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Ministry Updates |
On this page we tell you of our ministry. You can come to this section for news and prayer requests. Effort will be given to keep this page up to date on recent
ministries, current ministries and upcoming events and ministries.
15 Aug 2010AD We appreciate your prayers and support for the ministry here. Our God is a wonder working God. His sovereignty is truly amazing to watch. He is doing so much in and through lives. It is our simple pleasure to be a mouthpiece, a small part, of what He is doing.
15 Aug 2010AD The high school youth group ministry team from Woodland California is doing a great job. We are keeping them busy and they have been stepping up to each task we give them. I think each of them has a greater appreciation for what God is doing here and what the possibilities are for the future. We have them through this week. Pray that they will continue to accomplish so much more than we could without them. Pray also that God would use this trip in their lives for future missions ministry. Our family is doing well. Barb has a cold right now, but other than that we have all been healthy. Amy starts her trial exams and tests August 2nd. These are cumulative; so everything she has learned, or should have learned, in school is fair game for the exams. When she completes these she graduates from year 12. That will be in late September. It is a stressful time for her and us. Luke has a job now. He works with his sister at a pizza place. It will be nice for him to have spending money without always asking mum and dad for it! In His service,
11 July 2010AD Not sure if you were able to follow Matt's Facebook blog while he was in South Africa witnessing during the FIFA World Cup, but I thought I would post the report and insert a link to the Power Point presentation that you can download. It was a great ministry time! God worked in mighty ways. Luke and I were so privileged to be a part. Our prayer now is that people would reply to the response cards in the back of our tracts, and that God would give us the opportunity to help them start their spiritual walk and find a good local church. Please understand that if you download something with pictures that the file will be large and I recommend only trying it with broadband. Please click on your choice below and save you your computer for viewing. Thanks for your prayers and support! In His service Matt Douglas
14 June 2010AD A small bit of a scare again this evening. The tracts are not in South Africa, and I do not know where they are. Please pray that they get there and taht they clear customes in what would have to be near record time. It would be assame to be there with no booklets to work with. We will still witness, but we will feel like we have lost a great tool. Matt & Luke 9 June 2010AD G’day! God is a very good God! His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. No one has ever been His counsellor, and no one has ever given a gift that He must repay! We have a God who is, in every essence of the word, AWESOME! Praise Him with us today. Ministry in Australia is continuing to go forward at a good pace. We are holding prayer meetings with co-workers about the next church plant. We are working to clear some places off our list and tightening the criteria we use to evaluate the opportunities more and more. Continue to pray with us that we will be led by God every step of the way in this ministry. Scripture classes are going good. Barb’s 4th grade class is becoming more and more inquisitive. They are asking great questions, and plenty of silly ones. “Did Solomon have 1000 rings on his fingers for all those wives?” We never mind questions like these because we know the good questions will come. If they aren’t listening enough to ask questions, we have a much harder time sharing the Scripture in a meaningful way. Matt’s ESL (English as a Second Language) class is moving forward strongly. It has been a joy to learn that one of my unsaved students had strong Christian grandparents before the Chinese revolution. She even lived with them for a year and was able to pick up some of the “basics”. Pray that we will see her and others move from a story level understanding of Christianity to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Last week we read the Book of Ruth. The idea of a redeemer was really understood on a new level for most in the class. I have just 2 more classes with them before I will miss a couple classes and then we have a 3-week break. All up we will miss 6 weeks. Pray that they turn to Christ before the break or that they come back next term to continue learning. Last writing we mentioned a big need we had for the Sports Impact ministry. Here too God has been very good. We have seen many people and churches respond to the need and cut our shortfall in half! We still need about $1800 to come in over the next month or so, but God has seen fit to bless us by blessing many others. Matt and Luke leave Australia on the 15th of June and return on the 3rd of July. Matt has been feeling the pressure of heading up such a large ministry, but the Lord never gives us a task to large for Him to work through us. We long ago learned this lesson, and the ministries keep coming. Pray with us for the rest of the needed funds to be given ($1800 USD), souls to be saved (we want to give out 40,000 tracts and talk through the gospel with 30 people a day), safety as we travel (South Africa is not a safe place), and for Barb and Amy as they carry on the life and ministry here in Australia. In His service, 2 June 2010 AD Praise God with us for His working in power. Just last night I mentioned that we had an urgent need for about $5100 US dollars. We are happy to say that the need has now dropped to $3600. That is still a lot of money! Yet once again we are privileged to see how well prayer works. We know God will continue to supply and we will be able to soon report to you of God's complete supply through His people! If each of our supporters were able to assist with just $50 we would have this need covered.
