Real Talk Friday - Mike Hedley

Welcome to Real Talk Friday with your hosts Rohan Das and Gus Urban.

In this groundbreaking podcast segment, we delve deep into the lives of individuals whose

journey has been profoundly transformed by their faith.

From the trial of adversity to the triumph of redemption, we explore real stories, real

people whose encounter with God has reshaped their existence.

Join us as we embark on a candid and enlightening journey where authenticity meets spirituality

every Friday on Real Talk Friday, part of Logan City Christian Church.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Real Talk Friday.

My name is Rohan Das and thank you for joining us.

We're so glad you're here.

Well, we've got a lot of praise report and thank God for that.

Our show is doing really well and we thank God and of course, Logan City Christian Church,

all the members who are helping us.

This Sunday, someone came up to me and said, what a great job we're doing and they thoroughly

enjoy every guest that comes in and shares their testimony.

That's what we want to hear.

That's a praise report for us, which I'm very, very excited about.

I'll take that encouragement.

But today again, we have another special guest for you.

We just want to say that we go beyond just to get you the best content and very encouraging

testimonies for you guys.

And we have a new guest today and I will again give it over to Gus here who can introduce

you to our new guest.

Hello everyone.

Welcome again to another Real Talk Friday.

Today we have a good friend of ours, Mr. Mike Headley.

Welcome Mike.

Greetings.

Thank you.

We are very keen to hear your story of England, Australia, Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia.

It just goes on and on and on.

You've been everywhere, man.

I have been.

Thank you, Mike, for being in our show.

Pleasure.

We really, we had you last week, but due to some technical difficulties, we just couldn't

do the interview.

So we thank you again for being here today.

That shows us that God's really called you to be in our show and share your testimony

with everyone that's listening or watching us on YouTube.

Speaking about YouTube, we've crossed our 5,000 views, which is great because we just

started just the other day and we can share that.

God's really doing our social media and it's really encouraging us to do more.

And we thank God for it.

And we thank God for you being here.

So what we like in our show to start off with is just a little bit about yourself, where

you grew up, what you did as coming to Australia.

I know you have a journey, same way that we had another Mike in the show who had a journey

too from the UK to Australia.

And yeah, we're keen to hear about your upbringing and how it was for you to grow up in a Christian

family or not and how God really worked on you.

So I'll give it up to you to have a little chat and tell us.

Okay.

So I was born in 1939 in south of London.

And I always joke, Hitler saw me and started the war.

No, seriously.

The bomb started to drop when I was nearly two.

And so they sent a whole lot of kids up to the north of England to escape the bombs.

So when we came back to London, the bombs were still dropping, but not as significant

as they were in the first place.

So I'm here.

I'm alive.

And that was just quite not very good.

So eventually I became a choir boy.

My dad was a choir boy.

My mom was a singer.

My sister, we're all choristers in an Anglican church in London.

So we enjoyed that.

So I always, why I'm saying that is because I always had respect for God, even though

I didn't know him as I know him now.

I always had that respect I would never curse because I was brought up in that way.

But I didn't understand any more than that.

But then at 15, I went to a Billy Graham crusade.

I presume most people know who Billy Graham was.

His son is in the Gold Coast next week.

So I went to Billy Graham and there was something like 30, 40,000 people in the stadium in London.

And a good 50% came forward to accept Christ.

And I was one of them.

So two days later, I get a phone call.

You don't mind a bit of humor?

I got a phone call from an old mate.

You know, we used to go out together and do crazy things.

So I get, yeah, good day.

Oh, good day, John.

Party.

No, no, I'm a Christian now.

Yeah, you heard right.

I'm a Christian.

No, mate, I can't now.

Hang up the phone and he brings the second time.

And I said, mate, I've already told you I'm a Christian.

I can't.

What'd you say?

Mary?

Hmm.

And she's asking for me.

Really?

Well, just this once, mate, just this once.

So I put the phone down and that was it for 22 years.

Yeah.

Wow.

And then I said that I'd made the decision for Christ.

Yeah.

And unless I said, God, go away, he was with me.

Yeah.

So every time I sin, I felt so guilty.

And I wonder why.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Until 22 years later, I came fully into the kingdom.

22 years after the Billy Graham crusade.

Yeah.

Well, it's funny because we had Pastor Rolly on last week and there's been quite a few

others in this church that have said they got saved in a Billy Graham crusade.

It must have been, well, obviously before my time, but it must have been a very, very

common thing that he went everywhere.

Yeah.

He did.

And a lot of people got saved through his ministry.

Well, I know he went London, Manchester, Scotland, then he came to Australia, then he went to

America.

So he's a mighty man of God.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's a great man.

He was a mighty man of God.

