Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Auckland (NZ) Team

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Auckland (NZ) Team

Meets for outreach every fortnight at the Otara flea market in South Auckland and once every 2 months we go to Queen Street on Friday nights. We also have a weekly open air outreach every Wednesday's at lunch time located at Albert Park, Speakers corner in Auckland City.

Contact Abraham Oseterika for more information.

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Otara Markets

Grace and Peace to you all in Christ, My friends, it has been some time since our last update; But the Lord's work has not been silent here, By His grace in the past few months God has blessed us here in Auckland at our outreaches, our usual times have been kept the same, with the added venue being the Mangere markets, which has been a great spot where there is much foot traffic during it's opening hours. 

Last weekend we were back at Otara, there were 5 of us on this day, Alfie & Elsie, Joseph, Elijah and myself, it had been about a month since we had been there, and the Lord had blessed our time, we setup at our usual spot in the walkway with our literature stand and flip chart and it wasn't too long where I had a group of approx 8 youths who stopped to go through the chart, in the beginning we went through the first few pages but as we got more into it things began to get more serious as they realized that because of their sins God must be just and punish sin.

You see these were troubled youths, and so by God's grace we were able to talk through this area of the justice of God, of God being a good judge, relating this to the court system that we have here in this country which they seemed to know well, and that they were needing reconciliation and redemption through the Lord Jesus, that only the Judge could save them, Please pray for these young people. They along with many others took our Op513 tracts, Pastor Alfie and brother Elijah were on the other side of the shopping center where they had an opportunity to open air preach, Pastor Alfie was met with some opposition by an aggressive man who wanted to pay him 20 cents to stop but it was short lived and he was able to continue to preach, there was a good number of foot traffic there as well so please pray that the Lord would save and raise up more workers from this area who truly know the Lord.

We have a problem here in South Auckland, the problem is that we have too many church buildings with no Church inside. In the words of Paul Washer speaking of "American Christianity"  - "They are not gospel hardened they are gospel ignorant" This is also true here. God have mercy on us.

SDG

 

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Queen street, Auckland

Our brothers from the North Shore had invited us to this outreach on Queen Street, thank you to our brother Patrick Gailer for the invitation. There were many of our Op513 tracts that were distributed, and also by God’s grace I was able to go through the flipchart first with a group of exchange students thanks to brother Ronji, and also with a young German couple.

There is a concern as it seems that we need more Christians who are passionate about Biblical Evangelism to work this street, Queen street is a long street, and it is the busiest street in the country pedestrian wise – so many other Churches/cults and false religions work this area. Please pray that the Lord will provide more opportunities for us to come here more often & to grant to us more laborers. We worked from around 7.30pm – 9.30pm said our goodbyes to the brothers, and headed to our cars. 

On the way home Stewart and I thought we should stop at Speakers Corner as it was on the way. I had never preached there in the night, I remember vividly that the last time I was in Albert Park in the late evening I was unconverted & getting drunk with some friends. Praise God for his work of grace in my heart.

We stopped by and it seemed quiet with no one around. I thought I’d stand up and preach a short message and out of no where people were walking by in small groups as I was preaching. Seeing that it was in the evening and that there was no competing noise, from the traffic or construction, this made the sound of the open air preaching louder in that area. As I came midway into my message I had noticed that there was actually a group of around 10 or more people who were all sitting under a tree facing speakers corner drinking. They were actually there the whole time and I had not noticed until now.

We praise God in the assurance of knowing that His Word never returns to Him void. May those who received tracts, as they read be given eyes to see, may those who were spoken to or heard the preaching of the word be given ears to hear.

SDG

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By God's grace, this is now going onto my 3rd year in doing street evangelism, I was reminded today in my time of prayer before this outreach, a request that I've heard my Pastor make before the throne of grace, ..."that they would not faint, or go weary in their labor for the Lord"...

I became aware of this as I had pleaded this request myself while sitting in the car park about to head out....all my literature was in the back, back pack packed, flip chart, stool everything was there, but I wasn't feeling right, I became afraid, as people were walking through the carpark walking past my door holding their single use plastic bags, the fear of man began to creep in as it has many a times before an outreach.

How did I come right? Here are 4 Chapters in Holy Scripture that the Lord used to encourage me, I read these chapters in order, they were: Luke 2, Mark 15, Matthew 28, and Romans 5, the Apostle Paul, says in his letter to Timothy describing the gospel as the glorious gospel of the blessed God, what privilege and responsibility every Christian has to be entrusted with this soul saving message.

