Thanks for your prayers and interest in the ‘Connecting with God’ event at Chatswood Baptist.

The church invited me to speak at an evangelistic event on 2 July. The event met in a Chinese restaurant, near the church, where the members of the church had invited their non-Christian friends to the dinner. After the dinner, a testimony and a brief introduction, I was given the opportunity to share from John 4, the story of the Samaritan woman and Jesus at the well. The talk was called ‘Connecting with God.’ Focusing on the only means of a true connection with God is through Jesus. Fifty percent of the audience were non-Christian. Most came from an Asian background and would state that English was their 2nd language. Even with these challenges, God was glorified. Two people accepted Christ as their Saviour and seven more were interested in being apart of a course to find out more about Christianity.

Thanks for your prayers for this event. It is great to see God work.

The adventure continues…

Russ

Acts 20:24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Amazing Days

I was preaching from John 4 on Sunday, the story of the woman at the well with Jesus. A timeless story and a timeless application to our lives. The portion that hit me was the monologue to the disciples, expressing that most of the time in ministry, we benefit from the work of those who went before us. Yet, God allows for us to witness and participate in his amazing harvest.

We have been working hard for the past few years in Sydney. Yet, the opportunities God opens to us have been in partnership with people who have been doing a work here before we came. So, the things I am going to share with you is part of the work we are doing, but much of the credit needs to go to those who have been doing the work prior to our arrival.

Why are we here? Exploring the glory an uncertainty of humanity

Talk Series from the Book of Psalms

City Bible Forum has had resurgence in the past few weeks. There has been more and more people coming to be apart of this great series that is based in the Psalms. We had over 240 people come to the lunch time talks. Many non-Christians have come along to hear the message from the Bible. We had two people come to know Jesus as their Saviour last week. It has been amazing to see this ministry grow and seeing people coming to an eternal relationship with God.

 (Ministry partners: Peter Kaldor, Craig Josling, Ray Galea, Amalie Parmerlee, Janet Hueng, Ken West) 

Prayer points:

• Pray for more people to come each week to hear the continuation of the series in Psalms.
• Russ will be the primary speaker in September. He will be speaking through the ‘I am’ passages in John. 

Urban Fight Club: 1^st rule of Fight Club: Do not talk about Fight Club.

I cannot speak about this enough or really at all. It is in the rule book, but if you would like to know how we are getting men into action for faith, family and the body. Email me. We had 17 men come on Saturday. Not for a talk or just to have a good breakfast. It was a call to action. We were tired of complaining about men not coming to church, so, we are teaching them how to ‘fight’ for faith, family and the body. Warning: Understand this is not for everyone and is not just another men’s prayer breakfast.

(Psst… ladies this is not for you, sorry!)

(Ministry partners: Sam Bassari, Aaron Ralston, Andrew Mannah, Andy Rae, Sean Nolan)

Prayer points:

• Pray for men to stay committed to the ‘Fight!’
• Pray for men to connect with one another and God. Also, for them to lead.

Connecting with God

We had a ‘Connecting with God’ Sunday at Glorious Hope Baptist. It was a great day and God provided many opportunities for people to bring their non-Christian family and friends. I preached through the story of Jesus and the women and the well. Pray that many would come to a saving knowledge of a ‘connection’ with God.

 (Ministry Partners: Sam Bassari, Lody Bassari, Cathy Matthews, Celeste Bassari, Andrew Mannah)

Prayer Point:

• I will be preaching this message at Chatswood Baptist’s evangelistic outreach on Wednesday night. Pray that people’s lives would be impacted by this message.

Family matters

The family is doing well. Caroline just celebrated her 3^rd birthday, Josh is continuing to lead in Scouts and Sunday school, Hope is growing in her guitar playing and Becca in her story writing abilities. Cathy and I will be doing marriage counseling and mentoring within the church this coming year.

We are praying for you and thankful for your continued support and prayers.

The adventure continues…

Russ & Cathy Matthews

Matthews in Iowa

We are excited to announce that Cathy and I will be coming back for

 ”The Big Picture” Missions Conference at Saylorville Baptist Church, 5-8 October.

(Tough being away from the kids, but flight costs are out of control!)

 We have been enthusiastically contacting family and supporters for the past few weeks.

(Our apologies, due to e-mail changes, etc. we were not able to contact all supporters prior to this public announcement.)

We wanted you to hear from us about our time in Iowa and invite you to come to the conference. Please come along and hear about the Lord’s work in Sydney and what we are looking forward to in the years to come. As the conference approaches, we will communicate more details. You can get updates soon through www.saylorvillebaptist.com.

Please come and be apart of the conference. If you cannot, we will be on furlough in 2010. We will be contacting our supporters soon on getting together during that time in the States.

Thanks for your continued prayers, support and encouragement of the Lord’s ministry in Sydney.

The adventure continues…

Russ & Cathy 

Welcome to winter in Australia. Just thought I would start off with an interesting fact of the land we now call home. Now winter here is a bit different than up north. The days stay around 50-70 degrees (F) and no snow. The key difference is that there is no central heat in most homes, so it can get colder in the house than outside. Interesting fun fact.

Two praises and one prayer point

National Workplace Evangelism Conference

Thank you for your prayers for this conference. We had great attendance and interest in workplace evangelism. Here are some of the highlights.

Great talks : God’s love for a great city (Jonah) and the challenge to not flee the cities but be the salt and light we are to be within the cities. “As the city goes, so goes the culture.” –Tim Keller

Reaching the Culture: How do we answer the “Defeater beliefs” and why should the culture even listen to us?

Electives on Prayer and evangelism, sharing your faith at work and organizing events and groups.

The goals of the conference were to challenge people to share their faith in the place they spend the most hours in every day; work.

We had people travel in from Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Dubbo.

“I did not know what to expect from this conference, but I leave with a completely different perspective on sharing my faith. Thanks for the weekend and please do it again.”

Women of Worth: Ladies Pamper Day

Cathy, Rebecca, and Hope ( also, our adopted daughter, Amalie) participated in the Ladies Pamper day at our new church, Glorious Hope Baptist. The pastor’s wife, Lody Bassari and the ladies of the church put together a pre-Mother’s day outreach in the community. Many of the ladies in the community would not be able to afford a ‘pamper day.’ So, the WOW group at church puts together a massive project to pamper the ladies in the neighbourhood. Over 60 ladies came. Cathy was thrilled because she has able to do hand massages on most of the women. She was able to pray with all of the ladies she came in touch with on the day and share the Gospel with them. She said, “The experience was like Jesus washing the feet of the disciples.” All of the ladies heard a great Gospel appeal and good music. All of the ladies who worked on the day communicated “The love that was shown to the ladies was unlike anything that they had experienced before.” Pray the ladies come to church and come to know Christ as their Saviour.

Prayer point:

Over the past three weeks, Russ has been experiencing back pain. Yesterday, he was laid out on the floor for the whole day. After, finally, going to the doctor and chiropractor it is most likely a slipped disc or pinched nerve. Today, he will be going to get scans and tests done to see what can be done. We would appreciate your prayers for this situation.

Kid’s corner:
Hope starts guitar lessons, Josh is now a “sixer” leader in Scouts, Becca is writing a new story daily and Caroline singing and reading all the time.

Thank you for all of your support and prayers. We love hearing from you via e-mail. It helps us to know how to pray for all of you.

The adventure continues…
The Matthews Family

Thank you for your prayers! It is an exciting day in our home. We received our Permanent Visas today. This is a huge answer to prayer!!! Praise God!

The Matthews