Battle Log

Page 97

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There was much outreach on Thursday and Friday in Christchurch, NZ.  Some wonderful gospel conversations, some very hard gospel conversations.

The highlight was a ten minute gospel conversation I had with a man at the Northlands bus stops.  He believed in God, heaven and hell.  He also thought he was good enough to go to heaven, but he was keen to try the good person test to confirm this.  So we went through the mini flip chart together.  Going through the law, and understanding the holiness of God was an eye opener for him, and then he heard the wonderful good news of justification by faith in Jesus sacrifice.

I then took him through the first checking question, and his instant response was: “I need to do good deeds”.  I was amazed, but not surprised at all.  So I wound back and took him through the gospel again.  He was really enjoying the conversation, and he got the checking question right the second time: “trust that Jesus paid my fine”.

I then proceeded to the second question: an analogy about a guy who trusts that Jesus paid his fine, but then sins five minutes later then dies.  Heaven or Hell?  He responded with Hell.  To my amazement, he articulated that the reason we go to heaven is by trusting that Jesus paid the fine… but he said, but you have to be a good person too.  He had gone from believing his good deeds would save him, to simply adding Jesus to his good works!  So I was able to explain that it was only by faith we are saved, and not by our works.

And then his thinking went to exactly what the mini flip chart was anticipating.  He said, “but that means we can trust Jesus paid our fine, and then do whatever we want, right?”.  He was finally understanding the grace of God!  It was my joy to turn the page and use the fireman analogy to explain that if we are trusting that Jesus has paid our fine, we will be a changed person.  If we understand His great sacrifice, we won’t want to sin any more (even though we will), out of thankfulness we will want to obey Jesus, and there will be a growing holiness in our lives.  He understood!

It was about now that his bus arrived and he had to go, he seemed to really appreciate the conversation, and took a tract before he dashed off.

Yes, the gospel message is a simple message, but I’m really appreciating that the concept of faith alone is very foreign and needs to be explained well.  It’s so natural to think we need to be good people to earn favour and reward.  But we are saved by grace, through faith in Jesus to the glory of God alone!

If you haven’t already got one, get a mini flip chart and try it out.  You can purchase here: NZ, AU

So many other gospel interactions occurred, but I don’t have the time to write about them: I had a follow up with a young man who said he went to church on Sunday.  He listened as I shared the gospel with two others beside him, and afterwards he agreed that it is truly good news.  I saw my regular JWs again.  They were happy to talk, but only if it was about the weather.  Our debates have been a bit “stressful”.  I continue to pray for them.

It didn’t all go well though.  I was sitting down taking notes of a conversation when a lady sat down next to me, once I had finished with my notes, I turned to her and offered her a tract.  She semi exploded: “no, I'm not interested, take it away!”.  I said: “no problem, you have a nice day”.  She wasn’t expecting me to react that way, and she calmed down: “you have a nice day too”.

Once I was at Eastgate, one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had occurred.  A offered a tract to a guy.  When he saw it he gave a disgusted look and walked off.  But then he turned around and wanted to talk about it.  So we settled into a long conversation, where he challenged me, and, by God’s grace, I was able to give him reasonable answers.  He slowly started getting agitated, but I kept responding to his arguments.  And I think this was a mistake.  I should have backed off, as he wasn’t open to any truth or reason.  He just became angry.  Eventually he started getting out of control, so I said, “look, you need to calm down, I’m not going to answer if you get upset”.  Eventually I stopped responding to him, but this just enraged him more and he started getting abusive and racist.  I tried looking him in the eyes, I tried looking at his feet.  But it was out of hand and nothing was working.  So I said, “look, I need to go”, and I started walking off, but this just enraged him more.  He started standing in front of me so I couldn’t walk away.  I was left with no choice, so I pulled out my phone and called the Police.  When he saw that I was actually dialing the emergency number (I didn’t know what the non emergency number was), he left (thankfully).  I talked to the police, and I apologised for disturbing them, but they were very understanding, and wanted to take details in case he came back and I needed to call again.  I thank God for my protection.  And I was very grateful for the understanding of the police.

