Hillsong United - What an evening

It`s now Monday afternoon and a bit of a downer. The weekend that I had been looking forward to for so long has come and gone and it`s back to the daily grind. It`s always a bit of a reality check when something is over, albeit that you had a wonderful time. I just wish I could do that everyday

Ok, so let`s take a step back and let me tell you about Hillsong United and the best Friday night I have had in a very, very long time.

We left a bit early on Friday and decided to get a quick hamburger at the shopping centre adjacent to the venue. Well, let`s put it this way, we thought it was close but we weren`t 100% sure. So we had a quick burger and then went into a Christian shop to get directions. The whole shop was in party mood and it soon became clear why. Joel Houston and a few members of the band had decided to pop into the shop and say hi. The people in the shop were in a state of shock to tell you the truth. They took photos with Joel and these became prized possessions. We missed them by a few minutes and I was really disappointed but at least we were gonna be able to see them in a short while.

So Hayley and I got directions and headed to the venue, which was very close as it turned out. There were already a long line of people waiting to go in. What I find so amazing it how many young people there were. Everywhere you looked there were young couples, groups of friends and a Mom or Dad with kids. It really is awesome to see how the young people are turning to God. I also saw quite a few "Jesus Freak" t-shirts! Awesome!

We eventually got inside and by now there were thousands of people. The venue was packed with all shapes, colours and sizes. That to me was the beauty of the whole evening. Politicians in our country and in the world for that matter should`ve come to have a look. Jesus brings people together.



Then we saw Joel Houston, walking in the crowd saying hello to people and just being very anti-star. That was awesome to see. No superstar there, just a man of God walking around like one of us

The music started and the crowd went mad! The band came out and I saw Brooke Fraser!! Man that was cool cos as you know I heart Brooke Fraser. Then we started singing. We sang so loud, I nearly lost my voice. Shame, the poor people next to me must have had a rough time hearing angelic singing in one ear and my own personal howling in the other. Stereo isn`t always a good thing.

I must say, hearing thousands of people singing and worshipping like one was one of the most amazingly wonderful things I have ever experienced. God was there on Friday night, of that I have no doubt.

Pastor Brian Houston came onto stage and spoke a few words and he was followed by OUR Pastor Phil Dooley (sorry Aussies, Hayley and I have decided that we want him as our own) who gave another magnificent sermon. Pastor Phil is the most gifted speaker I have ever had the privilege of hearing. His message was so apt, so well delivered and so to the point that the whole congregation was completely taken by him. Not an easy job for an aussie in South Africa!

Then the worship continued and they sang my favourite current Hillsong tune, This is our God. That was awesome, just awesome. I felt so privileged to be able to experience that. Then, Brooke sang Hosanna and of course the crowd went absolutely mad. That song has made a massive impact on a lot of people. The crowd sang like I have never heard a crowd sing before. That was the highlight of the night. Such a personal song for Hayley and I and we could experience it with thousands of other believers.

The night came to an end and we headed home. It was one amazing evening filled with the wonderful love of Jesus and his followers. I am such a lucky man to have experienced an evening in the presence of Hillsong United. Like my friend David always says, those guys are really blessed.

Hillsong United in T-Minus 5 hours...

As I`ve mentioned in a few posts, I`m a massive Hillsong fan. Not just a fan as in like them, a fan as in ADORE them.

We attend Hillsong Church Cape Town and it has certainly turned into our spiritual home. We have the most awesome pastor, an Aussie by the name of Phil Dooley. He is both funny, charming and an awesome man of God.

I own just about every Hillsong cd and dvd and live for each new one. I`m just a fanatic.It has always been one of my dreams to go to Hillsong Sydney and be a part of one of their worship nights. I have lived many a worship night with Hillsong by watching their dvd`s over and over again. I`m a fanatic.

So tonight is the realisation of one of my dreams. Hillsong United are in town and Hayley and I will be attending the worship night tonight. This is truly a momentous day for me. It`s one of those dreams that rank alongside going to Old Trafford or Fenway Park. It`s BIG. I am like a little kid checking the clock. Why doesn`t the time go quicker?

Sunday we have a service with Pastor Brian Houston (Head of Hillsong) at Ratanga Junction. This is gonna be awesome because Ratanga Junction is a theme park in Cape Town. How cool is that gonna be?

We will also see our friends tomorrow because it`s Graham`s wedding. For a change everybody is coming to Cape Town for a wedding! So, fair warning, there will not be updates until at least Sunday evening!

I am so excited, it`s gonna be an awesome, awesome weekend!

