Battle Log

Page 22

Page 1 . . . 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 . . . 282

Happy Easter!  It’s been a busy week, with 2 special outreaches over the Easter weekend.

 

I took last week off (hence no report), but partly in preparation for this big week of outreach.

 

The Sunday afternoon before Easter I was able to have the opportunity to deliver a 1 hour lecture on ‘the bones of a gospel conversation’ to those in my church in preparation for the Easter outreaches.  Much thanks to the elders of my church for giving me this opportunity.  If you’d like to see my lecture notes, you can find them here.

 

So, Roger and I had our standard outreach to Riccarton on Tuesday afternoon.  So much has been going on, I can’t remember any of my chats from that outreach!

 

We didn’t do any street outreach on Friday, because it’s a public holiday, and all the shops are closed, there are not many people out.  I worked online in the afternoon, after a Good Friday gathering with my church family in the morning.

 

Saturday was the Oxford A&P Show outreach.  I have to admit it’s a bit of a blur for me.  I left home at 7am to be there by 8am, and set up by 8:30am.  My daughter Dani was with me with a solid team from my church (the Brown’s, the Linton’s and Jordan) plus Mike & Rebecca Ryan.  It was so great catching up with Sam Linton and Jordan the next day and to hear of how encouraged they were from the outreach.  Thanks for your support team!

 

We had a bit of drizzle (rain) during the day, which was a bit annoying, but we all were still very busy in gospel conversations.  We finished up at 4pm.  Great outreach, glory to God.

 

On Sunday, I spent a couple of hours in the city in the afternoon.  There was a Christian dance conference on during the weekend, and they were going to be doing some street dancing.  I was asked to share the gospel with those that passed by.  The dancing caused a lot of people to stop, which was great!  I handed out a LOT more tracts than I normally do, with a cheery “Happy Easter”.

 

I also got into a conversation with 3 young people who recognised me.  They said one of their friends loves our tracts and follows the content online - which is very encouraging.  But sadly, these young people weren’t really interested in the gospel.  While I was talking to them, I got pooped on by a bird!  I think that’s a first!  (I’ve had a few near misses).  Luckily it only hit my hat, which I sweeped off.  I didn’t let that kill the conversation, we moved and continued chatting.

 

On Monday, we ran our yearly Hot Cross Bun & Gospel Tract outreach in Cashel Mall.  We had 3 tables set up and gave away 1,200 hot cross bun halves (minus about 50 eaten by the Christians in the team!) over the 2 hours of the outreach.  It was a lot of fun.  A bit slower than previous years, maybe because the weather was cloudy?  But that was okay, I had opportunities to get into conversations, and give away hot cross buns and tracts myself - which was great.

 

So, no details of my actual conversations for this report.  But needless to say I had many interesting conversations.  God knows the fruit it will bear.  Thank you for your prayer and support.  Glory to God in the highest alone!

 

---

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday March 27th, 2024 from 1300-1500

It was consecutively yet another rainy day with soaking rain. But God's grace was sufficient to make a break with no rain as soon as we prayed and start the outreach ministry. Then, as soon as we finished by around three pm, the rain came again. In rainy day and gloomy weather, people used to be impatient for chatting with strangers, we nevertheless followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit to reach those elected lost souls gospel and those claimed Christian to clarify their status of faith and assurance of salvation. Recap was the Battle Log of Hung:

1) Danny an Irish descendant was open and receptive to let me share him the full gospel. He is a concreter as such having a break because of non-stop rain and I was led to approach him as my first gospel target. He admitted he is not religious despite his parents and family are of Catholic Christian background. But he thanked me for explaining the gospel and God's salvation plan so plainly and understandable to him. He admitted he is not a perfect person as such he has the need to be redeemed from his imperfection. He promised to seriously ponder and rejoin his family to profess this Christian faith.

2) Rejected by a mainlander, but then God compensate this with the next target.

3) A lady by the sure name Li? from Taiwan wasted no time to declare herself a Christian of the Presbyterian denomination . But she failed the assurance test having only 80% certainty to go to heaven. It was clarified to her that she should have 100% assurance of salvation solely because of the work of Jesus dying for us taking our place to receive the punishment of sin making us a sinless new creation. She was appreciative for my clarification.

