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Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Sunday, 27 April, 2008 [/b]
Tonight I had the honour of being asked by my church to preach an evangelistic service. It is not normal for my church to actually hold a service with a focus on the lost. For the past two months the event had be planned and re-planned. Advertisement went out, and the congregation was encouraged to invite their unsaved friends and family.

There was a general sense of excitement among the congregation at the prospect of a gospel message being preached. The bit I found most exciting was the fact that the church was becoming more involved in outreach.

My text for the night was James 4:13-17, and my sermon title was “What is Your Life? Answering the Question of Why there is Death and Suffering? As the time neared for me to preach, my nerves increased. Tonight turned out to be one of the biggest night time services the church has ever had, after the service I was told by one of the Deacons that the head count was 160 people. With many of them being unsaved.

As I preached I wanted to stress the reality of death, and how we all die as a result of sin. From there I preached the cross of Christ, and pointed out that there is forgiveness of sin for those would repent.

At the end as the call of salvation went forth I was encouraged to see five people respond, and surrender their lives to Jesus Christ.

Praise God for all He has done!

You can listen to the sermon at: http://www.beenleighbaptist.org/system/files/27+April+2008+PM+Josh+Willliamson+What+is+Your+Life+James+4+13_17.mp3


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2008/4/30 6:27Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 26 April, 2008 [/b]

Tonight was an interesting night. As I prepared for the outreach, I was reminded of last week, and how we had a young man threaten to get some ‘goodies’ to pour over me while I preached. This idea did not really excite me, but as I thought about it, I concluded that the young man probably was just making up some threats.

As Ryan began preaching, I was approached by Kyosti who told me that he had just witnessed to a group of young men, and that I should be aware that one of them has a big jar of honey to pour over me when I preach. As I looked around I spotted the young man from the week before, and I knew it was going to be an interesting night.

The young men walked over to me and we began to chat. I have witnessed to these guys before, and Kyosti just went over them again with the gospel. So as Ryan preached in the background we just chatted about general stuff. I informed that I was aware of what they were planning to do, and that no matter what happens I would not become angry, nor would I hate them. But rather I would continue to share Jesus with them. One of the team softened and was very open to talking. The other two were under the influence of alcohol, so it was hard to talk to them.

We spoke for some time on different topics, and one of the boys turned out to be 13 years old, and the sad thing was he was drunk and could barely stand. Because of their drunkenness they would run up to people and try to scare them. This resulted in the police coming up to see what was going on. I spoke to the Police constable, and explained what was happening, then I asked him to have a word with the 13 year old on the dangers of drinking. The police officer took the boy aside and gave him a good dressing down for drinking and even call his mother. The boys attitude changed after this and they were very polite and friendly.

Ryan was still preaching at this time, he was heading towards the two hour mark when he finally stepped down. All around our section in the Queen street mall one to one’s were occurring. I noticed that our regular heckler “Mr Dawkins” was present so I walked over to him, and had a conversation. We seem to have a good relationship with a lot of our regular hecklers, and one can see that they are softening towards the gospel.

“Mr Dawkins” and I chatted for some time about atheism, and Christianity. We went back and forth over the existence of God, and in the end he admitted that their ‘may’ be a God. I pointed out to him then that he could no longer hold to atheism, but rather he must be an agnostic. We then chatted about how the belief in no god, is just as much a religion as a belief in God. “Mr Dawkins” didn’t like that two much, and as we parted ways he said he would talk about this more. So no doubt we will see him again this coming week, even though he keeps saying he hates listening to us.

By now it was midnight, so we started to pack up. I was quite impressed, the night was quiet, yet many great one to ones occurred. Then as we were preparing to leave a man claiming to be a pastor was getting violent. He was drunk, and trying to beat up a teenager who was listening to him being witnessed to. Myself and couple of the guys jumped in the middle, and tried to keep them apart, but the ‘pastor’ kept pushing past. Eventually we were able to separate them, and the drunk ‘pastor’ was getting hostile towards me, his face was familiar, and I thought I had seen him somewhere before, so I asked him if he was related to a certain family that has a lot of pastors in the AOG movement. As I said the name of the family his face changed, and he couldn’t get away quick enough.

