Special Family Outing

With Rich being gone so much (he's going to Fiji again on Saturday), we decided to go on a special family outing to Auckland last Friday/Saturday. The kids REALLY wanted to go to a Benny Hinn meeting there, after watching "This Is Your Day" on a regular basis when we were in Germany last (on God TV via satellite). So off we went.

It was an adventure just to get there. We thought we'd be fine for time getting there 1 1/2hours before the start of the evening (after driving 2 1/2hours). WRONG!
After getting stuck in traffic and being a little later than anticipated, we stood in a huge line of people - like sardines in a can - to get into Auckland's biggest indoor stadium for close to an hour. There were still 2-3000 people outside with us when the organizers decided to close the doors because the house was full.

Now comes the good part: our Samoan pastor friend (the really generous one, remember?) that we were going to stay with that night after the meeting, felt to come to the entrance. He was inside, getting concerned that we hadn't arrived yet and wanted to look for us. That's when he found out that they were going to close the doors...

What now? He quickly reacted and after a short phone call from Rich (thank God for cell phones!) just in time (we didn't know they were going to close the doors, Rich just felt to call Salomon), he got the main security guy and insisted that there was this pastor outside with his family that HAD TO get in. He even took off his own pastor's badge and showed it as if it were ours ...

And we couldn't believe our eyes when the security guy came outside - we weren't far from the entrance - and signaled for us to get in quickly. I guess it wasn't hard to spot us - we were just about the only white people in the queue... Auckland is amazingly multi-cultural - we love it!
Anyways, little did we know at the time that we would have stayed outside had he not done that... OUFF!!! Made it JUST in time! And felt really sorry for all the people left outside ... :(

Not only that - we were then escorted by Salomon to some of the best seats in the 12.000 seat stadium - in the VIP section. Now that was another answer to prayer. We'd prayed for good seats, since the kids wanted to be as close as possible to the "action" - and "action" there was!

God's kind of action - it was amazing, beautiful, touching!!!

I don't care how some people critizise Benny Hinn. We found him to be a man of God - preaching the Gospel clearly (and no, not asking for money in an exaggerated way!).

We were sitting right next to the aisle where empty wheelchairs kept coming with people walking behind them - and a long line of people standing in line waiting to testify to a healing God had done. I think we will never forget the joy, tears and faces of the people on stage testifying of numerous healings, including deaf ears opened, arthritis gone and all kinds of other pains gone. There was a man who had been dismissed from hospital that afternoon. The doctors sent him home, giving him one week to live - he was dying of cancer and in a lot of pain. He felt God surge through him and all his pain was gone. He was convinced he was healed! And on and on!

OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD!!!