In writing the report on the Melbourne breakfast there are two main points I will highlight.

• The presence of the Lord at the breakfast was described by one teacher as precious and personal.
• The Lord doesn’t rely on scripture verses to draw children to Himself.

Stephen Leslie the guest speaker at the Melbourne breakfast shared a true account of a young boy in a state primary school who came to know the Lord through a ‘random’ comment that an adult made.  This story is particularly encouraging for teachers in government schools.

Stephen is the principal of Northside Christian College and has been teaching since 1975.

The small but select group was indeed blessed by his talk.

The theme for all the breakfasts this year is Isaiah 61:1-3, which begins with “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me.”

Ineke Laning and her daughter Danielle are both teachers and both attended the teachers’ breakfast in Hobart last year.

So it was wonderfully appropriate for Ineke to accept the invitation to be the guest speaker this year.  Ineke is Dean of Students (in charge of discipline) at Calvin Christian School and has 4 sons as well as the gorgeous Danielle.

Ineke knows she is called to teach.

She stated that the Lord has anointed her.

I discovered the guest speaker for Brisbane while surfing the web.  I came across the One Voice Conference and one of the speakers caught my eye as her promo said she was a Moslem who had converted to Christianity.

Not only that but she was an ESL teacher in a state high school in Queensland!

I followed through on contacting Abida Francois and was thrilled when she too felt it was a divine appointment.  Abida has also agreed to speak at the conference in September!

Abida’s dramatic testimony was central to her address to the teachers.

After living as a Moslem for 20 years, Abida found out that Jesus Christ had died for everyone, not just for white people.  Even after completing a double degree and working as a teacher, Abida did not know that Jesus Christ had died for the whole world.  No one had told her!

The breakfast in Adelaide happened to coincide with the National Day of Thanksgiving (NDT).  Brian Hagger incorporated the NDT into his address and not only thanked the teachers for their commitment as Christian educators but also presented each of them with the official yellow THANK YOU ribbon that is part of the NDT resources.

Brian’s talk had three parts to it:

• the ministry of Jesus
• the ministry of the disciples
• his own walk with the Holy Spirit

Brian began his talk by defining the word “anointing”. This word is quite significant in the theme of the breakfasts, Anointed for Service based on Isaiah 61.

I praise God for the faithfulness and commitment of the teachers in Canberra.
I know they have been hand picked to support the vision of the breakfasts and the conference.
The group that gathered on Saturday 20th February was a wonderful mix of new faces and familiar faces.