I was rattled.  But I wasn’t going to let this stop me.  I stayed and had two more gospel conversations before leaving.

So that was just the highlights of Thursday, and I haven’t had a chance to write about Friday yet - I’ll leave that to the next report.  Thank you for your prayers!  We don’t need to fear man, or the devil - the worst they can do is take our life.  Fear God!
 

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I had more opportunities to interact with people while letterbox dropping on Tuesday.  I took a few minutes to help a guy get some stuff off a trailer - he took a tract.  And then I was able to help somebody in a mobility scooter with directions (Google Maps to the rescue!) - they also took a tract.

After that, I moved to Riccarton.  It was windy, so I decided to leave the big flip chart behind.  Roger joined me, but decided to bring his flip chart.  Before he had even had a chance to finish setting it up, he was into a gospel conversation!

Once that conversation was complete, I helped Roger finish setting up his flip chart, while he was busy gathering more people to talk to.  He had much success, and we started engaging two high school students.  They needed to get going, but one of them claimed to be a Christian - so I challenged him on the way to heaven.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear him say that many people think it’s their good works, but it’s actually trusting in Jesus sacrifice!

But while this was happening, a couple (he had a catholic background and she had a protestant one) stopped intrigued by the big flip chart, and so a conversation developed with them.  Roger was keen to see the new mini flip chart in action, and so I shared the gospel with them using that.  During the conversation, she had many good questions, which Roger and I did our best to answer.  In hindsight, I feel like I didn’t do a good job giving her answers.  Often people are trying to ask questions in a veiled way - they want answers without giving details.  This was a good reminder to slow down and take the time to listen and clarify (via counter questions).

Roger had to leave early, so to finish the outreach, I decided to head down to the bus stops to engage people there.  I got into a conversation with a high school student with a fascinating background.  He was from Pakistan and apparently had a mum who was a catholic, but a dad who was muslim.  I wasn’t surprised to hear that he thought his good deeds would get him to heaven!  He was engaged as I took him through the law, and then showed him the only hope we have for heaven: the gospel

Wednesday’s outreach to the city had an interesting start.  A young man was boldly walking up to people and trying to give them a large pamphlet!  I called out saying I’d like one and I was surprised to see that it was a watchtower magazine.  The JWs are not usually as bold as this on the streets.  It turns out it was a young man with much zeal but little knowledge - and he wasn’t a JW.  He knew plenty of Christian lingo, and gave me a long list of things someone needed to do to go to heaven.  I was able to pull out my mini flip chart and explain the gospel - he seemed to appreciate it.  He asked if I had any pamphlets - I gave him a tract before we parted ways.

After I set up the flip chart, I got into a conversation with a lady I first met last week.  She was keen to try the flip chart - but we didn’t get past the first page.  I wasn’t able to reason with her on a basis for good and bad.  She was getting slightly upset, and so I decided to just shake hands with her and let her go.  She had received a tract the previous day.

But I had a number of other gospel conversations, and was pleasantly surprised to be engaged long enough to let me go 45 minutes longer on the street than I was planning.

I had a long conversation with two teen guys, who started asking me the veiled questions.  So, learning from yesterday, I slowed down to really listen and do my best to make sure they were getting the best answers I could give.  They clearly understood the gospel, but they understood the cost and were counting it as they left.

I finished up with a fresh chat with a young man we have had many discussions with in the past.  I was surprised to learn that he had been involved with a church.  We connected on Facebook.

I’m grateful to God for the opportunity to share His gospel over these two days.  Thank you for your support that is enabling me to do this!  Thinking of joining me?  Just do it!
 

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Battle Log for Toowong Village for Tuesday February 4th , 2020 from 1330 to 1500

This was a day of contrasts :
1) From extreme scorching hot to 36C yesterday dropping down to 24C today with good breeze in the noon time which made our street evangelism much pleasant;

2) Team size further dropped from 5 to 3 today because of members are bounded for 2 weeks self isolation at home, but the works of God could still be visualized despite of short of hand. So with Col, Hung and Yuen Hang, we all have less but still very significant divine appointment. This is a typical way of God, using small team to do His great work like Gideon.