4) Then encountered several rejected with people even pretending to be friend to interrupted our conversation.

5) I nevertheless still approach yet another Mainlander who listened but not seriously. He also did not take a tract just thank for my sharing afterwards when the bus arrived.

6) Then I was led to chat with yet another concrete who was off the job because of rain. He claimed himself an Atheist but I emphasize to him he has all the right to choose his faith with or without religion, I just still managed to share the concept and logic that even people without faith still think being a good person and doing a lot of good things will be fine. I change tactic by using myself as a witness for God that with a right mindset of faith that give me peace and direction of my life, I could live an active and energetic life for God as such I look much younger than my ages. He guessed I am about 50, when I said I am 72 he still mistaken I was born in 1972 and said he is 74 which I in turn thougth he looks even younger than me at the age of 74. Once clarified, he was really surprise to see the effect of leading a godly life in Christ make a big difference in your appearance and mood. He thus appeared much softened to listen to the gospel. I later found out from the Battle Log in Sunnybank that Shu I chatted with him in January. So, it proved that he is still on the radar of God searching him out from the world.

7) Then I was led to approach a South African woman of Indian descendant yet already called Australia home. There was limited time to share and I had just barely almost finished when her bus arrived.

8 ) Next was an elderly man from Hong Kong yet originally from Mainland China whom I had a chat before. He obviously has not yet got the message of the tract still repeating that being a good person is good enough. . His bus came and could only pray for next time.

9) Jay a Filipino that I had chatted before still lack of assurance of salvation which I just touched base briefly last time. I could only still just briefly explain and must wait for next divine encounter.

10) Then I was lewd to approach a Sri Lankan lady Sissell who listened with difficulties because of English level. I still managed to share the full Gospel to her.

11) Kim a local Christian passed the test with100% assurance of salvation.

---

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday March 26th, 2024 from 1300-1500

2 Timothy 4:2 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 2

There was incessant soaking rain whole day, but it did not deter our burden and commitment to preach the gospel to the lost souls. Rather the rain kept every one crowded under the bus stop booth. The number of chats were more than usual though many were brief and short. Amongst all these divine appointments, there were a couple stand out ones with persons from Mainland China but their hearts were extraordinarily softened and open for the Gospel. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung:

1) Aden from Northern California is church going but not sure if he is a Christian. He is a person of righteousness coming to UQ for Study of Conservation. He listened the nutshell of the gospel and appear very receptive to the need of salivation by Jesus as he admitted human are bad beyond redemption exerting all sorts of damage to the nature out of selfishness and self-centeredness.

2) An Unknown country guy listened but not willingly hearing the gospel message and took no track at the end.

3) An UQ Lecturer lady claimed she had had a chat with us and was not interested to chat any more.

4) Three mainlanders with one from Suzhou who alone was willing to chat but was shy of making assertive expression about what he heard as two other mainlander friends were besides.

5) An India young lady with no umbrella as such whole body was wet and felt uneasy & embarrassed. Spent needed time to show my empathize but then no time to share the gospel but she willingly took a tract to read, so God still has His way for this Hinduism person.

6) Sarah is a member of CCCB English congregation. She is from Singapore and has 100% assurance of salvation. She took many tracts from me to give away to her gospel caring group possibly her classmates in UQ.

7) An Aussie young man chatted many times and did not feel

like chatting any More.

8 ) Then I was led to have a long chat with Hu ? from Kwai Lin he has just come to Australia for half a year He actually already did his undergraduate in Singapore . With so many years of overseas living experiences, he appeared very open and receptive to the gospel admitting every one including he himself is not perfect as such we all need Jesus. Recommend him to look for Power to Change if he wants to pursue the Christian faith.

9) Then a quick chat with a young man from Xinjiang and he took a tract as his bus arrived right away.

10) Then I was led to approach a young lady by the name of Lee ?from Guangzhou , her Cantonese is no good but willing to chat in Mandarin. She studies Marketing and showed great openness top listen to the gospel.

11) Masa an Iranian young lady who has been in Australia for 1 year studying Management. Despite still of Muslim background, but she also is very open to the gospel and is also aware of the quick and phenomenon growth of Christianity amongst the Iranian in overseas. She also showed open and receptiveness to the gospel especially to Jesus as our Savior and our Lord God.

