“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.”

A big event in our two Faith Baptist Church Arabic ministries was the visit of Pastor and Mrs. Elie Wardan from Lebanon for nearly one month. The Lord used this visit to fire up the believers for the work of ministry. He led 20 souls to a profession of faith in Christ. He came with names of friends and relatives from people in Lebanon to personally visit while he was in Sydney. He returned to Lebanon with names of unsaved relatives and contacts to visit in Lebanon. 

   The hand of God is on this faithful couple in the spiritually-barren North that has been the burden of our hearts all these years. Pastor Elie told me with emotion, “Never think that your ministry in North Lebanon is over; It is very much alive!” I feel no credit, but it is so true that God can use our unworthy efforts to blessing even though it may happen many years later. The t0p photo of this growing and vibrant church shows the happy congregation welcoming them back into their midst. I had the privilege of planting the first Gospel seed in the heart of a fifteen-year old boy whose son, many years later became the present pastor. A Lebanese pastor nurtured and guided the ministry of Pastor Elie for years. Now, as labourers together with God, all of us rejoice for this beacon of light and light in a dark place.

      A difficult legal issue involving the buildings on the Good Shepherd Conference Centre property in Lebanon was created in 1974 through bureaucratic corruption and the chaos of civil war. Thanks to the prayers of God’s people and the unfailing faithfulness of our almighty God, the problem is now solved! Many problems require persistent prayer over a long period of time, forty-eight years in this case!

One year ago a pastor from Peru saw our Bible History survey books in Guatemala. We agreed to print 1000 each of the Old and New Testament books. The bottom photo shows some of the 70 Peruvian missionaries and pastors holding our Spanish version of our Bible History Survey books. Some of these serve in the Amazon jungle churches of eastern Peru. These books have also been printed and are available in Ecuador and are being used in jungle churches. Yesterday we spoke with the Peruvian pastor who wanted to thank us personally. We can’t give them a “cup of cold water,” but we have been given the unique privilege of providing them helpful resource books and you have been a part of making this possible. We will have time in heaven to meet people who have been blessed by our smallest and most unworthy efforts to help them!

It was a blessing to attend the graduation service of the Sydney Bible Baptist College and see 17 students who were in the class using our books and DVD lectures. Our church in Sydney ran the course on a Tuesday evening during the 2022 school year. We pray God will give us some more USA churches to run the courses!

We are so thankful for all of you  who play such a vital role in the ministry entrusted to us. We pray you will have a blessed and fruitful year in 2023. May the Lord bless you one and all!

Richard and Kathleen  Hester

Email: hrichardhester@gmail.com                                                Website: www.MissionaryOutpost.com

“They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.” Psalms 92:14 

January marked my 90th year of living off of our Lord’s gracious provisions. It was a special day of remembrance, an overwhelming emotional day. “My cup runneth over.” God’s call and putting me into the ministry 72 years ago. Spiritual investments and treasures especially in Kansas, Lebanon and Australia all speak to God’s gracious love and care. Scores of emails and Facebook messages, some from long-lost friends. Our church’s commemorative balloon as seen in the photos. Our seven year old great granddaughter said, “We could be very thankful for grandpa; he is so loving and caring. Our granddaughters were commenting that I really did not look 90 years old. My beloved spouse, generally a stranger to memory matters, piped up and said, “It is because he has such a wonderful wife!”

When my daughter gave me the courier package of books from Lebanon, my heart rate increased and a big smile came across my face. She said, “You’re really happy, aren’t you, dad?” This happened the week of my 90th birthday. When I took the beautiful Old and New Testament Arabic books in  my hands, I felt I was holding two precious babies who would serve the Lord in the Arabic world until Jesus comes! I can hardly sleep just thinking what a privilege God has given us!

I have to say that we were thankfully surprised that the first printing of the New Testament Bible History books went during the first few months. Now they will be undertaking a second printing. As of now, these Arabic books have gone to Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Syria  and Lebanon.  We are thrilled to no measure to be able to cast these “pieces of bread, like pieces of our lives and labours” upon the fields of our love, trusting God to make them, from now until Jesus comes, a blessing, help and encouragement to living pastors and their people   

It appears that the publishing house is keen to translator and publish our autobiography in Arabic as well. With difficulty I have been editing it to fit the Arabic market. I was hesitant about whether this project would be helpful, but everyone involved overruled my hesitancy. If it can be an encouragement to people who live in difficult political and sectarian conditions, I will be grateful to the Lord. Our daughter Melody in Minnesota has not been here for three years because of COVID. She jus secured a visa to come in June and she wiillproofread the English manuscript before we give it to the Arabic publisher.  

Last Sunday was the 45th anniversary of our Regents Park church. I was asked to give a 15-minute testimony.  It is so comforting to see what God has done following the heartbreak of Lebanon. 

The previous Sunday when coming from the parking lot into the church, Kathleen somehow stumbled and fell across my legs and feet. I was attempting to catch her but lost balance and fell backwards on the concrete. It was a nasty fall for me but thank God there was just a big bump on the back of my head and a couple of fractured ribs. My memory came back later in the hospital. Kathleen did not have even a scratch on her, so I was a good pillow for her. Last Sunday the brethren wheeled her into the church in a wheelchair and had a strong man on both of my arms to make sure that nothing happened. I told the brethren that I had been trying to get their attention for some time and that this was a last resort that seemed to work! I’m trying so hard to keep such things from happening and it wasn’t how I had planned for the beginning of my 90th year!

We can never express our feelings of gratitude for all you do for us. Your prayers and support have allowed us to do many things that needed to be done before we leave this world. Please continue to pray for the legal issue regarding the camp property.  God bless all of you!

“Whoso findeth a wife, finders a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.” Prov. 18:22 “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.” Prov. 31:10

Rubies must have been very expensive for Solomon, the “many-times billionaire” of that day to describe her in this way. Solomon learned by experience that beauty, influence and status could not produce a happy home. The Lord’s leadership and blessing are indispensable.

     A young lady of around ten years of age who loved the Lord, although she was brought up in a very liberal church, opened her deep desire to the Lord that He might, some day, give her a preacher husband. A young man of 18 years was saved after the first year of college. It had never crossed his mind to be a preacher. He had dreams of being an aeronautical engineer but two weeks after his conversion, his mind was overwhelmed with the conviction    that God wanted him to be a preacher, a thought that almost scared him out of his wits. Seven years later, God brought these two together in an unbelievable way that was humanly impossible. 

     In July we celebrated the little girl’s prayer to God. The “good thing,” the price far above rubies” had continued for 65 years across three continents serving the Lord.  Never has she ever faltered or even uttered one work of discouragement against the fulfilment of God’s will for our ministry. Now it is my calling to support her in her battle with Alzheimer’s. Our faculties are slowly retiring, but thankfully she is in peace and I am still able to help her navigate the faceless waters. Here are some other news:

• How often does the Scripture admonish us to “wait” on the Lord? It implies that we tend to be impatient and fail to realise the pieces that are involved for the desired request to be accomplished. Several years ago when we were trying to get our Spanish Bible History books printed and distributed in different key countries, I was particularly frustrated   by the failures to accomplish this in one Spanish country. It’s fair to say that I was exasperated by the actions of some from whom I had expected better. I gave up but continued an occasional prayer for it. Then about two weeks ago out of the Lord’s “blue” we received a letter from an unknown Spanish pastor from this same country of my interest. He had been in a distant Spanish country where he saw our books. He was impressed to request working together to produce the books in his country. He had storage space and good possibilities for distribution throughout the country. We signed contracts yesterday and the printing will soon be underway. Plus he secured a printing quote for an unbelievable printing cost! I think I heard the Lord whisper, “Richard, I told you so.” 
• We had a serious outbreak of COVID – 19 with the “delta” strain three months ago in Sydney and eventually state-wide. Australia opted for strict lockdowns, contact tracing, rigid compliance and closed borders, both international and between states. Fines for non-compliance were heavy. A “gifted” pastor of area church held services and prophesied, “In the name of Jesus the lockdown is over.” Courtesy of the neighbour, the police entered and took up an offering. The generous pastor put in $5000 and each family $1000 in the name, not of Jesus, but the State Treasury. Presently there is a flood of vaccinations and our governor is determined to get the state opened up soon for good. 
• Recently I felt to attempt a marathon of calls to our church members and attenders. I can’t understand much on the phone. The problem came with missed calls when people returned a call and I could not understand who was calling. Praying genderless for unknown persons is difficult, but I was blessed anyway.  
• Your prayers and support mean a lot as we are seeing the Lord work in several yet “unfinished” important matters. May God bless and reward you.
• Email: hrichardhester@gmail.com                 Website: www.MissionaryOutpost.com

“LORD, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”  “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I( make known Thy faithfulness to all generations.” Psa 90:1 ; 89:1 

The Generation Principle

A generation represents the duration of an individual life or lives during the same period of time. Our God is the refuge and rest for all generations. He is eternal and timeless. In regards to a life as measured by the beginning of successive new generations, four generations represent the span of an individual life in begetting other. For example, after his great trial, Job is said to have lived to see four generations, that is, he saw his children, their children and his children’s children before he died. Most of our Sunday lunches are in the presence of our four generations. Anyone who gets to see great grandchildren can be thankful for a full life, duration-wise.

