July/August 1999
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless
his people with peace.
Psalm 29:11
So sorry that this letter is a "double-monther" - things have been just a
bit busy around here lately. We have mentioned on a number of occasions
over the past year the chronic problems with our housing situation. The
last week of August we moved for the third time this year, but into our own
place! We praise God for the many unexpected miracles he has performed
over the past year to make this possible. Thank you so much for your
prayers as God has wondrously answered and provided.
Another major answer to prayer as of late concerns Debby's health - this
too has been a long running prayer request. My wife's health has
dramatically and decisively improved for which we can't praise the Lord
enough - He does indeed answer prayer! From the human perspective there
were probably a number of contributing factors - but after trying just
about everything imaginable for chronic fatigue syndrome (thanks again for
so many of you who sent books, articles and vitamins!), the one single
thing that had the most obvious and dramatic, positive effect was the
removal of Deb's mercury fillings. Within a week of the final batch being
replaced, my wife was the closest to being her normal self that she has
been in the past two years - AMEN!
The News:
1) In our continuing campaign to get the gospel to every home in New
Zealand, by God's grace we reached another 18,000 homes with a gospel tract
in July. This was done in an area of the North Island known as Wanganui.
Several responses were received for our Bible correspondence school or more
information about the gospel. We were able to refer one person to a
Bible-believing church in the area. From a totally unrelated part of the
North Island we received one of our gospel tracts back with a salvation
testimony attached. Pray for "Te Huia" as we attempt to get someone in her
area to follow up on her.
2) The church here in Blenheim continues on. God blessed us recently with
one young lady following the Lord in believer's baptism and two other folks
joining the church.
3) In our last letter we asked you to pray for several couples undergoing
marital problems - we were very saddened to see one family who attended our
church but were not members recently break apart. New Zealanders are no
different than Americans when it comes to the natural tendency to put self
ahead of God.
4) On a more positive note, I issued a challenge to our teen group this
winter to memorize the book of Titus and quote it before the church. Out
of the eight or nine teens who faithfully attend Sunday School, five have
thus far memorized the entire book and quoted it for all of the church in a
service - the rest are not too far behind. It has been such a blessing to
see our teens grow just by getting into the word! We have acutally heard
our teens rebuking each other in various situations with verses from Titus!
5) We would ask you to pray for our "associate pastor in training." Bro.
Simon has been very sick this winter and the doctors are not sure what the
problem is. He has been misdiagnosed by the health system several times
now and the church could definitely use a healthy associate!
As spring erupts here in New Zealand, please pray that the Lord will
soften hearts and lead us to receptive souls as we take to the streets and
letterboxes of Blenheim and the surrounding towns - we continue to
appreciate your prayers and support - God bless!
Only Because of His Grace,
Jeff, Debby, Caleb, Luke, Grace & Beth
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