Last week Luke graduated year 10.  (Here in Australia students have not had to go beyond year 10 and were in fact only recommended to go on to years 11 & 12 if there grades were good enough.  Otherwise it was recommended that they go out into the workforce and get an apprenticeship.) Well, Luke’s grades are good and he will be going on to finish the last two years of high school.  The day of his formal dinner we were able to snap the following picture.

Monday this week we met with some folks from Canada who are candidating at a church about an hour away from us.  They used to live in Australia and want to return here to minister in a church.  We were impressed with their desire to return and get involved in ministry here.  We are so keen for someone to come and work with us here in Corrimal.  If you know of anyone with a desire to work in ministry cross-culturally, please let us know.

Matt has come down sick--a bad cough, congestion and extra tired.  He was not able to go to the retirement home ministry on Tuesday.  I went and played some Christmas carols, and they enjoyed the singing, and our deacon (who always faithfully serves with us in this ministry) read Matt's notes and gave a message on Emmanuel--God With Us.  Attendance was good, and the people (residents and staff alike) are always appreciative of our monthly visits.  We will be returning on the 22nd to do some Christmas caroling for them.

Our theme for December is God's Greatest Gift.  We are starting to decorate the church a bit in relation to this theme.

Summer began here a week ago, but it feels more like winter still!  We're looking forward to warmer days ahead!

We so appreciate your prayers for us.  Please pray that we will be effective in talking to people in our community throughout this month.  They need to know about God's greatest gift to them--eternal life through His Son!

In His service,

Matt & Barb Douglas

29 Nov 2011 AD 

It's been an eventful week.

The church enjoyed the ministry of Friends of Israel on Sunday.  We met Sunday afternoon to plan for the upcoming Sausage Sizzle and Christmas Singalong, and to discuss other items of business.

Last week Luke stayed with a friend in Sydney while doing a work experience with a pastor at a fellowshipping church.  It was a good chance for him to see what a pastor (other than his dad) does in a week.  He said he enjoyed it, and of course enjoyed staying with one of his best mates and also seeing other friends at his old school's year 10 graduation.  Last night was his own year 10 graduation and formal dinner.  We are proud of his accomplishments at his new school this year.  He received his report, and his grades are very good.  He's now off for two months of summer holidays.

Amy was able to spend the long Thanksgiving weekend with Matt's parents in Michigan.  It was good for her to be able to see family and enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving--something we don't do here.  She only has three weeks left of the semester!  My how time has flown.

The weather is warming up here, but we've had the wettest November on record.

Continue to pray for our paperwork to go through the local council so we can get started with building our house early in the new year.

Thanks for all your prayers,

Matt & Barb Douglas

22 Nov 2011 AD

G'day,

We are looking forward to Sunday when we will have a guest speaker from the Friends of Israel share with us. Our congregation prays regularly for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem. Matt is catching up on some other work since he does not have to prepare a message for this week.

Please continue to pray for Angela, the daughter of one of our members. She continues to struggle with custody issues with her ex husband and their two small children. There has been abuse in the home. Two court hearings will be held in the next three weeks.

We look forward to the Christmas season here. While this week is Thanksgiving, we do not celebrate Thanksgiving as a holiday in November (Australia's is in May). Barb did buy a turkey, but won't be able to fix it for this Thursday. We thought we'd have it on Saturday, however our new neighbors-to-be at our property (a small cul-de-sac) invited us to a Christmas barbecue get together on Saturday. What an opportunity to meet the neighbors! We can't pass that one up!

This Sunday we have a special speaker from Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry Australia Inc. Having recently preached through Romans 9-11 it was a good opportunity to bring in an expert. Pray our people will really warm to this fine ministry (FOI have never come here before) and that we will have some visitors who will come and have a look.

We're starting to publicize our Christmas Sausage Sizzle and Singalong on the 17th of December. We've also been invited to sing carols at the retirement home we have a ministry in once a month. That will be on the 22nd. Pray for good outreach during this holiday season!

