Real Talk Friday - Story of Mike Cory

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 Real Talk Friday.

My name is Rohan and I'm with Gus Urban here and we have a special guest which Gus will

definitely introduce to you towards the end.

But hey, thank you for all the support that you showed in our first episode.

We've got the biggest view ever for our first episode and that encourages us to do so much

more for you guys.

We are so blessed.

Yeah, welcome everyone and thanks for joining us again.

Today we have a special guest, a man that's got a lot of experience with the Kingdom and

out of the Kingdom in his BC years, I take it, but a very interesting man, a friend of

ours, a man that's been coming to our church for quite a while now and I just want to welcome

you to Mike Corry.

Mike, thanks for joining us this morning.

A pleasure.

It's a pleasure.

Yeah, so.

Thank you for inviting me.

No, no, we're very grateful.

Yeah, so I guess really our episode is Real Talk Friday.

That's what it's called and we're just really here.

Just can't wait to hear your story.

It's not going to get any more real than what we're about to experience now.

And it's such a beautiful thing where we can, a person can share their past experiences,

what God's done in their life and what they've witnessed and it's such an encouragement to

other people.

So yeah, with that, I guess we start with, you know, tell us a bit about where you were

born, your upbringing and stuff like that.

Right.

First off, I was born in South East London and the area was you had to learn to fight

before you could read and write.

The situation was that school work wasn't that important to me and it never was.

And I learned at a very early age, all my mates got to be bigger than me and stronger

than me.

So I always had a lot of back support.

But with that, you tend to then get into the wrong element of life, you know.

These guys do some strange things and some wrong things.

And yeah, it wasn't that easy, but you stuck with it.

Yeah.

Great.

So growing up, did you have any siblings?

Were you the only child?

No, no, no, I had a sister.

My father was an ex-sergeant major and we were based in Woolwich, which was South East

London, as I say.

And obviously, he would tell me that he could get out in a parade gown and shout and he

could get 20,000 troops to turn around, but talking to me was just like talking to a horse.

It was one of those things, you know, that obviously, anything he said, I backed up and

didn't do it.

I went the opposite direction, which I don't know whether that's natural or whether that's

doing your own thing.

Yeah.

Just with that, so would you say you had a very good relationship with your father?

Oh, well, he never laid a hand on me.

There was never, you know, he was always cordial, but he would always voice his opinion.

And at the simple age of when I was leaving school, you've got to get a job to get a

pension at 15.

Yeah.

But you're thinking about pensions, you know, and stuff like that.

So I was working mainly on building sites, doing that type of work.

So the job might last six weeks, eight weeks, 10 weeks, then you'd be in for another job,

you know?

Yeah.

So he was a bit upset about that.

And he would try and say, get into something where you're building your life and, you know,

thinking years ahead, which in my mind wasn't important in that day.

Would you say there was, even though you were father and son, the way you two were, were

two almost different people, whereas he was a career man, so to speak, and you were more

of a just take it as it comes or?

Yeah, well, I suppose he left home when he was 14 and joined the army.

He went all through the war and this and when they finished, he left there and got a job

in custom.

So all his life, he only had two jobs.

Yeah, right.

Where basic level had about 40 or 50 jobs, which is one of those things.

But I'll tell you one thing, I was always looking for something.

Yeah.

You know, I was always thinking, well, is it better there or better here?

And I had school we'd done a bit on Australia and I was, oh, I'd like to go there one day.

So let's talk about your journey coming to Australia.

When did that happen?

Well, basically, my mother took me aside one day and she said, Michael John Corey, and

you know, when your mother says something like that, you're into something.

And she said, if you carry on the way you're going, you'll end up in prison with all your

mates.

And funny enough, that night there was a television ad for 10 quid tourists, you know, 10 quid

bombs.

So I thought I'd give that a go.

So the next thing I did was up Australia House.

They said, I'm single.

Yeah, blah, blah, blah.

Look, we have vacancies on Qantas Airlines that we can fill.

Can you go within two or three days?

I said, whenever you're ready.

So they got in contact with me and within four or five days, I was landing in Sydney.

Really?

Yeah.

And what you were in the 60s, was it?

Yeah, 60s.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I remember coming to Sydney Airport there.

Guy come up, he gave me the Sydney morning herald.

He said, there's the jobs and there's the accommodation.

We booked a week's accommodation with this person and we'll drive you over.

So he drove me over to this person and said, see you have a good life and shot through,

you know.

Really?

Wow.

That's a pretty, pretty rude wake.

Pretty enough, there were factories opposite where this lady lived and next door I was

in there and I got a job straight away.

