Battle Log

Page 90

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Tuesday saw the first outreach to Riccarton since the Covid-19 lock down had eased.  It was a late afternoon outreach, sunny when it started, but by the end the sun was setting, and it was quite cold.

But it was great to be back at this spot, and I had four sets of conversations.

My first was with a Hindu guy who came to understand the gospel, and was challenged to count the cost of following Jesus.

I then had a Catholic high school student go past - she looked like she wouldn’t be interested, and so I was surprised that she stopped at my opening question.  She was actually very engaged, and I had a long conversation where I had to carefully explain that it was not our good deeds in any way that saved us, but only Jesus' sacrifice on the cross that we accept by faith alone.  I think she came to grasp what I was saying, but she didn’t look convinced.  As always, I left her in God’s hands.  I can only hope that the plowing and sowing I did would lead to growth at some point in the future.

The last conversation of the outreach was with two Polynesian girls.  They were heading to the bank when they passed the first time, but they said they would come back - and they did.  One said she was Christian, the other Mormon, but neither seemed committed.  So I was able to share the law and the gospel with them.  It was a lovely conversation.

Even though Riccarton wasn’t as busy as the city had been the previous Friday and Sunday - it was still good to be back on the streets!

Today (Wednesday) I went back into the City in the early afternoon with Andy.

As soon as I was out of my car, I had a wonderful opportunity to talk with two guys walking past - so the outreach got started early!

I then met Andy at the speaker's corner where we both open air preached.  I had someone sit down to listen, and to my surprise, as soon as I started talking about the resurrection of Jesus the listener became angry and started heckling me.  Similar to what happened on Friday.

We continued the outreach with “walk up”.  We went down Cashel Mall, and then moved to the courthouse.  Outside the courthouse, first Andy, and then I fell into good gospel conversations.

The guy I was talking to professed to not be interested in spiritual issues, and yet, he stayed to talk with me for a long while.  He resisted the logic of how we know God exists, but kept coming back to it.  I held my ground refusing to let him off the hook, and kept using the same argument.  Eventually, to my surprise, I was able to get through the law, and even share the gospel with this guy.  There was still much resistance though.  He wouldn’t take an After Life tract from me, but when I said I had a different one titled: How we know God exists and why it matters, he said he would be keen for that!

Our conversations ended at different times, and so Andy and I became separated, but we ended up meeting again outside Ara.  Andy had a great chat there with two high school students (pictured).

And I had a wonderful follow up opportunity with a guy I’ve talked to a few times before.  I was able to walk back to my car while talking to him (we were going in the same direction).  He seemed more open than the last time I talked to him.  We were discussing the sermon on the mount.  He really seemed to appreciate something I said and accepted a tract as we parted ways.  God willing I will be able to talk to him again.

Both Tuesday and today, I was also doing some online evangelism - it is such a wonderful way of reaching people.  The stand out conversation was with two guys from California.  They came to understand the gospel, and what repentance really means.  They seemed deeply impacted.  Yet only God knows.
 

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On Tuesday afternoon the team had a wonderful outreach! It started with two good conversations on the live stream and was continued with another ten or so after that! (All conversations are good conversations).

One sad but enlightening moment was an early conversation with a young man who had rejected God's existence. Then he was shown the building builder analogy and the moment he comprehended it he disconnected. The truth was too strong and he ran! But this was followed by a conversation with Sarah.

Sarah was going through confirmation with the Catholic church and due to this struggled for more than an hour to comprehend the gospel! She kept popping her works into her justification. At the end she finally seemed to grasp that she deserves Hell and that there is nothing she has to offer God that could make her worthy it was finally then when she was able to understand why Jesus had to die.

A following conversation was with a young man named Andrew he grasped the gospel more quickly but his struggled was that he desired to live his own way still. Not as explicitly as many people but it was still quite strong. He saw that trusting that Jesus had paid for his sin was free and going to Heaven is free but when he comprhended the life that would result he seemed pretty keen to keep living his own way. It was sad to watch and he was warned about the seriousness of his choice and was left with a decision to make.

