RON BACK FAMILY

SERVING IN AUSTRALIA

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Ron Birthday 07/09
Laura Birthday 03/27
Ron & Laura Wedding Anniversary 08/07

My name is Ron Back. When I was eight years old, a missionary from a local independent Baptist church in Pierceton, Indiana, invited my brothers and me to church.  My parents enjoyed the thought of having a break from us boys every Sunday, so they encouraged us to go with the missionary family.  Shortly after this first encounter with Bro. and Mrs. Ernie Mason, I received Christ as my Saviour in Junior Church in 1980. I believe, even though I was only eight years old, that God put the desire in my heart to be a missionary, but since my family was not saved nor in a local church, Satan was able to quench that call.

My young adult years were spent out of church.  I did not get scripturally baptized until 1994 while I was attending a Baptist church in Rancho Santa Marguerita, California, during my enlistment in the United States Marine Corps.  Shortly after I was baptized, God called me a second time to the mission field under a missionary to Australia.  I went to the pastor and inquired of him about missions.  I thought God wanted me to go build churches physically with hammer and nails, not by preaching.  My pastor told me that we did not support missionaries except the kind that go and preach the Gospel and win souls to Christ, building the churches with people, not materials.  I was convinced that I was not the missionary type because I did not think I could talk or preach to large groups of people.

When my enlistment in the USMC was up, I chose to be a husband and a father instead of a career soldier.  We went back to Warsaw, Indiana, where my family was and decided to start our family there also.  Within two weeks of getting back to Warsaw in the spring of 1996, we found Open Bible Baptist Church, pastored by Sam Carns, a Hyles-Anderson College graduate.  I thought that I had finally found a home that would be permanent for my whole family.

In May of 1996, Layne Jones, a missionary to the Philippines, preached at my home church of the need for more missionaries.  This time I realized God’s call on my life. I immediately responded to the invitation and surrendered to be a missionary.  Within just a few months, I understood that God wanted me to go to Australia.

Open Bible Baptist Church
21 EMS B61b Lane
Warsaw, IN 46582
(574)834-7473
fbchammond.com

CONTACT

Phone Number
(574) 216-9130
Mailing Address
Ron Back
507 State Street
Hammond, IN 46320
Field Address
51 Queen St. Moe, Vic, 3825 Australia

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You can financially support our family and ministry by giving here online, or you can mail checks to FBMI, 507 State Street, Hammond, IN 46320, and designate your giving to Missionary #138.
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  • Jeremy and Sandra Barker Prayer Letter:  SMITE CampI wanted to start off by saying thank you to everyone who prayed for our Bible Quiz and S.M.I.T.E. Camp. The Lord met with us, and we started off with hosting a Bible Quiz for teens from 4 different independent Baptist churches. The young people all had a good time, and I was very impressed with the amount of Bible everyone memorized in advance. Following that, we had a total of 136 teenagers from our church and surrounding Independent Baptist churches conduct 25 Bible Clubs with 1,446 children, resulting in 937 accepting Christ. To graduate S.M.I.T.E. takes 4 years, and we were also blessed to have 25 students graduate this year. Sandra and I had the privilege of hosting the S.M.I.T.E. Africa Director, Pastor Adewale Adesina, as well as Pastor Babatunde Ajayi, for lunch. Both preached powerful messages during the camp, and I had the opportunity to preach the Wednesday night message.

    Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to preach in any of the schools here due to all of them being closed in August. However, the Lord blessed my regular soul winning, and He allowed me to lead 39 to Christ for the month. I would also like to thank those of you who prayed for our overnight soul- winning visit to Owerri on September 4. I will go over the specifics on how the Lord blessed in next month’s prayer letter.

    Sandra’s birthday fell on a Sunday this year. We appreciate so much all of you who remembered her by sending emails. In advance, I had all 5 of the children paint a picture for her on my laptop, which they thoroughly enjoyed. I also managed to find a place that sold iced coffee and had one delivered to the church for her that morning. During the afternoon, I presented her with her main gift, a hand-painted oil painting of our wedding day that an area artist did for me. Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but we both got a good laugh out of it.

    Sadly, we ended the month in the clinic again. All 7 of us tested positive for malaria, although only 6 of us exhibited symptoms. I’m very grateful that Sandra didn’t exhibit symptoms, as she did a very good job of taking care of all of us. I also had a lingering cough for over a month, so they recommended I get x-rayed, which thankfully didn’t show anything concerning. We are all doing much better now.

    Please continue to pray for our health and safety here in the country, for the school ministry, and for the Lord’s direction in getting a vehicle. I’ve also been waiting for over a month for my Nigerian driver’s license to come in; at this point, my temporary one has expired, so please also keep this a matter of prayer.

    Working hard to bring fruit to your account,

    Jeremy, Sandra, Carina, Barrett, Henry, Alex, & Joanna Barker

    Published On: September 22nd, 2025Tags: ,

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