Billy Graham was also being like, you know, I've never seen him personally, but I've heard

stories from my parents and I always love listening to some of his preachings online.

Yeah.

Really great.

And you know, he's a great inspiration.

He's gone.

He's in heaven.

I bet he's having a wonderful time with Jesus.

Yeah, that's right.

He's still left a legacy, which a young person like me is still listening to it.

I'm like, wow, this is such amazing preaching.

Yeah.

And that's what it's all about leaving a legacy, you know, building the kingdom of God that

will last forever.

You know, what he's built is going to last forever.

So thank you for telling us about your, you know, your childhood and everything.

I'm just keen to know, when did you come to Australia?

When was that?

1971.

Oh, wow.

We before that, I joined the Air Force.

Oh, yeah.

Go on.

Is that that?

Yeah.

Because it was a vital part of my struggle in those 22 years.

Yeah, okay.

Yep.

Yep.

They sent me to Malaysia.

And I was there in 6162 at the end of the conflict.

And you know, so we were involved, they gave us rifles, you know, we had to look after

ourselves.

And yeah, well, but that ended.

So I had three incredible years in Penang.

And I was on the beach one day and I met this beautiful girl and I married her.

Long story short.

Yeah, long story short.

Keeping it simple.

So we went back to England and we raised three children.

And it was great.

But then England was cold and I didn't like to live there much.

And so we came to Australia.

In those days, we could just walk in being English.

We didn't have to have visas or anything.

Oh, really?

Yeah, we came in together.

But whilst quickly going back to the Air Force, I was in that wilderness I was telling you

about.

And so I had the Anglican and the Catholic minister in the Air Force that were vying

for my faith.

So I was having fun, you know, and the Catholic guy was telling me, you know, da da da, and

the Anglican guy was saying, you should you Anglican background, blah, blah, blah.

And then one day, the Catholic got a bit smarter and won me over.

So anyhow, I went for about 10 years.

But then come winter in England, excuse me, come winter in England, three kids, you know,

three gloves, three hats, three scarves, three coats.

And then you get in there off three scarves, three scarves, three coats, and then, you

know, go in the name of Jesus.

Okay, back on three scarves.

And I was thinking, then you get home, same procedure.

And I was thinking, come on, what am I getting out of this?

So I stopped going to the Catholic Church.

And it wasn't until I came here on the ninth hour of the ninth month in 1981.

Barry Smith was a pastor talking about end times.

I ran forward, he said, you're keen, he said, the sermon touched your heart.

I said, No, not really.

He looked at me.

I said, I've just decided I'm sick to death and walking in the wilderness.

And he said, you need someone to nurture you.

This is vitally important.

And I said, Yeah, I do.

And so this guy overheard he grabbed me and he said, Come on.

And I said, Yeah, I'm not letting you go.

So for nearly two months, he nurtured me.

And I thank God I'm sitting here today because of that.

No, that's and that's one of the best things that anyone can do in a church is to disciple

someone absolutely in their in their early steps.

It's I think we miss it when we if we were to get say 20 people saved, we could say,

well, that was amazing.

But if they never get disciples, we just missed one of the most crucial steps in their lives.

It's exactly right.

So yeah, and you're bearing the fruit of that now of having someone take the time to

disciple you in your early days.

All those years wasted.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, and that was here in Australia when you got saved, was it?

Yeah, God's country, of course.

Of course.

Queensland, beautiful one day, the next.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

And I got my Maroon shirt on.

Oh, do you?

Yeah, state of origins coming up.

So now we're getting political.

Leave some comments on YouTube for past the Garcia.

Yeah, Queensland all the way.

So yeah, but that's amazing.

Thank you for sharing that, Mike.

So, you know, I really like the you know, what you said about discipleship.

I think we should always as you said, discipleship is very important.

Even with my journey with Christ, discipleship has really helped me get to where I am right

now.

Yeah, wouldn't say I'm perfect.

But I'm pretty close to it.

Pretty.

Thank you for that.

It looks good, doesn't it?

Oh, absolutely.

It helps me out a lot.

On that, can I quickly share something very short?

Go for it.

I learned something a while back and it touched my heart because it's not difficult to nurture

people.

But on Sunday, you get a lot of people come to church, you get the hurting, the angry,

the frustrated.

It's a place where we need to minister to them.

And you can't expect to minister to them on the spot and send them home.

Because many of them have to go home and cook food and look after the dad or something like

that.

So but you have a limited space, limited time.

So my wife and I used to split before the service.

And we would talk to the people.

But the following week, we'd look for them.

And we'd say, Hi, John and Mary, strike one.

Yeah, yeah.

How's your daughter?

Can we visit her in hospital?

Strike two, three, four, five.

Do you think I'll share this with you before?

