Phil Eagling Newsletter   February 2004

Volume 5, Issue 1 February 2004

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. Sharon and I pray that you all have had a great Christmas and your New Year has begun well.

Our New year begun well with answers to prayer. As you will see by the photo’s in this article. Nigel James was baptised on January 19th. He wanted to be baptised in the river not too far away from where we live.

This time was a great witness, not only to the church, but to also Nigel’s family, as Nigel’s wife, Erica, was baptised on February 12th. Nigel started coming to church in January last year, and his wife started to come to church around October last year. Nigel and Erica have two children Daniel and Kalia. They have attended the Sunday school regularly since Nigel began to come last year.

Sharon and I wanted to express our gratitude to you all for your continued support. We are finding things a little tough right now as the Australian dollar continues to rise. When the Australian dollar rises we lose out when your dollar is transferred into our currency. At the present moment our dollar is worth 79 cents. That means for instance that when we receive one hundred dollars American we get 119 Australian. We used to get double that when the Australian dollar was worth 50 cents. The church here is not yet able to help us financially. Please consider this genuine need for growth in our support.

Please continue to pray for the following people, as we know that God is answering prayers. Please pray for Peter Hipwell, as he wants to be baptised real soon. In fact he told me that he wants to see the movie the "Passion" and then be baptised. I have counseled with Peter for the last couple of months about his commitment to God and decision to follow Christ. He started coming last year in January, after being invited by Mitchell his friend who was baptised in October last year. Praise God that He is at work!

We still need you to pray for Denise Skimmings and Daniel Fordham. These are young people searching for answers about God.

Thank you all for praying for a friend of ours named Fay Treadwell. She was due to have two more brain tumours taken out on January 21st. The doctors went in to find no trace of any tumour. So praise God for that answer to prayer. God received the glory when the doctors didn’t understand how these tumours were not there anymore.

Please pray for us as we have had some challenges of late in the church as well. God is blessing the church, and the enemy does not like it. We know that we are in a spiritual battle. As Ephesians 6 tells us.Thank you all once again for your prayers and support.

Please email us,

God bless,
Phil.

Sharon's Desk

Hi again everyone, hope this finds you all well. We praise God for your continued prayers and support.

I wanted to fill you all in of how things are going here. The womans group is running again, and this year poses for us some new challenges. >From March the 12th to the 14th we are having a womans retreat. This should be a great time of fellowship with another church nearby. There is going to be a speaker and worship leader come from the States, by the name of Betty Gray. Please pray for this time. There will be some woman there that have not made commitments to Christ, or the church, so please pray for them.

The Sunday school has new leaders. Please pray for Pam and Stan Wright. They are looking forward to see what God can do with the Sunday School this year. We would appreciate it if you all could pray for them regularly. The Sunday School is a door to new families. Please pray for wisdom and direction for them.

Also please pray for the youth group, and the leaders. Philip and I have taken on the youth group. This means yet another area that I am not so comfortable with, but with the help of others, God willing, this will not be so much of a discomfort as it is an opportunity to minister to youth.

It is so easy to not want to get involved in any type of ministry when it is something we feel that it does not suit us. One thing I have found out in the last year moreso than any other previous year is this: that no-one will ever do anything unless they give it a go. This is exactly what I had to do last year with the womans group. I was out of my comfort zone, but God enabled me to be used in that way. I am not saying I did it well, I am not saying that I am the best or anything like that. What I am saying is that all of us need to try and get out of those places we find most comfortable, and see how God can use us in a better way, for His glory.

On a family note: Savannah is going well. She is at Preschool three days a week now. Philip needs prayer as he has had to deal with people’s sin problems in the church. Also pray for us as we consider outreach.Also please pray for me, as I am getting more involved in the church, not that I was not involved before, it is just more now.

God bless,

love,
Sharon.

Savannah's Learning Page

Gday my friends in America, hows the weather up there? It is stinking hot here. My daddy said that you could fry and egg on the roof it is so hot. I am not sure that I would want to eat an egg that was fried on the roof.

Did you know kids that just recently in Australia they found some old dinosoar bones. My daddy said that the people on the news said that the scientist said these bones were over 60 million years old. My daddy said that there are some scientists who don’t believe in God, and that they like to just theorize about when the dinosaors roamed the earth. I don’t understand what that means but I guess it means that people don’t always believe because they choose not to believe in God’s answers to creation.

My mummy said that in a book called Job there is a dinosoar called the behemoth, in chapter 40. My daddy said that some have said this behemoth to be something like the hippo.

My mummy said there will one day be answers to all these interesting questions I have about all this.

My biggest question is why do people not want to believe in God? My mummy said that this is so because people find it hard to believe in something they don’t want to or need faith to.

My daddy said that there are a lot of people in Australia who would rather believe in something man made then in God. I don’t understand this yet, but I guess I will one day.

I wanted to ask you to do something for me, could you please pray for Mummy and daddy because they need it. Daddy said that God has blessed the church recently, but there also has been challenges within the church. Again I don’t know what that means, but I can only guess by the way my daddy has been sad after some meetings he has had with some of the people in the church. So could you please pray for them both.

One thing my mummy has told me lately is this, that sometimes people forget what it means to be a Christian, and they unfortunately let the old life back in. Again I don’t understand what that means, but I do understand what it means to cry and be sad, so please keep my parents in your prayers.

God bless,

your little Aussie mate,
Savannah

• Franklin Christian Church
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