It is sad to see so many false converts out there saying their Christians, when in reality they are still lost.

Praise God for His Gospel Truth!

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

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

While there why don’t you sign up for our newsletter, it is an easy way for you to stay in loop in regards to what God is doing through Operation 513 worldwide!

Also check out the latest Operation 513 - "The Appointed Time" broadcast: http://www.operation513.com/theappointedtime.php

This is updated weekly, and if you have iTunes you can actually subscribe to the podcast through the iTunes store! Use this audio to be encouraged in the Gospel of Christ, or to share with your unsaved friends and family!




_________________
Josh Williamson

 2008/5/2 7:42Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 3 May, 2008 [/b]

As I woke up this morning, I reached over to check my cell phone to see if anyone had sent me a message. As usual there was a message there so I opened it to read. It was then that I saw it was from my niece. This was rare, she never messages me, since we aren’t that close.

A few years ago she started to live in rebellion towards God, and got involved in fornication. She knew my position on it, and we would talk only briefly, but since she has got married, she began to soften to the Gospel.

Last week she insisted on coming along to the evangelism service I preached at Beenleigh Baptist ( www.beenleighbaptist.org ), at the end of the service she came up to me, and thanked me for preaching, and inviting her. And that was it. I saw her again the next night at my mother’s birthday, and she briefly mentioned some of the parts of the sermon, and once again thanked me for preaching. I didn’t think to much of it, I was just happy that she got hear the gospel once again.

Then today a message came in from her thanking my parents and myself for praying for her. Then the message read that today she surrendered her life to Jesus Christ!

I am so excited right now! My niece has been saved by God’s amazing grace!!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

www.operation513.com


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2008/5/3 0:19Profile
rocklife
Member



Joined: 2004/4/1
Posts: 323
usa

 Re:

amen to hear about your niece and your faithful preachings, what a great testimony


_________________
Jina

 2008/5/4 4:22Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 3 May, 2008 [/b]

I was still rather excited about the conversion of my niece as I made my way to the city. Another cool thing about tonight was that we had a few new people come out on the streets. It is always encouraging to see new people come out to share the gospel.

Tonight was also a night in which we got to field test our new Operation 513 tracts, and it soon became clear that they all were going to be a great success. After we set up the Bible table, and got the team ready for the first open air, the thought struck me just how fortunate we are to have the freedom in Australia to declare the gospel of Christ. Even though over the past few months there have been multiple reports of preachers being arrested nationwide, we still had the freedom in Brisbane to preach, and we also have good relations with the fine men and women of the Queensland Police.

Ralph was the first preacher up for the night, and it soon became clear that it was going to be a long slow night. Ralph is coming along really well in his training to be a preacher, he has good voice projection, but the only thing he needs to realise that hecklers will try to keep him quiet. But the skill of handling hecklers only comes with experience. Ralph preached for near about thirty minutes, and during this time only a few people stopped to listen. Some people and ministries would be disappointed with the fact that a large crowd did not gather, but we were thankful that God allowed us to share the gospel with at least one soul.

At the start of the night I sent a four man team under the leadership of Dan Kent down to a busy intersection to hand out tracts, but after an hour of them being away I had to send someone to go fetch them back, as many people were stopping at the Bible table asking questions. Many great one to ones occurred during this time, it was encouraging to see so many people interested in learning more about the claims of Jesus Christ.

After a while I began to preach, and not long into my preaching a few hecklers arrived. The problem was that these guys were bad hecklers, one of them who was drunk was cursing and claiming to be a Christian. So I rebuked him for his hypocrisy, and pointed out that he was not a Christian. This began to get the crowd fired up, and a few people began to throw out questions like “What about paedophiles?” “What about those preachers that want your money!” “What about evolution?” I did my best to answer all these questions from the Bible, and I must say it was good to see “Mr. Dawkins Man” back even though he was sick.

