... and finished with a baptism

Hi Jesusspotting bloggers.

I am the lady sitting supping on the juice, listening intentently to Mike presenting Colin the gospel message, in the last photo (We call that presentation 'cookies and cups'. If you want to know more about what I am referring to you can go to lesson 8 & fast forward to 51mins on The Pioneer School on the website TheLastReformation.com)

However Mike's version is a little different as it has been modified over time to make it his own style.

One part I particularly like, is when Mike asks the listener to imagine they live in a country where the king gives out credit cards with a limit of $50 million (or another unreachable amount to repay).

Mike goes on to say that you (the listener) max-ed out the card to the full $50 million. The king clearly states the penalty for not paying back the full amount is imminent death, ... beheaded!!! 

However the Prince has offered a remission slip for the FULL amount to anyone. There is three very very simple requirements

1. You must go to the Prince's office.

2. You must fill in the form.

3. You must hand it in to be processed.

Then the debt will receive the remission slip stamped with "Paid In FULL" . 

Wow! would you do those 3 simple steps if you lived in that country under those circumstances? ... And can you see how foolish it would be to ignore those 3 simple steps.

Mike goes on to share...

Likewise it is with GOD. We (including me & you) have each clocked up a DEBT, (actually we are born with the debt) we can not repay, it's beyond our ability.

We all have fallen short of God's perfect standard required to get into God's perfect HOLY eternal kingdom.

GOD's Son is not only willing to swap His perfect record for our imperfect record ....He has already DONE IT! 

It is FINISHED! 

BUT similarly to the analogy, we don't receive it automatically we must do do three very very simple requirements.

1. We must BELIEVE Jesus.

2. We must turn away from away from our old life style (thinking & doing).

3. We must be baptised in water and in Spirit. 

(this is my version of his version...lol....)

Colin was intently taking all this information in.

This presentation MOVED Colin to ACTION. 

The others in our group had dispersed in the park, talking to other park goers. So at this point there was only Mike & Colin & Mike's wife April who took the photo & me. 

As we all know, God is always exceptionally good at orchestrating EVERYTHING,  & the group came back together.  

Colin was collecting up all his belongings, and leading the way to the water. 

"We are we going?" some asked.

 "We are off to baptise Colin."

Nothing was going to stop him.

This happened on Saturday 9th December.  

The next day, we all meet up with Colin again for church & a meal & fellowship in the same park. 

April baptised Colin with the Spirit. 

We met again the following two Saturdays. . . & during the week too. 

I pray that another disciple from Tauranga will share their perspective of inputting in to Colin's walk.

It has been a beautiful family/body ministry. And Colin is our latest person of peace. 

Church in the park is soooo free-ing!!!!! 

Absolutely!!!!

from Carol a follower of Jesus. 

It all started with a broken car...

Not long after we bought our first house our car broke down. We were already under financial strain and this was not needed. Fortunately, my boss’ partner owns a car yard and he was happy to lend us a car for as long as we needed.

After 2-3 weeks of using the loan car, our broken car was fixed. We were gifted the money to pay for the repairs, so we didn’t have to stress about how to pay for it. Now we just needed to organise to drop the loan car back to Tauranga.

It is a long way to go just to drop a car off, so we arranged to meet up with some fellow believers who live in Tauranga afterwards. A lot of us have children so we arranged to meet at a local playground at 10am.

I got there first with my children and noticed that there weren’t many people around. The only person I saw was a middle-aged Maori man on a park bench, who told me to be careful of the broken glass around the place. I didn’t think much of it at the time because I was on the lookout for the people we were due to meet up with.

Over the course of the morning we had some amazing fellowship. We spoke about our struggles, our triumphs, asked questions and prayed for one another. After about an hour, we wanted to have a group photo, so I asked the middle-aged Maori man to take it for us, which he did.

After that, we enjoyed some more fellowship until the point where we were starting to get close to lunchtime. People were getting hungry, so a few of us decided to get some food from the supermarket and bring it back for everyone to share.