The following conversation was with two girls who were professing Christians but also hadn't grasped the gospel previously. They thought it was their goodness that was getting them into Heaven and were hoping that asking for forgiveness would be enough to get them out of Hell. One girl grasped it and a big smile shot across her face. The other girl took a while longer but she too came to understand. But neither of them seemed drastically moved by the gospel. Their comprehension seemed to arrive but that didn't spark the joy you would expect. They ultimately got a little bored with the conversation and disconnected a few minutes later.

Please be praying that these girls were just tired as it was the early hours of the morning where they are. Please be praying that Andrew would see the seriousness of this decision and trust in Christ this day for the forgiveness of his sins and may Sarah no longer love the teaching at the Catholic church and find a church that will seek to teach her, God's word not the doctrines of man.

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It has been quite a while since I wrote battle log, so praise God !!! for enabling us to go out into the street again to preach and share the glorious gospel. During stage 3 lockdown time in Melbourne by God's grace we were able to share the gospel almost daily basis through OMEGLE, we met various people from different countries from US to Saudi Arabia and surprisingly people were very receptive and welcoming to the gospel than we expected I remember one teenager who lived in Mexico and spoke only spanish so I had to use google translation as fast as I could and share the gospel and the teenager responded well and said He will believe, if i was out in the street this could have been bit harder but through online it was fairly effective. 

Once again, I realise how God is so faithful, He is always working and He makes a way when there seems to be no way. Operation 513 Brisbane, New Zealand and Melbourne teams are planning to meet online regularly as we have seen global impact through this online evangelism. As Ryan (Brisbane leader) have received many encouraging messages from believers and non-believers from different countries and people who have actually started evangelising to people through Omegle after seeing Operation 513 live in Youtube.

There are many things to share what God has done through this lockdown period but if I want to share them I might have to write an essay.. so I will practice self-control from doing that :). 

On Saturday, I was very excited to go out into the city again after about 8 weeks as I held stacks of gospel tracts, started my car to go to the city and seeing this beautiful weather. To my surprise, there were lots of people and.. lots of police officers in the city and I actually thought that it could be hard to practice social distancing properly. Brother Huy Do and I shared scripture and prayed for evangelism as we start. 

We met 4 teenagers who were sitting in front of state library, all 4 of them had different beliefs which was interesting. When we asked about their thoughts on afterlife they laughed and gave different answers which included 'becoming energy, heaven hell, nothing happens etc' there was one guy who professed to be a catholic as well so he believe in hell and heaven. After the laws were shared and questioned they answered very honestly saying that they would go to hell if God judge them according to ten commandments so we shared the gospel and we did checking questions. They have grasped the gospel but did not say that they will believe but please pray for those 4 teenager boys as you read this report. 

We also met one man at the end of outreach who called himself 'freemason' unexpectedly he was quite humble and receptive to the gospel. After the law and gospel was shared he promised to think about it. Please pray for this man as you are reading this report. 

From Huy Do :-

This week’s evangelism went relatively well, it was our first time back after Quarantine, and we took to the streets. God was faithful in providing people by which the Gospel might be shared. I spoke to some Vietnamese young men, they appeared understanding but they were quite apathetic, I ended with a plea that they would repent and trust in Christ for salvation. On another count, I spoke to three young men in front of the state library, I shared with them the Gospel. One amazing thing in this entire talk happened was that as I was laboring with them to show them the magnitude of their sins, the man on the left was arguing and denying and objecting while the man in the center of the three started to rub his head profusely, appearing convicted, I perceive that they were pricked to the heart, then as I continued, the man on the far left, whose name was Diego, said some thing along the lines of “if God punishes good people then He’s not good”. I had to labor with them a little more until I asked “how many times did Adam and Eve sin for God to punish them?” they answered “once”. Then I spoke to them about the Gospel, that Christ bore the sins of and satisfied the full wrath of God for guilty people, and if they should trust that He did so for them, they will be saved, God will wipe their slate clean of all sins, past present and future. At this point, I perceive Diego opened his eyes a little wider, this provoked me to think about Whitefield, how he preached and he could observe people’s faces, their expression that it did something. Pray that they will repent and believe.