Do you think we are making a friend now?

My word, we are.

Absolutely.

Unless they're hard hearted.

Yeah, yeah.

And so then you have an opportunity to share into their lives.

And that's meaningful.

And that's discipleship.

And that's what Jesus did.

Exactly.

And there's also a sense of community there because I've come from a country without my

parents.

I came along to Australia to study.

And at the moment, I'm staying here.

But when I came, the first thing I tried to look for family is in the church.

Coming to church, just sitting there.

You kind of remember home.

Oh, you know, I used to go to church with my parents.

And Sunday was a day where my parents used to go.

We used to have church activities, pack up in church, go out and have some dinner or

lunch, whichever depends on the day.

So I really miss that.

That connection.

And you know, just sitting in church, I'm just like, oh, I wish I could have that.

Yeah.

My parents would be here and we could enjoy that, you know, watch a movie or something.

Yeah.

So what you do, it's dear to my heart because I feel it because that shows love.

And that's what we all stand for.

You know, church is not for the perfect people.

Unfortunately, that's what people know.

That's why all the more reason why we have to reach out to them.

Yeah.

That's really good, because as I said, dear to my heart and I really like people because

I know there were some families when I first came to the Gold Coast to study, there was

a couple of there was a couple that came up to me and said, hi, exactly what you did.

And I felt, wow.

And I was looking for them the next Sunday, you know, not actively looking, but I'm like,

oh, it would be great to see them.

So we do that instead of them.

So that ensures that you have contact.

Exactly.

And I can tell you, they also try to look for you because it's, you know, you significantly

affect their life.

You know, it's just those small gestures that I'm it's not that you go out of your way and

do something for them, but it's just like a hug is, you know, enough.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Of course, love.

And that's what's all about.

You know, we are a community or a family.

You know, the first time I think, too, we have to be careful because sometimes I watch

their eyeballs.

You know, they think of the footy or they're thinking of the food, the meats in the oven

or something like that.

And you watch their eyes as you talk to them and they start to go ding, ding, ding, ding,

ding, ding, ding, and you know, it's time for the footy.

OK, bless you.

Bye.

Yeah.

But that's a gift you have, Mike, then.

Yeah.

There's a lot of people that are not emotionally intelligent or are not able to read psychology,

like, psychologically, what the person, the body language of the person, and then, you

know, definitely a gift because you're able to read them and you're like, OK, this is

my boundary.

I'm not going to pass.

That's I don't think they're comfortable.

And you go and move on.

I'm sure when they're comfortable, they'll come back to you.

Well, that's right.

And I guess the main thing is with church, we can get so caught up in how long our service

goes for, what songs we sing, how long our sermon goes for, what we preach about, all

these different things.

It's a shame to put all that time and effort into a service and forget about making people

feel loved and welcome.

Yeah, that's right.

That's the foundation of every person.

Does a person come in angry because he had a fight and go home angry?

Exactly right.

And coming into the house of God to be able to feel that love and maybe just someone to

talk to that just helps you through.

Absolutely.

Quite recently, I watched a video online of a church.

A pastor was preaching as a Sunday sermon and in the crowd, he heard someone swear.

I saw that one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he just completely stopped his preaching.

And he asked the person to come forward.

And he was a homeless guy who someone in the congregation had brought to church.

And he said that he would have given his life away or killed himself that day.

It wasn't for that person who brought.

And I really respect pastors like that, that actually, that shows genuine care.

Exactly.

And Logan City Christian Church is definitely like that.

I felt it when I first came.

I came during New Year's Eve services.

You may have heard that in the first podcast.

And I felt very welcomed.

And I'm like, this feels like home.

Yeah, it feels like family.

And that's what it's all about.

But yeah, coming back to you, Mike, so that's really amazing.

I really like that you spent so much of your life in the UK, but you got saved in Australia.

It's really, really good.

Beauty, mate.

Yeah.

So let's talk about more of your relationship, if you don't mind, between your family, like

your family relationship.

How did that change once, you know, God was the center of everything?

Well, my children, I had three children and four grandkids.

Nice.

And well, three then.

They they didn't say much, but they backed away, which often happens.

Yeah.

My granddaughter is involved in theater work.

And so I don't get to talk much to her.

My three children, they don't want to know.

Yet when Anna and I were excited and we came to Jesus, the three children followed.

Yeah.

But my upbringing, this is my upbringing was very, very sensitive because of the war and

because of kids will be seen and not heard.

You put your elbow on the table and whack, you know, if you don't want to eat, you have

to have breakfast, go to bed, all that sort of stuff.

Yeah.

It it's set a pattern in their lives.

And so it's very hard to to minister to our kids.

You know, when we've had that sort of upbringing now, of course, it's different.

