OUR WALL OF TESTIMONIES

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Doug's Story

Growing up as a Māori kid in NZ in the 1980s our home life was a lot like the movie 'Once Were Warriors'.  Alcohol and violence.

Dad often didn't come straight home after work, most nights he instead went to the pub.  The alcohol fueled his anger from his own trauma, and increased his false jealousy over any attention my mum got, eventually resulted in a tragedy beyond anything anyone should live through.

My dad killed my mum.

After her death I wasn't angry, I was saddened, grieve that my mum had to go through what she did.  Not only was the marriage turbulent, and violent when he was drunk, but in the end he beat her to death.

I couldn't have wished for a better dad - except when he was drunk. Alcohol can turn small troubles into rage filled storms.

Being a new Christian when my mum died, I could turn to Pastor Geoff for guidance and support to process what was such a huge trauma in my and my families lives.

To hold onto hope I attended morning and evening services, as well as revival meetings and anything else that was on.  And everywhere I went I kept feeling the Holy Spirit leading me to forgive my dad.  

My wife and I organized a meeting for my siblings and I to visit my dad in prison, but they weren't ready to see dad.  I ended up going up there with just my wife for support to talk to dad.  As led by God I asked him to forgive me for holding mum's death against him, and told him I forgive him.

Not long after that dad got sick and ended up in hospital, the scripture in Genesis 50:20 about what the devil meant for evil God turns for good kept coming to mind, so I went to see dad in hospital to ask him if he would like to give his life to Christ, and he did.

My wife and I led him in the sinner prayer, he received Jesus that evening on his hospital bed, and passed away soon after.  Even though I'd now lost both parents I had the joy of knowing he was home with God and were able to have a Christian send off for him.

Forgiveness isn't just for the other person, it released our hearts from the hurts too.

Having people like Pastor Geoff to talk to and help us through our dark times is part of the gift God gives us when he calls us to be in fellowship.

To God be all the glory, I thank Him for changing my heart of bitterness and unforgiveness towards my dad to one of love and desire for him to be saved too.

Kamal's Story

I was born in Punjab India into an orthodox part Hindu part Sikh family. In a village of about 10,000 people only about two families were Christian. My family followed the religion of our ancestors and we always served in the temple for our gods and as a first son I also followed their religion with great respect and passion. I was raised to believe my religion was the best of all religions and from a young age served in the temple that my family built in our village.  

I spoke badly of Christians and about Jesus, even making fun of Christians in my school, and we never allowed Christian meetings to be held in our village nor did we let them have a building because we were against them.

My best friend and his family began to go to church after his sister who had died, came back to life when prayer for in Jesus name. We were angry and told them we wanted to beat them with our baseball bats for accepting Jesus.

My friend invited me to church in 2011 and I went but I mocked them and laughed at them, I told my friend his church was a circus not a house for a God. Despite my awful behaviour he kept insisting that I stay, and then I saw people getting healed and delivered when the Pastor prayed for them, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  

At the end I went and thanked the Pastor for praying for my friends sister and saving her. Next he prayed for me and the Holy Spirit touched me so powerfully I fell on the floor. I felt so good and my heart had so much peace I'd never felt before.  

It wasn't long before my family found out I was hanging out with Christians and they got angry with me and threatened my friend to try and stop him involving me in the church. I moved to NZ in 2012 before my faith had time to be deeply developed and fell back into a life of sin and worldly pleasures, we partied, drank, did drugs and more. I lived a life of darkness and didn't pray for 5 years.

Then on the 19th July 2017 I was at home alone when suddenly I felt like praying, as I prayed, I felt someone in the room with me. In the Hindu religion when you die 'angels' come to take your soul so I got scared. In my fear I started calling out for all the gods of my childhood to help me but the voice I heard was none of theirs, it said, "I am the Way the Truth and the Light".

It was the Lord Jesus Christ who was in my room with me, I worried he had come to punish me for my sins but instead he said, "Son I love you and forgive you". He put his hand on my shoulder and spoke to me in Punjabi. He showed me what I had done in my life all in an instance, then he ministered to me all about himself and told me that I can receive forgiveness and  eternal life too instead of going to hell.

