Dear family, brethren, and friends,

My last Tuesday in Auckland I rested, caught up on a few emails, and spent the afternoon answering questions posed by Kyle Halnas about how a young man should proceed to continue developing into a mature Christian in the years ahead.  That evening Ric, Kyle’s father, and Kyle took me to a nice restaurant for corn and crab soup (one of my favorites in the Philippines), sweet and sour fried fish (about the best I have tasted), and fried rice for our dinner – a superb meal.

I had first known the Halnas family in Metro Manila many years ago and we are close and dear friends.  Ric is working to get his wife Malaine and their daughter Claire to New Zealand possibly by 2024, but one of the immigration officials has moved slowly because he does not see why Ric does not just get another wife now that he does not live in the Philippines any longer!  Our world is so twisted by sin that many people do not know up from down or left from right!

By 10:00 P.M. they dropped me at a hotel near the Auckland airport because I had to get up at 4:00 A.M. Wednesday to fly to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and on to Rockhampton for the next preaching opportunity.  Both flights were safe and smooth by God’s good grace, and I managed to doze and sleep some.

Churches of Christ began meeting in Australia in the mid to late 1830’s.  Eventually state conferences were organized and they became associated and attached through a federated or national council.  The associated churches typically used instrumental music.  In 1957 the church in Rockhampton, Queensland, joined the association and the Johnson family with other members separated from this apostate movement and established an autonomous local church dedicated to serving Christ alone as head.  Their normal Sunday attendance is about 30 and they have a very adequate church building.  Australia was a British colony until 1986 and has cultural ties to the United Kingdom, including a secularized society with waning religious interests.  The church in Rockhampton on Denham St. continues to uphold, proclaim, and defend the original gospel of Christ without shame or apology in spite of these challenges.

Additional challenges have come in the passing of the years with the liberalizing influences of institutional and social gospel practices among many churches of Christ, and also the presence of the International Churches of Christ and the International Christian Church.  Some Australian churches of Christ have been influenced by the secularized culture by adopting very liberal attitudes toward divorce and remarriage.  Rockhampton continues to focus on serving Christ by conforming to the New Testament pattern for the work, worship, doctrine, moral standards, and organization of the church rather than drifting into these apostate practices.  Small congregations are scattered in Australia especially in rural areas who are in some cases only vaguely aware of these dangers and may be influenced by them in varying degrees.  We are reminded of Revelation 2-3 as Christ assesses the strengths and weaknesses of churches professing to follow him in every nation.  God always has His 7,000 who do not bow to Baal!

Jamie and Deborah (Halbrook) Williams became acquainted with the saints here during their 6 years at nearby Gladstone and they introduced me to this church.  This is my 6^th visit with them.

Daryl Johnson met me at the Rockhampton airport, took me to lunch, helped with some errands, and got me to a hotel for 2:00 P.M. check-in.  I used the afternoon to nap, take a walk, and work on the backlogged email.  The email work goes slowly here because the internet connection is not functioning well at the hotel, so it appears there will not a lot of progress on the backlog unless some repairs are made.  We had a delightful visit as we caught up on some news about the saints here and Jamie and Deborah Williams’ family in the U.S.  The Williams spent six years in Gladstone, about two hours from Rockhampton, which opened the door for me to meet the good saints here.

I will be adjusting to a three hour time change tonight and tomorrow, then the gospel preaching will begin Friday, God willing.

THURSDAY was taken up with adjusting to the change in time zones from New Zealand to Australia, which included taking some rest but also vigorous walking to rebuild my stamina.  I worked again on backlogged email, struggling with the poor internet connection.  The signal is stronger at the motel office, so I moved my little portable travel table and a chair into the parking lot near the office and got more work done (I may be low-tech, but where there is a will there is a way! ). I got to bed about 11:30 P.M. and slept a full 8 hours, which gave me a good boost the next day.

My motel room is on the ground floor located in a direct line to the office and I learned FRIDAY to sit at the door in my room and catch the stronger signal from the office.  I am still far behind and do not think it will be possible to ever catch up, even though I worked until 1:30 A.M. after tonight’s services.

