Before I write about 2022 I want to do a brief summary of 2021. This was the second year of the pandemic and many lives have been affected by the ever-changing restrictions placed on us y the State government. Church services were allowed to recommence with restrictions limiting the number of people who could attend at any one time. As the year progressed it became obvious that about half of the people who had previously attended were no longer attending church – this was not just a local issue but churches around the world experienced the same reaction. This meant that those people had not the correct foundation – they were not living by applying god’s word to their life, so when the storm came their spiritual house crumbled. Unfortunately, we have become used to a well-organised service, with high-quality music and singing and the production team was trying to create the right atmosphere which has become a substitute for the presence of God. We had been lulled into sleeping – just because the church attendance was consistent, we thought everything was alright when it was not. Another thing that happened was how many people were led by Satan to believe that they had a right and the government could not tell them what to do. A well-known scripture (2 Chronicles 7:14) starts with “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray”. When I believe that my opinion is important – it is good for my ego but it demonstrates that I am not being humble and that attitude takes me away from the presence of the Lord. I recently heard a preacher say, Jesus’ commission to His disciples was to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons! And that is what they did, and as I thought about this the last time that happened was over 40 years ago, when there was a move of God at the Dandenong Church. This suggests that I have not been experiencing the real presence of God for a long time in the church. For the last 5 months, Pastor Byron and the team have consistently taught on Foundation, Family, Holy Spirit, and Mission. This has been so good for the church with the congregation becoming more hungry for the presence of the Lord. The youth camp was held in September with over 100 youth attending, it was a life-changing experience with everyone attending all filled with the Holy Spirit. This has brought a new freshness into the church especially our Sunday Night service. In November the youth had a 3-night outreach with many people being born again. The Sunday Night service was so powerful with the church full of people worshipping the Lord for more than 2 hours. A couple of weeks ago the Lod reminded me of the theme scripture used at Dandenong when there was a significant move of God 40 years ago, while I have talked about that move of God many times since I had forgotten about the scripture. The verse is Habukkuk 1:5 which says: “Look, be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe though it was told to you”. I will continue with the significance of this verse in my next blog.