After ministering much of the gospel to me he asked if I believed him and if I wanted to follow him, I said yes and then he said come and follow me. That day I started following God and haven't looked back, I lost most of my friends, my family were angry with me for years and said they would disown me, but I still chose my faith in Jesus. That's when they threatened to kill me. Friends and family labeled me a religious nut and all walked away, within a few months of choosing Christ I was all alone.

Then I met Pastor Geoff from Manifest Love Church, my life began to transform, he prayed for me and I was filled with the Holy Spirit and received the gift of tongues. I started going to his church and being discipled by him and through prayer and support within a year my family began to believe in Jesus too!

I began preaching and doing street ministry, and kept learning and growing at Manifest Love Church, then in 2019 I became an Assistant Pastor and started working for my church. I've seen many miracles of healings and deliverance, lives transformed, and many people saved when prayed for in Jesus name.

The power of the Lord Jesus Christ is real and we can do all things in his name when we believe. I have seen many supernatural miracles happen through my relationship with Jesus.

Liz's Story

Raised in a Christian home with parents who honour and serve God, I was raised under the safety and covering of a secure Godly marriage.

I later married a man who served in church and who also had parents who were in ministry, I assumed we would have the same values and put God first as we had in my family growing up.

I quickly learnt that just because someone serves and appears solid in their faith, doesn't mean they aren't hiding great brokenness underneath.

My husband instead of seeking God and healing had been raised to sweep everything under the carpet and pretend everything was fantastic. 

When his brokenness and the stress of feeling like I was living a lie got too much I slid into depression, pushed away family and friends because I couldn't keep hiding how bad things were.

My husband was drinking, having affairs, and I was disillusioned and now broken myself, all hope was gone.

I was angry.  Angry at how life turned out, I had not dated, I had not slept around, I thought I'd done it all right, I married a 'Christian man', I was angry at God for allowing this to happen to me.

The marriage eventually ended, if it hadn't I'm not sure I would still be around.  I no longer knew who I was, I no longer felt like I had anything to live for, I no longer wanted anything to do with men and their 'fake faiths'.

Over time the support of my parents, friends, a lovely homegroup of older ladies who all prayed for and encouraged me, and ministry at Manifest Love Church and I began to heal.

I also had to repent of blaming God for my husbands actions and for me choosing to marry him, as God showed me one day...I had never asked God if he was the one for me.

In restoring my love for God by removing my anger and blame my healing began to move swiftly from then, I used scripture to remind myself who God says I am to relearn who I am.  I pulled out old prophetic words over my life that had been confirmed and started to speak them into my life again.

It was a journey, but when we let Him God always saves and heals us, my identity is restored, my hope renewed, and my future has purpose.

Barry's Story

I arrived in Hamilton broken.

After years of unsettledness, a broken marriage, the loss of my family farm, depression, and a business betrayal leading to a financial loss, I was at the end of myself and was ready to give up and for it all to be over.

I was attending a church but unfortunately I was in a bad place and they couldn't provide the type of ministry and support I needed.

A friend recommended I see Pastor Geoff from Manifest Love Church.

Both having come from a farming background, and having had marriage troubles, I connected with Pastor Geoff and knew he could help me.

After a season of ministry with Pastor Geoff where he walked me through extensive healing and forgiveness in Christ,  I saw hope for my future again.

Not long after that the church moved from a rented hall type of situation to its current location and while renovating started to set up a commercial size kitchen.

Having always loved cooking I started managing the kitchen and found my calling and my place to serve.

God always knows what we need.

Ange's Story

Like many Māori woman I was sexually abused as a child, I had been ashamed & traumatized & carried this with me for almost 70 years.

My mum passed away when I was a little girl & dad fostered us out to other family members.  

Where I stayed there were several other teenage foster boys staying there too & they used to 'take me for a walk' somewhere secluded & sexually abuse me, then threaten me so I wouldn't tell anyone.

So on top of grieving my mum's death & grieving the loss of seeing my dad & siblings every day, I now had to grieve my loss of innocence & face the trauma that comes with sexual abuse.

What I learnt over the years was that silence only makes the shame feel deeper.

I went to Liz Jensen for ministry & the Holy Spirit did a miraculous healing in this area of my life.

Not only has the trauma been lifted & the negative memories erased, but my heart towards Māori men was healed & my shame was removed.

We are never too old to take our trauma & pain to the Lord for healing.