The Spiritual Generation 

The Great Commission embodies the same idea. We will win one who wins one who wins yet another, multiplying the generations of converts. Jesus and Paul also expressed the principle when they spoke of entering into another’s labours, one sowing, one watering and another reaping. We can rejoice in a physical legacy of generations, but even more important, is the understanding of a spiritual legacy of generations. Our ambition and motivation for life should be tempered with a burning desire to have “spiritual children and grandchildren” for God’s glory. 

A Living Example

Around 1962 I was earnestly witnessing to some young men at a tailor’s shop in Lebanon. One lad of fourteen years of age came to a young people’s meeting in my van a time or two but then disappeared. Apparently he was just curious and wanted to ride in my van with the other boys. Still, I had done my best to sow the Gospel seed. The seed would lie dormant for about 30 years until a Christian couple from our church in Australia would come to Lebanon and rekindle the Gospel witness with their uncle resulting in the salvation of this man and his family pictured below. The eldest son of our 14 year-old lad was recently ordained to the Gospel ministry at which both photos on this page were taken. Pastor Elie not only pastors a church in north Lebanon at the base of the mountains where our Good Shepherd Conference Center is located, he is the manager of the camps held during the summer, sometimes reaching up to ten different groups or churches. I consider him an “adopted spiritual son” carrying on my vision and labours for North Lebanon. 

God’s Promissory Note For Spiritual Grandchildren

The writing of the Bible History Old and New Testament books and the development of survey courses with students’ and teachers’ manuals was altogether of God’s strength and grace. It was during the time of my greatest weakness in the long battle with MS. The books and materials are in English and Spanish in more than 50 countries. Yet, in recent years God put a burning desire to see them in Arabic, the language of our ministry among Arabic peoples for the past 62 years. That project is nearly finished and now we can rest, believing that God has promised to make these materials representing a piece of our lives and labours a blessing to pastors and churches throughout the Middle East countries that have such a vital prophetical significance in the last days.

How Many Grands and Great Grands
Will We Have?

None of us can answer that question. We don’t always know who planted or watered, who prayed and other actions that God uses in the process. What we can know is, if we are steadfast in doing God’s work and plan, unlovable in our focus on the truth, God will have a warehouse full of surprises waiting to show us throughout the ages of eternity. How can we ever thank so many of you who have faithfully prayed and stood with us these many years? The spiritual grandchildren and great grandchildren of whom we speak are also yours to share!

Did God Not Answer My Prayer?

I prayed earnestly that God would miraculously give our president another term to do the things that I thought were good for America and good for the Christians and even other religions that relish religious freedom. The radical agenda, even by Obama’s measurement is now open and obvious to the most casual observer. I could not believe that a person, even disregarding his policies, could be trusted to lead America without the mental ability to answer basic questions. i was shocked and ashamed of America whose media has sunk to a professional bankruptcy of boycotting a candidate to that extreme. The Australian TV network for international and domestic news is supported by our taxes. They parroted the “fake media’s” disgusting contrived narrative without conscience or blushing. Although we left America 61 years ago, we still love America and are proud for the principles upon which it was founded. And yes, we still pay taxes in America. So we hoped fiercely for what we believed a “good result” in the election and begged God for mercy. 

Higher Than The Heavens

We serve an almighty God who sets up kings and takes down kings.
Why do the heathen (nations) rage?…He that sitters in the heavens shall laugh.” (Psa. 2:1, 4) “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:9) Habakkuk grieved over the wickedness of Babylon and voted for God to give Israel relief in spite of her sins, but it was not to be. Josiah voted for the continuation of God’[s blessing upon Israel, but God remembered the evils of Manasseh and did not answer the prayers of the righteous of Josiah’s day. Simply, He did not allow. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” He “doeth all things well,” and can and must know that God’s perfect plan has not been thwarted, though I can make no human sense to what is happening. God didn’t promise that our side would win the election, but He has promised that He would  work all things together for our ultimate good. So I’m preparing myself for a boring and probably irritating time while watching the news, but who knows, there may be some big unexpected surprises. But it is a diversion for me and something that Kathleen silently participates in as well as listening when the computer reads the Bible to me. 

The Corona Virus Pandemic

Australia has pursued the virus with vicious fervour, lockdowns for months, closures of state borders for months, relentless tracing, police following every case with fines (up to $20,000) for violators. They attack every occurrence with full battle armour. As a result they are controlling the virus with few cases but this has exacted a terrible le economic cost. Currently, because our two auditoriums can be opened to one another, so we can have up to 300 in the building at one time. Yesterday we  attended the Arabic-speaking service at 9:15 and the following English service at 10:45. Some of the older people are still out due to fear of the virus and probably a few have become a bit comfortable watching it streamed to the homes. Some new people are coming during this time and there is a beautiful spirit in the church. When  we started back, I wanted to be a good example and wore a mask. When Kathleen saw that no one else was wearing one, she yanked off hers and started pulling mine off until I had to relent and give up being a “patriotic Aussie!” Thank God no one in our congregation has tested positive.Thanks to all of you for your help and prayers as we try to finish off  specific projects before the Lord checks us out. The solution to the long legal issue with the camp is in a delicate stage at this time. Pray! We ask God to give you a blessed and safe Christmas season and New Year.

The Philippines has not Completed the Reprint of Our Books

This exciting development will ensure that the ministry of our books and survey materials will continue in the Philippines into the future after we are gone

Hester Transport Ministry

It was “Sign up- for a Ministry Day” at our church. I thought the display was neat and asked for a picture.  A few minutes later the “Hester Transport Ministry” was involved in a serious car accident on the way home from church. The wonderful young man taking us and his two sisters  were all uninjured. Ambulances took Kathleen and me to a hospital and after an all-night waist it was confirmed that Kathleen was fine with no injuries and that I had a fractured sternum. Five weeks on My injury is healing well but I’m pain to go which has moved to the back, shoulders and neck. No doubt, God spared us from what could easily have been much more serious for all involved. Some people asked me what happened and how I was doing. I told then I just had my 99th birthday. They thought I was serious, then I explained that I felt like I was 99 years old! 

Health Checklist after 87

I am so thankful for the two cochlear implants that keep me in the world of sound. How much I understand depends on several factors. With a mini-mike attached to the speaking in the church allows the voice to be placed directly into my dead ear cochlear. Another factor is the pitch of his voice. I understand 80% from some and 20% from others. A one-on-one conversation at close range is about the same. The mini-mike connected to the computer lets the computer read emails, the Bible and other text to me. Using the phone is near impossible without someone with me to fill in the gaps.     

Sight: There has been a dramatic decrease in the limited sight of the one seeing-eye this year. The laptop I used the past several years for sermon notes and scriptures in huge print no loungers an option. Macular degeneration is very active on the the central vision and glaucoma if affecting the peripheral. The specialist believes the deterioration will continue. However, he thinks it feasible that I will not lose all sight, say, in five years. 

