Battle Log

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A fantastic week of street outreach in Christchurch.  Roger is away, and so I let Riccarton lay fallow this week.  So 2 city outreaches this week on Friday and Sunday afternoons.  The rest of my week was filled with online work.

 

I had a special opportunity online yesterday.  I was live streaming with Ryan, and so I had my ‘live’ sign up behind me.  I connected with a lady who didn’t have her camera on, but she could see me and my sign, so she knew I was live streaming (this will become significant later).  So anyway, her initial response to my question of, “what happens after life”, was really good, and so I moved straight into checking questions.  I detected a wobble when she raised the issue of repentance but wasn’t able to clearly define what it meant.  So I backed up to the law and then moved to clarify the gospel.  It turns out she was defining ‘repent’ as ‘ask for forgiveness’.  And it was clear she meant that as a work, because she talked about needing to ask for forgiveness every night.  I was able to labour with her to come to gospel clarity.  Initially she was confused, but she could see how it made sense.  I continued with other check questions.  She got the 2nd to last one wrong, but that only led to more clarity, but then she got the last one right!  It was such a good chat, when all of a sudden the connection dropped.  I prayed for her and we moved on.  God knows what the fruit will be.

 

But, and this is really encouraging, half an hour later, Ryan posts a YouTube comment.  It was from the lady!  She was engaged enough to be able to search for and find our live stream, and she wanted to thank us for the chat!  God is good.  May the gospel clarity lead to her salvation, for God’s glory alone.

 

The takeaway here is to be precise.  People are so subtly missing the good news!  We need to esp. be careful in explaining repentance.  It’s not a work we do, instead it’s a change of mind about sin and Jesus that WILL lead to a change of action.  Asking for forgiveness is good, but it’s not what saves us.

 

You can actually watch this for yourself on YouTube, just find the 2 hour live stream for Saturday, 11th May 2024 on needGod.net

 

So, on Friday, I was with Andy, John, and Mark at the Bridge of Remembrance.  Since Roger was away, I decided to take my flip chart and use his usual spot.  After prayer we got into a very busy outreach.

 

I was pretty much straight into a chat, and I noticed the other guys were all busy too.

 

My first one was with a guy who had ethics I strongly agreed with: abortion is murder.  He called himself Protestant.  But something wasn’t right.  He liked to talk, and so I had to be patient, but the more he did, it was clear that he was resolving things in his thinking politically, rather than biblically.  Eventually I was able to touch on the law and the gospel, which he agreed with.  But then I started popping check questions.  The ‘out of 100% how sure are you’ one did the trick.  His response and my counter question caused him to stop and really think.  After that, he started talking less, and I was able to talk more.  I was able to point him back to his Bible, that he hasn’t been reading, and I even invited him along to church, which he isn’t currently involved with.

 

Next I had 3 German tourists.  Actually, now that I think of it, the first chat was with a German guy too.

 

2 of the 3 were not interested, but 1 of them was intrigued enough with the flip chart to stop and engage, and so his friends did as well.  2 out of the 3 were resistant, but 1 was listening.  Interestingly, it was a different 1, and so his friend inadvertently enabled him to hear the gospel!

 

Next, I had a chat with a young guy who was also interested in the flip chart.  He started out by saying that good and bad is subjective, but then in his very next breath he talked about good and bad objectively.  I pointed this out to him, and instead of doubling down, he smiled in acknowledgement of this fact.  He opened up at this point, to hear about the objective basis: God, and then to hear the law of God.  But then he started to close up.  He heard the gospel, but he resisted it.

 

I’m struggling to remember any of the other chats, but I know there were more, because I was busy for the whole 2 hours of the outreach.

 

On Sunday, Thomas was with me.  We decided to bring the flip chart, and I’m glad we did.  We had an exceptionally fruitful outreach.  Nice winter weather, plus it was mothers day, so lots of people were out and about for that.  We literally had people queuing to do the flip chart multiple times during the outreach.