Yeah.

I'm filled with the spirit and God is just surging forward.

Yeah.

But then it was difficult.

Yeah.

So I'm finding it that they all drifted away.

And if we talk about God, that that stop stop, you know, they respected me and they respected

mum, but that was it.

Yeah.

That is a common scenario.

Yeah.

And and even now, they like that.

But my daughter is warming.

Oh, she's picking me up every week and yeah, for a meal.

And and my son in Sydney is in business.

He's now ringing me, which was before I had to ring him.

Yeah.

So things I believe God's beginning to move because I was worrying myself sick.

Jesus can tell you this quickly.

Yeah, go for it.

Yeah.

Jesus was weeping over Lazarus, even though he knew that he was going to go and raise

him from the dead.

He still wept.

Yeah.

And he wept over Israel over Israel.

And yet I'm sure that he didn't worry.

Yeah.

And we had prayer meetings here.

We did.

And you were there, weren't you?

Well, it's just while you were sharing that I was thinking back to those Thursday nights

where that's right.

We're just by faith, praying and believing, knowing that God can touch every heart that's

out there.

Yeah.

Well, somebody said to me, I believe the Lord's telling me trust.

Yeah, that's right.

And I transferred that word to understanding that worry is a killer.

Worry puts your body through sicknesses.

And so I went home and ever since then I've been praying, Lord, help me not to worry.

And then I stopped praying.

I think, oh, yeah.

Oh, sorry, Lord.

Yeah.

It's not easy.

No, no.

We have to work on it.

And since I've been working on it, they are warming to me.

So there's something that I believe God is.

And I believe this will give hope to a lot of our listeners out there because this is

a very common thing.

And where we because our family out of anything in the world and everybody out there, they

are the ones that are closest to us mean the most to us.

Yeah.

And we can so easily worry about and and yet to hear what God's been doing in your life

and seeing it on Thursday nights and everything like that.

And I remember that night where trust and not worry and you've been pursuing that.

Yeah.

Just an incredible statement of faith.

It is.

And and we don't always get it right.

And it's that journey of learning to trust as well.

But we're heading in that direction.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so for all of our listeners and viewers out there, like I'm sure there are a lot of

people that you guys are facing the same thing.

You know, we are to have faith in God, our prayers.

You know, James talks about when we our prayers line up with heaven with God's will, they

will be answered.

So just have faith in them.

And and you know, it's God's will that no man should perish.

So yeah.

So viewers, hold on to that.

If you're ready for that.

Well, that's such a good conversation.

We've not we've not even come half of this.

We haven't even really started.

Yeah, let's go.

We just had such a great conversation.

Well, coming back to your life.

Yeah, it's difficult, as you said, sometimes, you know, if the family's not on board, as

we said in our last podcast.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's very difficult.

Mind you, my kids are going to see this.

Fantastic.

Hello to all Mike's kids.

Greetings.

But yeah, so yeah, it's really good that God, you know, works.

It's not an instant thing.

And that's the problem, because we can keep on praying and fasting about this.

And God does it at his own time.

And we need to understand that his timing is the right timing.

Sometimes we just you know, it's like any drive through fast food drive through where

we want to, you know, just walk up, see the request, get it, go.

It doesn't happen that way.

No, if only though.

Yeah, if only.

Yeah.

I think, you know, sometimes, you know, as we've seen in the Bible, God takes generation

to fulfill his promise.

He does fulfill his promise, but it does take generations to do it.

Sometimes.

Yeah.

So it is, we will keep praying for everyone.

And you know, it's difficult, even including me, you know, we all have things in our family

that aren't the best and you want God to come and intervene.

So we'll keep everyone in prayers for that.

That's something we can pray about towards the end of the show.

Yeah, that's very important.

Definitely.

And coming back to your life again, Mike, it's so amazing what God's done.

God's done great things in your life.

I want to talk about more of your ministry now and what you do and what you did before.

So how did you get into ministry?

Twenty, I'm hopeless with numbers, say round figures, twenty years ago.

I went to the Philippines with a friend of mine, Arturo, who they run this children's

ministry.

Yeah, good people.

I mean, we've known each other for years.

So they invited me to go over and then they belong to a local church.

I was preaching in the church and working with the kids.

And then from then, the church run by a guy, he's a bishop, they call him bishop, and he

has churches all around the world and all around Philippines.

And he had young pastors training them up in the church in Manila.

And so what would happen, I would pick up one of the pastors, say, come on, and we go

off to one of their satellites.

So we virtually did all the way around the country.

And each one we went to was something new and exciting every time.

And we saw miracles every time.

And I was encouraging these young fellows and they were encouraging me.

And so that was the beginning.

And then from then onwards, I got to know the guy in the mountains.