If you have experienced something like this in your life, seek help for God to heal you so He can set you free too!

Alan's Story

Before I was even a teenager I became bound by many sexual addictions; pornography, lust, and uncleanness to name a few.

Around the age of 15 when most boys were showing their interest in girls, due to the addiction I couldn't emotionally engage in contact or even conversation with them so avoided them at all cost.

By 18 I believed I would never be able to marry.

Believing in God but not knowing Him my focus was on things like fishing, hunting, and golf.  At 20 I was laying on my bed reading a book on the Life of Christ and God turned up there and found me!  

I went forward for every altar call but nothing changed, I used to pray, "God I know I can't marry but please show me who I would have married if I could".

A couple of years later I attended a three month bible course at Faith College in Tauranga and while there, one lecturer taught us about deliverance.  I sought him out privately and he prayed for me.

God touched me so powerfully that night that I was set free from all bondage and addiction.

I was free!  Life started to happened normally for me then, I dated, in time married, and had the family I never thought I would be able to.

Elaine's Story

I grew up with an extremely violent mum, absent dad, & lots of men coming & going from our home.

My childhood home was full of parties, violence, alcohol, & drunk men.

I was first raped at about 7 years old by one of my mum's boyfriends, then by multiple men on maraes.

Ministry with Pastor Liz Jensen allowed the Holy Spirit to show me the judgements I had made against my mum & 'brown woman', as well as towards myself, & to my own horror in the discovery, the realization that I had come to believe I was 'just a piece of meat that men can do what they want with'.

These wounds & judgements had made me hard & also put me in a spiral of repeating my mums parenting mistakes.

In releasing forgiveness to my abusers, in forgiving myself, & in repenting of those beliefs that were not of God, I have a new freedom in my marriage, in my relationship with my children & grandchildren, & with my boss who is a brown woman!

God wants to heal us, we just have to stop trying to be strong & surrender it all to Him.

Don't keep walking life with your pain when Jesus went to the cross to carry those burdens for us.

Leann's Story

 When I came to MLC on Sunday evenings I was feeling broken and abandoned after the breakdown of my family.  I was desperate to find God in my distress. 

I wanted to find meaning and purpose with what was happening to me and my family.  

I would come to church on a Sunday night and sit in the darkness and let the worship wash over me.  It was the only place a felt a sense of peace and a sense of knowing God was meeting me where I was at in my pain and distress.

God always showed up and as the weeks spread into months with the help of Pastor Geoff I began to heal and found a new sense of purpose and finally hope. 

While my family is still separated, God has been working in me, healing me, and helping me understand my identity is in him, not my broken marriage. 

I’ve been able to let go, forgive and move on with purpose, knowing that God provided everything I needed along the way and will always do so.

I would not be where I am today had God not met me in the worship on Sunday nights at Manifest Love Church.

Erin's Story

My husband & I both grew up in dysfunction, so the way we interacted was patterned not only by this childhood dysfunction we witnessed, but was added to by our own wounds & brokenness created in that trauma.

Through ministry with Pastor Liz Jensen I realized that judgements towards my mum had trapped me into becoming exactly like her!  I was controlling & constantly stressed creating a stressful home life for my husband & son.

My husband came to realize that his dad being absent most of his life, being a military man, had hardened his heart & he had decided he would just never need anyone.

Putting these issues & patterned dysfunction together in our marriage & family life was chaotic & harsh.

In forgiving our own parents, in allowing God in to heal our wounds, rejection issues, & brokenness we were set free from our pasts.

As our marriage stabilized & through ministry we learnt how to function within our roles as a family the way God intended us too, our home life is completely different & constantly improving as we learn & grow in God.

Ana's Story

On returning to NZ from Aussie I was reading a book about David and Jonathan, and I told God I needed a best friend, and He told me to plant myself in a church. 

I had years ago visited MLC and remembered it because I felt at home there and I could connect myself there.

At first I was in and out but I kept being drawn back until it was my regular place of worship.

After a while God gave me the scripture Joshua 3:5 "Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

Not long after this Pastor Kamal asked me to help with the Youth, I thought about it, but didn't move forward on it.

Then God gave me this analogy; someone from church had given me some fish and I was making it at home and then God spoke to me and said, "If you come with what is in your cupboard (your life experience) I will provide the meat (fish/the main things) for the Youth."  