While we were having our lunch, we noticed that the middle-aged Maori man was still on the same park bench as he was from the morning. He hadn’t talked to anyone else all day and it didn’t look like he was going anywhere in a hurry. April mentioned that we should offer him some food, so I decided to go over and ask him to join us for some lunch. It didn’t feel right that we had loads of food to share and he didn’t seem to have anything.

I found out his name was Colin. Once he had joined us and devoured a bun, we had a bit of a chat. It turns out that he lived in Auckland until a few days earlier and had moved down to Tauranga after someone offered him a job. That job never eventuated, and Colin couldn’t get a hold of the person who offered him the job, so he was stuck in Tauranga. He didn’t know anyone there so ended up sleeping at the playground. In the rocket…

We chatted some more and he told us his story and we shared some of ours. While this was happening, I was trying to work out how to steer the conversation to kingdom matters. I asked him if he was healthy (trying to work out if he had any pain) and he said he was fine. After chatting for a bit more I ended up telling him that we were all there because God brought us together. I explained that we don’t live in the same city and that some of us were even homeless! I then told him that the kingdom of heaven is near, it is not far off and that is why we invited him over for lunch. I said that we can show him what the kingdom is like because we are born again, but if he wanted it for himself then he would have to be born again. With most people, their response to that will determine whether they are a person of peace or not. A lot of people change the topic, justify their sin or walk away. 

Colin did neither. He asked this question:

“How do I go about doing that?”

From there I briefly explained repentance, water baptism, faith in Jesus alone for salvation and baptism in the Holy Spirit. We were right next to the beach, so I said that he could get baptised right there if he was keen.

Even after hearing that, he didn’t change the topic or walk away. He seemed really interested. I asked him if he’d ever heard that before. He said:

“Yea, but I wasn’t listening then. I’m listening now.”

Unfortunately, right at that moment I had to take my daughter to the toilet and then we needed to go because our kids had to sleep. Fortunately, Mike stepped in and shared the full gospel with him from start to finish using some plastics cups and a bottle of juice that we bought for lunch.

There is a whole lot more to this testimony but I will have to get someone else to share the rest of it because I wasn’t there after that!

To be continued…

Fireplace assessment

In the house that my wife and I have recently moved into is an old fireplace. It is one of the many things around the house that we want to replace, but one which must wait until we have the funds to do it.

A week earlier we had lunch with one of the few contacts that we had in Tokoroa, and they mentioned to us that the Council here has a scheme where they will replace your old fireplace and replace it with a new one for free. We quickly researched more this, and realised that we met the criteria, so applied for a brand-new fireplace to be installed.

The inspector that was supposed to come to our house didn’t show up, and we were advised that he had ‘put out’ his back so couldn’t come until a few days later. When he did turn up, he advised us that our fireplace did need to be replaced, but the funding wasn’t available until the next year so he would advise us when the funding was renewed. He was about to go when I asked him about his back. He was very chatty, and said that he’d had various accidents like falling down stairs or slipping on wet ground which had aggravated it and caused a lot of pain. I asked him if I could pray for him to which he agreed.

I put my hand on his shoulder and prayed a simple prayer along the lines of,

“I speak life and healing to this back. All pain go! Back, be restored to full functionality right now.”

Then I asked him to move around. When he did that he said that all the pain was totally gone. He also said that when I prayed for him, he felt something move in his head. He couldn’t explain. He was completely blown away and no longer chatty, so I shared the gospel with him. He said that he used to go to a Lutheran church but didn’t like how controlling they were. He said that he still believes in a higher power but isn’t sure because bad things happen to good people all the time.

I chatted with him for another 20 minutes or so about the goodness of God. He has to come back in a week to let us know how the funding situation is going so I pray that we can have more chance to talk.

On a side note, when I prayed for him, I didn’t say ‘in Jesus’ name’ in my prayer. I didn’t even mention Jesus until after he got healed. One of the biggest mistakes that people make when praying is the belief that the name of Jesus is like a magic word. It’s not saying the name that has the power, otherwise whenever people said Jesus as a swear word, they would be healed. I still prayed in Jesus’ name though, because I prayed according to his will. That’s what it means to pray in Jesus’ name.

