What a fabulous year!

Vital statistics for December

- Christians engaged: 296

- Pre-Christians engaged: 258

- Miracles reported: 20 - YTD: 223

Christmas Outreach Party

The local kids and families helped prepare for the party in the weeks beforehand by painting a massive mural on our fence: "Give your heart to Jesus. Christmas Party 19 Dec 4-8pm." We saw the local 13 yo drug dealer bring some mates and come for prayer. Several teenagers listened intently to the gospel message. One teenager brought her band and we had a jam. It was such a special event with so many little miracles. Several kids put up their hands to follow Jesus. Here is a video of the event. So many Bethel folks came and even funded the event. A lot of people were reached by flyers and posters. 

Nativity 

I also taught several groups of kids the nativity which we were given by local Christians. We were asked to put the nativity scene into the local Rosewall Neighbourhood Centre

Prayer Walks

Before the Christmas Outreach, we had two prayer walks around the area with the Bethel Crew to claim the ground for Jesus.

Playgroup

We met for three Mondays in December with between 9 & 12 Karen mums and kids coming and it was so lovely. Playgroup with English lessons built in as the Karen adults are generally poor at English. And we had prayer times each week. It was a lovely sense of the presence of God. Such a lovely ministry. 

On the Radio

I did a recording on 96three with Danni Synnot to inspire the Christians here. It went really well. It was before the party to help Christians think about reaching out. I hope to do a follow up one. 

What a Fabulous Year!

2020 was an amazing year for me in that I grew more in ministry and was honoured and recognised more in ministry than ever before. I was able to help Bethel move services online and began leading properly at Bethel even just as "Safe Church Officer." Little Miracles received a grant from the City of Greater Geelong for Tree Planting and we have grown from just a tiny presence in Corio to have a regular group of around 15-20 non-Christians coming to our events. We have grown more effective as a ministry couple and we are seeing more little miracles than we can count.

2021

I will continue to publish this blog because it helps me take stock and perhaps people will learn and benefit from it one day as really the church is hopeless when it comes to evangelism and we really need to learn. This might guide and inspire some people one day. Here is my family Christmas Lunch with the mural in the background. Christine was inside at the time. Happy New Year to YOU and may you BE FRUITFUL in your love.

Too many miracles to count them all!

Vital statistics for November
- Christians engaged: 104
- Pre-Christians engaged: 38
- Miracles reported: 11 - YTD: 203

Are we starting a Youth Group?

We sense God wanting us to host a Family Pizza Night here 'every Friday' to give the local kids somewhere safe, educational and Christian in which to grow. So we have run the last two Fridays. And it was great. 17 the fist night and 11 the second (but the weather was awful). It seems to be a very fruitful method so we'll continue next year.

Christmas Events

I'm getting the 'youth group' to host the Christmas Party for the locals. This means we will paint our fence with a message about Jesus. We have also been asked to install a Nativity Scene at Rosewall Community Centre so I'll get the kids to wrangle that too.

Play Group off and racing!

The first day we had 2 leaders, 3 adults and 3 kids. The second week we had 3 leaders, 5 adults and 7 kids! And I'm thrilled they are all Karen Refugee families. This means we are serving the poor and the weak as Jesus did and taught! Not the washed middle classes. The parents are enthusiastic about joining in with the songs and the prayer time was rich with the presence of God. 

Tree Planting

Despite the great news from October, the COGG are dragging their feet. I don't have the time or energy now to push anymore this year. But the trees are growing really well in this lovely warm summer weather! And the vandals are holding off as we have tidied up a lot and that stops them because they see we care more than they do.

More and more at Bethel

I am getting more and more involved with Bethel and as this year draws to a close, I want to make some big changes for next year in the way I keep records of ministry, report the efforts, share the ministry efforts. I will make decisions in December and begin afresh in January/February with some new formats and numbers. In the light of this, if you are reading this, could you please drop me a line to tell me what you value about this blog? One problem is I'm seeing too many miracles to count them all!

Thank you to my Prayer Team

I am so grateful for the strong, loving and committed Prayer Warriors around the world who have my back. Good friends who have walked with me and Christine before. Thank you. We are seeing revival coming because of you. 

On Behalf of the Children

 Vital statistics for October
- Christians engaged: 79

- Pre-Christians engaged: 78

- Miracles reported: 14 - YTD: 192

On behalf of the children. Breakthroughs with the government.

