Battle Log

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Thursday and Friday saw more rain, wind and cold in a Winter fight back in Christchurch (NZ).

All the outreach time on Thursday was spent at the Northlands bus stops.  A team of two.

At one point, a bus stopped and a whole lot of high school students disgorged.  Andy was offering tracts to them but they were all being refused.  He turned to me and said, “I’m not having a good run!”, he then turned back and the next tract he offered was accepted, and the guy turned to ask about it!  Twenty minutes or so later they were shaking hands after the guy had accepted a Bible - it was a really good Gospel conversation!

For me, the conversation that stands out was one that started suddenly.  I was walking towards someone to offer them a tract when a guy came out of a property right in front of me.  So I offered him the tract instead and asked him if he ever thought about what happens after life.  Initially the guy was resistant and then said that he used to be passionate about Jesus like me and that he had done what I was doing: talking to people about Jesus at bus stops.  But not any more.  He wanted to know my motivation.  But he started walking down the street, so I decided to walk with him!  I told him my motivation was my love for Jesus who had saved me from my sin and hell, and that I wanted to obey Him and tell others about Him.  After some discussion, I ended up switching to my testimony of how I became a Christian.  After a few blocks, the conversation came to a natural end.  He gave me his card and said I should email him.  He’d like a game of chess!  I’m not sure about the game of chess, but I have emailed him with a link to some Gospel material.

Another fascinating encounter was when I approached a guy and he instantly said, "go and get a real job, stop annoying people with your rubbish".  I didn't let this deter me, and I responded with, "OK, well - I don't think it's rubbish.  Tell me, where did the universe come from?"  To my amazement, this caused him to engage in the conversation, and I had an opportunity to explain to him how he knows God exists.  Sadly, his bus came.  But he did take a piece of my "rubbish" (a silent missionary: a Gospel tract)!

On Friday, there were heavy showers in the morning.  We decided to cancel the Gospel + abortion outreach.  Walking in the rain letter boxing tracts is okay (the walking keeps you warm), but standing exposed in cold rain is not wise.  Our new banner, designed to provoke people into discussion, will have to wait!

But the rain had eased to a stop in the afternoon, so a team of four gather for outreach in Cathedral Square and Cashel Mall.  And in spite of the wind and cold, it was a wonderful time of ministry!

Even though there was hardly anyone in Cathedral Square, I decided to open air preach to the few people that were passing.  I know it looks foolish seemingly preaching to no one - but I don’t care.  I’m desperate for the few people that could hear me to hear the good news of Jesus!  At the very least, it’s good practice.  Sure enough, I had a guy approach me.  He was a Christian and wanted to know if anyone was listening.  So I said, well, you are! :)

The afternoon’s conversation that stood out to me was one I watched Roger have with four Muslim girls (pictured).  At one point he used an illusion tract to get them smiling and laughing, but later I noticed the girls all had serious looks on their faces as Roger was discussing the important questions of life with them.  Today they heard the Gospel!
 

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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.

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Tuesday saw two outreaches in the city, the first (before lunch) was centered around Cathedral Square, and the second (after lunch) was centered around Ara.

As soon as I had set up my flip chart in Cathedral Square I instantly had a “regular” stop to chat.  He is normally very resistant to Gospel conversations but of late I have noticed some softening, and I was surprised today to see how open he was.  In a roundabout way, I was able to talk about God's law with him, and then about the good news of Jesus.  He accepted an After Life tract and we shook hands multiple times before he moved on.  I was very encouraged.

After he moved on, things were a bit slow in the Square, and so I decided to pack up and move down to Cashel Mall.  As I came to the Hereford intersection, A guy I had talked to months ago in summer came running up to me.  He called me "the God man" and was very keen to talk.  We crossed the intersection and sat down.  He had obviously been thinking deeply about the important questions of life, and was wrestling with them.  He was also struggling with difficult circumstances in his life.  As we were talking, I had opportunities to address important Gospel concepts, for example, he generally thought of himself as a good person (in contrast to me!), so I was able to address this by showing him the mirror of God’s law.  Then there was a point where we were talking about Jesus, and he started talking about how Jesus had had a crown of thorns pushed into his head.  To my surprise he burst into tears contemplating this.  But the moment was broken when two of his friends suddenly appeared and he needed to compose himself.  Later, we talked a lot about the purpose of suffering.  It’s hard for me to know what’s really going on with this guy.  But I am very encouraged by his openness.  I never made it to Cashel Mall.

After lunch I headed through Cathedral Square on my way down High Street to Ara.  I was handing out tracts as I went, and this led to a conversation with a young JW.  I cut to the chase with him to discover where his hope lay.  I was surprised how honest he was in saying that his hope lay in his own good works!  I was able to explain why his good works would never be good enough, and why our only hope was in Jesus paying our fine on our behalf.  He was, sadly, completely unmoved.

