Battle Log

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Since moving to Goulburn from Brisbane a few months ago, I have been looking for an opportunity to start a new Operation 513 evangelism team. And now it appears as if that opportunity has arisen. Being located in Goulburn (as the pastor of Goulburn Baptist Church), I have found myself strategically located just 50 minutes from the nation’s capital – Canberra. I have heard many stories about evangelism in Canberra, and the hardness of the people, and I am able to report that the accounts I have heard are true. The people in Canberra seem to be very hardened towards the Gospel. Yet, in their hardness I find hope, since Jesus Christ came to save sinners, and those who have hardened their hearts to Him are among the biggest sinners around.

After spending some time trying to figure out when it would be best for evangelism we settled on planning a weekly outreach on Saturday afternoons from 2pm-4pm in Garema Place in Civic (Canberra CBD).

On July 9th was the first afternoon of the outreach, and amongst the hardness we did find some people who were more than willing to take tracts, talk to use about the Gospel and even to listen to us open air preach.

I arrived in Civic at 2pm and was soon joined by Merhawi who is a part of the Westminster Presbyterians in Canberra. He’d been witnessing in this part of Canberra before so I valued his wisdom and insight on the best spots to witness. As we began to hand out tracts our eyes were drawn to a large group of black African wearing white shirts. This group was handing out some kind of literature, and were walking around with TV quality video cameras and microphones. Deciding that this looked interesting, we made our way to one man and asked what was happening. Turns out this group was a new Pentecostal church plant in Canberra, and what they were doing was handing out a devotional written by their apostle (warning bells) in Texas. They provided me with a copy of the devotional and then asked me to smile to the camera and thank this apostle. I refused, gave the man a tract and then proceeded to walk off. Shortly after this we ran into another group of people from this same church, so I decided to quiz them on the Gospel. As I spoke to them I was very surprised that they were solid on this front. They explained to me the need of salvation, the cross, repentance and faith. Although their church is on the dodgy side with Apostles (dodgy cause Apostles have ceased), they had the gospel correct. We handed the group some tracts and then continued to walk around Civic handing out tracts.

As we were walking I handed a tract to a man who was walking around with a football, he seemed interested in talking, so we engaged him with the Gospel. It turns out that this man’s name is Mick, and he considered himself to be an ‘in-between good person’, although he had just admitted to robbing a lady around the corner! He was hard to witness to, as he seemed to be under the influence of alcohol, but I preserved, made sure he understood sin, and then understood who Jesus is. Mick took a tract, thanked us and then walked away. My prayer is that God would save yet another drunk and transform his life.

As we continued to walk around Garema Place in Civic, we noticed a young Asian man handing out books, so we walked up to him and asked what he was up to. It turns out this man was a part of an Eastern mystic religion, and he was handing out books about what his “master” had taught. The books focus was how if we all eat vegan, then global warming would cease. We spoke to him for a bit about his beliefs, it turns out that he believes that all religious roads to lead to paradise, and that we will be reincarnated. He went on to explain that reincarnation teaches that we will be judged for our good deeds and bad deeds, then depending on how much karma we have, will determine what we come back to earth as. Upon hearing this I asked Lang (the Eastern mystic) who it was that actually did the judging when we die, who determines if we have done enough good or bad. He paused for a moment then said, “We judge ourselves, our true selves will determine that.” To which I replied, “But most men will proclaim their own goodness, so surely we will all judge ourselves good and come back as humans.” Lang disagreed, and said that we all judge ourselves correctly, and we can trust our judgements. So I asked Lang, “Have you ever been wrong about something?” To which he admitted he had, so I followed up by asking, “How can you trust your judgements then? How do you know that you are correct concerning reincarnation?” Lang went on to try and explain how we can’t really know anything in and of ourselves, but rather we need an outside source to tell us. I asked what that outside source was, and he said it was his master. She was always right, so we can trust her, as she is a religious leader just like Jesus and Muhammad. The conversation then went down the path of all religions being the same, so I started to talk about ‘Master’ Jesus and how His teachings make Him unique. I showed him that Jesus claimed to be the only way of salvation, and if that is true, then all religions aren’t the same. Lang didn’t believe us, and insisted that all masters are equal. We presented the gospel to him, and I left him with a tract explaining who Jesus is. Please remember Lang in your prayers. May Jesus save him and deliver him out of the kingdom of darkness.

