Matthews Down Under – June 2009

July in Australia, we are in the middle of winter and it is cold. Football season, winter school holidays are around the corner (year round school), global financial crisis is still the blame for everything and ministry opportunities are happening everywhere. Thank you for your prayers and support, it is exciting to see what the Lord can do with your prayer and financial involvement. I will try to give you a quick summary of all that is going on in Sydney.

Glorious Hope Baptist Church

The church continues to grow and we have visitors every week. We are finalising our constitution for the incorporation of our church. We appreciate your prayers for wisdom of the leadership and the involvement of the church members during this process. Russ preached through Nehemiah 1-2 on Sunday and he will continue to work through this portion of the Bible in 2009. Pastor Sam is working through Galatians and challenging the church in many areas. We are looking to have 3-4 baptisms in August.

City Bible Forum

It has been a engaging and challenging season in the city for the past few months. We have had a two different series. One in the book of Luke called the Essential Jesus and another called, Running from God – Jonah: Prophet on the Run. We could use your prayers for the upcoming series in Hebrews: Getting Real with God and a short series on Relationships and Sex: What the bible has to say about both. Attendance has fluctuated through out the last few months, but we are continually having new people coming each week. We recently had a BBQ on Martin Place (in the heart of the business district) and many gospel related conversations with hundreds of people who came by for the free sausages and coffee.

Life of Jesus

After the completion of the Investigating Christianity courses at Westpac, we looked to do some other classes to keep the momentum and dialogue going. We started with a DVD series called The Christ Files (Dr. John Dickson*) a series on the Bible as a trusted historical text and what we can prove historically about Jesus’ life. The class grew each week, which is different than the trend, usually we experience a decrease in participation after the start of a class. On completion of The Christ Files we had further interest in another John Dickson series, a straight forward presentation of The Life of Jesus (great short DVD presentation on the basics of Jesus, leading to in-depth discussion on what we know about Him.) Pray for the growth of these groups and the 50% of attendees who are not Christian.

Urban Fight Club

There continues to be a need and a growth in this unique men’s ministry. We had ‘Fight Night’ around a bonfire last weekend. This is a time for the men to discuss, in confidence, their personal ‘stories’, the things the Lord is doing in their lives and the struggles they are having as men. Great time, sorry I cannot go into detail, but exciting days ahead for many of these blokes. This is a training ground for men, coming together as men to be …men. In the process they are getting to know God and the bible better. Tough row to hoe, but it is good to see the Lord working in these men’s lives.

Etc.

More to tell but that is all for now. Hope you enjoyed the VBS videos on Youtube. (Five days worth: e-mail me if you would like the link) Thanks for the prayers. Also, if any of the churches are looking for a project to sponsor this year, please keep us in mind. We have various projects through City Bible Forum and the Glorious Hope Baptist church that are always looking for assistance. We are grateful for all you are doing for our family and the ministries the Lord is doing in Sydney.

The adventure continues…

Russ & Cathy Matthews

PS- Thanks to all who comment on the Australian spelling. I am grateful you are reading our letters so thoroughly.Hope you are enjoying the cultural differences.

*www.publicchristianity.org   (John Dickson’s website)

We have requests from various churches to put together some video clips for VBS throughout the US in 2009 & 2010. If you are interested in getting some of the VBS clips, please e-mail us. The videos contain a series on ‘Mythbusting’ of Australia, some Aussie music, Aussie slang and key verses to assist in communicating the Gospel. 2-4 minute clips. They can be sent to you via Youtube clips. We are not saying they are the best quality, we do live on a limited budget, but if you would like to receive them, please e-mail us.

Our regular monthly updates will come in the next week.

Cheers,
Russ Matthews

Our church meets in an economically & spiritually challenged area of Sydney. Most of the women in the area live hard and fearful  lives. To be treated with respect and love is a rare thing in many of the lives of these ladies.  On Saturday 2 May, 2009; Glorious Hope Baptist Church held their third annual Pamper Day for the ladies of the community around our church. Women of all races, faiths, economic and social backgrounds arrived for a day of hand & foot massages, makeovers and haircuts. Also, included in the day were a delightful morning tea, a delicious lunch and a gift bag. A speaker shared her testimony of hope through here family’s journey to coming to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Over 70 women came through the doors on the day and many left changed.

Cathy was overseeing one team of service. She was able to talk and pray with most of the women who came to the day. One of the highlights of the day was having the opportunity to share and pray with two Muslim women who had come for the day. Hope and Rebecca were able to serve child care and with whatever areas needed assistance on the day. Every woman walked out feeling and looking transformed and all were given the opportunity to know the transforming power of the Gospel.

