HOPE MELBOURNE DAREBIN CENTRE

HOPE MELBOURNE DAREBIN CENTRE

Hi, my name is Eric, im the centre leader for Darebin centre in Hope Melbourne I would like to share how God used me to pioneer the centre, it all started around 3 years ago when Pastor Ian and Mark shared the strategic direction of church planting in Melbourne and I actually wrote down a goal to plant a church in my life time.

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And it came to pass in 2007, I felt called by God to rise up and take the challenge, despite the internal challenge that I had.

I felt God spoke to me through the book of Mark as well, when the disciples and preached the gospel everywhere and God worked with them and accompanied his work by signs and wonders and as I claimed that word, as I had confidence in God and stepped out in faith, I almost immediately knew God confirmed His Word.

He is Faithful. and there was 11 visitors that came along to the 1^st meeting and the week after, an Australian guy accepted Christ and from then on we had people from Hope Bangkok and hope Singapore join us...

and encouraged to work the momentum and there were people who accepted Christ and were baptized and we formally launched the new centre in Darebin at the end of September 2007 and its been a real privilege to be involved.

I pray that all of you out there as well will really take the call of God and personalize in your life and make a significant difference in your life as well. God bless you.

Eric & Atom Fan, Hope Darebin Centre

HOPE AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

HOPE AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

Hi im Angela Soh with Hope Auckland, my family and I have been in Auckland for 8 years, we were in Hope Singapore before, and we took up the challenge to go to Auckland to resume the leadership there. It’s been a challenging 8 years, but exciting, and I must say that in the 8 years that we have been there we have never failed to see God not move in our midst, He’s always been there for us and done wonderful things.

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We started off with a very small group, but as time has progressed we have seen the birthing of CCM university care groups and last year the youth caregroup and this year has been really exciting, this year is break through and we are believing for break through in individuals lives, we are believing for break through in church and we are beginning to see that take place already

Student & Youth ministry in Auckland

In January this year we started an afternoon service in the west and we have been seeing new people come.

At CCM at the orientation this year we had a really good turn out with more than 17 new people signing up, not only that but that has since doubled our University caregorup numbers, so its really fantastic and we have just started recently, 8 young people in our church ranging from the ages of 15 – 21 who have committed themselves to come under training to be the future leaders of our church.

Take up the challenge

Now I really want to encourage whoever says to themselves I don’t think I can do much for the kingdom of God, that’s not true, God used my family, my kids who went there as very young kids, are now all serving actively Jared is 10 and he plays the guitar for kids church and both my girls are serving as leaders as well as in the worship team. If God can use them, God can use anyone, Thank you.

Bernard & Angela Soh, Hope Auckland

HOPE BUSSELTON, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

HOPE BUSSELTON, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Hi, my name is Nigel Witter, I am the pastor of Hope Busselton Christian Church, Busselton is 3 hours south of Perth in Western Australia.

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Combined churches fasting & prayer

Things are doing very very well, last year the Lord placed on my heart to call a combined time of prayer and fasting, with all the churches in our area, that brought real break through, where we had people from all different churches praying and fasting and then after that we were leading people to the Lord every week.

New families added to the church

So towards the end of 2007, we had half a dozen plus baptisms and we had a few families join our church so we find ourselves after been, you know our family, I got a great family you know me and my wife and 5 kids just us and a handful of others, now we had some really strong families join us, quite a number of people.

So we are getting over 30 adults and 10 or more children and growing, and growing in excitement for the Lord..

We got excellent musicians and film makers, we got great prospects for the future, intend to plant more churches throughout western Australia and over seas locations One of our guys want to have some apostolic teams happening in other nations as well.

There’s tremendous sense of hope and faith of what the good things God is going to do.

Nigel and Sandy Wittner, Hope Busselton

HOPE OURIMBAH: CENTRAL COAST

HOPE OURIMBAH: CENTRAL COAST

Hi my name is Danny, im from Hope Newcastle; we are the core leaders there. And in the last year I’ve been out to plant a new church in the central coast, in a place called Ourimbah, which is about 45 minutes south of Newcastle.

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I just wanted to share, over the last few years, God has been challenging me to get involved in church planting, and fulfilling the great commission through filling the hope movement’s vision.

About the end of February 2007, myself and 2 others launched Hope Ourimbah Christian church and it has been really exciting, God has done some really great things, some of the things he has done is that he has grown each of the team members so amazingly, it has been one of the best growth growing times of our lives. He has brought us together as a family and also added new people to our little church family.

We have about 10 people involved at the moment and God has brought some really key people to get involved and have the heart to reach the central coast.

