Street Outreach Begins!

Family Pizza Nights - Baptisms are coming!

God challenged me to get the corrugated iron baptismal from church and put it on the nature strip and teach the children in the street about baptism. I did this for two weeks before a Covid Lockdown limited us to five visitors. During this time we held two smaller events to focus on what baptism means. Two different kids came to each event. Big family pizza nights are back now and we will be gearing up for a big Easter Event in the street when we'll baptise a few kids on Easter Sunday.

Praise God for Harvest Team!

I'm so thrilled to have just launched this new group. We meet every Thursday at 1pm to go out and share the gospel on the street one week and to meet on Zoom for reflection (training) the next week. We are doing this for 8 weeks then we'll begin adjusting things.

Playgroup is rocking

It is a real honour to host playgroup for refugees from Myanmar every Monday. We are helping the kids learn English, socialise, learn through play and learn about following God. We are getting 10 or so weekly now.

National Day of Prayer & Fasting

Paul Hills and I hosted a massive event at Corio Christian Centre for the National Day of Prayer & Fasting. We had such a good time with over 40 people from 10 different churches!

Tree Planting

Council is slowing moving towards another section of land for us to use in this autumn season. And our 70 trees are particularly healthy given the mild summer and the respect the locals have for them means less vandalism.

Linking with Intercessors

I'm so grateful for YOU praying for Christine and I as we work in this missional manner. We are seeing lots of miracles and this is because PEOPLE ARE PRAYING. This partnership is critical and I'd love to pray for you or help you in any way I can. I'm also grateful that I've been able to do some good teaching sermons at Bethel. 

Bless you and thanks :)

Angus & Christine

Now we're getting busy!

Vital statistics for January

- Christians engaged: I am not keeping this statistic any more

- Pre-Christians engaged: 153 This number now includes the outreach figures from Bethel Christian Fellowship, too.

- Miracles reported: I'm no longer keeping this number as it is too difficult.

Church Unity Dinner

20 Leaders from 4 local churches came together for dinner, fellowship and prayer. There was such joy in the room and people mixed and prayed from different churches. A foretaste of heaven!

Satanic Graffiti - We're using it for good!
Our wonderful Christmas mural on our fence saying 'Give your heart to Jesus' was attacked by vandals who left this Satanic graffiti and more. The council have removed it and I've painted over the fence to prepare for an Easter message. However, we've turned this into a great opportunity for teaching at our weekly Youth Group. Showing them the graffiti was a great way to demonstrate the evil of Satan which sets the stage for teaching about the heart of man and our need for a saviour! How convenient!

My Commissioning as Assistant Pastor of Bethel Christian Fellowship

Many lovely Christian friends came to support with me and Christine as we were commissioned. Here is the video of the event. It is such an honour to be officially recognised in this position.

Youth Group

We've decided to open our house every Friday and provide fun events, cooking dinner, friendship and teaching about Jesus! Please pray as we grow. We're currently getting about 14 per night, but I think God wants to grow this as we focus on an Easter outreach event.

Playgroup

Our Playgroup started again at church and we had 11 last week all from Myanmar. This is great to serve 'the least of these' as these guys don't have much English, education or cultural power. Praise God for this Christian Playgroup. Please pray as we may apply for a grant for this, too.

Jesus at the Door

I feel God wants me to lead Christians in North Geelong to follow the outreach strategy of Jesus at the Door. I'm leading an advance group to explore this very soon. Please pray for this.

Thank You

We couldn't do this without the strong and effective prayer support of YOU. So thank you so much. It looks like the year ahead will be fabulous :)

 

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.