Operation 513: "I want to pray to receive Christ"

[Willo]

Saturday, 11th April 2009 - Brisbane

The Easter weekend was here, it is that time of the year when the churches all fill up on the Friday and Sunday, but then remain empty until Christmas. It is that special season when people all serve God with their lips, but in reality their hearts are far from Him. Yet, into this religious season we find ourselves being the busiest in comparison to any other season.

It has been drizzling rain all day so I expected a slower night in the city. For a city that is still officially in drought it is amazing how much rain we have been getting over the past few days and weeks. While some ministries refuse to work during the rain we have found that we get some of our best conversations happen when people are all taking shelter from the water.

The mall was near on deserted when we arrived at 9pm, and I must admit it was a bit discouraging, but as I looked up and down the mall I noticed a man dressed in a black leather jacket walking towards us. This man is familiar to us, he was no other than the ?famed? Brisbane Atheist Alex. Once he was on the scene we knew it would be a night of ridiculous arguments from the atheist camp, but it would also serve to bring in the crowds to hear the gospel.

It was good to have my evangelist mentor from the ?Young Evangelist Mentoring Group? to come out on the streets tonight. As I was setting up I noticed Graham Sercombe standing undercover talking to a young man about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Andre was the first preacher up for the night, his preaching has improved dramatically. His messages drip with theology and he presents it in a way that the common man can grasp and understand. He is also getting louder as a preacher which is really good. While Andre was preaching a group of Samoans surrounded him and began to speak really loud, to top it off Alex was walking back and forth screaming obscenities. Since Andre was being drowned out I moved in next to the Samoans and engaged them in a one to one conversation. Slowly I moved them out of the face of the preacher and began to reason with them. Like most Samoans they were religious but they hadn?t any idea when it came to knowing Christ personally. So I began to explain to them the gospel. One of the boys became distracted and walked off, but the other remained and listened. He was really open to the Good News about Jesus. It was then that I noticed that Graham had come alongside the other guy and was now engaging him in conversation. The group all took in-depth gospel tracts and a Gospel of John each. It was really encouraging to see these young men grasp the truth of the Scripture. Graham even got to pray for one of them.

By now Ryan was up preaching and Alex was still in there heckling. He stood before Ryan with his iPod on yelling abuse. This continued for some time. Alex would put an argument up but before Ryan could answer he would put his ear piece back in. The back and forth continued for some time. Finally two members from the Queensland Police Service who were walking past tapped Alex on the shoulder and told him to be quiet or move on. This stopped Alex in his tracks, he didn?t yell anything more for the rest of the night. Ryan continued to preach a good size crowd gathered around to hear the Gospel.

By now the night was getting on, and since I had been sick all week with a head cold I thought it would be wise to only preach a short 10 - 20 minute message. God however had other plans. As I began to preach a few people stopped including one man who was a Roman Catholic. He engaged me about how God is all forgiving, I showed him from the Bible that God is not all forgiving, but He will forgive on the basis of what Christ has done.

For forty five minutes I reasoned with this man and preached the Gospel of Christ. Afterwards there were many conversations about the gospel. May people get saved for His Glory!




Week of E - Report by Josh Williamson and Ryan Hemelaar

Monday, 13th April 2009 - Gold Coast

Easter Monday holiday, and once again the cloud cover came in and rain was threatening. Today we started our first ever ?Week of E? which will run each school holidays, what we do is go to the one spot and for each day in the holidays we will preach and witness on that one spot for a week.

Today the team was made up of Ryan, Andre, Joel, Amy and myself. My voice was sore from preaching on Saturday night and also preaching at Rosalie Baptist Church on Sunday morning, so I planned not to preach.

Andre stood up the preach first, and all I can say is WOW! It was the best sermon I have ever heard him preach. For about twenty minutes he expounded on what the Gospel is. And he had a crowd for the whole time, the crowd was made up of mostly middle age to older people all who stood and just listened.

Afterwards both Ryan and I ended up preaching, and during our short three hours on the Gold Coast we were able to distribute thousands of tracts and have many one to ones. The week is shaping up to be exciting.

Tuesday 14th April 2009 - Gold Coast
Josh had a Church meeting today, but I still made my way to the coast. I was able to have many great conversations with people and hand out stacks of gospel tracts. A guy called Dave, who is part of Open Air Campaigners, joined me later in the afternoon and he set up a flip chart to share the gospel with people. Quite a few people stopped to hear and see the gospel message being presented by him.