That's when I said yes to God and started helping run the Youth Ministry at Manifest Love Church.

The rest as they say is destiny!

Ann's Story

Marriage isn't easy & when childhood hurts & wounds affect how we relate to others we can fall into self destructive patterns of behavior.

A childhood wound where a teacher had told me I wasn't worth the effort had embedded in my heart & without me realizing it I had fallen into a pattern of pushing people away before they could realize 'I wasn't worth their effort'.

When my marriage had reached a breaking point & my husband had left I reached out for help, Liz Jensen from Manifest Love Church met with me weekly & opened spaces for the Holy Spirit to unravel layers of wounds creating a deep rejection issue in my life.  

Once revealed Liz helped me forgive & identify the behavior I had developed that had been pushing my husband away.

After the first two month of my ministry my husband noticed such a drastic change in how I interacted with him that he then asked to see Liz too!

I am pleased to say God won this war on marriage, just 6 months after we separated we renewed our vows & moved back in together.

From our time receiving ministry we now have healthy relating patterns & family values set up to guide us through trials.

Thank you Jesus for setting me free!

A Note From Josh

My wife and I came to Manifest Love Church because the good news of Jesus, the gospel, was preached boldly in each service.

Manifest Love Church does not deny the power and authority the name of Jesus has, and does not deny that same power and authority Jesus Christ gives people through faith which is something we can all have.

Nor is Manifest Love Church ashamed to boldly proclaim the name of Jesus, in fact they profess Jesus as the saviour of all! 

We have found our home, a place that boldly proclaims what we boldly believe.

Sylvie's Story

 All my life I have felt unaccepted & unwanted & I didn't know why.  This feeling had become the base of other bad habits & addictions developing in my life.  

When I came to the end of my own strength to fight these feelings, I rang my brother who attends a church with a focus on healing ministry, he gave me Pastor Liz Jensen's number from Manifest Love Church & I contacted her for an appointment the following week.  

I shared with her my feelings & issues & she said we need to seek the Holy Spirit on where to start, that it will likely relate back to something in my childhood, so we prayed & asked the Holy Spirit to show me a memory of where to start ministry.  

 My mum’s pregnancy with me came as a surprise & she went through a lot of stress during that time. I unknowingly carried the emotional weight of her struggles, which made me feel unwanted and rejected.  

I only needed a couple of ministry meetings with Liz where I found healing through forgiveness, then together, my mum & I spoke blessings over the story of my beginning.    

Now my relationships with my family have changed, my confidence has risen, I feel loved & accepted & my marriage is better than ever too.  

God is so good to us when we seek Him for help, don't wait so long like I did, if there are patterns in your life where you have negativity or bad habits, seek healing today!  

Micahel's Story

  I would like to share with you how I became a believer and follower of Jesus and the impact that He has had on my life and the lives of others.

I was born into a family where God was rarely mentioned but I do remember as a ten year old, my mother giving me a Bible for Christmas. I remember being very disappointed...

My mum instilled in us good patterns of behaviour and somehow I know I had a fear of God and believed that God existed. However, my teenage years were more about sport than anything else.

My life started to change when I met Margaret, who believed in Jesus. I started attending a traditional church with her but nothing changed much until one day, when I was about 28 or so, and had a very strong sense that I needed to read the Bible before I died. Not knowing when that might be, I started doing so and have continued ever since.

Margaret and I became more involved in Church life for some years. When we took part in a Life in the Spirit seminar EVERYTHING changed. I spent about a year laughing and crying as God touched different areas of my life. Our children probably thought their dad was having a nervous breakdown! 

When I was born, I was a very small baby and had my first six weeks away from my mum. I believe that the Holy Spirit was healing the wounded areas of my heart in this time. I became hungry for more of God, to get closer to Him and to see the Holy Spirit moving in power. 

Previously, I could get cold and silent with Margaret and make life difficult for her. But this unhealthy behaviour was steadily replaced with joy and a desire to please God. 

I found my emotions were woken up and I would cry at family funerals, something I had never done before. Often, the Holy Spirit would unexpectedly touch me concerning His plans for my life.

As the Holy Spirit healed and empowered me, I, with Margaret became more and more interested in the things of the Holy Spirit, particularly healing, missions and praying for people.