 

Some of the chats were short but sweet, with follow up tracts to take away.  Some were resistant.  But many were very open.  1 In particular, the first one, was very providential.  A young lady with a Christian background was struggling with issues of conscience that had caused much division in her family: tattoos, but esp. Vaccines.  This was all related to ‘the mark of the beast’.  And sadly, this was all a distraction to the gospel for her.  By God’s grace, I was able to give her answers that were very helpful to her - she really appreciated it.  And not only that, she gained some gospel clarity.  I pointed her to the Bible and a good local church.  Words don’t describe it, but it was a special chat.

 

Another outstanding chat was my last.  A young couple were queuing to do the flip chart (Thomas was having a great chat with a young man who was now rejecting the new testament - I don’t have time to talk about that, but I’m in email contact to follow up).  So, I approached the young couple.  She was a professing Christian, and wanted me to ‘convert’ her boyfriend.  She was pointing to her goodness for her salvation, and so I initially focused on him, but I was speaking to them both when I shared the law and the gospel.  Great chat.  They are from Timaru, and so I was able to point them to Covenant Grace Baptist Church.

 

Thomas and I were rejoicing after a busy, but wonderful outreach.  All glory to God!

 

Well, I’m out of time.  Be encouraged to be salt and light where you are.  Be open about the fact that you are a Christian, and then take opportunities to actually articulate the gospel.  How can they trust without hearing, and how can they hear without you speaking!  It’s not about your ability, God shows his strength through our weakness, so all the glory is His.  Be encouraged.

 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday May 8th 2024 from 1300-1500

I still had to do solo today as my regular gospel partner is still away visiting family. Rain has stopped to day, so the weather is fine for open air outreach, but the people flow was abnormally less than normal. Nevertheless, recap here below is my Battle Log.

1) Anthony has been a familiar face over the past few years. Every Wednesday he bounds to arrive around 1:15pm and look for us to ask about the time. Today, I purposely stopped him for a chat to show my care for him and how Jesus also cares to love and save him.

2) Next, I approached a Mainlander for a brief chat and handling him the tract when the bus quickly arrived

3) Then I was led to caught up with a Hongkonger who comes to study at UQ. He appeared to be a very introvert person who are uneasy in socializing especially with stranger. I nevertheless still manage to share him the full gospel and gave him the tract.

4) Next was a Mainlander woman, she pretended not speaking Chinese nor English. I had to learn to let go and move on after sharing a nutshell of the gospel.

5) Next, I was led to approach another Mainlander UQ student from Shandong. She appeared to be open and friendly to listen to my gospel message. After touching on the nutshell of the gospel, she politely asked to be excuse to take a phone call without come back.

6) Reilly, a Sunnybank State School year 12 post-modern young school girl with nose ring but appeared open and pure to listen and accept the full gospel message. She was thankful for my eagerness to show her the way to be saved by grace through face in Christ and happily took a selfie with me afterwards before she got on to the bus.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday May 7th, 2024 from 1330-1430

Today my regular outreach team partner is away to Melbourne for a week. So, I went to do solo again with amazing divine encounters obviously orchestrated by God as recap below. The weather was down cast but fine. Yet the sky turned dark and with rain down pouring in the middle of my outreach ministry. Eventually I had to end a bit earlier because of the heavy down pour got everybody hiding for shelter not coming yet to the bus stop. God grace was sufficient and the sky turn bright half an hour later when I was on my way home.

1) 1minute only left for my first approach. It was a young Aussie guy who walked past me on our way to the bus stop. I was urged still to approach him despite his bus was coming in a minute. He was all open and friendly and mistaken that I will also take the bus with him to continue our chat. I anyway can manage to just give him a tract. I can only trust God that this hasty contact is still a meaningful one.

2) Then I was drawn to approach first a young English-speaking lady from Malaysia. She is a non-believer but appear receptive to the gospel message I shared that have led to a conclusion that as long as we admit no one including ourself is perfect, we all need a Savior to die for us and take our place to receive the punishment of our sins.

3) Then her friend came and is from Indonesia. To my surprise, she is a Christian back home in Indonesia. And I encouraged her to follow up with her Malaysian friend towards final conversion. And I also took the chance to test for here assurance of Salvation when the bus arrived. Though in a hurry, she was good and spot on to have 100 % of assurance with the right basis of trusting in Jesus alone. We hurriedly took a selfie to record this special divine encounter.

