November 2010

November 14, 2010 was an historic day for us! We’ve had some big event points in our lives, and this was one of them! It lacked two days of being exactly 34 years since our arrival in Australia.

Thirty-four years ago we had the joy of seeing God miraculously work upon our arrival with unusual results in the Arabic ministry, the likes of which we had never before seen in our years of ministry in Lebanon. That joy was compounded when the Lord opened the door for us to purchase the Croydon Park property which served Faith Baptist Church for over thirty years.

But Council intransigence and technicalities hindered any attempts to expand the facilities to contain the growing congregation, so Pastor Nabil and the congregation took the step by faith to sell all the properties and buy a new property where adequate facilities could be built. That eventually involved the church moving into a rented Council Community Center which was home to the church for 2.5 years.

When everyone walked into the opening service in the new facilities Sunday morning past, there was an air of excitement to say the least! It had been a long journey, but now we were there! At the insistence of Pastor Nabil, an unusual and gracious son in the ministry, I was the morning speaker  and he would translate the message into Arabic for the joint Arabic and English congegations.

A number of unsaved people were present along with a number of friends and well-wishers which swelled the attendance up to almost 400. Personally, I was so excited that I had difficulty getting to sleep Saturday night!

God’s blessing in allowing us to see and have a part in this important second phase of the church was overwhelming to our minds and emotions!

The new building will give adequate space for the congregation to grow to double or three times its present size. It contains two auditoriums (a picture of one of them is shown) and a large fellowship hall which also can be turned into a basketball court. All three can be opened up and form one huge auditorium! Pastor Nabil and his wife are doing a great job leading the church. The evangelistic outreach each week, the teaching of the people all the counsel of God through preaching and special classes for keen members to study the Word of God and how to minister-all is unusual and glorifying to God!

Pastor Nabil has lots of plans and dreams to further expand the church ministry of winning and teaching people! We’re so thankful to be able to be a part of it! And we constantly thank God for raising up godly and capable men to lead these two Sydney churches which have been the objects of our concern and ministry during these many years.

Two photos help tell the story of the new spacious and beautiful facilities. You can also view a presentation shown at the opening Sunday morning on the web at http://www.faithbaptist.org.au/building.shtml

The opening sermon is also on the same website.  The prayers of many people helped through the years to bring the church to this exciting phase!