And I still traveling other places, but I kept coming back to the guy in the mountains

because we had a rapport.

We were able to talk about the things of the spirit.

And he played the guitar so well.

And we will get up at five in the morning.

And we go into the church and we worship and about an hour to two hours later, we'd stop

just sitting on the floor weeping in the presence of God.

No man can deny that.

And then we come in for breakfast.

But the worship is just so beautiful.

And we fell in love.

And now the family love me and I love them.

And so I've been going there now, locking in on that particular place in the mountains.

I have been in October, I had to go for the first time run a church for four weeks.

Yeah, well, it's going to be an experience.

Yeah, absolutely.

But they're giving me a bed to give him a transport lifts, interpretation.

Yeah, and all the help I need.

So yeah, there you go.

That helps.

Very good.

Yeah, so good.

But of course, going coming to you know, your current ministry, you've had definitely some

experience in, you know, a lot of ministry work.

One really here testimonies from your ministry work.

Yeah, yeah, sorry, I was gonna get to that.

Yeah, so I believe it was Ukraine and many other countries that you visited.

And there's like, such amazing testimonies that we want to hear from you.

Well, take Ukraine.

There was a bunch of us that went.

We we would meet up the north coast.

I live in Brisbane, but I drive up every week for several weeks.

And we just go into this room and we were prayed together.

And there wouldn't be a word said, we just be on the floor crying out to God for this

trip.

Yeah.

And sure enough, the enemy knew what was happening.

And we got when we got there, the mayor left a message, you can't do the crusade.

And because his brother was a minister across the road, and he didn't want us to meet and

all this sort of stuff.

So we just prayed and the and the the the mayor came back and said, Look, I've been

considering it, you can use half that space.

Well, when the people turn up, it was like two and a half the space.

And we couldn't stop them.

No, they just came.

And so we we had incredible times and we had three, two people that were originally the

Russian spies, you know, like they will dog people in the air.

And they stayed there.

Well, they're still the spying.

And one was a woman, big lady.

The other one was a guy and every mum and dad would say, don't go near them.

You know, they knew everyone knew who they were.

And so we had this crusade.

And then one day this, the man went up, he couldn't even walk properly because he was

just so broken.

You know, being and he came up to the platform and they gave him the microphone and in between

all the sobs, he was sharing how much he'd never seen so much love.

And then we went back to the hotel where the woman was looking after security because there

was a lot of crime in that town.

And so one of the guys is an Italian.

So we got on his knees with a flower, you know, I said, Mama, I love you.

You are so beautiful.

Do you know Jesus?

You know, she didn't understand a word he said, you know.

But you know, the power of the Holy Spirit, she started to weep and she accepted for us

and then we had, you know, the chauffeur.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

For those that don't know it.

You know, it's like a horn is a cow's horn.

We one of the guys with us had a chauffeur, so he blew it.

Now where we were, it was just a flat building.

No, no, no, high, high trees, nothing, just flat land.

So what I'm saying that for is because you couldn't echo there.

Yeah, OK.

And yet he blew this horn and about.

Oh, it must have been nearly 10 minutes.

You wouldn't have.

You could have heard a pin drop.

It was so quiet.

Everybody was.

And then we heard that same tune that he played come back to us.

Wow.

Yeah.

And yeah, my ears are standing up.

That was just so incredibly powerful.

Then we had a healing going off before we left on the bus.

And there was a guy, a doctor lady, and I was praying for her.

And she she said that she had a sickness that she knew that she knew that she knew that

it was totally in non healable.

Yeah, right.

And so and she said, I am healed.

And so we were wow.

And that there was a lady behind weeping and my interpreter.

They all came from the same hospital, all surgeons, and they confirmed that my name

was not Thomas.

They confirmed that this really was a healing.

Yeah.

Wow.

And I look, it was just an incredible trip.

That was just the one trip.

Yeah.

Wow.

So God really moved.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's so good.

Yeah.

Well, that was not your only trip where you've seen miracles happen.

So let's talk about your other trips, because I'm very keen to hear.

Well, about 40 years ago, I wrote it down here.

1988.

Yeah.

Yeah, I went to Burma, which is now Myanmar.

And the sister in our church said, Mike, I hear you're going to Thailand because I was

going to visit the missionaries there and do some work with them.

I said, Yeah.

She said, Well, why are you there?

Why don't you hop on a plane and go to Myanmar, Burma?

And I said, No, God hasn't told me.

She said, Well, pray about it.

So I did.

And I rang her back.

And I said, Have you got a hotline to God?

She said, Yes.

I said, I knew you did, because I'm going.

So I went.

And oh, man, they had a hunger strike there.

And there was a lot of violence.

And so I thought, Well, that's the end of it.