12) Sarah an American girl from Midwest Illinoi for Medical study with a first degree in Biology back in USA. Time was not enough to find out if she is a Christian, but nevertheless still share the nutshell of the gospel and giving her a tract.

---

Today was certainly memorable. It was Election Day and we had three new members who were keen to learn how to share their faith on the streets. After a time of prayer, we set off towards the Toowoomba CBD in pairs.

 

Sarah teamed up with one of our younger “first-timers”. Together they chatted with Mr J-. He was sure that he would be good enough to get to heaven, and if he wasn’t, then he decided that it was God’s choice.

 

They also spoke with D-- a young man on his push bike in his 20’s (?) and a former Mormon. He had sadly experienced domestic violence as a youth and was questioning where God was during all of that. He was familiar with some parts of the Bible and had many questions about what he labelled “contradictions”- like the character of God in the OT vs NT and why no one has found any fossil of Noah’s Ark if we knew roughly where it ran aground.

 

Our “first-timer” did an excellent job at answering these questions. Sadly, we didn’t exchange numbers, or get to pass on any church details, but apparently D-- is often in town and has connections with a SDA church for work. He believes there is some sort of spiritual being/higher power, but not the God of the Bible. Pray that we would encounter him again or that God would put genuine Bible-believing Christians in his life to encourage him in his journey to find Truth.

 

Barry and one of our “newbies” met a Fijian visitor who expressed faith in Jesus and articulated the gospel. He was encouraged by what we were doing and hung around to ask God’s blessing for those who received Gospel tracts (mini-booklets). The team also met a youth who expressed faith in Jesus and answered yes to the tract question ’Are you a good person’. Together they went through the tract and he changed his mind. He seemed to be convicted and open and willing to hear the gospel message. Praise God for these opportunities and more.

 

During this time we also met L--, who is currently homeless. He had been sleeping under a house recently and had multiple white-tailed spider bites. L--’s bites were heavily inflamed and appeared to be rotten and black. He was in a significant amount of pain and one of our team members drove him to the Base hospital.

 

Meanwhile, two of our other team members were able to engage in a discussion with a former Catholic. He is now heavily into the New Age and believes everything is God. He was very angry and closed off to discussions regarding Christianity. This sort of anger is common among young men who have recently moved away from Roman Catholicism and they are not open to exploring how Christianity is different. Generally, it takes a few years for them to “cool off” and to be open to exploring the differences between what they grew up with and what the Bible teaches about salvation.

 

Tim and I (Doug) set up at the intersection of Ruthven and Margaret street. Since it was election day I had prepared a talk on “Who Do You Trust?” on a whiteboard. I preached the same message at two separate times and I was struck by the different reactions of passers-by.

 

Some people laughed, others encouraged me and one particular lady was not-so-quietly swearing under her breath as she passed me. Two homeless men sat down and listened to the message.

 

The reaction of the motorists waiting at the lights was similar. Some mocked, others cheered but most simply rolled down their windows and listened One particular bloke in his twenties opened his passenger window and looked intently at me. It was clear he was paying close attention to the message which I found to be a great encouragement.

 

At the end of the outreach, we met to debrief and to share stories about all the good things God had done. It's an exciting privilege to share the Good News about Jesus with others. It’s very similar to a few beggars showing other beggars where to find Bread. Jesus is transforming people’s lives all over the world in real time and we look forward to seeing His continued work across the globe and in the lives of all those who call our region home.

---

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday March 20th, 2024 from 1300-1500

Ann Yeo has faithfully and regularly joined the Sunnybank Team for Gospel Outreach. I was surprised to find out she went back by herself alone to Myanmar for the 2nd time lately even venturing into unstable war zone area. So, she is really a natural itinerant evangelist and gospel warrior. For her age, she normal serves just for an hour while Johnny and Hung will do the full 2-hour shift. Today the number of conversations were more than usual of medium length. Some were of follow up and reinforcement nature. all orchestrated by God by His predestine election. Recap below is the Battle Log of Hung.

1) First was a Christian from Taiwan caught up by Ann first. Just a brief exchange on his faith.