During this time, I had a rather in-depth conversation with a Sikh fellow. He wanted to go to Heaven, but after bringing him through the commandments, he realised he didn't deserve to go there. So I explained that he must repent of his sin and trust that they only reason he'll go to Heaven is because of Jesus' death. After asking him when will he do that, he said he believes in Jesus, but also every other religion as being correct as well. That is one of the fundamental beliefs of the Sikh religion, they must believe that all other religions are true as well. But I explained to him that it is impossible for someone to truely believe that every religion is correct. He asked why. So I explained that since Jesus said He is the only way to get to Heaven, Jesus was saying that every other religion is false. So therefore, if someone wants to believe that Christianity is true, they must also believe that every other religion is not the way to Heaven. The fellow understood that, but said, "My scriptures say that I'm not allowed to convert to other religions" - which is rather ironic, because if all religions are true, there shouldn't be a problem in converting to another "true" religion. So I explained to the man that since the Sikh Scriptures are logically inconsistent (in saying that all religions are true), there is no point holding to something that is plain wrong. Please pray that God will convert this man from his work-righteous religious system.

Wednesday, 15th April 2009 - Gold Coast

I was running a bit late, so I arranged to meet Ryan down the Coast today. As I arrived and began to walk to Cavil Avenue I heard a yell from a passing car, it turned out the Joel, Glenda and Amy Barnard had all come down the Coast as well. So we met up and made our way to the beach front for some witnessing.

One the walk in we were able to hand out many tracts and engage in some great conversations.

Upon arriving on the beach front we had a quick lunch then Ryan began to preach. He did a great job in expounding the gospel and telling people how they can come to know Christ. Afterwards we were able to hand out many tracts again and also talk to people one to one.

At the end of the day when leaving something awesome happened. On Saturday, I was handing out gospel tracts and one of the Metre Maids came over to say that I was doing a very good job and asked what Church I go to. She then asked, "Do you think it is inappropriate for me to be wearing what I'm wearing." I said that the Bible does say that you should not cause another person to stumble into sin. She then asked a couple of other Bible related questions, like "What do you think will happen in the end times?", etc.

On the Tuesday, I ran into them again on the street and was able to present the law and the full gospel to both of the girls that were on duty. One of them was really interested in the message, but the other not as much. However the following day, I returned and asked them if they thought about the message I told them the previous day. They said they had and they both wanted me to pray with them to receive Christ as Lord and Saviour. So I did. Then they informed me that it was one of the girls' last day on the job and she'd be moving back to the Whit Sundays. Praise God she was able to hear the gospel before she left the Gold Coast! The other girl said that she would now also be having a change of career as well. To God be the glory!

Thursday, 16th April 2009 - Gold Coast

Ryan and I were the only ones who could make it to the Coast today, but we were both fairly excited about the ministry opportunities that would present themselves. We followed the usual practice of tracting everyone up on our walk in, this in turn then produced one to one conversations. That is something I really love about the Gold Coast, it is extremely easy to get a conversation with someone.

After a quick lunch I decided it would be a good time to preach. So I stood up and spoke about how Australians like a week off, then I swung it around to why we have Easter off and what its significance is.

A crowd gathered and I had three really rowdy young people all of whom attend ?Christian? school start to heckle me. There heckles were basic at best. ?There is no god? was their cry, but they weren?t open to being shown otherwise. Although towards the end one of them had changed, he was listening. Please pray that God would convert him.

The crowds stayed around for about an hour, God was kind enough to allow His word to go out, and many people heard the good news of salvation.

Friday, 17th April 2009 - Gold Coast

The final day of the Week of E. Again it was just Ryan and I that went out, but once again God blessed the ministry. We both preached today and both of us had fairly good size crowds stop and listen to the gospel. It was also very good to actually see some people who had come to the last 2 -3 days of preaching. While Ryan was preaching there were a few of the normal heckles like ?Prove God exists? etc. Ryan dealt with them and then proceeded to preach Jesus Christ.

After Ryan finished it was my turn to preach. I started by using Amos 4:12 and asking people are they prepared to meet God. A few young ladies stopped to listen so I engaged the most vocal one of them. She was very hostile to the things of God, but she brought a crowd in. She kept asking questions like ?What about homosexuals, does God love them?? I kept bringing back her questions to the fact that Jesus was a friend of sinners and He loves sinners. But that doesn?t mean they can stay in sin.

At the end the majority of the crowd took tracts. Please pray for all those who heard the gospel this week. May God save them for His Glory!

Soli Deo Gloria!

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

For other Operation 513 team reports visit: http://www.operation513.com/battlelog.php