Battle Log

Page 110

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Tuesday and Wednesday outreaches were hampered by periods of heavy spring rain in Christchurch (NZ).

On Tuesday, Roger informed me that the new Riverside Market (off Cashel Mall) was open and suggested we shift our usual Riccarton outreach there to try it out.  I was keen!  After scoping it out, I decided to set up at one of the entrances (pictured), and Roger set up at the corner (nearest the Bridge of Remembrance).

There were a lot of people there, also due to the school holidays.  I ended up having a couple of Gospel conversations.  In those conversations, a good portion of time was spent in working with people to realise the simplicity of the logic of a creator for the universe (as opposed to Myanmar, where it’s labouring with people so they understand the way to heaven is a gift).

Roger had a number of Gospel conversations too - including with a suit (which is rare).  Part way through that conversation, our resident heckler: Steve the Atheist came along on his bike and tried to disrupt.  Thankfully, the suit told Steve to go away!  That solved the problem.

On Wednesday, I started the day in bright sunshine with some letterboxing, but a front moved across the sun and started dumping the heaviest rain I’ve experienced while letterboxing!  I was cold and drenched in short order - and my shoes filled with water.  I had to head home to change and put thermals on (I was hoping I wouldn’t need them again till next winter!).

Eventually there was a break in the weather, and I was able to head into the city for outreach.  But the day continued with the constant contrasts of bright sunshine and heavy rain.  I managed to have a number of Gospel conversations to the glory of God.

I finished the day with letterboxing and managed to get home before a hail shower hit!

As I finish this log entry, I want to mention something I’ve been thinking about today.  And that is the fact that our outreach teams (except for the abortion outreach) seem to be getting smaller since I’ve moved into full time outreach.  If I’m an evangelist, I feel like I’m failing at my job - which is to encourage others to share the good news! :) The very last thing I want people thinking is: “Evangelism, oh Glen is covering that” - NO!  All Christians are called to the great commission.  You can reach people that I can’t.  We all need to be sharing this amazing good news.  So I want to encourage you to get involved!  I can’t do this on my own - the more people doing it, the more people we reach!  But it’s scary.  Tell me about it!  So I want to do you a deal.  I’m out on the streets, six days a week, if you can commit to joining me - once a fortnight, for two hours, I promise I won’t throw you in the deep end.  You can be paired up with me, or someone else with experience and get a feel for sharing the Gospel through observation (i.e., no pressure to share, but just learn).  What do you say?  Believe it or not, out on the streets, with strangers is the best place to practice for when you have that opportunity to share in your home, work place, or school.  What do you think?  If people are going to hell, how important is it to share the good news of Jesus?  Be encouraged!  Join us :)
 

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On Monday at Capalaba the team of three had a wonderful afternoon of outreach. With around thirty people hearing the gospel over the course of the afternoon! It is wonderful that in four hours, so many people can come to be able to explain back to you the way to Heaven and are left with the decision to trust in or reject Christ. Why not come along sometime and enable more people to hear?

An early and encouraging conversation was with Sarah. She very quickly came to hear and understand the way to Heaven. Her bus must have been running late because she was expecting it to come and it never did during the conversation. This enabled, after Sarah comprehended the good news, for some of her questions to be answered and some more confirmation to be given. At the end of the conversation she said she'd "never thought about it before but was thankful for the chat". When she was left, a first minutes later she was still reading the tract! Praise God for a wonderful conversation.

Later in the afternoon two of the young guys who often hang around the area came up to join a conversation. The lady who was being spoken to had to run and then one of the guys heard the law, whilst another seemed to be distracted but then the first guy, Cody seemed to lose interest and the rest of the conversation took place with Ty, who came to understand the way to Heaven and was seriously challenged about how he would respond to this good news. He saw that trusting in Christ would lead to him hanging out with different people, living a different way and spending his time differently.

Please be praying for both Sarah and Ty that they count the cost of trusting in Christ and make the decision this day to trust in Him alone for their forgiveness!

What a privilege it is to be able to proclaim the glories of our God and King to those in local areas. It is always exciting to see who God brings along to hear the message and it will be a great joy one day to see what work God did through the simple seeds of the gospel that were sown by the team. Come and help the team grow by 33%, join us next Monday from 1-5pm!

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Hear Andy and Thomas share about encouraging conversations they had with men in Myanmar during the recent mission trip.
 

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The trip in Myanmar so far has been a blur with some many conversations and excitements. The days have been busy and the team goes to bed tired, ready to be rested for another day.

This morning many of the men will be preaching at local Churches, bringing encouragement from the Word of God.

