Our New Home Group - beginnings of revival!

Recently I was in a 3rd year class when a friend of mine named Cris Kerr came up to me and said "Dave you and Taff should run a home group. Would you be interested in running a home group?" It felt like it was a real 'God moment' and I said "We have just been thinking about getting involved in one, and how much we missed our old home group." We had been processing how much we needed a 'community' with Bethel church to - 'do life with', so I said "Yes lets do it!" Together with Cris and Rose (another amazing friend) we began a group that is more than your normal home group :).

The vision of our group is to build community, to experience God's presence and goodness and reach the lost. Every week is different and we follow Holy Spirit each week to see what he wants to do. The group is continually growing with more and more new people coming each week. It has been incredible to watch God allow us to minister into the lives of people from all around the world - pastors, night club owners, neighbors, friends, Bethel students, unsaved - work colleagues etc. and He has radically moved in all of their lives. We are seeing more and more non-believers come and experience the presence of God and have their gold called out!

One highlight recently was having one of our leaders work colleagues coming to encounter God. That night Zeke had stayed up and wanted a 'Fire Tunnel' (a fun way to pray - where you make two lines, and pray for people as they walk through) So we started a fire tunnel and this new girl walked through with everyone else. Later that night she told her friend (who had brought her) how half way through she began to 'feel dizzy' as the presence of God came onto her! It was so encouraging to see this girl getting touched by God in her body, because she had no prior knowledge or expectation of what fire tunnels were about, it was a legitimate encounter. After this our group prophecied over her and she was greatly impacted. Since coming, she has been encountering the 'dizzy presence of Jesus' at work and at home. She now is having full on conversations with Jesus regularly!

Another home group highlight for Taff and I, was when our neighbors came over for prayer.

After recent conversations with them, we'd begun to sense God was moving in their lives. So we invited them to come to home group for 'prayer'. They said "We'd love to" and they came over with their two kids. Our group of amazing leaders gathered around and began to prophecy life over them. It was incredible the accuracy and consistency of what God was 'calling out' in the whole families lives. Their girls were 'open mouthed' saying "How do you know?" You could see the parents affirming what what said over them also. After about 40minutes of prophecy, their whole family just soaked in the presence of God, as Taff played worship. It was beautiful seeing God pour back into this outrageously generous family - whom we love.

The next few days we heard stories (from our neighbors) about how one of the girls had went to her friends house and said "I went to this bible group and they did magic on me!" I was building our playground with their youngest daughter and she said to me "Dave, you know that bible group we went to the other night, those people knew all about me! They knew my personality!" I told her that God knows everything about all of us and that He showed the people those things about her. I also told her that she could begin to hear messages from God for her loved ones. You could see her eyes light up.

Since then there has been a dramatic shift in the family lives. I have seen happiness and hope coming into their eyes like never before. Not only have our conversations changed, but we have began to pray more together with them, and now they have begun to talk about their dreams and about 'believing God' again! Even today someone began to repay a debt owed to them of $1000! The husband also met with his brother and sister in law (who were at the end of their rope with life) and begun to lead them to God! He said "I don't know how, But God is going to come through for you! You have to come to Dave and Taff's home group and have them pray for you!" Their family came the following week. Again our home group prophesied and loved on them and called out their gold. The family was greatly impacted. Things were called out in the husband that he hadn't even told his wife. Secret dreams for their life were called out. The family have had conversations with beauticians, work colleagues, family and us about the impact it had on their lives. We are excited to see their journey with God through this.

Life is so amazing when living in a community of people that encourage and empower you to be who God created you to be. We are forever grateful to God for the amazing people he has put in our lives.

"Your car is fine!"

We were driving our Subaru Outback recently and the "check engine" light came on. I thought it might have been a loose wire, so I left it. However the light stayed on and my wife began to alert me to the fact that it needed a service. I had the thought "Why don't you pray for your car?" So I began to release life and blessing over my engine, as I would take Zeke to school, however it didn't change much.

So I took it into "MDR" the auto mechanic at Twin View in Redding and he checked it over. He called me later that afternoon to say that He thought it needed new plugs, leads and a tune up. He said it would cost around $200-300. I was a bit bummed about that, but thought "Ok God you have to provide." He said he could do the job the next day, and because we needed it that night, I picked it up with the mindset of dropping it off the next morning to be fixed. That night, as I drove the car, I prayed over it again.

I took it back in the morning and left it to be fixed. When I came back later that day to pick up the car Matt the head mechanic said "Good news. I checked over it again and the light all of a sudden stopped coming on. Your plugs and leads are all so new I didn't need to do anything. Your car is fine!" I paid him $40 for his time and walked away thanking God for His goodness on our lives!