I really thank God for what he’s done, and the great work that he has been doing recently we just had O Week in the central coast.

We had 41 members join CCM which is really big for us and we praise God for that, and we see God adding key people and we really thank Him for that as well.

I am really enjoying Church planting, it’s been one of the most difficult but also one of the most rewarding experiences of my life and I want to spend the rest of my life doing it as well, even overseas or another place in Australia.

Praise God I just want to encourage you to be involved in Church planting, God is looking for someone who has a willing heart and who is willing to be used by Him, and Who wants to be trained and sent out, God can use you, don’t worry about your weaknesses, God will deal with those things, Gods going to use you, just have Faith.

So, I encourage you to step out, and come to Ourimbah, come help us church plant, or go to other places where God will call you.

Danny Whitbread, Hope Ourimba - Central Coast

HOPE HOBART, TASMANIA

HOPE HOBART, TASMANIA

Hello everyone my name is Shen, and its been really really good to see what God has been doing in the whole movement so far, and such a great privilege to be part of the great commission....

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Called by God to plant Hope Hobart and this has been the 3 years where we have gone forth and we have seen God doing tremendous things during these 3 years.

The church has grown from strength to strength we have around 20 -25 people in our church these days, since starting 3 years ago where we only had 3 people.

And God has been so amazing when we went forth, he has provided me with a job and promotions after promotions he has given to me and even though I am working full time, and just preaching, worship leading, chairing every Sunday, a lot of things I' m just so impressed by the Grace of God. The grace of God and the love of God that is always there that God is Emmanuel always with us as we go forth.

And I want to encourage you, if God has a calling and a burden for your life to be part of the Great Commission I want to encourage you to go forth, because as you go forth the grace is there....

and that you will flourish and I want to encourage you to obey him for that is the plan that he has for your life. And there’s no other purpose no other plans that you can ever have that is better than Gods plan for you. Thank you

Shen Yee, Hope Hobart - Tasmania

HOPE HOBART, TASMANIA

HOPE HOBART, TASMANIA

Hello everyone my name is Shen, and its been really really good to see what God has been doing in the whole movement so far, and such a great privilege to be part of the great commission....

Watch Video Interview

Called by God to plant Hope Hobart and this has been the 3 years where we have gone forth and we have seen God doing tremendous things during these 3 years.

The church has grown from strength to strength we have around 20 -25 people in our church these days, since starting 3 years ago where we only had 3 people.

And God has been so amazing when we went forth, he has provided me with a job and promotions after promotions he has given to me and even though I am working full time, and just preaching, worship leading, chairing every Sunday, a lot of things I' m just so impressed by the Grace of God. The grace of God and the love of God that is always there that God is Emmanuel always with us as we go forth.

And I want to encourage you, if God has a calling and a burden for your life to be part of the Great Commission I want to encourage you to go forth, because as you go forth the grace is there....

and that you will flourish and I want to encourage you to obey him for that is the plan that he has for your life. And there’s no other purpose no other plans that you can ever have that is better than Gods plan for you. Thank you

Shen Yee, Hope Hobart - Tasmania

HOPE KATANNING, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

HOPE KATANNING, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Hi my name is James, and this is my wife grace and we are under Pastor Steven, from Hope Perth Christian church and we have been challenged by our leader to go down to Katanning which is 4 hours away to pioneer a church there.

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It is a really great blessing and privilege that we can see the people, in Katanning the Chinese people, they have received the sprit and even been baptized.

We really believe that the great commission will be fulfilled, that thru all the brother n sister joining hands together we pray that we will see the Katanning centre will be planted and biblically to be fulfilled with the vision of hope. We really want to thank God as well for the many opportunities we have had with the Chinese.

Wee had a sports day for Chinese people and we also celebrated Chinese new year and about 40 people attended, and we had 2 people been baptized, whole family been baptized, so that’s a great start to our centre at Katanning.

James & Grace, Hope Katanning - Western Australia

MISSIONS TRAINING - KAIROS INTENSIVE COURSE

What Karios Course is about?

The Kairos Course is a nine-session, interactive course on world Christian mission, designed to educate, inspire and challenge Christians to active and meaningful participation. It is ideally suited to be conducted in local churches, organizations or with special interest groups such as Christian businesspeople.

The Kairos Course utilizes a variety of adult learning styles including group discussions, short lecture introduction, devotions, video teaching and student participation in specially designed activities.

Kairos looks at the four main areas of mission concern which are the Biblical, Historical, Strategic and Cultural dimensions of mission.