There was one man who kept standing right up in my face screaming and cursing. Multiple times I told him to step back and stop touching me. He refused, and eventually Hsusy began to distract him. Unfortunately the man decided to continue to stand right in front of me and yell at Andrew. The crowd went from listening to me to listening to this demonic drunk man yell. A few people formed up on my right and began to ask questions, so I did my best to answer them. This was done more in a one to one setting, but before I realised it a crowd and stopped to listen. By now the crazed yelling man had gone, so I began to address the crowd. One asked about the Roman Catholic priests that molest children. I answered his questions, but while I was talking to him the police came and took him away for fighting earlier in the night.

While the police were there the crazed yelling man returned. He was calm while the police were there, then as they left he watched them walk down the mall. As soon as he thought they were far enough away he swung at me and slapped me across the face. Before he had a chance to respond I put my arm out to block any future shots, and also to restrain him. The police which were a fair way down the mall heard the sound of the slap so they came running back to arrest the man. While this was happening I was thinking “What a waste of time, the open air just got wrecked!” But God used this to open up some of those in the crowds with hard hearts. Some were shocked that we kept on witnessing even though I was assaulted, this led to many great one to ones. Many of those witnessed to took Bibles after that.

The rest of the night was spent in one to ones and tract work.

Praise God that He is in full control!

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

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

While there why don’t you sign up for our newsletter, it is an easy way for you to stay in loop in regards to what God is doing through Operation 513 worldwide!

Also check out the latest Operation 513 - "The Appointed Time" broadcast: http://www.operation513.com/theappointedtime.php

This is updated weekly, and if you have iTunes you can actually subscribe to the podcast through the iTunes store! Use this audio to be encouraged in the Gospel of Christ, or to share with your unsaved friends and family!


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2008/5/9 11:32Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 10 May, 2008 [/b]

When will I ever learn? Every time I head out on the street and say “Tonight, I won’t preach” I end up preaching. Tonight I resolved that I would not preach due to the fact that I would be preaching at Rosalie Baptist Church the next morning, and I wanted to be fresh for the pulpit sermon.

As we set up for the night I noticed that we had a demonic painter set up in our preaching area. This really frustrated me since this guy paints really dark paintings, and often times he gets large crowds. Knowing that there would be clash of light and darkness I prepared for a long night.

Initially I tried to get the Queensland Police to move the painter from our area, but I was informed by police that it is a Brisbane city council matter, and they have no say. Which was interesting since in the past they have moved us for council matters.

The first preacher up was Ryan, and he battled to get a crowd, since people would stand and look at the painter painting instead. He did mange to get a few hecklers, and he did well dealing with them.

Next up was Kevin, I really like to hear Kevin preach, he has come such a long way since I first heard him preach. He keeps calm under pressure, and constantly points to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While Kevin was preaching a man came and stood really close to him, so I moved in just in case it got violent. As the man stood close to Kevin, I could hear the language he was using. Some of the words were the most vile I have ever heard, then the man had the hide to claim to be a Christian. Kevin slammed him for his hypocrisy, and then the man yelled “I am on the Council of the Queensland Uniting Church, and we want to see you guys stopped!” This stirred Kevin up to preach all the more.

After Kev preached, Ralph had a go. He did a wonderful job, and he managed to preach to a few people that were gathering. Towards the end of his open air he was heckled by a couple of Jehovah Witness girls who were drunk. Ralph tagged me in, and I began to deal with them. The girls quickly turned and ran. But by now many hecklers had moved in.