Two councillors from CoGG came to visit us at Rosewall. This is because I had been fasting for God's strategies and lobbying the government. Since their visit, so much has happened:

1. The bus stop seat was replaced.

2. All the rubbish was removed from the park.

3. The whole park was mown.

4. 3 Big truck loads of mulch arrived and was spread around by a bobcat.

5. Trees, Stakes and guards were delivered.

So, on Geelong Cup Day, we had a Covid-Safe Tree Planting event. It was SO good. 17 newies came including 6 muslims. I will post a video of this story next month. Or check out our Facebook page.

Praying for Unbelievers

I have never seen anything like this before. We are asking you to pray for individuals and then we are seeing those individuals lives changing quickly. The best story is Chance, the local 13yo drug dealer. He gave his life to Jesus and accepted prayer. Plus Ben and Kerri. We keep bumping into them and praying for them and they report new hope and 'lightness'. So many little miracles.

Singing Blessings over Geelong & the Bellarine

This month we had 3 singing events in our masks in Geelong, Drysdale, Port Arlington and Queenscliff.

Flyers - Have you been robbed of justice.

We handed out 300 flyers, but this time two other mates from church joined me. 

Applied for a Grant

Under God's leading, I have applied for a grant for Tree Planting Events with the City of Greater Geelong. It was a 16 page "Quick Response Covid Recovery Grant" and I'm just asking for $103.41 mainly to build relationships with the council.

Church Unity

Finally, I'm thrilled to say that in October we "Bethel" hosted a Safe Church Training online event for 31 local Christians from 4 different local groups as I am the Safe Church Officer for Bethel Christian Fellowship. 

Drums for Worship

Because of my growing leadership role with Bethel, I have started playing drums at our Covid-Safe outdoor worship and that is being well-received. 

Christmas Outreach

Please pray for me to get the Christmas Outreach sorted with God's strategies!

Families Working Together Spreading Mulch around

Creative Evangelism during Covid-19

Vital statistics for September

- Christians engaged: 75

- Pre-Christians engaged: 47
- Miracles reported: 6 - YTD: 178

While there has been a LOT going on behind the scenes, this blog is about evangelism and there's plenty of that to report. Here's a video I made about our vision for evangelism at Bethel church. I am so proud of it. You may want to subscribe to the Bethel YouTube Channel where my future videos will be posted.

Singing Blessings over Geelong

I've been joining with Pray Bellarine to sing Blessings over Geelong and the Bellarine. It is a fabulous little outreach. We also joined with the Bethel crew to pray at a highpoint for revival over Geelong, exactly 30 years after Paul Hills started praying for revival in the same place, Ceres Lookout.

Community Tree Planting

Once the Covid restrictions were slightly eased in Geelong, we got 10 local kids together to do some work on the trees. It was lovely and I taught a small group John 3:16 and gave them each a little Bible. My ongoing negotiations with the council are slowly gaining traction. We are now officially recognised and poised to receive over 100 trees for spring planting but don't hold your breath......

Woodwork with a local mum and her two sons

We did several physical outdoor jobs with this family and we're all loving it! Just building positive relationships of trust.

Future Ideas to Pray about

Could you please pray with me about running a Youth Alpha in our home with the local you? I'm also keen to host an evangelism healing event as soon as Covid is done as there are non-Christians who need healing. We could drag them along to the healing event. Please also pray about us at Bethel running a Christian Playgroup.

What a busy, blessed and strategic month!

 Vital statistics for August
- Christians engaged: 100
- Pre-Christians engaged: 61
- Miracles reported: 9

Outreach Gift Blitz

I'm thrilled to have lead 9 Bethel Christians in an Outreach Gift Blitz. Rather than just working on my own, my engagement with Bethel means I have access to leadership which leads to more engagement with non-Christians. This is a fabulous outcome and the Bethel Board (of which I am now a member) has agreed to adopt my Church Vision Statement which will swing the church into an even greater focus on evangelism! Praise God for this strategic alignment for greater impact!

Video Testimonies - The Way to Go

I shot and published 4 testimony videos in August and they are getting a lot of views. This is the most popular one. If you haven't subscribed to my Youtube Channel, I suggest you should as I am making and using a LOT of videos at this time. Paul and I have made videos for Bethel Church, too.

