2009 Newsletter
Les and Kerry Stewart
Greetings from the Bush Missionary Society Team at Lagoon Point and Burrill Pines.
The year of 2008 was a year of change for us at Lagoon Point and Burrill Pines.
Geoff and Martha Boye, who served with us at Lagoon Point, vacated their position in May and are now enrolled at Sydney Missionary Bible College and their plans are to study for the next three years. Geoff and Martha were part of the team for six years.
Gary and Pauline who have worked with us as managers at Burrill Pines announced their proposed departure in December 2008 and are due to finish in May this year. Gary and Pauline have been with us for twelve years and are planning a new life in Indonesia.
Gary, Pauline, Geoff and Martha have all served the Mission faithfully and we hope their new ventures are a blessing to them.
In September 2008 we welcomed the Dallos family of Roy and Darlene, Hannah Rose and Caleb to the team at Lagoon Point. Roy has been working as a carpenter and Darlene is a school teacher. We appreciate Roy’s carpentry skills and Darlene continues to teach a few hours a week at the local Christian school where she is a well respected and appreciated teacher of food technology and hospitality. Roy is also an elder at South Coast Presbyterian Church in Milton.
Roy, Hannah Rose, Caleb & Darlene Dallos
So we are left with a vacant position. Perhaps you know of a couple who would like to serve with the Mission at Burrill Pines? A committed Christian couple with a good work ethic would be a most welcome addition to the team here at Burrill. Last year was a quieter year in terms of business. Petrol prices and rising interest rates certainly had an effect on people travelling to the district. However, our Heavenly Father was gracious once again and all costs were met and for that we are grateful.
Kerry and I continued to be busy with our preaching and teaching ministries in Bible studies, house parties, men’s and ladies dinners, Sunday services and Christian schools.
There were no major projects undertaken last year; however general maintenance is an ongoing activity that never seems to decrease. One of our major needs is for a tractor to replace “the old Fergie”, hopefully with a hydraulic bucket and loader arrangement. Once again we are grateful to those who regularly pray for us and the ministry of the Mission. We are thankful to those who use the site and who “pass the word around”.
Devotional
“So death is at work in us but life in You” 2 Corinthians 4:12
Paul’s comment regarding death and life to the Corinthian Church in his second epistle is confronting. I take it that Paul is saying to his readers that the apostolic gospel ministry is killing him and yet at the same time those who sat under the proclamation of the gospel and the teaching of the scriptures were experiencing and living a “new life” in their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Earlier in Chapter 4 Paul says in verse 2, “We have renounced disgraceful underhanded ways, we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word but by open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God”. In verse 7 he says, “But we have this treasure (the gospel) in earthen vessels”. In verse 8, “We are afflicted in every way”. So, a ministry of proclamation that is true, full of integrity, preaches to all and for all who hear they have the freedom to listen and decide for themselves and work through the issues of where they stand before God and how they should respond. The treasure is housed in “earthen vessels”. Ordinary folk may be weak, frail, weary, in ill health, poverty stricken and suffering social rejection. Their personal contexts may be many and varied. The opposition to their work may come from many different sources but affliction is an ever present reality.
In Chapter 11 Paul spoke of labors, imprisonments, beatings, lashings, hunger, thirst, shipwrecks and exposure. So I take it that Paul was right. Gospel ministry was killing him and his co-workers, that faithful, trusted band of apostles and local Church leaders. However the gentile world was finding “life”, new life in Christ, new life in a right relationship with The Living God, the forgiveness of sin, the abiding presence of God’s Holy Spirit, the fellowship of all believers, the one new humanity brought about by the all sufficient finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So what are lessons for faithful Christians with a genuine commitment to Christian ministry? Well, it’s tough. Clear earnest gospel preaching, the giving of ones self to weekly meetings, preparation, delivery, patience with each other, dealing with people’s problems, seeking to encourage the downcast, trying to make others ready for Christ’s return, taking our roles in local Christian communities seriously and endeavoring to be faithful is costly, it is demanding and at times can drain us of life. There is little wonder that Paul says in verse 16, “So we do not lose heart”. Personally I find Paul’s words and experiences encouraging. I look at the lives of others who have labored in Gospel ministry much longer than I, and yes I see that ministry has been costly.
Yes life for so many “laborers” has been at times cruel and bitterly disappointing but they have been faithful through the trials of life and have not “lost heart”.
So let us be encouraged in Gospel ministry. Let us see the wisdom of God in entrusting the Gospel into the lives of earthen vessels so that God’s glory might rightly be seen in the message and not in the ones who proclaim it.
Let us continue to pray for each other and encourage one another to press on, not to lose heart, for others are finding life and the Church of Jesus Christ is being gathered and built up in every place on God’s earth. Well did the prophet Isaiah proclaim, Isaiah 40:31 “They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength”.
May God Bless.
Regards,
Les Stewart
How can I Help?
Pray that:
the facility at Burrill Pines will be used to advance God’s kingdom
God will move the hearts of people to provide funds for the purchase of the new Tractor.
Copy this letter and distribute it in your local Church.
Let people know about the great facilities for camps, retreats and house parties.