2) Next, I was led to approach a young man from Chengdu . He was a primary school kids at time of 2008 but the school in Chengdu was more solidly built not like those bean curb substandard school that all collapsed right away in the earthquake zone resulting in great casualty of school students. He could not agree more but time was up as his bus came.

3) Then rejected by two Mainlanders as the bus was coming too quick for any more effort to keep the conversation on.

4) Then I was led to catch up with a Columbia Catholic Christian lady. She came for English study so her English level is not that good. But still managed to clarify with her the need to have 100% assurance of salvation.

5) Then came across a Filipino lady that I talked before and her bus came too quick to leave no time for any form of follow up and reinforcement effort.

6) A lady from Shenyang, Liaoning by the name of Yu?. She has already migrated to live in Australia. Basically finished sharing the full gospel and she showed openness and reception to the message.

7) Another woman that Johnny approached claimed there is no church near her home at Wynnum I told her our church address and location which is nearest to her home, but she still has difficulty to come with a car.?

8 ) Then I was led to approach a Thailand lady who lives near Lao in the South eastern area. In her mind there is no heaven and no hell so she doesn't care about faith. I anyway guide her to establish that there is no perfect person in the world in human history. Even we basically are good person but imperfect. That mean we will also be subject to judgment and punishment after death for our sins. And Jesus is the only way for salvation. She seemed waived a bit to rethink her ground of being a good person is good enough.

9) Then I was moved to approach a couple by the surname of Chen ? from Shanghai that Johnny has shared the gospel many times and has now even given up to chat with them. Nevertheless, I was moved emphasize on the sinful status of all human that no matter we are good or bad, in God's eyes we all need redemptive by faith thru faith in Jesus, who take our place to receive all the punishment of our sin. It seemed that he was moved to response repeating our gospel message that Jesus is the real scapegoat who is perfect by sacrifice to die for us and make us cleansed of our record of sins. Although he still thought only those bad guys including those corrupted Chinese officials need Jesus. He is a good person so he is all right. I reiterated that no one can avoid hell unless that person is perfect. Pray that it is a new starting point for that Shanghai couples.

10) Then I was led to catch up with an Argentina girl who is a Catholic Christian but without assurance of salvation. She anyway was humble and took a tract to read.

11) Then I approached a Girl who was on the phone. Waited for a while but finally had to let go and switched to the next person.

12) Next was also a Mainlander girl from Yunnan who is studying at UQ, she seriously rejected to have conversation on religion despite I still shared her the nutshell of the gospel.

13) Next was a gramma from Guangzhou. . Had a bit of casual chat but then not time to dwell on the gospel.

14) Finally, I caught up with yet another Thai people lives near Lao. To my surprise, he claimed himself a Catholic Christian but know nothing about the gospel and thought he can go to heaven by doing a lot of good works. . He appeared a bit upset when knowing that good deeds is worthless for receiving salvation. Accepting Jesus as our Savior and lord of Life is the only way to heaven. He simply cannot accept this doctrine of salvation by grace through faith and ran away awkwardly for the incoming bus.

---

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday March 19th, 2024 from 1300-1500

It was yet another typical day of outreach. We were led by the Spirit to approach people randomly but actually with the predestination of God. They were either people we met before for a follow up chat, or first timers or first timer as led by God. Amongst all these people, I did catch up with an local Aussie girl of Irish descendant who has never heard of the gospel before as there is not Christian in her own life circle. So, the tasks entrusted to all Christians to reach out non-discriminatory is with a reason. There is still someone who has never heard the Gospel out there waiting for us to be the messenger passing on to them the voice message they need to hear.

1) Clair a Scottish descendant local Aussie girl who claimed she has never heard the gospel before. She shared the view that as long as we are not perfect in our human character, we are subject to judgement after death as such there is urgent need for all the good but not perfect persons to repent and seek salvation from Jesus. It is very weird for anyone who will have no Christian friend or Christian influence in their life circle, but God let this happened to show us there is really the need to keep reaching out to look for those least reached lost souls.

2) Arian the Iranian lady in full Muslim dressed but turned out to be a very open and receptive Gospel hearer. I concentrated in sharing the full gospel that met full consent by Arian. I just fell short of asking if she is readily a messianic Christian as God did great thing converting a lot of Iranian when they go overseas as refugees.