Pastor's Meeting

We hosted 6 local pastors on Zoom. It was good fellowship and we said farewell to Peter Jewell, the local Uniting Church pastor who is moving on. He is the second pastor to exit our area this year and he doesn't have a replacement yet.

In Charge for three weeks

I was honoured to be 'in charge' of Bethel CF for three weeks in August while Paul Hills was away on holidays. During this time we ramped up the videos as the primary way of communicating during the Covid lockdown. 

Loving it!

I'm working hard for the Kingdom of God here in Corio and I'm loving it. I believe working with Bethel means we can have far more impact for evangelism this way. I also believe this way will bring more happiness to God our father. Sorry no photos this month, but I made 10 videos which I commend to you!

Waiting for Covid to finish

As soon as the lockdown is eased, we will get busy planting trees and hosting pizza nights! We'll also begin singing in the streets again, too! My personal fasting is up to at least 1 x 24hr session a week. Fasting is SO IMPORTANT in bringing in the Kingdom of God.

Some cool evangelistic methods!

Vital Statistics for July
- Christians engaged: 75
- Pre-Christians engaged: 68
- Miracles: 11

- 400 Flyers
- Woodwork Day & Tree Planting

- Singing Evangelism Group

- Letters to the Editor

- Growing Leadership at Bethel

400 Flyers for our local area

The flyers informed our locals area about new mulch and trees coming to Rosewall Reserve. It also focussed on surviving Lockdown with Kindness and Patience and told people about how God wanted a relationship with them.

New Singing Evangelism Group

I've teamed up with two intercessors from Pray Bellarine and we're pioneering evangelistic singing. We did two joint events in July where we sang in the Geelong CBD. We sang BLESSINGS for the people of Geelong. I am so excited about the potential for this because singing blessings opens people warmly and because it is so easy and fun for others to pick it up!

Wood Work Day

During the school holidays, 7 kids came round to help me build a large chicken coup! Everyone had a go with the power tools and we had a BBQ building healthy relationships in Jesus' name.

Tree Planting & Fixing Day

Too busy to take photos, we had 10 local kids replant ill trees, decorate faded guards, hammer in new stakes and water trees. We are waiting for the council to give us more trees. 

Letter to the Editor

This letter I wrote on Revival was published in the Geelong Advertiser. 

Growing Leadership at Bethel CF

I joined the Board Meeting of Bethel and will be 'holding the fort' while Paul is on holidays for the next two weeks. Paul and I shot this video, too. 

What a Month!

Having such a fabulous time ministering here in CORIO! Christine and I deeply appreciate your prayer support! Lots of love. Plus we moved into Corio 1 year ago, and loving it!

Evangelism and more Church Ministry.

Vital Statistics for June
- Christians engaged: 47
- Pre-Christians engaged: 71
- Miracles reported: 6
- Pizza Night

- Two Support Groups

Thai Women's Cooking Group

The group is up and running and it is now out of my hands. It has moved from being about healing to being about selling cheap Thai food so I'm glad to hand it over. We were able to serve the women in Jesus' name, but now it's almost over for Christine and me. Just three sessions to go.

Mower Fixing Group

We have seen some amazing changes in the participants but also it is time for me to hand it over. Working in a space where I can be in charge is important plus being able to share the gospel freely.

Pizza Night

We managed a Pizza Night before restrictions were tightened. It was a lovely night with 11 non-Christian locals and 7 Christians. We had worship and teaching and making Pizzas together. It was lovely building positive relationships. There was not a warm reception to the teaching about the Prodigal Son, but several people were listening intently and our team is strong.

Tree Planting

The City of Greater Geelong has given us this lovely piece of

land to plant soon. Please keep praying for more land. We have a total of 152 miracles but have only planted 52 trees so far. We need space to plant another 100 trees! Community Tree Planting is a great way to meet people and begin positive relationships with them. It also creates a lasting, positive impact in the land and community.

Church Ministry Invitation

The good folk at Bethel Christian Fellowship have invited me into the Leadership Team and I'm getting more involved with Paul Hills the pastor. We've made more videos and I'm helping with the worship, AV, MC and preaching elements. It is wonderful to be invited! Plus I've been running a weekly prayer meeting via Zoom for Bethel. Plus DJ Paine for Radio 96.3 has asked me to do a monthly update on evangelism in Corio! I'm thinking about it as a way to inspire the church.