January was "camp month" and it was indeed great to be in the Lord's camp! The church here in Blenheim held its very first summer family camp in the nearby town of Wakefield. Two sister churches from Wellington and Christchurch sent over about fifteen folks to add to about thirty of our own folks. Everyone agreed that the preaching and fellowship were great and that family camp should become an annual event. God blessed with many decisions being made for including a thirteen year old girl named Camille who trusted Christ as Saviour and one of our own teen ladies who publicly dedicated her life to serve Christ.

The week after our family camp, the Williams' family boarded the ferry and headed north to attend and preach at the family camp of the Rotorua Bible Baptist Church. God again blessed with many decisions being made for him including the salvation of a twelve year old Roman Catholic boy. This trip north however was not made without incident. Our diesel van decided to break down on the way north and refused to budge without a complete engine reconditioning. Our unplanned, extra week on the North Island however was a great lesson in how God is control of all things. The Lord showed he was watching over us at every step of the way by having a diesel mechanic in the RBBC, providing us with a free van to use for the ten days ours was out of commission, by providing us with a place to stay after camp finished, etc. Two churches represented at this camp even took up love offerings that covered over half of the repair costs! We know that many of you are faithful in praying for our safety and for God's provision in our lives - he certainly answers prayer - thank you!

The REST of the News:

1) I have nothing new to report to you on Rowen and Gordon, two men we asked prayer for last month. Please keep praying!

2)We have asked for prayer for our building situation. Our landlord informed me today that the decision to allow us to keep our hired hall or to move us out (so they can renovate their offices) will be made on March 8th. Please pray that the Lord will make his will clear to the church here.

3) February marks the beginning of the school year here in NZ. We have a busy month planned with some special ladies' meetings, our first ever attempt at kid's clubs run by our own people and special evangelistic outreaches at several summer festivals in the Marlborough area.

Please pray for New Zealand! A fellow American missionary and I were talking at camp about the fact that the independent Baptist missionaries have been in NZ now for 31 years. Thirty one years of effort have produced 30 independent Baptist churches with only six national pastors and about 32 American missionaries scattered among the 24 other churches. Of the six "national" pastors, one is Welsh, one is English and one is South African. The largest of these churches runs about 150 and had a minor split in November. The second largest church is virtually all Samoan; the third largest church is virtually all Chinese. Only about half of these churches have their own buildings. We presently have zero Kiwi missionaries sent out by the Kiwi churches.

The overwhelming fact is that we often find ourselves on the "forbearing" end of Ezekiel 2:7. Unless the Lord builds this house and wakes up this nation, we are spinning our wheels. Please pray for God to open hearts in this very rebellious land and for the precious seed of the word of God to find fertile soil and bear fruit.

Thank you for your faithfulness and prayers - 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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