The last 3 weeks has been a blur.
Last week Fvid and I did Monday night outreach -- but I had food poisoning for 3 days since the Monday... and last week's targets, no matter who we met, the two of us could never find an opportunity to talk about the Gospel.
two weeks ago was ANZREC week and I'm not sure if it was actually raining or something but it feels like for the last 3 weeks I havent been really outreaching nor inviting people to chill lax.
So I'd really missed the -- meet the strangers, have the random conversations, form the random friendships, randomly talk about the gospel, learning from them about life, and the joy and the connections street evangelism forms...
Plus I'd been tired... just really needed sleep and spiritually tired too. so i didnt concentrate well. And at work I felt so restless i was bored because no one gave me any Finance work to do... and I also didnt do my devotions as much.
This past week things changed. I focused more on The Lord, consistently taking out Sabbath time to know Him intimately, read Grudem (lol!), in Chill Lax last Thurs we explored Isaiah 42 to figure out Jesus's personality and character and I'd been really remembering the real Him lately. In Chill Lax we were reminded bu Josh's sharing on Luke 22 -- "And he said to them, "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing." He said to them, "But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me:'And he was numbered with the transgressors.' For what is written about me has its fulfillment." And they said, "Look, Lord, here are two swords." And he said to them, "It is enough.""
And how Jesus was numbered amongst the transgressors. And dark times are coming, not much daylight soon.
Plus PaBudy and PaTong on John, The Lord's Prayer (Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven, qualitative difference between me and God), plus Hebrews (qualitative difference between God and angels and us, and us and angels, plus the glorious position and name we have been called to as adopted sons of God). Plus me asking for more Finance responsibilities. And Chill Lax having Vinka join...
All these together, made me really crave and miss that fulfilling sense that you get when completing God's Will. So although Fvid asked if I could catch up with Tom, I said if it rains and i cant outreach to new strangers then I will join him, else I won't -- because there are too many lost souls to be saved yet.
Zephyr (6.20pm-7.20pm）
So went for Taichi -- and I'd used many abrupt/Min-ness/snappy witty and cute/funny remarks to tease Zephyr during his teaching time, and he finally laughed/smiled several times. During the week/days prior to today, online I'd kept in contact with him and he asked me to check out an online poll he enrolled in for a virtual Taichi showdown. And I voted for him -- the voting button said "喜欢，投Ta一票！" (and I said) "<--喜欢！" ^_^ lolz.
And in the week I'd complimented him on his teaching skills (indeed he is actually very patient and competent and always tries to figure out new ways of explaining the same thing so that the students can get it), and asked if he'd ever considered being a teacher. I've also shared PaTong's "数算自己的日子" video. Sobbed over my sheer incompetence at Taichi skills (and also utilised the chance to quote from Psalm 139 -- 我 受 造 ， 奇 妙 可 畏 ； 这样的知识奇 妙 ， 这 是 我 心 深 知 道 的 。至 高 ， 是 我 不 能 及 的 。(v14, v6b) -- and he had the chance to comfort me saying "功夫不怕有心人，只要你肯练就行". I asked him 你的毅力是从哪里来的？He said, “我这人就是毅力强。我坚持的东西绝对不会放弃，所以我才每天练功不辍(chuo4/中止)。” Also cuz I've invited him to so so many church activities but got turned down every single time, I'd asked him is it cuz he's busy -- and he revealed that he likes to reserve night time to do his own stuff (and he doesnt come out in the mornings -- uses it to study), so afternoon to 4.30pm was his 'free time' (4.30pm-7pm daily taichi practice haha!). So then I went "ooohhh no wonder" -- and started to respect his personal time, and also teased/complimented him that "我还是觉得你是从书本里跳出来的人物，像你这么样有原则的人，我还是头一次见过。"
And got his opinion if 涵养was an important quality in a person to have...
Anyway I dunno which one of these worked... maybe a combo... maybe none of it... but just somehow today when we were interacting, from his initial poker face, as the hour-session continued, i felt that we were more familiar. Later, when we were heading home (me deliberately walking him home and taking the manual scooter long route to head off to state lib instead of using tram, usually), he naturally told me about his schedules about how he was getting more busy... and then we just chatted like friends...
Though I didnt meet my target progression of telling him about PaTong's sermon link that I shot him earlier in the week, but because he said he was busy, I thought I might mention it when he's out of his busy zone. I owe God one for this （I know that!! sobsss ='( ). But I'm also glad that we are better friends now... (you don't know how hard that was to get this far!!). Praise God.