So I got to the hotel, and I met a Frenchman, a German, a Dutchman, they all had their visas,

but they weren't chopped.

They didn't get the approval because of the trouble.

But I got mine one day before it happened.

And it's still valid.

Wow.

So they were jumping in the hotel on the bed, they broke the bed.

They saw me off at the airport.

And they're hallelujah, singing and singing.

I'm going, quiet, you'll get me arrested.

So I got there and the guy said, What do you got in the bag?

I said, Oh, Christmas presents.

He said, Can I see?

So I gave him one of them.

Here we go.

So he opened up, he said, Oh, Bible's.

I said, Yeah.

He said, I'm a Christian.

I knew he wasn't.

But they made money, you see.

So I gave him two and it kept him happy.

And we're going down and they're cheering and shouting and he called, they call you Mr.

by Christian name.

There's a Mr. Mike.

Oh, see what you guys have done.

Yeah.

So I went back.

And he said, Your camera.

Wow.

Thank you.

Something like off airport security or something like that.

Very quickly, I got through the airport and then there was the taxes wouldn't take me

because there was emergency going on and they had troops everywhere.

Oh, wow.

A war zone.

It was a war zone.

Yeah, they wouldn't take me.

So I saw an Aussie.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.

And he said, Sorry, mate, we're full.

So I said, Well, can I ride on the back?

He said, It's up to you.

So they gave me an Aussie flag.

So I put the flag on me and we had four stops.

What do you call military stops?

You know, when the checkpoints.

And each one I went to, they click their guns and Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.

You know, and the fourth one, I go, Please, Aussie, Aussie.

They let me through and I got through booked into the hotel.

There was only me because everyone had scattered.

And the soldiers were going in there raping the women and using it, you know.

And anyhow, I got in there and I was praying and then I heard the shooting.

And about two blocks away, they were killing monks and they were given instructions to

watch the green sachet that they wore the monks.

What they didn't reckon for is the children also wore green tops.

Oh, no way.

They were shooting the kids and there was about 300 killed about one block away from

where I was.

And so that night, I just felt, wow, I need to pray.

So I propped up the pillars and started to sing, you know, it's the blood that sets

me free.

And I was singing all these songs and the shooting was going on outside.

And you know, I didn't have any fear.

This is the thing about it.

I just knew that God was with me because I was sent there.

And so I'm singing away and next thing you know, this figure appears at the foot of the

bed.

And I knew instantly it was the spirit of death.

And I looked at her and I said, oh, she was saying, get out in the name of Jesus, go.

Yeah.

And it like it went.

Yeah.

Whoa.

So I started to sing, you know, the blood that sets me free and all the songs I could

think of.

Yeah.

Next thing you came up the side of the bed.

Well, if you're lying in bed, you got a demon leering over you.

Yeah.

And the first time I thought I'd ever need to wear a nappy since my baby.

Honestly, it was terrifying.

Yeah.

And I was going to and I thought, no, not accepting this.

Satan cannot overcome me.

That's right.

Will not.

So I took that authority and I was yelling and shouting, it's the blood that sets me

free.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Satan.

Yeah.

And I was really going for it.

And I was singing all the songs I could think of.

Yeah.

And the first thing I remember is God is my witness.

I was awake in the morning with the Holy Spirit in the room.

The sun was shining.

The guns had stopped.

Yeah.

And the pillars that I had propped up were about five meters away, a big room.

And I did not get out of bed.

I know angels came to my aid.

Yeah.

They definitely did.

Incredible.

Because it's sort of like trying to imagine everything what's going on.

We understand that everything that we see manifest in the natural, there's a spiritual

force behind it.

Categorically.

And so you would have actually seen the spirit of death going around.

Yeah.

With murders happening on the streets and in hotels and in houses.

And this, if I guess, if we could see with our eyes, there would have been spirits all

over the place.

Spirit of death where people could just murder others without thinking.

And you actually did see that spirit of death in your room.

Yeah.

Wow.

Then very quickly, I went to the next morning.

I was going to go home, but the gangsters, they had control of the airport.

They said, well, go, Mr. Mike.

But you'd have to give them something.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I got nothing.

So first of all, I wanted to go into the local church and no one would take me there because

they were shooting anyone that smiled or opened the door of the church.

They would bang, bang, bang.

Well, the bishop was there for the whole of the country.

It was a Baptist church.

And so I got there and long walk.

And then I saw the soldier sitting there on the corner.

So I thought, well, the right thing to do is just smile.

I could sort of nod my head like, I'm not bowing to you, but I'm just respecting the

fact that you're there and I don't want to get shot.

Right.

And so he sort of looked at me.

And I banged on the door and this man opened.

This was the bishop.

Yeah.

