Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Toowong (QLD) Team

---

Toowong Team (QLD)

Meets 1:30-3pm every Tuesday afternoon at the Toowong train station on the 2nd floor and splits into two teams, one at the main entrance of Toowong Tower on Sherwood Road, another at the foot of the pedestrian bridge across Benson Street.

Contact Johnny Hsieh for more information.

---

Today 17/9/2019 was a special day of grace for the OPN 513 team at Toowong Village. God moved a Kairos 2016 graduate Winnie from the Gold Coast Church to come up to Brisbane to join the Gospel outreach first at the park then at Toowong Village. So, while Johnny our team leader was still overseas in Myanmar, God moved and summoned Winnie, Kiateck, Lily and Hung to form a team of four to serve at Toowong. Winnie teamed up with me to observe and learn how to do street evangelism. She felt God called her to get better equipped in evangelism so that she can start doing it in her life circle to her husband and family members and to the Cruises travelers she is going to meet in Nov when she joins the Cruise for the first time.

As for this week Divine Appointments, God stopped four ladies for me and each had very dramatic response one of which with Victoria(4) from Kwaizhou, China really just falling short of being seen as a life changing miracle.

 

1) Sherry is an UQ student from Henan 河南，China. She claimed she has heard gospel from other source before but not yet felt touched to make up any commitment已聽過，but she admitted that the core of the gospel about how we the sinner can be pardoned by letting the only qualified perfect God and perfect man Jesus to take over the punishment of our sin is a logical and noble act by a true loving God. So she will reassess her needs to accept Christ as our redeemer and the Lord of our life.

2) A Korean girl giggled her way while I stopped her and shared with her the Gospel. It turned out that she is a Christian or someone who understood the redemptive grace of Christ. But to my surprise, she found that faith hard to have root in her heart and she is even now in the process of turning for Buddhism. It was obvious that there is a spirit of general rejection of God and His teaching, as such she used giggling all along our conversation to cover up her unwillingness to hear the gospel that might help her to turn around for God again. She left prematurely anyway and I can only pray for God's own work to move her heart back to God.

3) Brianna an Aussie Christian who was off from work thus willingly stopped to chat about the tract. Initially she did not showed certainty to be qualified for Heaven leading me to treat her as a non- believer in the gospel sharing conversation. But before long when I touched upon the concept of we, the sinners all need the redemptive grace of Jesus then she declared she is a Christian. Just like the other 80% of Christians I met on the street, they confused their current still-not perfect life status as a barrier for them yet to be fully admitted to heaven. After clarification, she thanked me a thousand time to understand that our salvation faith in Christ alone will have gained us the Heavenly citizenship while we are still imperfect but God should have regained his sovereign control on our life as such he promises He will further transform us back to perfection.

4) Victoria an UQ master student from Kwaizhou had been a seeker but was on the brink of giving up her journey to quest for true faith in Christ. She told me her spiritual status has fallen down to such a low level that she found going to church was useless and didn't border to go any more. She told me that she has just found the Gospel message I shared with her, though plain and heard before, but it carries a power of reassurance from God for her to keep seeking for Christ. She promised she will pick up her journey of quest for true salvation and keep joining Christian group such as Power To Change in helping her to get a touch down finish in accepting Christ as her savior and Lord of her Life. It of course was a great encouragement for me as well as Winnie who witnessed this minor miracle that God has done on the life of Victoria. As long as we open up to be the vessel of God, He can do great thing through us despite of our weakness and undeserving status.

---

On 10/9/2019, this is the 6th Street Evangelism at Toowong. 
Today, we only had three team members i.e Pastor Lily Tam, Pastor Kiateck Tan and Rev Hung Kwan doing the street evangelism. All others are either engaged in other overseas mission or sick. As the deputy team leader, I again had to run around to have an eyes on team members and take photo of their work. Lily thru fellowship, shared that she is still comfortable only to hand out tracts and prepared to engage in gospel sharing only in an indoor environment. Nevertheless, she comes to serve without ever skipping a week. As for Kiateck, he originally was occupied in other ministry but still managed to come even half an hour later. He got a breakthrough today successful stopping some one to chat on Gospel. With above thing to care about, the available time within this one and a half hour session was limited. God still granted me 5 or 6 meaningful divine appointments with three stood out ones as recap below.