1 June 2010 AD Time for an update! We have been so busy with the Lord’s work that we have neglected this important ministry of emailing you. We do want you to pray with us and praise God for what He has done. First, we are enjoying ministry very much. Matt has been preaching through Romans in several different churches. (It is part of our ministry to fill in for fellow ministers when they have to be out of the pulpit.) While the ministry of the Word has been good, we have also enjoyed the fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. We are progressing in our church planting research. We have gone down from 14 to 6, and then added 2 more possibilities. It is hard to say “not now” to places that are good opportunities, but seem to be missing advantages that other places have. Please keep praying for us in this work of ministry. Scripture Classes and English as a Second Language Classes are also going well. We take the opportunity to teach from God’s Holy Word very seriously. We always want to move people closer to Christ. It does not matter if that is to children in school or adults trying to learn a second language. As we open the Word we bring “good news.” The ministry for the Soccer World Cup is coming along well. Its name is Sports Impact (SportsImpact.net.au). It is designed for evangelism at the FIFA Soccer World Cup, but more than that it is an evangelistic outreach that ABWE missionaries from different fields join together in. Some fields will be bringing future missionaries to use the time in this year’s World Cup as a training time in Evangelism and dealing with life’s issues in a cross-cultural situation. All up I believe we should have people from over a half dozen different mission fields training and working the harvest field known as the FIFA World Cup. Please pray for Matt and Luke as they will be travelling from June 15 – July 3. Matt has several major roles in planning for the event this year. Late breaking news and prayer request: We were the ones to print the tracts for all those who would be ministering with Sports Impact around South Africa this year. Matt wrote a tract that is purpose written for the event. It is way behind schedule as translators and printers did not keep to deadlines. We did not push hard enough to get the tracts finished very early. Now the last boat has left and we will have to fly the 40,000 tracts to South Africa. This is going to cost us thousands of dollars extra. We are very disappointed, but we fully believe that we should have all 40,000 tracts shipped. We fear that if we don’t we will run out of tracts to hand out. The surest way to know we have all the tracts will now cost us an extra $6000AUD or about $5100 US dollars. We are so sorry to have to bring this to you. However, WE NEED your prayers! Please cry out to God with us for this ministry. Pray that God will move the hearts of people to give to make this ministry THRUST forward. Gifts can be tax deductible if sent through our Evangelism account at ABWE (11032 – 006). We need to hear from churches or individuals who can help with this ministry in the next few days (before the evening of June 7th). It would be a shame to have printed tracts that we can’t use. Please pray for God’s supply in this! The winter season is on us in Australia. We are dealing with the cold and flu season, and Amy has even missed some school. Matt did finally get a clean bill of health from the doctor last week. We are all relieved. Pray that Luke and Matt stay healthy so that they can fly on the 15th. Thanks again for all your prayers! They mean more to us than our words could ever express.
