Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Gold Coast (QLD) Team
• Page 5

---

Gold Coast Team (QLD)

Meets 7:15-10pm Friday nights at Surfers Paradise on Cavill Avenue.

Contact Ryan Hemelaar for more information.

---

Hear one team member give an exciting account of God's providence in humbling hearts and bringing about perfect timing for two young men and women to hear the Gospel. 

Hear another explain how they were able to share the Gospel with a professing Christian who thought he was going to Heaven because he was good.
 

---

Hear one team member share about a Cambodian man that didn't want a Bible because he has his own relationship with God. Then hear about how three young men heard God's offer of salvation.

---

Hear a team member recount a conversation with a lady, that ended with her understanding her sinfulness and need for a saviour for the first time! Praise God!

---

Hear the team share how some conversations went with a Catholic man and an Irish man who knew a lot of Catholics.

One went to a church and was still worried about his salvation and the other knew a lot of hypocrites in the church.

---

Hear two team members share encouraging conversations they had with a man who seemed apathetic and a man who had some Christian background.

---

The gospel was shared with many last night at the Gold Coast during our weekly Friday night outreach. Even though it rained for the first fifteen minutes, that didn't stop conversations from starting as God helped the team to get out of their comfort zone to share good news of Christ.

Being the Gold Coast and a big holiday destination, we also got to witness to a bunch of people from Arabic speaking countries - in fact we set up as usual our free Bibles in Arabic table (as well as the one in English), and that attracted a bunch of people to come over and take Bibles.

We know that as Jesus said "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day" and "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out" (John 6:44,37), so we are not discouraged if someone is not open or interested, we simply go on to the next person. But it's such a privilege to be involved in God's plan of Him drawing people to Himself, being the means for someone being able to hear the truth of the gospel.

To God be the glory!

---

On Friday at the Gold Coast, we expected it to rain as it was raining for almost the entire time driving there, and yet once we arrived at Surfers Paradise the ground was completely dry and it turned out to be a really busy night.

God raised up a team of about 10 to 15 of us and He saw fit to allow lots of people to hear the gospel. We used the sketchboard to preach a message on the way to Heaven - during which a crowd instantly formed.

This also led into some good conversations with people afterwards, some who only got to hear the last part of the message and so wanted to find out more about what we were saying. One man we spoke with was like this and he was very receptive. He began to see the urgency of what we were talking about after we said:

"Imagine if you were walking across the road tonight and a speeding car came straight towards you. You wouldn't just stand there, would you?" "No", he said. We continued, "The fear of getting hit by that car will make you run out of the way. So in the same way, in what you've heard tonight you now realize that if you died tonight you'd be sent to Hell forever and that should absolutely terrify you, but it should terrify you enough to do something about it - and that is, trust that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and so be saved."

He grasped that, and so we kept talking for a further 20 minutes answering his questions and explaining the gospel. He took a gospel of John from us to start reading.

God's word is sharper than any two edged sword, so please pray that God will use it to bring this man to himself.

The team prayed together at the end of the night and went home rejoicing that we were able to be used of God to communicate the good news of the gospel to those who are still in darkness. To God be the glory!

---

The team of about 15 were able to hand out plenty of gospel tracts throughout the night and have conversations with people. One person we spoke with named Moi said he had grown up sometimes going to a Catholic church but now was not sure if even God exists.

After being reminded about how things that get made must have a maker for them, he agreed, "There has to be someone that made it all." He also thought that he was a good person, good enough to get to heaven. But even after admitting that he has lied, stolen, lusted and so on, he said, "I think I'll still go to Heaven, those things are small."

So I said, "Let's say we sin only 5 times a day, if we multiply that out over our entire lifetime that is hundreds of thousands of sins that we'll do by the time we die. That's a lot! Even though we might think that the individual sins we do are small, collectively they're massive. Plus, God says even one sin is enough to make us fall short of the standard he requires." Moi began to see that he wasn't good enough.

The gospel was then explained to him. He pointed then to the sketchboard and asked what it meant. It was explained: "There were two criminals on either side of Jesus being crucified for their crimes. One in the last few moments of his life came to trust in Jesus that He was dying for his sin. As a result, Jesus said that he would then be in heaven with Him. While the other man continued to reject Jesus and so will have to face the consequences of his sin in hell forever."

So I asked Moi, "Which one will you be like?" He thanked us for the conversation and said he would think about it, and left with an Easter tract.

To God be the glory!

---

On Friday night at the Gold Coast, God brought along both a large size team (over 20 people) and large crowds who were listening as the gospel was being presented.

During the preaching, we had few hecklers that were Muslim who started debating about Christianity and this drew large number of people to listen. As the preacher was answering their questions and responding with Bible verses to give a clear understanding of the gospel, we found the crowd attentively listening to the gospel message being preached. We praise God for a general openness towards the gospel.

The team also had many fruitful one to one conversations. One such was with a young girl about 12 named Ann, who asked for a gospel tract for her younger sister. When one of the team asked her if she has heard about Jesus, she replied with, "yes, from school". Upon being asked what she remembers about Jesus, she said, "he is so big and made everything". We then started to talk about sin and how every person must stand before God and that, sin separates us from God.

With simplicity, we also began to share how God has sent his Son Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sin. She said she has heard about how Jesus paid for our sin. We told her about receiving salvation through faith, that she must trust in Christ completely for salvation, surrendering her life to him to be saved. We encouraged her to read the gospel tract at home and pray to God for salvation. She joyfully received the gospel before running off to her parents.

Please pray for this young girl so that she will put her trust on Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

Please also pray for the team and for the gospel to go forth until every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:10,11). Amen.

---

We had a team of 20 labourers gathered on Friday night at the Gold Coast for an outreach leading up to Christmas. Surfers Paradise was busy as usual with many visitors here for the holidays.

The night started with the team open-air preaching and inviting people from the crowd to take on the "Good Person test". A large number of crowd stopped to listen what the test was about and one young man from the crowd was willing to go through the test. So the preacher used the test flip chart to go through God's law and presented the gospel to the young man including the crowd that was listening attentively.

The team also spoke with two Muslim men who were keen to talk about God. They shared their amazement at peoples unbelief in God. We shared how in all religions (apart from Christianity) a person's good works must in someway out way their bad. They started to agree and said that, the Koran teaches this idea that their good must outway their bad, to which we responded that the bible does not teach this and stands alone by declaring that none are good and all have fallen short of the Glory of God. 

We then shared about how Jesus Christ died on the cross as our Saviour, as we could not save ourselves. Moreover, only through faith in Jesus Christ can a person receive this free gift and that it cannot be earned through our good works.

We explained to them, when Abraham went to sacrifice his son Isaac, how Isaac asked him, "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" (Gen 22:7). Abraham's response to Isaac was, "...God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering" (Gen 22:8). It was explained how God has provided for us a lamb, Jesus Christ, the sacrifice for our sins, our atonement and our Saviour.  

Please pray for Muhammad and Beliel as they were both open and challenged by the Gospel. They said they respected Jesus as a Prophet. Yet Jesus says "But who do they say that I am?" (Matt 16:15). May God pour out His grace that they would be among those that believe and say "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt 16:16). 

 

 

---

« Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 ... 25 | 26 | Next »

---