So it was quite fortunate, you know.

So yeah, and that's the way it started.

And I was quite happy.

I mean, I just love the climate.

It's nothing like coming away to a sunshine place where London itself was miserable.

Sorry for all the English people.

And it's one of those things.

It started off real great.

And yeah, so that was, that really gave you like a sense of adventure.

Yes, yes, yes.

So then I'd always known about the snowy mountain.

So I got myself up there and I got myself a job.

And that was quite good because of the simple reason that in Australia you could more or

less, I was working with Thies at the time, GI Dam, and they sort of said, can you drive

this?

Can you drive?

Yeah, give it a go.

You've got wheels, I drive it.

So I learned to drive a lot of equipment and a lot of stuff.

And I worked on Murray 1, Murray 2 power stations, Kencova Dam and GI Dam out there.

It was very, a lot of money, a lot of booze, a lot of fights.

And I was in the element, you know?

I was a bit of a Philistine then.

It was one of those things.

So as I can hear, you've had some amazing jobs.

You had an adventurous life.

Let's come to your relationship with God.

And at that period, would you say you had a strong relationship with God or not really?

No, no, I never had.

I did, I'll tell you about an episode I had at Slinks Pass.

There were grading Slinks Pass and I had a heavy lot of alcohol the day before.

And the guy went off and graded and I was going to have a sleep in the ute.

But then I said, hey, Lord, I'm right at the top of the top of the world here.

What about a burning bush or something like that?

Nothing happened.

So I go, yeah, right.

Okay.

I'll give you a chance.

That's it.

It's all over, you know?

But through my life, I went up to Mount Isa, guy I was working with became a Christian.

He gave me a Bible.

Then I worked in Adelaide for a while.

Another guy became a Christian.

He was talking to me.

So God never let me alone, if you know what I mean.

Though I'd asked him all those years before, I didn't realise sometimes it takes a while

for him to get you going.

Yes.

It's always God's time.

That's right.

But the main thing was I married this lady and she had two children.

The guy, one of the son grew up and he became a drug addict.

Anyway, we had a blue kicked him out.

He got picked up by COC, went to Bible college for five years, then invited me up to church.

So I rocked up the church one Christmas.

Didn't have a very good reception because I was very anti whatever, you know?

Yeah.

And the pastor there said to me, what do you think?

I said, well, look, I've never believed in the Easter bunny, Jesus Christ or Santa Claus.

Yeah.

So he said, what do you think?

I said, you're only after me money.

Anyway, he said, keep on coming.

So in the January, year 2000, January the 13th, went there and my stepson said to me,

do you want to give yourself the Lord?

I said, hang on, I'll ask him, you know, and I'm always very straightforward.

I tell you Lord, you got your chance.

Here it is.

There was a slight tap on the shoulder.

And as I turned, I got like some kin hit me in the stomach and the next minute I'm crying.

Oh, wow.

The next minute I'm out there, give my life to the Lord.

And the pastor said, there you go, he got you eventually.

And I said, yep.

But in that moment, I used to swear every other word, you know?

And when they say your eyes are open and your ears are open, my complete everything changed.

Yeah.

I just couldn't understand it.

And I was 58 at the time.

So hey, look, I'd been that many years as a Philistine doing these things, that thing,

that, this, that and other.

So the change in me was, wow, I couldn't understand it anyway.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It reminds me of the change we saw, seen Paul in the Bible after, you know, God came to

him and he completely changed from a murderer to, you know, something we adore him in the

Bible for the work he's done.

Yeah, that's right.

But yes, coming back to you, it looks like God's really changed your heart at that point.

So as we said in our last episode, it's not always an instant thing.

It takes time for us to change.

You know, it's not like, you know, you're born again instantly.

There is a journey.

So let's talk about more of that journey after you gave your life to Christ.

What kind of things did you battle with or what kind of things that, you know, you were

still working on as a new Christian?

I don't think I battled a lot, to be honest.

First thing, they used to have an outreach down the valley to pick up homeless and whatever.

So I could drive a bus.

So I put my name forward.

So I was driving a bus picking up.

I did have a bit of a, what can you say?

It's funny with God when you say things and he puts you right in it.

I used to pick up these dirty, filthy people that smelled and I go, I don't need this.

Anyway, I used to sit and listen to them and talk to them and some ended up in prison.

And that was the main thing.

I went to visit them.

So in going to visit them, they put me under other guys.

And eventually as an ordinary person, I was visiting 20 people.

Then the authorities said, you can't visit that many people because you're not related

to them.

I said, I'm afraid not, not, not.

So in the end I had to join prison fellowship, which was run by Chuck Colson.

