I was 21 years old, living in Sydney and was tired of the doing the same thing every weekend; the same pubs, parties and clubs. Early one Saturday morning, I was eating a kebab on the side of the road and I had a moment of self-awareness, “What am I doing with my life and why am I here?” The moment was a long time coming. I knew that something needed to change but I didn’t know what or how. I knew that I wasn’t happy, but didn’t know what ‘better’ looked like.

At the same time I was working with two people who told me that they went to church. It reminded me of the happiest time in my life; when I was a kid growing up in the USA, my family went to a church. Even though it wasn’t my choice to go there, I remembered it being the happiest time of my life. So, I thought it was time to look into God for my own reasons and make up my mind to see whether this was something for me. I was committed to finding out, because I wanted more from life than eating kebabs in the early hours of the morning, going to the same pubs and parties and not growing as a person!

For the next six month I went deep into reading and learning about what God was about. I went to a number of churches to see what was being talked about. It was all I wanted to do. Finally, I came to the realisation that no amount of research and questioning was going to show me what I wanted to know. It came down to having faith. This seemed terrifying, because I knew that a life believing in God would mean changing everything.

One night after rugby training, I went to a church meeting with a person from my work and took that leap of faith, by genuinely asking God to show me he was real by filling me with his Holy Spirit. When I did that with earnestness in my heart, I began to speak in tongues and I knew immediately that God was real. From there everything did change, but not how I expected it. I was worried that a life with God would mean more rules and doing less, but what actually happened was that the world and what was possible became bigger and more open, not smaller. The journey of spiritual growth had started and learning who I am as a whole human being had begun. The Bible says, “You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.”

In 1984, when I was 23 years old, a pamphlet was placed on the windscreen of my car inviting me to a movie called ‘The Day After’ which was being screened by a church in Geelong. I went along to the movie, mainly for the free food afterwards! After the movie, the pastor of the church spoke about the end times in the Bible. I wondered how the Bible, which is over 2000 years old, could predict things that could happen today. I was interested enough to go along to a church meeting, to see what this church was about.

When I first went to a church meeting, I was surprised that everyone was happy and there was no generation gap – young people were chatting to old people. At the church meeting, I heard how I could have a personal experience with God; God could fill me with his Holy Spirit. I kept returning to the church meetings for a few months and was praying to receive the Holy Spirit. I also kept going to the pub with my mates during that time. One day, I was invited to a friend’s house to pray for the Holy Spirit. Before, I got there I thought, “Ok God, this is it. Either I receive the Holy Spirit or I walk away from this”. So, I got down on my knees and started praying. Within a few minutes, I felt a warmth on the inside come through me and I spoke in tongues, in a language I’d never learned.

Since then, God has been with me and helped me with work, health issues and family issues. I worked in earthmoving. One day, I was driving my truck through Geelong on the Melbourne Road, near the Ford factory. As I came to a stop at an intersection, a pedestrian was hit by a motorbike. I jumped out of the truck to help the pedestrian. He was bleeding from the mouth, nose and ears and appeared to have a severe head injury. I didn’t know what to do, so I started praying quietly to myself for the pedestrian. By this stage, there were other people gathered around. As I prayed, the bleeding stopped. An ambulance arrived and took him to hospital. The next day, I phoned the hospital to find out how he was. They told me he had already gone home. I looked him up in the phone book and rang his home. His wife answered the phone and told me that he was completely fine and was currently out for a walk – he just had a sore knee! I knew God had answered my prayer for that man. Since then, I’ve always trusted God.

I grew up going to a traditional church every Sunday from as early as I can remember. I read children’s stories about Jesus, yet I never read the Bible. I had no trouble believing that God created the earth, however it seemed to be very difficult to be good enough that God would let me into heaven.

At about the age of 13, I was told I was to receive the Holy Spirit. I went through a ceremony and nothing happened, except a man put oil on my forehead. I was disappointed because I thought receiving the Holy Spirit would make everything become clear to me. During my teenage years, I really began to take notice of what was said and done at my family’s church and I seemed to come up with more questions than answers. I was shy and nervous. I didn’t have the courage to speak up. I was lonely and my life was miserable.

At 24, I came to a point where I couldn’t stand my life any longer and I really desired to know what God wanted, so I decided the best thing was to ask God himself. I asked God to point me in the right direction. Soon after this, my brother’s wife invited me to a Revival Centres Church meeting. I knew God had led me there because the only people I knew were my brother and his wife, yet I felt calm and comfortable. It was a normal room, with no robes or altar or rows of pews. The music and singing were happy and lively. I enjoyed it so much that I went back the next Sunday and watched my brother get baptised by full immersion in water. By this time, I had been shown a passage in the Bible at Acts 2:38 which says to repent, be baptised and God would fill me with the Holy Spirit, meaning I am forgiven for all my sins. This was wonderful news. Finally, I would be good enough for God.

