing. God really has His sovereign right to chose and elect people that He knows are within his net of grace.

3) Wang from North Eastern China with her daughter

They were waiting for 590 that takes long interval lap time to come. I did not know this but anyway was moved to approach them. The mother Madam Wang delightfully chatted with me. Soon she found out I am from HKG and she said how come you Hong Kongers are all so keen to share the Gospel to strangers? I had to clarify did she mean people in HKG but she said she encountered many Hongkongers here all enthusiastically try to share gospel to her. (Ha Ha, would this include Carol, of the Great Commission Church ,Thomas of the Gospel Hall in Southport and Thomas of the Living Water Alliance Church?) I commented that definitely not only Hongkongers but many more Christians from different places like Johnny from Taiwan and our local Aussie OPN 513 mates.  I explained to her, as a Christian, our overarching objective is to share the gospel to as many people as possibly irrespective of races. I shared with her before receiving Christ, the fight for democracy was my top priority mission, but now Living and testifying for Christ always comes before my support for HKG. I will still exercise my right to stand up and voice out for our struggle for freedom of speech and a democratic life style for HKG, but I will leave the result in God's hand. I told her that actually we don't hate mainlander, we are against only the rogue regime. On the contrary, I love to learn and know about customs, cultural legacy of China by watching their TV programs with a side objective of brushing up my Mandarin. So, I think my genuine sharing and relating with her as a mainlander really dissolve the iceberg in between us. She happily listen to the full gospel and acknowledge she understand and is willing to accept the gift of eternal life from Jesus. Please pray for her eventual decision to receive Christ only under the deep soul touching work of the Holy Spirit that had been working amongst us to accept and closely connected with each other as the people of the historical mother land of China.

What made this gospel sharing appeared even more amazing was that I learnt later from Johnny that he received an outright rejection to talk when he approached her just less than 10 minutes ago. So, God did have a better timing and a better tactic to guide me to move her by  associating with her as kinship of Chinese people with no regard to political stance.

4) Nic walk and talk

A tall local Aussie initially avoided to stop and talk, but finally let me to use the walk and talk tactic to finish sharing the Gospel. His attitude greatly changed at the end and appreciated my companion and the tract.

5) Kaspar from Estonia

This was yet and other miracle today. I shared this with Johnny after we were stopped by the rain and chatted inside Sunny Park. As well I just copied what he shared in Chinese and what Ryan has translated it in English.

“We met one young man from Estonia, God had several 513 brothers to preach the gospel to him on the Omegle chat platform on the internet, today Col also preached him the gospel at Sunnybank, and Pastor Kwan asked him, "do you believe it?” he said, "I believe!”

6) Refused by a Buddhist lady while she seemed to be waiting for some one on the pedestrian bridge. She even resorted to leaving the bridge to avoid me and refused to take a tract.

7) Then just before the rain started pouring down again, I stopped an Indian couples and handed the husband a tract. He took it and read it briefly while crossing the car park to look for shelter from the down pour. He walked with a running steps far ahead of his wife. Initially I tried to follow him to get him stop under shelter for a chat, but I slowed down instead to accompany his wife who appeared to have difficulty to run in her Indian costume on the slippy ground.  Without knowing why the husband suddenly and rudely returned the tract to me, I said you could keep it and read it at home if you did not want to chat now under the rain. He anyway still insisted to return it to me and left with his wife into the shopping mall. A miracle happened 20 minutes later after I sat down to chat with Johnny inside Sunny Park. This Indian husband returned and approached me to ask me to give him again the tract politely. He did this with intention as he saw me and Johnny sitting there so he walked directly into us with his wife watching him to do this. I guess, his wife was impressed by my unintentional care for her slowing down to walk with her under the rain on the slippy car park ground. God did not let me chat with them any more but I am sure life witness is better than  a thousand word.  I am sure God may have His special grace for this couples especially the Indian Wife.

May all glory be to God for all the amazing things He has done and let us play a part in it.


