God is so good! We cannot believe how busy we have been for the past few months! We finished up the month of April with Dr. Dan Siemer and his lovely wife Lana. It was wonderful to have one of the directors of our mission board come and check up on us. He was excited to see how the work is going and how the Lord is using us. Two weeks later, we were blessed to have Bro. Andrew and Laura Steers come to Gippsland. He and his wife are some of our dearest friends. Please remember to pray for their health. A little over two weeks after that, the Blanchard family returned from America, and we ended May with Bro. Neil Smith, a national evangelist whom our church helps support.
In June, we ordained our first missionary to the Philippines. Bro. Babia and his wife Maryanne and their son Kent will be heading out to the field in December, God willing. Please pray for their support to come in. Then we visited the Popovic family, national church planters we are trying to help and encourage; their church is 2½ hours away from ours. We went soul winning with him—I thought Warragul was tough, but the folks in his town are even harder. We only got a couple to even talk to us about the church. He was very excited and wanted me to come back to preach for him.
In July, we went back to preach for them at Bible Truth Baptist Church in Bairnsdale, Victoria. I preached on basic doctrine, soul winning, and the priesthood of the believer. Pastor Popovic was encouraged to see that we have the same stand on Scripture and doctrine. The Holy Spirit taught me, while visiting with them, that it is so easy to become isolated and start to think you are the only one who is doing right. I was telling Pastor Popovic how important it is to have fellowship with like-minded churches because it helps encourage us in the Lord and remind us that there are many people out there struggling with the same types of struggles and many who have the same spiritual needs that we have. Also in July, we were able to be a part of seeing a senior couple named Bruno and Maria trust Christ as their Saviour. They were lifetime Catholics, and it took us about six months and half of the church to win them to the Lord. It is amazing how we literally have to win people to us before they will trust the Lord.
Thank you so much for the birthday cards! I enjoyed each and every one of them. So many of you have brightened my days. We all appreciate you.
Please continue to pray for more to trust Christ as their Saviour, for more baptisms, and for the church to grow.
Sincerely,
Ron Back
Missionary in Australia