I went to my third church meeting and, this time, I was the one that got baptised by full immersion. I felt so clean. I was so happy that I knew what God wanted and was following his instructions in the Bible. I was asked if I wanted to pray to receive the Holy Spirit. I was willing and so went along to a prayer meeting. I tried praying for a few minutes, but felt too self-conscious praying out loud with strangers and told them I would be more comfortable praying at home by myself. For six weeks I prayed and asked God to give me the Holy Spirit. Then, it dawned on me that God wanted me to rely on his strength and trust him; I had to hand control over to God. I was on my knees praying in my bedroom alone and I felt ashamed and started to cry and then I started to pray in a language I had never learned. I was speaking in tongues. I felt a warm feeling as though God had put his arms around me in a big bear hug! I knew I had received the Holy Spirit for real this time, because it was just me and God and he had given me the proof of speaking in a new prayer language.

God has slowly healed my mind and given me confidence through the strength of his Holy Spirit inside me. Now I know that people are just people and the nervousness and fear have gone. I am so happy to be part of this big family of God. No more loneliness. God has also blessed me with a husband who has received the Holy Spirit. Now I read the Bible every day and it is full of great wisdom - the ultimate instruction manual. As long as I keep praying in the prayer language God has given me and leave all my cares and worries in his hands, I know he will continue to bless my life. I am so excited to know that when he returns, I will be with him in his kingdom forever.

I received the Holy Spirit in 1986. I wanted to get baptised in the church I was attending, however the church would not allow this to happen. Through difficult circumstances, I started taking drugs and moved to Melbourne. At the time, I was living in a drug rehabilitation centre, I ended up staying too long in the city of Melbourne and missed my train. As I had missed the train, I went to the Forum Theatre to see if there was a show on. However, when I arrived at the Forum Theatre it was a Revival Centres Church meeting. I picked up a testimony pamphlet about a lady who had been healed of drug addiction, who also had received the Holy Spirit and was baptised. I knew I was in the right place! When the preacher asked if anyone wanted to be baptised, I put my hand up. I was baptised by full immersion and when I came out of the water I was speaking in tongues. The Holy Spirit hadn’t left me since I first received it.

When I was baptised, I realised that I needed to keep praying, read my Bible and go to church. I was healed from my addiction to heroin when I was baptised and was reunited with my family with whom I had lost contact. God healed my scarred liver; doctors could not find scarring on my liver biopsy and in 2010 I was healed of hepatitis C. I know now that I can call on God in good and bad times. He provides me with consistency, comfort, and peace in my life. I now enjoy a happy family life.

I grew up with a lot of medical issues that impacted my life. I was pretty unhappy and ill. I’d attended a church when I was younger, but felt like I wasn’t getting anything out of that church.

When I was 16, I rang a friend to see if she wanted to come out with me on a Saturday night. She invited me to go with her to a church youth group, so I went along. I didn’t really understand that it was a church, even when I went to the church meeting the next day. I wasn’t looking for God, but I could see that the people were happy and I wasn’t. Within a couple of weeks, I was baptised by full immersion in water and received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. When I first received the Holy Spirit, I didn’t really grasp what I had. However, over the next few years I grew in understanding about what the Holy Spirit was and the importance of God in my life. Some of my medical conditions have now been resolved through prayer. Other medical issues are still with me, but they don’t define me and I know that God looks after me in all situations! Like anyone else, things have happened in my life, but God always answers even if it’s not how I expect him to. Over time, I’ve learned to rely on God even more because I’ve seen him provide for me in my life so many times.

I received the Holy Spirit when I was 14 years old. I had been praying for some time and when I started speaking in tongues, I knew I had received the Holy Spirit. I was really amazed that there was a God that answered prayers. We were brought up in a traditional church, so I believed in God, but I felt he was far off from me. I never realised you could get a personal touch from God. Since then, I have spoken in this language every day to God, his prayer language. He has helped me throughout my life and through my married life. He has healed my wife, my children and myself on numerous occasions. He has also given me a purpose and direction in life - I know who I am and where I am going. I know I am going to meet him one day.

Having God manifest himself through the Holy Spirit, in such a very real and tangible way gives me peace of mind, joy and increases my faith. I can understand the scriptures in the Bible and make them work in my life, not in a religious way but in a very practical common-sense way. I can’t thank God enough for what he has done in my life, my family’s life and for the fellowship in the Bellarine Revival Centre Church.