As I exited the Square, offering tracts, I was abruptly rejected by three young women.  One of them told me not to shove my religion on her.  I tried to get them to engage in a conversation, but she then proceed to say that if I wasn’t a women, then I didn’t have a say (although she used cruder words than that) - an obvious reference to our stand against the murder of preborn babies.  Very sad; she continued to yell something as they walked off through the Square.  God have mercy on them.

Outside Ara, I was very encouraged to have the guy who had bought me a coffee a few weeks ago approach me and shake my hand!  He wanted to catch up, and offered to buy me a sausage roll and another coffee - but he didn’t want to disturb my work, so told me to come into the convenience store across from Ara (where he worked) when I was done.

I had almost a constant run of great Gospel conversations with people outside Ara before finishing the outreach and heading over to catch up with my new friend.  It turns out that this guy, a Christian, had received Gospel tracts from me on two separate occasions before he next saw me outside Ara a few weeks ago and decided to buy me the coffee.  This encouraged me, as it means the Gospel message is really getting out there if I’m double hitting people like that!  And I was encouraged to know that I had encouraged him in simply giving him those tracts.  He now knows I don’t like coffee, so he got me a hot chocolate this time! ;)  I’m very blessed and grateful.  What is interesting is that this guys name is none other than David Livingstone! (A pioneering missionary of the London Missionary Society.)

And to top off the day, as I was heading back through Cathedral Square on the way to my car, I bumped into the guy I’d had the long chat with at the end of the first outreach of the day.  It seemed appropriate that I offered him the sausage roll David had given me.  He gratefully accepted it!  What a blessing to be able to pass on my blessing.  Oh may he receive the greatest blessing: Christ!

Wednesday saw heavy rain as forecast.  I headed to Riccarton anyway, and was surprised to see that road works had ruined my usual outreach spot!  But this just caused me to find a new spot - which I found down by the Riccarton bus stops.  In spite of the rain, I had some great Gospel conversations and was able to pass out a good number of tracts.

Thank you for your continued prayers for the Christchurch (NZ) team.  I’m reminded that, without God, we labour in vain!
 

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This team featured a Father's Day special today, a.k.a., sharing His message of how a sinner can be reconciled to God the Father who with the Son and the Holy Spirit is the one true God. One of our petitions for this aspect of gospel ministry is that our gracious God would grant us opportunities to converse with those He wishes to be spoken to at this time. Among the results that we ask prayer for are:

     - 2 separate Asian couples who now have heard God's good news and are considering how to respond;

     - 3 teenagers one of whom seemed indifferent after hearing, another who had never heard who seemed interested and one who had needed to hear so his thinking could be conformed to God's revelation, i.e. the Bible;

     - a grandma, her son and his daughter who had some Biblical background. He grasped the great truth in Rom. 4. May he keep on speaking to his Mum who needed to understand this and that he will teach others in the family unit;

     - Jaime, who was invited to do the Good Person test as she walked by and declined but said that she was coming back. I was surprised when she returned and was ready to do it. We got through the test then Ryan came to help with the checking questions. She seemed to grasp it on the 3rd or 4th check. She said that this would be good for her children who were fishing with their father out on the jetty. She was encouraged to attend a local church that Ryan recommended and to read her Bible Jaime left with a gospel of John with some tracts inside it.

     - the ones who passed by and scurried away when they saw the 'down escalator'. 

     - the other chats we had, the tracts handed out and whatever else the Lord was doing that we are unaware of.

You guessed it: we went home rejoicing and thanking God for this opportunity to glorify Him alone.

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Saturday was the last day of winter!  I have survived a winter of outreach in Christchurch.  Sunday was the first day of spring.  And both days were warm.  It was the first time in months I got down to one layer of clothing.  My reflections on a winter of outreach is that in some ways it’s easier.  To deal with the cold, put on another layer (I was regularly wearing four); but under the hot sun, all you can do is find shade!  But summer will hopefully bring more people out to share the Gospel with.  Both Saturday and Sunday saw evidence that that would be the case.  Looking forward to the busy summer of outreach ahead!

On Saturday, a team of two were in Cathedral Square.  It was so good to have my friend, Andy Bell, with me on this outreach.

I had some early discouragement, as I walked past one of the stall vendors, I thought I heard him say “go away”.  I Ignored it and kept going, but it really impacted me for some reason.  I regularly pray for that particular guy, I want the best for him and I hope he comes to trust in Christ.