Kingdom focus while house buying

Irene and I (Andrew) have been going through the process of buying a house recently. It has been a lengthy and stressful process getting the various reports done, organising lawyers, finance and insurance. It is especially hard because neither of us have done anything like this in the past. We also have had to juggle parents who want to give us feedback every step of the way, with very little of it being constructive. In the midst of this, it has been so easy to let kingdom matters fall by the wayside. I realised the other day that I haven’t prayed for anyone or shared the gospel for over a week! I felt horrible and resolved to do something about it. I rang up a mate of mine named Zion so we could organise a time to go and pray for people. Some friends of his were going to set up a tent for prayer at the local markets the next morning so we thought we’d go check that out.

When we got to the markets we quickly decided that we would walk the streets to find people to pray for rather than waiting for them to come to us. The first few people we approached were very chatty but didn’t have anything that we could pray for. Then we saw two young men standing by a shop window and offered to pray for them. One of them was very enthusiastic in telling us about his sore hand, while the other one walked away. The one that stayed was called Huckston, and he had injured his hand playing league the day before and said the pain was 7/10. Zion prayed for him once and the pain went down to 0 or 1. Huckston was completely blown away by this and we shared a bit about repentance with him, but it was clear he wasn’t ready to give up his life of sin. We left him and went to find some other people to pray for. One man rejected us, another lady let us pray for her until it became clear that we actually expected her to be healed right there, and we talked to another man about the reiki healing that he does. Once he found out we were Christians he immediately started playing the ‘all Christians are narrow-minded’ card. We tried to talk more but he wasn’t prepared to listen to reason so we carried on.

Zion mentioned that his back was sore while we were walking along so we stopped and I prayed for him. He said it felt a little bit better afterwards but it was still sore on one side. He said that he thought one leg might be shorter than the other so we checked it out. I could see quite clearly once we found a park bench that his right leg was shorter than his left leg by about one inch. I commanded the right leg to grow and within about 10 seconds both legs were the same size. He then checked out his back again and could definitely move more freely. As he was doing this a lady sitting directly opposite the park bench selling some merchandise asked us what we were doing. She couldn’t have had a better view of what happened if she tried. We explained to her what was going on, and she said that she has a sore back on one side too. So of course we measured her legs and then prayed for her legs to be the same size and they did. She said she felt something move in her body and she could move more freely after that too. We told her that it was Jesus that healed her but she wasn’t prepared to accept that. We tried talking more with her about it but she had to go.

Straight after that Zion talked to a man who didn’t have any pain, but said that his missus was in constant pain. So, we prayed for her through him that she would be healed. We approached a few more people after that but nothing else exciting happened.

What an awesome morning! It was much more fruitful than worrying about a house. Yes, the house is important, but our first priority should always be the kingdom of God. It’s so easy to forget that when you’re in the middle of a big decision like this, but saving souls for eternity is a much greater prize. It’s also really easy to get busy or make excuses for not going out to pray for people. One thing I didn’t mention, is that during the whole time we were walking around the markets, I had my one-year old son with me. Instead of worrying about what I was going to do to keep him entertained at home while I went out, I just decided to take him with me. He was fine. And he never once felt heavy even though I was carrying him most of the way (and he weighs 15kgs). God is awesome!

Anyone can benefit from God's Word

As a thank you gift, I gave my midwife a prayer cloth after the birth of our second baby. Written on it were Scriptures about how Jesus still heals today. It was used to wrap up some home made soaps.

A week later during a post natal visit the midwife thanked me for the prayer cloth. She had given it to her husband who was having bad headaches. He had slept on it overnight and felt better the next day.

A year and a half later we bumped into the same midwife in a shopping mall. She approached me to thank me again for the prayer cloth I had given her. A baby she recently delivered ended up in the newborn unit at the hospital. The midwife gave the parents (whom she knew were also believers) the prayer cloth. The parents used the prayer cloth, putting their faith in its healing power. The cloth was displayed prominently next to the baby at the hospital. The baby's health improved dramatically. The parents thanked the midwife for the cloth and they said they had lots of tears because of the way the baby has recovered so quickly.