State Library Outreach (7.30pm-10.30pm)
So knowing Fvid wasn't going to be there cuz he's with Tom (a previous person we outreached to, from China) at dinner, i went to buy my groceries cuz Taichi practice left me really tired and distracted. I thought might be good to clear my head and feel the passion for lost souls again first so while at grocery shopping, I was humming the Chinese hymn -- "O Lord, You have 99 sheep.. isnt that enough for you?" and the Lord said, "this sheep is mine, now have drifted away from me. though the road is treacherous, unlevel and hard to walk, I will surely go to its rescue. I will surely go to his rescue."
(Hymn here)
- 有九十九羊，安臥一起，同得羊欄護庇，
但有一隻，迷路山間，遠與金門相離，
崎嶇山嶺，荒蕪野地，並無善牧體恤管理，
並無善牧體恤管理。
- 主阿，你已經有九十九，難道還嫌不夠？
他說：迷羊亦我所有，現在離我漂流，
路雖彎曲，高低難走，我必前往跟蹤營救，
我必前往跟蹤營救。
As i headed up the escalators and thought of Fvid, I prayed for him and his catch up with Tom. And I prayed for the outreach tonight -- for someone whom I can really chat to and invite to Chill Lax because I need chances to follow up with this guy/girl. And also pray for another person -- that I can chat in depth in theology with this person -- so that the people in darkness can really see a great light. On the land of the valley of the shadow of death, a light has shone/come.
Then I went to state library, and did not see Andika there at the front of the State Lib steps. Feeling a little sad, though i expected it. Then I took out my Bible and read Matthew. I had put on my full armour of God today at home but I put it on again on the escalator -- readiness of gospel shoes, salvation through Christ, belt of empowering Truth, righteousness -- not of my own but secure in His, faith shield -- Love, as strong as death, many waters cannot quench it, many rivers cannot sink it (same shield still from ANZREC). Sword - 你务要忠心至死我就赐你生命为冠冕。And for some reason, Jesus' geneology from Matthew 1: with particular emphasis on Jacob gave birth to Joseph. Joseph is the husband of Mary. Jesus -- is Mary's son (note how it didn't say Jesus is Joseph's son!! -- the qualitative and birth difference of Christ).
Person1: Matthew
And so I was reading the Bible -- just flipping through book of Matthew. Then a homeless guy came up to me and asked for a coin. He was holding a cross that catholics wear. He came with a cardboard. And he said "I believe in God, but I'll admit that I don't go to church anymore, because I've done XYZ and to be honest with you, I've done drugs. But it doesn't mean that I can't believe him! Cuz that's the kind of guy I am, you know." -- he said that and also spoke to me like that partly because he saw that I was wearing my chunky hip hop cross (i also had my ANZREC Tshirt on but it wasn't obvious). So I gave him a dollar, and also added "oh! I believe God too!" and he said "God bless you" and I said the same and we shook hands. Then he continued to walk to every single other person and asked for a donation. Then he walked down the steps towards the Tram stop. The fire of His that burned me since yesterday on the bus home from church, and same fire today that made me for no reason pull out a new Bible from the box and bring it with me to outreach, urged me and I thought, since we had such good 缘分God given opportunity to meet/connect, I told God, "Let's go look for him and give him this Bible." So I quickly packed up and eyed where he was walking to. He had a red hat so it was easy enough to notice him from a distance. Then I quickly rushed down and just before he crossed the street I called out "excuse me", and said "since we had such a chance to meet, why dont I give him this"... and passed him the Bible. He said "wow thank you, did you know that my name is the first book in this Bible?" I said "oh is it?" he said "yeah it's Matthew, .. and you came down all the way to find me to give me this. this really made my night." Then we chatte的about homelessness, and i said (as a evangelist who outreaches every monday, I still carefully pick my target) -- "actually you're very brave for going up to every single person to ask. Even I dont dare to do that." and he said "i'll admit it, it's embarassing. But that's why I put a joke on this cardboard and always give them a choice" you know,.... so in the end I passed him a Chill Lax flyer and told him the next gathering is 3rd Nov, if he arrives at the lobby 7-7.15, i'll pick him up to the lobby. he said he lives outside Nandos on the street. He said "you really have a knack at making people smile.
his birthday is in Nov as well.. 20nov i think..? 17 days after 3rd nov? (cant remember now)
...yet, the fire didn't completely subside.