1) Near the main entrance of Toowong Village, Two Chinese young ladies from mainland China took English tracts from Lily , so I stepped up to approach them giving them my Chinese tracts and asked for permission to share. They anyway kept walking while letting me to share. It was just enough time for me to finish the core gospel message before the two ladies had to part. I anyway asked them to ponder on what I said when they read the tract at home. Pray for their comparatively hardened hearts be soften by the work of the Holy Spirit why they read the tract at home.

2) I went back to my usual spot at the foot of the pedestrian bridge, and met several girls who are student of UQ and was registering to hire a bicycle. All of them were in a rush, so I could just ask them to read the tracts back home.

3) Becky from Chongxian重慶, China一she was so nice to let me share despite she really was in a rush for the bus. Yet she still listen attentively and seriously and appeared very receptive to the gospel. She has shown interest to look fro church near by which I recommenced her to the CCCB - St Luica Ryan Street congregation. I also encouraged to connect with Power to Change once she decided to accept Christ for her ongoing spiritual growth.

4) Drew is an UQ students from an Indian family but he was born here. Despite he admitted his family religious background is Hindu, but he appeared to be a very open minded person to gospel and looked very receptive to the issue of sin must be punished. So again I introduced him to get connected with PRC.

5) Bobby is a working young man from Caboolture. He has no religious faith but his brother is a Christian. He was also in a rush to catch the train and skipped very fast on a scooter board. Yet he stopped abruptly to ask if I was handing out tract as he could see my desire when we cross eyes sight. To not delay his catching train, I walked or jogged along his roller scooter to finish the gospel sharing just on our arrival at the train station. He checked and found he still had a few minutes so we kept on chatting and even took a selfie. It was surprised how God has started changing him as a non-religious mind to find interest again in the Gospel. He promised to read the tract and talked to his Christian brother about today divine encounter as a spring board to his final acceptance of Jesus as his Savior and Lord of life.

---

Sept 3, 2019 Toowong Village
We had Kenneth Chan from Power to Change joining us this afternoon for the first time. So altogether we had 5 street Evangelists today including Johnny Hsieh, Lily Tam, Chi Ming Lim and Hung Kwan. Kiateck was taking sick leave again.

I teamed up with Kenneth, he chose to stay with me. It proved to be an ideal kind of team work. All those who stopped by the Spirit to chat with me were mostly UQ students, After listening to my sharing, I referred them to connect with Power To Change through Kenneth. It paved the way for effective follow up.

Because of taking some time to run between the two street evangelism spots for photo taking of the other teams, I only have four complete conversation as recap below: -

1) Jacky Wu from Beijing, who has some previous contact with Christians and heard the Gospel before, but found my sharing very convincing that urged him to take a serious thought to accept Christ. I gave him additional EE3 gospel booklet with a more full scale gospel sharing. Pray that he will make this step of faith soon and get connected with Kenneth to join Power to Change.

2) Stephania and her family have already migrated to Australia from Vietnam. She stopped willingly to listen to my gospel sharing initially with skepticism possibly because of her Buddhist background. But eventually she felt convinced that the way Christ died for us to take punishment of sin on our behalf is sensible and logical. Again I connected her right away with Kenneth for future followup.

3) Ali from Afghanistan is of Muslim family background, but he appeared very open minded to the gospel sharing and were convinced of the redemptive method of Jesus dying on the cross to pay for the punishment of our sin. He was willing to read the tract at home and was encouraged to make his own decision to accept Jesus or not. Again I referred him to connect with Power to Change through Kenneth. Pray that all above divine appointments will bear fruits in His time.

4) Finally, I caught up with an Aussie lady Cheryl. She was nice and kind to stop for a chat despite she was in a hurry to get back to work. She appeared to have no professing faith but again was very receptive to what I shared.