3) Danny an Indonesia first year UQ students. He was also open for chat about religion and seemed to have no negative opinion against Christianity. Time was not enough for me to finish the full gospel but he took a tract to read.

4) Then I caught up with JJ a Filipino of protestant background. whom I met few weeks ago on 27/2. Last time, I actually did finish my diagnosis on his assurance of salvation. He has 100% assurance but the reasons is not yet 100% because of Jesus redemptive work. Finally, it was all cleared that his assurance is not from how good and obedient he has been but 100% because of the redemptive work of Jesus.

5) Then I was led to have a long chat with Amelia who is an ABC Christian with Parents from mainland China. They once were all church going but not any more now. and She is lack of assurance of salvation because of the wrong idea that she has to behave good enough for heaven. I pray that after my clarification, she will revert back to trusting in Jesus and alone.

6) John is a Catholic Christian of Irish descendant. He has spiritual pride and is 100% sure he can go to Heaven but because of his goodness in leading a good Christian life style. It was a pity he did to want to go on with the conversation as such I failed to clarify with him the truth of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone.

7) Liam a Kiwi but Filipino Catholic Christian. Again, he did not have assurance of salvation and thanks for my clarification.

 

 

---

Only 1 street outreach this week.  The others were replaced with online work due to weather (Friday) or other events (engagement party on Saturday, and baptisms on Sunday).  So, this is probably going to be shorter than usual!

 

Roger was with me in Riccarton on Tuesday.  Autumn is in the air, it is cold!  I wasn’t prepared for it, so we ended up wrapping up a little early.  Yet in the time we were there we had gospel opportunities.

 

The highlight for me was a chat with a couple of guys - high school age.  I was frustrated to hear one of them say that their English teacher has told them: “There is only 1 thing you can be certain of: that you can’t be certain of anything”.  Not only is that statement a contradiction (yes, I know they are trying to play on words), but it is completely untrue.  There are many things we are certain of (for example, that your house had a builder).  And it’s a subtle attack against God, who is certain.  I wish they would teach Logic at school, and they should maybe get this English teacher to teach it - he might learn something!

 

Anyway, I spent time with this young lad showing him how we can be certain, and proceeded to share the law and gospel.  It was a good chat.

 

So, this affords me some time to talk about the online outreach I did this week.  

 

First up: on Tuesday, I was paired up with Jack for the first chat on the live stream: a duo chat.  We were paired up with a young man from the USA.  He wasn’t very talkative, but he followed along.  And it was wonderful watching him smile as he came to grasp the gospel.  He made a profession of faith.

 

On Wednesday, 2 highlight chats were with 2 young ladies from Tauranga.  I think there was some Adventist influence, because the sabbath came up.  But I didn’t let that become a distraction from sharing the gospel.  They also made professions.  And then a chat with a young man from the UK - there was resistance from him, but he stuck around for 30 minutes as I walked him through all the check questions.

 

On Thursday I had a duo chat with Jone with a guy who said he liked the 10 commandments.  But, it was his own form of the 10 commandments, with a whole lot of exceptions built in so he could sin as he pleased.  We spent 30 minutes with him before his resistance went up a few notches and there wasn’t much point in continuing.

 

On Friday I had a great chat with a couple of guys somewhere in New Zealand.  Catholic school.  They were being silly initially, but they stayed around for 16 minutes for a complete chat.  Ended up being a good chat.

 

And then, because the rain was so heavy on Friday, I went over to Rogers place to get him set up for online outreach again.  I ended up having an amazing chat with a young man who lives in the same city as Roger and I!  He was in home detention (he showed us the bracelet on his ankle).  Sadly, he is only 13, and the reason for the home detention is because he was involved with a ram raid (driving a car into a shop to rob it).  I was able to share the gospel with him, and start moving through the check questions.  It was so good when he had a penny drop moment.  From that point on (as he saw how the gospel made sense) he was weighing up the cost - he knew his life would change, and he didn’t like that idea.  E.g., he didn’t want to go to church.  But he stuck around for me to be able to point him to the book of John in the Bible, and 2 good local churches close to him.  He is so bored being on home detention, I hope he will read it.

 

Speaking of Roger, I got a text from him earlier saying he had a great online chat with a drug dealer up north.  This is what I responded with: “That’s who we want to reach!  Go for the sinner and go for the worst!  May he start dealing: Jesus”.

