Our trip to Melbourne and Adelaide for the National Baptist Fellowship went well. Thank you for praying. I was to speak at a church anniversary in Melbourne. It was a lovely day of fellowship with the church and pastor who had hosted the National Baptist Fellowship in 2007. The Lord blessed with an excellent day.
The brethren who put us up have a quail farm that incubates about 6000 quail eggs each week or so. I believe it was a kind of Japanese quail that grows bigger and better. That operation fascinated us since we both were brought up on farms! Kathleen once got into trouble with her dad because she was afraid that a snake might be in the henhouse when she needed to go gather the eggs one dark night!
Monday morning we flew to Adelaide in southern Australia for the 2008 National Baptist Fellowship. The attendance was excellent with about 500-600 present in the larger evening service. The fellowship was sweet and the preaching edifying. The music program was first-class which lays the groundwork for an excellent meeting.
I sensed the Lord’s strength physically for my time of ministry. But most of all He touched hearts, especially young people, and that was a real answer to prayer. A pastor’s son who had been away from the Lord’s purpose for his life made a decision to come back. He testified to how the Lord used some difficult circumstances to break him recently, and when the challenge to let God break and use was given, he responded. We had known him since he was a child.
A young lady 21 years old came up and told me how that when she was a little girl of six years I had come over to her in the parking lot and had knelt and prayed for her. She said that had always been so precious and meant so much to her and that she could never forget it! I don’t really remember the incident, but both Kathleen and I love to talk to children and young people and challenge and pray for them. One never knows what an influence it could be! Needless to say, it was a special blessing divinely-wrapped and tenderly presented to us 15 years later!
Even today a man called our USA website number. We knew and loved his family in Lebanon. He was such a nice young man and had come to our camp and home many times. Now living in another part of the world, he said he often thought of us and had such high respect for us. So last week he decided to put my name into an internet search and it came up! How we loved that nice young man, but Christ loved him so much more and died for the forgiveness of his sins! Our hearts jumped for joy at this restored contact with him after some 33 years. The Lord’s ways are wonderful and beyond our comprehension!
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