Often it is so easy for us to judge things by how they appear to us rather than by how they appear to God Almighty. December saw once again numerous opportunities to put out the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to lost Kiwis. By visible standards, not much seemed to happen - but I praise God for this verse in Romans that I came across in my Bible reading. To Paul, it seemed as though the Jews had thoroughly rejected the gospel that he had spent years preaching to them - but he reminded the Romans and ourselves that it was "not as though the word of God hath taken none effect!" Amen!

With the onslaught of summer down under, we were able to get many opportunities out in the highways and byways. Ten folk from our church passed out tracts at yet another Santa parade in nearby Picton (about 1200 tracts). We were able to get out on to the streets of Blenheim several times this month with singing and gospel preaching in the open air. Bro. Simon even attempted a "chalk talk" at the Blenheim street market that opened the door to for some serious witnessing to several people. We also met an older fellow named Gordon out knocking doors. Gordon is a fine, upstanding "good" Presbyterian who never realised that being good was not enough to get to heaven. He wouldn't make the decision to get saved at the door, but has invited us to come back in several weeks after the Dec-Jan summer holidays. Please pray for Gordon to get saved.

The REST of the News:

1) We appreciate all of your prayers for "Donna" - the lady paralysed from the waist down in our church who has been learning to walk. Donna came home from the hospital, is back in church and is getting around remarkably well for which we praise God!

2) We asked you to pray last month for the building situation of the believers here. In December a small building came available in town that was reasonably priced and would have "worked" for our people after being fixed up. The church had several meetings and made an offer to the owners that was turned down in favor of a higher offer. The folks here were disappointed, but took it as the Lord's will as we had specifically prayed to that end. Please pray that the Lord will somehow provide the church here with their own meeting facilities

3) With summer upon us, we had several special services this month. On the 19th we had our annual outdoor service which is always a highlight of the year. Rowen (an unsaved man we asked you to pray for last month) surprised us by showing up with his family and once again got the gospel between the eyes (and hopefully in the heart). Rowen also came along to our special New Year's Eve service where we watched a creation/evolution video and preached & prayed in the new year. Please continue to pray for Rowen's salvation.


As of this writing, we are three days into the year 2000 and we lookforward to what the Lord holds in store! The new government that just cameto power in November is already talking about liberalizing the abortion laws (even further!), outlawing spanking, legalizing marijuana, and a host of other socialistic policies. These things only remind us that the Lord's return must be near.

Assuming our Lord tarries, the Williams' family is still planning on returning to the USA for furlough mid-year. "Thank you" to all of our churches who have helped us to begin planning for furlough by returning the little yellow cards we sent with last month's letter. If we somehow missed you with a card and you want to make sure we show up during furlough, please drop us a line or an email.

Thanks for being so good to us over the past year - God bless!!!

Only Because of His Grace,

Jeff, Debby, Caleb, Luke, Grace & Beth

Field Address: PO Box 484, Blenheim, New Zealand
Telephone/fax: 64-3-577-9981
E-mail address: jeffwill@voyager.co.nz

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