4) Then I was led to approach Lucas, again was the 2nd Indonesian for the day. What surprise me was that he is also a Christian from a Christian family in Indonesia but also a practicing Christian attending his own denominational Presbyterian church in the City here in Brisbane. What further surprise me was, he also got perfect understanding of salvation and 100 % assurance of salvation. It really encouraged me that Gid can reign in Indonesia a Muslim country with an extraordinarily higher than average ratio of Christian. He was also very happy and pleased to take a selfie with me.

5) Then I was next led to meet up with Flora, yet another Malaysian for the day. She is also non-Christians and possibly a Muslim and she is Malay rather than Chinese. She showed initial hesitance to chat with me a stranger but stay put to let me share her the full gospel. It seemed that she was overwhelming convinced and eventually lost for word to show any disagreement.

6) Then I was led to approach a Mainlander girl by the name of Zheng ? from Beijing I was moved to start with my personal testimony especially the time and work I served in Sichuan China as an earthquake disaster relief volunteer . She was amazed by the power of Jesus helping vulnerable people to get healed from their early life emotional failure. Even though I did not have time to share the gospel, but she willingly took the tract and I believed God might have a better way to touch her heart.

7) Lastly, I approached the only Mainlander girl left at the bus stop because of abrupted rain fall. Her reaction was fear and rejection to hear the gospel. It was a big contrast to Zheng showing that it was really by the grace of God that some are elected to turn away from sin but to Christ.

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What a great week of outreach.  I made it to all four regular outreaches.  I feel like I’ve got a lot to write about, but only an hour to do it in; so I’ll write till I run out of time and leave the rest to discuss in eternity.

 

I guess I’ll go in reverse time order.  So, starting with today’s outreach (Sunday), I was in the city between church gatherings.  I was out alone, but I quite like that sometimes.

 

As I was walking in from where I parked, I encountered a lady I’ve distantly known for a long time.  I used to be involved with a kids outreach known as Te Mapua Child and Youth Trust.  Believe it or not, my ugly (younger) mug is still on their homepage (at time of writing)!  Well, this lady’s son was one of the kids in the weekly program I was involved with.  Sadly, 2 years ago, he passed away at the age of 19.  And so, I was able to spend about 15 minutes with this lady.  It was another opportunity for her to process her grief.  Through the conversation I was able to touch on the hope of eternal life.  But she has heard it plenty of times from me, and so I didn’t push it.  It was great to be able to catch up with her.

 

I thought the outreach was going to be more pastoral, when my next chat was with a church goer who wanted to talk.  I instinctively knew trying to push a ‘scripted’ chat wasn’t going to be fruitful, and so I let him talk.  He did leave with the tract that I had given him at the start of the conversation.

 

After that, I had some great opportunities - not full chats, but misunderstandings about God were corrected.  One girl believed in heaven, but not hell and came to understand why both made sense.  Another guy came to see how he was sure God was real.  A guy from Mexico thought he was going to heaven because he had done nothing wrong - a few questions about the law seemed to have a deep impact on him, and so I was able to drop the seed of the gospel.

 

I was feeling tired of staying in one spot and trying to get chats started, and so I decided to go for a walk to see who I could find to talk to.  I finally made it to Cathedral Square, and found a young lady sitting on her own, enjoying the sun and listening to something on her headphones.  She accepted a tract and was willing to chat briefly.  But she had stuff to do in life, and didn’t want to consider the afterlife.  I gently challenged her that she may not get tomorrow, and how she knew God was real.

 

Moving back to Cashel, I encountered a young man, also relaxing in the sun.  He refused a tract, but let me ask my question: “what do you think happens afterlife?”  He smiled, thought, and turned down my offer to discuss it.  No problem.  I pray that even that approach will cause him to think, and that he will be willing to discuss it with another Christian before it’s too late.

