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.