In this video you can hear Grace share about a Buddhist who had some Hindu ideas and how He responded to the gospel.

You can also hear of a conversation Martin had with a homosexual couple about the way to Heaven.

Please be praying for the team that they may be well rested and ready to serve God as they awaken this morning.

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The team in Myanmar have had a flying start in the outreaches. With a team of twenty six, there are so many stories to share and conversations that have been had.

The team has been spreading across three locations each day and through translators or with people who speak english having lengthy and indepth gospel conversations.

Most days have been raining for more than fifty percent of the time so conversations are moved under cover. This has limited the amount of tracts that are able to be distributed but the conversations have been valuable and exciting.

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Toowong Village Thursday 1/10/2019
It was another day of the Acts of the Spirit at the Toowong Village Street Evangelism ministry spot.
Initially, I was expecting only Winnie to join me from the Gold Coast by train. My first surprise by the Acts of the Spirit was meeting Winnie's husband who though not yet a confessed Christian but just a church goer, took the trouble to escort Winnie to come by train from the Gold Coast for the first time. He left us behind to do street evangelism and did our opening prayers. We was ready to go to our spot at the foot of the pedestrian foot path bridge, but Winnie out of the blue prompted me to go to the toilet first. As a result of this delay, Chi Ming and his wife who were only 2 minutes late were able to sight Winnie first alone waiting for me and then reunited with us as a team of four for today street evangelism. (Hung Kwan, 关子鴻, Winnie Choi 蘇慧英, Chi Ming Lin林志明; &曾棣旋

After the 1.5 hour street evangelism time, they came back a bit later then the target time but actually this left me a window of 5 minutes to share the gospel to Vincent Choi 蔡毅雄, the husband of Winnie. Pray that he will receive Christ ultimately in His time.

God answered my opening prayer to give Winnie the boldness to do her first sharing on the street. She got hold of an UQ student from China called Huge. He stopped very willingly to let Winnie to share the Gospel with him with the "Are You A Good Person" flip chart. He even allowed Winnie to take a selfie with him. He is a Christian but a infrequent Church goer. The Gospel sharing may have aroused his passion to pursue God again in Christ.

Winnie almost immediate had another opportunity to stop another UQ students from China. Her Mandarin was not as good as her English but the student was willing to let her to communicate in English. After she finished, I chipped in to give a bit supplement. Unfortunately, it was cut short when this person noticed Winnie was attempting to take photo of us. This anyway was a good lesson for Winnie to never take photo in front of the target, but always from behind not taking their face but ours. It by all means was a very fruitful and effective day of training for Winnie by God that helped her to have alleviated her fear replacing with boldness to share Gospel in random to people stopped by God.

As for me, I have 7 conversations today amongst which were three Indian Christians and non-believer inclusive. So I take it as my Indian day.

1) Joshua from India, Christian without assurance of faith but now clarified.
2) Howard, a local Aussie Christian who turned down my tract as he is a Christian. He passed my diagnosis test of 2 Questions showing 100% assurance by faith in Jesus alone.
3) Mary, an Aussie old lady claimed to be a Christian but again has no assurance of salvation faith.
4) Kyla an UQ student from Zimbabwe who claimed herself a Christian but again have no assurance of salvation faith. She was in a hurry so I had to walk her to the bus stop to gain just enough time to build up her 100% assurance of salvation faith.
5) Alvin James, a UQ student who is a Christian but also have no assurance of salvation faith but now clarified.
6) Luke, a middle aged French Christian of Catholic background. He also does not have 100% salvation faith. Yet he was humble enough to listen and thank me for clarifying the right way to get 100% assurance of his salvation faith.
7) Daren, an UQ student from India. He has no religion or faith back ground. But he appeared to have a very positive grab of the salvation by faith in Christ alone. He admitted we are all sinner and will bound for Hell as the punishment of our sin. And the only way out is to accept the finished work of Jesus dying on the cross to take up the punishment of sin on our behalf as such we can be justified to reconcile with God. Pray for God's continuous work on him to convict him to be converted to Christ.

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Over the last couple of weeks, we have been blessed in the mall by the local Korean Church coming to preach the gospel. It was wonderful to see Hana, a missionary from South Korea, preaching the gospel in multiple different languages. My heart thrilled to see so many people from China stopping when they heard the gospel in their heart language.

The first day that Hana came into the mall to speak, there was a number of us in the mall supporting her including her husband, son and her senior pastor and his wife. This group was fantastic because a crowd always attracts a crowd and people gathered to listen.

