Battle Log

The Battle Log is the place where reports from each of the Operation 513 evangelism teams are posted.

It gives you a brief idea about what occurred during the outreach and some of the highlights.

Even though there is not a report from each team on the Battle Log every week, all these teams do meet according to the schedule (usually weekly).

So please keep them in prayer and consider joining one if it is in your area.

Christchurch (NZ) Team

A slightly delayed report.  Better late than never!  We were on the streets on Thursday (20th) in Riccarton (Andy & I) and Friday (21st) in the city (Roger, Andy, & I).

 

I turned up early on Thursday, and I knew Andy would be there because I walked past his car on the way to the outreach spot.  And yet, he wasn’t on the corner of Riccarton and Rotherham.  I figured he would be on ‘the loop’, so I decided to go find him.  I completed the loop: no Andy.  Yet, there was a huge stream of high school students heading towards Riccarton Road, coming down Rimu Street.  So, I perched myself on that corner and started handing out gospel tracts.  My stack depleted quickly!

 

I got to have some short but wonderful interactions.  One was a follow-up with a young man who thought the “good person test” was associated with Scientology.  In this interaction, he came to learn that I wasn’t a Scientologist, and he warmed slightly to me.  I hope to see him again and be able to share the gospel with him.  But he wasn’t ready yet.  After he left, his friend apologised for him - it turns out his friend is connected to a large local church, but sadly, he wasn’t able to articulate the gospel to me.  I hope to get more opportunities to talk to him too.

 

Later, on a subsequent run of ‘the loop’, I noticed some ripped-up tracts at the bus stops.  So, as part of my practice, I clean up and place them in the bin (pictured).  Sadly, they are rejecting gold and can’t see it.

 

Back at the corner of Rotherham and Riccarton, the standout chat for me was with a guy from China, who defaulted to atheism with a mix of reincarnation.  He was very open to logic and the gospel.  After a short chat, he readily accepted a copy of the Gospel of John.  Very encouraging.

 

By this stage, Andy had appeared.  It turns out that he had gotten into a good chat with a Muslim from Saudi Arabia who had just moved to NZ; they retired to a coffee shop to continue the conversation there!

 

And speaking of Islam, on Friday, Andy had a chat with another Muslim for at least an hour and a half (pictured).  Andy said he deployed the Islamic Dilemma in that chat.

 

Roger also had an outstanding chat (pictured).  That picture has a rubbish bin theme too.  It makes me think: we are rubbish (I don’t mean that negatively) sharing gold!  2 Co 4:7 (esv): But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

 

Thank you for continuing to pray that God’s strength be shown through our weakness!  All glory to Him alone.

 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday August 19th 2026 from 1030-1130

Initially, I thought I was to do outreach alone but Ann turned up a bit later to team up with me after a good chat amongst oirselves.

My stand out chat today was with a mainlander from Da Lian but already migrated to Australia for 20 odd years. His adaptation and integration to Austrlia life makes him a more relax and open minded person to chat along. More so, his wife is a Chrisitan and he claimed himself a Buddist. However, he show receptiveness to the gospel message especially the point that doing more good deeds can never be enough to offset or compensate for the transgression we have done and that good person is not good enough for heaven but perfection is God's requirement. As an imperfect fallen human being, he admitted we all need salavtion of Jesus to set our record of sin straight again to return to zero. Pray that this conversation will trigger him to ponder the ultimate need to accept Jesus as his saviour and lord of his life.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday August 25th 2026 from 1030-1130

This week perhaps I can only do one day outreach at Toowong as I need to undergo a Biopsy procedure that would cause me not able driving with9in 24 houtrs after the day surgury.

Today, I had short and incomplete chat with a mainlander from Xiamen with his mum, a bit shy but still polite and welcoming for achat. Then encounter seve3ral rejection till I got connected with an Middel East perosns hwo however lived in HKG for 2 and a half year plus his NZ friend. Both are very open as well for a gospel chat. Then I was led to approach an Indonesia girl who surprisingly is a Christian and more so a genuine world Christan with full assurance of salavation. This perhaps is the bonus for today to see God's work gradually in many youger genetration of the Indonesians.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday August 18th 2026 from 1030-1130

I did my solo street outreach again at Toowong after resting last week to take care of my HongKong visitor friends. The weather was not stable with intermittent rain. But as usual, God withold rain while I was doing outreach in open air and let rain fall again after I was done.

The special chat today was with a 2nd year politcal Science UQ student. He is non-religioujs but God might have softened his heart to have a long chat with me and appeared very receptive to the Gospel.