It was interesting to see that the crowd watching the painter quickly became a crowd listening to the preaching and the debate. We went back and forth over the existence of God, and then a man who studied philosophy started to heckle. This debate led to a discussion on “Is there absolute truth and is there absolute right and wrong?” Of course all the hecklers said “No!” The leading vocal heckler was “Mr. Dawkins Man” he was yelling that there is no absolutes. After a few illustrations which show that there must be right and wrong. He started to yell that I was wrong. It was then that I pointed out that under his viewpoint I couldn’t be wrong, since there is no right and wrong. This caused the crowd the chuckle.

Throughout the fifty minutes I preached, the gospel was presented many a time. At the end we got to have some really good one to one conversations!

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

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

While there why don’t you sign up for our newsletter, it is an easy way for you to stay in loop in regards to what God is doing through Operation 513 worldwide!

Also check out the latest Operation 513 - "The Appointed Time" broadcast: http://www.operation513.com/theappointedtime.php

This is updated weekly, and if you have iTunes you can actually subscribe to the podcast through the iTunes store! Use this audio to be encouraged in the Gospel of Christ, or to share with your unsaved friends and family!


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2008/5/16 0:43Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 17 May, 2008 [/b]

Tonight I decided to field test Ryan as the team leader. Over the past few weeks we have been working on training him up as a leader, and he has shown some good growth. So tonight was the night in which we would put his training and leadership to the test.

As Ryan went about organising the team, I had a chance to stand off to the side and hand out tracts, and talk to people. The first preacher up for the night was Ralph, while he was preaching I got into a conversation with a man who claimed to have a Christian background but would not reveal exactly what that background was.

We spoke for some time in regards to the teachings of Jesus and the use of parables, the whole time I was watching him, and listening very carefully to his arguments. The case that put forward was consistent with the common arguments presented by the Seventh Day Adventists. So I asked him if he was a Seventh Day Adventist, he looked stunned and refused to answer. We then entered into the discussion in regards to what happens when someone dies. We both agreed on the basics, that is we die once, and then after that we are judged. However, the man stated that we enter into ‘soul sleep’, that is once we die, we stay in the ground until such a time that Jesus returns. To this I decided to take him to the Bible:

“Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” - 2 Corinthians 5:8 (ESV)

Paul in this passage indicates that when we are absent from the body, we are present with the Lord. The man looked at me and said “Yes, I agree with that, however, there is a long period of time between dying and being with the Lord.” This was a classic case of eisegesis. So I called him out on that and pointed out the text doesn’t say that, but rather he is forcing his presupposition into the text. The man maintained that he was not, so I asked again, how he got that from the verse. He did not answer that question, but then changed gears and started to ask me about the doctrine of hell. This worked well with what we were talking with as I then turned him to Luke 16 to illustrate about two people who had died and were immediately in a place where they were conscious of their surrounding, thus, destroying the case for ‘soul sleep’. But as with most cults, and with those who twist scripture, he had an answer. His reply was to allegorize the text, and then turn into a parable.

The parable argument for Luke 16 is rather weak, since the account that Jesus is talking about doesn’t follow the structure of other parables, since Jesus mentions that ‘there was a certain man’ and then gives specific names. This does not follow the pattern of parables. The story is supposed to be interpreted literally. The man refused to listen, and said he would like to debate some more. Threw the week he sent me and email, in which he was rather arrogant, and wanted to fight over the issue. Something, I haven’t the time to engage in.

After this I was able to hand out a few more tracts, and engage in some good one to one discussions. It was now that I noted that Alex (Mr. Dawkins Man) was back, he has been coming back on a weekly basis for months now. I always look forward to talking to him, as he is good to draw a crowd, and his arguments are rather weak. But, I want all those reading this report to stop right now, and pray that God will convert Alex.


Ryan preached for a bit, and he finished up around 11pm. It was then that I decided to step up the preach. I really didn’t feel like it, since I had next to no sleep. But as I preached God was gracious to draw a small crowd in. He brought a bunch of young people, who all at once began to heckle. Yet, claimed to be Christian. They all counted their Christianity on the fact that they attend a large church called Citipointe COC, they said they went there for the games, and had been assured by the leaders that they were Christians. That church has a reputation of being a false convert factory, that waters down the gospel to the point where there is no ‘good news’ left in it. We got to have a good witness to the youth, and they all took tracts at the end. Please pray for their conversion.

