Operation 513: "The Pirates are Here!"

[Willo]

Saturday, 22 November, 2008
New time, new day, but same old gospel. Today was the first day that we went out and witnessed on the Gold Coast on a Saturday afternoon.

It was good to have a six man team join us today, and it was really good to have a friend from the United States of America come out witnessing with the team. Terry Berg is in country for a couple of weeks with work, but he made time to come out and hit the streets with us. For that we are very grateful, it was good to labour alongside this brother who has such a passion for the lost.

Where we normally preach was shut down today due to the fact that Schoolies was beginning. Each year all year 12 graduates converge on the Gold Coast for a week of sex, booze and drugs. Since, it was the first day it was overly busy.

After arriving I approached two members of the Gold Coast police and asked them where we could preach since our normal area was sealed off, they were very kind, and pointed us in the direction of a location which they believed to be ideal for open air evangelism.

So we headed down to where we were to preach and found it to be very quiet with few people standing around. Ryan preached for a few minutes, and while he was preaching I spotted another location which would probably be better. The new area was located opposite to the Schoolies registration line, which meant that all the Schoolies had to line up where we were preaching, if they wished to get into the parties.

Once set up I preached first, and since this was a high walk through traffic area no one stopped, but those in the lines got to hear a gospel message. I spoke about how Schoolies is all about living it up in sin, but then reminded those who heard that God will call them to give an account for the actions they do in the coming week.

After I finished preaching, Terry Berg got up and preached on ?What is Love? , a handful of people stopped but it was a very quiet crowd. He spoke for some time about love being God sending Christ Jesus to die in the place of sinners. It was a good message, and I enjoyed listening to it. No doubt, I will still some of his lines, or perhaps even the whole sermon.

After Terry preached we spent some time handing out tracts and witnessing one to one. Ryan was machine in this time, he would run from person to person, and nearly with everyone he gave tracts to, he ended up in a one to one.

At about 2pm, David open air preached, and did a good job. I really think he should focus a lot more on open air preaching, because the more he does it the more he will develop. Then, it was time for Ben Smith to break the sound barrier, his first time open air preaching. He started off a little slow, but then he kicked into preacher mode, and he did a great job for a first time preacher.

It was now time for Ryan to preach again, as the trend with all other preachers for the day, a crowd did not form, but a few people got to hear the gospel. While Ryan was preaching they closed down the registration line in front of us, and moved it around to the beach. This was still in range of our voices, so once Ryan finished preaching I got up and began to speak.

I spoke on the reality of death and dying, and how each year people will die at schoolies. Not long into my preaching a security guard came over and ordered me to move, I told him that I was busy and would speak to him when I finished preaching, he didn?t like that, so he told me he would get the police, which is something I encouraged him to do since the police had already been past once and had no issues with our preaching.

God was good to us, and He drew a small crowd in. A couple of men who stood to listen are Muslims, and they thanked me for my preaching and said they wanted to learn more. They left with a couple of Arabic tracts and also a tract looking at who Jesus Christ is.

After this we had a quick time of prayer then made our way home.

God be praised for His great grace!


Saturday, 22 November, 2008

My body was aching as I made my way into Brisbane city, I had already preached twice today on the Gold Coast, and I wasn?t sure if my voice would last long with preaching in Brisbane. The team followed its normal routine of prayer and Bible reading, then we made our way into the Queen Street Mall.

Once in the mall we were met by ?Long John? Alex the Pirate. For some strange reason this week he was dressed up as pirate and he was also handing out atheist ?tracts? called ?The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?. But Alex wasn?t just dressed like a pirate, he also spoke like a pirate. This turn of events made it hard for us to preach, as it is extremely difficult to proclaim the Word of God while laughing at a fully grown man running around dressed as a pirate.

Andrew Hsu preached first, and while he preached I spoke to Josh the Atheist who was apart of the ?pirate crew?. We had a brief yarn about spiritual matters, and also about the atheist pirates.

During the preaching Alex would run around to different people saying ?Argg!? then offer them an atheist tract, a few people took the tracts, but we made sure to be right behind offering a biblical tract. Some of the atheists found it funny and stated that Christianity couldn?t be taken seriously, but they stopped saying those things when we pointed out that Alex was dressed as a pirate.

After Andrew finished preaching Ralph had a go, and he presented a good apologetic, then Ryan took over and tried to engage Alex but much to everyone?s surprise Alex refused to engage in public discussion, so of the team suggested that the reason for this is that each week Alex?s arguments get smacked for six. So I guess if you can?t beat the preachers, then Alex has to become a pirate to look good.

Towards the end of the night, I began to preach but I soon found my voice was going quickly. I spent about 10 minutes expounding on the law, and pointing out our need of a Saviour, then before going into a grace message, I tagged Ralph in as my voice was nearly gone.

Ralph finished off the night by preaching a good gospel message. A few people stopped to talk, and a fair few took tracts. Overall it was a good night, even though it was a pirate night.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Full report with pictures: http://www.operation513.com

Do you live in Australia or the United Kingdom? Are you interested in street evangelism? If so then contact Operation 513 to find out how you can join our street teams in either, Brisbane, Gold Coast, London or Sheffield. Also, find out how you can be apart of special outreaches that are held throughout the year. Together we can reach this world for Christ.

[John81]

Praise God the Word is going out!