Touch: My fingers are losing the ability to know where they are on the computer keyboard which is a big loss with my dependence upon the computer. Please don’t feel that I am discouraged, I’m not. I just know that you will pray for us as you have so faithfully done, many of you for over 60 years.

Prayer and Praise Points

• A dear man in our church named George is dying with cancer. He is four months younger than I and a dear friend whom I find difficult to lose. He is the father of our former pastor and will leave three godly children and wife who are such a blessing to the church. His earlier life experienced the dregs of sin and even included time in a famous prison for political involvements. However, he had a godly mother who believed God and he came to the Lord in our Sydney church in the eighties. He was a prolific reader and grew quickly in the Lord after salvation. He has written some beautiful Arabic hymns. Please pray for his wife and family during his final days..
• During our daughter Melody’s visit we went through my library and gave it to young men . My first library was lost in Lebanon and some of the Australian library was contributed by a Minneapolis widow whose husband had wanted to go to the mission field but could not. Some of the resource books she gave me 43 years ago are going back to Minneapolis for my grandson who, after finishing a double major in physics and astro-physics in the University of Minnesota, decided to enter seminary and strengthen his Bible knowledge. 
• Then we went through two large file drawers packed with sermon notes in the large print. As we started to dump them into the trash bin, I suddenly broke out weeping uncontrollably. I told Melody I didn’t know why I was crying and she said, “It’s OK, Dad, I understand.” I guess it hit me that it was an end of an era and the beginning of a new era to get across the finish line to that glorious hope that nears.
• We thank all of you for your love and concern for these unworthy servants. May the Lord give you a blessed Christmas and fruitful New Year. 

Prayer and Praise Points

• We have put out some promotional ads for our books. Please pray that the Lord will prosper this effort. We are asking God to bring more churches on board to run these survey courses for their people who desire to study God’s Word in a structured manner. .
• If you will go to www.MissionaryOutpost.com to home page, you can download a new brochure that is attractive and appealing. I would appreciate if the pastor or responsible person would print this brochure and put it on the missionary letter board along with our newsletter. 
• Please pray for an urgent legal issue to be solved concerning the camp. Corruption and the chaos of war left us with an issue that makes it impossible to do any new building at the camp. However, in the spring of this year the Lebanese parliament passed a law that will allow a resolution to this problem. 
• Please pray for George who is my age who has issues with cancer. He is such a blessing, especially in the Arabic congregation and we are asking God to give him more years.  
• Please pray for several speaking engagements I have in Sydney area churches. I believe this is the last time I will be speaking for them. I will explain more in another prayer letter.
• We are very grateful for all of you who stand behind us with prayer and support. The next two years will need your faithful continuance in order that we may position these different ministries to continue on in the future after we are gone.
  Email: MissionaryOutpost@gmail.com
  Website:  MissionaryOutpost.com

From the Good Shepherd Conference Center high in the Lebanese mountains

A godly Lebanese preacher is on the left who was a great blessing and encouragement in our early days in Lebanon, now in his nineties. In the centre is a member of our Sydney church who came to the Lord some 35 years ago;. On the right is a man in hi thirties who pastors a church down the mountain from the camp. He also is the site manager, “Mr. Make-it-all-happen” for all the camps. His father came to some of our activities in the nineteen sixties simply for curiosity and to get a ride in our van

Sunday was Father’s Day in Australia.

I spoke at our Faith Baptist Church at a joint English-Arabic Sunday morning service. I could not but remember my wonderful godly father who was such an example to us children by his love and respect for our mother. He taught us so many important values, using some very practical methods. I resorted to some examples recorded in our autobiography, Cast Your Bread:

“His father taught him the value of money by different methods. For example, he took his five-year-old son to meet the bank president to ask for a $50 loan to buy a calf to raise. The banker agreed to extend the loan and asked the lad to sign the loan papers. As a matter of precaution, the father was asked to sign as well! After feeding the calf for a year and showing the fatted calf in a county livestock show, the lad sold the calf, paid off the bank loan and tithed on the profit after deducting the expense of the cattle feed.. Prior to the calf project the father led his son to raise some chickens and tithe on the profit when he sold them.”

* To get him started, he led the boy to buy a dilapidated bicycle and, under his supervision, completely rebuild it.

Praise and Prayer Points

• Recently an all-night prayer meeting was held at Faith Baptist Church.
  It was around 3am and I went to the office, unable to sleep (normal). An email came in from the prayer meeting:  “Just wanted to let you know that we are currently praying through the night and we’ve just thanked and praised God for you. Your testimony and hard work in ministry have been a constant and consistent anchor in the life and path of our Church. We are thanking God for your passion for Him and His house. We are thankful for the wisdom that God has blessed you with, especially helping us through the recent turmoil. We are also thanking him for your sweet supportive wife who has been by your side for many decades. Truly, our Lord has blessed us abundantly with your leadership and pastorship in our midst. We are also thanking him for your sweet supportive wife that has been by your side for many decades.
• One of our members recently visited East Timor, a small Catholic country next to Indonesia. He reports that the missionary is using our Old Testament materials for their Wednesday evening Bible institute with great blessing!  He reports, “Many students I have spoken to have said it has been a blessing. They are amazed that I go to the same church as the Pastor they see on the screen every Wednesday night!”
• Another member previously visited Papua New Guinea and saw our materials being used in their Bible institute. It is exciting for us to see these materials being used even in places of which we are not aware.
• We are seeing a good number of new visitors in the services these days which is encouraging. Please continue to pray for several important steps ahead for the church’s transition to the new pastor
• I’m asking special prayer for a matter affecting the Lebanon camp ministry. The camp season is closing out and I will give more details later. Thank you for your prayers and all you do for us.
• Email: MissionaryOutpost@gmail.com or hrichardhester@gmail.com

Pray for Lebanon summer camps beginning soon!

The Good Shepherd Conference Center near the Cedars of Lebanon will host several camps from several churches this July through September. Please join us in prayer that many hearts will be touched by the power of the Holy Spirit through Word of God. Pray for Pastor Edgard Traboulsi, the Conference Center Director and for Pastor Eli Wardan who is the on-site manager withmuch respon responsibility.

Sydney Bible Baptist College

College Missions Class Visit

I taught in this college for 38 years and Kathleen taught English grammar for many years as well.  The college uses our Old and New Testament Bible History courses, each one comprising two semesters of study.  The Missions class took our autobiography, Cast Your Bread, to study and discuss issues involving ministry and missions. They asked us to share a class period with them to ask questions about our 67 years of ministry in the USA, Lebanon and Australia.

The book is available from Temple Baptist Church in El Dorado, KS  Email: missionaryoutpost@templebaptisteldorado.com or phone: 316 321 3803 

In 1952 Richard needed some good work to help pay for his second year of ministry preparation at Bob Jones University. He felt led to go to Wichita, Kansas to seek summer employment. Here is a page from Cast Your Bread:

The Important Door Handle

His hope was to find work at Boeing Aircraft’s Wichita factory for military airplanes. He repeatedly returned to Boeing’s employment office seeking work but with no success. No other door of work opened up for him. He was running out of money but decided to return one more time to Boeing’s office. Again he was refused. He walked to his car and put his hand on the door handle, ready to get in the car and drive back home to Oklahoma. His heart ached, and he prayed and asked God again to open the door for work at Boeing. He locked the car and returned to find that the Boeing Employment Office had just received a communication, minutes before, to hire more people. He was immediately hired and began work for the three-month summer break. The amazing, important car door handle was all that stood between success and failure. God stopped him at the door handle and set another important direction in his life. It was a lesson for Richard that his life was not left to chance! The Living God was in control of all details in his life, even the door handles that he grasped! From that would flow his introduction to an independent Baptist church, his establishing a new church in nearby El Dorado and his meeting his wife of now 62 years!

Showers of Blessing

• Our church is rejoicing in “showers of blessing!” Six people were recently baptised, one couple was baptized who had attended the church for years and whose four married children and spouses are faithful and active members of the church. Other candidates for baptism are on the way. The attendance last Sunday morning was at the 300 mark with ten new people in attendance. Our pastor brought a stirring message on prayer that resulted in many responding and coming to rededicate themselves to the privilege of prayer. God has and is answering prayer and the church is again on the march forward. We are so thankful for your prayers and for God’s amazing faithfulness.

