September 1999
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after
their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
II Timothy 4:3
You may have heard a bit about New Zealand in the news this month as
President Clinton came for a visit - mostly golf and banquets. His visit
was an amazing lesson in just how primed this country is for the
antichrist. Before the President arrived, the New Zealand media had
nothing good to say about Clinton or America (who just slapped a big tariff
on lamb exports from NZ into the USA). The President of course turned on
the charm and five days later left to go back to the USA a hero, a saviour,
a statesmen, blah, blah, blah.
The point here of course is how easily an entire nation can be swayed by
someone who tells people what they want to hear. In spiritual matters, NZ
has a horrible track record of jumping on bandwagons and following after
various American cults, movements, etc. Our folks here in Blenheim are
probably being more faithful than ever in their witnessing and soul-winning
efforts - but the fruit is scarce! Please pray for God to break up these
hardened hearts with his gospel and to lead us to prepared souls!
The News:
1) The folk at Marlborough Bible Baptist Church hit the streets this month
in yet another letterboxing campaign. We are still trusting that God's
promises are true and that all of this "seed" being can not help but have a
spiritual impact on our town. The believers here reached 9,000 homes this
month with a tract entitled, "Smile God Loves You - The Biggest Lie Ever
Told!" We appreciate Bro. Melton in Tennessee printing these up for us and
as you can guess, the title was an "attention grabber" to remind the lost
that they are under the wrath of God until they become sons of God. We
received several responses and have found a number of doors open up to
witness because of this letterbox drop.
2) Through the postal system we also reached almost another 15,000 homes on
the North Island with a gospel tract. The district we covered is an area
known as "Wairarapa" ("why-rah-rappa"). This district has no
gospel-preaching church that we know of and is best known for having the
world's first transsexual, pervert mayor. Responses are still trickling in
however and we praise God for one lady who has trusted Christ as her
Saviour through this outreach. Please keep praying for God to bless his
word in New Zealand!
3) One dear lady in our church named Mrs. Lippiat just celebrated here 85th
birthday. Her daughter led her to Christ about two years ago and Mrs.
Lippiat is faithfully in church every Sunday. Before being saved, Mrs.
Lippiat was a Catholic and still lives in a rest home/apartment complex
owned by the RCC. Every Thursday morning she goes along to the rest home
"Bible study" and invariably gets an opportunity to witness for the truth.
Her daughter, Donna, knows what the "readings" will be ahead of time from
their old prayer books and sort of primes the pump. Well, the reading one
week this month was from Matthew 16:18. On the appointed day, Mrs Lippiat
attended only to find out that the priest was in attendance this week and
that a nun was leading the "study." After all of the hot air about Peter
being the rock and the first pope, Mrs. Lippiat raised her hand and asked
if she could comment. A few cross-references later, the priest "had to
go," the lady leading the study just stood there dumbfounded and all was
abruptly shut down ahead of schedule. "….God hath chosen the weak things of
the world to confound the things which are mighty;" (1 Cor. 1:27) As a
result of all of this, Mrs. Lippiat has had a chance to witness to one of
her neighbours who has also begun OUR Bible study course - please pray for
Mrs Lovelock to be saved!
4) We've had several blessings through the Bible correspondence course.
One lady named Wendi asked about a good church in her area this month - we
recommended one and this was her reply: "Thank you for referring me to the
Newlands Bible Baptist Mission. I attended last Sunday night and enjoyed
it. Why? Because I learned something! We learned John Chapter eleven.
It was interesting for me because in the whole time I have attended other
churches I cannot say, or tell you specifically what I learned…"
5) If there is any one area of the church here in Blenheim that is wildly
flourishing, it is our teen group. Since starting Sunday school a year ago
and taking the teens myself, I have seen our teens grow in the Lord
dramatically. Several have dedicated their lives to the Lord and they are
directly responsible for several of the new people in our church and a
number of our "back burner" contacts. I gave our teens a challenge last
April to memorise the book of Titus and quote the whole book in front of
the church - virtually all of them met the challenge and Deb and I took the
whole group to Christchurch for a two day activity this month. In addition
to some "fun stuff," we went into the town square where they passed out
tracts, publicly quoted Titus and surprised us with their zeal for the Lord
- they were all horribly disappointed when we ran out of tracts!
The first weekend in November is our Bible conference with Bro. Sam Gipp -
we are planning Saturday and Sunday morning services while he is here and a
special one-off service over in Nelson on Sunday night. Please pray
earnestly for these special meetings that we have commitments from many
people to attend. The last time Bro. Gipp was here in Blenheim, it
developed into a real turning point for our church with several present
members of our church traceable back to those special meetings in 1996.
We continue to appreciate all of your prayers and support for the
Williams' family and the work in New Zealand - Thank you so much and God
bless!
Only Because of His Grace,
Jeff, Debby, Caleb, Luke, Grace & Beth
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