The night ended with a lot of one to one conversations. May God be praised for allowing His Word to go out!

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

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

While there why don’t you sign up for our newsletter, it is an easy way for you to stay in loop in regards to what God is doing through Operation 513 worldwide!

Also check out the latest Operation 513 - "The Appointed Time" broadcast: http://www.operation513.com/theappointedtime.php

This is updated weekly, and if you have iTunes you can actually subscribe to the podcast through the iTunes store! Use this audio to be encouraged in the Gospel of Christ, or to share with your unsaved friends and family!


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2008/5/22 23:14Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 24 May, 2008 [/b]

When we arrived in the city tonight Andre and I were met by the sight of thousands of Asian people walking around the CBD. This was odd, so we went about tracting people in the Queen Street Mall as fast as we could. We then headed across to King George Square, and once again we were met with the sight of many Asians in the square. Instantly, Andre and I reached for our tracts and headed into the crowd. It turns out that they had just finished a memorial service for those who died in the massive Chinese earthquake.

We then met up wit some of the team, and had a time of prayer, and Bible reading. I noticed that the team was down a bit on numbers tonight, so we began to pray that God would see fit to raise up more labourers for His harvest. As always, God is faithful, and He brought in more people to work with us on the streets.

I decided to preach first for the night, this is something I am not a big fan of doing. I would rather preach second and deal with hecklers, but tonight I thought for a nice change I would open up. It was good to see as we were setting up to preach, that Alex (Mr. Dawkins Man) was hanging around, I think that he is a “Preacher Seeking Missile”, as soon as we began to minister, he was right up there talking to people. While I was preaching I was heckled by a bunch of youth from a large church, who we ministered to last week. They were just as loud, and sinful as the week prior. After preaching for awhile, I stood down, and got the next preacher ready to go. It was a real quiet night, and it was hard to get hecklers. Even Alex wasn’t heckling.

I noticed that there were a few young adults from church present, so I went across to greet them. Alex came across a few minutes later and began to heckle a bit in a one to one. So I engaged him in debate. A crowd gathered around to listen to us debate. The topic of discussion was over the historical Jesus. I produced the evidence of from secular history in regards to Jesus Christ living, and being crucified, and then I did an apologetic to prove that He rose from the grave. We then got on to the topic of atheism. It was an interesting discussion, and I truly think Alex is starting to soften to the Gospel.

During this time, Andre preached, and so did Kevin. By the time I finished talking to Alex, it was time for Hsusy to preach. He did a good job, and it is a real blessing to have him on the team. He does a fine job expounding the gospel, and dealing with hecklers.

One heckler, that kept attacking Hsusy was rather strange. No matter, what Hsusy said he would not listen, and he would just make up another argument. It was very clear that what the heckler was saying, was not built on fact, but rather on fantasy. He contended that Jesus Christ is actually from a pagan background, and that if you look at pagan religions there is a man called “Jesus”. Hsusy, countered this claim, and the man didn’t know what to do.
If one spends enough time on the street, you get to hear a lot of ‘odd’ information. This man showed some of the ‘oddest’. He started to argue, that Jesus Christ did not exist till the eighteenth century, and that we did not have the Bible until the sixteenth century. Hsusy, took his argument apart piece by piece, and the man quickly turned, and ran away.

For the rest of the night we spent time doing one to ones, and also handing out tracts. Just before we left some homeless people approached us, and asked that we buy them dinner. Hsusy was quick to respond, and went and got them a hot meal.

Please keep Alex in prayer, and also Riley. Both of these young men argue for atheism, and are really regular heckles. Pray that God would grant them repentance, and bring them to the knowledge of the truth.

