For about five years, Living Hope Baptist Church has been renting a building on an hourly basis at the Bridge Club in Taree. Many memories have been made there, but it was time to move forward to the next chapter in the lives of our church. We were one week away from receiving the keys to the new property, but we had no chairs. We were ready to sit on the floor if we had to, but we were able to find new chairs on the Facebook Marketplace. The only downside was that they had to be picked up in Sydney, a four-hour drive away. Our pastor and I drove our utes down to Sydney and were able to fit all of the chairs in them with no problems. I also picked up someone on the way—my mum! She has been a tremendous help to us, as Mindy is great with child. Please continue to pray for Mindy. She’s had some complications, but she’s been well taken care of by the doctors here. We may even see our new baby in June!
Our pastor received the keys to the new property, and it was full steam ahead. The church got together to assemble the chairs, just in time for Sunday. I had the honour of preaching the first message on the new property. I preached from the book of Ezra regarding the building of the new temple after being in captivity. The week after our first service, we already started working on the new auditorium, which will be much more spacious. We continued with our usual ministries. I praise the Lord for our youth leader Jeremy. He teaches the children something practical each week in Kids’ Club. One day, the children learned how to change a tyre! We had our first visitors from out of town, who stayed in our prophet’s chamber. One of the visitors was the wife of the late Gilbert Anger, who was a great missionary evangelist of our time. She’s looking to retire and is looking for a place to do so, but still be able to be active in a good church. I told her that I am planning to start a church on the mid-coast, and she was very interested in helping us. This is a great opportunity for the both of us! Please pray that it will all work out for us.
Please continue to pray for our efforts here in Taree. We are receiving a constant flow of visitors, and we’ve also had some members come back since the lockdowns. One of our young girls, Sarah, was baptised. We don’t have a baptistery yet, so she was baptised at Harrington Beach. It turned out to be a nice day, praise the Lord! We are soon to do some outreach in Port Macquarie, our highly possible location for our new church. Please pray that the Lord will bless our efforts. Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support!
Your servant in Christ,
Garry Tingson
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- Picking up chairs from Sydney
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- First service in the new building
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- Rhys changing a tyre at Kids’ Club
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- Making plans for the new auditorium
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- Church assembling chairs
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- Baptism service at Harrington Beach
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- Sarah getting baptized