He was scared.

Yeah.

He said, come in.

He grabbed me.

He said, you know, you could have been killed.

So anyhow, he was very, very proper.

And I said to him, I told him what was happening.

And I said, we in Australia are praying for you and blah, blah, blah.

He said, you come all this way to tell me this.

So in the cut along story short, I said, do you mind if I pray with you?

He said, OK.

So he knelt down, bowed up right.

So I thought, I better do the same thing.

And so I knelt down and I thought, yeah, what do I do?

The bishop, you know, and so, sorry, sorry, bishops.

I'm not joking.

I'm only joking.

So anyhow, eventually, the Holy Spirit said, come on, get on with it.

So I put my hands on his shoulders gently and straight away, he just started to weep.

And I prayed with him and he got up and we hugged.

And he said to me afterwards, he said, I don't hug.

And yeah, so then I got back to the airport and the gangsters were running it.

And so everyone was given a bottle of whiskey or something.

You know, go any one plane, anyone, nobody in the control tower.

You know, the whole thing was taken over.

So my turn came.

I just held my passport.

You know, they walked past me four or five times.

And the fifth time I said, Lord, you're sending me home or are you not?

And the fifth time he looked at me, he goes, you know, you're so angry with me.

He was getting all his.

All these bribes.

And yeah, so that was an amazing story.

Yeah.

Incredible.

You know, what I really loved there was sometimes I feel when we do something significant or

something that is something God has anointed for us to do, the devil will always be there

to demotivate, to take you out of the path.

And you know, for me, we've I've recently had that in front of you.

Yeah, no, that's right.

And we like to say like a short story, we were having lunch at a fast food restaurant

just around the corner.

And just all of a sudden, someone just comes up to me, actually looking at me in front

of Gus.

Gus, the big guy, he was like full of adrenaline just in case he comes and attacks me.

Because you never know, you know, people are carrying knives nowadays.

Yes.

So he's just looking at me just weirdly.

And then, you know, there was confrontation, him saying things and me listening.

And then, you know, Gus got up and Gus said, you know, a lot of things were said, but essentially

he's saying, what's the matter?

Like, what's your problem?

And this was when we knew this was a spiritual thing.

Yeah.

Is when he said, I do not like the thing that is behind you.

And there was nothing behind me.

And Gus is just looking there like, what's behind Rohan?

And the people with him.

He didn't like the people with Rohan and there's no one behind Rohan.

Why there's no one.

And it was and then awesome.

Yeah, at that moment.

Wow.

Yeah, it was an incredible moment because this is yeah, I'll say angelic.

Yeah, just sitting and having lunch in a place that you know, there's so many, there are

not many people around where we were, but it's just this guy.

And then, you know, another thing Gus said, and because, you know, when we are very well

educated when it comes to spirituality, not many people are.

And we are, I think it's, it's, we ought to get more educated in that spiritual aspect.

In my profession, I work where people, you know, talk about spirituality, like, oh, there's

nothing.

Yeah.

But there's so many things like I always talk to Gus about this, where there's so many things

unexplained in the field of medicine.

You just, we believe in faith.

Like we believe that out of faith.

And why isn't religion or, you know, believe, believe in God any different?

Like we should be believing in faith.

Yes.

But coming to that story, you know, I like what you said.

He's like, would it help you if we left?

And he did say yes.

And that showed, you know, when God's working.

Yeah.

And, you know, surprisingly, he is not coming close to me.

That was what got a bit of my attention.

Like he just doesn't want to come close.

He just kept his distance.

But he was ready to speak a lot of things.

So agitated that he wanted to do something, but couldn't.

And it wasn't until we realized he was talking about, because we were talking about, well,

Rohan was telling me about, you know, the call of God in his life and he's never going

to.

Were they listening to what you were saying?

He had headphones on.

He couldn't hear a word, but they saw something and he was sitting behind us facing the other

way.

He couldn't hear a word and then just got so agitated, stood up, turn around.

And so when I spoke to him, he couldn't hear me.

He had to take his headphones off.

And then when I said it again, then he, yeah, it was just incredible.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was funny.

But in saying that, I had so much adrenaline, I was ready to throw up my lunch.

Too much information.

But you know, that was like, you know, it's just, it showed us that we're going the right

way.

And this was even pre this podcast stuff.

We were actually planning all this for it to happen.

We didn't know that God's hand is upon this.

And, you know, similarly to your story, like how the devil's going to come, he's going

to try to attack you, but he cannot do anything because you're covered by the blood of Jesus.

Amen to that.

And you know, just for the viewers and listeners, like, you know, we have, there's so many things.

Sometimes we don't even realize we're going through spiritual battles until later on when

you are like, when you think about it and you're like, wow, this is spiritual in nature.