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

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

While there why don’t you sign up for our newsletter, it is an easy way for you to stay in loop in regards to what God is doing through Operation 513 worldwide!

Also check out the latest Operation 513 - "The Appointed Time" broadcast: http://www.operation513.com/theappointedtime.php

This is updated weekly, and if you have iTunes you can actually subscribe to the podcast through the iTunes store! Use this audio to be encouraged in the Gospel of Christ, or to share with your unsaved friends and family!


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2008/5/28 23:47Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 31 May 2008 [/b]

Winter is almost here, a cold wind was blowing threw the city tonight, and the rain that we had experienced for the past few days only served to make the temperature drop. Many people have commented on how they don’t like to witness in winter due to the cold, personally I like to witness in the colder months.

Due to the colder weather, I was expecting to be a few team members down tonight, as some of the Operation 513 team has come down with colds. But, never the less we decided to push on no matter how many people came out.

The night was looking grim for man power, when at 8:30pm, only four of the team were present, I was starting to think that it would be a very hard night of witnessing. But, by nine o’clock we had a ten man team on the ground.

I had decided early in the day that I would not be preaching tonight, due to the fact that I would be preaching an evangelistic service the next morning at Browns Plains Baptist Church, so I handed over the preaching to Andrew Hsu.

As we were setting up it was good to see Alex (Mr. Dawkins Man) hanging around as per usual. As he was walking by he greeted a couple of the members of the team, and revealed that tonight was his birthday. So I went across and gave him a DVD that I promised him that details the historic proof for the existence of God. Alex is a decent bloke, and I really like talking to him. I guess we could be classed as “friendly enemies” he takes the hardline position of atheism, and I take the hardline position of Biblical Christianity. We are all praying for Alex to be converted, and hopefully God will one day grant Alex repentance so that he can come to the understanding of the truth.

By now Andrew was in full voice preaching the gospel. While he was preaching I got the chance to talk to a couple of people standing behind the preacher. The conversation were simple at best, they would ask “What’s happening here?” So, I would explain to them about the preaching, and lead into the gospel.

By now the heavens had opened up once again and the rain began to fall, so we quickly packed up the Bible table, and I did find it rather amusing when one of our atheist hecklers was actually helping us pack away the Bibles so they wouldn’t get wrecked in the rain. Riley has become on our regular hecklers, but he is in a different league to Alex. Both of them hold to the same position, but both have different ways in arguing their case.

Riley had been spending some time doing study to ask us questions in regards to religious beliefs. His question focused on “Why is there many different religions if we all came from the one God”. This question is a rather good one, so I took it back to show how men and women will often take a truth and pervert it to justify their own actions, and as a result of man’s sinful idolatress heart, we get many religions and sects being formed.

From there we did go on to talk more in an apologetic sense about the age of the earth, and how long man had been present. I like talking to Riley as he thinks out his questions, and he seems to be willing to learn and study. But just like Alex, Riley is lost in sin unless God saves him. So please keep Riley in prayer also.

At this stage there was a quiet time in the outreach, so I called the whole team in to where we have our bags. I then called over Alex and Riley. During the preaching Rachel had gone down to the doughnut shop to buy a pack of doughnuts to share for Alex’s birthday. As a group of Christians along with our atheist heckler we sung “Happy Birthday” to Alex, and then we had a few minutes of general chit chat before heading back into the preaching.

During this time Andrew had finished preaching and was dealing with one of his hecklers in a one to one. So I put Ryan up to preach for awhile. Since it was a cold night, and because Ryan was a bit sick, he couldn’t preach for long. But, the time he did preach for was rather good.

After Ryan preached, I decided that we should put Rachel up to preach. This was her second time of open air preaching. While she is new at this form of evangelism she shows promise. While she was preaching, she did a call out on an African man who was listening, once she had the dialogue going with him, she went threw the full gospel and explained that without Christ no one could be saved.

