Adventure, Romance & Revival

Adventure, Romance & Revival

An Ordinary Couple Doing Extraordinary Exploits For God

A True Story

by

Drs. George and Hazel Hill

Published by

Victory International Publishing

Copyright ©1999 by Drs. George & Hazel Hill

Printed in Canada

ISBN: 0-920567-17-7

Digital ISBN: 978-0-920567-57-9

Victory Churches International

Box 65077, North Hill P.O.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 4T6

Website: http://www.victoryint.org

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the authors.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright © 1988 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified Bible, Expanded Edition. Copyright © 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation and the Lockman Foundation.

For Worldwide Distribution

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Dedication

We dedicate this book to God for His Glory! The twenty years and more of Victory would not have been possible except for all the men and women, youth and children who have caught the vision, prayed for the vision, given to the vision and run with the vision of this great apostolic, prophetic and church planting movement.

We dedicate this book to you—all of you who are a part of the Victory family who have made this story for His Glory!

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Table of Contents

Forward

Part One - Dr. Hazel Hill

Chapter 1 - ‘An Aussie From Down Under’

Chapter 2 - Young and Adventurous

Chapter 3 - Jesus is Real!

Chapter 4 - Together Again

Chapter 5 - God Answers a Wife’s Prayers

Chapter 6 - Becoming a Christian Family

Chapter 7 - Know Your Real Enemy

Chapter 8 - Beginning of Revival

Chapter 9 - The Church on the Move

Chapter 10 - Enlarged and Delivered from Fear

Chapter 11 - A Salvation Promise for Dad

Chapter 12 - Disciples for His Harvest

Chapter 13 - His Hands Extended to a Hurting World

Chapter 14 - Our Humble Missions Beginnings

Chapter 15 - Facing a Giant

Part Two - Dr. George Hill

Chapter 16 - England’s ‘Gorgeous George’

Chapter 17 - A Spirit of Adventure

Chapter 18 - Small Bible - BIG Revelation

Chapter 19 - The ‘Miracle’ Farm

Chapter 20 - A Time of Stretching

Chapter 21 - The Pastoral Call

Chapter 22 - The Church on the Move

Chapter 23 - Expansion of the Vision

Chapter 24 - A Church Planting Vision is Born

Chapter 25 - The Move to Medicine Hat

Chapter 26 - The Place of Blessing

Chapter 27 - The Development of Victory Churches International

Appendix I

Appendix II

Appendix III

Appendix IV

Appendix V

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

About the Book

Books By Drs. George & Hazel Hill

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Foreword

The phone call came on Sunday afternoon. It was early fall of 1984.

When you are the pastor of a little church in a small town in Saskatchewan, you have to learn not to expect things to progress too quickly. This morning’s service had been particularly disheartening. In those early days I suffered often from pastor’s blues". I was trying so hard to be a good pastor, but when things didn’t go right I would start thinking about all the other ways I could make a living. Sometimes I just wanted to quit and run away somewhere!

Hey, Wendy called from the other room. It’s George and Hazel Hill!

We had met the Hills at a couple of pastor’s conferences several months previous and we had enjoyed their friendship and enthusiastic spirit, but no other pastor had ever phoned us before. I couldn’t imagine what they could want. I was surprised that they even remembered us. They said they just sensed that we could use some encouragement.

Before long we were pouring out our hearts, sharing how discouraged and hopeless we felt. They seemed to understand exactly what we were going through and offered us all kinds of support and encouragement. By the time we hung up the phone almost an hour later we felt ready to face anything! I know God was still with us and that we were still in His will.

Our friendship grew and a couple of years later when God called Wendy and I into a travelling ministry it didn’t take long for us to decide to base our ministry out of the Hills church, Victory Christian Fellowship in Lethbridge, Alberta. We had no way of knowing at the time that we would be joining what would become one of North America’s fastest growing church planting movements with branches all over the world. Little did we know that out of this church an apostolic vision would be birthed that would see hundreds of men and women raised up into full-time ministry; that Wendy and I would soon be caught up in an explosion of church planting so intense that at times it would feel as if we were tied to the front of a speeding locomotive! We only knew that here, under the leadership of George and Hazel was a place where people believed God could do anything! The Hills were down to earth people who preached that what God could do through them—He could do through anyone who was willing. There was excitement in the very air.