Wednesday 3 June 2020

Posted by Posted 10 June 2020, 11:11 AM by Hung Kwan. Permalink

Battle Log Sunnybank : June 3, 2020 1300-1500

Praise and thanks God to move and call Johnny to invite me to go back on to the street to do street Evangelism at Sunnybank but on Wednesday instead of Thursday that better suit our current life routine.

In His power, we overcame the challenge of rejection at the initial short period and went into full boom gear for witnessing Christ. I was given 11 divine appointments as recap below. Please pray for God's continue work on their lives.

By the way, I quote Johnny's sharing in Chinese here for your reference:

感謝天父上帝的帶領和祝福, 關牧師和我再一次開始南區Sunnybank 街頭福音事工,今午有兩位簡、魏Working Holiday 的台灣同胞,嚴姓大學生,還有Tammy Lee, 他們都停下了腳步,聽到了福音, 祈求上帝保守賜福,拯救那願意為罪悔改並相信耶穌基督的人。

1) A mainland Chinese turned me down claiming he is Buddhists. But I still managed to identify with him that Buddhism is not bad teaching people to be a good person through self-perfection. But this is far from enough to become perfect in God's standard and we all need Jesus to die for our Sin. Though the bus came very qucik, but the seed of Gospel has been planted anyway.

2) An elderly man Mr Chan陳 from HKG who claimed to have many Christian connection but not yet having received Christ. He attended churches (St Mary in HKG香港聖瑪利 and BCAC 華人宣道會here in Brisbane) ,He showed great interest to pursue for Christ but just fallen short of the final push. He asked to meet me other times as he was in a rush. So I invited him to attend our church service this Sunday so hopefully, God will lead him to repent and receive Christ eventually.

3) A dating couples from Taiwan let me walk and talk to share gospel to then while we got across the pedestrian bridge. They heard, understood and appeared very receptive to the Gospel. Just Pray for God's final touch to turn them around to receive Christ. 俊庭,念庭,男女朋友,陪走,願意信

4) Another Mainland old lady heard the gosepl.

5) Two girl with one named阿慧 who appeared more than willing to hear the gospel and showed great interest to pursue. Pray that the God will use the tract to shed light on her life for repentance and salvation,願意聽,明白,同意, 車來

6) Non Native English speaking Mother and son asking for direction to Inala. After helping them to find the way to go. I asked for permission to share the gospel with them. They took the tract but the mother appeared not willing to listen to the gospel. The son is more gracious for my help and listened to the end before urging to go by his mother.

7) A volunteer worker lady near by also heard the gospel and laugh when I said not even our good deed in helping out the woman and her son would earn us right to heaven. She took the tract before the bus came to take her away.

8) An Asian couples took the tract with a friendly gesture but was in a real rush to stop.

9) Two Mt Gravatt high school students, i.e. a boy from South Africa and a girl from South Maui were both willing to heat the gospel. The boy later even claimed he is a Christian but without assurance. So the sharing at least clarified once again the meaning of salvation and as a Christ, we all should professed 100% faith and assurance about our salvation.

10) Another Aussie couples willing took the tract but without a long talk.

11) Celine a PNG girl of catholic background spent a long time to listen to the gospel. Like many Catholic Christian, she does no have assurance of salvation but at the end was clarified for good.


Thursday 2 January 2020

Posted by Posted 7 January 2020, 10:38 AM by Matthew Andersen. Permalink

Thursday the team started at Sunnybank and with 9 team members out and not many people using busses a team of six was left at the station and the others headed into Brisbane City early. There were some good conversations had at Sunnybank in the little over an hour before the split. There was a professing Christian who didn't know the gospel and was given a tract as he raced off, a man who once would have said he was a Christian who now rejected it and had some simply answered objections. Thirdly was a man who came to grasp the good news and was challenged as to when he would believe and was given a tract as his bus arrived.