---

This was the fourth Street Evangelism at Toowong Village since we started. So far it is still a ministry involving exclusively Chinese Christians.

Today we had Kiateck and Johnny both absent because of sickness of self and family member. Kenneth gave apology as it clashed with his time for Bible study. So only Pastor Lily Tam, Chi Ming and Hung turned out. Lily and Chi Ming teamed up at the main entrance of Toowong Village, they were able to reach out to a number of UQ students. As for me I had 5 complete conversations of 10 to 20 minutes during as recap below: -

1) Alexis a local Aussie and govt worker. He is not sure about the way to heaven and was gracious to be shown the one and ONLY way through Christ.

2) Conrad a retiree also a fair dinkum Christian. He is a lay persons but his knowledge about the bible teaching is superb. We have very mutually edifying dialogue because of many commonality speaking the same kind of language (English, Mandarin and Japanese) God used Him to encourage and bless my street evangelism ministry.

3) Avi, a Fijian Catholic Christian, who attends mass regularly but still have no assurance of salvation. He was glad to hear the good news pf salvation by grace through faith.

4) Orson, an Irish UQ Student, who was willing to stop and listen to my full gospel sharing chat and promised to ponder about his own need of salvation after reading the tract.

5) Two Muslim UQ students Musah and Muskie from Dubai who were both friendly and receptive to the Gospel and responded well to the claim that Jesus alone is the way , the truth and the life for giving us the assurance of salvation.

6) Had causal contact with many Korean, Aussie and Chinese students giving out tract but cannot have long enough chat because they were late for school.

---

This was the second Street Evangelism Outreach at Toowong under the banner of Opn 513 by all Chinese Christians/Ministers for the present moment in time. We have five participants today including first timer Anna Clarke, the WEC missionary and four old members namely, Kiatech from St Lucia CCCB, Lily Tam from Indooroopilly Chinese Congregation at St Peter College, Johnny from Sherwood Methodist and Hung from Christ's Family Church.

Anna despite a first timer but got use to evangelism on the street pretty well. Johnny also had many conversations. The stand out one was with an Indigenous girl with Christian background. She actually has a tattoo of Psalm 23 on her arm. It took Johnny a fair bit of time to realize she is not an Indian but an Indigenous people with cross blood. As for me, again God granted me 6 divine appointments which I recap as follows: -

1) Annerley from NZ, a fair dinkum Christian who have 100% assurance of salvation faith. We encouraged each other with the blessing of God.

2) Will, a Vietnamese who claimed to believe in no God, But the Spirit still moved him to hear the full gospel and the way of salvation by Jesus Christ. He is an UQ 3rd year student. God softened his initial hard heart and end up willing to give it a go to repent accepting Jesus as his savior and Lord of life.

3) Charlotte again a New Zealander and a nonbeliever who works here in Toowong. God also softened her heart to become very receptive to the Gospel.

4) Sylvia, a local Aussie Office lady who showed initial reluctance to stop but still heard the full gospel and is willing to read and ponder on the message of the Tract.

5) Tyra the third NZ Kiwi for the day that I could have the longest conversation over 20 minutes. She claimed herself and her family spiritual even though they have professed no religion. She has Christian friends and has heard gosepl before. But this time she appeared to be deeply drawn by the message and admitted that she need Jesus as her savior and Lord of her life. She even asked if I can introduce her to go to church in Springfield, Ipswich. Pray that The Spirit will really drawn her to repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

6) The drama of the day. Rodeos from Venezuela, sat down by the road side 20 meter from me. I watched him for a while and God moved me to approach him. Then I found out he was pale in face and appeared in a great distressed condition. In stead of sharing the gospel first, I asked if I could help and he let me escort him to the medical centre on the 3rd level of the Toowong Shopping Centre.

