Phil Eagling Newsletter November 2001

Volume 2, Issue 7 November 2001

Greetings, Sharon and I pray that you are all well. We are continuing to pray for you all at this time.

My brother Andrew is in the Australian Air Force and he is going over to be a part of the coalition against terror, very soon. Please pray for him!

The work here is moving ahead. We have plans for next year underway. We will be trying new ideas. One of which is a trial at a new program called careforce. This is a program that helps deal with the issues of the day within the family and individual lives of people.

Issues such as marriage problems, health, drug addiction, children etc. We are training facilitators, and then the goal is for them to train others. Our goal is to have this program in a hall other than the church.

The reason for this is so that people will initially not be threatened by the word church . Which happens a lot.

I am not sure if you all remember that the Australian public in general, have apathy towards anything that is Christian, so that is why we will have this program in a hall other than the church. Please pray for this new ministry opportunity!

I wanted to thank you all for praying for us. It was only yesterday that I had an open door to a couple who I have been trying to reach for about a year now. Wayne finally asked me why I do what I do?

I said to him that I do this because God has called me. He said what made me become a "man of the cloth." At this I laughed and said well I do wear cloth. It was great to be able to finally see him respond without my prompting. Please pray for Wayne and his wife, that I can lead them to Christ by building a strong relationship with them, so I can earn their trust.

Please pray for Sharon’s health as she has not been a hundred percent of late. Also please pray for Savannah and I, that we would have good health. Please pray that we would have boldness to go into new ministry and new areas. Please pray for the church people to serve and grow in their commitment.

As the time approaches to celebrate the birth of our Lord, we are reminded of how much we all need this time, to come before our God and thank Him for sending us His Son.

May God richly bless you all at this time, once again we want to thank you all for your continued prayers and support. We will continue to pray for your leaders and your President to have wisdom in this time.


God bless,
yours in Christ,
your Aussie mate,


Phil Eagling.

Hi again,

I hope this letter finds you all well. Boy, it is nearly Christmas again! Where has the year gone. When I look back on the year I see a year filled with both challenges and blessing. We have seen growth in the people, and we have grown ourselves. We know that you all have faced some hard challenges in recent times, and because of this we are praying for you.

The challenges have helped us to grow as well. The growth is seen in how we have responded to various situations that have occurred. We do know this that you all have prayed for us because we have felt and known God’s intervention. So thank you for praying.

The women’s group in the church is going well. We have plans to help the women’s refuge more next year. We also are going to be trying to minister to families who are struggling. Just the other day the church was able to help feed a family who did not have any food. Our aim here is to help fill a need and help them see the need for a loving Christ.

Next year we hope to also start a young mum’s group, where the mother’s can come and talk about the things that they are struggling with, while their children are being taken cared for. We are thinking about using the video series called "Boundaries." At the moment Philip and another care group is using this video series, and the response to it is very positive.

The area we live in has a real need for prayer. The amount of young single mothers and abused mothers is terrible. The effects of drug abuse are evident when you see the families who have been split up and young teenagers who have either ended up in jail or living in the street. We need your prayers as to know how to reach these people. We need you to pray for us to have wisdom, that God will be glorified!

On a more personal note, Savannah is growing fast. She is talking up a storm. She is learning how to swim now, and she manages to challenge us most days, but we would not be without her. Philip is doing fine. I have had some health problems lately and I need your prayer for good health.

Have a Christ filled Christmas,
God bless,


Sharon

How to speak Australian and other information about Australia

Gday from down under. My daddy says that I need to let you know that I am thinking of you at this time.

I wanted to let you kids know about what happens in Australia at Christmas. Firstly something that is very different to what happens up there is that it is very hot here on Christmas day.

A lot of families go to the beach or have picnics at a park.

My daddy says that we are going to have a Christmas Eve candlelight service. He said that we need to remember what Christmas is all about, that Jesus Christ came to the world to save us from our sin.

My Mummy says that this Christmas we are staying at home and her daddy, my grandad is coming down to spend it with us. My Mummy said that we are going to invite some of the lonely people in the church to have Christmas lunch with us. I think that will be bonzer (you know what that means, it means cool).

My Daddy says that the day after Christmas day is called "boxing day". He said that it was called this because it was the day when everything was boxed away. Really Daddy said it was just another reason for Aussies to have another holiday.

I am not sure what a holiday (vacation) is, but mummy says that it is one of those days where we go to the beach and throw prawns (shrimp) on the Barbie (BBQ). Sounds like that might be a ridgy-didge (unreal, cool) idea.

Of course Daddy says that we will have our mates (friends) over to watch the Sydney to Hobart Yatch race and watch the cricket. I am not sure that this will be that much fun, but I am sure you understand this, especially those of you who are a girl like me. My mummy says that it is a guy thing, just like those guys who watch the Superbowl, whatever that is. Sounds like a huge bowl of food or something ha ha. Well I wanted to say to all of you kids, that I want you to have a happy Christ filled Christmas.


May Jesus be your reason to celebrate,
may you all seek Him,
love,

Savannah.

• Franklin Christian Church
• Franklin Christian Church Missions
• Philip Eagling in Australia Missions
• The Mission field: Murwillumbah, New South Wales, Australia

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