After this I managed to get a quick conversation with Curtis, who wasn’t sure where he was going. He didn’t seem very interested but still took a tract. May Jesus save him.

As the day drew towards an end, we decided it would be good to open air preach. So I set up my box in Garema place and began to preach on the frailty of human life. A few people stopped (probably 20-30) and a few hecklers emerged. One man claimed to be a Christian and he had a go at me for preaching from the Old Testament, so I went to the New Testament to prove what I was saying. This man then made the claim, “Jesus died so I can live in sin.” That was a statement I had to go after. I took him to 1 John and explained that if we live in sin, then it shows we aren’t of God, but rather we are of the devil. This seemed to quiet him down for a bit. The next heckler that came along decided to yell abuse at me and swear at me for “telling people my opinions in public”, he said no-one should shout their opinions. I pointed out he was being a hypocrite, as it was his opinion that no one should shout their opinion. He swore and walked off. The next heckler decided he would try and drown out the preaching by taking off his shirt (in freezing temperatures), put on a wig and play the saxophone really loudly. I used this distraction to explain how people love their sin and hate Jesus, and that they will do anything to silence the gospel.

A few people stayed to listen to the end. At about 4:30pm, I finished up and we headed home. Praise God for a good first day. May the ground in Canberra be ploughed up and may the seed of the Gospel take root.

Soli Deo Gloria!

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Last night was another blessed time of reaching out to people with the Gospel. Our team for the evening was Kwabena, Kwadwo, Wainaina, Waithera, Rhea, James, Barney and myself. It was a warm and pleasant evening for outreach and there were certainly plenty of people about. Perfect for witnessing. 

Standing up to preach I began my message by talking about the recent scandal with the News of the World. Due to illegal phone hacking the paper has now had to close down after 168 years in print. I decided to use this to draw on people's concept of what they believe to be right and wrong, and more importantly, how can we know what is right or wrong, and also, to which standard do we turn when asking the question of what is right and what is wrong. If the News of the Word staff believed they acted rightly, who are we to say they acted wrongly? Is right and wrong just a matter of opinion, or is there an objective standard? There is, and that standard is God. He made the world, and that means He makes the rules. This allowed me to bring the message into line with examining ourselves in light of God's rules and understanding that we are guilty sinners worthy of judgment. Helping people to see they deserve the wrath and judgment of God for their sins makes the grace of God offered through Jesus Christ far more amazing. People are also able to appropriate a clearer understanding of why they need Christ. 

Not long after I finished preaching another preacher entered the Square. His message was built very much on the prosperity Gospel and was also a mish-mash of condemning statements, some of which really made me cringe. He had even made some rather disturbing advances towards some young girls. One of the girls I had spoken with previously commented on how much of a hypocrite she saw him to be. In contrast she was appreciative of the fact that we were preaching from the Bible and were sincere. She is not a Christian but to hear her say this encouraged me that God was helping her to see the truth. It was frustrating to hear this preacher say so many unhelpful and erroneous things. Talking amongst ourselves Rhea really encouraged me when she said that a little while ago, when another team had come into the Square to preach, a Muslim walking passed said to her that it was clear we preached with love and compassion, even though the other team of Christians did not. Of course I wish this was not so, but it shows that people can see when people are being sincere and loving and when they are not. Also, when you consider that each week we speak of hell and judgment, it is so encouraging to hear that people can still see that we care about them and want them to be saved. 

