HI, MY NAME IS BRENDAN..

I began attending the Potters House in 2012. I come from a broken family with my parents separating when I was 6 years old and subsequently divorcing. Over the years, I suffered from a feeling of neglect due to this and the fact that my mother was working 3 jobs to pay the bills.

I was raised in a Catholic home and believed in God, however due to the suffering in my life by the age of 16, I decided that I did not believe in God. It was not long after this, that I began partying and was addicted to cigarettes, alcohol and pornography.

My addictions worsened and by the time I was 18, I was addicted to harder drugs, partying from Thursday through to Monday morning and drinking everyday in between.

I was at a rave one evening in 2010 where I met a girl, who is now my wife and through whom God worked to get me saved. My now wife, got saved miraculously in 2011. Through some difficulties in our relationship I had, caused me to cry out to God, whom I had not acknowledged since my youth. I had a powerful encounter with God and was radically converted.

I am now delivered of all my addictions and have been serving God to this day. Since that time, I have had the honour of being married and becoming a father of two beautiful daughters. I have been tremendously blessed by God in all things and have been dealt by Him with incredible grace.

I have had the tremendous opportunity to preach the Gospel at home and internationally, and I now sharing the message of the Gospel, that Jesus’ forgiveness is for all mankind and you can be restored in right standing with God, through repentance and our acceptance of His Lordship.

The name of the rave was ‘God’s Kitchen’ and God has indeed been cooking up plans for my life, even though I had abandoned Him.

hi, my name is teriana..

This is how God changed my life;

I used to be a very insecure person. I would look in the mirror and I just felt so ugly and fat. I would compare myself to others and put myself down. And due to this mindset, it made me believe that no one could love someone like me, and that I would never be enough.

Through all this I still turned away from God, "I just wanna do my own thing”, I thought. But God showed me that He had plans for me, plans that not even I could stop. God saved me, He freed me from self-hatred and from the lies that said I was "unloved" and "not enough". God showed me that I am beautiful, I am loved and I am enough. I learnt to accept that I am who God says I was.

He changed my life and I am forever grateful for this love that He has shown me and the grace He has given, that has set me free.

hi, my name is eliza..

I grew up as an Atheist with no belief in God.

One day my brother, Stephen, came home and told our family he had given his life to God. I saw him struggle for years with depression and suicidal thoughts, but for the first time, I saw his life change before my eyes. I saw God heal him, restore him, and bless him. Something that medication and therapy couldn’t do.

In September 2015, I attended an event where my friend and had a near-death experience. I had never been so shaken up by the reality of death, and the hard question of ‘what happens to you when you die?’ This though lingered on my mind 24/7 afterwards. Through this experience, it helped me to see the value of life and no longer was I ignoring the questions of death, but more than ever, I wanted to know if God was real And if He was, I knew I needed Him.

In October 2015, I took a step of faith and decided to give my life to God. I prayed and accepted Jesus Christ into my heart as my Lord and Saviour, and for the months following that decision, God showed up and confirmed He was not only real, but showed me the love and the grace He has for me. Which is hard to chew at times, even ‘till this day.  

I’ve done nothing to deserve forgiveness from God, yet He gave up His one and only Son for us, that we might be saved (John 3:16). I know who God is and He knows me. I know the truth and I’ve been set free.

If you genuinely seek God, He promises you’ll find Him (Luke 11:9). I testify to this promise through my own experience of seeking Him, and I hope you would open your heart to God, as He’s standing at your door knocking and waiting for you to let Him in (Revelation 3:20).

hi, my name is jess..

I became a christian in 2014, after experiencing a radical encounter with God during a Revival service in this Church. I didn't grow up in a Christian household but a part of me did believe that there had to be a God. I had a false perception of what it meant to be a Christian. I really believed that Christians were boring and weird people. Oh, how wrong was I.

Before I gave my life to God, I had such an emptiness and void that I couldn't fill. I made some terrible decisions and had a hard time moving on, especially after my father passed away because of the closeness and the bond we had together. I didn't know how to deal with my dad passing, so I focused on things to distract myself. Ever since I was little, I wanted to be professional sportsperson. So I tried to pursue a career in being a professional athlete but all the accomplishments were only mere satisfaction. I started to smoke cigarettes, and became very complacent, not really caring how it affected my playing career. I was representing NSW, playing national league and was being sponsored to play for the Northern Beaches at the time, but I eventually gave up because of this attitude. My interest in playing went out the window and so I tried to pursue other things instead. From here, I got myself into a gambling addiction, thinking that I could be a professional poker player. As fun as it lasted, and the money that I did have during this time, the money never lasted. It was never secure and I ended up in debt because of this. Now in debt and had just suffered my first heartbreak in a relationship, I really had no idea what I was doing with my life. I was just living through the motions.

My life then changed radically, when I walked into this Church service that I was invited to. God used this Preacher, Ev Ben Dekker from Netherlands, to speak into my life so powerfully. I felt an overwhelming presence of God and love that night. A love that I was longing for so long, that I couldn't find in a relationship, sport, gambling or anything else. A love like no other! I walked in with such a heaviness and left, the complete opposite. It's like I came in with a 40kg weighted vest and left without it. The feeling was amazing!