I was teamed up with  Pastor Alfie an our brother Stewart, we split up and stood on opposite sides of our usual fishing spot at the walkway, with myself I had many conversations, many of our Op513 tracts were handed out, as soon as I had set up the flip chart I got to go through it almost immediately with a couple of men who stopped and were interested, there were a few others who stopped by to talk to me about spiritual things also with another Christian brother who stopped to encourage me, his name was Will. Two conversations stood out to me today, the first one was with Terry, now Terry I had spoken with twice before, both times we had lengthy conversations about the gospel ending with me pleading with him to repent & trust in Jesus.

Terry both times was open to the things of God, had genuine questions which by God’s grace was able to answer, but this third time was different, Terry looked different, he physically did not look well, I barely recognized him, as he had lost so much weight, he came over to me while I was standing at the flipchart.

I said to him “Terry, you don’t look well, are you sick?” he said “Yeah….I’ve got brain cancer” he told me that he’s planning to travel back to the UK to try and visit family, and again by God’s grace I was able to share with Terry the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I reminded him that whether he dies tomorrow or in 100 years time that either way he would still stand before God to give an account for his life, and that the only way he could have his sins forgiven is to trust in the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross when He died for sinners.

Terry look on his face became more serious when I explained to him that the very cancer of the soul is his sin and only Christ is the cure. Before Terry left he said that he understands that he needs to trust in Jesus alone and that Jesus is his only hope, Terry was happy for me to pray for him before he left. Please continue to pray for Terry.

The next conversation was with Hugh, Hugh came over to do the flipchart, again he had a lot of good and genuine questions about the Gospel and the Bible – Hugh grew up believing in the Maori gods and myths, his view on Christianity was that it was used to colonize New Zealand and that it was a in his words “white man’s religion”.

It was only until he was in prison that he finally became aware of some of the teachings of the Bible and became curious, this made it easy in a sense to talk about God’s judgment and “our day in court before the Judge of the Earth” I believe the Lord blessed our time together as we spoke for almost an hour. Here you see pictured is me with Hugh. Please continue to pray for the work here may the Lord be glorified.

SDG!

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Otara Markets 

The Lord blessed out time at the markets this week, personally I had gone through the flipchart with 5 individuals.. the first one was with a man that I came into contact just over a year ago his name was Collin, he was doing his fruit shopping at the time and saw that we had a free literature stand and wanted to stop for a chat. 

Colin had a Roman Catholic background and seemed like at the time all he wanted to do was argue, he said he wasn't involved with any church at the time and was on the fence with much of what the bible teaches about Christ though still wanted to challenge our views from what he had learned from his time at the Roman Catholic church, I urged him that the only way that he could have his sins forgiven and to be made right with God was through the Lord Jesus Christ and that there is no other way, he rejected the gospel and we said our goodbyes...

I'm sad to say, but this time when I saw Colin he was there doing his own version of evangelism for a group called the FFWPU - Family Federation for World Peace and Unification NZ, I'd never heard of them before but later looked up their website and see that they're a front group for the Moonies, with the Lord's help I again shared the gospel with Colin, he seemed more attentive to listen this time, I'm thankful that the Lord gave me the opportunity to give an apologetic for the objections he had.

He was there with a large group and I got to meet with Kenji who is their national leader, Kenji himself came over and wanted to meet me, and because I had never heard of them before I asked questions as to what they believed it started to become confusing and I believe the more I asked him questions the more he seemed confused about his own beliefs, so I stopped to take him through the flip chart and things got a bit uncomfortable for him when I talked about judgment and the hell punishment we deserve and his body language began to shift away...by God's grace I was able to tell him of Christ who took the hell punishment on the cross for sinners. It felt as though we were finally getting somewhere but we were suddenly interrupted by other members of their group and all of a sudden Kenji seemed different as though to act the part of 'National Leader' in the presence of his people and ended the conversation. (Here he is talking to me picture in the white hat.)

Please pray for Colin, Kenji and the FFWPU, there were approx 12 of them that day. 