We all had some great conversations. Rhea spoke with a gentleman who was visibly moved by what he heard. He said he would like to visit her church and he also took some tracts. Please pray for him! I spoke with a Muslim gentleman who told me that he was married to a Christian. He appeared quite liberal in much of what he believed and he also leaned heavily on an evolutionary understanding of the world. I found it very interesting when I took him through God's moral law. He had said that he believed himself to be a good person but when I asked if he had lied, stolen, etc, it was so evident that he was convicted and that his conscience was speaking to him. We got talking about evolution, etc, from that point on because he kept asking me questions about it, to which I answered as best I could, as I feel it is only right that we do answer their questions. However I had hoped that I would have had more time to expound on the Gospel. I was encouraged that he left with a John Blanchard booklet called "Ultimate Questions," which really opens up the Gospel well. 

I also spoke with another Muslim who said that he is a relativist. He believed morality existed only for our survival and so laws are in place to protect us. Ultimately it is pragmatism that has shaped our value system and defined our moral code. We know something is wrong only because we have experienced certain practical consequences. We have seen how it affects us through the pain it brings and also through that which we end up losing. 

But is this really true? Do we not intrinsically know that certain things are right and wrong? I believe we do. For example, I don't need to kill someone and then see the result of that before knowing it is wrong. To suggest that we only know murder is wrong because we realise after it happens that there are serious consequences for the person being murdered shows that we have no concept of the value of life and are incapable of making moral judgments before we do something. This of course is absurd because history and practise shows that we do value life. Ask anybody why they have become a doctor or fireman. Will they say they chose that profession simply to maintain a right balance in society so that we don't lose the people we need to function properly? No, they will say they chose that profession because they value life and want to protect people. Now, it is true that the non-Christian doctor or fireman does good works to show to themselves, and God, that they are good people worthy of accolade and Heaven, but even with this selfish attitude that drives them, they still know that what they are doing is good and praiseworthy. 

You see, even though their motive is not good, they are still doing good because they want people (and God) to see that they are good. The fact that they want people to see they are good shows they do understand the intrinsic concept of good versus evil. Let me point out though that a non-Christian would undoubtedly say they have no selfish agenda and are doing good because they know it is the right thing to do and so are not trying to prove anything to anybody. This is not the case, but the point is, when pressed, a non-Christian would not say they are doing good to maintain societal balance, rather they would say they are doing good because they themselves are good. So in practise the truth is that people intrinsically know what is right and what is wrong. Morality is not a result of pragmatism. Of course, we do see people doing wrong, but this is not because they do not know it is right or wrong before they do it, rather they do it because they have a rebellious and sinful heart. 

After explaining to him as best I could that we do intrinsically know what is right and wrong it was frustrating to see him deny it so strongly. He is certainly not the first relativist I have spoken to and he won't be the last. It is a predominant worldview today and we need to do our best to help them see the absurdity of what they are saying. 

It was certainly a profitable evening. Do pray for all who heard the Gospel!

Soli Deo Gloria!

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Our team on Friday evening was made up of Wainaina, Waithera, Kwabena, Kwadwo, Joram, James and myself. After a time of Bible study and fellowship at the cafe we hit the streets. It was good to be out together to share the Gospel!

While I was preaching a man came passed who expressed a lot of an anger and rage at seeing me standing on a ladder preaching from the Bible. He wanted to know what gave me the right to stand there and "tell others what they should do." I explained that I was simply declaring the message of the Gospel and that I did have have the freedom to stand on a ladder and preach. He wouldn't let it go so I calmly said, "Sir, I tell you what, if you want to get a ladder and come set up next to me and preach that will be totally fine by me." This helped to calm him down, which was good! I decided to build on the theme of freedom and addressed the crowd (that my angry heckler friend had so wonderfully helped to bring in) concerning this, explaining that we enjoyed many freedoms in our country because of Christianity. At one point I said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is still a free country," to which many clapped and cheered and said, "Hear, hear." It was brilliant to then preach the whole Gospel to the crowd as they stood and listened. 

After I finished preaching I noticed our angry heckler had calmed down a lot and was talking with the rest of the team. He came up to me and said, "Mate, I apologise, I had you all wrong." Wow. It turned out he had heard open air preaching before elsewhere in London and said that all he heard was that he shouldn't do this and he shouldn't do that. We talked for quite a while after this and I was able to share the Gospel with him more adequately. He had some interesting ideas of his own and I spent quite a bit of time adressing these and then bringing it back to the Gospel. He left with some tracts and much to think about. Please pray for him. 