 

I went down High Street, and then turned down Cashel Mall when I noticed two cultists walking in front of me.  They were boldly approaching strangers for conversations.  I partly admired them, and wished the true church would be so bold.  But I was grieved that they have such zeal without knowledge.  Anyway, I sped up to get closer to them, and then managed to overtake down a different path and then get in front of them on their path.  They took the bait, and one of them approached me.  We had a great chat.  I let him start his presentation (it was interesting that he clarified that he is ‘Christian’ but now JW or Mormon) and from there I was able to engage him with the true gospel.  I was encouraged to see him show signs of doubt.  I pray that the gospel will be the power that breaks through on his thinking.  That God would have mercy on him (and his friend).

 

The outreach didn’t end there, I ended up encountering a man who turned out to be a Christian.  We even had mutual friends.  Yet, we had a robust conversation about various important Christian concepts.  The time wasn’t wasted (it never is).

 

On Saturday, I finally made it back to the Riccarton lunch time outreach.  Again, on my own.  I set up my flip chart.  It started out as a slow outreach, I had 1 conversation with a man who just wasn’t willing to engage.  I knew if I pushed, it would become a fight, and he would get angry.  So I decided not to push, and let it de-escalate to a natural finishing point.

 

I was able to catch up with a church friend and her brother who has recently come to Christ!  Praise God.  He has an evangelistic edge about him, so it was great to be able to discuss that.

 

Immediately after they moved on, I got into a wonderful chat with a Chinese Bhudist lady.  She was very intelligent, and open.  She was very interested in the gospel.  She accepted, not only a tract, but she was keen to read the gospel of John (which I gave her), and she took a church contact card.

 

After that I had a busy outreach, I distinctly remember 2 solid chats with 2 sets of young people.  God is good!

 

On Friday afternoon, I was with Andy in the city.  Roger is overseas for a couple of weeks, and so we decided to pair up for ‘walk up’.  We wandered down Cashel, and then decided to head down High Street towards Ara (tertiary education campus).  We ended up having 4 great gospel conversation opportunities on High Street alone, and then when we got to Ara, the fish were swarming!

 

Of those 4 chats, the stand out was one with 3 students.  One didn’t want to stay and walked off.  One was very engaged and talked with Andy.  The other was in the middle, but decided to stay.  We listened to Andy for a bit, but then I decided to engage her separately.  I’m glad I did, because she was in such a different place from the guy Andy was talking to.  I was able to drop the gospel seed to her, while Andy did the same with him.

 

At Ara, we spent the rest of the outreach engaging various people on the footpath outside the main entrance.  I ended up engaging a big group of students (maybe 10 of them).  They were all in different places, and asking different questions, but it was fun.  Many of them took follow up tracts, even though there was much subtle resistance.

 

On Tuesday, I was in Riccarton with Roger in the afternoon.  And I’m struggling to remember anything from that outreach now.  I guess I’ll leave it at that then.

 

Well, a whole lot of labour, for God’s glory.  Even if everyone rejects the gospel, we have still succeeded, because the goal is primarily God’s glory, and our obedience is enough.  Leaving the results with him.  I love God so much.  Thank you for your prayer and support.

 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday May 1st 2024 from 1300-1500

Today, I could only have a shorter round for street outreach in between the 2 hours gap of bringing my wife for her 2nd rehab at 1230 and then pick her up around 1415. Johnny was available today and did the full 2-hour shift after I left earlier at 1400. I was given the opportunity for two long chats.

The first was with a non-believer yet from a Christian family. He was not objecting his parents’ faith and was brought up in Christian School. But he never felt the urge to seek salvation from Jesus Christ. After my sharing of the full gospel, he admitted now he has found the need of a Savior to take over punishment of his own imperfection in his human character. He promised to pray and pursue this Christian faith.

Next is Don a Pentecostal background Christian. His faith in Christ is real and genuine. But on testing his assurance of salvation, he claimed he has 100 % but the reason is because he thought he has been abiding by all the teaching of God. So, this is still a bit unorthodox that he claims a bit of credit on his good deeds rather simply trusting 100% on Jesus redemptive grace.