In His Service, Matt & Barb

July 1 2011 AD

Mid summer update

We hope you are enjoying your North American summer.  We have fond memories of summers with many of you.  On our cold winter days here we often wish we had some of your summer heat.  HA!

We wanted to give you a short bullet list of important things to take before the Lord this summer.  Please understand that we are not trying to cut communications short.  We are most interested in keeping you informed in your prayer and praise.

Prayer requests:
Ministry:

• A co-worker in the ministry here.  We want the next pastor for this church replant along side us SOON.
• Our church remodelling projects.  We have much to do and not a lot of money.  Some is getting quite urgent for safety and preservation of the buildings themselves (like urgent roof repairs).
• Ministry work teams to come to help with building maintenance.  More can be viewed on ABWE.ORG or you can ask for more details.  We need people to come over and help!
• Outreach!  While we have had visitors, we need to reach people for more than a single Sunday morning.
•  Unity with our co-workers.  We don't have any details, just want to continue to love working with our other missionaries down here.
• Matt was asked to submit a letter to the board of the local golf course to be the official club chaplain.  There is no pay for this, but it could be a good outreach opportunity.  If nothing else it would get exposure to people of the community as we know very few people in this new location.

Personal:

• We are on family vacation from July 12-22.  Pray for rest and restoration.
• Amy leaves us for Cedarville University in Ohio in mid August.  She needs prayer and we will have many family adjustments.
• We are wanting to build a house.  We have bought property and are likely to buy a "kit home" so that we can save money.  We will hire people to build it or have work teams from the USA come to help build it. (The kit comes with everything numbered and easy to put together.)  We also have to decide what house to build, and who should build it. (We are too busy in ministry and do not feel God wants us to do it ourselves.)

Praises to thank God for!

• Our church is making good progress on a new constitution, name, ministry goals.
• We have had 20 visitors in the last 6 weeks.
• ABWE is organizing people who would like to come down to work on the property.  They hope to get people from all over the USA to sign up and come at their convenience.  The goal is to have a team once a month from Aug till the work is done.
• We just celebrated 17 years in Australia.  God is so good and we have seen Him do amazing things!

Here is a short story you may enjoy that falls under the category “Answers to prayer:”

The Lord has been good to us.  We see it in many ways.
Recently we celebrated Australia's National Day of Thanksgiving.  We wanted to take a lead in the community as thankful people.  The church came up with the idea of inviting all the tradesmen who have worked on the property and all our suppliers to come to our service on thanksgiving weekend.  On the Sunday we had 10 visitors, none of whom presently belong to a church.  We gave each a certificate saying thanks for your help. 
    Those who did not make it to our service were sent a letter saying we were sorry they did not make it and we wanted to mail them their certificate anyway.  One business owner called me saying he almost fired his secretary for not giving him the original letter invite.  Shocked at this, we assured him that she should keep her job.  It was something new we were trying to restore an attitude of thanksgiving.  The boss went on for half an hour saying how surprised he was that we would be concerned, how delighted he was that we cared, how much he longed to be connected with a group of people who were so respectful and thankful, and that he was going to talk his wife into giving church a try one more time.  He was looking forward to meeting the group of people who would care so much and go out of their way to say thanks.
    He still has not visited, but pray with us that God would continue to draw this business owner and his wife to himself.  Pray that they would visit us soon.  Pray that we would be a people ready to receive them and reach out to them with hope and compassion.

Thanks again for your prayers. 

In His service,
Matt & Barb Douglas

26 May 2011AD

Thanks for your prayers!  God is doing some good things and we are seeing the advancement of the work here.

This weekend is Australia’s National Day of Thanksgiving.  The government asks Australians to take either Saturday or Sunday to “thank God and thank others.”  Our church has turned this into an outreach event as we have invited all the people who have helped here in the last six months (plumbers, roofers, electrical contractors, painters, tree fallers, and more) to a special service.  We will say thanks to God for our salvation and thanks to all these people and businesses.  We have a potential of having 10 times our normal group if each contractor or business sends two people.  We know that many are not saved and the opportunity to preach a gospel message is irresistible.  We even finally completed the installation of our industrial automatic coffee machine (a gift to the church).  The fellowship after the service should be a buzz at least. (Ha!)

