Garry and Mindy Tingson Prayer Letter: One Year on the FieldIt’s the middle of August as I’m writing this letter, and it marks our one-year anniversary since arriving to the field. I’m reflecting on all that has happened in the past year. We arrived in Sydney during lockdown, the airport was a ghost town, we had a military escort to the quarantine hotel where we would spend two weeks to “stop the spread,” and we couldn’t have church or even travel 5 kilometers outside of our homes. I compare that to now. There is traffic and road construction, a military presence cannot be found, the airports can’t contain all of the people traveling, many people are out and about, and our church is about to start two new churches here in the near future. Glory to God for His provision!

Our new personalised tracts came in! These tracts are to promote the new church plant we are endeavouring to start in Forster. We’ve been having a great group of people from Living Hope Baptist Church come out and distribute these tracts into the community. Our children love going out as well. Rhys tried chasing a couple of ducks with the Gospel because we are to reach every creature—he was joking, of course. We will be having a service in Forster on the last Sunday of August. Please pray for fruit from our labour and that we’ll see many visitors come to that service. As we start this endeavour, we are also pursuing an outreach in a town called Kempsey. It’s about a 1½-hour drive north of where we are. To my knowledge, no independent Baptist church has ever tried starting a church there. The town also has one of the biggest prisons in the Mid-Coast, and there also may be an opportunity to start a Prison Ministry there in the future. We are hoping to fill these towns and cities between Sydney and Brisbane with churches, where it’s been spiritually barren for many years.

Please continue to pray for our church in Taree as we continue with all of our programs. The auditorium is coming along well. The drywall is all up, and the plastering is almost finished. We will be having a Missions Conference in November, and we are expecting quite a crowd. Please pray that we finish this project soon. Our Bible college class has an exam coming up. We just had a Trivia Night for them to help them recall all they’ve learned. The youth group has been going well. Our youth leader Jeremy always does a great job. Please pray for our families. We will be having a Family Camp in September. There’s a lot going on, and we couldn’t do all that we do without your faithful prayers and support. Thank you, and may the Lord bless you in your corner of the world!

Your servant in Christ,

Garry Tingson