Of course, when this happens there is always counter moves by the enemy. Who should turn up in the midst of things, but Mr S. my old heckler and another repeat heckler. Mr S. immediately went on the attack with all sorts of slander and demands that I answer his questions. In one way I was pleased, he left the gospel preaching alone and targeted me (which I duly ignored). At the same time, it was very sad to see the hardening that has been taking place in Mr S.’s life. At one point the other heckler exposed herself at me and the other Christians present and Mr S. was not even troubled by this. It appears that despite years of hearing Christians proclaim the gospel he has only hardened his heart in rejection of God and embrace of sin. Please persist in praying for Mr S. he is lost in the darkness of sin.

Despite some small opposition there have been a number of great conversations happening also.

Mr SA – he was listening as I preached and came over to chat after Keiran approached him. His was a very sad story of alcoholism and estrangement from family. He had liked my bad jokes about the coming football grand finale, but as an atheist disagreed with the message of the gospel. He liked us as Christians and was happy for us to believe and speak on faith, but sadly believed he could not have faith in or help from God due to his demons and sin. We offered to pray with him but he would not let us. He left and we prayed for him afterwards and will continue to pray for him.

Miss S – she had stopped by another day while I preached and spoken at length with Keiran. She is a nurse in training and a Christian, and was very happy to see the gospel being proclaimed in the mall. Keiran had encouraged her to be faithful to God in her studies and work. She came after we finished talking to Mr SA, and was wanting us to pray for her to have greater faith. We talked about how powerful God is and Jesus who has her in His hand, and encouraged her to look at Him not at how small her faith might seem. We all prayed together that God would strengthen her faith in Him (and ours too!).

Mr T. – he had listened as I preached and came up to ask a number of questions. The biggest was “How do I reconcile the existence of evil and the goodness and power of God”? Five others gathered to listen to the discussion which lasted for almost an hour. There were many opportunities to point people to God and the Bible and provide good reasons to trust in Jesus. At all points Mr T. was very polite and the discussion went back and forth smoothly. It was a joy to share these things with people engaging openly with what the word says.

Praise God for all His goodness to us!

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As the days in Hobart warm up people are becoming more likely to heckle the preaching in the mall. Praise God this brings people in to listen and the many good conversations have continued afterwards and there are many opportunities to share the gospel.

Recently there was a climate change protest/strike by students, unfortunately on this occasion there was much anger in the teens that gathered in the mall after the march. So many of these young people are fearful and confused by what is happening around them. Tragically they have been taught climate activism but also rejection of God who gives us the planet we call home and are commanded to care for.  This overflowed in anger at the gospel being preached publicly.

One group of young men repeatedly swore at me as I preached and told me that no-one was listening. When this didn’t appear to be working, they began to make threats but thankfully left before anything happened. As this is so often is the case, anger is the go-to option for people who are badly scared. These young men were very scared of the future and climate threats and so their anger was natural. God save them and us all from wicked people who frighten children into protests to achieve what they can’t with normal persuasion.

As I continued preaching a young man who has stopped before to heckle came. My heart breaks for him, I continue to pray for him, he is lost in the darkness. He claims to be both a sociopath and an atheist. As had been the case last time he came to heckle again. He came trying to disprove God. He came with as many arguments as he could find. He came with pride like armour around his heart and mind. He came, unwilling to listen to any reason or persuasion to trust Christ, leaping on any excuse for unbelief. As I said, my heart breaks for him, I tried to move him to see all the evidence for God and Christ Jesus.  I preached the gospel but I fear in vain, I just pray that God will soften his heart.

While this was happening the group of young men returned and surrounded me making threats and trying to disrupt the preaching. After a few short interactions it became clear that they were only seeking to “troll the preacher”. So, told them that I would preach over them if they were unwilling to be civil. As I continued preaching the police arrived and the young men quickly took off. Praise God He looks after me so often.

The rest of the afternoon was similarly tense with other teens likewise aggressive and threatening. It is tempting to think that all the outreach was a waste, casting pearls before swine. That would be forgetting to look around the people at the front of the crowd and see the large number of people listening behind them. There is always a double crowd in the mall. The questions and answers and heckles and responses and gospel preached goes through one ear and out the other of some hecklers, true, but it then hits the hearts and minds of more responsive people behind them! God’s Word never returns to Him without achieving His purpose in any situation. Praise Him there is always many who “overhear” the word preached or discussed.

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Sunday was a very hot day in Christchurch (NZ).  From now on, I’ll be putting sunscreen on every morning before I head out on the streets! :)  There were three people out sharing the Gospel at the corner of Cashel & Colombo in the afternoon.  I had two interesting Gospel conversations.