3) From strong rejections by many earlier approaches to a full receptive and fruit bearing contact at the end signifying the sovereign almighty work of God despite of external situations.

Recap below is my divine appointment accounts : -

1) Spanish Mun and daughter who appeared not English speaking but still took a tract from me as well as answering short chat with Col later.

2) I went to the bus stop and sat down with a young lady. She quickly fence off my approach asking if I was going to share about God which she rejects utterly after bad experience of being Christian once. I managed to get the conversation on by putting aside the issue if God exists as it is something beyond rational proof. I kept stressing the problem of us the human being who keep sinning that will lead to grave consequence of eternal death punishment. Anyhow, this strong atheist still rejected to chat on any issue she considered religious. She even resort to keep me at a distance by removing herself to wait for the bus at the bus stop sign instead of the covered seat waiting area. This was possibly the strongest gesture of rejection I have ever encountered which was very discouraging. Anyhow, I learned later God just wanted me to see a great contrast of positive and fruitful approach at the end of our Street evangelism hours.

3) A Philippine lady took my tract and was prepared to chat but chance aborted by the immediate arrival of her bus.

4) After wondering around for a while to look for gospel target, God let me to bump in with the Malaysian Old man Mr Han I met two weeks ago on 14/1 at the very last moment of our ministry hour. He was visiting relative with his wife, yet he still has not yet gone to the church I recommended. Obviously he has been living his life as a nominal Christian not attending church regularly even at home in Malaysia. My friendly reminder anyway may serve as a catalyst to push him closer back to church during his stay in Brisbane.

5) Jerry Hsu徐from Wuxi 無鍚Jiang Su is an IT Student of UQ. He was approached by Col first but was quickly referred to me to communicate better in Mandarin. His heart was so soften that he willingly chatted with me over 40 minutes neglecting the coming and going of bus. He was ready to receive Christ and I referred him to connect with P2C then the churches. Col and I reckoned, this was an extraordinary exhibition of God's power in an adverse situation giving us this rare good quality outreach we ever have in this Toowong Outreach harvest field that have been characterized by short gospel chatting opportunities being cut in short fragmented time slot because of the frequent bus traffic. All glory be to God in all Street Evangelism ministry encounter.

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On Saturday, It was cold and raining but by God's grace God has sent around 10 labourers !. As it was raining we could not use the big flip charts but we had 3 small flip charts.  Surprisingly, despite of the weather God has been so gracious to allow us to have wonderful conversations with non-believers about the glorious gospel. After prayer and sharing of word, we paired up and went out to the street with exciting heart. 

Our first conversation was with two guys who were part of 'anonymous for the voiceless' who promotes veganism and advocates for protection of animals etc. As we started conversation with them, one of the guy had fair bit knowledge about the bible but they were against God who allows human to kill and eat the animals as it is cruel thing to do and they were taking us far from the sharing main point of the gospel so we shared that as they want to let people know that animals are being abused, mass produced and killed so that animals won't have to die like that we told them we care about 'HUMAN BEINGS' who are dying and going to hell and we do not want them to die like that and animals do not have eternity but man do and urge them to repent and believe that Jesus died and rose again in our place, Jesus Christ our ultimate advocator. 

I also met Japanese lady who wanted to become dolphin in her after life, Michael was her name. She was very honest and engaged well in conversation and she found 'where do you think you are going after you die' question interesting. But when the law of God was displayed and asked, we could clearly see that she was getting really uncomfortable and when we reached the last question about committing adultery in her heart she got up and left, Michael took the gospel tract so please pray that she will read the tract and be saved. 

Costa was gentleman who claimed to be greek orthodox but when we ask about the gospel he responded saying "I believe in Karma". So we had to share why Karma isn't biblical and contradicts the gospel and shared the gospel with him by using the flip chart. Please pray for Costa who heard the Gospel. 