A stand out converastion was with Bali a Nepalese man who remembered chatting to us and came and said hello. He said he was now beliving in Jesus to pay for his sin but was still a Hindu. It was a good opportunity to talk about the exclusivity of Jesus' saving work and talking about the importance of the lordship of Christ in the life of a believer. He was challenged to continued reading John's gospel that he had started and to strongly consider which he will choose, Hinduism or Christianity.

The whole day was finished with an exciting conversation with a African couple, Clement and Shantae. Shantae said they she was a child of God because she had been baptised and therefore thought that would be what got her into Heaven. Clement said it was faith in God and his good works. Through the analogies and explanation of the gospel as a gift Shantae came to grasp it first and said that she had already started to believe. Clement was a little most resisting but was asked that if the Bible says it would he believe it, to which he said yes.

He was then asked to read Romans 4:1-8 and was still hesitant and then was encouraged to read Ephesians 2:8-9. Upon reading the second one, his face changed and he acknowledge that absolutely it was faith alone in the person and work of Christ that justifies.

The couple then wanted to know more about Christianity and were encouraged to read John's gospel and Romans together. They hadn't spent much time reading the bible together but were shown COMA bible study questions and said they would sit down and read a chapter at a time and try and answer the questions together.

What an awesome end to the day of conversations with a wonderful opportunity. Please be praying for all those heard the message, were challenged by the gospel or even a question and who took tracts that God would be working in their hearts. Please specifically be praying for Clement and Shantae that they would grow together in Christ as they read God's word together!


Thursday 10 October 2019

Posted by Posted 29 October 2019, 12:23 PM by Matthew Andersen. Permalink

On Thursday afternoon a team of six were out at Sunnybank. It was a usual afternoon with many short conversations. Some people came to grasp the good news and responded positively. Others heard it and there wasn't time to check if they remembered it. Some saw little snippets of God's existence and the law but most excitingly God and His sovereign will was on display.

There was a conversation that took place around 3:30 in the afternoon with a young lady named Kimeal. She said she regularly goes to a Catholic church each sunday and when asked what she thought the way to Heaven was in relation to the ten commandments. She said her church had been going through a series on the ten commandments and now she was learning what she must do in order to get to Heaven. It was all about works. She was shown the ten commandments and her guilt and her face started to look very worried as she realised she had totally failed God's law. Then her bus arrived. She tossed up whether to stay and chat but ended up leaving because she had to go.

The rest of the afternoon went by and a scattering of other conversations took place but after dinner as usual the team headed into Brisbane City. At around 8:30pm the renovation works in King George Square were so loud that the team migrated into the Queen St mall to have some conversations. There again were some exciting and encouraging conversations. But just after 9pm, on the return trip from the bathroom Kimeal was spotted walking towards the team. She realised who I was and then we proceeded to chat.

Over the course of the conversation she came to grasp the desperate position she is in before God, that if she died this day and God gave her justice she would be sent to Hell and therefore that she had only one hope, a full and free pardon, not that she could earn but that was given to her. Kimeal came to grasp the glorious gospel and with tears in her eyes and joy in her voice shared that she had never heard this before and was so excited that there was a solution!

She professed that from this moment onwards she would trust that Jesus has paid for her sin and that is the only reason she is going to Heaven! She took a gospel of John and was encouraged to read it and said she would get her hands on a proper Bible and reads Romans sometime. She was very greatful and thanked me. She noted that she didn't think this was an accident and God had clearly planned this double encounter.

Please be praying for Kimeal that she would start to see that problems in her Catholic church and instead start looking for a Church that will preach God's Word not man's ideas. Please also be praying that she would grow in her depth and understanding as she spends time in the word each day!

What an exciting day of outreach, may God receive the praise for all that He has done through unworthy servants!


Thursday 3 October 2019

Posted by Posted 7 October 2019, 1:39 PM by Matthew Andersen. Permalink

Thursday afternoon at Sunnybank saw a team of five out the proclaim the good news of salvation to anyone willing to listen. With school and university being on holidays there was a little less foot traffic around but that was okay as the afternoon seemed pretty consistent and those spread out across area had plenty of conversations each.

