 I came here to resettle my life from a place of war. Finding myself in this country, you have challenges that you would not have in your own native country. And the environment changed, weather changed, staple food changed, language changed - I grew up speaking local pigeon English, but now I speak proper English here; friends change - I’m surrounded by my diverse group of friends from all walks of life. We began in Auckland, only briefly, to get a familiar feel, get an idea. But since then, we’ve been in Wellington. I can’t imagine living in Auckland. Queenstown is nice. Wellington is home for now. I might move to Queenstown, I like Queenstown. What do you love the most about Wellington? The culture - diverse culture. I love food, and be able to walk down the city and have all sorts of different food that you can imagine: Asian, Indian, European, Kiwi. I always have my sense of relationship around food: to be able to talk and have a coffee, when you have a nice conversation in a relaxed atmosphere and exchange idea and share things you wouldn't have in strained situations. Being in the city, you have access to all types of food and cultures. That’s one of my favourite things about Wellington. Do you have any future goals in mind? You can’t really put a goal on life. But you just sort of go one day at a time, things you do everyday, things you do routinely. I want to continue to progress with the life that I have, better myself, support my community, inspire others, continue to grow with the Spirit in mind. Setting goals along the way that you can meet everyday, every month, every year, every season. Seasonably and routinely, be a deeper, greater influence to people around me, and also to communities out there. And that can happen anywhere you are. For what I do get in Wellington, I'd like to use that as a positive influence. We live in a place where we can be the best we can be. I think using all of that: to help others who are perhaps not quite aware of how to access that, draw that from within themselves. A lot of people tend to go far to find themselves, and that’s fine, I’ve done that too, I’ve travelled a lot to find myself. But I think I would like to teach people so that people realise that finding yourself really begins from within. Even when you're in a pit, a pit can become a paradise. Gold comes within yourself. You gain wisdom for how to use them. Wherever you are becomes the paradise to you. I would like to influence people, to help them stay content, to realise the state of contentment, by being around them - I’d like to be available - Be there for people. When you travel afar, what [you] see and experience can compliment and become a greater influence in you. I marvel at creation. Because I know where it comes from. I don't believe it’s evolution. I know where it comes from. It’s amazing: the whole idea, the whole concept. You kind of begin to conceptualise how great the Creator is. His great arms and power compared to what we toil at day after day... It’s just amazing. The only real knowledge is the one God gives, and the only wisdom is the one God gives. Science is great. but it’s God who gives it to us. How can men acknowledge that their knowledge is great? To think your knowledge is powerful is complete foolishness. Where did you get your knowledge from? Where did you start, where do you finish? That’s why celebrities become so famous. Because people idolize them. But human beings only go so far. We lose our connections with our being. Everything becomes meaningless. But when you’re connected with God, everything is meaningful. Even when you look at a bird. Everything is endless. And for people to abandon that wisdom, I think it’s foolish. How can you forego that for something temporary? So, in the end, who is really foolish? People who believe in God or people who reject God? I can think that if you don't believe in God, it’s because you don't know Him. But when you know him... What do you think about man's quest to conquer the Everest? There’s two ways of looking at it: You can conquer a mountain as in “I can do this.” It’s foolishness. But okay, God is going to take me up this mountain, and God presents me challenges in life, for His glory, for His purpose. So then it’s not about personal glory, then it makes it so much more glorious. But when it’s just about "you you you", I don't enjoy reading about people writing their own story. I don't want to read about "you you you". All I end up doing is follow you and idolize you. But if you tell me that you‘ve done this with God, here’s someone who’s done something through God. Then I look at that with encouragement. That whole "me me me" just doesn't appeal to me. And this day and age, it’s like a bad perfume, that’s what the world’s come to be. I think when we really connect with ourselves, really go deep - to find ourselves, remove the noise - it won't take you long to discover your Creator. But go deeper - because who you are is what God created in you, If we go deeper into ourselves, we see God. Everything in this world is false: we have to create false things, it’s like technology, we have to keep advancing - it’s too dreary and burdensome. It’s really like a bad perfume that I don't want to wear or smell - I don't want my clothes to reek with bad smell. When you discover who you are, you really find those things as rotten food in your mouth, when you pursue death. When you become a woman, you don't wanna choose friends who remain as little boys, little girls. I think in time, the end in the Revelation is drawing closer and closer. You can see the Prophecy fulfilling everyday. As we grow closer and closer to it, people become more stubborn. But it also makes a lot of people become closer to Him. That’s why you see ISIS people have Christians slaughtered. But people will come to God in a way that’s so intense, so real, when facing their death, it doesn't matter - because you can't kill my soul. We die on this Earth but our spirit lives on. Things will get worse, even worse. But God is greater, things will get better. A lot more people will get in closer relationship with Him. The 12 apostles did not die peacefully. What you have is to end in peace: you know where you’re going to be, what your life is going to be like. The flesh is fading anyway, so big deal that you’re gonna get persecuted. So pain is painless to them, it encourages you to carry on your relationship with God. So unfortunately it will get worse. People who do come to God will have a real genuine relationship with God. You either have one with God or you don't. With prosecution, you will have a stronger relationship with God, so much stronger in you, so much deeper in you. My moral for life is the word of God. Because it is practical, it’s spiritual, it is not faulty. If you find it faulty it’s because you rejected [it], it convicts you of things you should not be doing. So for me, my moral code is the Bible. I don't necessarily