The team all got into a number of conversation, which was so encouraging. As there are now a number of new people on the team I decided it would be good to have a time of feedback and an opportunity to ask questions. We settled in Burger King and had a good time sharing some of the challenges we had all experienced. Many in the team expressed how they realised they had so much to learn. I can certainly relate to that. We are so fortunate in our day and age to have such an abundance of resources available to us so that we can indeed be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give a reason for the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15). 

Soli Deo Gloria!

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We were a small team on Friday but the Lord still used us to reach out to a number of people with the Gospel. The team for the night was Esther, Laurence, Kwadwo, Kwabena, James and myself. After some warm fellowship in the cafe we arrived in Leicester Square and I got ready to preach. I’d had a difficult day at work and was not relishing the thought of standing up to preach, the flesh certainly was waging war with the Spirit! But I persevered and stood up to preach, and I was so glad I did. Isn’t it awesome that the Lord is able to use us even though we are weak. 

As I was preaching a few people stopped to listen. In particular there were three gentlemen who listened throughout my message. After I finished preaching Esther got talking with two of the men and I was able to talk with the other young man who had been listening. We had a very interesting conversation. He considered himself “in touch” with God through an experience that he’d had when he was younger, although he was not able to explain what this was. He instead stressed that it is something a person simply must experience. I explained to him that the Bible tells us there is only one way to experience God and that is through the person Jesus Christ. I spent some considerable time explaining to him why Jesus is the answer to the problem facing us all, that we stand condemned as sinners before a holy God, guilty and unable to make ourselves innocent, sentenced to eternal punishment as is fitting for the lives we have lived. Our only hope is for an innocent substitute to step into our place, one who is fully man so that He can stand before the judgement seat of God as man’s representative, and one who is also fully God, since only God is able to bear the punishment for the sins we have committed, and at the same time able to deliver others from that sin. This substitute is of course Jesus Christ, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Amen!

The gentleman I spoke to did not show any sign that he was persuaded by the truth of the Gospel, but he listened all the same, and I pray that God opens his heart to hear and understand the awesome news that I shared with him. Please pray for him, the Lord knows his name. 

We all had the opportunity to tell others about the Lord and so that is a successful night in my book! James passed out what must have been a hundred tracts and so do pray the Lord would speak into the hearts of all those who took a tract and read it. 

Soli Deo Gloria!

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It was a wet summers Friday night, as we head out to share the Gospel once more in Leicester Square. We met as usual in Cafe Nero, with a team of roughly 6 (although quite a few more joined us later in the Square). As we were looking at God’s Word together, a middle aged man entered the Cafe and began to rant and rave at one of the cashiers. We discovered (as did everyone else in the coffee shop) that he wanted to use the cafe’s restroom, however since he was not a paying customer he was refused. He became very angry and began using obscene language, hurtling abuse at the poor girl who was serving. We were unsure what to do, as interfering could have inflamed the situation even further. Wainaina decided to get a little something for him so that he could use the restroom, and it turned out to be a great move. A little later as he came passed our table he said, “It would be people like yourselves to come to my rescue.” That was interesting I thought. He began to comment on the fact that we were having a Bible study, so we encouraged him to join, to which he did! As we shared with him from God’s Word we encouraged him to apologise to the cashier. He did, which was so encouraging to see. We spoke with him some more and listened as he shared some rather strange ideas on God’s Word. He knew a fair amount of Scripture, but was quite wrong in much of what he said! It was definitely a very interesting meeting, and I pray the Lord will do a great work in his life. 