I don't know where they watergate.

Do you know the watergate, Nixon?

No, not really.

Nixon, they got into someone else's building and they looked what the opposition were doing

for their thing.

Anyway, Chuck Colson was their lawyer and he'd done a bit of time in prison.

Actually met Chuck many, many years later.

But anyway, I joined prison fellowship and in prison fellowship, I was a volunteer for

a while and then I became a chaplain.

So I ended up going into two prisons and a youth detention center.

I just, I just love it.

It was my cup of tea.

I was talking to guys that I could talk to.

And I had the outer knowledge of doing this and doing this.

If they'd done that, I'd done it.

And they were quite, they were quite open because I'd been there, done that.

There was a lot that you could relate to.

That's right.

That's right.

Yes.

Even with the youth detention, though I couldn't play too much basketball or touch football

then, I could sit down and talk to them as a granddad.

Yeah.

And quite a few kids would sit there and, oh, I wish my dad had said that to me.

So yeah, that's incredible.

It is.

It is.

It is.

I thought God had put me in the right place.

Absolutely.

Sort of like where he's, he's got that perfect plan for your life.

Well, this is it.

You fill it.

Yeah.

And then you just see, I guess, especially today, a lot of people don't really have many

fathers or even good fathers.

And so we see spiritual men of God that can take that spot and relate what they have to

your heavenly father.

And it's just, it's just a great door that gets opened into young people's life or anyone's

life really.

I might just mention that it's just a, on Mother's Day, nearly all the cards in prison

were bought.

On Father's Day, they didn't sell too many cards.

Really?

So that's incredible how you were saying, you know, most of the guys love their mother,

but really couldn't stand their father.

And it's, it's quite an incredible thing when you sit down and talk to them and you

say, oh, something about, oh, I don't like this.

I said, I'm not talking about your earthly father.

What about your heavenly father?

Yeah.

He's watched out of you, you know.

So you can be a conversation in that way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's an interesting statistic.

It's very, very interesting.

Yeah.

And I think so, like, sometimes I feel the relationship we have with our earthly father

is kind of determines the relationship we have with our heavenly father.

Because unfortunately, that's how it is.

It's not the other way around, which I would hope it would be the other way around.

Yeah.

But it's not, it's not.

But coming back to your prison fellowship, so how long did you do this prison fellowship?

Oh, 15 years.

15 years.

Oh, so a lot of time visiting the prisons, visiting the people.

Fantastic.

Meeting a lot of people.

A lot of people.

And spreading the word.

And I think people were more receptive.

Yep.

I think if, I never went in with the Bible under my arm.

Okay.

I always sat down and said, how you going?

Do you enjoy the football?

Oh, not a football player.

Well, what do you do?

You know, and come on that way.

Yep.

Yep.

And I say, what are you doing in here?

I said, oh, bikey instance.

I went in the bikey unit, right?

Walked in there, all big guys.

So I said, no.

So a bloke said to me, who are you?

I said, I'm a prison chaplain.

And what do you do?

I said, get you to heaven.

And he said, I said, I like your tats, brother.

I said, I'm thinking of having a few tats put on my head.

He said, oh yeah, what are you having?

I said, a few rabbits.

He said, what are rabbits for?

I said, from a distance, they look like hairs.

Because that breaks the eye.

You know?

There you go.

Oh.

Oh, that's a good one.

So you can sit down and talk with him.

And actually with him, we sat down and talked about it.

And he started to think about it.

And then he was winching all the time with his mothers and fathers.

I said, look, it says, honor your mother and father.

Now I want you to do, first thing I want you to do is write a letter to your mother and

a letter to your father, because they were separated.

And ask them to forgive you.

And then ask them if they will forgive him for what he done.

That's an amazing thing.

I don't know who put that in my mind, but I think God must have at the time.

Anyway, he got a letter back from his mother.

And he said, oh, mom's apologized for the way they were doing drugs and this and that.

I'm welcome back there anytime.

Really?

But he didn't get a letter back from his father.

Okay.

So I said, once you can honor your mother and father, now that's it.

You can't go back there and say, it wasn't my fault.

They were the ones that were doing it.

Now we have progress.

We can go forward.

You can give your life to the Lord and we can get you going.

They gave his life to the Lord, but as Jowell is, they move them around a lot.

You don't see them and they...

Well, it's just a seed.

We just hope someone else waters it.

Exactly right.

Well, that's very, very powerful seed that you've actually sown into his life.

Being there as a minister of God, we know that God will always move through people that

are willing to just go.

We see it all through the Bible and that.

