A fire breathing Brazilian

Rumour has it he can breathe fire, play acoustic guitar, and is studying at bible college. This week we catch up Giuliano Bordoni to learn a bit more about his faith journey and how he came to ashgrove.

Can you tell us about your decision to come to Australia?

That's a story of those kinds of unexpected things God does in our lives sometimes. In September last year, I was invited to attend the 8^th World Assembly of the Bible Societies in Seoul, South Korea, to represent Brazil as a youth delegate. After that, in January of this year, I was supposed to go to the USA and start my preparation for pastoral ministry in New York City. Because of the three months gap between those two events, I was given the opportunity to come to Australia in order to improve my English. Cutting a long story short, after three months in Australia, God spoke to me saying that my time here was not finished and that I should start my studies in Brisbane. So I went to New Zealand to get a new visa and came back to Australia in the beginning of April, and I haven't left the country since then.

How did you become a Christian?

I became a Christian in 2000. My church at that stage had an evangelistic campaign where the small groups were encouraged to invite their non-Christian friends to a party and create opportunities in those parties to share the gospel. I was invited to one of those events by a friend from school and I started going to church after that. I didn't become a Christian straight away, but it didn't take long to be convinced in one of the services, that I was a sinner that needs a saviour. Probably around four months after that evangelistic party I was baptised by one of the pastors in my church.

How did you end up at ashgrove?

During my enrolment process at Malyon Baptist College I ended up knowing Ian Walton who was the registrar. In one of the conversations that I had with him I told him I had been looking for a new church to attend and asked for his help. He told me about several churches and one of them was ashgrove. He put me in touch with Kevin and after a coffee with him (I actually drank a milkshake, Haha!) I started coming to ashgrove to get to know the church and find out if I would like to get involved. That happened in the beginning of May and as you can see I am still here...[he laughs].

Want to know more about Giuliano? Why not go and introduce yourself and hear more about his story...