From Huy Do:-

I had prayed that God would not make it rain on this day, so that we could street preach, but it was not so, yet during all of this, although the Lord had not stopped the weather from raining, He had carried out other means by which His name could also be glorified in the proclamation of His glorious Gospel. This happened as I was sharing the Gospel to a lady and her boyfriend, I went over the law, during which, I perceived that her heart was cut but the commandments of God. That she was, as I saw, convicted of the commandments and saw the righteous condemnation of God for her. I asked her and her boyfriend “what did God do so as to not compromise His justice and punish sins but at the same time forgive sins?”. To which she answered with a mild “Jesus died for my sins”, I stated that she was right but what she might not know is that Jesus paid for her sins on the cross by Himself becoming sins and suffering the righteous punishment that she rightly deserved, that if they repented and believed in the Gospel, they shall be saved. I praise God that He used this broken, afflicted yet redeemed vessel to proclaim that which redeemed this vessel, the blood of Jesus, for His glory. Please pray for the couple that was spoken to.

Soli Deo Gloria !!! 

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On Saturday 1st February 4 of us from Church met for men's breakfast in Torpoint before heading out into the small town. It has a population of around 8000 people and is always very difficult to engage people with conversation. We prayed and had a few conversations with people and handed out some tracts but often hard to get people to stop for any length of time.

However in Plymouth the weather was good and I managed to cart the trolley to the spot and was arranging to meet 4 other people. A lady from another church I knw had sent me an encouraging email after hearing of the work we were doing and arranged to meet us. A man called Dan almost immediately approached us as I was setting up enquiring about the intelligence test questions. He had come out of prison not too long ago and had a bottle of beer in his hand and was with his girlfriend but stopped to talk for around 20 minutes, going through the intelligence test questions with him and the the good person test. 

He seemed to engage and understood and was very appreciative of the conversation and gladly took some tracts and said he would think about what we had discussed, as well as his girlfriend and her friend that had come along during the chat.

Simon, Della, Laurie and Ed joined us later on, and we handed out lots of tracts, and had another conversation with two people fom Cornwall called Callum and Tina. He said he was a spiritualist and could hear from dead people, so we went through the good person test and explained what he was actually doing was contacting familiar spirits who were demons impersonating people, and that although he thought he was doing a good thing it was very dangerous. His friend Tina said she was a Christian and again they took lots of tracts to read and a Kent Hovind DVD about Dinosaurs and the age of the earth he was interested in.

Laurie had a great conversation with a very quiet spoken and humble man called Ali about the gospel and he took some literature to read. There were also lots of students from different schools in town by Macdonald's which led to some good chats. 

Later on I managed to reach about the death of Kobe Bryant and the impact he had in society but no amount of fame, fortune or family could prevent his death or be taken with him into eternity, and thee need for people to think about their own mortality and the conscience they all had telling them that God was real and trying to hide away from acknowledging His existence because of a love of sin. A few people stopped to hear the message which was for around 20 minutes and tracts handed out afterwards

At the end a 17 year old girl and her two young sisters came to ask some questions. She had been taught about the big bang and evolution in school and so Simon used the presuppositional arguments to show her she already knew that God existed and she listened and took some tracts to read. It was a great day as we had not been out as a team for quite a few weeks due to bad weather and various work commitments so Laurie prayed afterwards that the gospel seed would not be taken away and would penetrate peoples hearts and they would think about what they had heard and read that day.

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Various providences resulted in Fynn being the team at Wellington Point and later at Capalaba bus stop. The Lord gave him time with a former seminary student who had the old liberal habit of believing some parts of the Bible. He was not open but was presented with the gospel before leaving him in the Spirit's custody.

       There were also some encouraging chats at the bus stop. The response of one person leads us to pray that the Spirit  would bring him into the King's everlasting kingdom. 

     When Gabriel told Joseph, "You shall call His name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins," He gave us a certainty to evangelizing. To Him be the glory and praise. If He chooses to save someone by 1000 evangelists or 1, He will do it.