It was a pleasant to do outreach despite of unstable weather but God showed His presnece with me throughout the time at the Toowong bus stop.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

It was nice having a week off!  But also good to get back to it this week.  There were 3 street outreaches this week:  Roger, Graeme, and Sam were out on Tuesday in Riccarton.  Andy, Sam, and I were in Riccarton on Thursday.  And Roger, Andy, and I were in the City on Friday.

 

It was a busy outreach on Thursday.  Sam and I ran a flipchart while Andy was mobile.  One standout chat was with a young man from Africa with a Christian background.  He had to get going, but he was able to stay long enough to hear a brief gospel presentation.  He was very encouraged by the way we were doing evangelism.  But later in the outreach, he came back.  He had had a job interview, but now that that was done, he wanted to have a proper chat with us.  I was able to slow down and bring precision to the presentation. When I got to the ‘sin again’ check, he gently resisted and quoted Romans 6 in response.  This was great, because we now had a chance to really wrestle with this biblical tension: we are saved by grace, for good works (and not by good works).  He let me explain the ‘sin again’ check (Jesus pays for our future sins), and then, to balance it, I gave him the fireman analogy (out of love for Jesus, we don’t want to commit future sins).  And then we stood back and considered both sides of the tension in harmony.  We considered Ephesians 2:8-10 and Romans 1 to 6 in this conversation.  He even pulled out his phone to write the passages down so he could “check it with the Bible” for himself later.

 

After working through all the checks, I challenged him: “Before this chat, why exactly did you think you’d go to heaven when you die?”  He had to admit that he was partly trusting his works, and so I challenged him to change his mind and to search the Scriptures till God gave him an assurance of his salvation.  It was such a great chat!

 

Another standout chat from that outreach was with a tall young man.  At the start of our conversation, it was clear that he never thought about what happens after life, and he seemed a bit perplexed at the concepts I was explaining.  But something in him seemed to wake up and engage in the conversation.  So much so that I was able to slow down and really go through it - I knew I wasn’t going to lose him.  By the end of the chat, he was articulating the gospel clearly.  Sam gave him a Gideon New Testament, and he had a gospel tract summary.

 

The standout chat from Friday’s outreach was a chat with a young couple from India.  They were both nurses, and having just arrived in the country, they were currently searching for jobs.  My daughter has just graduated with her nursing degree, so we were able to talk naturally for a time before I gently steered the conversation to deeper things.  They had a Hindu background.  I don’t get to talk to a lot of Hindu’s so I led the conversation by asking questions about their worldview.  When they made statements, I gently challenged them to understand how they knew the things they were saying were true.  And I had to ask a lot of “what do you mean by that” questions so that we had the best opportunity to understand each other.

 

Through this process, I think they started to see holes in their worldview.  Eventually, the guy had had enough.  He handed me back the gospel tract I had given them at the start and said, “Thank you for your time, but we need to move on”.  That was fine; I didn’t insist they take the tract, and I didn’t push further.  Ploughing had been done.  May the soil be better prepared for the next Christian to come along and continue that conversation.  And maybe share the gospel.

 

Thank you for your continued prayer for this feeble ministry.  May God’s strength be shown through our weakness.  All glory to God alone.

 

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday August 12th 8th 2026 from 1030-1130

I still managed to do solo despite a exhausting few days taking care of my HKG spoiritual family freinds. The Filipinno youngster claimed to be from a Catholic Chrisitan family but appeared not fully understanding gosdpel and salvation at all. Did my job to first check his assurance of salvation and then simply shared him the full gospel from scratch. It was a hectic day of Ekka holiday for Brisbane.

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Battle Log of Operation 513 at Sunnybank on Wednesday August 5th 8th 2026 from 1030-1130

Just noticed that I have been away form Sunnybank for almost a whol;e month since last outreach on July 8th. It was becasue of my 2 fortnightly chemo and the overdseas trip to Kuching for the CCCOWE conference. Today, all the regular team members were all not available except Jason from Joyce Meryer Ministry. Actually just learned from him today taht it is npt a standard practice for all JMM office to do outreach. Jasomn who has a heart to do outreach proposed to his boss JMM Brisbane to mobilize all their office staff to engage in regular outreach once a month. Jason himself actaully does outreach himself in many other venue and partner with mnay other parachurhc organization.

I was playing a supportive role this week as I bit and hurt my tongue but still manage to resume the regular street outreach with someone doing it with me, ie yesterday Yuen Hang. Jason worked diligently chatting with many people. I got my chance thouigh most were interruppted by the arriving bus. Nevertheless, I reached out to poeple of all Nations including Jaoanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Australian born indian, Filipino etc.