And it's funny that you mentioned about honoring your father and mother because that's the

first commandment with a promise.

We also see that, I believe it's Deuteronomy, I can't remember the chapter.

I think 27, I believe in chapter 27 where the Bible actually says of how that cursed

are those who dishonor their parents.

So actually dealing with that in someone's life is changing a lot and really preparing

the heart for God to move.

But just with that, it was so amazing.

I wouldn't have thought of that.

It was just talking to him and suddenly it comes into my mind.

I go, Lord, you're still with me and you're putting your foot through me.

I mean, sure, God must have, it must have been God because it wasn't me.

I mean, I'm not that affluent and whatever.

And suddenly something like that happens, you go, right, what comes in goes out.

Exactly.

I've got to do that.

Yeah.

It's definitely got putting you in the right place at the right time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So coming to all that, you've done profound things in the prison.

Do you have something that, a story that was played through that you thought was divine

or that was from God?

Of course, there's a lot you might have done that is from God, but something that stands

out to you that you think was, okay, you doubted on it, but this is definitely from God.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's always good to have something in there for them to remind.

Well, this ring is M for Michael upside down.

Evidently, it's Arabic for Allah.

Oh, really?

So I'm sitting there one day, sitting there one day and this guy comes up and he kisses

the ring.

And I said, hey, hang on, mate, I'm not the Pope.

He said, no, Allah, Allah is Muslim.

I didn't know he was Muslim, you know.

So we sat there and we talked and we talked about, oh, no, Jesus is only a prophet.

I said, look, when you get back in your cell tonight, you in a single cell?

Yeah, I'm in a single cell.

I said, just walk up and down and ask Jesus to come into your life.

And he said, okay, I'll give it a try.

So anyway, I saw him a few, because you don't see guys all the time.

I see him a few weeks later.

Okay.

And he comes up to me and he said, you know what happened?

He said, I done what you said, and then I don't know whether I was dreaming or whether

I, but someone was in my cell.

And I said, who are you?

And he said, I'm the way, the truth and the lie.

No.

Hang on, brother.

So I had a Bible and I went boom, boom, boom.

Look.

And he said, wow.

That's incredible.

I said, well, knock me down with the feathers.

Anyway, so we started him on a few Bible studies and this and he said, don't tell the other

Muslims.

I said, Oh, I don't tell anybody anything.

Yeah.

You know, but then again, you see, he got moved on.

Yeah.

And this is the trouble with stuff.

You try to disciple these guys, but suddenly they get moved on to this one and that one.

And you can't always stay in base, but that's quite incredible.

But that is that very, I've had so many.

Can I waffle on?

You sure can.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm having a great time.

I was sitting at a table like there's about eight of us seeing.

They were talking about, ah, God's not real.

Okay.

I said, let's all hold hands.

I'm not holding hands.

I said, hold hands.

Come on.

So we all hold hands and I started praying in tongues.

And the next minute you could feel the Holy Spirit coming through us.

And one of the guys said, what's going on?

Who's got the electric shocks?

I said, I've got nothing up my sleeve.

And they all broke then.

Wow.

I said, did you feel anything?

I said, yes, I felt something go through.

I said, that's a movement of Christ.

Now, do you believe that?

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I said, look, I've got a short sleeve, sir.

I always wear a short sleeve shirt.

So I can't put anything up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But imagine that everybody got, oops, sorry.

Everybody got touched at that moment.

Yeah.

And they take no notice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But you do find that, that maybe later on in life something will be.

And, you know, I mean, I can say all the people that tried to touch me years ago.

That's right.

Yeah.

It never worked.

But then all of a sudden I can realise that God was trying to get in touch with me all

that 30 years ago.

Yeah.

I think sometimes we judge success by a conversion rate.

Yep.

And not so much by just simply doing what God's called us to do.

Yeah.

So I was talking to a guy a couple of weeks ago.

And he's been bringing these young kids to youth and he's not really seeing much change

or much fruit.

And really it was, we were just talking about and discussing about just the amount of seed

that's been sown in the past six months in these kids' life.

Yeah.

We just never know what God can do with that seed.

It's a tool.

Yeah.

And also with that, like, you might not see everyone in that you'd been converted, but

that one person that changes and gives his or her life to God, that's enough success

for the kingdom of God.

Exactly right.

And we need to remember that sometimes.

Yeah.

No, for sure.

For sure.

I did find that with every unit I used to go in, what, there's 80 blokes, I'd make

sure I shook hands with everybody in that unit.

Yeah, well.

Because to the annoyance, oh, since I...

The authorities didn't like it too much, but in shaking hands with someone and they said,

who are you?

