Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

"But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;"
II Tim. 3:14

The highlight of the month probably has something to do with the fact that I am writing this letter to you from New York.

[as of June 12th, back in New Zealand!!!]

God provided for Grace and I to make a quick, two week dash to the States. We are in the middle of our second term and have spent the last week reporting to and fellowshipping with the folks in our home church, the Emmanuel BBC in Martville, NY. Next week we will be catching up with my family in Maine, all of which (except for my folks) have never seen Grace. I will give you a full report in next month's letter.

The Rest of the News:

1. Another highlight of the month was the arrival of the Friendship BC teen missions team from Ewa, Hawaii. Sister Connie Parker and three teen age ladies came to NZ for two weeks and were a major blessing to the work here - letterboxing, helping around the church, doing a bit of doorknocking, etc. While these ladies were here, we held a special ladies luncheon for the ladies in our church with Mrs. Parker speaking. Twenty-three ladies came out with half of them having never been to our church before. Some excellent contacts were made that we are in the process of following up - please pray for these follow-ups.
   
   
2. With these ladies in the country, we also planned several activities for our teen group - at one activity we had 17 kids out with several being exposed to the gospel for the first time. A week later we took eight of our own teens along with the Hawaii crowd to the North Island to a teen rally. For many of our kids it was their first trip on the ferry, across the Cook Strait, and up north - and more importantly the first time they had ever met other teens in other independent Baptist churches who are serving the Lord. It was a hectic trip, but one that will Lord willing continue to bear fruit.
   
   
3. Last month I mentioned a brother by the name of "Ant" who believes that the Lord would have him to eventually serve in some type of full-time ministry. His desire in this regard has led to us setting up an individualized, full-time Bible institute training programme for him. This month we had another fellow in the church named Peter who wants to join in - both men are in their 40's and it is exciting to see the Lord working in their lives - please pray that the Lord will give me wisdom in training these men for whatever God's will is for their lives.
   
   
4. This month also saw the NZ Correspondence School of the Bible graduate its very first student. An older lady by the name of Mrs Campbell, who began studying with us 41 years ago, has just completed her verse-by-verse study of the entire Bible. She lives in a town where the nearest Bible preaching church we know of is two hours away. We are encouraged to see the correspondence school actually give the opportunity to study the Book to people in New Zealand who have no access to a decent church.
   
   While on the North Island in mid-June, I had the opportunity to meet a Maori couple who have been studying with the correspondence school for the past two years. The Sunday morning I met the Matuas they had driven over an hour to come to church - something they can do only occasionally. Joseph is a converted drug dealer, stuck in his home town because of his job situation and without a Bible preaching church in his home town - thank you for making it possible for us to start ministries like the NZ Correspondence School of the Bible that seem to be filling a definite need throughout this country.
   
   
5. In May we finished up our soul-winning class in Bible institute and Deb and I were able to take several of the folks out for their first go at knocking doors. This month we held our first soul-winning and visitation afternoon with three of the folks showing up. It is such a blessing to see Kiwis attempting to share the gospel with other Kiwis!
   
   
6. God keeps blessing our church services! We continue to average in the high thirties with a new record attendance this month of 56. We saw two teens in our church profess Christ as Saviour, baptized four believers, and we had two people join the church. I would specifically ask you to pray for an unsaved man named Rowen - his daughter was baptized this month and he came to church for the first time because of this. His wife and children faithfully attend and it was obvious that he was under conviction during the preaching, although he would not respond to the invitation. Thank you for praying for Rowen.
   
   The baptismal service I just mentioned was a special blessing for me this month as one of the folks I baptized was a dear 83 year old lady. Mrs. Lippiatt was led to Christ in February by her daughter Donna, who has only been saved eight months herself. Mrs. Lippiatt has gone and told her priest why she left the Catholic church, has followed her Lord in believer's baptism and has joined the church here in Blenheim. The blessings of serving God just seem to keep getting better every day - thank you so very much for supporting and praying for the Williams' family and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ in New Zealand!
   

Only Because of His Grace,

Jeff, Debby, Caleb, Luke & Grace


Field Address: PO Box 484,
Blenheim, New Zealand
Telephone: 64-3-572-9981
E-mail address: jeffwill@voyager.co.nz
Web page: http://www.sureword.com/williams/index.html

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