God is so good! Life is funny. Recently, I went out door knocking and soul winning, and it seemed like just a couple of days later, we had another lockdown. The Devil is kicking hard to muzzle our Gospel witness here in Australia. We hear that things in America are looking brighter as far as lack of COVID restrictions. We are hoping and praying that no matter what, next year we will be able to come home for our first furlough.
We received good news that Missionary Russel Blanchard is still recovering and doing well after his triple brain-aneurism surgery. The surgery itself was extended from 30 minutes to 5 hours; but, praise the Lord, it went well. He is back preaching and teaching— just a little slower.
We had a few breaks in the lockdowns, so we were able to have a couple of guest preachers come and preach. One of those was Bro. Harringson, a missionary to Mauritius, East Africa; and the other was Missionary Rijn Abrell. Brother Abrell was excited to see how the building is starting to come together and that the spirit of our folks is still doing well. Bro. Harringson has already raised all of his support here in Australia and is waiting for permission from the government of Mauritius to resume the work of another missionary who was there but passed away from cancer earlier this year. Please pray for the country to allow this sweet family in.
We have been very active in the food bank. We usually see about 20 – 30 people come through for whatever fruit and vegetables and bread the local supermarkets donate weekly. I recently was talking to an Australian man who had converted to Buddhism. His wife was from Asia, and I was trying to get him to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is God. He said he didn’t have a problem with Jesus. He said that Buddha was not a God like Jesus and refused to accept that he worshiped an idol. After talking with this man, I actually had to study up on Buddhism. To my surprise, Buddhism recognizes Hindu gods as deity as well, but do not recognize a supreme creator. How sad that there are scores and scores of people who don’t even know half the gods they serve. If they would just look to our Bible, praise the Lord, they would see the one true and pure God of Heaven and earth. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would work on this man. He comes to the food bank, and I see him around town. Pray that we can help him see the true light of the Gospel.
Please pray that we would be able to have a week of revival, for the first time in many years, in September. We are praying that the Lord continues to bless you. Please pray that the Lord continues to give us more salvations and baptisms as we look to His coming.
Sincerely,
Ron Back
Missionary in Australia