Oh, I'm a prison chaplain.

I'd be like, oh, but you may need me someday, brother.

Exactly right.

And it was amazing the number of blokes might come up and say something to me after, you

know.

Really?

But if you touch base with everybody in that, you're not setting yourself apart.

Yeah.

And I thought that does happen.

Sometimes people would set themselves apart, they might just go into a unit and just sit

down, one of the other chaplains, wait for them to go to them.

Yeah.

Whereas if you go around and interrupt their card game, you say, oh, he's got a good hand.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And be a part of the boys, they will remember.

Exactly.

You know?

And I think you have to put your, what is it, your stamp on the situation.

Exactly right.

So, well, that, because they often phone up and say, you're the bloke with all the rings.

Where's the chaplain with all the rings?

The mouthy guy.

So therefore, you have set yourself into their...

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

I guess someone sitting down and just waiting for people to come, sort of like, well, he's

not even interested.

It's like, yeah, so you being out there, touching base with people, making connections, that

they actually see this guy must actually care.

He's comfortable with us.

He's not, he doesn't feel uncomfortable where he doesn't want to talk to people.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's true.

Yeah.

You know, quite recently I was watching a video and it was a court scene in America.

And this person had killed the daughter or the son, I can't remember, of this man.

And many other people, and they were all in the courtroom and everybody was saying some

kind of speech, telling him bad words or some slurs.

And it didn't make a difference.

He was just sitting in the seat with his lawyer and he didn't react.

Yeah.

And this last guy came and he said, you've caused so much trouble to my family.

My son or daughter, I can't remember, was killed.

But you know what?

I forgive you.

Yeah.

When he said, I forgive you, he just started crying.

I got him.

Yeah.

That got him.

Nothing else did, but that got him.

That shows that forgiveness, that even God forgives us for so many things we do.

That's right.

It affects us and it really puts an impact in us and shows love.

And that's more than anything, that's what we respond well to.

We all are needy.

We all want that love and we want godly love and unconditional love.

And that only comes from God.

And that's exactly what these guys also want.

And they're no less human than anyone else.

No, that's right.

Yeah.

And coming back to the prison, you told us a very good story behind the scenes about

something about the red letter.

We would like to hear that from you again.

I think that's a very, very interesting and an amazing testimony.

Now, as I do, I would always carry a few Bibles in a bag.

And I was talking to this guy and he had a planter's wart that was split open on the bottom of his foot.

And we were talking and I gave him a Bible and we opened it up and I said,

see the red writing there, that's Jesus speaking.

There's a good, where a lady had an issue with blood and she just touched Jesus and the issue of blood went away.

And he said, oh, in that moment we were called out because they do that in prison, right?

Everybody out there.

So, and I saw him a few weeks later and he said, look, I looked at the bottom of his foot and it was healed.

Yeah.

And I go, wow, how did you get it?

He said, no, no, I was reading that, but you showed me about the lady with the issue of blood.

He said, I run my finger along the red writing and then I run my finger around the wound and ask Jesus to heal me.

And within two or three days, it just started healing up.

That's incredible.

So I thought, okay, I'll check this out.

So I went up the medical and because I'm a bit dubious sometimes, went up the medical and they didn't even know

he had a plant as well on his bottom of his foot, you know?

Yeah.

And so, wow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, his faith healed him.

Simple faith.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's right.

Yeah.

And the trouble is they don't like that when you mention, oh, I shouldn't get, I shouldn't get due to, but the authorities don't like Jesus being mentioned.

Yeah.

You're sort of working, you're working with them, but they're against you in some way.

Yes.

You're always classed as a do-gooder.

Yeah.

And well, I said, it does good.

That's great.

Yeah.

You know, and there might be a couple of officers that are Christian and they're great, you know?

Yeah.

But most of them are, of course, pretty rugged and stuff like that.

Unfortunately, that's how the world is.

Oh, it's, you know.

It's not only in the prison, but you can see it everywhere around.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

You have to battle, battle on.

Yeah.

But God can work through any situation regardless, whether it's against you or not.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think you'd know that more than anyone really.

That's right.

Yeah.

Right.

Yes, yes.

I mean, I used to, every so often we'd run services because there's so many different denominations in there that you only get service once every six weeks.

But lucky that I had two prisons, so I got more opportunity for Sunday service.

And even that sometimes was amazing.

We were there one day and I think I was, because I didn't have a band or anything, so I would play a CD.

This was earlier on.

And we were, I surrender all.

I look around, these guys have got, you know, I said, come on, turn the, I said, when you surrender, you put your hands up.

Yeah.

Because you're like a child putting your hands up to your heavenly father.