When we left the cafe it was spitting with rain and that turned out to be a constant for the rest of the evening. It definitely made things difficult and more people would have stopped during the preaching had it not been raining, but we still ended up having some great conversations. One conversation in particular that I had was with two young ladies. One of them chose to not believe in God at all, the other (who had grown up Catholic) said she believed in evolution but believed in God as well. As she had brought up the issue of evolution I asked her what she knew about it. She said that she had studied Darwinism at college, so I mentioned I had studied it too. As we spoke about evolution and what constitutes true science I could see that she was impressed somewhat that I had a handle on it all. She asked how it was that I had studied evolution, particularly as I was a Christian, so I explained that I wanted to know about all belief systems, whether religious or secular, so that I had an openness to what others believed. She was definitely impressed and this gave me an opening to talk with her about spiritual things. 

When it comes to the field of apologetics and learning what others believe we don’t need to gain a PhD in a certain field. What we should do is study enough so that we have an understanding of what others believe and so that we can demonstrate how their arguments are flawed. Click on the following link to learn more about evolution and the fallacies that accompany it: http://carm.org/evolution

The rest of the team had some great conversations too. James spoke with a Muslim gentleman who posed the question: “How can God die?” referring of course to the Christian belief that God became a man in the person Jesus Christ and later died on a cross for the sin of the world. James had recently watched an apologetic video that addresses this question and he drew on what he had learned for his answer. You can watch the video via this link: https://www.operation513.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-can-god-die.html. 

Although wet and somewhat miserable, the team enjoyed a great night of witnessing and fellowship. It was certainly a blessing to be out together sharing the wonderful Gospel of our Lord. 

Soli Deo Gloria!

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On Saturday night (14th May 2011), we were having our usual outreach in Brisbane city. While I was preaching, a few young blokes who had been listening to my message for a bit decided that one of them should plank beside me.

Planking is a recent fad in Australia which involves simply laying down very flat in a random location and then getting a mate to take a photo of it. It has recently gained lots of popularity, and even has been featured on news programs on television where some of the hosts 'planked' as well. 

Well on Saturday night, a group of young guys planked beside me while I was preaching. I was at the time speaking about how life is so short and the reality that tonight could be any one of our last nights. For no one is guaranteed 100 years to live on this Earth.

I didn't think much about the planking incident from that point on until I received a phone call from a friend the next day. He was watching the news and he told me that very early Sunday morning a 20-year old man had been planking on the railing of his 7-storey building very near the Brisbane CBD and had fallen off and died. The news report mentioned that this man had been planking in Brisbane city with mates that night.

It struck me, that the young man who planked beside me was very likely the same man who fell off the 7-storey building to his death just hours later. My words about this possibly being our last night alive rang true for him. It is sad to hear of his death, but at the same time it should make us think about our own human mortality too.

The young man who died didn't expect to die that evening, but he did. And you may not expect to die until a very long time away, but the reality is that you could die at any moment. I hope that makes you recognise you should start thinking about what comes after death.

The Bible speaks about everyone having to give an account of how they have lived after they die. How would you do? The Bible says that God's standards to get to Heaven is perfection. But you'd have to agree that none of us have lived perfectly in our lives. For as soon as we tell a lie, steal something, use God's name in vain, or get drunk we tarnish our record. And the Bible says that what we deserve for our sins is eternity in Hell.

But the good news is this, that even though we don't deserve to go to Heaven (we haven't lived perfectly), God sent Jesus to this Earth to live a perfect life and die on the cross. His death on the cross provides forgiveness of sins; for Jesus on the cross takes all the punishment that we deserve in Hell. Jesus then rose from the dead three days after he died. 

Jesus will only take the punishment for you if you do two things:

1. Trust that all your sins are forgiven only because Jesus has paid the punishment for all your sins when He died on the cross.
2. Repent - instead of loving to sin, you hate to sin and therefore start turning from it.

I hope you do that today if you haven't already, for today could be your last day.

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The Redlands Easter Festival is an event put on by a large group of Churches in Redland City. The organisers were expecting about 10,000 people to turn up, so we thought it was a great idea to share the gospel there to all those attending. So there were about twelve of us who turned up and after arriving at the festival, we went to sign in at the volunteer’s booth.

