Displaying items by tag: Melbourne

One of Australia’s biggest earthquakes on record (magnitude 6.0) struck near Melbourne, damaging buildings. It was felt 500 miles away in Adelaide and Sydney 600 miles to the north. Over half of Australia's 25 million population lives in the southeast in an area from Adelaide to Melbourne to Sydney. Quakes are relatively unusual in this area. The shaking and damage did not stop hundreds of angry demonstrators from holding a protest across Melbourne against a vaccine mandate for construction workers (there are more Covid cases in the construction sector than there are Covid patients in the whole hospital system). Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the demonstrations before making arrests. Earlier in the day the protesters had marched through the city centre, chanting their opposition to the mandate. See

A five-year-old boy, from a family of Holocaust survivors, suffered anti-Semitic harassment at a school in Melbourne where pupils hounded him in the school toilets, calling him a ‘Jewish cockroach’. He was chased continuously to the bathroom and laughed at for being circumcised, to the point that he started to wet himself in class rather than using the toilet. His mother said that after behaving strangely for months, one morning he burst out crying over breakfast and literally fell down on the floor, saying, ‘Mummy, you shouldn’t love me. I’m a worthless Jewish rodent. I’m vermin’. Meanwhile a 12-year-old Jewish student was forced to kneel and kiss the shoes of a Muslim classmate. Then nine boys beat him up. Because the incident happened outside school, education officials denied responsibility for the incident. Melbourne media also reported other acts of anti-Semitism.

Many thousands of Christians came to Melbourne for ‘Awakening Australia’, as part of a mission to bring 100,000 Australians to Jesus. Leaders spent the weekend preaching the gospel, leading people to Christ, and commissioning them to share the love of Jesus with others.

Participants included Bethel Music, Todd White, Heidi Baker, Jake Hamilton, Daniel Kolenda, and Bill Johnson.

‘Hundreds were born of God as they responded to Jesus. There is truly something remarkable happening in Australia! There is an Awakening, a sound in God's people here, that will shake the nation’, said Ben Fitzgerald, leader of Awakening Europe.

The weekend saw powerful moments of freedom, deliverance and salvation, followed by mass baptisms for those who gave their lives to Christ. Thousands proclaimed the gospel in the streets. ‘I can't believe this is happening in Australia,’ Fitzgerald said.

IPC colleague, Donny McGregor from Generation Fire, Sydney, was involved with a team who ran 100 hours of prayer in the lead up to the Awakening Australia event.  Just that event saw 200 lives saved! 

‘We experienced a change in the spiritual atmosphere during the 100 hours of Prayer', said Donny.  'Our prayer focus moved from targeting the strongholds to speaking open heaven, breaking discouragements and hearts to be receptive to the Gospel… and we saw God move!  The hunger for God was off the chart!’

Awakening Australia saw an estimated 1,600 first time and renewed commitments and 250+ baptisms. Thousands of believers were involved in the witnessing around the city. 

Praise: God for the changed spiritual atmosphere in Melbourne; thank Him for breaking strongholds and opening hearts to respond to His truth. (John 8:32)

More: https://www.awakeningaustralia.org/  AND www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/2018/november/i-cant-believe-this-is-happening-thousands-experience-gospel