Miracle at the Carnival

It was the Easter Fair week in Redding this week, so we took the kids down to the show. As a parent the thing which stuck out to me - was the smiles on my kids faces when they were on the rides! I loved seeing Zeke and Jaden beaming from ear to ear - mouth's opened as their little bodies were exhilarated by the 'G Forces' of the roller coasters and other rides.

After taking the boys there in the morning, Taff stayed home and Carmel (our babysitter) and I decided to take Zeke and Jaden back for a quick ride in the evening. Towards the end of the evening we met a lovely man, named Bill who was running one of the rides. We got talking, because he loved my accent, and then he asked what we were doing in Redding. So I told him about Bethel and the school of Supernatural ministry, and that we travelled the world healing people. I could see he had no grid for healing or the supernatural...so he quickly changed the subject. But I kept talking to him and he to me.

It was almost time to go and I knew that God had connected us with Bill for a reason. As I looked at him and we were talking some more, it was like I began to see an image his lower back (almost like a 'cartoon' of his lower vertebrae in white and red) It sort of hovered around that area on his body - on top of him. I asked God and I felt God say "He has lower back pain". The image stayed there the longer I talked.

By this time Bill had taken over another ride at the show. I hadn't talked to him and was walking with the kids, on our way to the car and he (Bill) called out to us - "Are you guys going?" I walked over to him and chatted a bit more then I said "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have lower back pain?" He looked at me with big eyes and said "Yes I do! I have a sciatic pain in my lower back"

I told him that God had told me, because He wanted to heal him. I asked if I could pray for him and he said "Yes".

We waited until he finished the ride and let all of the kids off. Then I walked and asked Zeke and Jaden to come over too. We prayed a simple prayer for 15 seconds - commanding pain to leave and releasing peace into his body. I asked him how he felt. He looked at me (as if he was self analyzing) and said "Its good! Its all gone!" I said "You are not joshing with me are you? I am an Aussie, and I like things straight" He said to me "Its gone! I always have pain when I wear these pants and its all gone!" I gave him a high 5 and thanked Jesus. Bill had to start the ride up again and as we walked away he yelled out "make sure you come back and see us!" As we drove away he was watching for our car and waved with a big smile!

I love how natural the supernatural is. God wants to meet people every day through us... we just have to believe how good we are and how good He is.

Internship Steve Thompson

Steve Thompson internship

As I was heading towards the end of my 2^nd year of study, I began thinking about who I would intern with for my 3^rd year of study at BSSM. Some of the people I’d felt a resonance with were Steve Thompson (You May All Prophecy), Banning Leibscher (Jesus Culture).

My first choice was to intern with Steve Thompson, a global prophetic teacher and business leader who’d come into our class and said the statement “what I did with the prophetic lifestyle (making it portable and usable for every Christian) I want to do with the supernatural life.” He said it twice, and the phrase hit me like a missile impacting a target, and I said “that’s exactly what I want to do with my life!” Banning would have been my second choice, but I also knew that he was way too busy to be able to pour into an intern, so an internship with him may not be as good as I’d thought.

So I emailed Steve and Banning. Banning replied back to me with “I’m sorry but I am not set up for interns currently” email, and then Steve responded with “lets meet for coffee!” (Since then I have actually ended up working with Banning on two book writing projects –God has really blessed me BIG TIME there!)

So Steve and I met, and then a new friend of mine Todd Casselberry (who happened to be on every mission trip I’d been on that year) was also due to meet with Steve after me. So after we all talked, Steve offered us both an internship!

Todd and I have been meeting with Steve at his home just on the outskirts of Redding for around 12months now, and it has been fantastic! Steve has opened up his home, his life and his story to us. He has poured in hours and hours of wisdom and answered many of our theological questions. Now we are all beginning to work on building a new ministry called NU World.

NU World is all about resourcing and empowering people to transform their worlds. Check out the link for Steve Thompson below: www.stevethompson.org

From snow to sun!

This year has gone so quickly! So much has been happening, I'm bound to forget to tell you about something!

Snow in February? Even for Redding it was a rare and special occurrence. To have snow covering your backyard and street was quite a novelty. We enjoyed a day or two playing in the snow. Bit hard to believe now that we are in 40 degree heat!

Dave's second year of school ended in May - with quite the surprise! Dave was awarded the M.Earl Johnson award. This award is for the person who has the lifestyle of a revivalist. It's considered (probably cause it's really the only award) the highest award of the class. There were many people in Dave's class that could have received this award, so it was a real honour (and surprise) for him to have been chosen.