Brother Mansour Youssef, wife Sharon and children

Prayer Answered!

After nineteen months without an official pastor, Brother Mansour Youssef has been appointed as pastor of Faith Baptist Church. It is a huge blessing after the times of instability and uncertainty. Still, it has been a time of renewing and uniting after the ugliness of division where Satan’s work thrives. Satan was attempting to discourage and destroy up to the last moment, but we thank God that He Who is in us is greater than he that is in the world. I even received a letter from “seven concerned pastors” warning of dire consequences if we proceeded with the vote. I replied asking the “seven anonymous whatevers” to rewrite their letter and divulge their identities. Satan rarely signs his name, but we are told not to be ignorant of his devices!

It was a time of relief and rejoicing for most and we trust for all as we continue to move forward. Brother Mansour came in the beginning months of our church as a nine-year-old Lebanese immigrant’s son who cried for his father to allow him to come to church. Although he had an accounting business and later a building company that built our new church facilities, he has always been heavily involved in our church and was giving three days a week to help our previous pastor in the church ministry. His wife is a pastor’s daughter.

Following Jesus in baptism

Baptisms

The church celebrated the baptisms of three young ladies aged 18 and in the twenties. Lunch and fellowship followed with a time to get acquainted with the visitors. View the recent Sunday school awards photo below.

Brother Mansour has worked with the Pulpit Committee to fill the role for 16 of those 19 long months. The Lord has truly raised him up from our midst and we are excited at what God will do in the future.

Sunday school awards for 2017

Printed in Mexico

Ot Bible History Manual coming together

We are thankful to report that the Old Testament Bible History Manual (Guidebook) is now printed and available. Pastor Ramos has a vibrant literature ministry in his church and is doing a great job getting the books out to pastors, churches and Bible institutes. In around one year’s time he had sold enough of the NT Bible History books to pay off the funding loan for its printing!

We are so thankful for his partnership along with those who have worked so hard in the translation and preparation of both the NT and OT books in Spanish for printing. May God reward them all for labours of love for their Spanish-speaking peoples!

“Thank You, Lord!”

An Exiting Night

At last report my second ocular implant was giving me nothing except an unintelligible sound. My first implant of over three years ago gave immediate ability to understand words, so it was a bit disappointing when the second one gave nothing. But the audiologists urged patience, saying that the brain would ultimately sort things out and that words would be on the way.

Our USA daughter was here helping with her mother after her heart problems. Melody told me goodnight and went to her room. I took off the old cochlear processor that was giving me hearing. I started praying aloud, saying, “Thank you Lord… Suddenly I realised that I heard myself say “thank you Lord” with the new processor still attached to my ear! I rushed to Melody’s door and said, “I just heard myself say “thank You, Lord!” She said, “Oh Dad, I’m so excited” which I also understood. It was so appropriate that the Lord was thanked with the very first words! It is all His mercy and He is so gracious and plenteous in mercy.

Last week the audiologist was “blown away” and said she did not expect such an amazing result and that the time frame was unusual. To God be the glory!

Kathleen’s Recovery

Since the surgery for the pacemaker, she has had no further episodes with her heart. All has gone well and the cardiologist was very pleased with everything. We thank the Lord every day for allowing us more time together, to serve Him in our limited way and to help each other. She is my salvation for seeing and hearing and I am her’s for remembering!

Number One in The World!

Our grand daughter is feeding her grand mother.

“I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Psalms  34:1

Number one?

I was asked if I would like to have the cochlear implant surgery with a local anaesthetic, which I preferred. I thought it was a common procedure. It went fine, but the surgeon kept asking if I had any pain, which I didn’t. But one time I said, “Yes, I do.” The anaesthesiologist immediately gave me more. The surgeon was perplexed when I said I still had pain, so he asked me where the pain was. I said, “It is in my foot!” Apparently I was having a cramp in my foot.

On the return visit to the surgeon, he told me that I was Australia’s first to have the surgery with a local anaesthetic and that I was number thirteen in the world. I know that you will be proud of your missionary because he is actually number one in the world to have surgery on his head for an implant and to feel pain in his foot! About the implant, I have not understood one word yet and will have to wait for the brain to sort it out and begin to decipher the electronic language.

God’s Miracles for Kathleen

Wednesday morning at the breakfast table Kathleen suddenly slumped backwards in the chair. She looked like death and there was no response. After perhaps ten seconds she began to revive. We took her to the doctor, and she repeated the episode in the waiting room. An ambulance took her to the nearby hospital. On Thursday morning she had a third episode, this time connected to a heart monitor that told exactly what happened. Her heart stopped for seven seconds, and they knew that she needed a pacemaker quickly.

Christmas holidays were on with few resources available. God had a good friend in the hospital who did the impossible, finding an available pacemaker at another hospital and asking a surgeon friend on holiday to come in just to perform Kathleen’s surgery by two o’clock that afternoon!

Our hearts are filled with gratitude to God and to the people He placed in just the right place to help us at the exact time they were needed. It was providential that she was seated during the first and second episodes and that she was connected to a heart monitor the third time, which removed all doubt about the what and why of these occurrences. We’re so thankful the Lord has again allowed us to have each other for His glory!

With Thanksgiving…

• I did fall asleep once on duty (left photo), but I am looking after Kathleen with the great help of the grandchildren! Our daughter who lives here is away in Lebanon, and the USA daughter arrives today to help for two weeks.
• Both the English OT Guidebooks and the OT Spanish Bible History books arrived in Sydney. Some of the church brethren unpacked all 1126 books onto the proper shelves for us.

Bright Spots on a Cloudy Day

“Giving thanks ALWAYS in all things…”

Richard’s 84th Birthday with Kathleen

Cloudy Days

I have to admit that l have felt a few foggy days the past couple of months. The great joy of celebration after completing 84 years has been squashed somewhat by several pesky, uncooperative  members of the victory team.

The first member to kick in the harness was the illustrious cochlear implant which heretofore had lifted me to an exciting level of hearing sounds unknown to me in recent years. Everything inside the head and outside was checked but to no avail as to what had caused the loss. I can carry on a decent conversation one on one, but in a noisy environment I’m hopeless. I can understand the message 60 to 70 per cent if the speaker lets me hang a little microphone onto his lapel. Otherwise I get around 20 per cent or less. Music has mostly disappeared, it just sounds like blah, blah, blah! The only instrument I can really distinguish in the orchestra is a french horn which sounds like a frustrated cow in the meadow waiting for the evening feed!

My complaint landed on the desk of the best expert the cochlear people have. You are not going to believe this, but I am dead serious! She had the gall to tell me that the problem was that I have gotten too old and that my instrumentation is wearing out! A fine how-do-you-do if I do say so! She could have said “a part seems to be missing” instead of being so blunt.

The list goes on-the eyesight had previously joined the chorus of complaints. Then, a bad tooth which I went to the dentist to fix. But lo and behold, he said there was another one in worse shape that needed to be fixed first.  How many flat tires can you have at the same time?

Thankfully some members are still rejoicing in the eighty-fourth celebration. Especially Kathleen’s eyes and ears to help me and my memory to help her Alzheimer’s. So we’re going to just keep on “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name, and forget not all His benefits.”And then there’s that glorified body deal that’s out there. It’s becoming more of a reality and a hope that “fadeth not away!” We’ve tried to put retreads on the slashed tires until the next time. I’m not sure what to expect with the “eighty-fifth party!” The Rapture and  the glorified body would be the greatest option!

For Prayer and Thanks

• That our Pastor Nabeel’s soon visit will be a blessing to the church and pastor in north Lebanon
• Protection for Safa and her family in Syria in a previously safe area but recently struck by ISIS suicide bombers. She just finished translating my NT book into Arabic and her sister in our church here has formatted it.
• Pray for Pastor Robertson and Maria Esther in Spain as they are working to finish proofing and formatting the OT Handbook for printing in Spanish.
• Pray for the current projects at the Lebanon Good Shepherd camp ground and the summer ministries  to follow. 