Person 2: Roci!o from Colombia and Elisa (i think) her daughter.
So after coming back from the tram stop where Matthew and I parted, I looked for the fire that marks His presence. And I saw an older lady alone at the side bench midway up the steps. she smiled at me, i felt the prompting and I smiled back.Went up to talk to her. Realised that she's Colombian and I didn't understand her and she didn't understand me. Hahaha... so tried so hard to google translate Spanish to English and English to Spanish (And I think she must have spoke another language that is like Spanish but maybe not? or else Google translate was really bad because she didn't understand me even with it. I tried to ask her if she was here alone, or with family, how long was she planning to stay.. learnt that 'poco' meant 'a little' (time), but otherwise failed rather badly. Then I was about to say bye, and stood up and she said "gratias"... lol... and then my ears pricked up and immediately asked, "so do you know Bach? because my choir is singing this Bach song "Gratias Agimus Tibi". LOL so I youtubed it and shared the listening of it with her. Then i took out chill lax paper and said "oh this is nice, this is what it means, 'gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam' We give You (God) thanks for Your great glory." hehe... and invited her to chill lax as well. Her daughter came and we could chat more in English and had a chance to invite her daughter to Chill Lax too, and added her daughter too.
Her daughter reminded me of Clarisse (Jose's wife), and when i said she looked too happy to be studying masters of Architecture. But she said no (which could hint at her life not being so rosey)....added her on FB
Then the fire was calmed. And i could have gone home then. But i looked at my watch, still sorta early... not 10pm yet. So I thought to God, "U know, I know I can go home now. I think I've done enough of today's profile. But, what if I said that there's not much daylight left and insisted on going for another one?"
and with that, I packed my stuff and headed up the steps. There was a Caucasian guy near the top of the steps. But there was an Asian guy and I felt the prompting there. Twice.. when i looked at him again. So I defied logic for the Caucasian guy and headed towards the Asian.
Person 3: Garrett
I thought this person is uni aged but then he's really not. I introduced myself with the typical line "Hi I'm Min, what's yours?" and he said "Garrett" I'm like "great!" then we got chatting, discovered that we're both working, he works at Melbourne Children's Hospital as a research scientist looking into stomach cancer . We chatted for age about cancer, research, research job prospects, his friends (in particular one from Pakistan which is a bit chubby and not very tall and his immigration visa application vs passport photo! lol)
Then chatted about his GF, his japan trip and japanese temple stamps race -- (I noted collecting these temple stamps is not different to collecting pokemon go) then i chatted about Motor insurance and MSDS and his purple fume lab occasion lol...
Then he asked me why I was here at state lib and I said to meet people. He said he thought I was going to sell him something -- I said, does he want to be sold something? Cuz i can think up something to sell him. Then he said he saw my (chunky) cross and said he assumes I'm Christian. I said I am. So he said he thought I was going to convert him. I said, does he want to get converted cuz I can try. LOL. (he didnt. bahaha. then, without my prompting-->) Then he revealed he used to be a Catholic, and now grew up to be an Atheist. or rather, Agnostic. I asked him why, revealed that he does not believe/know that God exists or not because it all seems to need 'faith' and it was something intangible and a little out of the logical realm and seem to all hinge on if one believed god existed or not. Then he said it contradicted with science. And he said that there were many things in the OT and conflicted with NT in opposition.
So I shared about my Christian faith experience, how from 16yrs to 24 I was always asking questions. I never denied my faith but I was always asking questions and was quite disappointed with all the churches whose sermons were shallow. I had lots of questions but no answers and my faith needed to match my life that was getting more and more complicated and it's not so simple anymore. I asked him if he's heard of reformed theology, and told him that it's only through Reform that I found something that could satisfy. And also tried to explain idea of paradox through Taichi (soft outside but core is strong... soft but not soft, strong but not strong....), and said that behind every paradox is a logic, and when you understand the logic behind the paradox you won't find that disconnect anymore.
Then, in Doktrin Allah, "We can never know God exhaustively, but we can know God truly." And said （in poor English translation), "诚信真实的上帝啊，我可以以诚信真实来待袮。" Honest, believable, real and sincere God, I can use an honest believe and realness and sincerity to treat you."
After I talked about "Honest, believable, real and sincere God, I can use an honest believe and realness and sincerity to treat you." -- he says, "that's an interesting way to look at it" (indicating that it is not a way that he'd previously view things before).