June saw us traveling north once again to cross the border (and take a little vacation) on Vancouver Island, Canada. Thankfully, due to being given 5 years visas last year, we didn't have to make a visit to the consulate :). It was just a matter of crossing and re-entering. We travelled with our good friends, and fellow Aussie family, the van Tinterens, and stayed on Vancouver Island for about 5 days. The kids explored the rock pools along the coast, catching crabs and other sea creatures! As for the adults - we spent as much time as possible reading and relaxing by the fire, taking shifts for arvo naps! We toured around the island a bit, and ventured into the city of Victoria. Beautiful place, but glad to have only spent 2 nights there. On our journey home we travelled along the Oregon border. It reminded me a bit of the Great Ocean Road. Not as windy or famous, but still very beautiful. We stayed a night right on the beach before landing back in Redding. After sleeping 4 of us in small hotel rooms, it was quite relaxing to return home where we had lots of space! Our housemate at the time had also cleaned my house for me! What a bonus!

Unfortunately during our time away (and for a few weeks after) Dave was suffering from shingles, and I had slight morning sickness! Thankfully we both weren't sick for long, so we have been able to enjoy the hot dry summer here. The weather is very similar to Bendigo - perhaps a little hotter! Again we've spent the summer in our gracious neighbours pool, and ventured out to the beautiful Whiskeytown Lake a few times also. Our wonderful neighbours also bought a pontoon boat and have taken us out a couple of times - once for my birthday dinner. So amazing! I've never seen so many stars! We still continually brag about and thank God for our amazing neighbours. They have been such a blessing to us and become great friends of ours.

Dave has been picking up the pace a bit with his internship. He is privileged to be interning with Steve Thompson. Some of you will know him from Morning Star church (Rick Joiner) and some may even know his book, 'You All May Prophecy'. They are developing some new things with Steve - but I'm going to have to get Dave to expand on this himself. He'll be able to tell you what it is they are doing! I can tell you that this past weekend he has been in Portland, Oregon, ministering with Steve at a local church. The church treated them like kings! Even though Dave had to give out, I think he'll be returning quite refreshed. :)

Recently we found out that our little baby is another little boy! He will be born in January - and yes, he'll be born in the USA and be an American citizen. We will have to pay to register him as a dual citizen with Australia. Lots of advantages for this little man to have dual citizenship! We are very excited and feel very honoured to be given the privilege of raising 3 godly men! When I think of all boy families I think of the Harvey's (of course), the Geerlings, the Bergins, and the Chuds (I'm sure there are others but just the ones that come to mind now). I think of the men in these families and pray that we too can raise our boys to be just as amazing for the Kingdom as these men are.

Our other exciting news is that in just 30 days we'll be leaving to visit Australia!!! I am totally excited about seeing everyone - especially our family. Two years is a long time between hugs with your dad :). We are counting down the days til we leave (gotta love calendars and stickers!) and planning for some quality time with people we love and miss. We're still finalizing our plans as we have to work around Dave's ministry time with Steve Thompson while we are there.

So Australia - we'll see you soon!!!

"Your Destiny is Found in Nicaragua"

It was January, and months earlier I had chosen Mexico City as my main missions trip. I wanted to see the power of God and crazy miracles! However ever since I'd booked it, God had been whispering in my heart "Nicaragua" "Nicaragua" but I wasn't sure why He was saying it... I knew He was a good Father, and wasn't angry at me choosing Mexico... I just knew there must be something special about Nicaragua!

School was to finish soon, and I hadn't been on a Bill Johnson or Kris Vallotton trip the whole year! I only had a small window to get on a trip, but it wasn't looking good. Then I got accepted on a 10 day Kris Vallotton trip to Mexico and Ecuador! I was soo pumped! This was Friday and I only had to find $2400 US by Monday!

Then I had a dream. In the dream Eric Johnson picked me up in a 4WD and said "Come on, I'm going to help you find your destiny." I jumped into the 4WD and cruised around with him, up highways, then off road into jungle tracks. We stopped at village markets. He would pick up clothes and other articles and say "Is this it?" (meaning my destiny) and I said "ummm nope that's not it." So we would keep going, and then I eventually "found my destiny". Then I woke up.

The next day I was riding with some friends, and they began talking about a trip that Eric Johnson was leading to Nicaragua. I got excited and told them that God had been calling me to Nicaragua, but I wasn't sure how it would work. They told me the trip team was already picked, which meant it was pretty much impossible to get on. I looked at the dates of the Nicaragua trip and it overlapped the end of the Kris V trip... which meant I would have to choose one or the other!