Next I spoke with a young man named Isaiah, he was visiting up from Hamilton, walked past the flip chart stopped and smiled and continued to walk....I said "did you want to do the test?" he replied "no, i'm scared i'd fail"  I said "everyone fails this test....I'll show why" he seemed curious so he turned around, we had a wonderful conversation going through the chart and sharing the gospel with him, he had somewhat of an understanding of the Bible but this was the first time he came to understand the gospel and what Christ did on the cross. I pleaded with him to get right with God and to trust in Christ for his salvation, before he left I read to him from the book of Isaiah 1:18. Please pray for this young man. 

We praise our great God as others in our team also had conversations, some good some not so good, but none were a waste of time. What confidence the people of God ought to have when we truly believe that His Word does not return void but accomplishes that which He desires. There were hundreds of our Op513 tracts that went out on this day, it was a joy saying to people "Happy New Year, God bless you" and handing them one of our New Year tracts, or one of our "What will matter to you in 150 years time?" tracts. 

SDG 

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New Year's Eve Outreach - Clendon 

During the early hours of the afternoon my sister Eliza and I also with my 3 year old son Elihu - Went out and distributed some of our Church calendars door to door, it is a ministry of our church where we give these out door to door to the residents that are in close proximity of our church building. It was a good reminder of how much in need for the gospel this area has but what an opportunity the Lord gave us, as many were willingly able to take a calendar, the calendars themselves have a text of scripture in each month followed by a gospel tract in the end page, our hope is that the people will see that each and every day belongs to the Lord and that their days are numbered. May the Lord take the text of Holy Scripture off the walls from the calendars and allow for His word to inwardly digest into the hearts of the people of Clendon. 

Later in the afternoon when we had finished our run - I dropped Eliza and Elihu home and met with my Pastor at the Clendon Shopping Centre, it's been difficult trying to do evangelism here as the town center has come under new management, am thankful that by the end of our time here we were given leads to the right people to talk to, so please pray that we can have more of a presence here in the year to come. I was able to go through 2 presentations with the flipchart here 1 was with a young man along with his sister, in the beginning I got to establish good rapport with them both but as we got into the flipshart their mother started yelling out for them to get in the car, this started to become somewhat awkward, at first the sister turned around and left to go but the young man in his mid to late teens wanted to stay, you see we had got through the law in the chart and he saw that if God were to judge him according to standard of His perfect law he would be guilty and sent to hell. By God's grace I was able to get to the last page and continue to encourage him to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved from eternal judgment. He seemed happy to hear of how God saves from judgment and took a tract, please pray for that young man his sister and their mother. 

The following photo is of Andrew, this was my last conversation and one that I would never forget, he wanted to go through the chart so we did, he became really interested in the gospel, he had been through so much in his life he needed to understand how is it that God as the judge is able to judge anyone, this gave a good opportunity to talk about God's attributes, the Goodness of God, the Holiness of God, and how man is sinful and a good God who is all powerful does not look upon sin lightly and must bring judgment, and by God's grace he seemed to come away understanding what Christ had done on the cross and how to be saved, a personal highlight for me was at the end I had given him some tracts and one of our church calendars, moments later as I drove home I saw him walking on the footpath reading the literature I gave him. Also, during this conversation a man who I do not remember what he looked like put insisted I take the $20 he slipped into my hand for a drink along with other Christians from other local churches who the Lord had sent to encourage us. 

What a glorious gospel! What a glorious Savior! May the Lord of the harvest send more labourers in 2019 because worthy is the Lamb who sits on the throne! 

SDG  

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Otara Markets - Christmas Outreach 

Every year on the Saturday before Christmas day thousands of people around Auckland flock to the Otara markets, as early as 6.30am parking was difficult with people in a mad rush to secure their spot, it is the busiest time of the year for this market and in the past 3 years now the Lord has allowed us to be here for this particular Saturday. 

Many of our soldiers who would of loved to come were unable to today, and so, terrified as I was, the Lord gave me courage to setup the flipchart and almost immediately I got into a conversation with a couple who were interested in going through it. By God's grace I was able to go through the entire chart and even at the end they continued to stay and want to talk more about the gospel. 

Almost all of my flipchart conversations were like this where people were willing to stay for lengthy conversations where all ending with an encouragement to the hearer that they turn away from their sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ as He is the only One who can save them from the wrath to come.

I wasn't expecting to speak to so many and that the flipchart would draw the amount of people that it did as there were times where I was having to raise my voice for certain flipchart presentations as there would be a crowd of people who would stop to listen and by the end of the day I felt as though I had lost my voice from all the conversations. Praise the Lord! 