 

On Saturday I had a fascinating online chat with a young man for 23 minutes.  He was working in London in a warehouse picking stock for orders.  His job must be so boring that he can do it and have chats online at the same time!  Anyway, he thinks about the afterlife “all the time”, and although there was some resistance as I took him through the law, he ended up understanding the gospel, and seemed impressed enough to start reading the bible for himself.  It was so fun chatting with him while he was automatically moved around the whole warehouse.  May God have mercy on him!

 

But not only do we have face to face chats with strangers online, we also have text chats via Instagram and TikTok DM.  This morning I had a great chat with an intellectual young Mormon (well, I assume he is young; and I’m pretty sure it’s a he).  He wanted to argue about baptism?  But that was a distraction, I focused on getting him through the law, and towards the gospel.  The more we chatted, the clearer it was how uncertain he was about things that are obvious (logical).  And he was resistant, he was fighting to take the conversation off on a tangent, but I wouldn’t let him.  I love him too much.  Even if he is resistant now, may his suppression be shaken for future gospel seed to take root.

 

I’ve also had the privilege of training 2 young men in online evangelism this week.  Both from the USA, and both so different in personality, and yet both passionate to share these truths with others.  It was wonderful seeing these young men getting their feet wet!  Glory to God!

 

So, yet another wonderful week of outreach.  The opportunity to engage people with the gospel is limitless.  Evangelism is as essential in our lives as prayer, reading the Bible and church.  I hope you are encouraged to get involved with the harvest!  All glory to God alone.

 

---

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday March 13th, 2024 from 1300-1500

Today, Johnny could not come for personal matter, all other irregular street outreach team members were all not available except Ann, who joined me a bit later after I did my solo selfie as the pinned photo for today Battle Log. There were many opportunities for a chat though most were of very short ones because of the frequent bus arriving schedule as recap below:

1) A Lady from who, to my surprise, could not speak Cantonese, then I learned now that all the younger generation of people in Guangzhou are brough up only in Mandarin speaking environment. She was impressed with my extensive travelling and volunteer work experience in China; thus, she was very opened and receptive to the gospel message, which was abruptly interrupted by Lee with husband Billy to catch up with me.

2) Ah Lee & Billy, an ex-CFC cross -cultural marriage couples. They were overjoyed to have been able to bump in with me. Ah Lee may still meet me on the street every now and then, but Billy hasn't met me for over 10 years, especially after he got sick and stays most of the time at home. They blessed me with their token of action live gift and I invited them to come for CFC 27th Anniversary on 19/5.

3) Then I caught up with a young lady Wu from Xian, . She was surprised I had been to her home town several time and appreciated I shared the gospel to her though interrupted by the quick arriving bus. She took a tract any way.

4) Next was a young man from Vietnamese but he could speak both Cantonese and English. . Again, the conversation was brief being cut short by the quick arrival of bus.

5) Olivia was born in Australia who seemingly has some Philippine blood. She was wise to reckon that no one is perfect, thus no one can go to heaven automatically. I didn't have to share the gospel as she already has the answer though I was not sure if she is readily a Christian. But she still took a tract to read on the bus.

6) Then I bumped into a young man Koo? from Taiwan who claimed he chatted with one of us before. . I still did not give up but repeated the nutshell of the gospel to him till his bus arrived.

7) Then I was led to approach a Bhutan lady. I connected with her by showing off that I know her country has the highest Happiness Index. She thus listened to my gospel sharing but not fully concentrated and left without a tract when her bus arrived.

8 ) Then I was led to approach a Filipino Catholic Christian who has no assurance of salvation but having been clarified quickly before the bus arrived. She delightfully took a selfie with me and thanked for my clarification.

9) Lastly, I caught up with an Asian look lady who claimed not be able to speak either Chinese or English. She had been waiting for friend, not bus, but she still declined my approach for gospel sharing with the language issue.