The outreach was a bit slow initially, and I was saying to Andy that you sometimes have to be a bit patient.  Sure enough, Gospel conversations got started.  I ended up helping an older gentleman with directions (he refused to talk about spiritual things, or take a tract).  When I turned around Andy was in a conversation with a lady interested in the flip chart!  So I left him to it and ended up getting into two Gospel conversations of my own.  By the time the second one had finished, I turned around and Andy was taking another set of people through the flip chart (pictured)!  A nice busy time of ministry.  Andy said he was feeling a bit rusty, but it was so wonderful that he was sharing the good news of Christ anyway!

It was nearly time to finish the outreach when a young man decided to give the flip chart a try.  The simplicity of the message seemed to hit home: I was able to use a checking question to confirm that he understood.  He said his Mum was open to spiritual things and wanted to believe in God and go to heaven.  So I gave him two tracts - one for them both.

Sunday was very encouraging in that I had a very new Christian join me.  He had been watching Ray Comfort on You Tube, and we met him when he came to listen to the open air preaching a couple of Friday’s ago in Cathedral Square.  Although he had only become a Christian a few months ago, and only recently been baptised, it was so encouraging seeing how keen he is to share the good news of Jesus, in spite of the natural fears of doing so.  I reassured him that it was fine to just observe and get a feel for it first.  Eventually he asked if he could distribute some tracts!  And he did a great job!  Very polite.  He is keen to keep joining the team on Sunday afternoons.  And it was wonderful to hear his testimony afterwards and talk about things over a hot chocolate.  May many more people start trusting in Christ and then getting out to share of the wonderful hope of eternal life found by faith in Christ!  Join us! :)
 

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The Flourishing of the Gospel in Redcliffe!

What an amazing day! Six Christians from different churches joined together under the banner of Operation 513 to share the good news of Jesus in Redcliffe. Over recent months we have noticed an increasing hardness of the ground, but today was radically different. There was a freedom and openness to the gospel ministry today. One of the team members remarked that they hadn’t see a day like this in over eighteen months. After a hard week, it was truly refreshing to see the gospel go forth.

The biggest challenge that faced the team today was finding somewhere to park our cars as the waterfront was quite busy with people enjoying the last day of winter. Due to traffic problems we were a few minutes late in arriving for the outreach, but upon arrival we instantly got stuck into the work.

As I set up the Free Bible table, members of the team began to hand out tracts. Shortly thereafter, conversations began. People were open to talking; with some asking really good questions and listening intently to the biblical answers.

One really good conversation I had was with John from India. He stopped after I handed him a tract, then asked, “Do you think you’ll go to Heaven?” He smiled, then replied, “There is no Heaven, and there is no Hell. There is just here and now.” John then went on to tell me that he came from a Christian background, and that he believed Jesus to be a very good and moral teacher. I asked him, “Would Jesus be a good teacher, if He told lies or gave false information?” John said that anyone who lied wouldn’t be good. I then pointed out that Christ spoke of Heaven and Hell; and that Jesus said the wicked will be judged forever. John seemed to really enjoy the way this conversation was going, so he started to talk about wickedness and how evil men seem to prosper in this life. He wanted to know why evil existed and why God didn’t destroy sinners. This line of questioning was very helpful as it provided me an opening to present the biblical gospel. I spoke to John about how all of humanity is corrupt; and that we all deserve death and Hell. I pointed out that if God judged us in the way that John demanded, then both him and I would be in Hell right now. John was taken back by this comment as he didn’t believe he was a wicked man. He said that he lived true to his loving instincts, which he believed aligned with the Ten Commandments.

I agreed that the Ten Commandments are a loving standard, so we began to look at them together. As we walked through the Law, it became very clear that all the world is guilty, including John and I. John at this stage was looking for an excuse to justify his sin; to do this he pointed to many of the dictators from history. He said, “They are evil men, yet many of them went unpunished. I am not like them, so God wouldn’t judge me.” I explained to John that all men are guilty of sin, and deserve Hell, as we have chosen to rebel against our Creator; and that by our actions we are born cut off from God, and we continue in a state of war with the Eternal God. John agreed to this, so I pointed out that one of the sins John needed to repent of was his self-righteousness, as he thought himself to be better than everyone else. I was a little cautious in being so direct with John, but in reply he simply he hung his head and said, “You are right. I agree.”

John then said, “But what can we do? We are all just the product of evolution. I must strive to be the fittest to survive.” I answered by saying that he didn’t really believe in survival of the fittest, as if he did, he wouldn’t be complaining about the dictators, as they were just the fittest in their area. I then addressed the issue of Darwinian Evolution, explaining that Darwin would have made John lower than me due to his skin colour. I also addressed some of the scientific arguments that John raised.