Hillsong Cape Town rocks

Today was probably the most awesome church service I have experienced in ages. Hillsong Cape Town rocked and approximately 2000 people rocked with it!

Some background. Hillsong CT does not have it`s own building yet, so they operate out of the Cape Town Convention Centre and have done so since inception in June 2008. All services have been in Auditorium 2, which is the smaller of the venues at the Convention Centre. There are 4 services every Sunday, 09:00, 11:00, 16:30 and 18:30. This is due to the size of the venue and more importantly the size of the congregation! It truly is a blessed place.

Well today we had our first service in auditorium 1, the main one and biggest of the lot. The reason was that we had Israel Houghton and the New Breed visit our church along with Pastor Robert Ferguson from Hillsong Australia. What a day it turned out to be. I have not experienced praise and worship like that EVER. It was amazing, truly amazing.

Israel and the New Breed joined the Hillsong Cape Town Worship Team as well as a Worship Choir from our church! It was absolutely awesome. The worship lifted the roof and to hear and see God`s name praised like that was something to experience. It was truly a magical morning. During the worship, they called all the young people to stand in front of the stage. Then the worship continued and to see all the young people rocking for God was a really awesome thing and underlined just how God is moving in our country.

This is one of the songs we sang this morning and title song from the latest Hillsong album called "This is our God'. I adore this song and have to admit I shed a tear or two while singing it. I feel very blessed today and needed a lift after a very tough week with many psychological struggles.

So, enjoy this song. It always makes me feel very close to my God.

My gorgeous wife, me and an awesome day

Today was a pretty cool day. We attended Hillsong Church Cape Town and Pastor Phil Dooley was once again awesome! He is one of the most gifted speakers I have ever come across and he always gets the most amazing messages across!

Some GREAT news is that Hayley and I are going to a Hillsong United Worship evening in November! They have scheduled 2 worship nights here in Cape Town. We are so excited. I`ll hopefully get to see Brooke Fraser sing Hosanna, how cool is that? The night promises to be a huge blessing and I cannot wait.

I digress, back to a great Sunday! After church we headed out Simonstown way to see if we could spot ourselves some whales. We did, not the best sightings but at least we saw a few of these amazing creatures. One specific one was jumping and playing. Great to see. I heart whales.

We got home and this was the sight that greeted us. Phoebe had made herself very comfortable in the afternoon sun. These dogs of ours are such characters.

We then settled in to watch some very serious sport. Manchester United drew 1-1 with Chelsea, after leading for most of the game. It was a great match and a perfect example of why I love it so much. Then, onto the Ryder Cup. I watched basically every minute of golf over the weekend and found it an incredible event. Hats off to the USA for winning the cup for the first time since 1999. Some of the golf was breathtaking. I predicted however that Nick Faldo would cost the Europeans the trophy and that proved right. How clever am I?

Lastly, you know how much I love sunsets, this was the gorgeous one that graced the Cape tonight.

Betrayed?

I don`t even know where to start. Where do you begin when something you believe in so much and that has had an immense impact on you turns out to be false?

Ok, last week I shared the story behind Healer and Mike Guglielmucci with you all. As I mentioned then, it`s on the new Hillsong cd called "This is our God". I finally got the cd yesterday and I was so excited. I have been been playing it non-stop and I signing along as loud as possible. Especially Healer. What a great song and what an inspirational story. I even phoned my sister in NZ and begged her to go read the story and watch the video. It really makes you feel so good, it just emphasises how awesome our God really is.

This afternoon I went onto Brian Houston`s blog and watched his latest video message. In it he mentioned something about Healer and that Mike needed help. I went onto the internet immediately and found the following statement by the Australian Christian Churches Assemblies of God (where Mike was a pastor):

"Representatives of the National Executive recently met with Michael Guglielmucci. At this meeting he read a statement indicating that his claim to have cancer was untrue. His credential with the ACC was immediately suspended.
The National Executive is taking this matter very seriously and is awaiting the results of medical tests before determining the full extent of the discipline that will be imposed upon him.
We are very concerned for the many people who have been or will be hurt by Michael's actions and we encourage all of our churches to pray for all those affected.
Yours sincerely,
Alun Davies National Vice President"

So, how do you handle news like this? I have watched the video over and over again and listened to the song over and over again. I have shed tears. I have prayed for Mike and his family. I have told everyone I know about this awesomely inspiring story. It has really affected me in such a positive way. Now to be told that it was all fake?

At first I felt personally done in. How could somebody do such a thing? How can I now listen to or even contemplate watching the cd and dvd? I felt betrayed in the worst possible way. Being betrayed in your faith - surely not?