During our conversation, Lee and Billy again passed by and Lee excitedly greeted me and interrupted my conversation with Don. Nevertheless, it helps Done knew more about my background both as a church planting pastor and also a cross-cultural evangelist devoting my time and effort to mobilize all Kairos graduates to embark on their journey of life Integration engaging in all sort of local cross-cultural evangelism to people of all nations

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday April 30th, 2024 from 1030-1130

Today my regular outreach team partner was not available due to personal matter. I went to do solo having mixed results as recap below:

1) I was clearly led to approach a girl after the long queue was cleared up by the quick arriving bus but she was still there waiting for another bus. She is born here but her parents were from UK. And to my surprise I met for the first time a persons of Judaism faith, seemingly form family heritance. She was determined to reject believing Jesus was the prophesized Messiah. She appeared open throughout but try to avoid further discussion on Jesus. I Used Bible to convince her Jesus is readily the prophesied Messiah or the descendant of woman as per Gen 3:15b. She appeared nervous when I produce more proof of the person of Jesus as God and as our Saviour. It gave me the feeling that the people of Judaism faith is even a harder people group to share them the personality and work of Jesus.

2) Thrive a mature young man from Townsville who claimed to have chatted with me one year ago. Somehow, he forgot about the tract so I revised the Gospel message and rekindled his thoughts how to respond to salvation by grace offered by Jesus to us the sinners. He was happy to take a selfie with me in case we meet quickly next time.

3) Another Gold Coast boy of computer science major is non-religious but still appeared open for a chat on the gospel message. Though the time only allowed me for just the nutshell of the Gospel. But he seemingly was in agreement of the facts and logic that anyone imperfect need Jesus as our Savior.

4) Then I caught up with a Cambodia girl who claimed having a chat with Johnny before. That conversation still did not convince her to have the need of any religion, but I stressed the need is there and urgent for anyone who is not perfect that she agreed and accepted that no o0ne including herself is perfect.

5) Lastly, I tried to approached first two mainlander Chinese, who appeared reluctant to engage for a chat though they did not give me an outright rejection. After a while the third girl joined and sat right beside me. And she is Cantonese speaking too, so I switched to share with her instead of all of them. But, eventually all three mainlanders excused not to chat despite my effort to share ? I lamented that in general, Mainlanders are the hardest people group to do outreach than any others even harder than the Judaism and Muslim people.

6) Another noteworthy happening is:

A lady sitting at the bench underneath the Pedestrian walking bridge, seemingly waiting for people on my way to begin my outreach at the bus stop. But after I finished, when I got to that spot we used to do closing prayer, she was still there but seemingly chatting with a stranger. So Suddenly I felt warm as I might have witness another Street gospel outreach warrior there

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Another week of fishing has passed!

 

On Tuesday Roger and I were at our usual spot.  Roger’s lure was his flipchart and tracts.  Mine was ‘walk up’ and tracts.

 

It started so well, 2 young lads went passed just after Roger’s flip chart was set up - because I was there, I was able to engage them and use the flip chart to share the gospel with them.  One of them knew what it was about, he said he’d done the flip chart 4 times before!  Twice at A&P Shows, and twice on Cashel Mall.  But his friend was uninitiated and wasn’t sure about God.  The building builder analogy really clicked for him, and he opened up to the rest of the conversation.  Great chat.

 

I headed down to the bus stops and managed to get into a chat with 2 young ladies.  They were subtly resistant, and yet, were engaged enough to stay and be challenged.  They ended up having to go, but one of them made it clear why they were currently in rejection: live for today, because tomorrow we die.  Let’s party.  Before they left I was able to point out why I have the opposite position but for the same reason.  They took tracts.

 

I made it back to where Roger was, and he was in a chat with a Muslim guy Andy & I have talked to a lot in the past.  It was good to see him again.  I left Roger to continue his conversation while I engaged a couple of kids on his flip chart.

 

Later I joined Rogers chat (maybe I shouldn’t have - sorry if I butted in Roger!)  Our Muslim friend, sadly, is as resistant as ever.  I decided to take him on, and it got quite intense.  Yet, we finished up with hugs and handshakes.  When I talk to Muslims, I focus on how ‘being good’, and ‘asking for forgiveness’ can’t logically remove punishment, and so Jesus makes sense.