Please pray with us that God would bring people out.  Pray that our people would respond well to all visitors.  Pray that we would have an impact on the unsaved and unchurched visitors. 

We know our God is working all things together for good.  We are asking Him to see fit to bless our humble efforts and build His church.

In His service,
Matt & Barb Douglas
ABWE Australia

10 May 2011AD

Make sure you read our latest Douglas Dispatch. A new one went out today, and is posted on page 2 of this web site.

God bless, Matt

25 April 2011 AD

The resurrected Lord “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’” Luke 24.45-47

Hallelujah!  He has risen!

We pray that this wonderful resurrection Sunday morning will bless your hearts as you glorify God, and that the repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached around the world!

It is a wonderful time of the year.  Opportunities to share what Christ has done are plentiful.  We had a special Good Friday evening sing-along in our new church replant.  We invited so many people, but we only had one visitor from the community come.  We have been praying for by name for several weeks.  It was a blessing to see her actually come.  We also had a couple come from sister churches that we had invited to come join us in the outreach.  It will help them to know better how to pray for the ministry here.

Resurrection Sunday morning was low in attendance as we had many away on holiday (vacation) with extended family.  We did however have a sporadic visitor back and Joy (who came to Friday night’s sing-along) came and brought her single adult daughter.  Three visitors from the community in one service – not bad!  The message was from the Romans 6 and how Christ was raised to the glory of the Father and we too, as pictured in baptism, are dead to sin and alive to God.  It was received well – maybe because it was the shortest message I have preached in months at just about 33 minutes.

We would like to spend some family time together for the next couple of days.  Australian’s have a 5 day weekend with Good Friday through ANZAC day all off.  While the ministry necessitates work during that time we are going to take a couple of “comp” days and enjoy being a family before Luke has to get back to school.

We pray that your weekend of celebration is wonderful and your worship of our Risen Saviour is “lifechangingly” sweet.

In His service,
Matt, Barb, Amy, & Luke Douglas

ABWE - Australia

5 April 2011AD

Wow!  Does time ever pass quickly when you are over-busy.  We have seen many blessings of God over the last month.  We would like to update you on a few.

The church is making forward momentum.  We have solidified our group and have been seeing 12 locals plus our family most every week. (Remember we had just 3 members who called us here to do this replant.)  We have also made great progress in the focus and plans for the church.  We have enjoyed our Sunday afternoon planning sessions.  Our new purpose statement reads: Living
in the assurance of Christ’s salvation, we glorify God by sharing the truth of God’s Word and serving
one another with hope and compassion.  It is one thing to state it, but they are beginning to see how life changes as they live it out. Our Sunday morning services have been focusing on the “One Another” passages of the Bible and we are now moving back to our exegetical study of Romans picking up where we left off in chapter five.

Our church has also seen forward momentum around the property.  We have been blessed with a visit from a couple from SW Michigan who has helped tremendously.  In the last month we have fixed and restored the manse (parsonage) roof, replaced the bad parts of the church building roof, Painted the entry, fellowship area and sanctuary part of our church building, pressure washed the drive, ground out ten stumps that stuck up around the property, sanded some of the wood floors in the cottage building, built a sign frame to hold the posters under our church sign out front, and more!  With each thing that we do to restore our church property we make the place more inviting for visitors and more enjoyable for ourselves.  We have no intentions of having a Solomon’s temple style building, but to be dumpy dishonours God.  The church has saved up a good bit of money for these projects, but we are going through it faster than any of us would like.  If you are interested in helping the church with a gift to repaint the outside of our building, refurbish the fellowship hall to a usable level or any other project you can send a gift to ABWE or contact us for details of how to make a tax deductable gift really count in this local ministry.

Some of you received our video report in recent weeks.  For everyone else we would like to offer you the opportunity to see what God is doing in this place.  You can view it online at: http://www.abwedouglas.net/page5.html   Feel free to make copies and have everyone interested see it.  We are willing to send supporters a disk.  Please email if you need one.

