Revival City Church Tailem Bend

When I told my mom about my findings at 3am that morning, she said we’ll go there that Sunday but we couldn’t wait for Sunday, so we went that day itself — it was a Monday. That’s how I ended up in Tailem Bend that day.

Then God told me, through my devotion, to inform the church that I was coming to visit, and to let them know why, and who we were. So I did. I emailed them. But I only did it on Saturday night. So I doubt they had time to read my email.

When Sunday actually came, we realized we were previously scheduled to meet with that same friend of ours. So I had to wait another week.

Nobody replied my email, so I tried leaving a message on Instagram this time.

The following Sunday, we realized dad had to lead the worship at our church online, so mom promised we would make it the following Sunday. Honestly, I was fine with that as they had not yet received my message.

During that week, someone from LifePoint texted me, reminding me about Meet and Greet that night — it was a Wednesday. 

“Hi Anna, this is — from Lifepoint church. I am one of the Pastors on staff. Looking forward to seeing you and the family this evening 06:30pm for the Welcome to church party. God bless.”

I had signed up for Meet and Greet but we weren’t ready to go that night. And I did not see any dates or times when I signed up. When mom called, he said he was a pastor from Modbury. Whoops. It’s a good thing we didn’t go! Wrong LifePoint. So he gave us Pastor Timothy’s mobile number.

That’s when I finally got a chance to text him personally. I told him we were coming to visit because I felt God asking me to come. 

His reply was rather brief. Something like: Amazing! See you in church.

I wasn’t quite satisfied with that answer. I was expecting something like, “where are you from, how did you hear about us, tell me more, etc.”

So I went on to say we had a mutual friend (found this out from his FB — do I qualify as a stalker now?).

His answer was, “He’s a great guy.” And that was it. I was pretty offended (People get offended by almost anything these days. And I am people, apparently.) I kept wondering how he could just answer so briefly and whether he really cared at all about this church. Thought he was pretty stuck up and all. So much judgments came flooding in the next couple of days. Basically, I didn’t want to be wrong about this, especially when I knew I was really on to something, and I was not happy that his brief replies could mean that he was not going to entertain us that Sunday when I finally brought my whole family including my parents who were ‘somebodys’.

But at least I did it. I was obedient to God. I sent that message. He may not entertain but I did my part. He knows we are coming. 

We finally got to go that Sunday. It was Father’s Day.

Elisha was not too happy about going on Father’s Day. Neither were the kids. They had something else going on in that mega church they’ve been attending the last 5 Sundays and 4 Fridays. They were looking forward to sausage sizzles at 9.30am (instead of the usual 10am) while they had a car exhibition on church grounds by the members who had cars to show off. Just the Sunday earlier, Elisha was talking about his plans about going early for the Father’s Day event. I felt horrible about crashing it. I almost let my guilt have the better of me, but he caved and drove us to Tailem Bend. I am now indebted to him. This had better be good or I’ve just really screwed up. As usual.

We parked. A young girl opened the door for us. She seemed to look familiar. No idea why. This was Tailem Bend and we were from Murray Bridge, so there was no reason for us to have bumped into her before. We got in. The usher outside the sanctuary doors greeted us. There was an exchange of hands.

“Are you from Victoria?”

“Yes.”

“I’m — from the Homeschooling group.”

“Oh! Hi!”

“I recognized you from your profile pic.” Not a lot of Asians in this area, I’m guessing. She continued, “We’ve come from Murray Bridge as well.”

I found out her kid’s ages and names. Then, we sat down in church with the kids for worship. Yes, the kids join the worship! WooHoo~ (Can’t emphasize more on inter generational worship especially after giving Eleora a long lecture on that.)

During the worship, Arianne brought me out. She saw the toys earlier and was determined to play with them. So I had a long chat with that homeschooling mom about why I was there.

“We have actually been going to LifeHouse. I call that my husband’s church. I don’t really want to go but go because my family goes.” I explained.

“Oh, I hope you find a church soon.”

“No, it’s really not like that. We’re not looking for a church or anything. I’m actually here because I believe God sent me here.” And I’m thinking, “okay, that sounded super cheesy. Everyone says that.”

So I had to start my story from the beginning.

“It’s a long story, but I actually had a friend come over for a visit who wanted to buy a property in Tailem Bend, so I said I would like to as well. And later that week, I asked the Lord what He thought about Tailem Bend, and I saw the words, ‘God’s Country.’ And I saw a revival tent in Tailem Bend.”

I went on, “so when that friend came back to visit, I asked her what she thought of Tailem Bend, and she said it was full of witches, but I told her about what I saw, and she said that Miracle Tents were started by Ralph and Tim Hall, and when I asked her if Tim Hall had a church, she said no, but his son, David Hall had a church in Modbury. So I googled and saw, ‘Revival Country Night here at Lifepoint Church Tailem Bend’ and found out that David Hall had a church in Tailem Bend.”

“David Hall is our senior pastor in Modbury. He doesn’t come here. This is a campus church. Our campus pastor is Pastor Tim,” The children ministry teacher said, “There is a Revival Night in Mount Barker on Wednesday. You are welcome to go,” she continued.

“Oh, ok…” I answered. But I felt called to Tailem Bend and not Mount Barker, so I brushed it aside. She must have thought I just came for revival nights.

When the service ended, I waited for Pastor Keith or Timothy to come out. I had to tell them why we were here.

*to be continued*