Battle Log


Toowoomba

Toowoomba Team (QLD)

Meets the 3rd Saturday of each month at 10am at the corner of Ruthven and Little Street (Art Gallery Park).

The team also meets on the 1st Tuesday night of each month for prayer at various locations.

Contact Doug Espie for more information.


Saturday 16 March 2024

Posted by Posted 21 March 2024, 10:54 AM by Doug Espie. Permalink

Today was certainly memorable. It was Election Day and we had three new members who were keen to learn how to share their faith on the streets. After a time of prayer, we set off towards the Toowoomba CBD in pairs.

 

Sarah teamed up with one of our younger “first-timers”. Together they chatted with Mr J-. He was sure that he would be good enough to get to heaven, and if he wasn’t, then he decided that it was God’s choice.

 

They also spoke with D-- a young man on his push bike in his 20’s (?) and a former Mormon. He had sadly experienced domestic violence as a youth and was questioning where God was during all of that. He was familiar with some parts of the Bible and had many questions about what he labelled “contradictions”- like the character of God in the OT vs NT and why no one has found any fossil of Noah’s Ark if we knew roughly where it ran aground.

 

Our “first-timer” did an excellent job at answering these questions. Sadly, we didn’t exchange numbers, or get to pass on any church details, but apparently D-- is often in town and has connections with a SDA church for work. He believes there is some sort of spiritual being/higher power, but not the God of the Bible. Pray that we would encounter him again or that God would put genuine Bible-believing Christians in his life to encourage him in his journey to find Truth.

 

Barry and one of our “newbies” met a Fijian visitor who expressed faith in Jesus and articulated the gospel. He was encouraged by what we were doing and hung around to ask God’s blessing for those who received Gospel tracts (mini-booklets). The team also met a youth who expressed faith in Jesus and answered yes to the tract question ’Are you a good person’. Together they went through the tract and he changed his mind. He seemed to be convicted and open and willing to hear the gospel message. Praise God for these opportunities and more.

 

During this time we also met L--, who is currently homeless. He had been sleeping under a house recently and had multiple white-tailed spider bites. L--’s bites were heavily inflamed and appeared to be rotten and black. He was in a significant amount of pain and one of our team members drove him to the Base hospital.

 

Meanwhile, two of our other team members were able to engage in a discussion with a former Catholic. He is now heavily into the New Age and believes everything is God. He was very angry and closed off to discussions regarding Christianity. This sort of anger is common among young men who have recently moved away from Roman Catholicism and they are not open to exploring how Christianity is different. Generally, it takes a few years for them to “cool off” and to be open to exploring the differences between what they grew up with and what the Bible teaches about salvation.

 

Tim and I (Doug) set up at the intersection of Ruthven and Margaret street. Since it was election day I had prepared a talk on “Who Do You Trust?” on a whiteboard. I preached the same message at two separate times and I was struck by the different reactions of passers-by.

 

Some people laughed, others encouraged me and one particular lady was not-so-quietly swearing under her breath as she passed me. Two homeless men sat down and listened to the message.

 

The reaction of the motorists waiting at the lights was similar. Some mocked, others cheered but most simply rolled down their windows and listened One particular bloke in his twenties opened his passenger window and looked intently at me. It was clear he was paying close attention to the message which I found to be a great encouragement.

 

At the end of the outreach, we met to debrief and to share stories about all the good things God had done. It's an exciting privilege to share the Good News about Jesus with others. It’s very similar to a few beggars showing other beggars where to find Bread. Jesus is transforming people’s lives all over the world in real time and we look forward to seeing His continued work across the globe and in the lives of all those who call our region home.


Saturday 17 February 2024

Posted by Posted 21 February 2024, 5:12 PM by Doug Espie. Permalink

It was a beautiful Saturday and our larger-than-usual team assembled in the park near the Council Chambers.

We were blessed to have Barry join us, a warm and passionate teacher from a local Christian school.

Our crew of 8 prayed together and then split into pairs to cover the CBD.

Barry and Geoff soon encountered a Sudanese Muslim bloke. Like most Sudanese we’ve met, this man understood and firmly believed in his religion. This led to an interesting, vigorous discussion on the truth of Islam vs Christianity.