The second conversation was with two young Muslim girls, originally from Afghanistan, but now Kiwis.  As they walked past, I asked if they would like to try the good person test - and they were keen.  Very early on, we agreed that the ten commandments were the standard of good to measure against, and with that common ground, I proceeded to adjust the mirror of the commandments so they could clearly see their own reflection in it.  They agreed that, with God being just, then they would deserve hell.  But they appealed to the mercy of God.  And this is always the hinge point of all my discussions with Muslims: how can God be both just and merciful?  If He is merciful, then that would mean He isn't being just.  And so I explained how God can be both through the cross: Jesus being both perfect and willing, was able to take our justice and give us his righteousness through our faith in Him.  While I was explaining that Jesus rose again, I respectfully mentioned that Budha, Kirshna, and Mohummed were not perfect and had not risen - but only Jesus had, and so He was our only hope.  And it was at this point that I was challenged - as I had, understandably, hit a nerve.  But out of my love for them, I wanted to challenge them on this.  We parted on good terms.  They had known people who had died in the Mosque attacks earlier in the year, and for what it was worth, I expressed my sympathy.

The first conversation was fascinating.  I had five young teen guys walk past, and I had the energy to engage them.  I boldly challenged them to try the good person test, and they all stopped to see what I was talking about.  I had them on the line, and I had to use all my energy to engage them enough to get them to try it.  Three of them turned to walk away - I had two left.  So again I challenged them to try the good person test.  One of them then turned to his mates who were walking away and said, “Hey guys, I want to try this, come back”.  And they did, praise God!  But I had to fight for their attention.  Then five of their friends turned up and their attention was completely gone.  I now had the work of gaining the attention of all ten of them!  All glory to God, I succeeded at this, and I managed to get all ten of these guys to realise the importance of what I was talking about.  While I was taking them through the law, a lady joined the group.  I think she was attracted by my animation in working to keep these kids engaged.  I glanced at her, not knowing her motives and hoping she wouldn’t derail things.  Luckily she didn’t, she eventually peeled off and left - it was a pity there weren’t more Christians with me to be able to engage her separately.  But it wasn’t over yet.  I managed to get through the law, and most of the way through the Gospel, when yet another lady suddenly entered the fray!  She started saying things like: “you need to listen to this guy”, but it wasn’t helpful - it was just distracting the flow of the conversation.  I managed to hold their attention long enough to share the Gospel with them, when the lady decided to take over the conversation!  I decided not to stop her, knowing that it wouldn’t look good to these guys.  I left her to it for a few moments while I handed each of the guys a tract, and took the attached photo.  Before coming back to take back control of the conversation.  I found the right moment to say to the guys that I really appreciated their time, and if they had any questions they were more than welcome to ask.  I intended to have a chat with the lady, but as soon as the guys had left, she left too.  What a battle!  But it was worth it.  I know some of those guys were resistant to what I was saying, some seemed to be thinking deeply, but all heard the Gospel!

I was also in Cathedral Square on Saturday where God provided opportunity to plow and sow.  All glory to God for any increase that comes from our feeble effort.
 

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Arthur Pink in the 1974 p/back "Practical Christianity", p.32 gives us food for thought, "...only by the blood of Jesus we can be saved. That is true Godward, but it is not true manwards. The work of the Spirit in us is equally essential as the work of Christ for us." - Titus 3:5

     It was another interesting time of serving our Lord. As we gathered for prayer, it was preceded by a display of carpark road rage where we observed man's fallen nature in a pathetic public rant and rave session. Thankfully, the 'accused' did not reciprocate and it eventually fizzled out. Once we got going, the Lord gave us:

     - a long chat with an older Irish Roman Catholic man  who could not listen because he had his own version including this: If he got to heaven and saw someone there he had a grudge against , he could not forgive them.He heard the good news.  

      - 3 young lads who heard the gospel for the first time. One was more open than the other two were.

     - Sisters R. & M, church-goers.who were weary of trying but failing to live the Christian life. Their faith was on a dodgy foundation and they were getting nowhere. They left rejoicing as they grasped God's gracious gift of salvation. May God get them discipled now so they can grow to maturity of faith.

     - T. a young lad who came asking what the flip chart was all about. He seemed to 'get the message' but then revealed in further conversation, that he had not. Ryan had another 3 to 5  reviews with him before he seemed to grasped it. He had not any concrete concept of God to begin with. Please pray that he God will speak to him savingly as he reads John's gospel. 

These last two chats were our last for the afternoon. But regardless of what we might think, we went to be used of God whose work always reflects His glorious nature. So we give thanks for the privilege and pleasure of serving Him in this way, 1 Jn. 5:3.

We give Him all the glory and we (you probably guessed it) went on our way rejoicing.

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