6 May 2010 AD We have been up and down recently. Through everything we declare that God is good. The work towards the FIFA World Cup is in full swing. We are getting 20,000 tracts printed for local ministry here and for Matt & Luke's ministry in South Africa. This too is a good news / bad news situation. We have received great reviews of the tract and web site (www.SportsImpact.net.au). Matt's part in organizing this event evangelism opportunity has gone very well. He is on top of every area but one. It is great to watch the Lord work. We expect that we will be able to give you some great reports over the next few months. The problem seems to be finances for this ministry. Those whom had committed to supplying this ministry are unable to cover the costs. Many things are paid for, and we praise God for His supply. However we will have the following needs. We understand that this sounds like a lot of money. We also understand that on a per-gospel-presentation basis, or going off previous sport event evangelism opportunities results, this is a great opportunity to see good results. Of the ministries we have personally been involved in there has been an average of 223 saved and followed up per event. We know God will supply for the work He wants done. If you want to be a part, just reply and we will tell you how. Church planting research is moving forward. We have eliminated a couple more suburb possibilities. We are still working at drawing the net. Please continue to pray that God will supply also the Australians that we will be working along side. In His service,
7 April 2010AD Resurrection Sunday MinistriesWe pray your celebration of the Risen Lord was deeply worshipful. Ours was! While it was easy to get caught up in the "things to do", God graciously gave us an opportunity to step back and thank the Lord for all He did to make our salvation possible. Matt had the opportunity to preach from Romans 8.34 on Resurrection Sunday morning. Christ's resurrection is undeniable and His love for us is unquestionable! Hallelujah and Amen! We have had a good opportunity to share the good news of salvation with many. Matt’s ESL classes have a few strong Christians, and a few who still need the Lord. We have been doing some oral reading at the end of each class from the life of Christ. While the narrative makes good reading practice, the opportunity to go deeper into the meaning of the text is “golden.” When Matt presented the Gospel on the Thursday before Resurrection Sunday we were able to review the historical evidence they had read over the last few weeks. The gospel almost presented itself as Matt simply reviewed the evidence that Jesus was not only God in human flesh, but the perfect sinless sacrifice that God required. None accepted Christ during class that day. Pray for God’s wisdom and guidance when class resumes. Matt wants to pick fruit, but wants to have God’s perfect timing so that the fruit will remain. Barb's Scripture classes are going well. All of them started at different times during the term, and are different levels (from Kindergarten to 4th grade), so the first term was spent "catching" the classes up with each other so this next term she can start off with most of the classes together on the same lesson. She had the opportunity to present the gospel in each class before the Easter break. Upcoming MinistryMany of you have heard us talk about the upcoming ministry to the FIFA Soccer World Cup. We are excited about how the Lord is building this ministry even now. One of the ways is through a new organization (Sports Impact) that will allow several ABWE mission fields to work together better. Another way is through the development of our own tracts! We are excited about how well these have turned out. Now we just need to raise the money to print them. If you would be interested in helping with the cost of printing the tracts (about $8000) you can do so by a special gift to our Evangelism sub account at ABWE. The other option is to contact us directly for details on making a non-tax deductible gift. We need to go to print early in May. We will print only what we can afford. We have a deal with a local printer to get them printed at about $0.16 each. Please pray about helping us with this ministry. Thanks for all your prayers and support! In His service, Matt, Barb, Amy & Luke Douglas ABWE Australia
21 March 2010 AD Been a ruff week. While there were some highlights that were outstanding, our health has really knocked us back. We thank you for your prayers! Last Monday Barb and I spent a good bit of time looking at many of the suburbs that we are considering for the next church plant. We drove around and spent some time looking to see what was already in the communities. We enjoyed the time together. We saw the huge need. Our hearts yearned as we saw so much spiritual darkness and such a great need for a church to shine God’s light. While some of the locations were better than others, none were a bad choice. The prayer we keep praying is that God would show us the best next place, the place God is ready to do a mighty work. We are not asking for it to be easy, but we also do not want it to be hard