Aussie Adventure

I was looking forward to travelling to Australia, in 1990 (April) to promote the band I was in, a week before I was due to leave for Oz, I had a life changing experience. I was playing in a local club and the bass player had mentioned that his friend Mike was coming down from London for the weekend. He came to the club and he played a few numbers after which time he invited the bass player and me back to his cottage in the country.

After a while my friend said "you can stay with Mike for a few days if you like"  then he left. When he had gone Mike started talking to me and after a while asked "would you like to ask Jesus into your life and repent of your sins.

I said "yes I'd love to" and there and then I knelt down and gave my life to Christ by repeating the prayer my friend Mike spoke. Within seconds I felt a tremendous "feeling of peace and joy" which I had never felt before in my life.

You see I never knew, no one had ever told me that's what I needed to do to  receive salvation.

A week later  I was in Aussie, enjoying my new life in Christ and marvelling at everything that had happened. We had gone over there to promote our band (only 3 of us could travel at the time including the bass player). We stayed at Bondi beach right near the sea front. Three weeks later I met a Christian on a bus (I had earlier met some people from a local church and been baptized in water) and he invited me back to his accommodation which he shared with several others (all Christians). I spent nearly every evening there for a week just sharing and enjoying my life in Christ. I saw baptisms in the sea, attended meetings, watched videos.

Money was a problem, as we only took enough to last a few weeks it became apparent we needed to earn some money. So I got some work outside the city (Sydney).  After the first day the foreman wasn't sure there was enough work for the following day but told me to come in anyway. When I went in I found out the only work he had for me was to paint the woodwork on the 1st floor side of a house with a balcony which  had no railings just a ladder leaning against the side of an open area.

After a while I found it more and more difficult to try and paint with one hand and hold on to the timber support with this other and perched precariously on this ladder leaning against the side wall of the house. I eventually had to tell my foreman I couldn't carry on in this position so he paid me what he owed me and I went and started walking around the area. I eventually ended up at a jetty for the Sydney Harbour Ferry.

When the ferry came along it was heading away from the city and eventually turned around and came back. So I decided to go to next destination. When I got off I found a bus waiting for me and I took the bus to a housing estate and the driver told me to go around the corner to get a bus back to the city. As I walked around the corner a man came out of a print shop (he worked there) and started talking to me.

It turned out that he was going to the same church group that I was going to. I gave him my number where I was staying, A  week or so later I had decided to go back home due to lack of funds. It was the last night and I was feeling sad about having to leave Oz. I had enjoyed my stay immensely.

The phone rang and it was the same man I'd met earlier. He asked me if I wanted to go to a bible study. He offered to pick me up and stay over at his home and he would make sure I arrived at the airport in time. So I met him near Bondi Beach and I went to the bible study and set off for the airport the next morning.

So ended my tour and experience of Oz. I arrived back in the UK at Heathrow and eventually got home but that's another story.

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