It amazed me to hear that. This whole time I'm thinking I was wrapping the gift in such a hurry (with having to take care of a newborn baby) I actually forgot to even pray over the cloth before giving it to the midwife.

Yet, those who believed in the power of God's healing in the cloth had benefited from it. Maybe this was why Jesus said to a lot of people "your faith has healed you."

Note that my midwife was not born again or Spirit filled, neither was her husband.

Rejection is normal

Searching for that person of peace... 

Over the weekend my wife and I went out to find people to pray for. We approached 4 people and asked them if they had any pain in their bodies. None of them said that they did, and 2 of them looked like they wanted to throttle us for asking. The last one of them at least asked why we wanted to know so I told him that we prayed for people and God healed them. He pointed us in the direction of where some people might be but wasn't interested in talking any more. 

Then the next day I was going to the supermarket and noticed a lady on crutches. I approached her and offered to pray for her but, again, got the 'I'm going to throttle you' look. So our weekend on the streets consisted of 5 people approached, 5 rejections, no prayers and no opportunity to share the gospel. It doesn't always go smoothly when we go out on the streets, but at least I know we were obedient, and we are one step closer to finding that person of peace :-)

Discipleship

A few weeks ago we baptised 3 people and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. We've been thinking about ways to disciple them since it happened but we had all been busy since. We have baptised people in the past, and a lot of them had fallen back into the ways of the world which is always disappointing. It seems like no matter how much we try and chase them up and arrange times for discipleship, or pray for them, something always prevents it from happening. So we were pleasantly surprised when they rearranged their work shifts and invited us over for a meal so they could learn more about this new life they now had.

We went over on a Sunday night and were immediately struck by how close all people on the street were. There are 8 small houses down a small street and the 4 on one side look directly into the front door of the 4 on the other side. When we got there, there were children running around everywhere, and they just went in and out of peoples homes like they owned them. This really spoke to us because one of the things we've contemplated is having a big community where everyone who lives there is dedicated to become a disciple of Christ. This way, people are less likely to be distracted by the temptations that can come from living in a comfortable environment where there is no accountability. This place already had that community living thing sorted, they just needed help with the discipleship. That's where we came in.

The 2 families there treated us to an amazing meal of fried chicken and Korean food. They went out of their way to make sure we were well taken care of. While we ate, we got to know each other better and chatted about how they were going since the baptisms. After dinner the children played in another room and we were able to sit down and read a few chapters from the gospel of John together. We read it slowly and I explained a bit more about it and answered questions like: what is a Christ? Was John the Baptist the same one who wrote the gospel of John? And, what is passover?

It was a really encouraging night and we are definitely planning to do it again soon. We will also take them on the street some time to pray for people and encourage them to teach what they have learnt other people. The best way to get growth is through empowerment and multiplication rather than through micro-management and addition.

Kickstart weekend

The next kickstart seminar to be held in New Zealand was held in Lower Hutt in April 2017. It was going to be a one day kickstart as opposed to a full weekend one. This would mean that there would be a lot of teaching to cram in to one day. It is also a long way from Hamilton to Lower Hutt so it would mean a lot of travelling too. We try to get along to all the kickstarts that we can because we know how powerful they are in teaching people the simple truth of the gospel, and how easy it actually is to go out on the streets and talk to strangers.

We left Hamilton at 9am on Friday morning and got to Lower Hutt at 6pm that night. We had arranged some accommodation close to the venue through bookabach.co.nz so we went there and got ready for bed. The owner of the house had a quick chat to us about the room and asked us what we were doing for the weekend. I explained a bit about what a kickstart is and gave them a card so they could find out more. She explained that they are also Christians and that they have a 3 year old daughter and a one year old son just like us! I also noticed in their bookshelf in our room that they had a lot of books by on-fire Christians so I pray that they will want to know more about praying for others and sharing the gospel effectively.

