May 1999


Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

"It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:" Psalm 92:1


This is the verse that I preached on to our people last Sunday morning - it was a good reminder of how very much we have to be thankful for and how little "thanking" seems to go on these days. Deb and I have so much to thank the Lord for - here are just a few tidbits from the past month:


The Rest of the News:

1) Marlborough Bible Baptist Church had its second annual missions conference this month. Some may wonder about a mission church have a missions conference, but the same Great Commission that brought us to Blenheim commands these folks to go out and win others in New Zealand and around the world. We had a terrific time of preaching with Bro. Kevin Harris coming over from Australia to be our guest speaker. Bro. Kevin and his wife Debby were a real blessing to our people and definitely challenged our people who have promised by faith to more than double their missions giving from last year! The highlight of our conference was our first attempt at an international dinner - the people loved it and we had ten visitors out for the evening! We have seen over and over again that God blesses missions minded churches. Not only have the believers here set out to support their missionaries a bit more, but in late April they voted to increase the salary of our in-training, assistant pastor - Bro. Simon Chisholm. This was not because there was suddenly more money in the church, but rather because the folks here are just starting to grasp and obey their responsibilities to become a self-supporting, local church.

2) God continues to bless the Bible correspondence school - we had another student not only saved this month, but he went along to the independent Baptist church in his area we recommended to him. I received an e-mail from Bro. Bob Rutta who pastors the church we started in Dunedin saying that Eric had started coming along to the services there.

I received another e-mail from the Kiwi pastor of the independent Baptist church in Christchurch - two of our students visited there as well. There is already another lady who is a member of that church because of the correspondence school. Lately we have been receiving numerous questions and requests about salvation, eternal security and good, Bible-believing churches from many students up and down the country. Sadly, I had another letter this month from a student with an unsaved husband who wants to find a decent church and I couldn't help her. There was nothing within an hour's drive of her home and it simply reminded me that there is still much work to be done here in New Zealand.

3) I would ask your special prayers for the families in the church here in Blenheim. When God is blessing, the devil is either busy or will be soon. In our case we have seen over the past two months an unprecedented attack upon the marriages of several families in our church - in most cases it has been one spouse who wants to do what is right while the other refuses to follow the Book and submit to the Lord. Strong churches are not only built upon the Lord and his word, but upon strong families as well. When such a problem suddenly hits several families all at the same time, there is no doubt that the enemy is busy - thanks for praying specifically for this need.

We have moved house again this month for the second time in ten weeks. Shifting from one rental to another isn't much fun, but as we mentioned several months ago, the Lord has opened the door for us to own a home. The details of all of this have taken much longer than we had anticipated, but Lord willing our own place will become a reality by August.

Deb is feeling much improved these days, the rest of the family is healthy and we simply praise and thank God for all of his many blessings. Thank you for making it possible for the Williams' family to be on this mission field and for holding us up in prayer to do the work of the Lord here in New Zealand before the trumpet blows - God bless!

Only Because of His Grace,

Jeff, Debby, Caleb, Luke, Grace & Beth


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