Monday, May 21, 2007

Awesome things happening

Well it has been a while since I have posted here and as of late a lot of awesome things have been happening.

Our youth has really been growing both in numbers and spiritual depth. We have seen at least one new person at youth every week for the last 6 weeks and have grown from averaging about 15 an event at the start of the year to 25 each week.
Two weeks ago we had three girls make first time commitments, all of them from non christian families. We also had nearly all our youth respond to an alter call where they committed to God that they never wanted to get involved in the 'party scene' it was awesome stuff!!

I was also really blessed to be asked to share a message at Faith Bible College. Having only graduated last year it was an honor to be asked to share with the students. I shared on Spiritual Fatherhood through the life of Mordecai which was well received.

Last week Pst Trevor (my SP) and I went to pursuit of excellence conference in Auckland. It was an awesome time hearing some amazing speakers and being gathered in the presence of God. We received so much quality input over those four days, I think it will take a couple of months to process it all.

Lastly our church has a couple of ministries that reach out to the homeless in our city. We have been doing this for the last three years but in the last little while we have been seeing the fruit of this. Three of the streeties have recently given their hearts to the Lord and one brother in particular has been utterly transformed on Sunday morning he gave a powerful testimony. He shared how he spends time every day in the theology section of the local library as he loves to read the word of God and God really speaks to him in this place. After leaving this spot he found a wallet on the ground. He quickly grabbed it stuffed it in his pocket and made his way to the toilet where he could check the contents of the wallet. Going through he found $141 and also some dope, he assured the church that it was good quality stuff as well! He sat in the toilets and debated what he should do with each item. He knew he shouldn't smoke the dope and thought maybe he should give it to his friends on the street who would appreciated it. Although on second thoughts he knows that God is reaching out to many of his friends so it would probably be better not to give it to them and to smoke it himself and then ask for the Lord's forgiveness. After many minutes of debating he realised he that he could not smoke or give away the dope, the money wasn't quite so straight forward though. Maybe this was a blessing from God he reasoned. He could have a night in a hotel with clean sheets, clean blankets and watch movies!! He decided he would go back to the theology section to make his decision. As he sat surrounded by books about God the presence of God touched him and he realised that he needed to hand the wallet into the police!!! He said he chuckled to himself as he approached the police station as this was his first time entering through the front doors in his old life he had always been taken through the back. The policeman on duty took the wallet and began to count the money, "no need to count" my friend said "their is exactly $141.30, believe me I have counted it!!" The policeman was further shocked when he asked for his address and the reply was "no fixed abode". The policeman commended him and told him that their was not many people like him in the world.

It was so awesome to be reminded of the transformation of the Cross. Our God is truly amazing!!!