At the end of the discussion, Geoff encouraged the man to read the Gospel of John to discover Jesus’ true identity and the claims He made about Himself.

The trio parted on good terms...but this wasn’t the only conversation Geoff and Barry got into today.

They also were able to connect with J-, who was currently homeless. Together they had an extended discussion and Barry was able to share the Good News about Jesus with J-.

We find that the homeless tend to be some of the most open to spiritual conversation. Yet they often struggle with crippling addiction and/or mental illness. Many of their life stories are a combination of their own foolish decisions..made repeatedly...and their genuine victimisation at the hands of evil people around them. Their stories are heart-breaking and yet they are some of the toughest people I know.

All of them are made in the image of God and are as equally valuable in God’s eyes as any doctor, lawyer or anyone else you can name.

We endeavor to connect with them and offer support where appropriate. While Barry was speaking with J-, Merv was busy speaking with K-, another homeless bloke.

K- has a big dog and a big beard. He is relatively young and he was keen to share his story. Merv sat with him for a while and I (Doug) continued to hand out Gospel tracts. It wasn’t long before I met R- at the corner of Ruthven and Margaret Street...the same R- from my last report!

Since our discussion last November, R- tells me that he has been “checking out Jesus more”. He is keen to visit a Church in Wilsonton and R- shared that he can’t get over “the fact that Jesus is such a loving guy”.

R- and I spoke for quite a while as R- walked towards the Base Soup Kitchen. I told R- that I too feel stunned by how loving Jesus is towards people. I also mentioned that I love how Jesus always tells the truth...that because He is so loving, He always speaks the truth to people.

Besides loving the fact that Jesus always speaks the truth, I find that mentioning Jesus always speaks the truth...because He loves us...is a helpful counterbalance to the modern idea that Jesus’ love for us minimises His desire to speak uncomfortable truths to us.

R- and I parted after quite a hike together and I pray that Jesus will draw R- back to Himself.

During this outreach, Merv and I also had an opportunity to hand out tracts at the Bus Interchange.
The Bus interchange is a great place to engage people with tracts because many people are waiting for their bus and they are generally bored out of their gourds.

While handing out tracts Merv and I met two friendly First Nations blokes who were heading home after a tribal meeting here in Toowoomba. We had a good yet brief discussion and we were also able to give out a number of tracts to people who were waiting.

While all these adventures were going on, Sarah and Elisa were faithfully engaging people on the north side of the CBD. One memorable encounter involved a young couple who Elisa and Sarah offered a tract.

They replied “We’re Muslim” to which Elisa said “Oh...you’re Muslim” and proceeded to offer them a Gospel of John in Arabic.

“No” they responded “We’re Muslim!!” and continued on their way.

Their attitude was in stark contrast to the vast majority of foreign-born Muslims, who want to discuss matters of religion and generally desire to convert us. In many ways, I respect this desire to convert us far more than the sluggish, shallow, brainless apathy towards spiritual matters that charecterise so many of us who have grown up amidst mind-numbing 24/7 entertainment and the stupefying effects of 21st-century secularism.

Nevertheless, God’s unstoppable purposes and love for humanity will overcome both the zeal of the East and the apathy of the West. His Kingdom will come and His will (will) be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

I’m looking forward to the day when we no longer need to pray the Lord’s prayer because its fulfillment will be in our rear vision mirror.

But we’re not there yet. In light of this upcoming Day...please pray for our team and everyone mentioned in this report.

Jesus is doing good things and He’s got even more good things in store for Toowoomba.







 


Sunday 31 December 2023

Posted by Posted 30 January 2024, 8:09 PM by Doug Espie. Permalink

Street evangelism in Toowoomba is never boring. People from all over the world call our city home. You never know if you are going to meet an atheist, a Muslim, a Hindu, a relativist or an “apathiest” i.e someone is apathetic to important questions in life. There are many diverse ideas out there.

Yet regardless of our personal viewpoint, we all have a God-shaped hole in our lives. We wander, feeling empty or at the very least feeling vaguely uncomfortable.

Something is “off”.

Enter Jesus. Who He is and what He has done has beautiful, whiplash-inducing ramifications for each and every person. He shows us God. He reunites us with God. His Kingdom is expanding and His unstoppable plan to bring justice and healing to this world is awe-inspiring. This is good news that every person needs to individually hear and respond to.