Hope Oceania Missions Coordinators



The week after the Oceania Convention this year, 18 missions coordinators and leaders from various Hope Oceania churches stayed on in Brisbane to attend an intensive 4 day Kairos Course at University of Queensland.

This course was aimed at training us in the biblical, historical, strategic and cultural aspects of MISSIONS. We were privileged to have Elsabé de Wet, who is the national coordinator, to conduct this course for us, together with a team of facilitators who generously shared with us their time and experience.



This course was well attended by missions-minded delegates from Brisbane, Auckland, Hobart, Busselton, Melbourne, Newcastle & Ourimbah. 16 of us went on for another 1 day to be trained as facilitators. Though many of us did feel the hard work of doing the intensive, this was greatly surpassed when we were deeply challenged and convicted by the biblical mandate God has given to us.


May Cheung
Oceania Missions Coordinator
missions@hopebrisbane.com

For more information about Kairos Course read curriculum below and visit website www.kairoscourse.org

CURRICULM OF KAIROS COURSE

Kairos looks at the four essential areas of mission concern.

BIBLICAL

1. God’s Purpose and Plan
We will discover from the Bible, that mission lies at the center of all God’s concern.

• God – The Bible is the story of His Glory
• God’s Purpose – To re-conquer His usurped kingdom and reconcile the nations to himself
• God’s Plan – To engage His chosen people in His world-wide mission of mercy.

2. Israel, The Covenant People
We will study God’s dealing with the nation of Israel in His desire to fulfill His purposes through them.

• Israel’s Obligation – To bless and be God’s priests to the nations of the world.
• Israel’s Opportunity – God did everything for their fruitfulness and success.
• Israel’s Response – On the whole negative – but God still outworked much of His missionary purpose through them.

3. The Messiah, the Message & the Messengers
We will see that God’s concern for all nations is still His central purpose as we move into the New Testament.

• Jesus, Messiah for all peoples – Jesus, ministered to both Jews and Gentiles.
• A Message for all Peoples – Jesus’ preaching on the Kingdom was for both Jew and Gentile.
• Messengers for all Peoples – The advance of the Church into intentional missions after Pentecost.

HISTORICAL

4 . Expansion of the World Christian Movement
We trace the advance of Christianity from its beginning to the present day

• The five periods of mission history since Christ.
• The three eras of modern missions
• The Final Thrust

STRATEGIC

5. Mission Strategy
We consider the place, value and nature of strategy in world Christian mission.

• The value of strategy in mission, combined with prayer and power.
• Church planting, people movements and church planting movements.
• Local churches and mission agencies

6. The Task Remaining
We look at the mission task remaining, who and where the majority of the unreached are, and what methods should be used to reach them.

• The nations and cross-cultural evangelism – Understanding mission terms and the priority in missions.
• The major blocs of unreached peoples.
• Modern strategies and approaches in missions today.

7. World Christian Teamwork
We look at the variety of exciting ways the whole church can and must get involved in accomplishing strategic world mission.

• Teaming Up with God – Becoming a World Christian and finding our role.
• Teaming Up Locally – Active Local Church involvement in missions
• Teaming Up Globally – Partnership worldwide to fulfill the Great Commission.

CULTURAL

8. Cross-Cultural Considerations
We address issues, in this chapter, on communicating the gospel cross-culturally. We also look at aspects of church contextualization and its implications for seeing unreached communities of peoples discipled and won for Christ.

The Kairos Course is designed to lay a solid foundation in the life of the believer and of the local church, in world Christian mission. From this foundation, exciting and meaningful missions endeavor, can result.

MIRACLE HEALINGS AT REFUGEE CAMP

Hope Brisbane and Hope Gold Coast Centre sent a mission team to Thailand for two weeks (31st December till 10th January 2008). The mission team ministered in an orphanage called Bann Fan Sighy, a two hour drive from Chiang Mai. They also conducted healing meetings at a Karen refugee camp called Maelaoon in the mountains, near the Thai and Myanmar border.

[Photo: Thailand Mission Team]

Pastor Lance and Belle Wolter were leading a multicultural team of 12 people born in Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Malaysia. The mission team worked with Effective Aid organisation in the refugee camp. .

[View Mission Photos Website]

Preaching Good News at Refugee Camp

The whole team preached at the refugee camp; some members preached for the very first time! We were all captivated by 1000 people who came to the meeting place at the refugee camp. Some sessions saw the whole meeting place full and overflowing!