This journey still continues as the Holy Spirit uses me/us and as we become more and more aware of His love, His mercy, His faithfulness and His power to transform lives.  

Margaret's Story

  I would like to share a call to surrender that I experienced. Michael and I were working in China and from time to time we would care for a little Chinese orphan girl who was blind. As a baby she had hydrocephalus or fluid on the brain and should have been operated on before she was beset with blindness. 

When she was about 3 years old we both felt we should be adopting her and Michael was immediately ready to be obedient but I was not. 

The Mission organization we were with required couples to go home from China and do the adoption process from their home country. I did not want to leave China and I did not want to give up the teaching I was involved in. 

For a whole university term (a long term of 20 weeks) I fought against this and every time the thought came into my mind another argument would form. Like I was too old, too much responsibility would fall on our youngest daughter who at 12 was like a little mother to this little one. It was she who a year earlier would be the one little Maggie wanted in the night if she needed changing. 

Finally I gave in. I knew if God wanted us to do something then we needed to respond. We announced to our children that we would adopt Maggie. They were delighted. 

This was on a Sunday, on the Tuesday I went out on the street to buy some vegetables and there I ran into Adam. He and his wife were running a little orphanage where Maggie had been placed in the previous year. He told me that an American couple was found who were going to adopt Maggie. 

This news stunned me. Had God really just wanted my heart in full submission to him? The timing of this knowledge was surely orchestrated by God and only him. I remember being overwhelmed when we met the new parents and Maggie was being handed over to them. 

In a way I felt like the grandma handing over this precious little one to them, this beautiful young couple with a 2 year old and another baby due in a few months. 

Our hearts are so dear to God and he wants us to have nothing in the way of being fully obedient to him. Read the account of Abraham and his son Isaac in Genesis 22. All our little tests of surrender pale into insignificance in comparison to this.

Nikisha's Story

Unwanted by my parents I was raised by my Nan, struggling with grandkids being dumped on her I was neglected and abused.  Some of my earliest memories are of being locked in bedrooms for days and extreme hunger.

This led to me falling into drug and alcohol abuse, suicide attempts, multiple personalities developing to try and help me cope, and landing in a mental health ward as a very young teenager.

Once released I thought I was doing ok but voices in my head had told me that I was meant to be a boy.  I dated woman, even got engaged to one, and started the process of finding out about having a sex change to be a boy.

I had met Pastor Goeff a few times in my life and when he was called to visit me when I was in a bad place after my girlfriend had died in a car crash he ministered to me and I gave my life to Jesus and was saved.

Years of ministry followed and through deliverance the voices have gone and I know that I am a woman and was always meant to be one.

The world is back in colour now, after years of depression and dysfunction and feeling like the world was just in black and white, suddenly God I let God into my life and the grass is green and the sky is blue!

Eleanor's Story

God has been, and continues to be, an amazing provider in so many ways. Materially spiritually and financially.

Years ago I received a prophetic word 'God is calling you to the nations'.

My answer was 'Lord I am willing to go'.

Confirming this word was a provision of $2000.00 from a lady who knocked on my front door with a cheque filled out and signed by her.

Very shortly after that I went on a missions trip to India, Nepal, Vietnam, and Fiji.

It was such an adventure and exciting times being used by God to bring healing and salvation to spiritually hungry people. 

Praise the Lord.

Tracey's Story

Rejection is harsh, but feeling rejected by your own parents is soul shattering.

My dad wasn't able to raise me & I was removed from my mums care due to abuse, my saving grace was that my paternal grandparents took me in.

My formative years were dysfunctional, unstable, & often not safe, & this developed issues in my heart & thinking that followed me throughout my teenage years & most of my 20s leading me to make some really bad decisions.

Faith was often in the back of my mind due to my time with my grandparents, but it wasn't until I stopped seeing God as 'their faith' & surrendered myself to Him that He led me, through my aunt & uncle, to a church that focusses on the very things I needed, healing & deliverance.

It has been a journey, with the lows & the highs, but God has faithfully & patiently used Pastor Geoff & Pastor Liz to help me walk through the healing I needed so that I can move beyond my past & break all the generational strongholds that were trying to hold me down as a Māori woman.