Our team goes out every month to hand out booklets that help people understand this good news and we strike up conversations with those who are interested.

Below are some uniquely memorable conversations that we had with people this year.

1. On one outreach I (Doug) was able to speak to an older Yazidi man named G---- about Jesus.

I met G----- outside a Middle Eastern convenience store. He was a friendly bloke with excellent English.

I asked him how he became proficient in English. He told me that he learnt English decades ago at the University of Baghdad. I was impressed that he had retained his language skills and we spoke about his journey to Australia that took place a few years ago.

We had a long chat and the topic of beliefs came up. People from non-Western countries seem to be far more open to discussing spiritual matters and we shared our respective beliefs. At the end of our conversation, I offered an Arabic Gospel of John to G--. He was surprised and happy to see a publication in Arabic and he received the Gospel gratefully.

2. Another member of our team (Geoff) had the opportunity to speak to two young blokes outside Grand Central. D--- and L--- had attended a Christian school but had since turned away from God. They had a number of serious questions and they welcomed Geoff’s responses.

3. On the same day one of our team members (Merv) was able to engage an older gentleman in a different part of the CBD. This older man was a Christian but was not connected to a local church. Merv and the gentleman spoke for quite some time and Merv was able to invite him to Merv’s church. I’m pleased to report that the bloke has come to Merv’s church a few times and that there is a growing friendship in this space.

4. I can’t neglect to mention R--, who I met at a park bench near the council chambers. R-- was a character with a fascinating life story. He grew up in a well-known Pentecostal church and both his parents were ministers. As a teenager, he walked away from Jesus and eventually went to university.

R-- graduated with multiple degrees and he worked as a scientist.

However all was not well. He had a drug problem that began to erode the life he had built for himself. He also was treated unfairly by people in his professional circles. Eventually he wound up on the street after experiencing a number of tragedies.

R-- and I spoke for almost an hour on a range of topics. He was a self-professed “man of science” so I brought up the age-old problem of induction that plagues the scientific endeavor. I also explained how Christianity uniquely solves this problem and how it alone can provide a rational basis for humanity’s trust in the scientific method.

R-- pondered this for a while and then chose to bring up the issue of evil in the world. I told R-- that we can all agree that evil is a terrible thing. Yet we can have hope that evil and suffering is not out of control or ultimately meaningless. Our desire for true justice and for a world free of unjust suffering matches God’s desire, as we are made in His image. Since we are made in His image, our desire for a better world makes sense.

I then went on to explain that the collective cry of humanity’s heart against injustice and suffering will be answered when Jesus returns. As the good King, He will punish all evil and finally bring true justice and peace to our broken world. On that day we will also begin to understand God’s patience towards humanity and His power to use all our experiences of evil for a greater good...even His experience of the death of His very own Son on the Cross.

R-- listened and said that he would consider some of these things. He is one of the most thoughtful and interesting people I’ve met and I truly hope to catch up with him again someday. Please pray for him.


Carnival of Flowers and the Christmas Wonderland Outreach

This year we once again dived head first into our two biggest Toowoomba outreach events. Thousands of people travel to Toowoomba for the Carnival of Flowers and tens of thousands of people visit the Toowoomba Christmas Wonderland.

The Carnival of Flowers outreach went quite well with friendly crowds and many open-minded people. Sarah (one of our team members) even had a number of Christians encourage her as she handed out Gospel booklets to passers-by.

The Toowoomba Christmas Wonderland remains a highlight of the year. We handed out a record number of Gospel booklets (2000+) across a few nights. We even had the privilege of partnering with Hailey, the passionate leader of a different street evangelism team here in Toowoomba.

Looking back over the last year we are thankful for the challenge and opportunity of sharing the good news of Jesus with people from our region and beyond. We are thankful for His strength and courage in this work.

It is with a rising sense of urgency that we realise we are one year closer to Christ’s return. The future of our world is glorious...but in the meantime we look forward to getting to work and seeing what He has planned for us in 2024.

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.
Psalm 22:27-28


Saturday 31 December 2022

Posted by Posted 31 December 2022, 4:38 PM by Doug Espie. Permalink

You are always guaranteed to meet someone interesting on the streets of Toowoomba...and 2022 was no different.

