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Joel A'Bell

Joel A'Bell

Regional Leader for Oceania at Convoy of Hope Australia, former senior lead pastor at Hillsong Church (until 2019) and founder of Revitalise Church in Sydney.

Oct 4, 2026

14:17
Would you do that for us, please?
14:18
I would love to, Tosh.
14:20
I'd love to.
14:21
I'm not sure, as you're listening, wherever you are around the country now, I'm not sure what your thoughts are on communion.
14:28
Maybe it's a solemn moment.
14:30
Maybe it's done infrequently for you at special events.
14:37
But it's been highly traditionalized in some ways.

34 MINS LATER

48:58
Well, technically, it's probably the only five-minute sermon they're going to hear as well, so we're safe.
3:01
Is this always what you've done? How did you end up being a part of Convoy?
3:05
Great question.
3:06
So Jules and I have been involved in church work for our whole married life, really, since before we got married.
3:12
Been pastors in churches, planted churches, led churches.
3:16
Some of you might know Hillsong Church.
3:17
We did that.
3:18
We were leading Hillsong for 20 years in Australia.

9 MINS LATER

12:23
How would you tell someone to navigate that?
Eric Skattebo
Eric SkatteboCORRESPONDENT
14:08
Is that right?
14:09
Yeah, totally.
14:10
We're a global organization.
14:12
So we're just national directors here in Australia and New Zealand, and we've got the same kind of roles all over the world.
14:19
So when it comes to disaster response, disaster relief, we have a headquarters that monitors storms and activities all around the world.
14:27
We often wake up to messages saying that an earthquake just happened somewhere.
14:32
We'll see everything that's going on.
Eric Skattebo
Eric SkatteboCORRESPONDENT
17:12
What impact did that trip have on you?
7:00
But how important is it? And what sort of reception do you get when you turn up?
7:05
Look, I think there is a little bit of hesitation at first because these people are quite resilient and they've learned to do life difficultly without water.
7:14
And so they're a bit skeptical.
7:15
If you come in like a mining company trying to come in and take our land, that can be a challenge.
7:20
But I think the book of James teaches us that if we believe in God but we have no intention of acting on it, then we really are lying.
7:28
We're not really believing in God if we don't want to give charity, don't want to act like Jesus would have acted.
7:35
And so when you come into a community and you can offer them a result, a resolve of their crisis, they do get a little bit excited, but they're wondering, is this empty promises? Are we going to follow through? I think the great thing now with Convoy of Hope is because we've been in so many communities, you've only got to point to a community a couple of hours away and say, do you know those people? Oh, you did that.
8:23
What is it that's going to happen that's going to get water to them and keep them from having to do the painful thing of having to send their women and children sometimes walking seven kilometres to and from the water supply? What are you going to see as a result of some fundraising?

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