We wrapped up 2022 with a bang! It was a bittersweet moment for the Bible college students, as they took their finals to finish off this year’s course. The students presented me with a basket of goodies. It was such a pleasure getting to teach these young students!
It was a very festive season for us here in Australia. Our church had its Christmas party at our pastor’s house. We had such a great time fellowshipping with God’s people. I was given the opportunity to preach on a little boat cruise for a company’s Christmas party. There were almost 40 in attendance, including the boat crew. The message was given about the most important gift of all—Jesus.
As we learned about and prayed for many of our supporters in America who went through a very cold Christmas season this year, here, on the other hand, we were experiencing a heat wave. Our church auditorium is a metal barn and acts as a giant oven. A couple of months ago, I had preached on the topic of giving and launched a campaign to raise funds to purchase air conditioning units for our church building. Unbeknownst to us, God had burdened the hearts of a family in our church to give to this need. They donated $5,000 to put towards the air conditioning units. Praise the Lord! This got us more than halfway to our goal. A bi-vocational preacher friend of mine from Sydney happened to be working in Taree that week. I gave him a tour of the progress on our church building. He happened to work for Mitsubishi Electric and told me he could purchase these units for us with his employee discount. We were able to purchase three 8-kilowatt and one 3-kilowatt split air conditioning units for $4,600! That’s a little over $3,000 USD. Praise the Lord again! Now we just needed somebody to install them for us. A couple of weeks ago, I was able to lead a young man to the Lord. He happened to be an electrician and agreed to install the units for us! Praise the Lord again and again! The Lord has been spoiling us this past month, and all of the glory goes to Him!
Being that Christmas and summer vacation happen at the same time for Aussie school children, many of our families went out of town to visit their friends and relatives, but we also get friends and family visiting us. My brothers and mum visited us for the holidays, and we had such a sweet time together.
Thank you so much for all of those who sent us Christmas cards and gifts! We’re excited about what 2023 holds, and we look forward to sharing more news in the near future. God bless you, and may you have a safe and wonderful New Year!
Your servant in Christ,
Garry Tingson
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- Last Bible college class
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- We had a great Christmas 2022 together as a family!
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- Our new air conditioning units
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- Preaching for a company Christmas party on a boat cruise
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- Church Christmas party at Pastor’s house
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- Zenyn, the electrician, gets saved!
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- Our last Forster service for 2022