Earlier this year, Merv and I (Doug) spoke to X, who is a well-known personality with whom we have shared the Gospel with the past. X- was absolutely livid, as some teens had recently stolen his bike. He was angry and (understandably) spoke in long paragraphs to us.

We did our best to listen to X and to help him figure out ways to get his bike back. We also got onto the topic of Christianity and X told us that he used to be part of a Christian band.

X knew a fair bit of Scripture….but he also enjoyed tangents so Merv gently yet firmly brought X back to the question of X’s current relationship with Jesus every time.

It was a challenging discussion but we appreciated X’s candor. To the best of our knowledge, he is not ready to follow Christ at this stage but we strongly encouraged him to connect with a Church community and seriously consider his soul.

This year we also met D-. He used to own a food van business and had roughly $200,000 in the bank.

Yet D- lost it all during the Covid pandemic. He hit rock bottom and he even found himself being looked after by someone he once looked after.

In this bleak time, D came to realise the importance of a relationship with God. He prayed “God if you will forgive me for my sin I will follow you for the rest of my life.”

D- is now following God and is part of a local Church. D- even asked Merv and Howard for Gospel tracts to put in the mailboxes around his place! He wants to show others who Jesus is and we were greatly encouraged by his life story and what God is presently doing in D-’s life.

During our travels, we were also able to meet a number of people who had misunderstandings about Jesus.

We had an interesting discussion with M-, who is an indigenous lady who has some background in Christianity. She had recently been experiencing visions of Jesus but had a very mixed understanding of who He is. We spoke with M- for some time and we hope that M- can sort the fact from the fiction which she had picked up in her travels.

A middle-aged bloke name K- also had a number of misunderstandings about Jesus. Merv gently corrected his misunderstanding of who Jesus was and also shared the good news about what Jesus has done.

Our conversations with M- and K- were respectful, warm discussions and we’d like to ask for prayer for both of them.


Other adventures (in brief)
 

-We met a big friendly atheist bloke who was waiting for his family outside a shopping centre. He happily spoke to Elisa and Merv for some time about the issues of eternity.

- We had a significant misunderstanding with a member of one of the local Jehovah's Witnesses. While we have had good relationships with 99% of the businesses and “regulars” in the CBD...it is inevitable that misunderstandings do arise occasionally in the 17 years we’ve been evangelising in Toowoomba.

While opposition is inevitable (Matt 5:11-12) our heart is to eliminate “unnecessary offense”...because the Gospel is offensive enough!

We will continue to love everyone we meet and to treat them as people...not projects.

-We met two Christian homeless men who encouraged Merv and Howard. One even traded Gospel tracts with Merv!

-Kx, who is a local middle-aged man. Kx is a Christian who is going through a rough time. Interestingly, Kx also knows people at Toowomba Northside Baptist where Merv and Elisa attend. Merv and Elisa invited him to Church the following day.

-There was that time Merv offered a tract to a woman at a bus stop. She declined and Merv went away and spoke to someone else nearby. She overheard. Afterwards she said she’d take a tract after all!

-The Carnival of Flower and the Christmas Lights Festival in Queens Park remained our biggest outreaches of the year. We were able to share the Gospel with close to 3000 people through both regular and Christmas themed tracts. We had some great conversations with Christians who either encouraged us or were looking for a Church to attend. We also had conversations with some non-Christians who wanted to discuss different sets of ideas with us.

Overall 2022 has been a big year. We are thankful for all the opportunities that Jesus gave us this year and we excited to see what is ahead in 2023!

 


Friday 31 December 2021

Posted by Posted 31 December 2021, 11:02 PM by Doug Espie. Permalink

The last half of 2021 certainly has been memorable here in Toowoomba. We’ve engaged in a number of big events and we’ve had some good discussions with people on the street.

Two members of our team met an atheist during one outreach. This man was very quite set in his ways and quite hostile to the existence of God or the Gospel. We did our best to respectfully listen and gently challenge some of his underlying assumptions but he was adamant about the truth of his position. It’s always difficult to know whether such an attitude is just a “public front” or whether someone is genuinely set in their ways and further conversation is futile.