Another witnessing conversation happened at the end of the evangelism, I spoke to another group of three gentlemen. One of them, after having been shown their sins before God, stated jokingly “I need to get back to church”. I labored with them in regards to the law a bit more, then showed them the Gospel, that Christ died for sinners, and if they trust He died for them, they will be saved. One of them who jokingly remarked about getting back to church then said “that’s it? Just believe and that’s it? You can live however you want?”. I answered that it is a free gift that they need not toil but receive by faith that what Christ did on the cross was sufficient and was for them, but that if they truly received Him, then their lives will change. Pray they will repent and they will believe, that God would make them say on their tongues “I felt my Lord’s atoning blood, close to my heart applied, me, me He loved, the Son of God, for me, for me He died”.

Overall, it was great Saturday ! by God's grace, Huy Do and I had many great conversations that we could not write it all here. Our prayer is that God will raise more labourers as harvest is plentiful but labourers are few. Soli Deo Gloria.

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It was a lovely sunny, crisp Sunday afternoon in Christchurch today.  I headed to Cashel Mall for a couple of hours of gospel outreach.

Before the outreach started, I was able to catch up with Sonny and Mark - two guys that run stalls in the mall.  It was good to see them again.

I wanted to set up at the corner of Cashel and Colombo - it was so good there on Friday - but there were people hanging around my usual spot.  As I waited I prayed that God would bless my feeble efforts - without Him I can’t do anything.  Eventually, one of the groups moved on, and I was able to start setting up my flip chart, while I was doing that, the other group wanted to know what I was doing!  A great opportunity to start a gospel conversation.  :)  It was a nice conversation, but they weren’t keen and decided to move on.  I offered tracts, but one of them said “I’ve already got one” (I think he said he received it after a gospel conversation with someone else in a past outreach).  So I said, “well, give it to your brother”, he said, “oh, he has been to a Christian school, he already knows.” and then he was gone.

Soon after, an old flatmate, from years ago, passed.  (Matt, it's a flatmate, not a housemate. ;) )  It was good to see him again.  When we flatted, we went to the same church, but now he is married to a guy and wants nothing to do with organised religion.  But he still wants to go to heaven, and hopes he will get there.  And so I had a wonderful opportunity to explain how we know God exists, and why there must be a heaven and a hell - none of which he disagreed with.  But he still considered himself to be good, by his standard, and resisted the logic of the law written on his heart.  I was gentle and loving in how I expressed the truth - but I refused to compromise that truth, as unpopular as it is - it is the loving thing to do.  Sadly, he left before I could explain the gospel - but he just wasn’t interested.

I then had a string of conversations with Christians.  Firstly with a young man (and his girlfriend) who I had taught in Sunday school when he was a little kid!  It was great to catch up; then I had a youth pastor from Queenstown go past, and we fell into an easy conversation; before a Christian family wanted to check out the good person test flip chart.

That led into a conversation with a guy who had been overhearing the flip chart demo I had just done.  He was waiting for his wife to come out of a shop.  We fell into an easy conversation.  It turns out he had been a telephone technician like my Dad.  But he was resistant to my attempts to swing the conversation to the gospel.  Once his wife came, he left - refusing a tract - he said it would just go into the fire.

But then I had another guy sit near me - he was also waiting for his wife - we also fell into an easy conversation, but he was more open.  His wife also came (before I could share the gospel), but he did take a tract.

To my joy, Mr. Angry then came past.  If you’ve read any of my earlier reports, you will know who I’m talking about.  If not, well my name for him tells all.  To my increased joy, he was actually nice to me (compared to normal), even though he didn’t stop.  I will continue to pray for him, and hope to get an opportunity to actually share the gospel with him.