Operation 513 had set aside 2,500 Good Aussie gospel tracts for free use at this event. The organisers wanted us to hand out this tract because the theme of the festival this year was the Christian heritage of Australia. So the Good Aussie card suited very well.

The event did seem a little bit smaller than previous years, but there were still stacks of people there. So after signing in, we dispersed ourselves around the showgrounds handing out gospel tracts and getting into conversations with people. During Easter time, it is really easy to hand out gospel tracts, for you simply need to say “Happy Easter” and then hold out the gospel tract to them and almost always the person will take it.

After a few hours, the proportion of people who had received a gospel tract was definitely increasing and so it was becoming a more common thing to hear from people that they already had one. But I found that this was a perfect opportunity to ask them whether they had read it. If they said yes, I could then ask them what they thought of it. If they said no, I would say, “Well it asks you on the back, ‘If you were to die today, would you go to Heaven?’ What do you think?” And that would lead into a gospel conversation.

The usual response to the question of whether the person I was speaking to thought they were going to Heaven was ‘Yes’, for they thought they were good people. People by nature love speaking about how good they are, but the Bible clearly says that no one is good in God’s sight (Rom. 3:10-12). So in order to show people that they are actually sinners in need of forgiveness, I used the method that the Apostle Paul used, I showed them God’s law and how they fared compared to it. “...through the law comes knowledge of sin”  – Romans 3:20.

The way I showed them God’s law was by, asking them how good they were, whether they had ever told a lie, ever stolen something, or ever used God’s name in vain. Everyone has committed basically all these laws, and so people usually won’t have a problem admitting that. I would then ask, “Well if those things are some of the standards in which God will judge you after you die, do you think you would innocent or guilty?” They’ll usually say ‘Guilty’. So I ask, “Therefore, do you deserve to go to Heaven or Hell?” This makes most people realise that they are in a very bad situation deserving of Hell, and so then I can talk about the good news of forgiveness.

Since it was an Easter festival, I could then ask them about what Easter is about. A great deal of people I spoke to actually had no idea what Easter is about. Some said, “Yeah I’ve always wondered what Good Friday is, other than being a public holiday.” I then shared about Jesus dying on the cross, taking the punishment that we deserve in Hell for our sins. But a person needs trust in Jesus’ death alone for their forgiveness (meaning, not a person’s good works or own goodness) and repent (hate sin and start turning from it), in order to be forgiven. I then shared the meaning of Easter Sunday – that Jesus rose from the dead three after he died.

In the evening, there was an AOG preacher on the main stage that was supposed to give the gospel talk. He started off on John 3:16 and talking about how popular it is to wear shirts that say John 3:16, but he suggested that many people don’t know what the verse says or means. So he read it out. But then he decided to focus on the ‘so loved’ part of the verse. He interpreted ‘so loved’ to mean ‘God loves you soooo much’ in the modern sense of using the word ‘so’. However, that is not what ‘so loved’ means. Instead it actually means ‘loved thusly’ or ‘loved in this way’.  The ‘so loved’ in John 3:16 does not mean that God has such a great amount of love for the world, it is rather that God loved the world in this way that He sent His one and only Son... (you can even check it in the Greek - οὕτως)

So the whole main point of his message was completely faulty. He then spoke about how everyone has a desire to come to God. Where does the Bible say that? The Bible says otherwise, in that “no one seeks for God” (Romans 3:10). He then proceeded to have an altar call, calling people to come to the front and come back to God.

But at no time in his message had he spoken about sin or the fact that we deserve punishment for our sin. Neither did he even speak about Heaven or repentance or that salvation is by grace through faith. He had simply talked about the sheer amount of love God has for everyone and that’s why a person should come back to God. So I knew that basically anyone coming forward could simply not be genuine, since the gospel had not been preached.

There were about 15 people who came forward, and there were a few counsellors going up to them giving them things. So Lindsay and I went to the front and got into a few conversations with a number of those came to the front and shared the gospel with them.