The next day we went down to the venue for the kickstart and talked a bit to JP & Dina before it was due to start at 9:30. At 9:30 there was only us there and the organisers so it looked a bit grim! In the next 30 minutes another 10 or so people showed up so we got started with that. After that another 10 more people turned up so there were around 20 people there who hadn't been to a kickstart before. There was also around 6 people who had experience with taking people out on the streets so it was a good mix of people.

Normally during these kickstarts JP & Dina do the majority of the talking and, because my wife and I have heard it all before, we stayed near the back and entertained our kids. During the breaks we made sure we talked to as many people as we could to find out why they were there and how they were finding the teaching so far. It also helps people feel comfortable when we go out on the streets because they can go in a group with someone they have talked with.

The training was still going on at 12pm and our kids were getting hungry so we went out to get some lunch before the next break. We got some fish and chips and sat outside on a bench to eat it. As we were eating it I noticed an old lady struggling to get out of her car. She was having a hard time getting a walking frame out of her boot. I asked her if she was ok and she said she was fine. Then I asked what was wrong with her and she said that she had arthritis in her hips and the pain was constantly at a 9/10. Then I asked if I could pray for her and she agreed. She said that she was a Christian as well so she was open to spiritual things. I prayed for her a couple of times but there was no obvious change. I encouraged that if Jesus prayed for her then she would be healed completely, and that it might heal over time. We chatted a little bit more and then she had to get to her hairdressers appointment.

After that, we finished our lunch and went back to the venue for the kickstart. The training was still going on and it didn't break for lunch until around 2pm. At that time people can break for lunch and then go out on the streets to find people to pray for. People are put in groups with those who have been out on the streets before and they learn from them how to pray for people. I was on of the group leaders and I had 3 ladies with me whom I had chatted to during the breaks.

We made a plan where I would pair up with one lady at a time and the other two would walk down the other side of the street then we would swap over. I went with one of the ladies and we saw an island lady gingerly walking along the footpath on crutches. We approached her and I asked her what she had done. She said that she had knee replacement surgery a few weeks earlier and this was her first time out of the house since then. She was just testing it out. I asked her if we could pray for her and she agreed. I got the lady with me to pray and command healing and then I asked the island lady to try it out. Her eyes lit up when she tried it out and she said it felt a lot freer. Then she said something that encouraged us immensely. She said that she is a believer also, and that God told her to go for a walk that day! As soon as she finished talking to us she said that she was going to tell her family what happened to her.

After that I took another lady around the same area but no-one wanted prayer. They were all either completely healthy, or didn't want anything to do with us. I wasn't put off by this. It just means they are not people of peace. Then we decided to change locations and went to the local playground where my wife and kids were. This was a great move because there were hundreds of people there! It didn't take long to find people that needed prayer and one of the ladies and I approached someone who had a cane. I asked her why she needed it and she said that she had a sore lower back. She rated the pain about 7/10. I asked if we could pray for her and she agreed. Again, I asked the lady who had never prayed before to do the praying. After the prayer, I asked the lady with the sore back to try it out and the pain went from a 7/10 to 5/10. We prayed a few more times but nothing more happened. We shared the gospel with her and encouraged her that her back may loosen up over time then left it at that.

As you can see, it's not always successful when we pray for people. Sometimes they get healed, sometimes they don't. I'd love to say that everyone I pray for gets healed completely just like Jesus, but it quite simply is not the case. I'm working towards that though. The thing is though, if we never step out in obedience, we will never see anyone healed. Get out there! The harvest is plentiful.

Baptism failure or success?

A young man living in Hamilton (Victor) got in touch with me through The Last Reformation world map. He said that he wanted deliverance. I gave him a ring and chatted with him a bit more. I wanted to find out where he was at spiritually, and why he wanted deliverance.

He said that he was brought up in a Catholic home but wasn't fully following Jesus. Then a few months ago, some evangelists talked to him on the street and showed him that he needed to make a choice with his life. Ever since that day he has got more serious with God and started to read his Bible constantly and listen to a lot of preaching online.