 

Speaking of Muslims.  I’m going to jump forward in time to Saturday and the training stream online.  I was paired up with Nick.  When it was my turn, I was paired up with a couple of rich Muslims from Saudi Arabia.  It was an amazing 12 minute chat.  I followed the ‘script’ fairly closely, and it was great to see the effect of the law sober them up.  They became engaged, one of them gently resisting, but I was able to make progress.  They were able to see how ‘being good’ and ‘asking for forgiveness’ can’t remove sin, and so I was able to explain about God’s mercy: Jesus.  When I said Jesus’ name, I was expecting the usual indoctrination to come up.  I expected them to ‘manafest’.  But they didn’t, they just nodded their heads - “it makes sense”.  And so I just kept rolling, and moved into the check questions.  I was able to explain about ‘faith alone’, before one of them suddenly ended the chat.  But I rejoiced that I had been able to deliver the gospel seed into the heart of such a closed country / culture to the truth of Jesus!  God can show his strength by using that seed for his glory!  In his hands, It can be the spark that changes that country and culture for Jesus!  Don’t give up, don’t get distracted.  God is good!

 

Friday’s outreach was busy.  Andy and Roger were with me.

 

My first chat was with a young farmer from Southland who seemed to be building his own little empire, but I was able to share the gospel with him, and the futility of gathering stuff in this life.

 

I then had a great chat with 2 young people before Going for a wander.  I was about to engage a young post-grad Phd student who kept mentioning that we are ‘stardust’.  He didn’t stay long, but I left a stone in his shoe.  I then engaged a young barber, he was on a break from work, and was staring as though pondering something very deep.  I knew I would only have a short time with him, but I was able to touch on the law and the gospel with him.  He gladly received a tract.

 

I had a half engagement on High Street, but the lady had to go back to work.  Next up I was able to have a great gospel chat with 3 young guys just before Cathedral Square.  It was wonderful watching one of them, you could almost see the gears turning in his mind.  Who knows!  They could repent today, God knows.  We need to faithfully plough and sow, and leave the results to God, he will bring an increase to his glory.

 

Arriving into Cathedral Square, there was a young tourist there, I approached him, and we got into a good chat.  He was from Italy.  I think I spent about 20 minutes with him.  He had a Catholic background, but had rejected it.  His god was himself, and his justification was ‘subjectivity’.  I had to patiently labour, and I was able to share the law and the gospel, but I was able to challenge him on his idolatry.

 

Back at the bridge of remembrance, Andy was just finishing up a very friendly looking chat.  But then he joined Roger on his, and that turned into a very intense chat.  Roger and I left Andy to it, while we went to get a coffee / hot choc.  Andy joined us later, and we had a good debrief time.

 

I didn’t make it out on Saturday!  I could have gone, the weather was great.  But I decided to focus on catching up on TikTok DMs instead.  I’ve had some encouragement in this department.  1 kid just wasn’t getting it, but then he started to understand!  I know this because I had a note from 20 days ago saying “not getting it”.  A reminder to be patient in our labour.  Some are resistant, and you have to let them go, but some are open, but you just have to work with them gently.  Another young lady was struggling with some stuff, and wasn’t able to tease out the tension between faith and works.  Yet she stayed with me.  The penny really dropped as I went through the fireman analogy with her. It was so good to see her joy as she said, “I get it!” - that chat’s not quite finished yet, I’ll hopefully finish up explaining about Christian living next week.

 

On Sunday, after listening to a wonderful sermon, I headed out to Cashel Mall again.  I had an amazing chat with two young men, who went to local churches but were not clear on the essentials of the gospel.  I was able to labour with them on this.  A powerful check is to ask, “before this chat, did you think you had to be good to get to heaven”.  They both thought for a bit, and admitted that they did.  So I followed up with, “so, where would you have gone if you died?”.  Hell.  They got it.  I pleaded with them to trust Christ alone, urgently.  And then pointed them to their Bibles.  As I was alone, and tired, I decided to head home early to do more TikTok DMs and write this report.

 

Thanks so much for your prayer.  Please be encouraged to take and make opportunities to share about Jesus in your own life.  Jesus is amazing!!!