So he'd lift you up.

And I go, huh?

Are these like a mixed Christian, non-Christian?

Yeah.

So.

Nine times out of ten, they come up to swap drugs or have a chat.

Oh yeah.

But that's another story.

Yeah.

And I said, now look, if a guy came in there with a shotgun and you put your hands up immediately.

And I said, well, maybe not.

We might know him.

But in the hall, bang, put the music back on.

They lifted their hands and that service, three guys go to the south for the Lord.

So I mean, how God works in most strange ways.

Yeah.

Great.

So, wow, you've done amazing things in the prison.

God has.

God has.

There you go.

Who is you?

Yeah.

So hands and feet.

I get these impulses.

Okay, sometimes I shouldn't say that, but I do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because someone somewhere and sometimes I've upset a lot of people in my life.

Even as a Christian.

Yeah.

Because I believe God's telling me something.

And then I go and then upset somebody.

Yeah.

So I've backed off a little bit now because I'm 81 now and I'm getting a little bit older

and I can't box my way out of the way.

You've got to be careful.

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah.

But with that, as I said, God used you in many in profound ways.

And we're so blessed to have you in this show.

Absolutely.

But during that time, I just want to know because we know a little bit about your story and

we know you were struggling a bit in terms of health.

And you had a lot of, you know, own personal problems that I'm sure God was working too.

Let's talk about more about yourself during that period and your health and everything

and how God was working in you.

Well, it's quite funny because my wife, she became a Christian just after me.

And she said one day, God's told me you should have a blood test.

I said, oh, come on.

So I went on a blood test and they found out I had prostate cancer.

So, okay, fair enough.

One up to my missus.

I said, you listen to God too.

That's great.

Anyway, we go through that and I get a good put on a program of radiation.

Well, they radiate you from four different sides and this, that and the other.

And that seemed to work.

While I was in there, the opportunity came, I could pray for the operators.

I could pray for them.

And I tell you, it's quite, they get quite put back.

I could imagine.

I went up into the specialist and I said, first thing we sit down, oh, Michael, how are you?

Do you mind if I pray for you?

Wow.

What, what, what, what?

I said, no, no, look, I'm a Christian.

This happened.

Do you mind if I pray for you?

And I just prayed that God would give you the light and the, the guidance in my case.

And that in your life that he would flow through and keep everything really good for you.

Yeah, yeah.

So something simple like that.

And once, because I then got testicle cancer, which had to remove one of my testicles.

And the thing was, I prayed for the doctor then on the thing.

I said, you don't mind if I pray for you, my dear?

Just so the hands are steady and you do the right thing.

It's amazing how a strike, they don't get it.

Yeah.

Now, if everybody was Christian, went in and prayed for, for the, they might get it, but they don't.

Yeah.

You know, as Christians, we're very, what's the word?

We, we, we, we're not to say we're Christians, but they don't want to pray for anybody.

But this person's in a responsible job.

He's got responsibilities now.

Yes.

Surely, you know, keep your angels around this guy as he works the day long.

Wherever they are.

And in the waiting rooms where you get a lot of blood, saying, oh, I've got prostate cancer, this, that, and the others.

Well, and they would say, why are you so happy?

Well, I've got my mate Jesus with me, you know?

Yeah, exactly right.

Well, I'm a Christian and Jesus has come into my life and he's shown me a different way to work.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, absolutely.

It's, well, I suppose, sometimes I think I'm a bit of a nutcase, you know?

But again, if I am good on me, you know?

Yeah.

But that's life.

And I think, I think we should, as Christians, put ourselves more out there in areas we can't really, we really don't think we should be, you know?

Yeah. No.

I've learned that in the time I spent, I think I got into one argument with some guy and then they threw a bucket of water on there and he said, walk across that then.

If you're so smart, I said, it's not deep enough, brother.

Then the officer came out and reprimanded him.

So it was, but, you know, I think you, as I say, I was in there with some really rough, rough guys.

Yeah.

But they treat it, if you treat them and you don't push yourself right into their space or ask them, is it okay if I come into your space, brother?

Yeah, yeah.

You know?

Yep.

And no one answers them that.

Yeah.

Because the officers would say, brrrr, but I asked them, it's okay.

So you sit down and talk with them.

And they appreciate you because you've asked.

If I can speak to you.

I guess you would be the only person there treating them like a person, not like a gangster or a criminal or that they would, just the way they're treated by you would be totally different to everyone else, I could imagine.

Well, I mean, I was in a rough neighborhood as a kid.

Anybody put their face into you, you know, it was on for young and old.

Yeah.