I wasn't sure what to do, and then Monday morning, as I opened my eyes, straight away I heard God say "Your destiny is found in Nicaragua with Eric Johnson!" I had never heard God so clearly and consistently! I had to make some phone calls!

So I called my amazing revival group pastor Kate Eifert and she told me to get to school early Tuesday to chat to Eric. She also told me she would go into bat for me!

So Taff dropped me off at school early Tuesday morning, however Eric was no-where to be seen! Then I found out He was on Jury duty! This wouldn't have been too much of an issue, it was just that today 11am was the cut off, for accepting Kris V's trip or not. I called his secretary and shared with her what was happening... she gave me another 30minutes.

I remember walking outside to the front of our school, and as I stood there pondering what to do next right in front of me was Kris Vallottons Lexus convertable parked right next to the exact 4WD that I saw in my dream about Eric! It was like I was prophetically standing at a cross road, a choice between the two trips and God's plan or my plan.

I thought to myself "there is no way in the natural that I am going to get onto this Eric Trip, but I can't do anything but choose it and say no to the Kris trip... after all that God has been saying!" Faith rose in my heart and I called Kris' PA cancelling my spot on the trip. Now God had to come through with Nicaragua!

Later that day Eric came to school, so I walked up the back during a session and asked to chat to him! I was very nervous, because I had never spoken to him before now. Eric was lovely and heard my story and request to come. He told me that he would speak to Ben the trip leader with him.

Sure enough, within 30minutes, Ben came to school and spoke with Eric. But it didn't go to plan. Ben came to me and said that there is no way that I could get on the trip, because I had been on too many trips already! My heart sank a bit... I had cancelled Kris' trip for nothing. Just as I was about to give up hope, Kate Eifert walked up and said "Davo! Hows it going what is happening?" I told her that Ben had just said "it wasn't going to happen"... but she eyeballed Ben and said "No, No, Dave has to get on that trip." So she went directly to Eric.

I sweated that night... not sure of what was going to happen, but fully knowing that I had done my best and that my daddy in Heaven was better than I thought and could pull off anything!

The next morning Ben texted me, Eric had decided to let me on the trip!!!

Miracles in Mexico City 2011

This trip would have to be one of the greatest trips of my life! I have never seen Jesus heal so many people!

From the time we landed, we were go go go! On the first day (Sunday) we had over 8hrs of ministry over 3 meetings, during this time, we saw over 80% of people healed! I had the honor of praying for a little boy named Chris who had a genetic defect. While I was praying the pastor walked past said he had kidney issues. I looked into his eyes and he said he felt fire all over his belly! I also prayed for a lady who had stomach issues. Fire came on her stomach then God started tickling her! Then her husband came and he got hit with the joy too! All her pain left. During the night meeting a lady with severe nausea from hospital was brought to us, doctors couldn't help her. As we prayed for her pain left her stomach. My friend Michael then took her for a walk. As she came back, the Holy Spirit said "forgiveness". We asked her to ask Holy Spirit if she needed to forgive anyone...and He said Yes...so she forgave and then was completely healed of nausea and vommiting!

The next day was Monday, and we went sightseeing, taking a bus into Mexico City. Some of the highlights were, toilets that we had to pay for! (I shouted all my friends!) and just the beauty of the City of Mexico, like the new high-rise buildings everywhere and the fresh gardens being planted. These were some things that I didn't expect.

While we were out, we visited one of the biggest Catholic churches I'd ever seen!

In there I saw my first deaf ear healed!

I was walking along and was asking God "i really want to pray for someone" . Then a lady was highlighted to me who was looking at the dead bones of an old saint. She walked away, so i grabbed an interpreter and my mate Nathan Anderson. We asked her if she had anything wrong with her and if she would like prayer. She said she was partially deaf in her left ear. So we prayed once and then asked her if it changed. She said no. Then we prayed again, this time i walked further and further away asking her to repeat my words. I only got 5 m away and she couldn't hear. So we git her to thank God for what was happening, and prayed again. Again i walked away... This time getting 15m away and she could hear me! I told her to look around and she was amazed!!! She was healed!

Then we prayed for her missing gall bladder and she felt heat on the area! She wanted to know about church and exchanged numbers. We also prayed for a new job for her. She left totally rocked! The interpreter then went on with Nath and saw another lady completely healed of neck problems and knee problems!!! He was totally rocked too!!!