 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday April 24th 2024 from 1300-1500

Today it was still just Johnny and Hung teamed up at Sunnybank for Street outreach. For Hung, it was an evenly mixed multicultural outreach day reaching out to Mature local Aussie, PNG young man, Young Local Aussie, HKGer ABC, Mainlander lady from Beijing China, Filipino young man and Liberia West African QUT student. Most of the chat were long and some were short with only one intentional rejection or neglection. Basically, it was a day of fruitful outreach with many happy and pleasant chat with selfie photo as a sign of appreciation for the chat and gospel message.

1) I was led to first approach Stephen a mature local Aussie that usually are indifferent to religious matter. But very surprisedly the Spirit open his heart to not just hearing the gospel, but getting additional knowledge showing the scientific ground for a clear view of God's 6 days creation theory. It helped to firm up his faith in Jesus' as his Savior and Lord of Life.

2) Then I was led to approach Locky from PNG. He quickly identified himself as Christian but is lack assurance of salvation. Now it had been clarified and he thanks for that with a selfie photo with me,

3) Will a local Aussie and a Woolworth worker. He is a non-believer, but the Spirit also softened his heart to listen to the full gospel just in time before the arrival of his bus.

4) Fan a HKG ABC youngster from a Christian family who is serious about his Christian faith but upon checking he was lack of 100% assurance of salvation. He thanked me for my clarification,

5) Next I caught up with Madam Fan?from Beijing who has migrated to Australia already for 20 odd years. . Therefore, she still appeared relatively open for chat on religious matter and found the gospel message sensible and logical.

6) Then I turned to the next Mainlander lady sitting on my right but she pretended she is not Chinese but felt embarrassed when I switched to speak in English with her which she could not communicate well. She bluntly short down conversation with me to end that embarrassed situation.

7) Jay a Filipino young man who quickly identified himself as Christian. With his Catholic background, he apparently has no 100% Assurance of salvation. He was happy with my clarification

8 ) Samuel Yet another Christian from Liberia who is also lack of 100% assurance of salvation. Again he felt very happy for my clarification.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday April 9th, 2024 from 1030-1130

Johnny and Hung teamed up to serve at Toowong as usual. The Autumn sun was less scorching but appeared lay back warm providing a very pleasant open air outreach environment. Today, I forgot to bring my iPhone as such I could not take any photo but focused completely in outreach. By memory, I reached out to Mainlander from Shandong, Wuxi, Neimongu, and from Hng Kong. Normally it is Mainlander harder for outreach but this time all three of them had a good chat and all appeared receptive to the gospel message. On the contrary, the Hong Konger showed great indifference to reject the gospel despite my of my Hong Kong affiliation. So it was all be God's predestination to elect a certain person to have a softened heart and humble attitude to listen and accept the gospel. As for western people, I met a PNG Christian girl who however does not have assurance of salvation. She was thankful for my clarification to help her re-establish her 100% assurance of salvation and understood that God's sovereign power an Will has determined to transform us back to perfection on the foundation of Jesus' redemptive work granting us readily the long lost heavenly citizenship. Finally, I was led to have a long chat with a Catholic background girl Finn who is Australian born but with parents from Irish and Finland. She was well prepared with a softened heart to take in all the gospel message and admitted her previous understanding of salvation was incomplete. She is willing to commit herself to Jesus accepting Him as Savior and Lord of her life. May His Will be done on all those whom we met and be moved to make their final step of faith.

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Glory to God, it was a great week on the streets!  3 of the 4 usual outreaches ran (I’m working back up to 4 out of 4).

 

On Tuesday afternoon, Roger was with me in Riccarton.  I had a slow week last week, and so I decided to ditch my flip chart and do ‘walk up’ this week instead.  I’m so glad I did.  Roger set up his flip chart, and after praying with him, I went for a wander down Riccarton Road, collecting rejections.

 

But once you collect enough rejections, you’ll strike someone willing and interested to talk.  I had a brief conversation with a young lady from Brazil. Before approaching a young man who I thought ‘he won’t be interested’, but to my surprise he was very interested.  It turned into one of those chats where they are fully engaged.  He was so engaged that he willingly let his bus pass (I was at a bus stop), knowing he could catch a later one, so we could continue to chat.