Overall it was a good night, with many people getting to hear the gospel. May God be glorified from the work He is doing in Brisbane!

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

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

While there why don’t you sign up for our newsletter, it is an easy way for you to stay in loop in regards to what God is doing through Operation 513 worldwide!

Also check out the latest Operation 513 - "The Appointed Time" broadcast: http://www.operation513.com/theappointedtime.php

This is updated weekly, and if you have iTunes you can actually subscribe to the podcast through the iTunes store! Use this audio to be encouraged in the Gospel of Christ, or to share with your unsaved friends and family!


_________________
Josh Williamson

 2008/6/6 1:45Profile
Willo
Member



Joined: 2004/9/21
Posts: 355
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

 Re:

[b] Saturday, 6 June, 2008 [/b]

The weather had been threatening to rain all day, the news was reporting the possibilities of showers. For a state that is gripped in drought, it is amazing how much rain we are actually getting. Normally on a Saturday night when we want to evangelise!
Andre and I were the first team members in position, and shortly after we arrived I was joined by some of the other guys. It was good to have a time of fellowship, prayer, and Bible reading as a team. By doing this it creates a greater team unity, and it allows for us to come together on the streets and beseech the Almighty God for His blessing.

As nine o’clock neared, we headed up to the Queen Street Mall, where we were joined by Andrew and Desma. It was really good to have Desma come out on the streets with us, she is a vital part of the ministry. She has been away for awhile, which is fully understandable due to her preparing for the upcoming wedding. So, it was good to have her in Brisbane tonight.

Andrew informed me that he had a sore throat, and as a result he would not be preaching tonight, that was fine since I expected to have more than enough preachers in play. First preacher up for the evening was Ralph. Now Ralph is one we have to watch, he is a very smart boy, and has a great passion for God. While he is only new at preaching, he has been growing in leaps and bounds.

Tonight as he preached, I had complete confidence in him as a preacher, normally I am really cautious around newer preachers, but Ralph proved himself. He did a good job at proclaiming the gospel, and dealing with hecklers. He had a quite a few hecklers open fire tonight, and each one that launched an attack he did well to handle.

While Ralph was preaching, Andre was on the Bible table. This table is by far one of the best things we have put in place in the Brisbane team. We set up a simple card table with some tracts, Bibles, and Creation Ministry booklets, and then hang some signs simple saying “FREE BIBLES”, it is a magnet that draws in many people for a one to one conversation.

I was watching the Bible table, and making sure everything was running alright, when I heard a woman walk up to Andre and say “Are you against gay marriage?” Andre replied “No ma’am, I am not against it, the Bible is!” The woman then said something, grabbed a bunch of the Creation Ministry booklets, and began to rip them up and throw the paper on the ground. The woman then walked away and began to abuse the preacher, she had more tracts, and booklets so she ripped them up also, and threw them into the air. She made a rather big mess in the middle of the Queen Street Mall. She then started yelling out to Ralph, “People are gay! It’s not wrong!” Ralph’s reply was brilliant, he said “Yes, people are gay, people also steal, lie, and lust, yet just because people do those things does not make them right!” The woman walked off, and Ralph continued to preach the gospel.

At around 9:50pm, Ralph stood down, the call then went out for Andre to prepare to preach next. Andre got up, and with Bible in hand began to expound on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not long into his message a rather vile man in a yellow shirt became very hostile and started to hurl abuse at the preacher. Andre tried to reason with the man, but he refused to listen. So Andre kept on preaching. The man then came in really close, and started to curse Andre and also God. I moved into position just it case it got violent, as I got into position the man reached out and grabbed Andre while he was preaching. Instantly Andrew and I moved in and pushed the man off, telling him to step away from the preacher. The man became more vile, and showed his hatred all the more. I noticed that some of the people he was with, were actually some of our regular hecklers. So I spoke to them, and they were reasonable about not abusing the preacher.