Rejoicing in 84 Gracious Years

“Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed!”

Richard’s 84th birthday with Kathleen

A Snowy Day in Oklahoma

The beginning of these 84 years occurred in an Oklahoma farmhouse on a bitter-cold stormy day before the doctor could arrive to assist with the birth.

The first highlight has to be conversion and the soon call to the ministry after one year in secular college.

The second highlight was the birth of Temple Baptist Church in El Dorado, KS, after preparation for the ministry at Bob Jones University. That church and Pastor Ron Jones continue to be a huge blessing to us, including distributing our books. We are so grateful!

The third highlight was our 17 years of missionary ministry in Lebanon. The memories include         Faith Baptist Church in Tripoli and the building of a camp and conference center below the cedars of Lebanon with its fruitful ministry. This phase ended with a destructive civil war that uprooted our ministry.

The fourth highlight has been the most fruitful-of-all ministry of Faith Baptist Church in Australia. Every ministry in which we have been involved is currently headed up by godly successors who are doing a faithful work for God. This includes the Lebanon camp ministry and the Sydney Bible Baptist College. It is a huge blessing to see each ministry manned, going forward and still loving to associate with us! To God be all the glory and honor for it all!

Sons in Ministry

The church in northern Lebanon is pastored by a godly, very capable preacher who surrendered to the ministry in one of our meetings in Lebanon after the war. God is greatly blessing Bassam’s ministry!

Nabeel was born in Lebanon the same year we arrived in 1959. We saw his wife in Lebanon as a little girl. Nabeel is one of the most gifted and godly Lebanese preachers I have ever known. Faith Baptist Church in Regents Park, Sydney is totally self-supporting, zealous in evangelistic outreach and has a great teaching and training program for members. Our OT and NT Survey courses are included in their program. We are greatly blessed to sit under the ministry of Pastor Nabeel!

Another dear son in the ministry pastors the Blacktown Faith Baptist Church which started out of the Regents Park church. It also ministers in both Arabic and English. Pastor Sam was the first person I pointed to Christ in Sydney. He is a gifted Bible teacher and also is the academic dean and a major lecturer in Sydney Bible Baptist College of which I was the principal for 13 years and a lecturer since we arrived in Australia in 1976. God’s paths for us have been pleasant and perfect! Thank you for your invaluable help and prayers!

Counting Our Blessings

The Dream Come True

It began early in 2012 with the commitment of Missionary Marvin Robertson of Spain to head up the project. The New Testament book was printed in August 2015 and the Old Testament book should be ready for printing early in 2016. It was a big job for the team who were dedicated to an accurate, high-quality translation and production. Nothing was spared to this end. The head translator spent 180 hours in the final proofing of the book.

The USA printing is now available in several US book stores or churches, some of which are on the Mexico/US border. Five hundred copies were put into a container going to Nicaragua and are now available in a bookstore there.

The Spain printing is now being distributed from a church outside Madrid. The Argentina printing will hopefully occur in October. Pray about a possible printing inside Mexico and also in Colombia. Nepal has started and there is talk in Burma. We never dreamed of all this!

When Our Efforts Fail, God Begins to Work!

I tried several times to make contact with a particular Bible college in Mexico that I thought might have some interest in using our New Testament Bible History book. Every attempt I made failed and I thought it was not worth any more effort.

When I sent out a form letter announcing the printing of the book, I received a letter from the academic dean of this same college. He told me that he was visiting friends in Spain and saw the lady of the house translating a book into Spanish. He looked through the book and really liked it, thinking that it would be great for their Bible college! As it happened, the lady was our chief translator. She told me later that she attended this Bible college when she was a young lady even before this academic dean was born!

Other similar incidents have happened, all to demonstrate that we serve a wonderful, Almighty God Who delights to put His treasure into earthen vessels but Who wants us to know that the excellency of the power is not of us but of Him! My focus was on a city in Mexico but God rerouted the project through Spain. How often God reroutes our hopes for deliverance through unexpected “foreign” sources and circumstances.

A Precious Surprise

Our beloved pastor told me he was going to head a project team to translate our New Testament book into Arabic! They are now up to Matthew in chapter four! That is precious to us; we are truly counting our blessings!

Frightened or Excited?

It all depends on your perspective!

The Growing Threat

The scourge of fanatical, brutally violent Islamic jihad is spreading like wildfire. Last week it struck on three continents with scores shot dead and one decapitated. Many other plots are being foiled by national intelligence agencies. There is a feeling of fear among thinking people who have never seen this kind of religious fanaticism.

Today’s news reports that ISIS, the so-called Islamic state, has 20 million supporters or connections with people who support it. Further, there are another 20 million Arabs who sympathize with it and don’t mind it. Thousands, mostly young people, are being persuaded and won to Islam and violent jihad before the coming of Christ (according to them) who will establish Islam in all the earth. They are not a “JV Team” (Obama doctrine)  practicing violence. They are convinced, sincere Muslims who believe they are literally fulfilling the Islamic message as taught by Mohammed. Whether or not they are right does not change the fact of their serious zeal.

Crimes Against Humanity

According to the Religious Freedom Report which reports news of religious persecution, here are some current events.

• In ISIS-controlled Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, all of the 45 Christian churches have been destroyed by ISIS. Four hundred churches in Syria have been destroyed. Similar things are happening in Nigeria, northern Africa and Pakistan.
• ISIS has reportedly sold at auction middle-aged women for about $40, girls 10-20 for $130 and younger children brought a higher price. It is even reported that women are “given away” as prizes for Koranic games.

The Jihadists are correct that Christ is returning. But when He does, He will not establish Islamic righteousness on earth. But God can use this frightening, brutal movement to accomplish His own righteous purposes before Christ’s return.

Special Note

If you have my old personal email, rkhester@bigpond.net.au, please delete it and replace with hrichardhester@gmail.com

A Husband’s Tragic Death

We met a lady whom we asked, in the course of conversation, about her two children and husband. She went silent and choked up. I apologized for asking but she told me her husband was gone. His death left her in a very difficult position, financially and otherwise.I asked if I could pray for her. She cried when I prayed and seemed so grateful.

We saw her again a week later and had the opportunity to talk about salvation. She accepted Christ with tears and joy! I don’t know when or if we will see her again. In this troubled world that is truly frightening, it is exciting that God has opportunities for us to be a witness and help to needy souls!

A Father’s Salvation

A Filipino lady asked me on Sunday if I knew anyone who could witness to her dad in the Philippines who has terminal cancer.

On Monday I spoke to my Filipino “preacher son” to see if he knew anyone in this far-away city. A staff member in his home church in Manila had gone to visit his sick dad who pastors in the faraway city of the dad sick with cancer! He was contacted and today, Tuesday, he and his pastor father visited our lady’s father in the hospital. Her father and wife along with her younger daughter were all saved!  Talk about timing and logistics, we serve an amazing God! That is exciting! I can’t wait for the next exciting experience!

His Ways in the Sanctuary

They are so often inexplicable to our finite minds!

Nice Surprises

God likes to surprise His children with gifts and blessings that are often unexpected. Did He not promise to give us “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think?” Eph. 3:20 He asked Abraham when human hope had vanished that he and Sarah could have a son, “Is anything too hard for the Lord (Gen. 18:14)?” When Jeremiah was faltering to believe that Judah would be returned from captivity after seventy years, God prodded him, “Is anything too hard for Me (Jer. 32:27)?” God delights to work surprises in our sometimes bewildering circumstances and ask us, “Is anything too hard for Me?”

I love to watch God’s ways, they are so unusual, so lovely. Several years ago I attended a fellowship meeting and left a set of my Bible History materials to a national pastor from Papua New Guinea. I forgot about it and didn’t hear anything until last month when I met up with that pastor in our Sydney church. He told me that every year since he got the materials, he was using them for his Bible institute students (a dozen or so). I will never be able to go and minister in PNG but God has truly surprised me with a proxy-ministry! Many of you have experienced the same thing as you minister through your missionaries around the world. I suspect God’s wonderful way will include many surprises throughout eternity.