Then I started thinking about the whole thing and it dawned on me, God never betrayed me. In fact, he still loves me as much as always. God`s Word never betrayed me, in fact it still leads me in the right direction. The betrayal was done by man, not the first time and it certainly won`t be the last.

What did the song accomplish? It made me feel closer to my Maker. I believe that God did help in the writing of the song. Mike wrote the song because God is the great Healer. The fact that Mike felt that he had to skew the facts was most definitely not God`s idea. It`s so sad cos the song does not need any story or gimmick to make it great! It`s a great song with an awesome message.

I will not hold the song or the story against my Hillsong Church and I will not hold it against Mike either. In fact, I`ll pray even harder for him and his family. Who knows what drives somebody to do a thing like this? Who knows? (I have a hunch and it involves a bad dude with horns and a tail but it`s just a hunch)

I really hope Christians do what Jesus told us to and that is forgive. What better place to start than right here with this story. I just have.

Healer

I found this video by accident. Actually no, this video found me. Ok, the story goes like this. I did my usual early morning blog reading where I check out all the updated blogs from my AWESOME Blog List!

I found a link to Brooke Fraser`s site. This is the same Brooke Fraser that wrote and performed my favourite gospel song. From here I was directed to her Youtube channel where a host of her videos can be found. So, while checking out some of these videos, I came across one by Hillsong Australia. What transpired was one of the most amazingly uplifting things I have ever seen. I was captivated and in absolute awe, as I`m sure you will be. It is from the latest Hillsong album / dvd "This is our God" and believe me when I say, you will not be left untouched by this story.

Mike Guglielmucci, you are an inspiration.

What a song!

I just had to share this awesome song with you all. It was written by Brooke Fraser (left) who is a worship leader at Hillsong Church in Sydney.

I heard it the first time in Hillsong Church Cape Town 2 weeks ago and loved it immediately. In fact it played a major part in what happened in church that day.

So here goes, enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr_Oqun3CWo

Awesome Day

What a great day. Hayley and I went to our second service at Hillsong Church Cape Town and had a wonderful time there. It truly is such a blessed experience and I am so lucky to be sharing it with my gorgeous wife! We feel like we truly belong and if it is God`s Will, we`ll spend a lot more time there.

We then went for a drive down the coast and stopped for lunch at Houtbay. Fish and chips at Mariners is an institution in this family!

We ended the day having a braai (barbeque) at home and this was the sunset we enjoyed from our patio.

What a wonderful day spent in God`s Presence...

My dream "To-Do" list

Everybody who knows me, knows that there are specific things that I want to do during my lifetime. Some I have been fortunate enough to do and some will probably have to wait a bit longer.

My To-Do list includes sporty things like seeing Man Utd play at Old Trafford - The Theatre of Dreams, enjoying a Boston Redsox game at Fenway Park, watching Roger Federer play anywhere. Or musical things like seeing Collective Soul in concert etc etc. It`s a long list and I won`t bore you with the details.

Some things I will never get to do though, like seeing Eric Cantona play, watching Elvis in concert (don`t laugh!) and seeing Bob Skinstad reach his TRUE potential (I did get to play golf with him, thanks Andre!). Bob is still a LEGEND!


Sitting here though, it suddenly dawned on me how many of the items I have been able to cross off my list.

- Watching the Boks play the All Blacks at Newlands and beat them - Check, August 2005 (and being there to see Andre nail a spectacular dropgoal which in the end was the difference between winning and losing)

- Watching WP play at Newlands - Check, 2008

- Watching Man Utd play - Check, 2006 AND 2008

- Seeing Ryan Giggs, a true United legend, play - Check, 2008

- Seeing Counting Crows in Concert - Check 2008

- Seeing Live in concert - Check 2000 and 2006

- Seeing U2 in concert - Check 1999

- Going to New York - Check 2007

- Watching the New York Knicks play at Madison Square Garden - Check 2007

- Running my first half marathon - Check June 2008

The latest dream "To-Do" came true on Sunday. It was always a dream to go to Hillsong Church in Sydney. Well, I did the next best thing and went to Hillsong Church Cape Town and what an AWESOME experience. Hayley and I were truly blown away by the passion for God. We are really inspired to be the best Christians we can be.

Looking back at the list, it is amazing how blessed I`ve been to have so much of it become reality. What makes it even more special is that I have shared most of it with Hayley. When you get married your dreams are not your own anymore and I am very blessed to have a wife who share my passions.

So, here`s looking at making a lot more dream "To-Do`s" come true.