After chatting to him on the phone I encouraged him to read Romans 6 which talks about baptism and then we arranged a time for him to come over on the weekend. He never showed up but I received a message a while later to say that he wasn't able to make it and that he had run out of credit to let me know. We then arranged a time for him to come over on the Sunday and I told him to bring his togs.

This time he did show up and we chatted for a while face to face. I asked him if he understood Romans 6 and he said that he did. He said that it means we just need to die underwater and rise with Christ. I then explained repentance to him and he fully understood. He thought that he needed to fast for 40 days and spend a lot of time with God before he could be blessed by God. I told him that the only pre-requisite to be baptised is to repent. As long as you're fully repentant, any demons that are cast out during deliverance will not have a way of getting back in. He said that he understood repentance and was ready to be baptised.

We took him down to the river and contacted another man (Roger) whom we had just baptised the week earlier to come and help out. It took a while for him to show up so we had to wait around for a while. It was interesting that when we got there, there was another group of people there too. There must have been about 50-60 people and one young lady had her togs on and there was a guitar there too. I thought to myself that it would be funny if it was a church baptising someone. It turned out that that's exactly what it was! They sung a few songs, one of the people played the guitar and the congregation sung some songs. The same person who played the guitar then took the girl into the water and baptised here and everyone cheered. Once they were out of the water, the same person prayed a blessing over her while everyone else closed their eyes, looked down and held out an arm toward her. Then there were a few speeches from people and they eventually left. This took around an hour to complete and everyone from their church went away feeling like it had been a success.

After this all happened, Roger showed up so we were able to do our baptism. I asked Victor if he was repentant and he said he was. We baptised him on his own faith. There were 2 or 3 witnesses there. Then we started praying for him for deliverance and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. After what happened the week before, I was prepared to pray for as long as it took to get the break through. I mentioned this to Victor but unfortunately after a few minutes of prayer, Victor wasn't prepared to wait any longer. He had had enough and just wanted to get home. I tried to explain to him that it doesn't always happen straight away but he was set in his mind that he wanted to get home.

Roger told me afterwards that he could tell straight away that Victor wasn't ready. I couldn't understand what happened. I knew there was more that God wanted to do with Victor and it was just so frustrating that we couldn't get it for him. I still think that it was right to baptise him because he fully understood repentance, but I realise now that I should have asked him what specifically he wanted to repent of. That would have brought him to a place of true humility to have to bring any hidden sins out from the darkness into the light. I'll know for next time.

Two people got wet and no more. One group of people deemed it a success. Another group of people deemed it a failure. God knows people's hearts. We will continue to disciple Victor and trust that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit and start speaking in tongues.

Guests turning up late for their own party

Some good friends of ours, Mike, April & Elijah, had decided to leave New Zealand to be used by God overseas. They sold the house that they had lived in and paid the mortgage on for many years, and bought tickets to go to the Philippines to visit April's family. Their rough plan was then to go to a kickstart in Hong Kong in late April, then Denmark in July for some training, and then permanently migrate to Fiji after that to spread the gospel there.

It was sad for us to know that they would be leaving us because we have done a lot together. We have prayed together, worshipped together, shared the gospel together and have basically done life together for around a year. They were the first people we contacted through The Last Reformation map on their website. I didn't actually find out until later that the day before I sent them an e-mail through the map, Mike had prayed for God to send like-minded people to them.

The last weekend before they were due to head overseas we decided to have a farewell party for them. We invited a whole lot of people around and planned to start the party at 4pm, which would give us time for fellowship before having dinner and needing to get children back for their sleeps.

4pm came and went, and there were no signs of Mike and April. Other guests started arriving and chatting. 4:30pm came and went and there was still no sign of Mike and April. We weren't sure what to do so we just continued chatting. They often turn up late to events so we weren't too worried. Normally they're not this late though. I checked my phone and realised I had a message from April to say that they were preaching the gospel to some people around 10 minutes away and would be late. They were hoping it would lead to a baptism. I told everyone this so we just kept waiting and enjoying each others company. It was a little bit strange without the guests of honour but we knew they were doing work for the kingdom so we were happy enough.