All the ladies of the church came away exhausted, but encouraged by the opportunity to touch and pray with women of our church community in a unique way. Touching many women that this world considers untouchable. They arrived in the morning to bless the people of the community, but at the end of the day, came away blessed indescribably  by the opportunity to be the hands and feet of our Saviour, Jesus.

Yes, it was a good day!

Thanks for your prayers and maybe consider being  part of this incredible ministry in years to come.

Thanks for all of your prayers. This has been an exciting, exhausting and encouraging month. This is a quick note on all that we have asked you to pray about during this critical month. Easter opens the door to communicate to others about what we believe as Christians. Parades in the city, editorials in key newspapers, special services at church, and everything that comes with this month allows for open dialogue on Jesus. With your prayers and support, you are part of this process and we are grateful for you. There is quite a bit to share this month, so this note will be longer than our normal updates. Thanks for taking the time to celebrate with us and pondering the privilege it is for us to be part of this amazing ministry.

Easter

At City Bible Forum and Glorious Hope Baptist, we had many different events throughout the city. City Bible Forum had our talks on during the week and many new people coming along to ask the tough questions about the Bible and Jesus. We work with many different groups from all over city to have evangelistic events within corporations. We assist with the preparation, the talks and communication. The goal of the events are to give people opportunity to come to effective and timely follow up and we assist in teaching these classes called Investigating Christianity. One of Sydney’s largest banks allowed a group within the firm to run not one but four events. This bank is going through very difficult times of redundancies (mass firings), mergers and reorganisation. You would not think this is not an ideal time to be planning evangelistic events, but the result shows that God can do an amazing work all of the time. Inside this bank, we had over 100+ people come to the various events, with upwards of 40+ signed up for courses on finding out more about Christianity.

Church events: We had special services on Friday and Sunday. Russ had the opportunity to preach on Good Friday. He taught through 23-24 Luke and the witnesses throughout the death, burial and resurrection of our Saviour. Many people were challenged to know the Lord and communicate to others about what He is doing in the lives of the people of the church.

Fireproof

Great film, great conversation and great results.

Many of you may have seen this film in the US, but it was not shown in theatres in Australia. After seeing the film, the Urban Fight Club (Men’s’ ministry) committed to have a professional showing of this film for the people of our community. It reflected two of our key values, fighting for our faith and for the family. It was quite a bit of work, but it was worth it. Our goal was to get the non-Christian spouses of our church members to come to this great film. So, we were originally thinking a small group of people on a Friday night. Well, God had different plans. We started giving out tickets and the numbers grew steadily every week and on the night we had over 60 people come to the evening with close to half being visitors. Many atheists, non-Christians, skeptics, single adults and married couples came to the showing of Fireproof. We had good food, nice venue (not at the church) and a good quality film. Explaining to the crowd it has a Christian message, insight into marriage and that it was good entertainment value. After the movie, claps and cheers, but the best part was most people turned their chairs around and started talking. Asking questions and discussing the film. Some complaints from the atheists, but they were impressed with the quality of the event. As a pre-evangelistic event, it was perfect to plant the seeds and for our group to effectively meet with many non-Christian men who would not come to our church in the past. Pray for many of these families and lives of these men.

The Face of Suffering

During this difficult economic time in world history, many people have questions. Where is God? If he does exist, how could he allow things like this to happen? Is he even listening?

During this month it is school holidays in New South Wales (year round school in Australia) and many people are out of the city. CBF is usually at its lowest attendance, but not this year. We had a series delivered by Justin Moffat, ‘The Face of Suffering’ -Three things you can do with God in the face of suffering. Wrestle, Wait and Rely- based out of the book of Habakkuk. (I know not your typical Easter passage, but doesn’t the entire Bible point to Jesus?) What a great series and many people coming along to ask some of the hard questions, also, getting the answers. Again seeing how even the Minor Prophets point us to the redemptive message of Jesus.

Prayer requests:

1. Ladies outreach in the community around Glorious Hope Baptist.

2. Working through the growing pains of a church plant.

3. Thinking through the growth of the church and how to effectively minister within our community.

4. Investigating Christianity courses in the city.

5. Furlough details for 2010

Thanks for hanging in there and reading through this update. It is amazing to see what God is doing in this city. Thanks for your support and prayers.

The adventure continues…

Russ & Cathy Matthews

(To those concerned, we try to use the Australian spellings for our updates. Thanks for your feedback.)