Renee (an Australian university student) and Ngoc (a Vietnamese physiotherapist) made everybody cry with their real stories that the Karen refugees could really connect with. Renee’s shared how God helped her trust him through the sudden and tragic death of her parents two years ago. 38 orphans who had lost parents in the war responded with many tears to ask God to heal them. Ngoc, a former refugee from Vietnam and now serving God as a physiotherapist, shared how the Lord helped her forgive the Vietnamese government for the hardships they caused her family. She also shared the hope that was made possible by God to succeed in a second country.

The Power of God came down

According to Pastor Ian, we were apparently the first team ever to come to the camp where none of the team got sick: we created HISTORY! Apparently, it has been many years since the meeting place was this full and the children had never worshipped that passionately.

There were two, three year olds who were in tears as they worshipped Jesus with all their hearts! This camp had never seen so many miracles and neither had we!

The miracles at refugee camp

Many people’s bad/partial hearing was restored and we saw people who were completely deafness fully healed!

• Chest pains were healed!
• Skin rashes, infections, irritations were healed!
• Sore joints, backs, ankles, knees, bones were no longer sore
• Kidney pains gone!
• Hips back in place allowing people to stand upright!
• Countless headaches disappeared!
• An Animist gave his heart to the Lord!
• Feeling and nerves were restored so people could feel again!
• Ear infections or water ears were healed
• Eye infections/diseases healed
• Lumps/tumours removed
• Various swollen joints and lumps were removed
• Stomach and pelvis pain healed.

There was one man with severe burn marks on his face and pus-filled sores on his head. Lance felt challenged to place his hands on him and show Christ’s love and pray for him. Praise God that the man’s face was healed from the scars and the sores dried up.

We prayed for a blind animist, who has yet to be healed, but he received Christ as his Lord and Saviour! We also prayed for an ex-Karen soldier who lost his leg in the war. His leg is still missing, but by faith, we gave him a pair of shoes to try on each day he prays!

Many refugees responding to Jesus


Furthermore, the alter call was so big in the first session that we actually broke half the stage!

Elise cut her foot but amazingly the people were so desperate for God, they stayed on the terribly slanted stage as if nothing had happened! Apparently they didn’t want to lose their place in the crowd of people waiting to receive prayer.

On the last session, Lance held an alter call for people wanting to be trained as
missionaries, evangelists, leaders and to go back to Burma, or sacrifice their lives for Christ. Over 130 people dedicated their lives for service. And God is still blowing us away with the testimonies from the team.

A fulfilled Prophecy

Ps Lance and I recieved a prophecy confirming we would get a breakthrough in miracles and healing at the Prophetic Conference a year ago.

In fact one of the team leaders called Julie played me a tape of prophecy she had received in 1997. The prophet John Jack stated that he saw her serving in a village with children and people who had faced turmoil and hardship. He even described her going up a hill on a mountain and described in detail the colour of their clothes. She did not plan for the mission trip to fulfil this prophecy and in fact she only remembered the prophecy while she was at the camp. When she went home to find the tape she was completely overwhelmed with God’s sovereignty and grace for her life.

The grace of God

God is sovereign; I am constantly amazed by God’s grace. The journey and stories we shared has had a wonderful ripple effect: telling our bosses, our workplaces, and people on the street, and telling of the wonders that God has done to friends and family.

Pastor Lance & Belle Wolter
Hope Gold Coast, Australia

HOPE PERTH: FIRST WATER BAPTISM IN KATANNING

HOPE PERTH: FIRST WATER BAPTISM IN KATANNING

Praise God for the latest and most exciting progress the Katanning mission has made among the Chinese workers. On Saturday, 17th February, 2008, we held the very first water baptism day for the three new believers in Katanning.

[Hope Katanning Photo Website]

[Photo: Pastor Stephen & Hannah]

Our brothers and sisters have publicly proclaimed their determination to follow Christ. We conducted the water baptism and issued baptism certificate to the converts. After the water baptism, other new believers in Katanning also expressed their interest in being water baptised.

Full Gospel Assembly church from Perth and Katanning Baptist church who have been working on this group of Chinese people, have recognised our efforts and would like to provide us with best support to our ongoing mission to Katanning.

In the last 15 months we have travelled more than 400 hours, travelling 7.5 hours per week to faithfully build up our contacts in Katanning. God is faithful: He has extended our connection to the shire, to the key local factory and the local churches.

We, the Hope Katanning Mission team (Pang Chieng, Peybin Ho and Andy Jun Liu) want to give glory to God for the fruits among the Chinese workers in Katanning.

Please continue to pray for us to see the Hope Katanning continue being established. We have a weekly care group running with a regular attendance of 10 to 15 people. We are planning to begin a service in the future to make a deeper impact to the area.

[Sport Day Outreach Event in Katannning]

God bless!

James Ling Zeng, Hope Perth