The final two sets of gospel conversations of the outreach were actually connected.  A group of high school aged kids passed, one of whom I’ve talked to before.  I asked if they wanted to try the good person test, and two of them were keen (the rest were not - including the one I’d talked to before).  It was a wonderful conversation where they followed the logic easily, came to hear how their sin is serious, and then the wonderful good news of Jesus.  She seemed to be deeply impacted, he really appreciated the logic of it.  I left them both in God’s hands as they left with gospel tracts and contact information.

Soon after, two more wanted to talk (initially, I didn’t realise they were connected to the first group).  And then I had two more join (and a third briefly) - including the one I had talked to before.  It turns out they were homosexual and they were setting me up to trap me in my words.  But it didn’t work, and they were confronted with the reality of sin (something that God defines) and the amazing grace of Jesus - even for homosexuals - yet I was clear that their life would change if they accepted the gift.  They refused tracts.

So a wonderful couple of hours where, all glory to God, I was able to have many gospel interactions.  I love my job.  Thanks again to those who are supporting me in what I do.

I forgot to take any photos for this outreach, so the picture is of my desk after outreach. :)

Oh, and on Saturday, I was doing online evangelism with the team.  We had many wonderful opportunities to share the love of Christ.  Pictured is a young man looking for John in his Bible.  He had grown up knowing about God, and thinking he would go to heaven, but he didn’t understand the gospel.  I really had to labour with him to get him to unlearn some things that were confusing things for him.  He then played amazing grace for me on his keyboard!  Before he left, he agreed that Omegle was not a good place for him to be (“it scars me”) and that he would stop going on it.

Looking forward to a day off tomorrow.  :)
 

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On Saturday the team excitedly headed back into Brisbane City, being careful to follow the social distancing legislation and sought to find people to engage with, regarding their eternity.

An early convesation was with a man who'd been chatted to before and he had a Church background but sadly he kept defaulting to thinking it was his actions of obedience and response to God that would save him. There was a beautiful moment in the conversation though when he came to understand that believing that Jesus took the punishment he deserves is the one way of salvation and the resulting obedience is a by-product of that faith rather than a part of the salvation. He was thankful and said he would believe it from today.

A following conversation was with Alex a man who came to grasp it clearly and yet wanted to remain a rejector. He saw that is was logical and reasonable but he said (initially hiding behind his Buddhism) that he preferred to live his own way and that he wanted there to be no judgement day. The seriousness of his declaration was pointed out to him and he was left with the challenged, knowing that whatever he thinks he can gain from this life isn't worth going to Hell for and yet currently he is choosing that.

A final and most exciting conversation of the evening was with a lady named Uma. When asked if she was going to Heaven she said, "I hope I will". This revealed that she wasn't trusting in Christ alone as the one who made her right before God. It was interesting to see that a professing Christian, who attends Church regularly and had even previously evangelised before, was not clear on the gospel! Over the next few minutes, questions were asked, analogies were given and there came a moment of joy as a smile crossed her face. She came to see that she can be certain she is going to Heaven because it isn't her obedience that enables her to enter. As long as her trust is in Christ's perfect life and sacrifical death, she has nothing to worry about as it is already finished.

She was beaming with joy and so thankful for the conversation and was keen to learn how to evangelise better herself, especially in light of coming to understand the evangel for the first time herself!

Praise God for such a wonderful night on the streets and you're welcome to come along in the future! At this stage the Brisbane team is just looking to head back on Saturday nights and annoucements will be made as other locations are re-opened.

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I’m so excited to be writing this report!  Today was the first time back on the streets of Christchurch in many weeks - and it was so good.

We started with the gospel + abortion outreach outside the hospital.  I wrote about that on the Project 139 Facebook page.

We then moved to Cathedral Square for open air preaching.  There were no stalls, or food trucks - and so there weren't many people around.  But to my surprise, once Andy started preaching, plenty of people came out of the woodwork.  We had a guy walk past who stopped to listen, and then he came over to engage.  He asked really good questions, which Andy addressed.  And then the hecklers started arriving - it was like old times again!  So good.