But the more we pray, exactly the more time we spend with Jesus, the more he was, Holy

Spirit was saying, Hey, you're awake.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that protection, you went to probably the most dangerous place on the earth at that

time and there was nothing that could harm you.

Nothing.

Yeah.

And it's just incredible.

That's right.

That's the testimony itself.

Yeah.

Just, yeah.

Story is such a, you know, shows, you know, God's powerful.

Like sometimes we just, I don't know even why sometimes including me just need evidence

that, Oh, you know, you're working in my life.

Give me evidence.

Yeah.

I don't understand why I do that.

And what is your upbringing, I suppose.

But it's just like, sometimes I'm like, I don't need evidence.

Like I know you're working in my life.

The fact that I have food, shelter and basic necessity with me, that shows enough of your,

you know, your giving and your kind nature.

And I think that's very important.

We need to get that a bit in perspective because not many people appreciate that.

But thank you so much, Mike.

We're going to be wrapping it up very soon.

So are you doing any ministry just shortly?

Are you doing any ministries at the moment that you want to, you want to state for like

help, prayers or support?

Well, this might come as a shock to my pastor, but I'm planning God willing to spend time

to permanently in Philippines in the mountains.

I've just gone through a whole rigmarole of letters and applications and police checks

and you name it.

And so hopefully if I can get permanent residency, the plan is to go to the mountains where I

be ministering and spend time there.

Come home occasionally.

We're working with compassion, you know, Darlene checks organization.

We're working with with a lot of the children up in the mountains and the people up there

are different to city people because they're into corn, palm, corn and wheat, bananas.

So they're all pretty friendly type people and the pastor has an issue.

They're there.

It's so good.

And I'm loved there.

I can honestly say that's not a boast.

It's just a fact.

You know, I mean, I only boast in Christ, as Paul said.

I do boast in that because that love is awesome.

And so it's not because of the love, it because because that's where God wants me.

And the local mayor is right behind me.

He says, look, I see what's happening up here.

We're getting Anglicans, Catholics, Calathomphians, you name them.

They're all coming together to this pastor that I've been trying to nurture over the

years.

And they come into him and have a monthly meetings and asking him to be the speaker.

Yeah, that's incredible.

And then we go into the schools and the government has just announced that all government departments,

police, schooling, hospitals, education, Dolbyt, please encourage Christians to come

and minister to you.

That's incredible.

So we're taking full advantage of it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Great.

Thank you so much, Mike.

Appreciate you being in our show.

Unfortunately, we have so, so limited time.

Yeah.

So many stories.

So many testimonies to share.

So we'll have to wrap it up.

But before we wrap up, we always love that the guests say some prayer and would love

for you to pray for our show, you know, this church and, you know, all our viewers and

listeners from all around the world.

And just to just pray with them.

Yes, Lord.

Oh, Father, I thank you for those that are watching.

I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would touch their hearts just as when we go to a church

and we feel touched by the Holy Spirit.

Likewise with this, I pray, Holy Spirit, that you will minister to thousands of people,

whoever sit and watch this.

And I thank you that those that will accept Jesus into their hearts.

And I pray for this ministry, Lord, that it will expand and just continue to grow and

become very popular because we know that Jesus is coming soon.

So, Father, I pray for this team.

I pray for my brothers, Lord, that this will be a very successful show.

No, not a show, a program.

And I give you all the praise and all the glory, Lord, as we just bless your mighty

name.

Bless the church where it's initiated from, from Logan City Christian Church.

And we thank you for the mission work that they do.

We give you all the praise.

Lord, I ask you from the bottom of my heart, Lord, that we can truly move in the Spirit

and see people touched by the power of the Holy Spirit and drawn into your kingdom fully

and learn how to pray, learn how to read the Word of God, learn how to know that we know

that we know that we know that you are God and you did create this world.

And I just thank you, Father, for our families.

Bring them in, Lord.

Bring them in.

The hurting, the angry, the frustrated, bring them in, Lord, and help us to be a minister

to them in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us for another episode of Real Top Friday.

That was Mike here bringing us some amazing, amazing story.

Thank you again, and I hope you join us on our next episode of Real Top Friday.

As we conclude our episode of Real Top Friday, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to all our

listeners for joining us on this enlightening journey.

But our journey doesn't end here.

Join us every Friday as we continue to uncover the real stories of real people, where authenticity

intersects with spirituality in profound ways.

Together we'll navigate the complexities of life, finding inspiration and hope in the

remarkable narratives shared within the walls of Loughton City Christian Church.

Thank you for tuning in, and until next time, may your faith journey be filled with grace,

understanding, and the unwavering presence of God.

Stay tuned for more Real Talk every Friday on Real Top Friday.