God wants all of us to move into freedom, & that requires us to be not just saved but to be healed & delivered too.

Deon & Luanne's Story

 For many years, we have served in different church ministry areas at our local church. Growing in our faith and grace, walking closely with God. We were very much in love with worship and music ministry leading a faithful team. 

Church and church activities played a big part in our lives as a family.  Our Pastor at the time saw potential in us to move into serving more in ministry which led to us being appointed to serve as church board members. Wanting to make a difference, we accepted.  But nothing prepared us for the unraveling of what we thought was a place of serving. A place of belonging. 

It became apparent that there was an attack from the enemy which led us to leave our church, leaving behind many years of faithful service. The sad experience led to a feeling of rejection not only was it personal, but it was spiritual, emotional and communal as well. It was an experience that left wounds not only in us, but in our children as well. 

We moved away from being active church members trying to heal from these wounds.  That experience led us to withdraw-not just from ministry, but from church life altogether. We were "church wounded", and the ripple effect was real. The pain built walls around our hearts, keeping us from walking in the gifts God had placed within us. 

It was by the grace and mercy of God that we did not let go off Him. He was still a huge part of what we stood for in our lives, even though we were not rooted church members, during these years.  In time, we began to reconnect, getting back into service to God. 

We undertook a Personal ministry session at the Manifest Love Church in Hamilton with Liz, which was part of our journey to healing and finding our way back into service and ministry again. 

Following the personal ministry sessions on Saturday morning we decided to attend church the Sunday morning. We connected with what God was doing here and decided we wanted to be a part of Manifest Love Church family in Hamilton. 

It has been a blessing serving and being in a ministry that moves in deliverance, healing and saving of souls for Jesus.  God, in His grace and mercy, revealed deeper childhood wounds in the personal session that needed healing. We were able to start the next chapter on our journey with the Lord. 

God has started a new thing and a restoration in our lives. Our future being be different with a vision of serving God in ministry and building a house and personal lives on the Rock. Claiming a life of true freedom through Jesus our Lord. No more striving but thriving in all areas of our lives.  

Witnessing the healing and deliverance ministry at Manifest Love Church reignited something within us. And now-we're back in ministry, joyfully serving in the gifts He gave us. The journey of being over-comers in all areas of life has begun and we are hopeful for a testimony in our lives that is going to be bigger than the former.  

Today, we move forward because we are healed, and we are once again able to be a blessing to others 

Vashti's Story

My mum had mental health issues & sadly this meant my childhood was filled with stress & times of being on the victim end of extreme violence.

To cope with the worst of these situations I used to 'leave my body' so I could disassociate emotionally with what was happening to my body physically.

What this meant was I had fractured myself; my body, heart, soul, mind & spirit were no longer operating as one just like this window, I was in pieces.

Whenever I felt stress or pressure I 'went somewhere else' in my mind to cope.

Through a series of layers of healing God showed me that I had disengaged so much I didn't love myself & I had trouble letting people be close to me emotionally, even my own children were to some degree 'distanced'.

God is so patient & so gracious & through ministry at Manifest Love Church, with Elijah House, & with Liz Jensen means I am now connecting to myself & others in a whole new way.

God is amazing & I wouldn't have survived this far without him in my life!

Ross's Story

  From an early age I feared what would happen when I died and also experienced an emotionally abusive homelife. To escape having to face these things, I actively filled my mind by thinking about how to make my life successful and filled my time with excessive work and adventures. 

This and a difficult childhood caused me to always be continually anxious and prevented me from feeling I belonged anywhere. I felt like I lived a lot of my life in a zone of gray where I functioned to achieve but seldom felt joyful and happy.

Finally, I became so despondent with life that I walked away from work to investigate eastern religions in India. While in India I received a conviction that there had to be an all-powerful creator God. Through a book sent to me by a Christian friend I became convinced that Jesus was a real person on earth and that I had to decide whether he was actually the Son of God who lived and died and was resurrected, or that he was a liar, or that he was a deluded lunatic. 

God brought a Christian to me in the foothills of the Himalayas where I was studying yoga and we studied the Bible together and I became convinced that the bible is an integrated message from God that foretold of Jesus coming to earth to live a perfect life and dying for my sins. God (my all powerful heavenly father) really bought me to a decision to follow him as the one true God through two verses in the Bible.