The family is doing well.  Amy is working at a camp and making pizza on the side.  While she would rather have a good paying job she is willing to work two jobs if that is what it takes.  Luke is very interested in getting a job for extra spending money.  Pray that in the Easter school holidays he will be able to find a good one.  He is making friends faster than the rest of us as school is giving him an added advantage.  He is also reminding us that he turns 16 next month.  You can guess what that all means!

Barb and I have been busy in both ministry here and finishing off all the lingering details of selling our last house and looking for the next place God would bless us with.  Pray with us that the sale of our home in Blacktown would soon be completed so that we can focus down here.  It has been a pain to have to travel 1.5 hours each way to check the property, mow the lawn, and do maintenance each week.

Thanks once again for your prayers and support!  We appreciate it more than we can ever express in words!!
Matt & Barb Douglas

1 March 2011AD

Continue to pray for us in the following areas:

1. Aussie co-worker to eventually take over the ministry in Corrimal

2. Continued progress on our purpose, plan and goals as a church

3. Making friends in the area for fellowship and evangelism

4. Wisdom to accomplish what needs to be done in the best order (without working way too much)

5. Children - Luke adjusting to to Illawarra Christian School and Amy plans to attend Cedarville in August (working on financial aid now.)

6. Sale of our Blacktown house and eventual purchase here in our area of ministry.

Thanks for your prayers!

16 Feb 2011AD

G’day

It is a wonderful thing to serve the Lord.  His mercy and compassion is beyond our understanding.  It is marvellous how he works through us in changing lives (all the while changing ours as well)!

The ministry here in the Corrimal (pronounced: Car-rim-al) area is going well.  The summer schedule has delayed some things, and has been a blessing in other ways.  While we have seen many of our people away visiting family, the summer has also brought us a visitor named Wade.  He came a couple weeks in a row as we looked into the biblical purpose of the church – why do we exist in God’s plan.  The nice weather we have been having (we would not want to rub it in or anything!) has also allowed us to get a lot of work done around the place.  We have been dashing from job to job all the while trying to figure out the best order to accomplish the massive amount of work to be done.  This is a rare thing to plant a church with a set of old buildings fully owned and a small group of people who make up the core of the church.  While locally we are calling this a replant, it for all practical purposes is a plant much like any other as far as our authority, guidance and responsibilities.  The things we have less say on are style, location, and the makeup of the group.  We have mentioned before that we would love to have some people come from the USA to help with the building remodelling.  There is a lot to do!  We still have openings! Want to come see the ministry and enjoy a nice part of Australia?  Just email us and let us know what your interests and thoughts are and we will see how it all fits together.

Luke started year 10 the last week of January.  It is a big adjustment for him in a new school, but he is a good student.  He is attending Illawarra Christian School.  It is a school of about 500 students that is located 15-20 minutes drive south of our church and present home. Pray for him as he makes new friends and finds his place in the new school.

Amy is done with school for now (she is applying to Christian universities in the USA for September enrolment) and needs to get a job.  She is trying, but nothing has been offered yet.  Pray with us for God’s best.

Barb and I have been adjusting to the extra duties of pastoral care and shepherding.  The world is a very messed up place and so often the people in the church have had to deal with the same issues and the same problems.  It is amazing to see how much God has grown our hearts in love for these people and this area.  Continue to pray with us as we seek to shepherd as God would have us.

Just 2 months in and we have already changed things. J  We have not only done a lot of cleaning but we have had a tree removed, tore down 2 walls to make a bigger area for fellowship (we call it our “morning tea and coffee room”) and even changed some carpet.  We are working on a new color scheme for the inside and out.  We have had big printed signs hanging out front since we arrived, we have refocused their purpose statement and much, much more.  There is no doubt about it.  We have been very hard at work.  I know it can be bad for a new pastor to change things right away, but they called us here for that very purpose.  They were just holding on and were not sure how much longer they could survive without something happening.  How are they handling it all?  Well, one is accepting everything, one wants to change nothing –but likes the look of things once they are done, and the rest are someplace in between.  We had only 3 members who could vote to call us here, and now we are running 13 with a high of 15.  How many of your churches have grown 500%? We know, the comparison isn’t fare but it makes our work sound real good, HA.  We do want to reach more people.  Keep praying with us!