So in the same situation, if you say, is it okay?

You know, it's like, this is your territory.

Is it okay if I come in and sit and talk to you?

Yeah.

Go up and say, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah.

Because they, for instance, will say, brrrr, who's he?

Yeah, yeah, fair enough.

Fair enough.

Yeah.

That's very good.

But yeah, I'm very keen to hear about your spiritual life and the kind of spiritual battle you were facing being in the prison, going through health issues and, you know, going through life itself.

What kind of spiritual battle were you facing?

And I just want to know how you dealt with it because I'm sure the listeners would be, you know, keen to know that.

Well, I had one experience there. I'd had, this was my sixth lot of chemo.

Oh wow.

And once I finished that, I was, I said to my wife, Helen, can you drive?

And she never drive my car.

Yeah.

She said, you must be croc anyway, but God help.

And then I laid on the bed and I was, I'd never experienced so much pain in the whole body.

Oh wow.

And I was just saying, Lord, okay. And my thing is, I think I've had enough, beam me up Scotty.

Yeah.

You know.

And a little voice inside me said, I'm living inside of you and taking half the pain.

In that instance, the pain went, I turned over and went to sleep.

And I think, is that God talking to me? I don't know. Must be no one else in the room, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

I had a good experience after my wife died, I had a, she had a little silly Nicky, which is like a Fiat Bambino.

And I couldn't get rid of it. I couldn't give it away. This, that and the other.

So I sat there one day and I said, Lord, I said, if you give me someone to buy this car, I'll give the money to the church.

Okay.

You wouldn't believe it the next morning the phone rang.

Pick the phone up and the bloke said, I believe you've got a Nicky for sale.

He said, what's it like? I said, it's full of the Holy Spirit.

I said, it's never been booked. It's, it runs well. Come round and see it.

So he came round and said, he came round, his son came round and his grandson and his grandson wanted the car.

Oh, right.

So I provided, and it was probably worth, but anyway, give me $1,500 for it.

Then the predicament was I had $1,500. I was short of money that week.

Oh.

Hang on. Hang on. So I phoned up. I was down at the worship center.

So I phoned up one of the pastors there and I said, look, this has happened. That's happened.

Keep me honest. I owe the church $1,500. So when I come in, I'll, okay.

And that's, that is amazing thing that I think, well, okay, you know, no one knew except me and God.

Exactly right.

And then do I, do I rob God? You know, I don't think, okay, fair enough.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I'm not, what would you say, a theologian? I do things in a rough way and people say, well, God wouldn't work like that.

I said, but didn't he have a couple of mates called Peter?

He was a bit of a rough dude.

That's right.

And I think a lot of other things that, that he, he, he was with and I'm probably a lot of these guys, his disciples might have sinned in whatever way it's classified as.

Yeah. Yeah.

And sometimes speaking as you've got to speak is not always a sin. You know, maybe other people think, oh, you shouldn't use that type of attitude or language.

I said, well, God's taken the swearing off of me.

God's taken a lot of stuff and I've asked, do I need to change Lord?

Yeah.

And I believe that he wanted me to change, he'd have hit me with a hammer or something.

But I think I don't go too much overboard, but I think, well, you've got to be real nowadays.

That's right.

It's, it's balancing spirituality with still being a real human being.

Yeah. Yeah.

Where you walk into the room, you don't float into the room and, and yeah.

No, I always do an hour or so speaking in tongues.

Yeah.

On the floor doing, doing what you've got to do.

Yeah.

But I don't emphasize that.

Yeah.

I think, well, that's between me and God.

Exactly. Yeah.

If I'm not doing enough, let him give me a nudge.

Yeah.

You know, and say, come on, we need more out of you.

You know, and I truly believe that that's what it's about, that if you have a relationship with a mate,

he will say, yeah, you're not doing your share, their share here.

You know, if you're working with someone, which we all are working with the Lord Jesus Christ,

if we are working with and we're not putting our weight, I'm sure he would say, come on, come on.

Pick your game up.

Yeah. No, exactly right.

Yeah.

And that's only my philosophy, I mean, I'm not a philosopher, but I'm sort of, I've been there, done that.

As I say, I've done a few jobs and I've worked a few.

Yeah.

And I think, well, okay.

At the end of the day, common sense will always overrule and that's just where you're at.

Yeah.

You're a common sense person, keeping it real.

Yeah.

And just an open vessel for the Holy Spirit.

Well, exactly.

Keeping it simple.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, that's fantastic.

No.

That's amazing.

We're truly blessed to hear all this.

Yeah, absolutely.