pick it up and go "oh wow, I’ll follow this." What is in the Bible will make sense to you, when other people may not through conviction; you find things that apply to you, you know how it sits in your spirit; and when you’re on the conviction, it’s hard to go against it. When God speaks to you in His word, it’s hard to go against [them], because it’ll be going against everything that’s who you are. We are born in sin. It means that, until God calls us into salvation through His son, we don't have the spiritual understanding of who He is until He calls us into relationship with Him. That means we are inclined to sway away because that’s who we are. The son’s choice in the Book of Mark: He was genuine that He wanted to go live his life, and he was redeemed, and it’s the greatest story of Redemption. It’s beautiful because even though we stray, we have the opportunity. What's interesting about that is the adversary. Paul knows so many people who’d gone that way. He was so damaged that he thought, “there was no salvation for me”. It took interference [from] God for Paul to turn around. God is greater, He will bring you back in such a great way that what Satan did before did not matter. What Paul did was so legalistic, but with grace - it's amazing how God works like that. People no, only God determines that. He’s able to do everything. It takes faith: it takes trusting when you go on an air plane to go afar - you trust the pilot. How can trust towards God be so limited in men? That’s foolishness. Because what power does men have? I don't understand it when men come to so love themselves and money. Like after an 8 point something earthquake - do you call upon men or do you call upon God? God exists. We wanna keep indulge ourselves in our sin. Until impossible situations, man is foolish until God gives greater purpose for himself. Some of wonderful Christians who were once before atheists, and now they found God and how God has used them all these years of non-belief to make it so powerful - to make him commit to Life at last. It’s all a blindfold that Satan, the adversary, put on our faces. We just work around believing in superficial things. It really takes God to remove that superficiality from our lives. And that’s what you pray for, so that they may have a chance to live a life that God wants [you] to live; and you pray for yourself - without being affected by them. Manifestations of God is in his Bible. His words manifest in reality, in practicality. And it takes the Holy Spirit in you - the spiritual eyes - to see the manifestations. God is deep. God’s blessed us with knowledge, but there’s so much more to God. When you meet God, you grasp how awesome He is, an amazing power that’s all Him. He humbles you by His presence. When you meet your Creator, you don't go “Hi!” You go,”Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!” You don't say it standing up. You just completely lose yourself. For me, I've had these encounters in recluse. God is not loud. The devil is loud - but he is very subtle - He’s not the horned, red devil: He came to Adam and Eve, God said, "you shouldn’t eat that but...” So he’s very subtle. God is very quiet, very soft. And all you know is “Wow...Wow..Wow...” I would take the moment and just thank Him. The first thing came into mind is pray, pray. “Thank you.” He’s with you and He manifests Himself. I don't imagine the Buddha appears to people, or for whatever belief system. But I've passed the stage of criticizing people. At the very start, I was so raw, so “Wow!” I was quite wowed! You know? But He refines you, pushes you to the far. I’m getting to the stage now where I’m more sympathetic with people. When I see situations where people point their fingers, I just pray for them, pray for leaders in the world. It’s good to let them know what the Bible says, but at the same time, you need to ask God for his power, to grant power to guide them. And also you need to pray for protection for God’s power so you don't become affected by them. What would you do when you encounter an antagonistic atheist? Everyday, every morning, I pray for God’s manifestations. I study the Word so that gives me background information and knowledge. Whoever I encounter, wherever God wants to reveal them, it happens. What I know is not my idea, it’s what God wants. My duty is to read His words, study His words, pray to Him, and the way He speaks to me is different from how He will speak to them. The worst of evil is when you believe what you’re doing is right. Religious evil begins with ourselves. When you don't read the Bible with the Spirit, it’s applied in the wrong context. And the story goes on and on. God has used me in terms of His change in me and refining me. So what comes out of me is more of Himself and less of me. I see that, as a person, He uses me to be supportive, affirmative, prayerful, in so many ways that I myself would not do as nearly, in ways I would not pursue in the past. I see Him using me in a positive light. And it’s nothing to do with me, I don't say “I...I...I...” It’s not me, I'm not capable. Narrowly, I'm quite selfish and self-absorbed. But with Him it’s like a great weight lifting off your shoulder. It’s really burdensome to carry “Me, me me”. When He moves in you, you really don't think about “I, I, I”. Your language changes, He honours you, because you’re in a much better life than you’ll ever be. Beauty is repugnantly ugly. But when He comes in and beautifies you, it really becomes more beautiful than ever. If you look into the mirror, you really just make yourself tidy. Wherever God takes me now, amongst people close to me, I think His light is the light that sees, His liberation is the light that feels. He touches them in me, through me. The source of any strong idea, anything meaningful, is God. But you have to be willing to want that, as opposed to man-made idea about what is good. It doesn't mean that you'll have to become someone that reads the Bible. It can be wherever he uses you: It can be a street-fighter, someone in the entertainment world, someone in psychology. Wherever He uses you, God can use you greatly in that area. It’s just allowing Him from within to come in, and fill in all those gaps that you try to fill, that none of us can fill. It’s not just a life of mediocrity, it isn't. All of us have been given gifts, when it comes to relationship with God. It sounds nice to hear someone sing, it sounds nice but when you sing with God, it’s like a mountain has been broken down. We become greater if we allow God to come in and release His glory. God glorifies us by revealing Himself through us. And that’s the greatest life you could ever live. Who would ever consider Paul mediocre? Or Moses that led the israelites mediocre? Or Josh that led the army? Or King David? Or Abraham at his age? They wouldn't be considered mediocre if they had a force behind them.
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