In America, it’s not unusual to gear up for the new year right at the beginning of the year. The festivities of Christmas and New Year’s are over, the kids are back in school, and it’s too cold to do anything outside anyway. This is not so in Australia. In January, we are in the middle of summer, the children are still on holiday (vacation), and people are usually out of town. Trying to “rally up the troops” for the new year can be a very slow process here in Australia. Some churches here will have “Vision Sunday” before the children go on school holiday in December and then attempt to remind the church of the vision at the end of January or early February when families are done with the holiday season.
Our children started school back up at the end of January, which gave me the opportunity to give our church our vision for 2024. Our Bible study in Port Macquarie has grown, and we are ready to make our church official. We are now in the process, with the help of a lawyer, of registering as an official church. Throughout the month of January, I preached a series of messages from Ezra and Nehemiah to get our people ready to do more in 2024. I revealed to the church our theme for 2024: “Let Us Rise Up and Build!”
One big change for our church was moving from the tent in our front yard to a more public place in the community. The tent has been a blessing from the Lord, but we were ready to move out from the heat and the creepy-crawlies. The Lord revealed a great place for us to meet: the Rotary Community Centre. It is a building on the main road with a lot of foot and vehicle traffic. It is the right size for our congregation, has a kitchen, has plenty of parking space, is affordable, and is less than five minutes away from our house! We’ve already had people come and visit our service just because of a sign on the side of the road. Praise the Lord! Our primary-age Sunday school currently meets in the kitchen, but there is room for expansion with other buildings in the complex that are also for hire. We have been studying baptism in the main Sunday school session. Please pray, as we have some candidates for baptism. Please also continue to pray for our outreach efforts. It’s been really hot lately, so passing out Gospel tracts is usually done early in the morning. Later in the month, it started cooling down, so we took Isla with us for the ride.
I have made an update video as an overview of our ministry over the years. Please take advantage of this by scanning the QR code at the top of this letter. My wife Mindy has also started a blog about musings and happenings while serving God on the mission field. Feel free to subscribe. Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support!
Your servant in Christ,
Garry Tingson
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- Sunday School in the Kitchen
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- Sweet Church Fellowship
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- Subscribe to Mindy’s Blog
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- Download Update Video
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- Giving Out the Gospel with Isla
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- Our New Church Home
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- A New School Year for the Children