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Sunday afternoon was not only an Operation 513 outreach to Cashel Mall (in Christchurch NZ), but it was the first monthly “Outreach Sunday” for Redemption Church.  Not only did all four elders of the Church get behind this initiative (bringing their families out with them), but there were a total of 27 people from the church involved!  It was a sweltering 33 degrees celsius - but that didn’t stop the enthusiasm.

For me, as one of the elders, my biggest prayer was that those that got involved would have a positive experience of community/street outreach like this; seeing that people are indeed open and willing to discuss the important questions of life, and hear the gospel message of Jesus.  As far as I’m aware, God answered that prayer!

The most poignant memory from the outreach was the end of the very last flipchart conversation I had.  It was a harder one, with a young man from China.  I think the gospel concepts I was explaining were quite foreign, so I had to be patient - but I’m fairly confident he eventually understood.  As he left (with a Bible from me and various tracts that he had received earlier in the outreach from kids handing them to him), I looked up to see Anna, with Luke in the pushchair beaming a smile at me and giving me a double thumbs up.  I guess she was encouraged - and that greatly encourages me!

It was wonderful watching people walking down the mall, reading the gospel tracts as they were going.

It was also wonderful hearing people saying, “no thanks, I’ve already got one” - to an offered gospel tract.

I watched Jason (pictured) have a long chat with a young German tourist (who had turned down an offer to try the flip chart with me).  Although very resistant initially, he willingly stayed to the point where he came to understand the gospel.  I watched them exchange contact details.

Near the end of the outreach, Jason had another gospel conversation with a lady who had grown up in a Southern Baptist environment in the USA, but had (unbelievably) never sewn all the gospel concepts into an understandable whole.  The penny dropped today!

It was very encouraging to hear a report of Toby, who has only been involved with two outreaches prior (Tell Me Conference, and Canterbury A&P Show) being willing to initiate a walk up conversation!

May Redemption Church continue to grow in their confidence in sharing the good news of Jesus regularly in this way, and may that lead to more confidence in sharing Jesus in their personal relationships too.  May the other churches in Christchurch, NZ, and beyond get involved as well.  May Elders across the land - indeed the whole world - continue to show leadership in the area of evangelism.  May God receive glory through the obedience of His children sharing the gospel, and the salvation of the lost by His grace!

I was also in the city on Saturday: Cathedral Square and Cashel Mall.  The outreach started quite slowly - with plenty of people, but no one interested in stopping to chat.  But I eventually started my first conversation, and ended up having a good outreach.  At one point I ended up sandwiched between the Hara Krisina’s and a soprano singing trumpeter!  :D  I had to move!

Oh Lord, raise up labourers for the harvest!  Continue to encourage and equip Christians for the great commission.  All to the glory of your name.
 

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We were a team of four from Covenant Grace Baptist Church in Timaru who went to our neighboring town of Temuka to help evangelise there. We met & prayed together at Temuka Baptist, before heading into the main street.

My friend and I talked to several people. The first was a young Asian woman, and despite a slight language barrier, my friend seemed to be able to communicate a clear gospel message to her.

Next we spoke to a young American tourist (Evan) for almost an hour. We tag teamed our way through the conversation and Evan was open to discuss and think about what we talked about. He admitted that despite a Christian influence in the past (family), that he has not and seemed not ready to submit and commit himself to Christ yet. He did seem moved by the conversation and thanked us for talking with him. He also left with a couple of tracts. Please pray for Evan.

Our last conversation was with an older gentleman who identified himself as a Catholic and no matter how I tried to keep the conversation Gospel centred, he just jumped all over the place in terms of topics, with little to no logical connection. He refused any tracts.

The rest of our team also had thought provoking conversations. 

We aim to do evangelism in Temuka every Saturday for the next few months. Thus continued prayers are appreciated. Thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

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Today was just awesome !!!!!  We had 4 people on team James, Robert, Andrew and Col and everyone had such wonderful conversations.

So many people clearly heard the good news. It's like every week God is touching the hearts of so many who are then open to the gospel.

Please pray for all those we talked to and please pray that God will continue to use the Redcliffe team for his purpose. Nothing we say can bring a person to repentance if God is not in it. Could you please put us on your prayer lists, thanks so much.