The next day we had outreach, which involved me leading a team and us being dropped off outside a school and market. So we divided up with Mexican interpretors and went for it! Jesus performed many many miracles and salvations! One highlight for me was how, we would pray for people, Jesus would heal them just with a few words like "Jesus heals you", and then they would go away and bring their family and friends to be healed! Before long we were ministering non-stop, seeing everyone healed for over 2hrs! A memorable one for me, was an old grandmother who had severe stomach pain and was instantly healed. Later she came back to me with her two grandchildren wanting me to pray for them, explaining "Red Pepper Red Pepper!!" I thought she was still having pain, but the interpreter told me that she had eaten 2 Red Peppers and was completely healed! I laughed! Another memorable miracle was two little girls who had conjunctivitis in their eyes. I prayed for them to feel the 'fire of God' in their hands - and they did! Then I got them to put their hands over their eyes and their eyes began to clear up! Then their mother explained she wanted to feel the fire of God too! They all had a massive encounter with Jesus that day!

On the Wednesday I led a team to a church plant over 50minutes away from the main church. It was in an area where "if you go outside you will get knifed!"... so we stayed inside! Our first meeting was with the women of the church... and it went for over 5 hrs! We began by calling out words of knowledge and healing began to fall on the people! We go them to pray for each other and 95% them were healed instantly! Then I gave a prophecy about a new wave falling on the church... and a spirit of joy fell on the whole group! It was amazing! I was blown over on the stage by the presence of God! And even our interpreter Betsa, was knocked out under the power of God and unable to interpret for some time

The night meeting in this church was awesome too! We activated the whole church in hearing the voice of God and prophecying over each other. There were also some crazy miracles like metal dissolving in a ladies hand and wrist! She came up moving her wrist backwards and forwards and making a fist exclaiming that she was completely healed! As she shouldn't be able to do that!

On the next day Thursday I saw some of the greatest miracles! We arrived at a school and I walked up to 4 older teenagers who didn't know Jesus and told them to follow me, because they were about to see Jesus perform a healing miracle! We walked across the street to a man on crutches, who'd had 3 knee operations and pain in his hip and other knee. I got one of the boys to pray "Jesus heals you!" over the man and touch his knee! All pain left his knee and then he pointed to his hip! I got another boy to join in and all pain left his hip! He got completely healed through the prayers of some boys who didn't know Jesus yet! Then all 5 of them gave their lives to Jesus!!!

The best part was walking back to the van and seeing the man back at work at his food stand, crutches leaning up against his van, no longer needed! He yelled out to us "Gracious! Gracious! Gracious!" Jesus is soo good!

The miracles continued throughout the rest of the trip! I saw 100% healing down the street that night! and a girls deaf ear opened in under 2minutes!!! An old lady with a deaf daughter met me as I was running to get on the bus to leave...I had to go, so I said "ok we have to be quick", I grabbed another lady and said you pray and heal! So together we quickly prayed "Jesus heals you!" check it out...she shook her head and said "no". So we prayed quickly again... "Jesus heals you" and she let out a sound and smiled as we tested it out! She was healed! Jesus opened her ear!!!

On the Outreach of Friday night I saw a lady with cancer, have all pain from her body leave her completely after a little boy Alex prayed for her! I saw a picture in my mind of a sperm entering her heart, and so I said "Gods seed is entering you now!" She then replied "yes I feel it! All pain is leaving my body!"

I also saw a lady with stomach pain get prayed for by two non Christian teens! All pain left her instantly and the boys decided to get saved!!! They then went home and grabbed their parents who all got encountered by Jesus!

A beautiful little girl and her brother were brought to us on the street at the end of the night... The little girl had a cold and sore chest, her brother flat feet. I got the brother to touch her hands and say "Jesus heals you" and her face lit up, as the sickness and pain left her! Then she touched her brothers feet, saying the same, and his face lit up as pain left his feet. Then the little girl stood up, white like a ghost, motioning with her hands that Jesus had created new arches in her brothers feet!! Gloria a Dios!!!

At one of our last meetings, we prayed with blind man who had something like cataracts for over 2hrs... We watched in awe as God began to create a new blue IRIS in his left eye! And he began to see shapes and images! He didn't get fully healed then and there...but during it he said he "felt like a cloth got taken off his face" (which his wife told us later that she'd had a dream about a cloth being removed from his eyes years earlier!) He also felt a whole lot of baggage lift off of him when he forgave tonnes of people!!! The best part for me though, was his tears of joy as he also got re-connected to Father God and could feel his love!!!

This trip totally changed my life! I am going to have to make this an annual event!

Thanks to everyone who contributed financially and through prayer for this trip! Together we all changed many many peoples lives!