because of our poor choices. Monday was also the day I went to the medical specialist about my digestive tract problem. He was very concerned about the level of my problem. This specialist is in the same office as the one I saw in 2007, so he is able to help with a better understanding of my history with the same problem. He was concerned enough to have me “scoped” with biopsies on Wednesday. There is no nice way to talk about those procedures. They can make anyone’s week miserable. The positive thing that has already come out of it is that the pulps that I had in 2007 are all gone. (Glad I did not undergo surgery then to have them removed, and that God took care of them for me.) Please continue to pray that God would guide the doctors to a treatment that will completely restore my health. Most of the rest of the week was spent recovering from Wednesday for me. I am “coming good” but it takes time. The thing I hate about taking sick days is the work I do not get done! Ha! Barb has been enjoying the Scripture classes in the public schools. She has six different classes. It seams that God has given her some good classes this year. Pray for her as she leads up to the importance and impact of Easter. This is a very big time of the year to share the gospel. Matt continues to preach in churches that need help. The next couple of weeks take us opposite directions on the map, but in a focused direction in the Scriptures. We love the Easter season and the GREAT news of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. There are so many opportunities to talk with people about what is eternally important. “Pray that God would open the door to us to declare the Word, that we would make it manifest as we ought.” Col 4.3
In His service, Matt Douglas & Family
1 March 2010AD “The joy of the Lord is my strength!” That is so much more than just a slogan to me. I get it. Without God there is nothing – nothing to live for and nothing worth doing. When Nehemiah told the people that the “Joy of the Lord is your strength” (8.10) he was getting the people to look to God and be glad. The reading of the Word of God had left them wanting to weep. Nehemiah wanted them to have a very different reaction. Often today we are convicted by the Word when we realise how poorly we reflect God to others. The joy comes from the fact that God does not leave us in our weeping. He wants us to get on with life and grow in our relationship with Him. We praise Him for giving us all we need to accomplish all He wants done. We had a wonderful Sunday. We so enjoy working along side God’s people here. While many times people think of serving on the mission field as a sacrifice, we clearly view it as a privilege and blessing that is not to be missed! A Sunday morning service in the study of James chapter 1.2-8 led to a wonderful lunch together as a church when people began really expressing a changed view on life with God. All we can say is “WOW, God is so awesome!” Sunday evening we were in a different church and we were able to encourage them in unexpected ways as well. Yes, their fellowship was an encouragement to us also. Matt learned today that his health problems have not gone away. While he has become “healthier” the doctor is still very concerned. Most days are good, and it has rarely slowed him down. Other days, well, at least at this point the other days are few and far between. The next doctor appointment is for the 15th of March, when he will go back to the specialist who helped get him through this before (2007). Pray that Matt will get through this, and be the witness God wants him to be during this trial. In His service,
25 Feb 2010AD Colossians 4.2 “Continue earnestly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” As our prayer supporters we want to give you another update so that you can be both earnest and thankful with us in prayer. We view your prayer for us as the best gift any person alive could ever give. On the Ministry front: We have continued to pursue the next church-planting ministry God would have for us. We are considering 12 or 13 possibilities with only a couple ruled out so far. Of course we have our favourites, but we want what God wants more than anything else. The harder part of church planting, having a pastor to carry on the work after we are finished, is proving to be difficult once again. While we have ruled a couple of the potential people out, we have not drawn much closer to a solid, willing, and able leader. Please continue to pray about this with us! Many of the schools in Australia are undergoing building projects. The Federal government here has thrown a lot of money at them to build new auditoriums, libraries, and classrooms. While the investments are good, it has caused many problems. For instance, the last two churches we have been involved with will lose, or have lost, access to the schools that they use for services on Sundays. Glorious Hope Baptist Church is already meeting in other rented facilities in the next town over with no idea when they will be allowed to return to the school. Pray that the church will grow in this transition, and thank God for providing the church with a place to meet