An early conversation took place with a young man, Jason, who has previously spoken to the team, shared that he has trusted that Jesus has paid for his sin and has started reading his Bible. He hasn't started attending a local Church so he was encouraged to do that and to encourage him in that to read the book of Acts to see how the early Christians lived. Please be praying that Jason would be able to find a church and start regularly attending there.

There were seven specific conversations in which people who at first rejected God's existence came to see why we know He exists, based on creation needing a Creator before their bus arrived. A further eight came to see their guilt, that they were heading to Hell and were left with the tract and the seriousness of their predicament before they too hopped on their bus.

But there were three stand out conversations, the first is Camila. She is a young lady from China who early in the conversation took it on an unexpected tangent. She said, "I am going to tell you a secret, since I was about eight years old I have felt like life has no purpose and I have no reason to be here. I haven't really told anyone." She seemed totally dead inside. Sadly there wasn't time to share good news with her as her bus arrived but please be praying for another encounter where she may have the chance to hear the hope found in Christ!

An exciting conversation late in the afternoon was with Jing who came to grasp the bad news followed by the simple gospel and how those who trust that Christ have paid for their sin will enter Heaven and this free gift will cause a drastic change of life in love for God. Jing saw the seriousness and said that he would have to consider what was shared as it was new to him. Please be praying that Jing would heed this good news and trust in Christ, turning from his sin today!

The afternoon was also finished off with a young man who was quite knowledgeable but also sometimes intellectually dishonest about why he believed certain things. He too came to grasp the gospel and was challenged with the reality that without Christ he would end up in Hell eternally.

Please be praying for all those who heard the good news, the bad news or even came to grasp God's existence that God would be working in their hearts to draw them to Himself!


Thursday 19 September 2019

Posted by Posted 19 September 2019, 11:35 PM by Hung Kwan. Permalink

Thursday 19/9/2019 Sunnybank

While many regular team members are still away in Myanmar (due to be back on 20/9/19), we had 5 turning up today at Sunnybank with Andrew and Martin coming at 1pm, Hung and Carol joining them at 2pm and finally Ann came at 3pm. Though a smaller team, but God still portioned many divine appointment opportunities to me and Carol that we worked as a team on the East side. Carol had around 10 and I had 15 chats as recap below which were mostly short but still reflecting God's works in those encounters.

1) Beverley an Aussie old lady possibly of Catholic background who has no assurance. Because she is half deaf that made the communication very difficult but I still managed to explain and correct her understanding.

2) An middle aged man Mr Zheng from Heilongjiang, China黑龍江,張, he obviously has not religion and in a hurry, but God still stopped him long enough to let me finish the core gospel message so that he was made aware he is a sinner though a good man but still need the redemptive grace of Jesus. He promised to read the tract sincerely at home.

3) Julie is a Christian Girl from Taiwan, she reconnected with me and told me she has listened to us to keep attending CCCB Coopers Plains to continue on with her Christian sanctification journey.

4) Ann a Vietnamese Griffith student who has no religion but appeared very receptive to the gospel. I recommend her to look for power to change once God moved her to receive Christ.

5) Johnson , whom we chatted few weeks ago, came along to catch up.

6) Brendan an ABC from Taiwan, who does not speak Chinese yet was patient enough to here the full gospel with good response. He is also a Griffith student so I recommended him as well to get in touch with Power to Change.

7) Kevin an office worker from shanghai China who claimed himself a Buddhist. He was in a hurry but still open for discussion and thought there is a lot of similarity between Buddhism and Christianity which of course is false. Pray that the tract will shed new light on him and we may meet again in future.

8) Mongo a Srilanka lady that have never heard of the Gospel. I was just given enough time to share the core message to her before the bus came.