This time around we spent a fair bit of time talking with him and eventually chose to wrap up the conversation. We hope to meet him again someday and have a deeper discussion about the things that really matter in life.

Another conversation we had was with an older gentleman who goes to a local liberal/progressive church. By liberal/progressive I mean a church that denies some significant aspects of the Christian faith in favour of more “modern” understandings that directly and self-consciously deny the Bible’s truthfulness on particular issues.

We spoke with him at length and the man was open to discussing some of the important differences between Biblical/Apostolic Christianity and modern liberal/progressive groups. It was a blessing to speak with him and to have someone so open to hearing alternative opinions. We pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to speak to his heart long after our conversation. We also pray

that this bloke will find a Church that is grounded in God’s Word and that will lovingly embrace this man in his spiritual journey.

The final conversation (that I have space to share) was with a young guy who was really struggling with life. One of our team members found him sitting by himself and spent a significant amount of time chatting with him. The young guy really appreciated the talk and afterwards said he would like to learn about the Bible more. He exchanged numbers with us and we wished him well. Since that time we’ve tried to get in contact with him but to no avail.

This may seem disheartening at first, but those of us who have been involved in this ministry long enough know that our work is to care for every person we meet. If we were able to provide a listening ear that helped “take the edge off” the difficult situation the young man was facing..even just for a few minutes..it is worth it. We hope and pray that things work out for this young guy and that one day we will hear the story of how Jesus transformed his life for the better.

On another note, this semester was also our busiest time of the year with the Carnival of Flowers, Gospel of Luke Distribution and Christmas Lights Outreach.

The Carnival of Flowers was absolutely huge. It was possibly the biggest Carnival of Flowers we’ve ever experienced and there were people literally everywhere. After lockdowns and the challenges of 2021, every man and his dog decided to come to the Carnival of Flowers this year. I’ve attached some photos to this report and needless to say, we were able to give out a lot of Gospel tracts!


Our second major outreach was the Toowoomba Christmas Wonderlands show in Queens Park. This beautiful event attracts people from all over the region and we were able to hand out 1600 Christmas Gospel tracts over two nights. We’re extremely thankful for the chance to share the good news of Jesus at this very topical time of year!

The final big event we engaged in was the Gospel of Luke distribution efforts across Australia. The Australian Christian Lobby fund-raised and then supplied half a million copies of Luke’s Gospel to be shared across the nation at the end of 2021. Our team spread our efforts between conventional street evangelism and distributing Luke’s Gospel to homes across a number of suburbs in North Toowoomba. We had a number of outside helpers as well which made a significant difference.

All in all, it has been a big year. God has been good, His news of hope and freedom has gone forth and we pray for a mighty work of God in our community in 2022!


Thursday 8 July 2021

Posted by Posted 8 July 2021, 11:23 AM by Doug Espie. Permalink

The last few months of evangelism in Toowoomba have been both challenging and encouraging.

On the encouraging front, we have never had so many Christians volunteer to labour with us for the first time. Sharing the Gospel with the people of our beautiful city is a wonderful privilege and seeing the passion in these newcomers is inspiring in so many ways.

On the challenging front, we experienced a number of difficult outreaches in this time, where the majority of people refuse tracts and don’t want to talk at all. On one particular outreach, I was able to give out 8 tracts in one hour. My teammate and I experienced a 90% refusal rate. Normally it’s around a 30% refusal rate.

The rest of our team had better numbers on that particular outreach, but each team member has experienced at least one tough outreach this semester. Whether it is in the indifference to the Gospel, stereotypical labelling or angry, rude refusals, we’re learning to crucify our pride and to trust in Him who loves us and loves our community. It’s very easy to idolise the acceptance of others but we’re progressively learning to lean on His unearned and never-failing acceptance of us through Christ.

On a related note, we had an interesting experience with an African street preacher this semester.
My team mate and I found a young African bloke preaching at the corner of Margaret and Ruthven, which has been a favourite spot for a number of street preachers over the years. We introduced ourselves and then asked him about his message.

S--- greeted us and said that he was preaching/reading from Romans 10. He then shared his testimony with us and how God had saved him in juvenile detention around the age of 15. It was a gripping story. He then told us how he demonstrates to people that Christianity is true. He said “I tell them that they can call out to the “gods/beings” of Islam, Hinduism, New Age etc, but because Jesus is the true Son of God, only He will actually save them from their situation. This is how we know God exists and that Christianity is true”.