In His service,
Matt, Barb, Amy & Luke Douglas
ABWE Australia

16 Jan 2011

G’day

All is well in our part of Australia.  You may have heard of the devastating floods up north.  That is over a day’s drive away and can’t affect us.  We do however truly pray for the churches and people of that area!

The church replant is going well so far.  Christmas was a bit of a wash with the move and getting settled in.  We tried to invite people from the area to the Christmas services, but most already had plans.  Most people need more than a week’s notice.  We had an enjoyable time in our new house all morning and then drove out of the area to be with other ABWE missionaries for Christmas dinner.  It was a very good day.

We have had a high of 13 in a service.  Considering we came with only 3 members that sounds good.  That’s what – 400% growth plus. However, then consider 4 are from our family 3 had attended before and the reality looks more normal.

Sunday the 16th we start talking about strategic planning.  The church has had no idea about its purpose or a plan to grow for some time.  They figured if they kept doing what they had done, God might bring someone their way.  Well that is a possibility, but that is not what we do as church planters.  We work to plans that are based on Scripture and carefully prayed over.  We desire to be a part of what God is doing in this world as we actively reach out to the people around us all the while bringing/giving glory to God.  We are sure to learn much about how the ministry here will look as we meet with the congregation each Sunday at 4pm for the foreseeable future. We covet your prayers!

We have also restarted prayer meeting.  If you have known us long you know we are passionate about prayer.  We want to see this church become a place of prayer.

In His service,
Matt & Barb Douglas

11 Jan 2011

We finally have internet and phone service again. We spent about a month without it after the move. Sorry we missed all the opportunities to comment on Christmas and new years. Hope yours was wonderful, and you find your walk with the Lord better for the holidays!

In His service,

Matt & Barb Douglas

15 Dec 2010

We are moving!  On Friday morning our time we have a moving truck arrive to move us to the new ministry in Corrimal.  Pray with us that the move would be fast and that there would be little breakage or damage.  The trip is about 1.5 hours each way.

The new ministry is going well so far.  Matt has preached the last 2 Sundays.  The small group is so grateful that we are coming.  We have also spent a lot of time cleaning and getting the buildings ready to use again.  Things have just been mostly shut up for the last three years. (Shock horror, we learned that the BBQ had not been used in over 4 years!)   The first week we had a small business meeting to cover some details and get information.  The second weekend we had Thanksgiving Service for all those who had helped the church in the past.  We had most of the people who had preached over the last 3 years there and the previous pastor.  We forgot to count but think there were around 40-45 people there.  The church was thrilled with the turnout.  We even had a couple of people from the community come to that service – they heard there was going to be free food.

We are constantly in prayer about the balance of our time.  There is LOTS of work to be done on the buildings.  There is the necessity of being in the community and inviting people to the church.  There is the need to get new documents like a constitution and purpose and plans and goals drawn up and approved.  There is also the need to spend time with my family – especially during the Christmas season.  I have found myself working 90-hour weeks and then wondered why I was not feeling much like Christmas is upon us.  Ha!

Please note the changes in our address as listed on our web page.

We may be out of communication until just before Christmas as there was a snag in getting the internet and phone reconnected to the house we will be living in.  We should be back on line soon, but this time of year things easily get put off till the second week of the New Year.  We will still have our mobile/cell phones in the new location with the same numbers.

If we do not get another chance to say so, have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful start to the New Year.

In His Service,
Matt, Barb, Amy & Luke Douglas

11 Nov 2010
We are pleased to announce that we have clear direction from the Lord for our next church plant! We will be restarting a church in Corrimal (pronounced Car-rim-al) NSW. We will have some advantages in this church plant and some extra challenges. We will write about the lot soon.

