Dear Friends,

Hi, this weekend has been another good one, how about with you? I spent most of the day today with a friend in our church helping him sheet the ceiling of the home he is renovating. Holding ceiling sheets up all day has a way of making your arms tired. I felt sympathetic with Moses in Exodus 17:12, I sure am glad that wasn't me having to go through all he did.

Through the week we had a Pakistani man come to stay with my parents, he is running away from persecution in his own country. They have this rule called the blasphemy law and if anyone says anything even slightly critical of anything muslim they will kill you. The thing is, he is accused of blasphemy and he didn't say anything at all. He is falsely accused and is hiding in Australia for a short while to protect himself. Please pray for this man in your prayers because only the Lord can overcome these difficulties. Pakistan is ranked 17 th on the list of countries in which Christians face the most persecution, Saudi Arabia is (you guessed it) on top of the list.

Someone had the idea today that we should all share our testimonies with each other, what a brilliant idea, so here is how I became a Christian. (my testimony was also posted in our yahoo group)

I actually was born again when I was only 4.  One Sunday morning at Sunday school (Aussie slang for children's church) the teacher showed us a picture of a heart with a door in it.  She had a little model Jesus which she put inside the heart.  She said that Jesus wanted to come inside our hearts.

The very next day I thought this over in the family garage and decided I wanted to do it and so I prayed nothing more than "Dear Jesus, please come into my heart." and that was enough for me.  As a child with great childlike faith the Lord took my life over and I felt fantastic.  I ran inside and told my Mum "Mummy I just invited Jesus into my heart" I was very excited and I felt different.  The strange thing is that I cannot remember very much at all from that age, but that event stands out clearly in my memory.......it was a monumental day for me.

So thanks be to God who changes us and moulds us to be like Him

And He has not quit on me, my whole life has been a series of events of growing in Him and knowing Him.  My folks were ministers with the Salvation Army and went to Papua New Guinea as missionaries as well as pasturing back in Australia .  Through many events I have been blessed with a very solid Christian upbringing and a lot of knowledge about Him.

Even though I am only 25, I have been a Christian for 21 years and feel as though I have a great blessing I can impart to many people, I definitely give it a go anyway. So that's my story anyway.

Something which would be fantastic would be if I could collect a whole series of people's testimonies about how they were born again and compile a book available for download. Please write to me your testimony if you can and I'll begin putting a book together for us all to read.

Cheers, have a wonderful weekend and mother's day on Sunday.

God Bless

David