The year was 1997. I was sitting on the floor during a Bible study at a friend's house in Melbourne, Australia where I was serving as a youth pastor for the local church. This particular week we had a new guy whom I'll call Ted. He had become friends with one of the members of our Bible study group through work. Immediately a friendship formed and when Ted was invited to attend our bible study he enthusiastically agreed to come.

        It immediately became evident that Ted was not accustomed to prayer, Bible study, religion, church, or even God. In fact we discovered that Ted had recently learned about Jesus and had accepted Him as Lord and Savior only a few weeks prior.

            We rejoiced with Ted over his new found freedom from sin through Jesus Christ.

           We read, discussed, prayed, and sang together. The moment that sticks out in my mind was our song service. One of the songs we sang was the old favorite, "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In." As we sang the song with gusto Ted joined in for the first time I was curious how he knew the words when he hadn't known the words to any other songs. We sang the chorus one final time "...oh how I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in..." As the music began to fade Ted jumped up, wildly pumping his fist up and down as he yelled "GO, Saint Kilda!"

        After the laughter died down it was then I learned about a local football team's "fight song." The Saint Kilda Saints used "Oh When the Saints" as their team's song.

          After he got over the initial shock that his football team's song was actually a song about God's children going to heaven, his face became serious as he told us about his life and how much he was looking forward to what God has in store for all of us.

          1 John 5:20 "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life."