9) William and Sophie is a Korean couples who are attending CCCB St Lucia. Praise and thanks God they profess pure faith and understanding of salvation.

10) A Hongkonger father and son took the tract and rush away for class leaving me very little time to share. But I did shingle out the need to address sin.

11) Two African Christian boys whom we met before answered my faith diagnosis questions correctly.

12) Noor a Griffith student from Bangladesh, India. She was in a rush but again God stopped her to listen to my full gospel and appeared convinced. Pray for God's unfinished work on her.

13) Loclene , an Australian born Vietnamese boy, he listened the gospel with a solemn face. He promised to consider receiving Christ and will catch up with his Christian friends at Griffith.

14) Jane and Jane both from China, they did not want to stop, but somehow, God stopped them for me and listened initially half heartedly . but at the end turned more receptive. Pray for God's unfinished work on them.

15) A Primary student from China waiting for parents heard the full gospel as a seed sowing move by the Spirit.


Thursday 12 September 2019

Posted by Posted 12 September 2019, 8:49 PM by Hung Kwan. Permalink

Sunnybank 12/9/2019 Thursday

By mercy of God four of us still could manage to come to do Street Evangelism namely Andrew, Martin, Ann and Hung.
We all knows we can only do it in His strength and with His presence. We managed to pray together and encouraged each other to faithfully keep being used by God as His vessel to sow the seed of Gospel and in the meantime being nurtured by God for onward Spiritual growth of the evangelist ourselves.
For me it was also a day of grace that I have 13 divine appointment amongst which there were few stood out one including the one with a Christian young man (6), the Mormon girls who appeared totally convinced by my Gospel elaborations(7), and then to two African Muslim background girl that they show abnormal full identification with what I shared(9). Here is the recap of the 13 conversations.

1) A family of three from HKG with the Grand Father being a Pastor reluctantly stopped because of my HKGer identity, they showed impatience to the Gospel as if they knew it already but actually none of them have professed genuine Christian faith. They may have cheated themselves that they are OK because of the pastor-ship of their Grandfather. The son appeared a bit more rational but still stop short in holding back their father to finish hearing my full Gospel. Just pray for God mercy on this family. 一家三口香港祖父是牧師,,自己為是,雖因人停步,但明顯有抗拒,年輕人兒子尚好,求神憐憫

2) Another HKG couples with the husband appeared very anti-religion. The Wife behaved better to reluctantly let me share full gospel with her with a by stander from China listening together. Pray for God's work on them after hearing the Gospel. 又是香港老夫妻丈夫不願聴,妻子還是聽了,也略勉强,求神作為,旁邊也有一華語女士聼了,求神有祂的美意。

3)A Chinese old man was willing to stop to hear my sharing but turned irritated when sin was mentioned. He anyway still fished hearing full Gospel.中國大陸老爹,停聽但對罪的批判未能停受,但總算聽到福音

4) Islander Alice took the tract and willing to chat but cut short by the bus

5) Lady Tai from Shanghai, China found the gospel reasonable and responded positively promising she will read her small Bible again to get connected with God.

6) While I was talking to Lady Tai, a young man called Ryan Chien ç°¡ was listening by the side. He asked for a tract from me when I finished with Lady Tai. He claimed himself a Christian attending the Brisbane Taiwanese Uniting Presbyterian Church which I know well. I checked his assurance of salvation and unfortunately he failed the test. So I spent time to clarify where the misconception may have crept in. And he delightfully acknowledged full understanding of the three fold salvation of God (2Cor1:10) that even after we were saved by grace through faith of the atoning death of Christ to have regained our heavenly citizenship, we are yet to be a perfect masterpiece developed by God thru the power of the Holy Spirit. So we bound to appear still imperfect but it won't change God grace to have granted us 100% of the heavenly citizenship. I have introduced him to attend the Kairos course by CCCB St Lucia in Sept. May God used him to clarify the false concept of being a Christian but with no certainty of the salvation.