After Andy finished preaching, I was able to engage the guy who had been asking good questions one to one.  The conversation started with, the subject of suffering.  Afterwards he accepted a tract.

I then preached open air.  It felt so good.  There were plenty of people, sitting at a distance and listening.  So I preached my heart out.  The hecklers were surprisingly tame, until I talked about the resurrection of Jesus being a historical proof - that set one of them off.  Afterwards, I offered tracts to the people hanging around.

I then moved to Cashel Mall with my flip chart, and met Roger there.  Compared to the Square, there were heaps of people!

Roger and I prayed, then we set up our flip charts at the corner of Cashel and Colombo.  It was pretty much non stop gospel conversations for just over two hours.  People were walking up to the chart and wanting to give it a go.  I had great chats with:

• 2 guys with a Catholic background
• 2 young girls - 1 with a Christian background, 1 that didn’t believe in God.
• A wonderful chat with a young Christian who believed healing was the way to do evangelism.  We deeply disagreed, but I was careful not to turn the conversation into a fight - granting him the benefit of the doubt - and working with him from there.  I friended him on Facebook, and I intend to follow up with him.
• 3 young ladies who were very switched on yet resistant but very open to discuss the gospel.  This was a wonderful conversation.
• A follow up with a security guard that I had apparently talked to months earlier.

I was able to say hello to a number of people walking past that I’ve had various levels of interaction with in the past.  It’s so good to be back on the streets!!!

In the evening, I did just under two hours of online evangelism.  And I haven’t had a chance to write about the wonderful online gospel opportunities from Thursday.

My body is not used to being on the streets.  Very tired legs by the end of it, but I will quickly readjust.  Come and join me in the harvest fields on the streets of Christchurch.  SDG!
 

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On Thursday, the team set out for an afternoon of conversations and it was wonderful. As usual there are people around who are hard hearted but God is still glorified. But one absolute stand out conversation was the final one with, a young lady named, Alexis.

The first chat was with an ex-JW who sadly still believed in God but had just decided to live however he wants. The next was a Brazillian man who would believe literally anything to not have to acknowledge God's existence. Then there was a young girl who saw the problem and left because it was too intense and another girl abruptly disconnected just before comprehending the gospel. There was also Abby who was high and didn't get the gospel as she was very distracted but the absolute standout was the conversation with Alexis.

Alexis professed to be a Christian but then stated that she thought it was her goodness that would be the reason that she entered Heaven. She said, "asking for forgiveness, obey God's rules and trying your best". A good amount of time was spent really displaying how that can't possibly be the solution because the standard is perfection, God says that sin deserves Hell and He cannot let guilt go unpunished.

She tried grasping onto anything she could but there came a point where she saw how serious the predicament is and that really is nothing she can offer God in order to be forgiven. Then the good news was shared and her first response was, "Wow! You're a genius. You really had me worried there but now this really does look like good news!"

She took a little while to further understand the level of forgiveness that is offered and that eternal life is a free gift but once she understood it, she acknowledged although she thought she was a Christian before this conversation she now understands that she wasn't and professed faith from today! She was also silenced and just couldn't stop saying, "Thank you!".

In the end she said, "I've got not more questions to ask but I must say it again, Thank you!" She was blown away but the goodness and kindness of God!

Please be praying for the earlier conversations that God would be drawing those people unto Himself through the fragments they received today but also pray for Alexis that should would start reading her Bible today and that there would be a total life transformation as a result of this conversation!

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On Wednesday the team had another wonderful day of evangelism. There were many great conversations had, some with people who were inconsisent and wilfully ignorant and others with those who were so open that they made every effort to engage in conversation!

One of the things that seems to bring good value to a gospel conversation is leading someone to a place where they realise that they have no idea of any possible solution for how someone who deserves Hell could get into Heaven. This is achieved by asking that question, seeing their answer (usually, "do good works") and then showing them how it doesn't work. This might take a couple of tries but there usually comes a point where they say, "I have no idea" or "Well I suppose everyone goes to Hell". Then the opportunity arises to present the gospel clearly and simply and usually it hits home with greater impact as they realise that it is the only solution.