John 14:6 Jesus is quoted as saying “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 6:68 Then when Jesus asked the disciple Peter if he would follow him he replied “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”

I found so much peace to know I had eternal life and a personal relationship with such a good God. That was in 1989 and over time my experience of the reality and goodness of God has only increased. 

A Family Story

When we were having trouble in our marriage our daughter began to develop violent behavior & anxiety related issues.

We were already having ministry with Pastor Liz Jensen & she suggested seeing our daughter too.

Through praying & talking with our daughter Liz discovered that she thought our marriage problems were her fault & her response was anxiety & anger.

Liz patiently walked through not only our marriage issues with us, but also our daughters hurts & wounds with her, reinforcing to her who she is to God & how much she is loved.  

Liz also walked through the Fruits of the Spirit with her reinforcing what behavior was not acceptable to God.

The anxious behaviors stopped quickly & the more our relationship calmed the less anxiety she had.  

The anger was a process but over time, with consistent on the same page united parenting, & the more steady our relationship became, the less her outburst happened.

Through ministry God not only healed us & our marriage, but He healed our daughters 7 year old heart too!

(To protect our young people we never release their names on public sites.)

Jason's Story

The first 10 years of my life I hardly saw my dad, he was working hard to support the family, but that in turn made him mostly absent.  Mum and Dad loved us in their own ways, but life wasn't easy in my childhood home.

Add to this my speech impediment and learning challenges and while home wasn't easy school was awful, I was bullied and got into a lot of fights which built an anger in my heart and created rejection issues.

Then when I was 10 my brother died.  I was sent to a Convent and a Catholic School to try and help me through this time, but I wasn't treated well, and this fueled my anger at life and people.

 My parents decided to have more kids, so my younger brother and sister were born.  I was quite a bit older and treated them badly, the loss of my other brother had built a wall in my heart against letting people in, I unknowingly had developed a fear of loss so let my anger push people away.

Next came involvement with the wrong crowd, addictions, drugs, fights, violence, woman, and sadly this all fed my anger at life and made things worse.

I ended up working on a farm, life a mess, heart hard, and a broken engagement that left me raw.  I was broken and angry. 

Through all this I had this one friend who was a Christian, who sat in the background of my life and never judged me, but was just there.  We were fishing one day, and I had been thinking life wasn't worth it, and he spoke to me about God's love through a sunset.  He asked me if I wanted to change my life and give it to Jesus, I wasn't sure.

I kept thinking about it, but I still wasn't sure.  Not long after this I was sitting in my rocking chair at home and Jesus walked in, put His hands on either side of my chair and spoke to me, the next day I asked to see my friend, and he walked me through the sinner's prayer, and I gave my life to Jesus.  

They say one moment with Jesus can change your life and change it did!  I changed but God didn't, He never changes, never fails us, never leaves us.

What feels impossible is possible with God, no matter your additions, your pain, your loss, or your trauma, God can turn your life around if you let Him, I know because He has already done it for me.

Raewyn's Story

By age 5 I had been abused by my parents and raped by my uncle and aunty.  I was really scared, and I didn't know what to do.  I knew about God and was crying to the Lord to help me, and then my grandparents came along and took me in when I was 6. 

My grandfather who was a pastor took me to church and got me the help I needed to heal. I was crying to the Lord to help me.  I really felt great when I got heal and felt loved by the people at church and the next few years were good. 

I move to Hamilton at the age of 9 where my grandfather got me into primary school, as he and grandma were going overseas for church work.

 I hated this change, I was bullied by the kids at school and again I didn't know what to do.  Home life also wasn't good either, the caregiver I was living with was so nasty to me and didn't provide proper clothes.  Going to school with no lunch and clothes with holes in them increased the bullying. 

As the years went on, I became angry and upset and had thoughts to myself of what I was even doing here. I stood there and asked for the Lord Jesus to help me, and Luke 4:18 happened to me!

Luke 4: 18

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.

The Spirit of the Lord came upon me, he healed my broken heart, he set me free from anger from the bulling and abuse, He restored my sight to see truth not what the filter of my brokenness distorted.

  Now here I am I'm healed with the Lord Jesus firmly in my life.  Jesus has a plan for everyone. He healed me and He can heal you too.