In between these encounters I handed out a great amount of our Op513 Christmas tracts and later on my sister Eliza also joined and helped with the distribution, she was able to capture some photos of my last conversation with this couple who were wanting to go through the chart.

I found them both to be active listeners that seemed to be amazed at how God would forgive sinners, I was able to tell them that this was what Christmas is about, that God would send His Son to die for sinners and also that Christ would willingly lay down His life for them. We rejoiced at the work that was done on this day.

Soli Deo Gloria, Gloria in Excelsis Deo!

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Speakers Corner 

The Lord blessed our time over the last 2 Wednesday's (17th and 24th October) at Speaker's Corner, 

Some highlights was seeing brother Tim engage with some tourist that were from Argentina who stayed to listen to him preach and then talk more about his message & address questions they had from the Scriptures, they were happy to take some tracts with them, also, on this same day I had a young man from the University who stood afar behind me and listened to the preaching, I had not seen him while I was up giving my message but he later came up to me when I had finished to say that he appreciated hearing the gospel, but that he was an atheist and didn't want to engage further, I tried to engage further but he was not willing, though he also was happy to take some tracts. 

Last week myself, Trevor, Graham, Tim and Alistair met at Speaker's Corner, we had a good flow of pedestrians, one particular lady came as I preached and laid down to listen, she stayed for the whole message & also a few others stopped to listen, We praise our great God who has given us this freedom to cry aloud the life-saving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Please pray for all those who came into contact with us, We plan to head to Speakers Corner the same time tomorrow DV

SDG

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We were blessed by today's outreach at Speakers Corner . Tim, Trevor and myself, by God's grace, each had an opportunity to preach.

Like last week, we weren't sure about the foot traffic, as the University students are on semester break. It seemed quiet at first as people were spread out and you had to walk to get to them. Then in mid sermon a whole crowd of approx 20 high school students going through a tour of the University walked past us, all listening to the preaching.

As they passed I was preaching on God's law. The point was made that we would be judged by a Holy God for every sin that we've committed. I expanded quickly on the 5th and commandment and how even those things that we've looked at on the internet, facebook, instagram we will have to give an account to God who is judge.

Then I preached Christ and Him crucified for sinners and as that happened some of the students asked and took our gospel tracts that brother Sam was handing out. 

May the Lord get glory from this work. 

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Speakers Corner

We were blessed to worship the Lord at Speakers corner this evening. We were to meet at 17.00, instead of our usual lunchtime meet up. We were unsure about the foot traffic as  the University is on semester break. 

I went along with 2 other brothers Sam & Albert who had not been to SC before, when we arrived, there was hardly anyone there. Just as the preaching started there were waves of people that walked by & groups that stopped to listen and record on their phones.

There was one lady who stopped to make the comment that what we were doing was not helpful as it's too confrontational and it's why everyone hates Christianity. She made the point that we should seek to make relationships with people. The brother she spoke to offered to speak with her more about this but she didn't want to talk further. Please pray for her and her son that was with her. 

As this exchange was happening I was preaching and the son was watching as I preached on Hebrews 4:13. We praise God that she and many others received our Operation 513 gospel tracts this day. By the end of the outreach the brothers were encouraged and are keen to comeback. 

Please pray for those who heard the preaching that they would hear the voice of the good Sheppard.  

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Southmall Manurewa 

This was our second time here in Southmall Manurewa. The Lord had allowed 5 of us to go, Pastor Orr, one of our Deacons Joe, our sister Eliza and our brother Stuart joining us in the end and myself.

Even with the small turnout of locals in the area that evening we were still able to hand out many of our Operation 513 gospel tracts. A couple of people asked for Bibles. 

One of the highlights was being able to open air preach on the pavement, using amplification, as we had quite a few people listening. To the left there were the customers waiting for their take away order from the Pizza Hut many of them came outside once they heard the preaching. Others listening were the uber and taxi drivers that were right in front of us. Even some by standers stopped to listen.

One man in particular was walking by and stopped as I preached about God's omnipresence and how nothing is hidden from the eyes of the Lord. Then I proclaimed that because of Christ, all those whom believe in Him, trusting in who He is and what He has done on the cross, all the sins of the believer is cast as far as the east is from the west and into the sea of God's forgetfulness.

He stayed a couple more minutes to listen then turned around and kept walking, please pray for all those who heard and were contacted through one to one conversations. 

Please pray for our next outreach on the 18th of Aug as we with God's help plan to visit Otara markets.

SDG

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