OCF I Salute You

The most blessed and wonderful experience I have had for a long time came this Easter weekend. It came in the form of an invitation to be the guest speaker at the annual Easter Camp for the OCF students at University (Overseas Christian Fellowship) They are a group of young students mostly of Asian origin at the university who meet regularly for worship, fellowship and ministry on campus. Once a year they organise a camp at Easter time. This year their camp was held at Ellendale, a small town about an hours drive from Hobart in a beautiful part of Tasmania, up past New Norfolk and Bushy Park.



Around 80 students attended the camp this year and the group included quite a number of non Christian students invited along by the OCF team. It was a sheer delight to share the weekend with such a warm and loving group of people. They somehow seemed infused with a deep sense of joy in just being together. There was infectious laughter all weekend through. As we watched this group of students we began to see that their laughter and joy was more than just a superficial thing. They really loved one another and went out of their way to include one another. They served one another, they honoured one another, they esteemed one another and they carried one another’s burdens.

It wasn’t until they began to worship however, that their faces began to take on a whole new radiance. Their worship was refreshingly simple. There was just two or three guitars and sometimes a keyboard, but the worship that flowed had a beauty and a sincerity about it that affected me deeply. You could not remain a passive observer in worship for long before feeling the magnetic pull of God’s Spirit within. The worship would usher in a profound sense of God’s presence. People would unashamedly express their love for Jesus openly in worship.




I was invited to speak on the topic of ‘Jesus’. I had three sessions, ‘Who is Jesus?’, ‘Why did He die?’ and ‘How can I know Him?’ It is such an amazing experience to open the scriptures in front of a group of people who are hungry for God and receptive to His Word. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so affirmed and encouraged as I have taught the Word of God.

On Friday night (Good Friday) I spoke on the cross. I was deeply aware that I was trying to communicate across both a language and a cultural barrier. I told them, ‘I wish I could speak your language, especially when I am wanting to talk to you about the cross’. I showed the final 30 minutes of the film, ‘The Passion of Christ’. There was much weeping. I then attempted to talk about the cross and why it is that the cross means so much to those of us who know the Lord. It was a such a profound privilege to stand and share the wonderful story of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and the wonderful grace of God that is ours. At the end of night several people came for prayer. I talked and prayed with a number of people who were not yet Christians but God was at work in their hearts. Worship and ministry continued late into the night.

The real highlight was still yet to come. On Saturday morning we met together again at 10am for our final session of the camp. We began as usual with about 30 minutes of worship. I talked again about Jesus and spoke about the parable of the pearl of great price. At the conclusion I invited people to come forward for prayer. Immediately people came. The ministry that followed extended for about three hours! It was a time that I will never forget. Some played instruments and quietly sang songs of worship. All over the room people were on their knees. Some stood with their hands raised to the Lord. Many were weeping openly and confessing sin and crying out for a greater outpouring of God’s Spirit in their lives. We were on Holy ground!

At one point I asked if someone would be willing to pray for Jo and I. Immediately the whole room came around us and began to pray for us. We knelt together as people prayed. We felt so loved and the presence of God seemed to increase even more. I began to weep as I said the Lord, ‘I want to know you and love you like these people do’.

The morning session went right on until about 2.30pm. It was no use thinking about lunch because the cooks were on their knees in prayer also.



This Easter we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. Here was a group of people who radiated the presence of the resurrected Jesus in their lives and faces. These students live very simply. They have little money and few signs of affluence or wealth. I could not help but think of Paul’s words in 11 Corinthians when he spoke about, ‘being poor, yet making many rich’ and of ‘having nothing, but possessing everything’.

I went to minister to them, but I have come home knowing that I received far more than I gave. Thankyou OCF. I salute you

Our cabin for the weekend

The camp site was an old hops farm. The old buildings were still in place and study sessions were held in one of these old buildings.