Tried to explain that in the pages of the Bible, so many pages, so many books, what are we trying to get at? but as we turn the pages of the Bible, we will find that they paint Christ Himself as the author of our salvation. This person Himself (not that when we dont turn He doesn't exist or is not real, but that through these pages, He manifests Himself to us) -- because Garrett mentioned that it is hard to know if God is real or not. Tried to explain that we can never have faith / know God unless through His Word in the Bible.
He said, science is logical and you like science and think like that. So I said, in this same Christ -- is hidden all the wisdom and knowledge of creation. Which encompasses every realm, seen and unseen (but he wont understand that so i didn't say much about the unseen realm). And even cancer/science take you one lifetime to figure out. So in the same manner, if Christ knows all realms -- this means that what He knows, will be plenty more than our lifetimes to understand -- that's why cannot know Him exhaustively, but can know Him truly. Told him, it's hard for him to know God because God can't be put in a test tube. But it's not that God is in Science, but rather Science, and other realms like Philosophy, Arts etc are all in God.
Underneath his eyes, were deep panda bags. He must be really tired and that must be why he was out at State lib playing Pokemon go. We chatted for so long and there was a sense where he didnt want me to leave/didn't want our convo to stop. I really appreciated him sparing out so much time to talk together. he also talked about Melbourne children hospital having an aquarium and a merecat display with real merecats!! LOL. He was honest and said it twice that he hasnt thought about religion for a long time, but that his grandma (the loud one is a catholic, and he had another non so loud one... was she Christian? forgot.), the loud one kept praying for her and said, 'you're definitely going to hell' if he doesn't come back. I said that was not nice... Then, he said he also went to HK churches and they gave him a list of dos and donts and HK churches are really standoffish and turns people away from the church -- he said actually in uni, there's a lot of his friends that go to church not because they believe but that there are many activities to go to. (when i invited him to chill lax without telling him that it is called "Chill Lax")
Even though he said he isnt ready to listen to SPIK, i still explained to him what SPIK was -- and that that is a paradox in itself --- Christ: The man, The God, The Mediator. Me hearing the topic be like "ok, that's interesting. you better tell me what that's about." (he also identified that it is a paradox!!).
But when I introduced him to Reform theology, he said ok, he'll have a read. So I'll look for useful things for him to read.
And the genealogy of Jesus from Matthew -- it must have subconsciously in my mind made me clearly remember that Jesus is real and really walked the earth and now sits at the right hand of Father waiting for His enemies to be His footstool. It must have been what informed me that Christ is real through the apologetics session with Garrett.
============
I finally said good night to him around 10.20-30pm. And wow we must have chatted for maybe an hour or 1.5hrs. (and he taught me much more about Pokemon go and Pokemon maps lol)...
I realised that I really really missed this sort of conversation! And when I was walking home, reflecting upon the prayer that I'd made initially before coming out of the house and at the escalator, wow! How grateful I am for this! And how much joy it has been when I reflect back on how that Bible was given out, how Gratias was introduced, how Garrett and I were actually from Teochew and we even have the same last name -- but grew up since he was like 1y.o in Melb Aust ---- wow Lord, this is the heart of my heart... this is the people of my people and you let me meet him just like this? Had I not thought daylight and non-rainy days were precious I'd have missed out on this joy!
Indeed,...
Sola Gratia
Sola Fide
Solus Christus
Sola Scriptura
Soli Deo Gloria!!
Praise God -- Gratias Agimus Tibi Propter Magnam Gloriam Tuam -- We indeed give You Thanks for Your Great glory.
Vinka gave me a verse this morning, "I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and's of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
EPH 1:16-19 ESV"
I said, "Aww thanks girl, just what I need (last night I rejected a boy and felt dejected that the guys i dont like like me and the guy i like doesnt like me)" and after thinkingn about that verse, i thought, "Immeasurable greatness of His power. ... I'm really curious to see what this Immeasurable greatness is"...
is it even possible that this immeasurable greatness of His power can be towards US!!!! (not just to Christ cuz He is God-Man but rather to us who are mere humans. (and He's correcting me now saying, "no no, but you have My Spirit! albeit qualitatively different from being not by nature God." -- this is the closest it gets to being His image...)...
to me, that is mind boggling..... and i guess we shall find out, when we keep powering on doing His will.
soli deo gloria.