---

Battle Log of Operation 513 for Toowong on Tuesday March 12th, 2024 from 1330 – 1500

After a couple of rainy days, it turned sunny and scorching hot in the early afternoon at Toowong. The bus stop was turned into a mini furnace by the radiating heat from the concrete platform. People tended to become impatient and reluctant to have a long chat. It was under this tough condition that we still endeavoured to do our best to work with God sharing Gospel to whoever the Spirit led us to approach. Because of the heat and quick arrival of bus, our chat had also been cut into scattered pieces. The upside was that I could have more smaller chats up to 10 as recap below: -

1) Ishrite from Bangladesh, polite to listen but his hear was elsewhere. Just did my best to share the full gospel as he was at end of the long queue.

2) Rammish an young lady from India who claimed herself not a Christian and non-religious but her mind set and conduct really bears the image of God. She was open and positive to the Gospel. She deemed she did not mind or even preferably to listen to the gospel from a more Christian point of view. she knew God look into our heart and mind not just judging us by external expression of behaviour. In this connection, she confessed no one will be perfect and avoid the judgement of God even though we conduct a crime free life. She thus also accepted the need of every one either good persons or bad persons inclusive, for Jesus’ atoning salvation. So, she by my standard, is readily a Christian. Pray that God will move her to make the very last step of faith to accept Jesus as her Savior and Lord of life. Finally , she thanked for our passion to share the gospel to her and many others by the move of the Holy Spirit.

3) Then I was led to approach a Local by Aussie who was impatient bit still polite and let me share more than half of the gospel message.

4) A young man by the name of Yuan? from Taichung without any religion as such he is not very serious about faith matter but he was still polite enough to listen to the full gospel.

5) Then I tried to chat with another Local Aussie girl who has caught with a red nose, I tried to convince her it was OK for me to chat with her by keeping a safe distance. But she still felt too weak to have mood to listen to the gospel so she still politely closed our conversation for her to rest.

6) Aron surprisingly is from Turkey. We quickly built rapport but his bus came almost instantly. I could not but just handed him the tract and pray for next useful encounter and for this reason, he agreed to take a selfie photo with me.

7) Then I was led to meet up with a rare Christian girl Ms Duan ?from mainland China who is from Beijing Her parents are still non -believers but her grandmother is a pious Christian so in China, she attended both 3 self-Church and home churches. Her bus came also fairly quick, But I have managed to help her establish her 100% assurance of salvation.

8 ) Jack a young local Aussie from NSW who is humble and open for the gospel and took a tract afterwards. He is a very promising seed of the gospel.

9) Next was Mr. Zhu ?from Mainland China He claimed We have chatted with him several time and he was very impressed that we keep doing this every Tuesday to show that the gospel is really a precious gift from God. Even though he has not yet made up his mind to accept Jesus, but he is all convinced that everyone need the salvation of Jesus.

10)Finally, just had time to touch base with an Elderly in1 min before his bus arrive.

---

Just got back from an awesome outreach in the city, but the whole week of outreach has been awesome - all four usual street outreaches ran this week: Tuesday afternoon in Riccarton with Roger; Friday afternoon in the city with Andy, Roger, and Ben; Saturday lunch time in Riccarton, and just now: Sunday afternoon in the city, with Thomas.

 

Casting my mind back to Tuesday, the highlight chat was with a group of 5 high school kids - Christchurch Boys High.  They already had a gospel tract, I guess from Roger over the street.  I saw them coming back, but Roger was already in a chat, and so they came over to me.  I smelled a set up, but I love these situations.  We got into a conversation, and the ring leader was being silly (no surprise).  I rolled with his jesting, but also answered the subtle questions he was asking.

 

As the conversation continued, his 4 friends started engaging in the conversation, which was great to see.  Eventually the ring leader realised he had lost control of the conversation - his response was to become outrageously silly, but by this stage, his friends were ignoring him, and one was even telling him to be quiet!  They all got to engage with the law and the good news of Jesus, and they all walked away with their own copy of the same gospel tract.  God is good!

 

Friday in the city.  It was great to have Ben with us.  Ben heard the gospel from a street evangelist up North, and when he moved to Christchurch last year, he encountered Andy on the street.  Well, Ben is now regularly attending our church and is even part of my home group.  He is getting baptised next week, but not only that, he is willing to come and join us on the street to share the gospel!  God is good!