In an attmept to achieve that today, after the second question this guy realising he had no answer, instead of hearing the good news left. A following chat was with a man who had spoken to another team member who understood the gospel, asked some clarifying questions and then said he'd consider it further.

The real stand out of the afternoon though was a chat with Lucas, Ian and three girls. They were all on together, sitting in the frame and the question was posed. Lucas gave his serious answer, "I think there's an afterlife", Ian said he wasn't sure and one girl said something silly and said, "skip this guy". But Lucas said, "No, I think I want to listen".

They were asked if they all believed in a God and a few said yes, others no, so to make it clear the building builder analogy was given and Ian was shocked! He said, "That makes so much sense".

The group were taken through God's law, their guilt and that all people are deserving of Hell and pretty quickly the girls tuned out but Lucas and Ian stayed on. At one point because of the noise the others were making Lucas picked up the laptop and headed into a different room to finish the conversation! In the end, Lucas was clear on the gospel and made a simple profession of faith, mentioning that he would read John in the near future. Ian stated that he wanted to chat more and so contact was set up for future communication.

Please be praying for those that heard this good news that they would come to faith in Christ alone paying for their sin as the reason they will enter Heaven and that the first two guys would consider seriously the eternity that's coming.

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The good news is that the Covid-19 restrictions in NZ are being loosened.  It looks like we will be able to get back to the streets - with some restrictions.  We are intending to test the waters, in Christchurch, NZ this coming Friday.

It’s actually been hard work adjusting my routine from work on the streets to online.  But it was such a valuable process - and we have learned so much.  Now that I’m established in this new routine, it’s going to be difficult to transition back again - especially with winter setting in.  But I’m hoping some kind of online outreach will continue to be part of my work week once things are back to “normal”.

This report covers online outreach on Tuesday and Wednesday.

As I look at my notes from yesterday (Tuesday), I struggle to remember the faces of the people I’ve talked to.  The reason why is that, with online evangelism, it’s so easy to get conversations started, and so you just talk to so many people.

You get the same thing with street work, but often you’ll see people become interested, and then you can watch the penny drop - it’s so encouraging.  And then, after challenging them to respond, you have to leave them in God’s hands.  I occasionally say to people: “I’ll never see you again in this life, but I hope to see you in heaven”.

An interesting conversation that stands out was one with a guy who’s fire alarm was beeping, indicating it needed a battery change.  I was able to reference this when I was explaining the fireman analogy.  And I was able to remind him to change the battery!

The highlight conversation from Tuesday was a long conversation with a 17 year old kid who was very bright.  It turns out that he had grown up with a mum who had to learn life lessons the hard way - and so she was sheltering him from making the same mistakes.  This is not bad, but the effect on him was to moralise him.  Because he hadn’t gotten into trouble in his life, he considered himself a very good person.  This made what I said very confronting.  He was comparing himself to the wrong thing!  I had to labour with him on this, and he finally came to terms with what I was saying, and then I was able to share the good news with him.  He was highly engaged, and seemed to be really appreciative.  He said that no one had preached to him in this way before.  As always, I leave him in God’s hands.

Today (Wednesday), my first conversation was with a 14 year old “pastor”!  There was a problem with his mic, and I couldn’t hear him, nor him me, so we reverted to text chat while being able to see each other:

You: Can you hear me?
Stranger: Can u hear me ?

And so, instantly I wanted to check where he was at:

You: ok, can I ask you a checking question... don't be offended....
Stranger: sure
You: What do we have to do to go to heaven?
Stranger: obey his rules
Stranger: Commandments
You: ok, how you going with that?

Wrong answer, and very concerning.

Sadly, he didn’t want to talk for long.  But he gave me contact details, and I gave him needGod.net - saying he could contact me from there.

It finished like this:

You: pretend I'm a random on Omegle, what would you say to me?
Stranger: and I would say... no matter what u do, god loves u

If he’ll respond, I’ll try to follow him up.