One conversation I had was with I think one of the counsellors, he said he had been saved 8 months. I asked him why he is going to Heaven. He said it is because he has changed his life and is not doing as much sin anymore. But I pointed out to him that changing your life doesn’t forgive your sin, because even if you never sinned again, you still would have the past history of all your sin that God cannot simply overlook. He understood this and said, “Yeah that’s true, I don’t know how I’m going to get forgiveness then.” So I shared the message of Christ’s death on the cross taking the wrath of God that we deserve for our sins if we repent and believe, and it was like something clicked in his mind. He said, “That makes sense, it’s because of Jesus death that I can be forgiven.” He was very appreciative of the chat; I pray that he is genuine.

During this, fireworks began going off, which marked the close of the festival. After they finished the rest of the team made sure to hand out tracts to everyone leaving, while I continued to have chats with those who came to the front.

The festival was good overall in the sense that it was good opportunity to witness to lots of people, both professing non-Christians and also those who attend Church but don’t truly believe. But the ‘gospel’ presentation given by the AOG pastor, Steve Kennedy was absolutely atrocious.  The organisers need to seriously rethink who they get to give the gospel talk. The preacher they had last year was actually quite decent. I am not sure why they would scrape so low this year.

Please pray for the thousands of people who received gospel tracts that they would read them and that God would grant these people repentance and faith.

To God be the glory!

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On Friday night the team was out once more to share the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ with the people of London. We were about 10 strong and it was a joy to see a few new faces as well. 

I stepped up to preach first and it wasn’t long before some conversations took place as a result.  During my message I called people to recognise the God that had given them life, to see that our existence is not random and chance oriented, but that we have been created by an awesome God, a God to whom we owe our worship and obedience. We planned to have James step up to preach after me with a short gap in between. 

I had the opportunity to talk with a group of tourists from France. Their English was very limited so I used the GM28 app on my iPhone. If you’ve never heard of this app it’s basically a witnessing tool that presents the Gospel in a number of different languages. You can see a video and learn more about the app by clicking on this link: http://www.thegm28.com. It was difficult to tell how much of an impact the Gospel had on them but they seemed to respond well to what they read on my phone. The seed of the Gospel had been sown and although we do not know how the Lord will use that seed it’s important to use every opportunity we have to reach this world for Christ. 

We also had some boards with us that start with the question: “Ask me....” These are great for getting into conversation with people. They’re a little different from approaching someone with a tract to start a conversation, but they definitely have their advantages.  A person’s defences will be down if they decide to approach you, for example. The boards were a great success during the night. “Ask me what happens when we die” is definitely my favourite. 

I spent some time talking with Michael, someone we have all come to know and talk with at some point for quite some time now. Michael professes to be an atheist, but not in a casual sense, he is very much a product of the militant atheistic drive that has been pushing for some years now. There are times when he can be very disruptive and unsettling, however I have built a relationship with him over time to the point where he will at least listen to what I am saying. I’m very encouraged by that. 

James preached a little later and I can’t help but marvel at how well he has come on these last few weeks. He has a firm grasp of what he wants to say and he presents the Gospel clearly and boldly. It’s such an encouragement to see. Please pray the Lord continues to use him. 

It was wonderful to be used of God to make His name known. 

Soli Deo Gloria!

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This week when we arrived to Cavill Mall, both of our locations were taken. So we decided to pray and move outside the mall to preach. That was interrupted by a busker who decided to start setting up his amplifier right next to us. Rather than cause a conflict, we decided to move back to the mall, but  both locations were still occupied. It had been this way for an hour and a quarter already.  Soon after, one of the locations cleared up and so we started preaching there.

John was the first person to preach there and he did a great job proclaiming the predicament that all of humanity is in, and that is we are deserving of Hell forever because of our sin. He then went on to explaining the cross – that if a person repents and trusts in Jesus, they will be forgiven. After John preached, Ryan got up to preach.

While he was preaching, a person from the Coffee Club came up to asking us to turn the volume of the amp down. So we decided to turn the volume down on it a third and even face the speaker completely away from the coffee shop.