 

He was from East Timor, studying environmental science (I think it was) at the university.  His religious background was Catholic, and stemming from that, he considered his good deeds the reason he would get to heaven.  He resisted the law; considering himself good, he didn’t want to admit that he had done anything wrong.  And so I spend some time labouring with him on this.  Once he seemed to come to a point of understanding, I was able to switch to the gospel and labour through the check questions on that side.

 

Some of the details of the chat are fading in my memory now, but I remember him eagerly accepting a copy of the gospel of John.  And I remember rejoicing after he hopped on his bus.  God knows what the result will be, I leave him, prayerfully, in God’s hands.

 

It was a long chat, and I remember feeling drained, so Roger wrapped that outreach a little early.  We headed to a coffee shop for some debrief.

 

On Friday afternoon, Andy & Greg were with me in the city.  There were lots of people about.  It took me a while to work out that it was because of the school holidays.  I was paired up with Andy for a good portion of this outreach.

 

My first chat was quite awkward.  The girl was subtly resistant (didn’t really want to talk, but didn’t leave either).  And the guy with her said nothing, even when she tried to include him.  I wanted to bail from the chat due to the awkwardness - but I’m glad I didn’t.  In spite of the resistance, she heard the law, and then finally the gospel.  And then she opened up a little about her religious background, a mix of Catholic and Mormon influence.  I could tell she was comparing what I was saying to that.  And so I did my best to draw the distinctions (we are not saved by our works).

 

Later I talked to 2 young men who were out promoting a new local barber shop.  It was an interesting chat, but they were both in different places and it became difficult to keep them both engaged at the same time.  One of them was particularly resistant (yet still friendly).  Eventually I decided to end this chat.  They were supposed to be promoting the barber shop, and they both continued in their resistance.  Yet they accepted tracts.

 

Next up I had a great chat with two young teens who went to a Christian high school.  Sadly, they too were resistant in their own way.  Yet, they responded well to the logic of what I was explaining, even if they weren’t showing interest.

 

Sadly, I forgot to take a picture for Friday’s outreach.  But, to make up for it, I’ll include 2 for Sunday’s outreach in the city.  This was an AMAZING outreach.  A team of 5: Joe and Elijah from my church, plus Mike, Susan and myself.

 

The outreach started with just Joe, Elijah and I.  We prayed, and then set up a flip chart (it’s a great tool for training with).  We were quickly into our first chat with 2 young men.  Glory to God, it was a textbook chat, where I was able to work through the whole chat with no resistance – even a profession from one of them.  They both received tracts, a gospel of John, and contact cards for our church.

 

Then a young Muslim lady and her friend went past.  They were intrigued by the flip chart, but didn’t want to stop, so took tracts instead.  But then they stopped, talked together briefly, and then came back!  They wanted to do the ‘good person’ test.  It was an amazing chat.  I didn’t get any of the usual resistance I get from people with an Islamic background.  What a joy!  I was sad I didn’t have any more gospels of John, but I told her how she could get a Bible on her phone.  She also took a church contact card.

 

The chats just didn’t stop, one would roll into another!  Next up we had about 7 young people stop and engage - great chat.

 

And then a man from Australia stopped.  He had a Christian background, but had drifted away.  He didn’t think there was any hope for him now.  I was able to take him through the law, and because I could tell he had to leave, I touched on the gospel, plus a critical check question to show how he was currently trusting in works for salvation, but that it was never too late: because of the gift of Christ!  Short chat, but that one was so special to me.  He left with a tract.

 

By this stage, Mike was with us, and he had set up his flip chart further down (Joe joined him).  He ended up having a chat with a work mate!  The gospel conversation has been started, and there will now be further opportunity to continue it.  God is good.

 

Well, that’s a snapshot of the street work for the week.  Plenty of gospel work online too.

 

I’ll leave it at that.  Sharing the gospel is such a joy.  I’ll never get sick of it.  When I’m ministering to others, I’m also ministering to myself.  The gospel is so simple, and yet it’s so deep.  Be encouraged to take the opportunities to talk to people about Jesus, as you can!  All glory to God alone.

 

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