Battle Log

• Battle Log
• Special Outreaches

Last Saturday, 6 of us planned to go preach and hand out tracts in Exeter city centre, which is smaller than Plymouth in number. However, being more compact and very busy makes evangelism very amicable and we have always found people there very eager to stop and talk and listen to the preaching, compared to Plymouth where people seem more apathetic to the message.

George and Harry are brothers with Faith Mission based in Cornwall, and they brought two bible students who are just finishing a 6 week placement with them before finishing their studies, along with my friend Ed and myself met in Exeter around 12.30pm.

Amazed at how busy and upbeat it had been only a couple of weeks before when unbeknown to us a big LGBT parade had just finished and so we are inundated with rainbow flags, face painted teenagers and outburst of foul language, so we hoped today might still be as busy, and sunshine brought many unusual people out that day.

We prayed before we preached, again asking God to open people's blind eyes who were by nature against the things of God but that no one was beyond the reach of the gospel so as not for us to judge on outer appearances of reactions. 

George preached, and this brought along a man in his fifties dressed as a woman to wander around us and sit behind to listen, with people not batting an eyelid to his skirt or baking top that protruded over his hairy arms and chest! 

A university student stopped and spoke to me, and although at first she said she was a Christian, it soon appeared she was not, as she said she was studying Theology at Exeter University.  

She said Jesus never spoke about homosexual , but although I showed her passages like Roman's 1 or 1 Corinthians 6 v 9, she claimed that was Paul who wrote that, not God, and so was not inspired by God. She didn't agree with 2 Peter 1 v 20-21, or about Hell, and said I was assuming her gender as a woman just because she had long hair and breasts, she could be a man!

She was very antagonistic and argued that Adam and Eve were not real people and that a civilization existed before them, and that's where Cain got his wife from, as well as disagreeing about God's judgment in 2 Thessalonians 1 v 6-10. The conversation didn't go anywhere and she had already made her mind up that the Bible has lots of errors and so I didn't proceed in going further as she was very sure her theology professors could set me straight on many things and show what the bible REALLY meant!

The others continued to hand out tracts while I preached on the rich young ruler and Nahum, and how we need to be humble and admit our sin before we can be saved. Then continued to speak on how Christianity stood out from all other religions in that Jesus had fulfilled all righteousness for us and we no longer had to work to earn God's forgiveness, but that other religions, teaching that good works plus faith saved you, would actually bring you under a curse according to Galatians 3. However, having to admit we can not help ourselves and be totally dependent on Jesus for our salvation is why so many people stumble because they want to play a part in them being saved so they can get credit.

One of the bible students, Pres preached for the first time, recalling when he was saved from a skiing accident age 11 and dedicating his life to God when he was saved under difficult circumstances in the French Alps. Meanwhile, Harry witnessed to a Sikh gentleman about why we needn't sins forgiven.

My friend Ed continued to hand out tracts while the other student from Oreland preached on John 3 v 16, and we managed to take many people through the intelligence test who stopped out of curiosity, before going through the good person test with them. Some were Christians, who we encouraged to share the gospel tracts with friends and family they knew who were not saved, along with many bored teenagers who had not really heard this message before.

It was a lovely sunny day, with many tracts handed out and conversations had, and we ended the day with an all you can eat Chinese which made great fellowship and discussions about the day, and plans for future outreaches together before the two students went home.

View previous Special Outreaches report (2 June 2018)

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Special Outreaches (QLD, Australia)

Australia Day (26 January)
Easter Monday
ANZAC Day (25 April)
Labour Day
Riverfire Outreach

Queen's Birthday
Halloween
Schoolies
Christmas Outreaches (December)
New Years Eve (31 December)

Contact Ryan Hemelaar for more information.

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