But minutes later the police arrived because that shop complained and they told us we have to move to our other spot, and that we are not allowed to continue preaching here, even though we have a permit for this location. The police officers were not reasonable and were saying that a person shouldn’t have to hear our message if they don’t want to. I pointed out that we are compelling no one to stand here and listen to us.

At this point, I was just holding a camera in my hand and they really didn’t like it. They said we’re not allowed to use the footage for anything. I asked them what law says that. They said, “Look it up.” The reality is this, that if a person is in public, he can record with his camera as much as he wants and do anything with the footage. Another one of the police officers then said that they will now start seizing the cameras off us. That is theft. The only legal time a police officer could do that is if the officer reasonably suspects that the camera is evidence of the commission of an offence.

We decided to move to the other location, even though the police had no right to tell us to move, but we did so under duress. We started preaching at the other location and the police just stayed nearby for the next hour. At one point, the police signalled to myself and Ryan to go towards him. He then said to go with him with the camera. The police officer said, “Bring the camera because I will want this on camera when I seize the camera from you”. So at this point, I refused to go with him. Ryan went with him and the police said to him that we could still be heard at the local shops. Ryan pointed out that the busker that was playing was incredibly louder than we were, moreover, being able to hear a busker or preacher at a local shop does not mean we are too loud.

It was clear that for at least one of the police officers, the problem they had with the preaching was the message. They did not like hearing about sin or about Jesus. The police think that they can do things that they have no right to do. We were gathered lawfully for the preaching and they told us to move. So we have since charged one of these police officer’s with disturbing religious worship under the Criminal Code. Hopefully this will send a message to the Queensland Police Service that they should only act how they are legally allowed to act.

Despite all the events that took place, the gospel was preached and God was glorified.

To God be the glory!

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This week we had a new amplifier, which was donated to us from the Corneloup family in Adelaide. We knew this amp would be much better than the one we had last week. So after praying together, we moved to our preaching spots. The one near the end of the mall was occupied by a busker, so we decided to use the other one. Preaching using the amplifier is especially good for those who ordinarily preach quite softly. Even they could be heard quite a distance away.

At one point, a person came up to me saying that they would like to use the spot we were at to do a circus show. I said we’d move only if the other spot we have been allocated is available. He came back reporting to us that the other spot is available and so we started moving down there.

When we arrived at the other spot, there was a busker there still with his stuff set up. He was the one he had been there all night. I spoke to him saying that he can’t stay there all night, for under their permit conditions they can only be in the one spot for 45 minutes. He argued that there were no other available spots, so he decided to stay there. I made a deal with him that we could have about half an hour of preaching here, and then he can resume doing his show there. He agreed.

Jeremy got up preaching first (without the amp). Another busker (who does not like Christianity) saw us preaching and became enraged that we were preaching there, for he claimed that was a usual busking spot. He didn’t believe us that we had been given a permit from the council to preach there. So he decided to call the police.

By the time the police arrived, I was preaching and they went over to speak to the angry busker. Then the police (four of them) came over and spoke to me. They said that we had to turn our amplifier off because they claimed that someone at a nearby coffee shop left the coffee shop because they didn’t want to listen to our preaching. I mentioned to them that our permit allows us to use an amplifier. They asked to see the permit, I replied, “Ok, but what is your name first?” The police officer that was speaking to me refused to give me her name and purposely covered up her name badge so I couldn’t see it. She then said that the council local law officers are just minutes away so they’ll just wait for them.

Once the council arrived, they had a chat to the police and then came over to us. They said to turn our amplifier down a bit because of a condition on our permit is that noise cannot unnecessarily go to nearby shops. We said that we’d comply, but we’re not going to turn our amp off as the police said we had to. The police then denied they ever said that. They were clearly lying. The police are supposed to uphold justice, how can they do that if they lie about what they said?

We continued preaching, but then the busker who doesn’t like Christianity started setting up his amp right opposite us in the mall and playing his music really loud. He was basically drowning us out, so we had to move to our other location, which was available again.

The rest of the team had lots of good conversations and handed out lots of gospel tracts.

To God be the glory!

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