In a remarkable display of humility, S--- then asked us “What do you think? Is there any way that I can improve on my approach?” I was surprised by his openness at first.
I gathered my thoughts and said to S--“I can see what you’re saying. But perhaps it’s better to tell people to come straight to Jesus first, rather than challenging them to try other religions? They will experience a lot of unnecessary pain as they find out the hard way that the religion is false. If we tell them to come to Jesus first and experience his saving/delivering power, then they can know him without all the brokenness that comes from road-testing false beliefs.”

S--- said that this approach made sense and that he would encourage people to come to Jesus first. We then chatted about a number of subjects, including church. He infrequently visits a church near his home and I urged him to relationally connect with this church family. I strongly advised that he get to know people there and to allow others to get to know him. I elaborated that the best way to do this is to join a small group and engage in the Church’s corporate worship.

S--- said that he would consider it and we parted on good terms.

One final interesting thing about this term is that one Saturday we came across a large group of protestors in the Toowoomba CBD. They were protesting the idea of mandatory vaccinations and were busy handing out leaflets to all who would take them. We exchanged literature with some members of the group, who appeared to be an intriguing mix of Christians and secular libertarians. As far as protestors go, they were quite friendly!

I’ve included some photos in this post.

This semester has been memorable for so many different reasons. Please pray for us as we welcome newcomers and seek to love and serve the people of our city.

Join us in praying for the Gospel to go forth, for people to be saved and for Jesus to receive all the glory.


Thursday 18 February 2021

Posted by Posted 18 February 2021, 5:35 PM by Doug Espie. Permalink

Well the last few months certainly have been busy. We pressed on towards our goal of tracting as many suburbs as we could before the end of the year. At the end of 2020 we were able to share the Gospel in tract form in Rockville, Harlaxton, Drayton, Wilsonton, Newtown, Middle Ridge and Rangeville. I (Doug) would estimate that the Gospel went out to over 2000 homes during this time and we are incredibly thankful that God had given us the privilege of this unique ministry in extraordinary times.

By God's grace we have also been able to return to "regular" evangelism recently and we are looking forward to face to face conversations once more. Jesus is the Lord of Australia and His Kingdom is expanding as He continues to transform the lives of all sorts of people across our region.

We are excited about what God has in-store for our local area in the coming year. As always, please keep us in your prayers. Satan certainly opposes Christ's work in Toowoomba but we take hope and minister from the unshakable truth that "the Light [Christ] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" -John 1:5 (ESV) 


 


Saturday 8 August 2020

Posted by Posted 8 August 2020, 3:16 PM by Doug Espie. Permalink


Covid-19  brought some radical changes to our evangelism in Toowoomba. We had one Saturday before the social-distancing restrictions kicked in and we used it to share the Gospel in the CBD. 

I had a really interesting encounter when I gave a gospel tract to a young man with long black hair. He was dressed like an academic at the beach.  After skim-reading the tract he came up to me and said with a thick European accent "If your Jesus was to come back today, do you think He would recognise the Christianity as taught by the institutional Church?

 I replied "That's a good question. I think it depends which Church you're talking about. There are a lot of "Churches" who weaponise religion for their own gain. There are also a number of solid Churches who continue in the faith handed down from the Apostles."

The young European bloke then came over to me and stood next to me. He draped his arm over my neck. It was now getting intimate. Real intimate. "What if I said to you...." continued the man "...that Christ would completely disagree with your Christianity?"

 "Really?" I responded "How do you know?"*

At this question, the bloke disengaged his arm and quickly walked away. I was so taken aback by his sudden reversal that I didn't know what to say as he made his speedy exit. I was somewhat disappointed by such an outcome, but my hope and prayer is that post-COVID we shall meet again someday and continue our discussion.

After this memorable outreach, the social distancing restrictions began and we needed to change the way we shared the Good News about Jesus with the wider community. Our team undertook OP513 on-line evangelism training which taught us how to use Omegle. Using Omegle is not for the faint of heart and requires appropriate safeguards. However some of the Gospel conversations that I saw on this platform were incredible.