Prayer Points

The Spanish New Testament Bible History Handbook should be ready for the printers in June. Pray for open doors and wisdom for the distribution of the book. We have seen a couple of doors open that hold good promise and we are praying for other needed open doors in South America. Please pray and perhaps we can give a victory report next newsletter!

An Australian pastor friend named Ross is very sick with a rare blood disease. He just had a bone marrow transplant. Please pray for this godly pastor and Bible college teacher.

Understanding God’s Way

Psalms 77:12-13 reads, “I will meditate also of all Thy work, and talk of Thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?”

I recently asked you to pray concerning the loss of some sight I had experienced over the past year. My ophthalmologist sent me to another specialist in  glaucoma to get an opinion. The consensus seems to be that the loss has been caused by a combination of macular degeneration and low eye pressure. They are giving me drops to keep the pressure low to prevent hemorraghing of the fragile optic nerve at the back of the eyes. But if the pressure is too low, it damages the eye and they think that is what has happened.  The damage is permanent, they say, and it could occur again if the pressure gets too low.

One important issue I am working on is how to read my notes  while preaching. One alternative is to just open my mouth and let the Lord fill it! I have tried that option partially more than a few times during “too-busy” periods, especially in Lebanon. But I don’t like that option and am working on others!

It has again cast me upon the Lord’s providential works which, the Psalmist says are always done in harmony with His holy and righteous character. In spite of my fears and doubts so many times at threatening circumstances, at the end my discovery was always this: “Who is so great a God as our God?” His ways are always holy and right! Thanks for praying.

Old-Fashioned Revival

Violent Extremism or Fundamental Islam Revival?

Revival movements are powerful. They source in a former glory, a dedicated purity that has been lost. They appeal to the higher instincts of the human soul that has lost the joy and purpose of a higher calling. Revival movements thrive in calling people back to fundamental beginnings.

Islam became a very successful religious political movement that is incompatible with democracy and freedom of conscience. It spawned four major empires that reached from Spain to the Indus. Had they not been defeated in Tours, France, in 732 A.D., we could have grown up in an Islamic West. Islam conquered and converted by the sword using basically the same methods of violence and fear that ISIS uses effectively today. Sharia law, beheadings, the killing of apostates or people who criticize Islam or its prophet and the slaughter of infidels all are fundamentals of historic Islam and now with ISIS. Saudi Arabia conforms to these fundamentals except that they are not seen to be conquering and killing infidels. Even though they have exported many radical imams who promote Wahhabism, a revival movement by a Saudi theologian in the 18th century to purge Islam of corrupting influences and return it to its original purity.  This radical, militant thinking undergirds ISIS and like groups. Saudi oil dollars have financed the building of mosques and schools throughout the western countries. Saudi nationals have heavily supported radical, terrorist groups in the past.

Who are the liberal Muslims? There are moderate Muslims in the Middle East who wish for freedom of conscience from the oppressive rule of Sharia, but they are fearfully silent and thus irrelevant to our discussion. The Muslims in the West could be considered to be the “liberals” who do not hold to a literal interpretation of the Koran.

However, instead of admitting the issue, the “liberals”  and the politicians try to convince the public that the issue doesn’t exist, that the liberal interpretation is pure Islam and that Muslims are being slandered and persecuted for their faith.

Understanding the Issue

One who call himself a Muslim and believes the Koran is a Muslim. Interpretation determines what kind of Muslim he is just as it does in any religion. Interpretation makes one Muslim Shia or Sunni, another “moderate” or “literalist”or jihadist. Many jihadists believe extreme violence is permitted to spread their Islamic message. So the extremism of ISIS is Islamic extremism. It comes from three sources:

• Economic and political issues
• Spiritual ambition to be important to a perceived good and winning cause. This sense of a higher calling inspires converts to heroic deeds, even to suicide for the cause. Extremist recruiters build on this aspiration.
• Theological convictions of a literal interpretation of the Koran enforce the Islamic extremist. Holy war against the infidels, Sharia law, the apocalyptic triumph of Islam, the special rewards for martyrs, all these are sincerely believed. If the Koran allows (literal interpretation) beheading, crucifixion and maiming of apostates and infidels, it isn’t a long journey to burning them alive.

Many ignore these spiritual and theological aspects and engage in senseless debate as to whether the extremists are Moslem or not. All of us should want tolerance and peace. But this problem should be confronted by Muslim leaders and scholars. It is an internal matter and no amount of denial or blame-laying can change the obvious truth.

Let’s pray for true revival and the coming of the Prince of peace!

 Looking at a world of violence through the eyes of an 83 year-old

Faith Baptist Church Pulpit

Noah’s world is described as “filled with violence.” Violence is the topic of today. If a local mosque’s statement in today’s paper is to be believed, “These events have nothing to do with Islam. Not a single person with this twisted brainwashed mentality comes from our community.”

When we began ministry in Lebanon in 1959 there were times of instability and mini-wars. But today, things are so complex and so impossible of solution. The worldwide program of some to impose “Allah’s kingdom” with its Sharia law upon all is dismissed by fearful and naive politicians as an event caused by a “handful of radical nuts” who have grievances of social injustices with the west.

But the seed of Ishmael is front and center stage, irrespective of how many of them agree or disagree with the program of “jihad.” Shiite Islam (Iran, Iraq) is vying against Sunni Islam (most Arab countries). Sunni ISIS is against all of them. Syria is being ripped apart by multiple Islamic power blocs and Lebanon is drowning in a sea of refugees. All these blocs hate western freedom of conscience and democracy. It is a frightening and violent world!

I find myself almost relieved that I am 83 years-old and closer to the coming of the Prince of Peace! Violence is reaching into the most unlikely places. A jihadist set a siege in peaceful Sydney recently that traumatized the entire nation before the death of two hostages and the jihadist.  Yes, it can happen anywhere! As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of man.

News

The Bible History materials for survey courses have gone to many places for which we thank God. It is such a blessing to see students finding benefit and blessing from using the materials.

However, one place I would never have expected to host the materials would have been in the remote country of Nepal! But God’s ways are amazing. The New Testament Bible History Handbook is being translated into Nepali. Even the NT DVD lectures are being recorded with voice-overs. My friends there tell me that it looks like I am actually speaking Nepali! Appearances can be very deceiving!

The Dean of Students at Sydney Bible Baptist College has resigned and moved out of the college apartment. Pray for the health of the Ringwaldts’ who have served faithfully in the college for a number of years. Thankfully the Lord has provided the Buhrens’ to take up the challenge. They were missionaries to Scotland and he also pastored a church in Australia for several years. Please pray for their move and settling into the college.

A Very Personal Prayer Request

Thankfully, the MS that destroyed most of my sight has been in remission for years. The 25% of the remaining sight in the one eye has allowed me, with technology, the opportunity to write some books, develop study materials and do other things that God put on my heart.

In recent months I felt I was again losing sight. Computer text had to be enlarged and reading the bigger text seemed harder. My ophthalmologist is concerned but is not confident what can or should be done. He has referred me to another specialist in mid-February for an opinion.

I would deeply appreciate special prayer for this matter. It means so much to me to still have God’s gift of very limited eyesight that allows me to remain productive.

Our 29th year of involvement with Sydney Bible Baptist College finished with a blessed time at the Graduation Fellowship. Five graduates gave thrilling testimonies, and the Word of God was preached in power and blessing. The special speaker from the USA was a real challenge and example of New Testament preaching.

