Australian Trip 2006

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AUSTRALIAN MISSION

2009
Dates: August 4 – September 2

The Ministry in Australia

September 2nd

Kerry & Mona have arrived home safely. We hope to have more information for you about their visit to Australia.

Pittsworth

August 25th, 2009

BACK IN QUEENSLAND

Following our ten-day trip to New South Wales we arrived back safely in Queensland on Friday, August 21. That night I continued teaching the Life of Christ class here for the Southern Cross Bible Institute.

The trip to NSW went very well. I spoke in three different places, teaching the Life of Christ lessons in two of them. It was very encouraging to have nearly fifty different people participating in the classes in those two venues. When you add the students involved in the class in Queensland we are teaching over one-fourth of the members of all of the church congregations of our fellowship in Australia. This has to be considered the most substantive of the four trips we have made here.

On the Lord’s Day, August 23, another step was taken toward establishing a congregation in the town of Pittsworth. The Eastern Downs congregation conducted an assembly there. Thirty-four people met to worship. Along with brethren from Eastern Downs we were greatly encouraged to have at least twelve others join in the assembly. It is our fervent prayer that the seeds sown will bear fruit for the eventual establishment of the Lord’s church in that community.

Mona spoke for a ladies tea on Saturday. It went very well, and the ladies all seemed to be encouraged by the words she shared. They had a good fellowship as well.

Lord willing, we are going to do a little sightseeing Wednesday & Thursday. In our trips here we have never done much tourist stuff. We don’t have time to visit some of the more popular tourist attractions in Australia, but hopefully we will see a couple of places we haven’t seen in our previous travels. Our plans are to go about 3-4 hours northeast of Toowoomba.

All weekend we will be conducting classes as we continue our lessons on the Life of Christ. I will also be speaking at two house church meetings on the Lord’s Day, August 30. Our classes end on Monday night, August 31. Lord willing we will make our journey back to the U.S. on Wednesday, September 2.

Kerry & Mona Allen

Kerry & Doug Willis (Doug is Australian & is an international evangelist) Preaching at Suffolk Park

August 21st, 2009

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers during our lengthy trip into New South Wales. God graciously gave us another safe trip and opportunities to teach and preach repeatedly. We travelled over twelve hundred miles, taught in three different places, and arrived back in Queensland at 2:00 a.m. to start teaching back here that same night. It has been tiresome, but it is a "good tired".

This trip I am teaching on The Life of Christ. The class is being offered by the Southern Cross Bible Institute as a part of their curriculum. The response has been tremendous. There are only approximately 200 people in all of the independent churches of our fellowship in Australia. The classes have had right at 60 different people participate. All of the sessions are being video recorded so those who couldn't attend and those places we could not get to might have the opportunity to study as well. We are trusting God will use this trip to help all of the churches in Australia more effectively than anything we have done previously.

Mona speaks at a ladies tea today. Tomorrow I will be teaching for the Institute again as well as preaching. Please pray fervently for our assembly in Pittsworth tomorrow. I have mentioned this is the next place planned to plant a church. Pray that we might have some people from the Pittsworth community begin to express an interest so that Bible study may begin immediately and that the seed of the kingdom might be sown in good soil.

After we finish with the Pittsworth meeting on the Lord's Day, then we will continue to teach the Institute class and work with the house churches here. The rest of our time here has us scheduled right here in this area. We may even actually do a day trip sometime. In all of our trips here we have never actually had much time to do "tourist" type stuff. I am pleased by the amount of work we have scheduled each time, but it might be nice to get a day and just see the area. Right here in Queensland where we are it is almost desert. There even are some cactus plants around as well as palm trees. This is the end of winter and the daytime temps have been in the 70's and at night it's been around 50. That's not too bad for winter!

We look forward to getting back to Cincinnati Wednesday night, September 2. Please continue to pray that God will use us to build up His people and expand His kingdom.

Kerry & Mona Allen

Kerry & Mona on the road to New South Wales

August 10th, 2009

Mona and I arrived safely in Australia on Thursday, August 6. It was an exhausting, but uneventful trip. We were welcomed at the airport by Jim Newman. Jim and his wife, Becky are our hosts.

On Saturday I spoke at a men's fellowship in Kingsthorpe. This was a new contact for us. One of the men in the Eastern Downs Church of Christ (the church officially started last year) is originally from there, and he got it arranged for us to go there. We were very well received, and it is hoped that Jim will be able to build a deeper relationship with them in the future.

Yesterday, August 9, was a super day. In the morning I spoke for the house church that meets at Newmans. I then began my teaching for the Southern Cross Bible Institute class at Westbrook, Queensland. Immediately after class ended we went to the evening house church at David and Renee Bogdan's, and I spoke again. It was wonderful to renew acquaintances with our friends we have made in the past, and to see how the church has matured in the past year.

We leave tomorrow (August 11) for a ten-day trip to New South Wales. I will teach for the Bible Institute in Wollongbar and Charlestown. We will travel over a thousand miles and teach nearly every day. That is a physically demanding trip, but we have built a very positive relationship with the brethren down there and anxiously anticipate a great time of teaching and fellowship.

Upon our return to Queensland I will resume teaching for the Bible Institute there. Also we will host a church service in Pittsworth on August 23. This is a place that Jim and I have scouted in the past as a possible location for a church plant. Earlier this year a service was held there. While we are gone some of the brethren from the house churches here are going to Pittsworth to pass out flyers and try to promote the upcoming meeting. It is hoped to officially launch the church there next year. We will also continue to work with the two house church groups until our departure September 2.

A special thanks goes to the Hillsboro, OH Church of Christ for their generous gift to purchase our airline tickets. We would ask you to pray for our mission this year that God would keep us healthy and safe, and that our work would be mightily effective in building His kingdom in Australia.

Kerry, Mona, & Jim with the Charlestown elders Teaching at Charlestown

Wollongbar group

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