By now the man in the yellow shirt was screaming at our camera man, so Andrew moved into position to guard the camera. The man soon lost interest in the camera, and started to threaten Andrew. Upon seeing this, I walked over to tell the man to calm down or we would be forced to call the police. The man just cursed, and me then bent down to get something out of his backpack. As the man bent down, another man emerged from the crowd and started to abuse the man in the yellow shirt. He was screaming that he should get some respect for the preachers, and also that he should shut up. Of course that is the sanitised version of what he said. Yellow shirt then started to challenge this other man to a fight, so I stepped in and told both of them to back off and walk away. As I worked on breaking those two up, and cry was heard from the crowd. I turned and saw that a fight had erupted in front of the preacher.

Two hecklers were locked in a fight on the ground, one of them was bleeding the other was being punched in the face. As they wrestled with each other, I noticed one of them shove his fingers in his opponents eyes, and twist them. This cause the man that was punching to yell in pain. The man on the bottom then took the advantage, and spun the other guy over and started to beat him up. I tried to break it up, but they refused to listen. Then I noticed one of our regular hecklers come running in to join the fight. This was fast becoming a full on brawl. I sent two of the team members to run and get the police. The only problem was the police weren’t in their usual location, so we had to wait some time before they arrived.

By now one of the men in the fight was being held down, while someone else began to kick him in the head, ribs, and stomach. The man doing the kicking had steal toe boots on, so I grabbed him, and spun him out of the fight. He was rather hard to hold back, and he got a couple of extra shots in before he backed away. While the two original fighters fought on the ground, I turned to the regular heckler who had been kicking, and gave him a good dressing down. He apologised, and then hugged me. While he was hugging me he decided to give me a few quick kisses on the side of my neck. This was truly turning out to be a strange night!

By now there was a massive crowd watching the fight, security guards were present but they did nothing but watch on. The fighters must have realized that the police were coming, because they stopped fighting and ran. Since the crowd stood there in stunned silence, I decided to jump up and preach a quick two minute message to them. While I was preaching all I could see was a sea of blue police uniforms running up the mall. Quickly I gave the order to the team to tract everyone up, so the team set about tracting everyone in the crowd.

About fifteen police responded to the brawl and arrested all parties involved. Some of the fighters wouldn’t learn, they say in hand cuffs abusing the police, and threatening them. Pray for the police, they have a tough job but they do it well!

This incident took about an hour out of our time, as the police wanted to talk to a few of us, and to also review our video that we caught of the fight.

After the police left I stood up and preached for about 30 minutes. And after that excitement of a fight, the night went a bit more slower. I had very few hecklers, and I did my best to make known the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When I had finished preaching, I was informed that the man sitting to my left was a Jehovah’s Witness, so I went across and began to talk to him. The man was very unfriendly, and called me a paedophile since I attended a Baptist church, he then started to talk about how the Baptist church was founded by Satanists, and the Illuminati. The man eventually got out of “conspiracy theory” mode, and we began to talk about the deity of Christ, and if Jesus Christ arose bodily. His arguments were standard Watchtower Arguments, he didn’t know why he believed, except for the fact that he was told to believe. After awhile, I got Andre to deal with him, as Andre is well versed in Jehovah Witness apologetics.

By now it was nearing midnight, so we began to pack up. Ryan was busy dealing with a man who was rambling on about something to do with animals having souls the same as humans. So Andre after finishing with the JW decided to wade into the apologetic debate. Then Andrew decided to join in, the man just kept going in circles, so they wished him good night and left. As we were preparing to leave the man came back, and this time wanted to talk to me, within minutes the man admitted that he chose to rebel against the Bible because he loved his sin. He said he did want to repent, even though he knew the gospel was true, because that would mean giving up his sin. I hit him with the gospel, and the man left promising to email me.

Overall the night was rather interesting! Praise God that His Gospel went forth!

[i] Soli Deo Gloria! [/i]

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_________________
Josh Williamson

 2008/6/13 1:34Profile





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