Daryl Johnson’s oldest sister, Joyce, passed away a couple of days before I arrived, and we drove about 45 minutes to attend the funeral this afternoon.  It was much like funerals in the U.S., but at the close of the graveside service the casket was let down into the ground and family members came one by one to drop rose peddles onto the casket.  We rushed back to Rockhampton and I had an hour to shower, eat a sandwich, and get to the 6:30 meeting at the church building here in Rockhampton.

25 people attended as I taught the first two lessons in the series on “Family Life: A Biblical Perspective” (my outlines are generally based on the workbook by that name written by L.A. Stauffer, copies of which were distributed).  After the sermons on “A Biblical Perspective” and “God’s Design of Marriage,” there was a good open forum with perceptive insights and suggestions related to these topics.

I am so blessed and thankful for cell phones which make daily contact with Donna possible.  It is encouraging to know several people at home have been staying in touch with her and she is doing well and staying very busy.

I spent Saturday working on the mountain of email which has continued to grow larger as my travel has continued, plus preparing the sermons for tonight.  There were 23 souls gathered to hear studies on “The Head of the Wife” and “Wives, Be in Subjection.”  Everyone was very attentive and when the floor was opened for questions and discussion, once again several people contributed to a profitable session.   The bottom line to all the comments is this: If the man will fulfill his role of leading in love, the woman gladly adjusts to her role of submission as a rule.

Several years ago a prominent member of the associated church here in town attended and heard me preach.  When he heard I was here to preach again, he attended tonight’s services.  During the open forum he said these two lessons needed to be preached in every church in town and taught in every school.   He wanted to know if this material is available on You Tube (no).  I gave him a copy of the workbook which was distributed the first night upon which my outlines are based in general.  He is disgusted with all the “politically correct” nonsense circulating about morality and marriage in the churches as well as in society.  He promised to attend our Sunday services.

The Lord’s Day was a beautiful day with moderate temperatures and a fresh breeze.  There were forty people in attendance for worship as we completed the series on “Family Life” with sermons on God’s law of divorce and remarriage and on training up a child.  Once again, we had a very productive open forum about strengthening the ties between husband and wife to maintain a permanent marriage and about giving proper training to our children including healthy discipline.  Unfortunately, the gentleman from the associated church was not able to attend because he suffered a vertigo attack.

Visitors from the nearby church of Christ at Bunderberg remember Leslie Diestelkamp, Harry Pickup, Jr., and Robert Harkrider who preached in the area years ago and they requested I consider visiting their congregation in the future.

Like the brethren in New Zealand, the saints here expressed their assessment that the theme of “Family Life” was timely, encouraging, and effective in view of the concerted attack Satan has made on marriage and the home in recent years which is impacting even the homes of Christians.  It is uplifting indeed to work and worship with these saints who are committed to upholding the truth in this unbelieving world!  May God bless them as they fight the good fight of faith!

Nothing was scheduled for Monday because my flight back to Manila is on Tuesday.  I rested, exercised, worked on email, and spent most of the afternoon visiting with Daryl and Rosalie Johnson.  They always extend their best hospitality, and she prepared a delicious supper.  Tonight, I will work again on the mountain of email and try to get to bed at a decent hour so that I can be up at 5:00 A.M. and ready to go to the airport by 5:30, God willing.

The providence of God has greatly blessed me by opening doors for me to labor alongside His saints in Australia.  Their examples of faith, hope, and love will help me reach heaven and I hope the lessons I have been teaching here will help them also on our journey to heaven!  Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us.

By the way, I saw the moon’s beauty again last night and tonight, smiling at us as usual on both sides of the ocean and reminding us always that we together serve the Creator and Sustainer of the universe!

In Christian love,
Ron Halbrook

To see good Bible study material, go to:
https://www.hebronlanechurchofchrist.com
https://biblework.congregateclients.com
https://truthbooks.com
https://www.truthmagazine.com