At around 5pm I received a message from April to say they were finally coming over. She also said that they were bringing with them 4 extra adults and 3 children, and they wanted to use our bathtub for a baptism! I told this to everyone gathered and informed my wife there would be 7 extra people for dinner and she said, "Ok." What an amazing wife I have! It didn't faze her at all. Then I went and filled up the bathtub in preparation for the baptism.

Mike and April finally showed up at around 5:45pm with 2 cars following close behind them. We crammed the extra 10 people in our already busy house, and decided to have some dinner first and then do the baptisms. This gave us a chance to get to know the people and hear first hand what happened leading up to all of this. It all started with Mike and April going to visit some friends of theirs, and their friend saying that she would like to speak in tongues. As this was happening, the  neighbours popped over to say hello, and Mike and April ended up sharing the gospel with them. After that, the neighbours decided that they wanted to be baptised too.

So after having dinner together, I put some more hot water in the bath and we baptised those who wanted to be baptised. Then they got changed, and we prayed for all 3 people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit while they were sitting on our bed. It was quite a sight to walk in and see 3 different people being prayed for by 3 groups all around our bed!

It took a while for all of them to be baptised and speak in tongues, but all 3 of them did eventually get there. We finished praying for them at around 7:30. During this time all of their children were happily playing in the rest of the house. The other guests who weren't praying were happy to be the impromptu babysitters for something as important as this.

It was an amazing night of seeing God move. Baptism, repentance and baptism of the Holy Spirit all in one night. And it all started with some followers of Christ visiting some friends in their home and taking the opportunity that was open to them. God is so good. Thank you Mike & April for being obedient to share the gospel even though you were late for your own party. The work of the kingdom is so much more important. Thank you also for leaving us some more people to disciple! We will miss you, but we know that in Christ, we are never far apart. Whether we see you again on this earth or in heaven, we know that your joy, and ours, will never be lacking because we are sons of the most high.

Do I work or do I baptise someone?

As part of my work I have the option of working from home. I can also choose the hours that I work. As long as I do my hours by the end of the week my boss is happy. The other day I had planned to do two hours of work to finish off my week. I sat down and turned my computer on just before 10am and I was going to work until lunchtime. Just as I was checking my e-mails I heard a knock on the door. It turned out to be Mike saying that an old friend of his from church wants to be baptised and she only lives around the corner from me. They were on their way there to do it. So, without much hesitation, I threw on a jumper and headed around to the house.

When I got there the bathtub was running and I was introduced to ‘Heather’, who had been wanted to be baptised for a number of years but no-one was willing to do it for her. She found out that Mike and April would do it so she contacted them and arranged a day to do it. I was quickly introduced to Heather and we started talking about her reasons for wanting to be baptised. She was very sincere and very excited about it and definitely understood repentance and what baptism is all about.

The bathtub was taking a while to fill up so we decided to pray for her while we were waiting. 

Whenever we pray for someone we expect demonic activity so we weren’t surprised when she started shaking a bit and screaming. The demon left and Heather said she felt much lighter. We then dunked her in the bath and gave her time to get changed before praying for her to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It took a while but she did start praying in tongues a little reluctantly. We will continue to encourage her to be bold and that she is a new creation.

After the baptism we went back to my place for lunch and had an amazing time of fellowship. I didn’t actually finish my two hours on that day because I was so busy in the kingdom. I managed to finish off my work the next day.

This is Mike and April’s side of the story:

A past churched friend called us as she had been desiring to be water baptised (not sure of the whole story behind but she had been turned down by 3 churched leaders over the last year or more -very weird) she heard that we baptize people so called us . so this morning we went to see her ..[grabbed Andrew stirling on the way ] ..we prayed with her and cast some devils out ,then we baptised her in water on her own faith .she also had an appointment to see her Dr later today for somthing wrong in her throat, so we commanded healing and she messaged us an hour Ago to tell us the Dr found Nothing . God is So good .love this life in HIm .So privileged to be a part of what he is doing