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It was an unusual set of outreaches to the Eastgate and Northlands bus stops this week, because, sadly, I ended up talking to a lot of people under the influence of alcohol: either drunk or hungover.  And all this on a Thursday afternoon!

Some may think it’s a waste of time talking to someone who is drunk - will they remember what was talked about are they worth it?  They are just as worthy as me!  I had a compassion for them, and a realisation that they are just as spiritually dead as the rest of us in our sin (apart from Christ).  It is impossible for me to save drunk people - or anyone, but Christ can, through the preaching of the gospel.  So I persisted.

It started with a man in a bus shelter at Eastgate, drinking a can of beer.  It turns out Andy has spoken to him before, and he had some recollection of that.  I patiently tried to reason with him and explain the bad news of the law, and the good news of the gospel.  There were moments, where he tried to comprehend, but he said it was confusing.

Suddenly, a lady - also drunk, barged into the conversation.  She wanted to sit right between us, so I shuffled over so she could.  Her language was really foul, and she was being rude.  But I ignored it, and patiently tried to include her in the gospel conversation.  She lied to the first man about not having any cigarettes, because later she tried to sell him one for a can of beer.  And she condemned her father for being a drunk, oblivious to her hypocrisy.

I’m not sure if I made much progress with either of them.  But God loved us so much, that he died for us, even when we were His enemies.  May He have mercy on them too!

Latter, after they had both left, I cleaned up four empty beer cans from the bus shelter.

I moved over to the next bus shelter, and started a conversation with a young man, he was happy for me to talk, but his eyes glazed over a bit, which was discouraging - he wasn’t interested.  He said he had a hangover, and the conversation was a bit too heavy for him.

But another guy came into the shelter whom I recognised.  It turns out I had spoken to him outside the hospital about nine months ago.  He couldn’t tell me the way to heaven, but he was keen to hear it - but his bus was three minutes away!  I didn’t make it to the gospel, but he happily received a gospel tract.

At Northlands, I had one of the most intense conversations I’ve ever had.  It was with an ex-soldier, again drunk.  He challenged me on why he should believe in a God, and after a few minutes was about to walk off.  Thankfully I was able to keep him engaged enough so he stayed to talk.  This guy had seen some horrendous stuff in action and was wrestling with some deep hurts and sin.  He was suicidal, and I often I had to bring him back to the knowledge that there is real hope (in Christ) and not to kill himself.  I didn’t let this guy justify his sin - he swung from talking about some deep sins, but then saying he wasn’t bad enough for hell.  At the same time, I was doing my best to explain how even the worst of sins could be justly forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus and faith in Him.  This guy took a contact card for my church, and a gospel tract.

Friday morning we were back outside the Hospital bringing the gospel to the issue of abortion.  The highligh for me was a conversation with an ex-muslim man.  He wanted to take a photo of us to post on social media - no problem with us.  We had a great conversation where I was able to explain the basis for abortion being murder and the hope of forgiveness through faith in Christ.

At lunch time we were in Cathedral Square where Marty and Andy both preached in the open air.  I had a good follow up conversation with a guy who had heckled my open air preaching a few months prior.

In the afternoon, we were at the corner of Cashel Mall and Colombo Street.  I got into a gospel conversation with a lady handing out flyers for Uber Eats.  She had listened to many of my gospel conversations on Wednesday, and had received a tract.  But now I was able to talk with her directly.

Unfortunately, that conversation was interrupted by a new atheist (one who believes religion has no benefit for society).  He was in attack mode and talking very fast, I could barely keep up!  Eventually I was able to get him to shake my hand and exchange names.  And by the end of the conversation, we were talking about our children with each other.  He eventually received a phone call and had to go.  I didn’t get to finish that conversation with the Uber Eats girl, but hopefully I will have another opportunity.

I found the evening outreach difficult, I was struggling with a fear of man.  But I persisted in my attempts to share the gospel with people.  I was able to challenge four men from Ethiopia, who claimed to be Christian, about what our hope for forgiveness was.
 

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