7) Mcloudy & Neeley 麥 & 倪姊妹,Both the Mormon Street Evangelists who dared to ask me for a tract. Since they are new here, so I took the opportunity to share the pure full gospel to them and to my surprise, both especially Mcloudy totally convinced of my explanation of gospel just falling short to recognized Jesus only as one of the lesser god head of three God with Father as the biggest God above of Jesus and the Sprint. With a relatively new mind of Mormon teaching, I hope the pure gospel will arouse the lost mind of Mcloudy to come to Christ in a miraculous circumstance. I invited both of them to come back to have more discussion next Thursday.

8) Russel a big fellow from Holland who behaved very positively. Despise of his non religious background, he appeared very friendly to chat and found the gospel trustworthy and logical to accept. Just pray for his time of salvation to come as soon as God's willing.

9) Jelliphine and Jasmine are students from Burundi Africa of clear Muslim background as the latter wore a head scarf. But surprisingly Jelliphine reacted very positively to the gospel accepting all what I said with amen chanting all along. Pray for another miraculous fruit bearing result of the Gospel.

10) An old lady knew where I am from and recognize me as a Christian but still willingly chat with me and took the tract. It on one hand was a great encouragement to me but on the other hand, it was a big pity I could not even started the sharing because the bus just came that she could not even left her name. Just pray for God's work on this unfinished divine encounter.

11) Evelyn a student from Taiwan who has no religion background. She was very nice and open minded with positive response to my Gospel sharing. And she knows SIC so I pray for God's continuous work to lead her to Christ as well as to SIC.

12) Emily and Penny are two girls from Taiwan coming here on working holiday visa. They were very polite and they still stopped despite in a rush to let me finish gospel sharing with positive respond. They are also aware of SIC that they may seek to attend.

13) May from Philippine who is non- religion but again also stopped to listen and she was encouraged to make her decision of a life time to accept Jesus ad her personal Savior.


Thursday 8 August 2019

Posted by Posted 10 August 2019, 1:59 PM by Matthew Andersen. Permalink

On Thursday in Sunnybank the team had a wonderful outreach! The team of six made it out and spread around to see who would be willing to talk about the after life and would be willing to hear what Christ has done to save sinners.

The first conversation was with a man named Jason, he said he was a Christian and that asking for forgiveness would be getting him into Heaven. He came to understand the simple message of faith alone and said that today he would begin to trust in Christ. The reason he said this is, once he understood the gospel he was asked if he could see the difference between what he was saying at the beginning of the conversation and what Christ had actually said. He saw the difference and said he would read Romans 3-5 this week.

The next conversation was also with Jason. He had spoken to the team last week and had gotten to hearing the gospel but the chat had been cut short by the arrival of the bus. This week it was picked up where it had left off and came to hear that trusting in Christ alone is the way to Heaven. He was able to explain that back and then asked, "Doesn't that encourage people to do the bad things?"

This will have to be left till next week to answer though, as again his bus arrived.

There were a range of other exciting conversations but one good one was with a young couple who had some ideas about Christ but weren't sure of the way to Heaven. At the end of the conversation when their bus arrived, the young guy was able to explain the way to Heaven but the girl was still trying to squeeze her own goodness into the requirements to enter Heaven.

They both took tracts and were encouraged to read Romans 3-5 together to see what the apostle Paul says about how one is made right before God.

Please be praying for those who heard the good news today that God would work on their hearts, causing them to hate sin and trust in Christ!


Thursday 1 August 2019

Posted by Posted 3 August 2019, 12:33 AM by Matthew Andersen. Permalink

At Sunnybank on Thursday there was some surprise rain, a broken bus and a cool breeze. This actually meant that more people were waiting nearby to the bus stop and enabled lengthy conversations that usually wouldn't have occurred! Praise God that He uses any means required to bring about His plan.

Two conversations back to back were had with Abby and Zen. Both had a Christian background, thought they were good enough to get to Heaven and then were shown God's law, revealing their guilt.

