Hi Everyone

Today was day 1 of the Schoolies outreach on the Gold Coast. If you want to know what Scoolies is all about, read my last newsletter.

The team all arrived safely to the Gold Coast today, so we know God has already begun answering our prayers!  We met up at the apartment, taking time to introduce ourselves and getting to know each other. All up there were about 12 of us – five came over from New Zealand!

After a meal together, we jumped into cars and headed down to Scholies central, in the heart of Surfers Paradise.

The place was crazy! Thousands of school kids were going both directions, loud thumping  music, and lots of yelling and screaming.

After praying, we split up and moved about in tams. I paired up with Kane.

Here’s a summary of some of the conversations we had:

Aaron – he turned out to be a post-modern, answering all my questions with “that’s OK for you, but not for me”. It was a circular conversation that went nowhere.

3 guys – Jack, Zane, and I can’t remember the other one. They were all very engaged. I managed to pull one of them away. He was very interested to learn that all it took was repentance and faith in Christ to get to heaven. A great chat with them all!

Leilani & Bianca – these young ladies were very responsive to our conversation. They understood that they were in trouble, and were headed to hell. We left with them understanding exactly what to do to get to heaven!

Elizabeth – she couldn’t agree on a creator, and just kept arguing for proof, even though I was pointing out the obvious, building requires a builder etc.

Chris and Charlie – this couple were very engaging with Kane, and turned out to be a good chat. They had to disappear on us.

Vladimir the Hari Krishna – Kane pulled  him away from the dancing troupe. We had a discussion on the fact that all religions cannot be the same, because Jesus claims exclusive entry into heaven. This was countered by consciousness claims that the cult make, but I think he could tell it was a losing argument. We pray that something we said spoke to his heart.

Victoria – this was my best conversation of the night. Victoria was very humbled by the law. I saw her face redden and it looked like she was going to cry. I gave her the good news of the beautiful Gospel. She was very happy to hear this. I left her with a good person tract, and showed her how to download the Bible app on her phone. When I walked past later, she was intently reading the tract. She smiled and gave me the thumbs up. A very moving conversation!

So it was an awesome night out, with lots of great conversations. Please pray for more responsive Gospel encounters. Also please pray for stamina for the team, as it look like it’s going to be a long hot week!

Blessings

Craig.