CHURCH PLANTING IN AUSTRALIA
SEPTEMBER, 2001
Dear Prayer Partners,
Proverbs 11:30 "The
fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is
wise."
As
we labour in Dubbo,
Gilgandra and surrounding towns we pray for the Lord's work in the hearts of
unsaved and saved. We desire for the unsaved to come to faith in Christ and for
the saved to be obedient in separating from the apostate and new evangelical
churches. Many an independent Baptist work was begun in Australia through a few
believers practicing the doctrine of Bible separation from apostasy and new
evangelicalism and joining themselves to an independent Baptist work.
Martin
Dodd visited during August. He is a young aboriginal
man who says he knows the Lord and has an Anglican Church background. He had
been attending the Mormons when he saw our sign out front. Pray he will continue
to attend the services. The young man from Queensland, David King, was hurt in a
farm accident 22 August. He had his foot operated on and will be laid up for at
least three months the doctor said. His father came down and took him back to
Queensland to recuperate. We will miss his attendance even though he was
spasmodic. We also had two couples from out of state visit during August. Mr.
and Mrs. Amery from Victoria and Mr. and Mrs. Fennell from Queensland visited.
The Amery's are members of Benalla independent Baptist church and the Fennell's
are members of the North Coast independent Baptist church in Buderim, QLD.
Recently
a letter arrived from former members of our church in Sydney and now back in New
Zealand.
Rolly and Anna McLean are New Zealanders who attended New Tribes Bible College
in Sydney and were also members of our church. After they graduated from college
they stayed in our church about five more years before going back to New
Zealand. Rolly works on a farm near Straford, NZ. Stratford has not a single
gospel preaching church so we have been praying with them that either the Lord
would send someone to start a work or use them to begin one. Rolly had led his
boss to the Lord a few years ago and he has been praying as well. Well, the Toko
Bible church (we wish it was Baptist) began eleven weeks ago and Rolly says they
usually have 25-35 each Sunday including children. He has been preaching on what
he calls God's institutions; family, government, and the local church. Rolly and
Anna had a brethren background when they began attending our work but they
eventually picked up on the importance of the local church. He wrote saying he
was "Spending more time on 'church' with emphasis on 'local.'" Pray
with us for the Lord to continue to work in hearts there in Stratford, NZ and
for souls to be saved. September 15 is the big day for our eldest son, Jonathan.
He will be getting married to Lynne Mercer. David will do the ceremony and
Matthew (our youngest child) will be best man. September is the first month of
spring so hopefully the weather that day will be nice. Then the weekend after
the wedding one of our supporting pastors (Pastor Alan Brown) will be visiting
with his wife and his parents. They will be with us 22, 23 September. They leave
for Sydney the afternoon of the 23rd to leave for the states on 25 September.
October
20 Pastor and Mrs. Van Kleeck arrive. He is pastor of our home sending church.
They will be with us until 25 October and then we will take them to Parkes, NSW
where they will spend the next week with Ross and Carolyn Trumble. Pray for
safety for both these pastors as they travel and for the Lord to use them as
they minister here in Australia. Thank you for your prayers and financial gifts.
In closing we would like to share a portion of Spurgeon's morning meditation for
28 August. The Scripture reference is Exodus 25: 6 "Oil for the lightΓÇ0"
Spurgeon then wrote "Our churches are the Saviour's golden candelabra, and
if they are to be lights in this dark world, they must have much holy oil. Let
us pray for ourselves, our ministers, and our churches, that they may never lack
oil for the light. Truth, holiness, joy, knowledge, love, these are all beams of
the sacred light, but we cannot give them forth unless in private we receive oil
from God the Holy Ghost." May each of us be found faithful when we meet our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Your
servants for Christ,
David and Pam Bennett 