I grew up in a family with an understanding of God, however I didn’t go to church regularly to develop and build my faith. I did however always believe there was a God. I went to a Christian high school so learnt the basics of who God was and that he wanted to have a relationship with his people. I thought ‘believing’ made me a Christian, but as I grew into my late teens, I realised I didn’t know God or who he was or have him working in my life as the Bible teaches us.

I met my now wife Maddie, who showed me in the Bible about being a born-again Christian, being filled with the Holy Spirit and having a relationship with God for myself. I spent a few months reading the Bible about receiving the Holy Spirit and started praying to receive the Holy Spirit for myself. After attending a Revival Centres Church convention in Melbourne, I had a feeling that day was the day I was going to receive the Holy Spirit for myself. At the church meeting, I asked for prayer and after a few minutes of praising God I started to speak in tongues, a prayer language sign of receiving the Holy Spirit. I finally knew for myself that God was real and active in people’s lives. I was overcome with peace and joy to have that assurance for myself.

Since that day, I have always been able to pray directly to God in the Holy Spirit and have been blessed on so many occasions, provided for, healed, and protected; the list goes on. I praise God for all he has done and continues to do in my life.

I received the Holy Spirit when I was 17 years old, in 1967. I was on a train to Melbourne and met two old school friends who asked if I would like to go to their church youth group with them. I said “yes”, as I had been searching for God and wanted to know the truth. I had been to different churches with other friends, and I knew that God was not there. I went with these friends to the youth group at the Revival Centre Church in Melbourne and as soon as I walked in and saw how happy and confident everyone was, I knew this was where I needed to be. I was told about receiving the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues and was shown the scriptures in the Bible that talk about this. I hadn’t heard about speaking in tongues in any of the other churches I had been to.

The following Sunday I went to the Revival Centre Church meeting and heard someone speaking in tongues for the first time. I was quite alarmed by this, but I knew it was from God because I had been shown in the Bible. I was baptised the following week and three weeks later I received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. That was over fifty years ago, and God has been a blessing and a strength in my life through all those years. I am married and we have three children that were all brought up in the Revival Centres Church. Our family has received many healings over the years, blessings and the comfort of the Holy Spirit and we look forward to God returning.

It’s a wonderful life with God and will continue to be so.

received the Holy Spirit in 1959 with the evidence of speaking in tongues. It was a wonderful, overwhelming experience. It was the first time that I had heard about the Holy Spirit experience.

I was 19 years old at the time I received the Holy Spirit and I am now 83 years old. Through all those years God has been with me, blessing my life.

My daughter burnt her legs badly with boiling water when she was 3 years old. We prayed for her many times. After ten days the scab fell off the area of burns that was to have skin grafts - it was completely healed before the lesser burns on her body healed. I praise God for this healing and the many other healings in my life and I can’t wait to be with him.

In January 1974, I was on holiday at Queenscliff. One evening, there was a group of people outside a community hall near where we were staying. My friend and I walked over to see what the gathering was about. It was a church meeting as part of a summer camp. At that time, my friend and I were looking for proof that God existed and we had been to many different churches asking questions. So, we went in to the hall and stayed for the church meeting. During the meeting, I remember looking around and observing the people – there was a sense of family and togetherness that I hadn’t picked up in any other church I’d been to. There were people from all different age groups gathered together. I was intrigued as to what was different about this place!

We were invited to come along the next night to a sing-along on the Point Lonsdale foreshore. My friend and I went to the sing-along and afterwards the pastor of the church introduced himself and told us about the Holy Spirit. He told me personal stories about how members of the church had received the Holy Spirit and their lives had been transformed by God – some had been drug addicts, some alcoholics, some destitute. I was amazed and moved by what I was hearing! Most of my life I’d gone to church so I knew the stories in the Bible, but this person was telling me about miracles that were being performed in modern times. Although I believed the Bible, I had no proof of God’s existence. As soon as I heard that God could prove himself to me personally, I knew I wanted that proof. That evening, my friend and I went to the pastor’s house and with the pastor and his family we started praying to God. Within minutes, I felt the power of the Holy Spirit move through me and I started speaking in tongues - in a new language that I hadn’t learned. I immediately felt a weight lifted off me and felt as if I had come home! I knew God had proven himself to me and was real and alive.

The Holy Spirit has been with me ever since. In all situations, God has proven himself by answering prayers. Recently, my husband had a stroke; there was visible evidence of the stroke down the left side of his body. We were told by the doctors to gather the family together, as he wasn’t expected to live. We asked for the church to pray for my husband. That night, he slept all night and woke up the next morning with no sign of the stroke – he woke up and said “I’m hungry”! I thank God he totally healed my husband of that stroke.