now and a future better place at the school. The other problem with all this is that many schools are in such disarray that they have not yet begun Scripture classes. Some of the schools where Barb teaches will be three weeks behind before they even begin. We are most hurt about this because it does not give us much of a lead up to Easter. This is one of the best times of the year to present the gospel message, and this year we will not have time to lay good groundwork before the Easter presentation is made. Pray for wisdom, and good soil in God’s harvest field. Don’t forget to thank God that we even have this great opportunity to be in the public school teaching the scriptures! Matt’s ESL class for adults is going well. Of the six students only two are saved. We have had some interesting discussions during our oral Bible reading section. Pray that Matt will be a good, helpful teacher on the English side and that the students would hunger to know what the Bible is all about and would grow as we lead up to Easter. Praise God with us that the students are all willing learners – in English and in spiritual matters. The family is doing well. Right now we are all healthy and enjoying the life God has for us here. Many of the anxieties in life will go away as God shows us his direction for the next church plant. The children are growing well. They are maturing in spiritual things as much as they are maturing in life. This really excites us as parents! That’s all for now. Know that we are praying for your church and many of you by name. We covet the same. In His service,
8 Feb 2010 AD God is so good. We are delighted to be in his service. That would be so hard without you! We appreciate your prayers, concern and support. We are now fully supported. God has supplied all our needs according to His riches in glory. Hallelujah! Lots starting to happen here in ministry. I started teaching ESL classes again last week. Most of my class right now are not believers. We pray that will change as the year moves forward. We have been helping a church that has shrunk to only 3. We are encouraging them to do a "replant". It is a possibility that we could even consider being that replanter. They have buildings and 2 houses all paid for. While the opportunity is great so are the challenges. We are also continuing to research 13 other possible church plant possibilities. God knows where He wants to do a work. We want to be wise and spiritually discerning so as to be in the best spot to be His vessel. Barb starts Scripture classes in the public school next week. That has always been a good ministry. We are getting a lot of work done on a major outreach to the Soccer World Cup. I have been asked to coordinate both the Australian Live Sight outreach and the South African outreach. I have been writing a tract. It's a 16 page book with a good soccer integrated presentation of the gospel. Soon we start getting translators and then printing, and then distribution. I will also handle all the follow up for the people who get saved. As you can see we "have plenty on our plate" as Australians would say. We love serving the Lord. Pray for these things. Pray also for time management on our part. We think of you often and pray for your church regularly. In His service,
25 Jan 2010 AD God is so good. His care in our loves is far beyond what we could ever ask, see, or imagine. We are thrilled to be His servants. Sorry that we have lost a couple of months of correspondence on the web site. We have been in touch with our supporting churches, but not all emails get posted to the web page. Christmas was great! We were so happy to be back in Australia this year. While last year’s white Christmas was a treat, we all like it warm! God was once again good to us through the generous gifts of our supporters to make Christmas a bit extra in the gift department. New Years Eve saw Barb and Amy fly to Orlando Florida for Amy to have a “career introduction” competition into the Christian acting profession. She would like to be in Christian films as well as regular TV adds. It is a great way to pay the college bills if you can get the work. J She did well as she brought back a trophy for being in the top 4 in the competition (573 total contestants) for her age and category. Both ladies returned with a bad cold. Now we will see if she can get some work. January is a slow month in many ways in Australia. Everyone takes the summer off. It can be a hard time to get with people you need to meet. We have kept busy in the ministry and are seeing God’s blessing. We continue our church planting research. We are trying to spend time in the places on our list. We are very observant, and deeply in prayer as we ask God to show us what steps to take next. Matt has taken a preaching rotation in a former ABWE church plant that has fallen on hard times. That gives him an opportunity to continue to deliver the Word of God and stay sharp. He will be preaching through Romans. There is plenty of “room” in our schedule for this important ministry and it will keep other churches from expecting us to be part of their ministries. We want to be ready to move into the church planting