After a significant amount of prayer and discussion, our team decided to instead focus on "tracting" suburbs i.e placing tracts that explain the Gospel in household's mailboxes across certain suburbs. 

So far this year we have tracted Rockville, Harlaxton and Drayton. This month we will be tracting Newtown on Saturday the 29th August from 10am-1130pm. There are unique benefits** of this particular approach of evangelism, and if you would like to join us you are more than welcome. You can contact us through the OP513 contact page***. The harvest is indeed plentiful but the laborers are few. Please be in prayer for us as we seek to bring the truth of who Christ is and what He is doing in our world to the people of our community.

 

* Special thanks to Greg Koukl for this insightful question. I highly recommend his book:

https://www.koorong.com/product/tactics-a-game-plan-for-discussing-your-christian-convictions_9780310574750?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.koorong.com%2Fsearch%2Fresults%3Fw%3Dtactics%2Bebook#product-tabs

 I've found the question "How do you know?" one of the most useful questions to ask anyone when they posit their opinion on a controversial topic. It respectfully allows a person to present the justification for their position and it very quickly reveals to all parties just how well-thought out (or not) a person's position actually is. 
 

**If you're skeptical about the effectiveness of Gospel Tracts, check out:

http://appalachiacry.com/2017/04/09/the-benefits-of-handing-out-gospel-tracts/#:~:text=A%20gospel%20tract%20can%20be%20used%20by%20God%20to%20convert,encourage%20believers%20in%20the%20faith.
 

*** https://www.operation513.com/contact-us


Friday 3 January 2020

Posted by Posted 3 January 2020, 1:32 PM by Doug Espie. Permalink
Every semester we are guaranteed to meet some interesting people during our outreach efforts. Paul and Alon met one such person in Queen's Park, who proudly declared himself to be "the biggest atheist in Toowoomba".  This older guy liked to speak about the importance of science and sound thinking, of which religion evidently couldn't play a part. He asked Alon "What do you do for a living?", to which Alon responded "I'm a doctor".
 
"Well...you should have known better then!" was the retort from the feisty man. Both Paul (who is an engineer) and Alon spoke about how their faith actually complements their work and provides a foundation for it, but the bloke wasn't interested. He was willing to talk, but after a while it was clear that he wanted to argue and not necessarily consider the alternatives. Paul and Alon parted on good terms with the man and it was certainly a memorable conversation!
 
I (Doug) also had a  conversation with a young 18 year old woman. After watching me hand out tracts for a while, she came over and said that she used to go to youth group at the Salvation Army Church in Toowoomba, however she had experienced some difficult times since then and drifted away from God. She encouraged me by saying that "you're doing a good thing" and I sought to encourage her by sharing that God's forgiveness of my intentional and unintentional evil has both sustained and changed my life and that "we can walk a million steps away from Jesus but it is only one step back".  It was a really good, somewhat unexpected conversation and it goes to show that evangelism not only publicly reaches those who haven't met Jesus yet but also encourages those who have.
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This semester we made it a point to continue to connect with our local Jehovah's Witness, who set up in the CBD during the same time as our outreach. They work on a rostered basis, which allows us to build on-going relationships with the JWs we meet. This rostered system also provides a great variety of JWs, from those who were on their first "posting", all the way up to seasoned veterans who've been in the organisation for decades. Most of our conversations revolve around our work/families and then springboard to the critical differences that separate the JW's beliefs from Christianity. Our approach and our main topic of conversation (How can a person is reconciled to God?) is outlined in detail in our previous Battle Log.

This semester we've noticed an interesting new stratagem that the JW's employ when we ask them a question. When asked a question, they'll often "reverse it" on us by saying "Well, what do the Scriptures say?" and ask us to respond to the very question we asked them!  This keeps us "on our toes" and demonstrates the necessity of personally knowing God's Word, but it can get frustrating, especially when employed over and over again to avoid difficult questions that highlight the unbiblical and contradictory nature of their religious system.  
 
If they keep using this tactic as a diversion (rather than as a genuine query), we've found it useful to respectfully say "I'm happy to answer what I believe, but could you please first answer from your perspective?" This tends to get the conversation back on track and allows both parties to politely yet rigorously engage in a more deeper and therefore more mutually beneficial dialogue together.