Abby had just sort of made up her own ideas about God, she'd barely even opened the Bible and didn't know much about God at all. Over the course of a ten minute conversation she came to hear and understand the simple good news of the gospel and was challenged this day to choose to trust in Christ. She said she would at least consider it and was encouraged to download a Bible app on her phone and to start reading.

As that conversation finished, sitting on the other side was Zen. She too thought she deserved Heaven and very quickly came to realise that was not the case. Sadly Zen left with her guilt and that she deserved Hell and a brief mention of the cross but her bus arrived before it could go any further, she took a tract and was encouraged tonight to read Romans 3-5.

Toward the end of the afternoon there was a man named Reuben who was approached with the same simple question as everyone else. "What do you think will happen after you die?" To which Reuben got very angry, "I don't want you or that mate of yours to ask me questions about this topic!" Reuben is about 6'2" and surprisingly menacing for a skinny guy. There was a tense moment, when the response was given, with every ounce of care, (mingled with a lot of fear), "But aren't you going to die some day?"

This question was met with a long pause and intense stare and a few moments where it was wondered if there would be a punch taken for the sake of the gospel. But God in His grace had decided there was to be a very different outcome. Reuben almost out of nowhere soften, apologised for his hostility and said, "I often fear death. I know I am going to Hell when I die and so I don't want to die. I want to live here on this earth for as long as possible".

Over the next fifteen minutes, a now docile Reuben came to hear that he was far more wicked than he had first thought, that his eternity was bleaker than he had imagined but God who is rich in mercy, giving infinitely more than His people deserve, came and took the place of sinners, suffering the full fury and wrath that we deserve and therefore offering a free gift of forgiveness to all, that those who believe will inherit eternal life!

In a very short dialogue off the back of that he came to understand how he can be forgiven, how a sinner gets to Heaven and why someone who has trusted in Jesus wants to obey Him! He had the beginnings of tears in his eyes and was given a gospel of John and a tract and said he would start reading! He then apologised for his actions at the beginning of the conversation and asked if an apology could be passed onto the other team member he has previously yelled at and he was given forgiveness.

He was confused as to how we could be so quick to forgive, especially when the offense was so recent and so aggressive and it was pointed out, that as Christians we have been forgiven infinitely more than we will ever be asked to forgive and because of that it is our joy to forgive those who have wronged us.

There were many other conversations that took place and overall it was an afternoon of great rejoicing. Please be praying for Abby, Zen and Reuben that God would work in their hearts, cause them to hate sin and to trust in Christ this very day!


Thursday 4 July 2019

Posted by Posted 9 July 2019, 12:00 PM by Matthew Andersen. Permalink

At Sunnybank a team of six were out again this afternoon and the results were conversations on both sides of the road, quite consistently over the course of the afternoon. It is really exciting to see that even in a location where it can often be hard to start conversations the team is still able to find people to chat with.

One stand out conversation was with Kaitlyn who had attended a Catholic school and knew a little of God but couldn't really formulate it. Over the course of a short fifteen minute conversation she came to understand the simple message of how a sinner can be forgiven and how that free gift of forgiveness will always result in a sinner wanting to honour Christ with their life.

There was also a young couple who were approached and the guy started to chat while his girlfriend took selfies. Sadly he was sure this his obedience would be required for his entrance into Heaven. He was shown that a gift cannot be accepted by works but by faith alone. He came to understand what Jesus had taught and was even able to explain it back but was adamant that he was going to be earning in part his entrance into Heaven. He was warned of the foolishness of believing in something different to what Jesus has to teach.

There were two final conversations with Alan and Andy who both came to understand the gospel. Andy was defiant saying that he wasn't willing to trust in Jesus because his family doesn't. He was challenged to consider the seriousness of this decision.

On the other hand Alan was very interested and accepted a gospel of John saying he would read it this week and that he wanted to trust in Christ today.

Please keep those who heard in your prayers.


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