We want to close this podcast very soon, but before we come to the end, we want to know,

do you have a message for our viewers or our listeners?

Because we are also recording this on YouTube and just for our listeners, this video will be available shortly after you hear the podcast.

So you can actually see our guest speaker and you can see us doing that interview.

So we're truly blessed that we were able to record this interview.

But yes, would you have something to say to our listeners and viewers?

Well, it's very hard for me to push my thing on anybody, but I truly believe that we have to be ourselves.

We have to speak out more and we have to really get around people.

I mean, people are there, not only Christians, you know, there's kids, there's young kids in the street.

They always say good day to them and they always, you know, they might abuse you or something.

Yeah.

That's okay.

Yeah.

But if you do it two or three times, they recognize you and they go along.

So you've got to be persistent in where you're going, you know.

Yeah.

What you're doing.

Most of the people in my little street know who I am.

I always have a bit of a chat.

We've got some Muslim families moving at the top of the street.

I took them a heap of mandarins up there and now he brings me eggs.

I don't know what the situation is.

We talk about, I talk about Jesus, but he says the same thing.

And look, I know that people are so set in their ways that they're not going to change.

But little by little.

Yeah.

This is all you can expect.

Little by little.

You know, as Johnny Diamond said on Sunday that if you say, God bless you.

Yeah.

That's just one small thing you can do.

Exactly right.

And that's what it's about.

Do we do that enough or do we avoid these people?

Yeah.

You know.

They're a bit rough and ready and this, that and the other.

Do we not go, I go in the pub, but I have a counter mill and maybe one beer.

Yeah.

The bill doesn't say as long as you're not rolling drunk, but you can sit there and you can talk to people.

Yep.

And they don't expect anybody to be a Christian in a pub.

Yeah.

You know.

Yep.

Even the waitresses in the bar people, you can say things to them and they look at you.

Yep.

You know.

Yeah.

Exactly.

And okay.

How many people would have a beer and when the, thank you, God bless you.

They nearly drop over backwards.

Yeah.

And that's the thing that I know now that when I go in, I've got a little lady comes up to serve me a meal and she knows me and she always gives me a hug.

And I don't know whether she's Christian or not.

I never push it.

Yep.

You know, but I said, you know, Christian things to her.

Yeah.

So therefore, little by little.

Yeah.

And there's a lot of people out there.

There's a lot of people who don't know Christ.

Yep.

And that's what the trouble is.

You see.

When we're pushing it out, we should be grabbing one person per Sunday and bring them in.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

If everybody did that, how?

Yeah.

A whole of Australia would be a Christian society.

Wouldn't that?

Yeah.

That's right.

But unfortunately, we don't.

And I'm just as bad as anybody else.

I might grab one or two people and I get a lot of people.

I'm still in contact with a lot of ex-prisoners.

And it's pretty hard sometimes because they don't always want to get up early.

They don't want to do this.

And then it comes to the situation where they say, you're trying to control my life.

I'm not trying to control.

I'm just trying to have a better life.

Yeah.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, such a good story that we've had and we've seen how God works through you.

And we're truly blessed to have you in our show.

We would like to encourage everyone to, you know, kind of pray about their calling, because

sometimes we are called, you had your calling.

We have callings in different ways that God's gifted us.

So I encourage our listeners to actually pray about that.

Yeah, for sure.

And definitely again, thank you, Mike, for being in our show.

We want to end in a prayer.

I think that's very important.

And maybe Gus, you can...

Well, I was actually thinking, Mike, is it okay if you close in prayer, but also pray

for all our listeners as well?

Yeah, that would be good.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for all that you're doing for us.

Lord, and we pray there are people out there that are listening and watching that they

will find a little chink in their armour that we have pierced today, Lord, that they can

go out and they can be a part of your...a part of your...oh, hang on, Lord, you give

me a blockage here...a part of your calling, Lord, that they can touch people that they've

never touched before, Lord.

They can talk to people that they've never talked to before, Lord.

We pray, Lord, that these wonderful gentlemen that are with me and give me the third degree

today, Lord, that you will watch over them and look after them, keep your angels around

their families.

And Lord, we thank you so much.

We thank you so much for coming into our lives and changing our lives.

And that's what it's all about, a change of life, Lord.

So we pray for each and every person out there, Lord, and we say a great amen, Lord.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you so much, Mike.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today.

That was Mike, and he shared an amazing testimony and his amazing life story.

Stay tuned for more.

Thank you again for giving us a very good response for episode one.

We'd love you to share, follow, subscribe to our episode two, and there'll be more on

Real Talk Friday.

As we conclude our episode of Real Talk 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 Logan 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 Talk Friday.