ONe stand out encounter is with an Elderly Indian Christian that I met and chat several times at this bus station. Through the outreach network, I found otu that actually there are many indigenous Indian Church around. And this Indian gentleman's church is near Garden City called the Glorious Church. He is a fairdinkum Chrisitans and so far is the only Christians who is moved to support our street outreach ministry by making a token of donation. God is good to send angel to render support and financial blessing beyond our expectation.

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Toowong (QLD) Team

Battle Log of Operation 513 at Toowong on Tuesday August 4th 2026 from 1030-1130

It has been a long while to serve tohether wothj Yuen Hang at Toowong. She actually did solo when I was away to CCCCOWE conference. It was a normal day, with mixed reaction. I caught up with manhy non-beleivers who could not reject my logic of perfect being no record of crime. And as human, no body is perfect , as such we would have been disqualified for any heavnly realm if it exist becase of our imperfect record. Only Jesus can takew our place to pay for our sin to make us a new creation with zero record of sin. I also met up with a rare Indonesian Christian who however is just lacking full assurance of salvation. He now understand we are reconciled to God with a new record free staus by Jesus' work alone as such the effect is immediate and instantly effective.

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

I arrived at the corner of Riccarton and Rotherham on time, but Andy was already there, deep in a chat!  It was Thursday afternoon, and the weather was mild for winter.

 

So, I decided to start my loop (up and down on both sides of Riccarton Road to reach all the people at the bus stops). I got out my tracts and put a copy of the gospel of John in my back pocket.  I spent some time in prayer.  It wasn’t a dull day.  It took me an hour to complete my first loop!

 

I thought it was going to be a slow day because I got no takers going through the westbound bus stop.  So I crossed the road to head down the other side when I noticed someone sitting at the benches on the corner of Riccarton and Kauri Street.  So, I headed over to say hello and offer a tract.  And I got engagement.  He didn’t want the tract: “I’d just throw it away, and I’d feel bad”, he said.  But, not to be deterred, I asked if I could ask a question.  And from there we ended up having a 30-minute conversation.

 

It was a very non-standard chat.  Because my attempts to stay on script were pushed back by subject changes.  He was listening, but I knew I couldn’t push.  So I had to listen a lot and gently chip away as I could.  He opened up about his life (he had been to prison) and his previous religious experience.

 

At one point, he asked me about why I became a Christian - he wanted to know what I did.  My answers frustrated him. “When did you ask Jesus into your heart?”, he exclaimed.  This is a subtle reflection of modern evangelism's effect, which teaches we have to do something to be saved (raise a hand, pray a prayer, walk an aisle, etc.)  So, to contrast, I just talked about how I didn’t do anything to be saved.  I hated God and loved my sin.  People shared the gospel with me, and one day, God changed my heart in an instant.  It’s by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone.  Now I love God and hate my sin.

 

And I think my witness indirectly spoke to him too.  Because he was drinking a beer as we talked.  I didn’t mention it as I went through the law, but later he brought it up.  He knew drunkenness is a sin.  I offered him grace.  But he wasn’t willing to accept it, for now.  It felt like I was chipping away at a mountain with a toothpick.  Impossible.

 

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” - Mark 10:27 (ESV)

 

Interestingly, at the end of our chat, I offered him the tract again, and this time he decided to accept it.  I was surprised.  Maybe he’ll keep it?  He doesn’t want to feel any worse, right?

 

I then proceeded down the other side of Riccarton Road: eastbound.  There were lots of people out.  It wasn’t long before I was into another chat.  And interestingly, it was strikingly similar to the previous chat.  The guy was actually professing faith, and yet he seemed far from understanding the gospel.  I find it hard to articulate why, but again I felt like I was chipping away at a mountain with a toothpick.  I would say something, and the response would be about something else - and yet he was listening; there was an openness.  It was like he could only cope with a little dose of medicine at a time.  And this guy had also spent time in prison and was an ex-gang member.  So, I decided not to push it.  He had gladly accepted a tract.

 

So, I continued on my loop.  Now I was heading past the eastbound bus stops with a long row of people waiting.  My usual trick is to go down the line and offer tracts to start a conversation.  I had an instant hit.  A young man took it, and I asked if I could ask him a question.

 

Finally, I was talking with someone who would engage me directly and freely.  I was able to step him through ‘the script’.  And although he was rejecting it for now, the gospel is the power of God for salvation.  A nice, friendly chat.