 

Ben was paired with Andy, and Roger was running his flip chart, and so I went for a wander down Cashel Mall.  I had quite a few good gospel chats, but none with any real engagement from their part, and so they ended up being shorter chats.  That’s fine!  The law is still the law, and the gospel is still the gospel, they are powerful even without engagement - just maybe ploughing and sowing for a harvest later in time, by someone else.  All glory to God alone.

 

Anyway, Ben and Andy had had a string of conversations with tourists who were resistant - also not bad, still ploughing and sowing.  But, Ben joined up with me for the rest of the outreach.  We headed off down Cashel Mall, and the chat we got into was also with someone resistant!  Oh well.  It was a great chat, because his worldview was post modern: “The only thing I know is that I don't know anything”.  As soon as I said it, I pointed out his contradiction with “Do you know that?”, but in his suppression, he wasn’t willing to see it.  We sparred apologetically for a while, but then he started talking about all the things he knew, so I checked in again, “Do you really know it?”  I was able to touch on the law, and the gospel, but he wasn’t open to it.  Finally, for a third time he started talking about what he knew.  So I checked in again, “So, you know it, do you?”.  It hit home, I could tell by the way he cut his eyes at me.  It was at that point that I shook his hand, and wished him a good day.  There is no point in trying to reason with someone being unreasonable.  I think Ben was surprised that the conversation ended - I think he was enjoying it!  Yes, these discussions can be fun and interesting, but I don’t want to spend 2 hours arguing with someone who is resistant (at this time), when I could have conversations with others that are open (at this time).  God is in control.  And there is a time to move on.

 

Saturday in Riccarton, I had a number of good conversations.  I was beginning to wonder if it would be a slow outreach, when the first fish came on the line.

 

I ended up chatting with an American couple.  It turns out he was a PK, and she had recently been reading the Bible: the whole NT, and halfway through the OT (I think she said).  So there was interest there.  Yet, neither understood the gospel.  The engagement was very brittle, and as I was working to strengthen the engagement, it was broken when a group of guys interrupted.  They really wanted to talk to me.  So as the American couple moved on, I had no choice but to engage them instead.

 

But that wasn’t bad.  It was a great chat.  It turns out I had talked to one of them at the Canterbury A&P Show outreach at the end of last year.  I realised that they were Orthodox, and went to the local Orthodox church.  They had come to continue the apologetical fight.  They claimed to go to heaven because of Jesus, and not works, but then denied that with their explanations and interpretations of scripture.  I didn’t allow them to rest in their false hope.  I also ended up spending some time exposing Mark 10 (the rich young ruler).  They left holding on to their rejection of Jesus, but it was a good conversation, I hope to see them again.

 

I had other good chats too, including a long one with a young lad for Geraldine, and a short one with two young ladies - who wanted to argue about homosexuality.

 

It was great to have Thomas with me on Sunday afternoon!  He is from France and speaks French fluently.  Last Sunday, and on Friday, I spoke to people from France, and the lady from last Sunday didn’t have good English - so it’s great to have someone who can speak French.  Jordan cracked a joke before we left: “But you’ll end up encountering a German”.  Well, no French speakers today, but our last chat was with someone from GERMANY! Haha.

 

But the whole outreach was great.  The very first person I offered a tract to accepted it, and I was able to get into a good gospel conversation, an encouragement for Thomas (and an answer to prayer that Thomas would be encouraged).  And it went well from there.  Our next chat was with a young streetie.  She was open, but I had to really labour for her to see the gospel.  She had a click moment when I used the ‘sin again’ check.  And then she said something profound - I wish I could have recorded it: basically she said something like: “If Jesus does that for us, even takes our future sin, then I wouldn’t want to sin any more” - exactly!

 

By this stage, Thomas was warmed up (had shaken off the rust) and ready to get into his own chats.  Which he did (pictured).

 

We had other good opportunities as well, we even encountered some World Mission Society Church of God cultists - I had warned him they were rampant as we were walking in.

 

Anyway, I’ll leave it there.  I’m over time for this report.  But God is good in giving us so much opportunity.  May the lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering!

PS, I forgot to mention, in the first photo, there are 2 gospel chats happening.  But there are 2 school kids coming into the frame from the right.  Well, a few moments after I took that shot, I got into a good gospel chat with them.  God is so good!

---

Page 1 . . . 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 . . . 282

---