As our conversation drew to a close, I reminded John of the gospel. He took some booklets on different apologetic subjects, and also a gospel book. He then shook my hand and said, “Thank-you for talking to me and answering my questions. When I was a child my Pastors would not answer the hard questions, yet you stand here and give me very good answers. If they had answered, I am sure my life would be much different.”

As John left, I was reminded of the command we are given in 1 Peter 3:15 - “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you…”

Churches and individuals need to be trained in apologetics and gospel ministry. We must be prepared to answer the objections and questions the world is asking. By spending time engaging in apologetics, we are actually not trying to win an argument, instead we are clearing the ground for the gospel seed to be planted; apologetics and evangelism are the best of mates.

The rest of the day was spent in gospel conversations, distributing tracts and seeing many people take literature from the Free Bible table. Today was radically different to what we have seen in recent months. We rejoice in the Lord for answering the many prayers that have been offered up by Christians worldwide. May the Lord allow the light to continue to shine in Redcliffe.

SDG!

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For the Ekka Holiday a team of twelve headed into Brisbane City on Wednesday afternoon to share the simple but powerful message of the gospel. The afternoon was filled with conversations and many people willing to chat!

An early conversation came out of nowhere as two young guys on scooters raced into the square. The pulled up and asked, "Have you seen any police around, we were being chased by some back in Southbank?" This was unexpected but the were told that none had been spotted but then they were asked a more important question, about the authority they cannot outrun, "Where will you spend eternity, Heaven or Hell?"

These two young men, Harry and Daniel came to see that they were in far more trouble than being told off for scooting in the wrong place, rather they had committed cosmic treason against the God of this universe and they won't be escaping His wrath on their own terms. They came to see that they were headed for Hell and were asked what the solution was. As usual they suggested some good deeds and maybe some asking for forgiveness but were shown that just as that wouldn't pay for a speeding fine, it won't fix their Hell punishment.

They were then shown the good news about what Christ has done and when they were able to explain back the way to Heaven they headed off with tracts in their hand and were encouraged to strongly consider it! A little later they headed on past and one of the guys stopped to thank the team for the conversation!

A following conversation was with a man who struggled with assurance of salvation but not because he wasn't trying hard enough, rather because he was trusting in how hard he tried to get him into Heaven. He was shown that Jesus pays for our sin, past, present and future if we trust in Him alone to pay for our sin! After a brief conversation he saw the beauty of this and was able to explain at the end of the chat the way to Heaven and was sure that he would be going there because Jesus paid for all of his sin (not just what he had done in the past).

The day ended with a surprising conversation with Abdulla. He was an Afghani who had a Muslim background but was basically living however he saw fit. He believed in God but basically lived his own way. He saw through the flip chart that he is in very serious trouble and if he dies as he is currently he is heading for eternity in Hell. He then was shown the simple message of the cross and how he can receive it by faith and was able to explain it back in his own words when asked. It was exciting to see that he came to understand it so quickly (which is very unusual for those with Muslim heritage).

At the end he was shown why Christianity alone is to be trusted, in that all other religions leave you guilty without anyone else to pay the penalty sin deserves. He was given a gospel of John, took a tract and was encouraged this day to trust in Christ alone for his salvation!

Please be praying for all those who heard today of what God has done and that they would come to trust in Christ alone for their forgiveness! Why not consider coming out next time there is a public holiday, to join with us in declaring the glories of our God and King!

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On Friday evening on the Gold Coast a team of 7 headed into Surfers Paradise to declare the glorious gospel to those who so desperately need it.

A few conversations tonight with young men were had and as they came to see that their rejection of God had very little to do with their intellect and more to do with their desire to live their own way. In fact one young man who saw his guilt and that he deserved Hell got up and left the conversation with the declaration, "I just want to live however I feel and I don't want God to tell me what to do".

There was also a really sad conversation with a lady who was coming to see her current eternity and who seemed very interested in hearing the way to Heaven but her sister came over and interrupted. Her sister declared that she has struggled with depression and because of that she shouldn't hear about the way to Heaven.

The sister than dragged away her adult sister away and stopped her from hearing the solution to sin. The strong condemnation was shared with the sister that worse than depression is ending up in Hell and that she could be held responsible for stopping her sister from learning how she could go to Heaven.

In more exciting news the evening finished with a conversation with Bob and Ashley. This young couple had a Church background and yet for the first time they came to understand the way to Heaven. It took Bob a little longer than Ashley but at the end of it all they were left with the very serious challenge, "When will you start trusting only in what Christ has done to save you from Hell?"

Ellie, Cameron, Billie and Carlos also came to hear and be able to articulate the simple message of the gospel and each were left with the serious decision about when they would start trusting in Christ alone.

Please be praying for those who heard the good news that God would us this to draw them to Himself.

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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.

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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.

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