 

So, that was my first hour.  I was then able to catch up with Andy, who was also between chats.  And so we decided to head off again for my 2nd loop.  Andy got into a good chat with a couple of Mormon missionaries (pictured), so I left him to it and got into another great chat of my own.

 

It was with a young guy, an electrical engineer, who had just arrived in NZ from the Philippines.  Again, I was able to have a fairly standard chat.  But this time it went longer.  In the end, I gave him the copy of John that I had in my back pocket.  He said he would read it.

 

It was a wonderful outreach of soil plowing and seed scattering.  May God raise a crop for his glory.  Thank you for praying that our feeble efforts will do so.

 

I’m taking next week off for some rest, so no report next week.  But I’ll be back on deck, God willing, the week after.  SDG!

 

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Christchurch (NZ) Team

We were out on the streets twice this week, both times in the City.  Andy was with me on Friday afternoon, and I was out on Sunday afternoon as well.

 

On Friday, I had an interesting interaction with a guy.  I had just finished up a conversation, and I noticed that this guy had been listening.  He was standing still at a slight distance.  I suspected that he had objections.  I decided to take the bait and offered him a tract.  He took it (not surprising) and allowed me to start a conversation with him.  I asked, “Can something with a beginning make itself or come from nothing?”  He thought for a second, knowing the ‘trap’ I was setting, and he decided to sidestep.  “Yes”, he said with a straight face.  He then started to explain about quantum fluctuations.  But I cut him off with a smile and an extended hand for a handshake.  He was a bit surprised as I said, “Have a nice day”, and moved on.  If someone is going to deny clear logic, there is not much more I can do, and there are other people to talk to.  I just saved myself 30 minutes of time and frustration.

 

I went for a wander down Cashel Mall to find some other fish to talk to.  I ended up at the corner of Colombo and Cashel when an unexpected conversation began: an older lady went past at just the right time, and we naturally fell into conversation in response to my offering of a gospel tract.

 

She was older than she looked.  Very intelligent and a deep thinker.  She was Catholic and seemed pretty devout.  She brought up vivid details from her early childhood.  One of them was about a nun at her school who always asked challenging questions.  She obviously enjoyed challenging questions.  And so, I was able to use that to swing the conversation to the law and the gospel.  Sadly, the idea of good works being the way to heaven was deeply ingrained in her psyche.  I had to labour with her, and then check - it didn’t feel like I was making much progress.  And yet, I could tell she was challenged and provoked to think on it more.  Multiple times I encouraged her to check the Bible for herself on what I was saying.  I challenged her to start with John's Gospel account of Jesus.  It was a warm conversation - like talking with a cherished grandmother.  May she read through the tract multiple times and take me up on the challenge to read John.  And may the Holy Spirit bring conviction and conversion in her life.

 

But who knows, maybe the ‘quantum fluctuations’ guy will be the one who reads the tract once and boom - conviction and conversion.  The Gospel is the power of God for salvation.  And salvation is ultimately a work of God by His grace.  And yet, we are the means by which he works that grace.  May we continue to pray for the salvation of the lost, and may we continue to proclaim the simple gospel truth, till his kingdom comes, and his will is done.

 

On Sunday, I was very interested to see a couple of Muslim evangelists go past; one was holding a Qur’an, and the other some pamphlets.  I was able to get into a conversation with them and start to learn what they think.  They were quick to talk about the justice of God in a general sense, but as I tried to hold them to what they were specifically saying, they would see the logical contradiction with mercy (they were saying God can forgive without giving justice first) and buck away from the conversation.  When I attempted to hold them to account, they were quick to end the conversation and move along.

 

It was also great to see other Christians out doing evangelism.  I was able to catch up with Brian Boddy, a Gideon, who was out distributing literature.

 

I love the decentralised nature of Christianity.  Our guide is the Bible and the Holy Spirit.  And Jesus is the head of the church!

 

I also had a great week of online outreach.

 

One conversation that stands out is a TikTok DM conversation with someone in Chin State, Myanmar.  They don’t have the best English, so they were using AI to help communicate with me.  They have come to understand Christ through the Internet and are now consuming the Bible and as much content as they can online.  I’m currently encouraging them to find a local church.

 

Team training on Saturday afternoon was also very encouraging.  There were over 10 people involved (from all over the world), plus a couple who were just observing.  Harmony ended up having a conversation with a Muslim for over 70 minutes.  Part of him was resistant, asking all the usual questions.  But another part of him was very open, making sense of the answers and scripture quotes Harmony was giving.  May God save him!  But more importantly, may God get all the glory.

 

Please continue to pray for this feeble ministry.  May the strength of God be demonstrated through our weakness!

 

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