About past and present prayer requests:

1. Please continue to pray for the Iraqi man and wife and son who disappeared in Iraq and haven’t been heard from for three months.
2. Thanks for praying for Rachel; she is in her next to last chemotherapy cycle and struggling.
3. Please continue to pray for the Croydon Park Arabic church. The Lord miraculously worked it out for them to sign a contract to buy a piece of land that will allow them to build a church to hold what they have now and allow for future growth. They’re getting the 1.5 acre piece of land for $2.5 million, a half-million dollar discount to the price the owners were holding out for and should have received. Now the church has to sell the present church property and house next door to be able to settle the transaction by March 31st. This is a big step of faith for them, but it is probably no bigger challenge than it was 28 years ago when we bought the present church for around $75,000. House prices are now at least twelve to fifteen times more than they were then.
4. Thank you for praying for a couple to work with the college. An experienced pastor has come forward with a real interest and burden to fill the role if the Lord will put it all together. So both of us are praying for the Lord’s will to be done. If he comes, it will probably need a year’s time for it all to happen.
5. Please pray for my “spizarinktum” (spelling in doubt!) as we look for an answer to a severe bout of fatigue and tiredness the last few weeks. It’s ordinary to have it one or two days a week, but not all the time.
6. Please pray for strength and wisdom as I continue to work on the New Testament Bible History Illustrated project. I hope to complete the first draft of the book we’ll use as a text maybe in a couple of months. After that I’ll start writing the lectures to prepare for videoing the lectures. The Lord has put a real burden on my heart to finish this project.

We wish all of you a most happy Christmas time and beginning for a fruitful New Year. How we thank the Lord for you, our friends in ministry, who are a vital part of all that we do. You are much appreciated.

Sweet Rachel is just about halfway through her chemotherapy treatment. The last session gave her the most severe side effects she has had to date; she has been in bed most of the two weeks since the session with much nausea, vomiting and insomnia. For the first time since the two brain surgeries, radiation and chemo, she said, “I’m having a hard time,” and that was the extent of her complaint. She’s quite the Christian young lady.

The National Baptist Fellowship was held two weeks ago up in northern Queensland. About 80 preachers attended with an excellent attendance of the churches. It is very encouraging to see the Australian independent Baptist pastors promoting and hosting this annual meeting and doing a great job of it. We were all blessed and refreshed in the Lord.

The Outback Baptist Church, literally in the outback, bought a set of the Old Testament Bible History Illustrated course to use in their church. They are a new church way out in the outback in a mining town where it is almost impossible to rent a house for an affordable price. I believe the pastor said an ordinary three-bedroom house would rent for over a thousand dollars per week, which is far beyond their capability. Pray for Outback Baptist Church and their visionary young pastor who has a burden for that place. They have 3 or 4 people who want to study the course and learn more about God‘s Word.

Again we would ask prayer for the Lord’s leadership in obtaining a couple to live at the college, someone who will also be able to share in the teaching ministry of the college. There are some possibilities, so please pray for the Lord to give us just the couple He wants in this important position.

Another urgent prayer request is for the brother and wife of an Iraqi engineer in our Croydon Park church. This brother with his wife and son were returning to their Baghdad home recently from a church conference in the west of Iraq when they were either kidnapped or detained by someone. He is a scientist as well as a Christian and a lay preacher. Just before the invasion of Iraq, he had been arrested and imprisoned for a month or two, but the Lord graciously delivered him before the invasion began.

God is graciously giving us a measure of health and blessing to serve. I minister in different churches each Sunday and preach in Arabic a couple of times each month for which opportunity I am happy. The last prayer request is for the need of a church building in north Lebanon. They have a property but need help to build a church. They have had hassles in finding a meeting place and are “living on the brink” in the present location. This good, vibrant congregation needs a permanent home, so we are asking prayer that God might provide some help to bring this need to reality.

An urgent prayer request is for the Croydon Park Faith Baptist Church Arabic: they are seeking the Lord’s will in the purchase of a new piece of property on which to build a new facility. The auction is next week, and the church is fasting and praying two days before the auction for the Lord’s will to be made clear. Pastor Nabil and his wife are pictured above at the recent National Baptist Fellowship on an excursion. They are a wonderful couple doing a great job at Faith Baptist Church Arabic in Croydon Park.

Thanks for continuing to pray for Rachel: she is now undergoing chemotherapy after the extensive course of radiation treatments. It is a difficult time with the side effects which have really hit her hard. She needs our prayers. One good piece of news is that the MRI did not find any cancer cells.

We are constantly reminded by others of the faithfulness of our Lord in using us with people in ways we don’t even imagine. Just last week a person was telling us that we were like parents to him and what a blessing we had always been. I was thankful for what he said and commented to Kathleen: “Isn’t it something how God works, and we don’t even realize it?”

The Bible college began its new semester one week ago with a blessed opening service. One of the graduates from the nineties brought a beautiful, challenging message from God’s Word. There was an air of excitement, and we are looking to the Lord for a good semester of study. We are asking the Lord to provide a couple to live at the college and fill in some needed gaps in the college ministry. Please pray for the Lord’s direction in this area.

We are thankful for the Lord’s blessings on the Old Testament Bible History Illustrated this month. I preached in a church about two weeks ago which had recently started up the course in the church on a Thursday evening. A family man told me that after the first session he was afraid he couldn’t handle the course work. But after a few lessons he discovered that he really could do the work, and he testified to what a great blessing it had been to him. He loves it and is so glad that he took the step!

Several sets of the course are now in the Philippines, and it has been started up on a weeknight in one church with 20 students. As well, two Bible colleges will soon be using it in their curriculum. Something else that excited me was that it was instituted into China about two weeks ago. I never dreamed I’d be able to preach or teach God’s Word in the land of China!

A pastor friend in the USA suggested that some Christian schools would be interested in the course for perhaps a senior-year Bible curriculum. He ordered a set and if it will fit the school schedule, he plans to institute it into their system. An ACE school here in Sydney is putting it into their senior year curriculum next year, and others are looking at it. So maybe it will be a blessing to some high schools. Please pray with us!

Many thanks to all of you who have been “encouragers” to keep us going for our Lord. What a great Lord and cause we serve!

Having exceeded by three years the days of our years, threescore and ten, it often comes to my mind what I could leave as a legacy when the Lord ushers me out of this earthly realm? Certainly all that any of us has done for Christ will last in one way or another-nothing will be lost. It is so comforting to know that our labours are not in vain in the Lord; He has so promised!

When I started developing the Old Testament Bible History Illustrated back in 2003, it was to meet a local need for getting laypeople in the churches involved in serious Bible study in an interesting and exciting way. It also occurred to me that leaving something to our grandchildren could be beneficial when they grow up and some day could study it. They could learn from grandfather’s talking on 30 DVDs about the priorities that captivated his life and ministry on three continents. Maybe God would use that to be a good influence and encouragement in their lives. That was just a sidelight which appealed to me: talking to my grandchildren after I am gone.

As things progressed with the course, the Lord seemed to lead to wider thinking: maybe I could leave a little legacy that would allow me to continue speaking for Christ after the earthly race is run and finished. Some people are good at writing books and continue to speak after they are gone. Maybe I could continue teaching and preaching God’s Word by means of technology with DVDs and a Bible study course. Speaking to groups of laypeople, high school students, Bible college students, group situations-this appeals to me as an on-going ministry, small as it might be.

The Lord has encouraged us this month: we have sent two sets of the Old Testament Bible History Illustrated to India. These Bible schools are planning to begin using it starting in June!. We’ve never visited India except for a diverted airport stop once in Bombay. But it excites me to be able to be of some small use or influence for Christ in India among precious people of God who are preparing to serve our Lord-people I may never meet this side of glory!

Previously we have sent three sets of the course to Indonesia. This is all very exciting to us, and we ask your prayers that God will bless these small efforts far beyond our ability to imagine. We are asking God to continue using this course here in Australia among the churches as He has so wonderfully done in the past.

Please continue to pray for Rachel who is now having radiation treatments. I asked you to pray for her last month after her two surgeries for a brain tumor at the base of the brain. She planned a Thanksgiving service which we attended-one of the sweetest occasions I have ever attended. She sang, played the piano and gave a testimony of the Lord’s faithfulness. Her doctor and two of her intensive care unit nurses (one of them a Moslem) attended and were visibly moved; they had never heard anything like this. A plain Gospel message was given as well by a godly pastor. Rachel is nineteen years old and a real example of faith and courage in the midst of a severe trial!

Note the photo from the upper portion of the Lebanon conference ground looking down on the lower level with a dormitory and playground in view. With mountains on either side, the Mediterranean Sea is visible from the camp (not in this photo). I have not seen a campground with a more beautiful view. We built it in 1969 to be a blessing to churches in Lebanon, especially in the North, and that remains our prayer! May God richly bless all of you as we labour together for our wonderful Lord.