Probably the most memorable event of the last semester occured when Adrian and I were walking down the street together.
We suddenly heard a loud commotion across the road. We walked over to see a young lady loudly yelling at Jonno that "God isn't Wrath, He is Love!" and "You're doing this the wrong way!". Her husband, who was standing besides her, exclaimed "You're upsetting my wife, you need to leave!". Jonno was apologising for causing any offense and amidst the adrenaline I could only think "What on earth had we just walked into?"
 
Well, it turned out to be more straight-forward than I anticipated. Once everyone had calmed down, Adrian and I went to speak to the angry woman. It turns out that both her and her husband were rostered to help run a local ministry in the CBD this Saturday. She also shared with me how she become a Christian out of a somewhat "hippy-ish" background only a few years ago.
She knows that Bible speaks of God being angry at evil yet she believes that God cannot be loving and wrathful at the same time. She didn't parade this denial of Scriptural teaching..rather she seemed genuinely conflicted with this idea. This tension exploded when Jonno began speaking with her about Jesus and Jonno mentioned God's wrath against sin.

She believes that we should only ever speak of God's love to people, and that speaking to people about God's love and wrath is destructive to their reception of Jesus.
 
Throughout this time, I spoke very little and did my best to listen. The adrenaline hadn't  worn completely off yet (for either of us) and as a general rule of thumb the more hyped up someone is, the less likely they are to be able to think clearly and speak gently about an important topic. We eventually wrapped up our conversation and the lady even asked me to pass on her apologies to Jonno. I was deeply impacted by her humility and said that I would do so. I also mentioned that I'd like to continue our conversation together in the future on this issue.
 
The belief that God *cannot* be loving and angry/wrathful at the same time is sadly alive and well in our community. If I have the opportunity to speak with her again, I'd endeavor to point out that it is God's love which is the basis of His wrath. Think about it. Imagine if you saw a grown man punching a little girl over and over again at the shopping centre. Would you not be filled with wrath and would you not run to the little girl's aid? Would you not want the man punished for such an awful crime? Now imagine the little girl is your daughter.... how do you feel now?
 
We naturally get angry at domestic violence, exploitation of young people and a host of other sins. Our anger dramatically increases in proportion to how much we love the victim. If God is the most loving being in existence, it follows that He must also be the most angry at sin. Thankfully, His perfect wrath and His perfect justice are indivisibly united, and His wrath against an individual's or a nation's sin is always expressed in a manner which is perfectly just.
 
Sharing the Gospel publicly with others has been an amazing privilege this year. Just as Paul wrote, sharing our faith really can help us effectively explore "the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ" (Philemon 1:6). As the team leader, I'm incredibly blessed by the amazing team that I work with and the God whom we trust and serve. He holds 2020 in His hands and we're ready for the next chapter.

Friday 3 January 2020

Posted by Posted 3 January 2020, 1:51 PM by Doug Espie. Permalink

 

We had two Special Outreaches this semester. The annual Carnival of Flowers festival is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) event in the city and people from all over Queensland and beyond travel to experience it. The streets are packed full of buses and tourists, so our team splits up in different directions and aim to hand out Gospel tracts which explain why Jesus is such Good News for humanity. This year, we barely had time to hand out tracts as people wished to take tracts yet also wanted to run full speed along to their next destination! It makes for some acrobatic moments, to say the least.
 
Amidst this crazy outreach, we were blessed to both meet and work alongside Zandi, who joined us from Chinchilla for the day. Zandi is an inspiring woman who has a passion for outreach and who wanted to meet our team. We were very grateful to partner with both Zandi and Jonno from Goondiwindi, who came down with his family.
 
We also conducted our annual Christmas Lights outreach, which is another huge event that occurs in Queens Park every year. Tens of thousands of people stream through to see the phenomenal Christmas lights display and we aim to be there for at least a couple of nights. Jonno and his family once more drove from Goondiwindi to Toowoomba to join us (3 hr drive one way!) and as always their presence brought a unique and awesome flavour/encouragement to the ministry.
 
Looking back over 2019, we thank God that we were able to share about Jesus with thousands of people through tracts and through personal conversation. In all things, He gets all the credit and we get to share in His joy. May His Kingdom expand across Toowoomba in the lives and hearts of many in the coming years.

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