Over the years my respect for George and Hazel Hill has continued to grow. They have consistently side-stepped all of the pitfalls that have brought down many great church leaders. They are honest, faithful, humble, and sincere servants of Christ. Their ministry has been consistently marked by the same qualities they showed during that afternoon phone call: Spirit led sensitivity towards people’s needs; a contagious faith in God’s Word and His miracle power. They pour their whole hearts enthusiastically into everything they do; they believe in people and genuinely seek to help them fulfill their potential; their compassion for souls has compelled them to pursue an ever expanding vision of reaching and equipping people around the world. They are the clearest examples of modern-day New Testament apostles that I am aware of. Whatever it is that they have going for them—it’s highly contagious! I pray that as you read this exciting record of their adventures that you will be touched by their spirit and moved by their example to also attempt great things for God!

Pastor Bradley T. Dewar

Vice-President

Victory Churches International

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Part One - Dr. Hazel Hill

Chapter One

‘An Aussie From Down Under’

SPECIAL MEMORIES

Special memories drift through my mind of warm summer days, surf and white sands, a barbe on the beach for Christmas dinner and cool lemonade in the shade. I can almost feel the warmth of those long summer nights and see mother on the piano like a mother hen with all her little chicks gathered around, singing as best we could. I remember going to the outhouse and tripping over a cane toad—big ugly thing! We had a kangaroo that lived with us for a while. Dad taught him how to box, even put gloves on him and put him in the ring. You had to watch his tail though, one swipe with it would send you back into next week. Kangaroos and koala bears were common to us, along with the precious Aborigine people who worked on the farms—when they weren’t on a walkabout. There was the sound of Dad’s car coming up the drive. Dad’s home! was a familiar cry. I remember watching up the road for mum to disembark the tramcar after a hard day’s work. How I loved them both.

One of my warmest memories was the special day my brother Stan was born. My dad had taken me to work with him that day. He had packed a lunch box with tea in the flask, enough for us both—just dad and I. Mum was in the hospital having Stanley and today was the day we would pick them up from the hospital and bring them home.

I worked with Dad picking up nails and handing him his hammer, screwdriver, and saw, but mostly staying by his side. I was so proud of my dad. He was a skilled carpenter and I loved his rugged good looks and his hard working rough hands; after all, he was my dad.

At lunch we sat together and ate our tucker (‘Aussie’ for food), pumping water to drink from the old outdoor pump. It was just like a picnic. Dad was so happy mum was coming home with his long awaited son. A son; isn’t that what every man wants? My two sisters, Mirth and Kenrae, the twins, were born five years before me and now six years had passed since my birth. Mum and dad knew they were having twins. They had names picked out if they turned out to be boys. One would be called Ken (after my dad’s twin who died at birth) and the other, Rae. The twins turned out to be girls, thus one was named after mum, Mirth; and the other was given the combined name, Kenrae. Not expecting a son after I was born; our dad, who was a good boxer, had taught us girls to box, fish, and work.

A BEAUTIFUL MOTHER—A BEAUTIFUL BROTHER

Finally, the time came to pick up our new family member. I climbed into the truck with visions of this doll-like creature that would soon be my new play friend, and mum’s warm loving arms to hug me once again. It was no time at all before we were all bundled in the truck; dad, mum, and me, sitting by the window holding this incredible baby with his soft skin, round face, and black hair—but he had no teeth and hardly ever opened his eyes! Watch his head, dear, my mother said, putting her hand between the window handle and baby Stanley’s head.

My mother was incredibly beautiful with her jet-black hair naturally waved into a forties hairstyle, tall and slim, with piercing eyes and olive skin. She was born in the North of Queensland in Mackay. Dad, the twins and I were also born there. Stanley was the only one born in Brisbane, where our family lived most of their lives, except for me. I left home just before my eighteenth birthday to travel the world; to see and do as much as possible, only returning to Australia for the occasional visit.

A HARD WORKING FAMILY

Mackay was the sugar cane capital of Australia. In the early days, we lived on a sugar cane farm; dad held the record for the fastest cane cutter in the North. Everything was done by hand. Today we have giant machines to do what hard working men like my dad used to do manually. Yes, we were very hard workers. Life wasn’t easy in those days. My mum washed our clothes in an outdoor copper boiler, lifting them from the boiler to the tub to rinse with great long sticks, like giant chopsticks. Clothes were rinsed, put through a hand ringer and then hung on the clothesline to dry. I still remember the day my dad came home from work with that ringer. Of course we all had a turn at working it. Mum was the happiest though, because now she didn’t have to wring those sheets by hand. Life was getting a little easier.

We moved to Brisbane when I was quite young. It was in Brisbane that we buried my mum at age sixty-five, and dad at eighty-five. I was in Canada when my mother died of a brain hemorrhage, and was unable to get back in time for