Rockin the great Southland, Perth & Brisbane, Australia!  
 
Well, I love Australia!

We had the privilege for the month of January to partner with 2 local churches and go to the streets! One church here in Perth, and the other in Brisbane. They were so open to learn from us young ones, we were encouraged by the humility and love for God that we saw in many of them.

In Perth, it was amazing to see the people of our own city responding to Jesus. A highlight definitely for me was baptizing my Vietnamese friend who I had led to Jesus last year. She's the first but not the last that I will have the honor of baptizing!

In 4 weeks in Perth and Brisbane we saw 4 people receive Jesus, 91 people prayed for, 3 people healed, and taught 124.

Testimony from my student Matt:
We were standing next to a water fountain on New Years Eve. A man walked up and tried to get a drink from it. The fountain exploded into his mouth and face and we then began to laugh at him. Then we started talking to him, and eventually the conversation lead towards God. We met with Him several times later but He never gave his life to God. So we left for Brisbane, continuing to pray for him. I called him up later that week and he told me that he had given his life to Jesus! So we did all we could but it was the Holy Spirit who brought him to salvation.

From my student Jory:
Do what you can but don't try to do God's job. I had spent most of the lecture phase meeting with older lady sharing with about Christ. But she just wasn't convinced. I prayed for her, spoke with her often but she just wouldn't let go of her intelect. She just knew there was something behind it, or it was all brainwash. The day before we left for Brisbane I met her one last time. At the end of a very fruitful but limited conversation we prayed. As the prayer was going, the Holy spirit came upon her three times and touched in a way that she could not understand or even explain. It was an amazing moment for both of us. God knows what needs to be done on his part and knows our limits. I've learned to trust him in a new way. That it's not up to me alone to convince people of the truth, the TRUTH does it Himself.

Another time, we were at the riverside having a time of prayer, and Jory heard God tell him to walk down the path a certain way, so when we were finished he began to walk. A few minutes later he sees a man sitting along the bank, and knew he was meant to talk with this man. As they spoke, it turned out this guy was sitting there thinking of committing suicide, he had come from a different part of Australia to see his dying father, but when he arrived his father had already died. He had been drinking for 5 days straight and wanted to die. By the end of the conversation the man had opened up and received prayer and was willing to be helped. He was soo in the hospital with some local Christians looking after him. God sees everyone!

We also had the opportunity of seeing a young man set free from alcohol addiction. A few of my team met him on the street while out sharing the Gospel, he had a lot of hard knocks, just 19 years old, but had been drinking for quite awhile. He received Jesus and stopped having a desire to drink within a week after drinking for years. He immediately began to share his faith and within the first 3 weeks of his salvation was a part of leading 3 Hindus to Jesus! He is currently looking to come train as a missionary with us in Perth.

Older Testimonies:

God is doin a NEW thing in our western world..

1)We were out on evangelism one evening, I saw a guy out of the corner of my eye with a sling on his arm. I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to pray for Him to be healed. I ended up running after him, he was with a group of friends, and I asked if I could pray for his arm and his friend said, "he doesn't need prayer, he needs a doctor, he just got out of the hospital!" And sure enough, he still had his hospital band on his wrist. But he let me pray anyway; I laid my hand on his arm and when I was done praying asked him if it was better. He said yes and started moving it around looking at it strangely. I ended up praying for him 3 times until all the pain was gone. He just looked at me wide-eyed and said thank you and walked off! My friend saw his buddy the next day and asked about the arm, and he said the pain was still gone and he slept well that night for the first time since it happened.

2)I was spending time with God in the morning and randomly had a picture come into my head of a girl selling makeup at one of the department stores in the city. It was such a vivid picture, and I wasn't even asking God about anything like that, and the Lord told me this girl was in distress and needed some help and I should go and pray for her. So that afternoon we were out and I decided to go find her. I went into the store I had the picture of, looking for this girl. And I saw her! Just like I had pictured. I didn't know what to say, but I went up to her and explained what I had seen and what God had said to me about her. She immediately hugged me and started explaining this whole story about the stress she is under. It was incredible, I shared about Jesus and prayed for her right there. We're going to get together sometime soon. I am so blown away by God and his attentiveness to our lives and how He chooses to meet people.

3)My friend and I were out and I saw a guy walking with crutches. Again, we went after him and asked if we could pray for him. It turns out he shattered his heel. So I prayed for him and asked if it was better and he started putting pressure on it, his friend was freaking out saying, "No way, no way! I haven't seen him put that much pressure on it in a long time!" The guy I prayed for was all excited and sat back down and said, "Do that again!" I prayed for him again, he was pretty blown away but was scared to try to walk on it completely; so I don't know the extent of his healing, but I know he was touched by the Holy Spirit. I spoke to Him about the power of what Jesus has done for us, and in the meantime several other people had stopped to watch, including 2 Iraqis; so after we were done praying for the guy we got to witness to them as well.

4)I had been friends with a Vietnamese girl my friend met in the city for 2 months. Been talking with her sharing about God and answering lots of her questions and just hanging out as well. She called me one day and came over to my house. After about 10 minutes of being over she said, "I want to know how I can change me life." Nice question! So my friend and I shared the Gospel from creation to the resurrection and explained how following Jesus means we choose to stop sinning. She said without hesitating, "yes, that's what I want to do." So we prayed with her to receive Jesus, and I said, now you need to repent of your sins and commit to following God. And again, without hesitating, she sat there and repented! I gave her a Bible and she was so excited. She's 18 years old and comes from a Buddhist family, so please pray for her to get a strong hold of the Lord.