PS, In the picture, I was able to use the sign on the wall in the conversation!
 

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Oh, it’s Battle Log time again.  My, how time flies.  A wonderful weekend of gospel outreach!

I spent four hours on Saturday morning, and I know the team in Aussie was on for at least four hours in the afternoon.

I was very encouraged to have three others with me right at the start.  Rob from Canada, Daniel from Christchurch, NZ, and someone new… and it turned out this person was from Mumbai in India!  It turns out that he was in a FB apologetics group - one that Grace had also been in.  Grace had told the group about the online outreach we were doing, and so this guy, Sherry, turned up.  Very, very encouraging.  Apologetics is great, but if it’s not connected to sharing the gospel, what’s the point?  Please continue to pray that more Christians will continue to hear about the online outreach, and get involved.

So I had intentions of taking notes of my gospel conversations, but I ended up being so busy discussing the conversations and answering questions of the team, between times, that it just didn’t happen.

Right at the beginning of the outreach, Omegle was having some technical problems, and I wasn’t able to get connected to anyone, but it wasn’t long before things were back to normal and I was into a conversation with a guy from Dubai.  When he found out I was from NZ he steered the conversation to the Lord of the Rings - something he was passionate about!  But I was able to steer the conversation to God's law.  Sadly, he bailed before hearing the gospel.

But I had some wonderful conversations.  There were a couple of girls in Palestine, who had a Christian background, but who weren’t clear on the gospel.  It was a difficult conversation because of bad feedback.  But I persisted, and one of the girls thanked me at the end, she said she needed to hear it.

And I had two people from the US (separate conversations) who knew of Christian things, one of them even went to church, but they thought their goodness would get them to heaven.  And I had the joy of being able to share the gospel and have them come to understand it.  I now enjoy asking people this: “So, at the start of this conversation, what were you trusting in to get to heaven?”, and they would say, “my good deeds”.  And then I will say: “So now that we have had this conversation, what do you now understand you need to trust in to get to heaven?”.  And they will articulate the gospel: “that Jesus died on the cross to pay my hell fine” (or something similar).  I will then challenge them to actually do that!

It’s such a joy to be able to do this as a full time job, my deepest thanks to Operation 513 for the support, and specifically to those that are donating to Operation 513 to make that happen.  Thank you!  And also to those that are praying, and supporting in other ways.  We can’t do this alone - we are a team!  Yet, we all have a responsibility to share this wonderful gospel - get encouraged and equipped to do so, consider joining an online outreach - you will be very welcome.

The Sunday afternoon outreach was as wonderful as ever.  Great to see so many new faces.  I was late!  I was taking an afternoon nap, and it was my eldest daughter Haley who woke me to see if we were still doing outreach.  Thanks Haley!  And it was great to have Haley with me for this outreach too.  She was able to share the whole law and the gospel in a conversation today, and she did really well!  She was nervous, but the practice we had been doing as a family kicked in, and I was there for support.

But before we split up into pairs, Bekk did a demo to the whole team.  She did a wonderful job of getting a false convert (most likely) to understand the gospel.  All glory to God.

Haley & I were paired up with Matt, and he had a long and wonderful conversation with a very smart young man from the States, who was a PK (pictured) who had rejected God.  It was a bit of a battle of the titans, yet Matt was very gracious with this guy.  And a couple of times, the guy was willing to concede that Matt had made some good points.  Matt succeeded to get to the heart of the guy's rejection of the obvious - his love of sin.  Haley and I were praying while we were watching.  I just kept thinking of this guy's parents, who were most likely praying daily for his salvation.  He never heard the gospel, as he wasn’t open to it.  But we just pray that the logic and the law would cut deep.  That he would be challenged to actually pick up and read the book he derided and that God’s word would strike true.  That he would open up to, hear and understand the gospel - and be saved.

We give all the glory to God for the opportunities to share His gospel, and for any fruit from the weekends effort.  May His kingdom come.
 

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