We talk about “getting keen laypeople, young and old, involved in a serious Bible study” with Old Testament Bible History Illustrated. We really believe that this course could be a blessing to many people who would thrive on such a study. So we ask you to pray that God will put His hand of blessing on this endeavor and that His name will truly be glorified!

We are burdened about helping build a church building in North Lebanon for a vibrant congregation which has difficulty finding places to meet. If the Lord would bless the Bible study course, some of the proceeds could help build that church, a noble aspiration indeed! Notwithstanding, I wouldn’t want anyone to think that I developed the Bible study course in order to raise money for missions. The only reason I made this course was a burden to “get laypeople involved in serious Bible study.” At the beginning I did not believe that I had the health nor the ability to accomplish such a task. At times, before completion of the project, I felt I couldn’t continue to work the long hours and put forth the effort even one more day! But God was faithful and nursed me through the project.

After finishing the editing and making of the 30 DVDs, there was the “mountain” of getting permissions, re-editing of the media to make everything compliant with the permissions in order to secure the copyrights for all the work. Thank God it is all done now-I can hardly believe it!

Please pray for a sweet 19 year-old pastor’s daughter, Rachel, who had her second brain surgery this week for a tumour at the base of the brain. Now she will start chemo etc since they were not able to get all the tumour.

On a lighter note, our Lebanon mission home which we built and lived in was vacated last week by the Syrian army which has occupied it these years! God still brings iron curtains down! Lebanon is experiencing some big changes. Note the “freedom from Syria” demonstration in Beirut in the picture. Up to 1.5 million people took part in the demonstration. Pray for peace in that country. May God richly bless all of you for your great encouragement to us.

So many wonderful blessings were ours on the trip in the latter half of 2004 that we weren’t able to share it all in the previous communications. We were thrilled beyond measure by the Lebanon visit. The El Dorado Temple Baptist Church segment with the 50th anniversary of our first church to plant was joy beyond description. The third segment was also very special but in a different way.

My mother was born in 1908 in western Oklahoma. Her dad plowed a furrow across the prairie from their simple home on the homestead to a little schoolhouse some mile and an half away, so that the children would not lose their way going to school. She was once taken to a faraway town in a covered wagon to have her tonsils removed without an anesthetic.

My relationship with both my mother and father was of the closest nature. I never saw them have an argument nor treat each other disrespectfully. They were born-again Christians who believed the Bible. We told Dad goodbye twenty years ago. We were able to see Mom on this trip and told her goodbye. One week before we were to leave our daughter’s on our way back to Australia, we returned to western Oklahoma for Mom’s funeral. God, in His great mercy, had set her free from the frail body that had become such a burden to her.

It was a highpoint of my life to be able to be at her funeral and to open God’s Word to comfort ourselves and to present my mother’s Saviour to any who did not know Him as personal Saviour. My older brother gave the obituary and mentioned some interesting details of Mom’s life. My younger brother and family sang one of the two hymns Mom had requested to be sung as specials at her funeral. And my daughter Melody and I sang the other song. It was all a time of deep joy and comfort that left us all with a deeper desire for that “reunion in the air” that may be very near!

The timing of her departure was nothing short of miraculous. We had prayed for some time that we would be able to be present for the funeral when the Lord should take her. Had He taken her when we were in Lebanon some weeks earlier, it would have been a real dilemma. Had it been a few days later, we would have been back in Australia. God was so good in the timing which fit perfectly with everything and without disruption. God took Dad during a 1984 furlough which had been planned two years previously. It all makes us know that we have a wonderful God Who involves Himself in the little affairs of our lives and does all things well!

We rejoice in God’s blessings during the start of this New Year. The Bible college had a wonderful opening last night for the 2005 school year. We pray God’s blessings upon you this year. Your love and concern are a great encouragement to us.

I would like to continue with the report of our recent trip to Lebanon and the USA. Your prayers were appreciated so much, and the Lord certainly did answer prayer in an unusual way.

Lebanon was such a highlight and blessing of our trip. But the second phase would not be any less rewarding, the fiftieth anniversary of Temple Baptist Church which I established fifty years ago.

Pastor Jones planned a three-day celebration for the occasion. Five of the seven living pastors were present (one pastor is with the Lord). As a twenty-two year-old single preacher I experienced the normal trials and difficulties in founding a new work. There was no financial support extended by any church, not one dollar. I never even considered the matter at the time and simply looked to God for what was impossible for me.

To hear the other pastors tell of their struggles, trials and victories, and to see the church now was, indeed, a rich and exhilarating experience in the grace of God to that church. I’m so thankful for God’s guidance in sending me to El Dorado fifty years ago and for the small part God allowed us to have in that ministry.

Pastor Jones and his people made us feel like we had played such an important part, though we know that our contribution was so very small. We left the anniversary in El Dorado with a song on our lips and praise in our hearts to our wonderful God for His faithfulness to weak, unworthy vessels whom He has honoured with such a privilege. 1 Corinthians 15:58 seemed so vibrant in our consciousness, “Be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord!”

A Story to be Continued…

Abram should have rejected Sarah’s plan. Obtain-ing a child outside of God’s clear promise to Abram and Sarah was a huge mistake with bitter consequences. It set up a saga of conflict that contin-ues to this day. The world is at wits end how to solve it.

Frankly, there is no human solution. Many of Ishmael’s seed today do not want the conflict. Others (radicalized or convert-ed ones) would follow the Koranic teaching literally. It seems the “radicalized ones” now have the momentum and believe that “the sky is the limit” for their version of “Allah’s Kingdom” on earth.  Nothing short of Christ’s coming can settle the conflict between Ishmael’s and Jacob’s seed. Two days ago a man was arrested for alledgedly plan-ning to behead an innocent person in Sydney. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!” Ps. 122:6

Noteworthy Requests and News

Pray for true believers and churches in the Middle East who live in an atmosphere of fear and feel the brunt of the chaos that is fueling the spread of the so-called “Allah’s Kingdom.” This kingdom has no place for Christians or their churches, nor for other minorities.  In fact, there is no room even for variants within the religion of Islam.

The revamp of our website, www.MissionaryOutpost.com is now complete. Thank God for a couple of men in our church who made this possible. In the process I learned a lot and was able to assist with parts of the project! That’s exciting for an eighty-two year old! Take a look and give the website a grade. And I’d love to get an A for effort!

Fourteen students have asked to be enrolled in the Online Bible Survey Courses! We’re excited about that and we are praying for open doors for this Online ministry.

Pray for the National Baptist Fellowship coming soon in Sydney for pastors, missionaries and Christians to be encouraged.

Both OT and NT Survey Courses
Now Online

Expectations

We don’t expect many 80+ year-olds to enroll. But we do believe that there are numbers of keen laypeople who could have a great time spiritually taking up this free opportunity.

A group study at church is the ideal method, but online has its place since you can do it at home at your pace. It is a study course that will require dedication and effort, but there will be great benefit from this college-level study. People in different countries have taken the courses in a group setting from ages 16-85 and have testified to great blessing.

Prayer Requests

• That the word will get around about the Online courses. Missionaries with English-speakers may benefit, even some home-schoolers. Pray that God will open doors to make these courses a blessing to many in a world made so small by the internet!
• The pastor friend with a brain tumor is now with the Lord. Please pray for his wife Cathie. His son James is pastoring the church and needs prayer.

A dear Syrian pastor is here for a short visit to his brothers and our church. He graduated in the early eighties from Sydney Bible Baptist College and is pastoring in the “street called Straight” area. Death is never far away with shells and rockets falling indiscriminately. The church was hit once by a rocket but the people were not on the floor that was hit but on the other floor. His wife and two children are living and studying in America with his sisters while he is remaining in Syria to minister to his people. He said they had seen more people come to the Lord during these 3 years of war than they had the other 25 years combined! Please pray for this pastor whom we will call “Sam” and for his dear people, many of whom have no work due to the war. It’s hard to believe what’s happening there.