A Tale of Two Outreaches - Redcliffe & Manly

It was a busy day of outreach today; first we had our Redcliffe outreach in the morning, then we had a special outreach in Manly to coincide with their Halloween Street Festival.

Redcliffe

Weather-wise today was beautiful, the sun was shining and it was warm; as I was told by a member of the team, I had best enjoy this as in a few weeks I will be sharing the gospel in the depths of British winter. The team today was made up of six workers from Operation 513, upon arrival we split up and began to witness all along the waterfront. I stayed at the Bible Table as that was our central location to resupply the team if they needed more Bibles or literature distribute.

A number of people seemed interested in taking tracts and chatting; Col in particular seemed to be doing well on the conversation front. We also saw a number of people take Bibles and material from the table, including some younger people who had never read the Bible before.

Last time I was at Redcliffe I was able to speak to a Muslim man from the local kebab shop; he was there again today, so I was able to chat to him further. Over a kebab and a cold drink we chatted about the gospel and the need for people to trust in Christ. This Muslim man then told me that this was his last Saturday in Redcliffe as he is selling the shop, but he wished us all the best and said he hopes that many people listen to our message as it is needed.

Due to the second outreach at Manly, I decided to cut the outreach a little bit shorter today. Overall the Redcliffe outreach was quiet, but things went rather well.

Manly

Annually we have an outreach along the Manly waterfront to coincide with Australia’s largest Halloween party. Each year this event (which is supposed to be family friendly) seems to get more debauched with people wearing very little clothing and making an open mockery of Christianity. Today, I saw people dressed as demonic nuns, satanic priests, and even a man dressed up as Jesus mocking him. However, I did notice that no one was game enough to dress up and mock the “religion of peace.”

Even though things were dark, and all that which is evil was being celebrated, a small team of us were able to be a beacon of hope. Numerous tracts were handed out, and conversations were very easy to come by.

The first conversation I had was with two young ladies who believed in reincarnation. They said that if someone did enough good deeds in this life, then they would come back as something good. I asked them, “Who decides if you have done enough good or not?” This gave them pause, and it was clear that they hadn’t thought too deeply about their views. After a few moments they said God would have to judge them. This provided a wonderful opening to see if they had indeed done enough good deeds. I walked them through the Ten Commandments, and very soon they admitted that they weren’t good and that God would need to judge them. The gospel then flowed freely. They listened attentively as I explained to them about the Lord Jesus. At the end of the conversation both young ladies said they would begin to read their Bibles.

After this, I was almost straightaway into another conversation, this time with three agnostics who said they don’t know and don’t care. They were very hard to talk to, but I was able to explain the gospel to them. They all took tracts and went about their business.

The final conversation I had for the day was with a man who identified as an Atheist and a scientist. He was a very friendly man who liked to chat. He told me that he is raising his kids to listen to all religious arguments, and then to decide for themselves what they wanted to be believe, but as a scientist, he would only believe in what can be proven via the scientific method. This opened up a wonderful conversation!

I asked the man, “As an atheist, how do you believe that life arose?” He smiled and said, “Evolution of course!” I followed up by asking, “Has evolution, as in molecules to man, been observed, tested and repeated, as per the scientific method?” The man admitted that hadn’t be observed, but he thought it was the best explanation; I replied by pointing out that he seemed to be taking it on faith, he quickly changed topics.

The next argument this atheist put forward was that all people are naturally atheists, and that I am an atheist towards other gods. I pointed out that to redefine atheism to mean “not believing in certain gods” was to do violence to what the word actually means; further, I added that all people know that God exists (Romans 1) and that this is confirmed by anthropology, with atheism seemingly being a learned behaviour. Again, he changed the topic.

The text objection centred around wars, and the claim that religion was the cause of all wars. I cited Philip and Axelrod’s three volume Encyclopedia of Wars to show that only about 7% of all wars were religious in nature. Once again he changed the topic.

Finally, he asked me, “Why are you a Christian, does it make you feel better about yourself?” This allowed me to share the gospel from my own testimony. I explained my sin and the amazing grace of Christ. The man listened very carefully as I spoke. At the end, he shook my hand, said it was an enjoyable chat, then left with his family.

Please pray for all those we spoke to today; the darkness was great, but the light still shines. This really struck me when as I was handing out tracts among thousands of people celebrating paganism, a lone piper began to play Amazing Grace on the bagpipes. Even though the darkness celebrated, there in the midst of the darkness was God’s amazing grace!

SDG!

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