From then on, my life did a 180 degree turn. I no longer need to gamble, smoke, drink or try and be fulfilled through a relationship, because I was high off the love of God and what He had done for me. God moved supernaturally for me and helped me get out of my gambling debt within 6 months, something that I had struggled and battled with for so long, was now gone. God has blessed me with such a beautiful family, something that I always wanted but never thought I would have.

The feelings of guilt from the past, the blame I had for myself, the insecurities, the fear of not knowing where I was going if I died, the uncertainty of what my purpose in life, was all gone. I have a new life in Christ, my warped perception of Christianity has changed. This decision is the best decision I have ever made!

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

I am still a work in progress and yes, things still go wrong and not everything works out just because you’re a Christian, but the amazing thing is that I serve a God that's much bigger than. I serve a God of miracles, of signs and wonders, and nothing can separate me from the love of God.

hi, my name is eileen..

I’m from a family of 5 kids. My parents divorced, when I was about 5 years old. My mum became a Christian earlier on in my life, so I was blessed to have a Christian upbringing with Christian values. However, as a child I didn’t see it that way. I understood what it was to be a Christian and what it was to have a relationship with God, but I always felt that it was something that I was made to do rather than my own choice.

As I got older, things like partying, drinking and having a boyfriend intrigued me. And because I didn’t really have a solid relationship with God, and felt church was something my mum made me do, it was very easy for me to be tempted and fall into temptation. At 18 years old, I thought I was old enough to make my own decisions and things like ‘God’ and ‘Church’ was nearly, if not completely, out the window for me.

I got into a very serious relationship that ended up becoming very toxic and left me feeling empty, broken, insecure and filled with self hatred. This was the first time I felt an empty void in my life and instead of turning to God, I filled my life with partying, drugs, more toxic relationships and a demanding job. All of these things were only mere band-aids to my problems and emptiness. I continued on this cycle, which led me into being heavily depressed. That eventually, slowly led me to the point of attempting suicide. However, God saved me from taking my own life and He showed me through a born again christian friend the love He has for me.

I was invited to a prayer night at the Potters House Inner West Church on Coronation Parade, Enfield and Pastor Dinh Luu prayed over me. The emptiness, anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts left instantaneously. Now, I have more joy & love then I’ve ever had in my life. God has completely filled the emptiness in me, and no longer am I suicidal or depressed. I now have full security in Christ Jesus, my Lord. Yes, I still go through hardships at times but now I have God to lean on and guide me.

My God is a conqueror and no problem or hardship is too big or hard for Him. Everyone’s always saying they’re trying to live their best life and ‘YOLO’ (You Only Live Once) but, with Jesus you can live your best life twice once on earth and once in heaven. Choosing Jesus, is the best decision you can ever make whilst living the best life for God. Glory to God!

Hi, my name is stephen..

I grew up in a broken home, torn apart by the ravages of alcohol fuelled abuse, and this caused me to search for avenues that would take me away from my worries at home.

For a brief number of years I found success in sports until I sustained a long-term injury and as a result, my sports lifestyle became a party lifestyle, which over a couple years, casual drug-use became frequent, fornication led to an unwanted abortion, and binge drinking transformed me from a teen trying to escape abuse, to becoming the abusive one.

During this time, I was diagnosed with depression and received medical and professional help to correct my state of mind. However, no pill or psychological treatment could heal my life problems and broken heart.

One Sunday in September 2013, I broke down in my bedroom as I pondered, how I could escape the destructive pattern I was stuck in, tormented by the shame I felt of the life I was living. This led me to suicidal thoughts, believing the only way out was to take my own life. I was an atheist at this time, however, in my desperation I cried out to a God I didn’t believe in, “God I am going to take my life in a week’s time, if You are real, please save me.”.

It came to the second last day, on the Saturday morning a Christian from the Potter’s House Inner West handed me a flyer on the streets, invited me to a Church service the next day and shared the gospel with me. I was told that Jesus Christ paid the wages of my sin, and that God is rich in mercy to forgive me.

The next day, Sunday morning, I went to Church. I responded to the altar call at the end of the service and I felt the presence of God and in that moment, I heard God say, “If you give me your life, I will restore it”. I broke down by the overwhelming love of Jesus, and gave my life to Him there and then.

For so long, my life and this world seemed so dark to me, yet when I prayed that prayer, my life was literally restored as God had promised.

Now, I live a life of freedom and joy in Jesus Christ. Everything that my sin took away from me, God has restored. I am no longer bound by addiction, abuse, alcohol, drugs, depression, you name it. I am restored in every way possible, and God has even blessed me with a wonderful family, a beautiful wife and two sons.

I am so fortunate to have received the revelation of God and His redemption plan and it is my desire that everyone would give God an honest opportunity to reveal Himself. I speak from personal experience, it is life-changing.