God is so good! We started off July by going to Adelaide for the annual Bible Conference. We met a pastor from Chicago by the name of Courtney Lewis. I enjoy meeting new pastors from different camps and hearing different takes on the same passages. Laura and I got to spend some time with a retired pastor, Trevor Ringwaldt, and his lovely wife Marilyn. She actually had cataract surgery during this visit, so we were able to minister to them. We came back and had Family Camp at Calvary Baptist Church the next week, where we had Evangelist Swankey from Texas as the guest preacher. Then we had a few days to prepare for our family July birthday party. We now have seven birthdays and an anniversary in July, not counting the good old Fourth of July, and we are so happy to announce our seventh grandchild, Inez Denny, born to Abby and Jace.
August consisted of several trips to the city (Melbourne) with the Hallmarks, our visiting missionary from Canada. We actually saw two new sites to us: the Treasury Museum and new exhibits at the Museum in the Library. A lot of people think we are crazy when we suggest they go to the Melbourne Public Library to see the museum, but it is one of the most fun museums we have that is free. We would be so happy to show you our discoveries if you come to Australia to visit the work here.
Please pray for Chima, who was released from prison in August and immediately deported to Nigeria. Also with prison ministry, we had a young man named Daniel who is 23 and had never trusted Jesus as his Saviour—just “giving Jesus a try”—and was released. I would like to see God work in his life still even though I have no more contact with him. We were able to go to a Prison Fellowship Appreciation Meal and Question-and-Answer Time with some high-ranking prison officials here in Victoria.
We went to the funeral of a young man named Silas. He was just 17 years of age and died on the street by the church in a motorcycle accident. I got to talk to him, I think twice, as his dad and I are friendly. It hurt me because as far as I know, he was unsaved. As is typical here, there was a Greek Orthodox service, an Aussie service (at the local racetrack), followed by the graveside service and then a wake. Laura and I were so heartbroken that we had to leave the funeral early because one, it was filled beyond capacity, and two, all we could see were people with no hope. Please pray for this young man’s family. Also please pray for the Blanchards, as they are in the States on furlough getting ready to come home. Terri Blanchard is having migraines consistently.
Sincerely,
Ron Back
Missionary in Australia
