Posts Tagged ‘Ministry Update’

11.19.09

Thanks for your prayers

Evangelistic talks – I finished a series of five evangelistic talks in the city. Lighten your Load – The Answer to the Atlas Syndrome – based in Matthew 11:28-30. Each talk grew in attendance throughout the past few weeks. The oragnisers stated that 30-50% of the audience for each talk was from a non-Christian background. Each session had various questions on the issues of rest, the yoke and the burden of the human race. We had over 20 people interesting in Life of Jesus courses or Bible Reading Groups as follow up to the talks. Thank you for your prayers with these events.

Church leadership change- One prayer request was for a potential leadership change at Glorious Hope. Through well managed discussions and prayer, our Youth Pastor will be stepping down from his role in January. We have a new leader starting in the New Year. The youth is excited about the process and what the New Year will bring. Please pray for our current youth pastor and his new journey of ministry and our youth programme in 2010.

Citizenship- Please keep us in your prayers for our application for citizenship to Australia. We will begin the process next month. Also please be in prayer for all the preparations for our furlough in 2010.

We are grateful to you all for your support and prayers.

The adventure continues…

Russ and Cathy Matthews

09.23.09

Visitors, talks and a dust storm

We have had an amazing time with Kevin and Jeanie Thomas. These good friends came to serve from Saylorville Baptist Church for the past two weeks. The plan was for them to serve in Australia and it has been an encouraging, intense (in a good way) and incredible journey. Kevin and Jeanie have been a blessing to the church and the team that does outreach in the city. They have assisted with all of the evangelistic events in the city over the last two weeks, which has been exhausting and fruitful. Then on top of that work they have done a parenting seminar, spoken to a mens and ladies groups at Glorious Hope Baptist Church, Kevin preached on Sunday and has given three seminars on effective, Biblical communication. Their service has been amazing.I think they might need a bit of rest when they get home and I do not think they will have a problem sleeping on the plane.

They have had some great experiences with the people, the city, the beaches and we will be going to the Blue Mountains this weekend. Yesterday morning, as we were waking up, the sky was red. Thankful it was not a bushfire, we came to realise it was  the worst dust storm in 40 years. It dumped 1000 tonnes of red dust on Sydney. Trains were covered, cars were covered and it made its way into everything. We felt like we were walking on Mars. Kevin and Jeanie have had quite an experience here in Sydney. Our family, friends and church have been grateful for their time and service. Caroline said to them, “Why can’t you just stay here?” Thank you to Kev and Jeanie for this time in Oz. It will be hard to let them go. Please pray for their safe journey home on Monday.

Thank you for all of your prayers and recent correspondence. Here are the latest prayer requests from our family and ministries.

1. Seven more evangelistic events and follow-up courses in the city in September and October. Please pray for strength and perseverance of our team throughout the preparations, promotion and attendance for all these events. The events are called Inspiring People. We have had close to 400 people come to the past five events and 65+ people desiring to be in a follow up course called ‘Life of Jesus’ (Six week course on the life of Jesus). Please pray that many people would come to know Christ through these events and courses.

2. Russ will be preaching an evangelistic message at Glorious Hope Baptist Church on Sunday, 27 Sept. Please pray for many to come and that the Lord would be glorified in the talk.

3.Russ will speaking at five evangelistic events in November; the talk will be ‘Lightening your Load”.  Based out of Matthew 11. A talk on rest, but with a twist. Please pray for preparations & many would be in attendance.

4. Cathy  working through current children’s Sunday school curriculum at Glorious Hope Baptist.

5. GHBC’s church camp in October. Looking ahead to 2010 and how we will reach our community for Christ.

6. The kids will continue to have a servant heart at church. Also, Little athletics (Track and Field) has started for Josh and Caroline. Also, Karate will continue for Cathy, Hope, Becca and Josh, they all have achieved their orange belts.

Look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your prayers and support.

The adventure continues…

Russ & Cathy Matthews

07.07.09

The Lord does work…

If you have followed our updates of the past few years, you may remember and evangelistic event at Chatswood Baptist last year. I had the opportunity to speak to at an annual event put on by the church after a large dinner. English was the second language for many in attendance that night. I was not sure how my accent and lack of knowledge of Chinese would work with the group. I gave a talk on ‘ Connecting with God.’ Some came to know the Lord that night and many began courses to investigate more about Christianity. It was an exciting evening.

The annual evangelistic event is coming up this week. A friend of mine, who attends the church, told me an encouraging story. One of the men who came to know the Lord after my talk last year was giving his testimony during the dinner this year.*  In the church newsletter, he stated that after hearing the talk last year he came to realise that he had no more excuses for not accepting Christ as his Saviour. He had been putting up barriers all of his life. After that night he was left without any excuse. He accepted Jesus as His Saviour on the evening.  He is growing and hungry to know more about the his Saviour everyday. My friend has been amazed to watch the growth of this man and how he continues to seek what the Lord wants to do with his life.

It is exciting to be part of this process. It is humbling to see the Lord doing His work and to think he wants to utilise us for His glory. What an amazing privilege. Thank you for your prayers and financial support. This is how the Lord continues to include you in His work  around the world. This is how you get the Gospel to people who do not know Him, ‘yet!’

The adventure continues…

Russ Matthews

*I cannot give names out over our website. If you want more details contact me.

06.28.09

Matthews Down Under – June 2009

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)

04.25.09

Easter: exciting, exhausting and encouraging

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.)

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