opportunities as soon as the Lord opens the door. We have enjoyed having our “boss” from ABWE here over the last week. We have been able to get with him for both ministry opportunities and fun. (He is a keen golfer, and loves a good restaurant.) We have been talking through things with him as we look ahead at 2010 and beyond. It is also nice to know what is happening in the head office (since we did not get there at all during furlough.) Lastly, thanks all who were praying about Matt’s health. It was nothing to be alarmed about, but it was important to get my extremely high helicobacter count in check. The meds make you very sick, but not undergoing the treatment is worse. Pray that he can find something to include in his diet that will help keep the problem away longer this time. We all just had physicals and the docs say we are all healthy in all other ways. (You can guess which 2 of us need to lose a few pounds. HA!) In His service, The Douglas family
Jan 6 2010 Just a quick email update. I am going fine with my son here in greater Sydney, while Barb and Amy are in Orlando Florida. We are eating good (I can cook) and keeping busy with times of enjoyment as father and son. We hear good things from Amy about her auditions. I go to the funeral of a good Australian friend this morning, Herald Lane. He has helped in many ways (especially in housing visitors) over the years. He will be missed, but lived a long full and godly life. I am currently working on my 2010 years goals. I am also writing a 16 page booklet to be used as a tract for the Soccer World Cup. With deadlines for printing, translation, and shipping we have to get things done this month. Lastly, I was at the doctor yesterday and while I my regular physical was good, I do have a health problem that has come back. There is a bad bacteria that gives people ulcers. When tested a count of 20 is "OK" 200 is bad - but I have a count of 1984. The problem is I am allergic to the drugs that kill the bug. Last time I had such a "count" I developed 35 intestinal ulcers and was very sick for about 6 months. This time we caught things "early" and hopefully we will not go down so low. Please pray with us. In His service,
1 Jan 2010AD Sydney has the best new years celebrations! We pray that God will give you a great, prosperous, and spiritually fulfilling new year! The Douglas family 25 November 2009 AD An update is long overdue. When a missionary returns to the field from a furlough there are so many things to do that often important things stay at the top of a “to do” list without getting done. We know that the prayer support goes way up when we communicate. This is the week of Thanksgiving in the USA and is a perfect time to ask you to praise & thank God with us. We have moved back into our home and unpacked most boxes. “Home” feels real good after traveling over 45,000 miles plus flights this year. As we would expect there are some things that have gone very well and other things that have been expensive and time consuming. We still have boxes unpacked sitting around in the living room. We also have yet to finish unpacking the garage. We will get there. Every day we get more and more tired of seeing how much is left and that motivates us all the more to get it done. We are thanking God for wisdom in the many decisions and even grace to accomplish some things unbelievably quickly. We are still waiting to hear from one more church that is considering joining our support team and one church that will be raising us. We are confident of God's supply. Just this week we were notified of another church that has now voted and is supporting us! Ministry is moving forward here. We are spending a lot of time talking with people with a cup of coffee in hand. We are talking with people who may be interested in helping, being part, or know of people who are interested. We enjoy even these parts of the ministry. However, we look longingly forward to a consistent local church-planting ministry. We do thank God for your prayers. As we do the research and try to form a team of willing and qualified people, we know how dependent we are on God's direction. It is essential! We are thankful that the Lord promises wisdom to those who ask Him for it. Spring weather here has been up and down (105 one day with a top of 70 the next). Spring can be like that here. The flowers are in full bloom, and the garden is growing well. Every morning at breakfast our children are counting down the days left in this year of school. Barb and I are not sure we are ready to have them with us 24/7 again after a full year of that but... We love our kids and thank God for them. In His service,
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Oct 25 2009 G'day! It has been a good week. We now have full support (with a $7.50 margin)! We are praising God for all His wonderful works and great love for His people. It is my hopes that I can be traveling back to Australia at the end of this week. I have a standby ticket for Thursday night. Pray that God gives me the strength to get everything done, finished, shipped and all goodbyes said. Thanks so much for your prayers!!! In His service, ABWE Australia |