Another reason he appeared so weak and short of breath was that he has a bad leg needing a stick. So i carried his backpack and held him across the pedestrian foot bridge to go to the clinic. On the way, I of course took the opportunity to share the Gospel to him. Later on I just found out that he is of Catholic background but unsure about salvation by faith. Just pray that God will continue on with His work for Rodeos till he could profess the true faith in Christ alone.

---

Praise and thanks God to have moved 5 of us from different Chinese Churches to form a new team of OPN 513 Street Evangelism at Toowong Tower effective today 6/8 and thereafter every Tuesday from 1:30pm to 3pm.

We started with a prayer to ask the Holy Spirit to pave the way for us and then formed two teams with me and Kiateck across the pedestrian bridge to the other side of the Benson Road. I stayed at the foot of the bridge and Kiateck went 30m further to take position at the traffic light. Johnny and Lily teamed up to do street evangelism at the front entrance of Toowong Tower. They were joined later by Chi Ming who is also a member of the Sherwood Methodist Church.

As the first timers Kiateck and Lily had been fairing very well kept handing out tract and stay put at their assigned location.

Johnny as usual had many amazing opportunities to stop people to share. He told me one of them was two UQ girls who actually met Johnny before at the King George Square before and have believed in Christ. At that time, they are planning to rent a house in Toowong area as St Lucia are more expensive and with little opening. But by grace of God today, they met Johnny again and told him they now have rented a place in St Lucia much closer to UQ. Johnny then referred them to go to CCCB St Lucia at Ryan Street which should be very near to the two girls' house. Thanks God that they may start to have stable church and worship life.

There were also six conversation with people of different origins including UK, China, Philippine, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia as well as local Australia from Brisbane and Mackay. Since I forgot to bring my iphone, I can only recall vaguely their name, background and responses as follows: -

1) Ellie from UK, a young work lady with no religious back ground. I gained the conversation by helping her to park the Council bicycle. She appeared very friendly to the gospel message and promise with politeness to read the tract and seriously consider the need to trust in Jesus.

2) A UQ student Majoring in Commerce and International trade from Jiangsu, China. He again has never heard of the gospel and thought initially it is too vague a thought for him whose focus is secular success. After hearing the full gospel, he admitted that every one including him is imperfect as well as a sinner in God's eyes rather than his previous thought of no absolute right and wrong depending on your angle of vision. So he will give more serious thought on this big life issue of live or die with sin not having been properly dealt with.

3) Wahwang and her friend from Philippines. She claimed herself Christian but seemingly of Catholic background, so despite her trust in Jesus, she still doesn't think she is a good enough Christian to be certain about admittance to Heaven. Hopefully my clarification have helped her to secure assurance of faith by Jesus alone while our life is yet to be transformed by the grace of God through the life changing work of the Holy Spirit.

4) Katie a local Brisbane Aussie girl. She delightfully stop to let me share with her the Gospel. It was also her first chance hearing about sin and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus. She appeared receptive and promise also to dwell on this issue after reading the tract at home. She is a QUT student but happened to come to Toowong for shopping.

5) A cheerful Lady stop to answer my diagnosis questions with the perfect right answer. She is from Mackay as a visitor. She was not surprised when I told her 90% of Christians are not clear about salvation and have no assurance of faith alone in Christ.

6) At the end, I met up with two UQ students Cherry from Hong Kong and Bing Fai from Indonesia. They also have clear understanding of faith answering my two diagnosis questions correctly. They are both Christian back in their home country but now is a member of the Power to Change. Cherry actually knows Florence and I told her they are more than welcome to join this street evangelism ministry one day.

Apart from these six medium short but complete conversations, there were some more fragmented short exchange of words. In general, older Aussies and very young Uni students are mostly atheists that rejected even the tracts not to mention stopping for a chat. Middle age and mature young persons are more receptive but cannot stop due to busy reasons.

In general, it was as usual a great day to experience the presence of God and be trained during the process of working with the Spirit for each divine chatting appointment. Pray that Kiateck and Lily will get adapted to this mode of street cross cultural evangelism and be a role models for their own church members to step out willing from their comfort zone .

---

---