Pray with us that we will be able to find some one to work with now who will stay as pastor when it is our time to leave in a few years. Pray that those we will be working with will be ready for all the changes ahead. Pray that we will reach many new people in the community. Pray that our kids will adjust well (this is huge).

In His service,
Matt & Barb Douglas & children

21 October 2010AD

“The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans11.29) We praise God for this truth found in His Word. It starts with his gift of salvation and extends to everything we “need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His glory and virtue.” (2 Peter 1.3) AMEN! The opportunity to live our lives in service of our God is wonderful! Thank you so much for making our service for the Lord possible through your prayers and support.

We have delayed a prayer update hoping we would have big news. While God is showing us many things (some we like and others hurt) we still have not made the decision on where we will be planting the next church. While we have lowered the list from 14 to 3, we have to decide among all good options. We are at the level that the “who” will be involved is the tipping point. To be honest, most of the 14 places we have researched need a church. All the top 3 are great opportunities. We really covet your prayers as we make our decision in the next couple of weeks and get involved in the chosen community before Christmas.

Ministry continues to thrive. We shared the gospel to people 55 times in the last quarter. Some of our discipleship is seeing people get back on their feet after hard times. Other people we have encouraged to walk worthy of the calling they have received. Our labour in the Lord has not been in vain.

The family is enjoying the warmer spring days. It is great to see the grass growing, the flowers blooming and people getting outside. We have been able to do some gardening and are enjoying the green grass we have planted in the back yard’s bare spots.

10/10/10

Pray for us today.  Last week we eliminated one of the possible church plant sights from the top 4 and this week we have a meeting with people in the town at the top of out list.  We could know where we will be working next very soon.  It really all depends on if we feel God is leading us this way or telling us to stay away.  We recently had a team from Woodland CA help us with some work in this town and they fell in love with the opportunities there.  While we like the potential, we also know that there are a few people who could make it a very long hard ministry.  With all the wonderful opportunities around we would rather not get “stuck in the mud.”

Today’s meeting will be our family and another ABWE Australia family setting down and talking with the people about how much they want to grow and the necessary change that will bring.  We are excited, and we are also aware that some in the area are very reluctant to trust American church planters and pastors.  If we can win their trust we can launch forward quickly.  Pray that they will trust, and that they will not obstruct, or join in only to drag things along slowly.

Family is doing well.  Amy just finished school and two weeks ago officially graduated from year 12.  She still has “placement” type tests in every subject over the next few weeks.  Pray that she will be motivated to do a good job on each test as it comes along. Luke is enjoying spring.  He has one more ten week term of year 9.  We have already told him that he will be changing schools next year as we get into a new church plant.  He is not excited about that at all.  Barb had a birthday last week, and we had our 25th anniversary.  We also had my parents down from Michigan over the last three weeks.  It was good to spend time with them.  We celebrated their 51st Anniversary last Sunday.

Thanks for all your support.  Your prayers are more valuable than we could ever express!
In His service,
Matt & Barb Douglas & family

6 Sept 2010AD

Gal. 5:5-6 “through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”
Life in Christ is fabulous.  Sure things can be hard some times, and sometimes we are unsure what way God is directing.  However, life with God is fabulous. 
Our life is changing.  Our daughter Amy now has her driver's licence, she turns 18 this week and graduates from high school the end of this month.  WOW!  We are excited for her, and staggered by the changes in life all at the same time.  (We are sure some of you can relate.)  She is a good girl.  We had some good fun last night helping her pick a favourite picture of herself aged under 5 years old.  Sure does not seem that long ago.  It helped us put many things in perspective.
Luke is doing well at his year 9 studies.  He goes to camp this week.  Like any boy that age he looks forward most to having no homework and being able to be with his friends all day and night.  Physically he is getting tall and is now within about an inch of overtaking his father; that is definitely one of his goals in life.  We see him a changed young man for having gone on the Soccer World Cup witnessing trip.  It was a life-shaping experience.
Our husband and wife relationship is so strong.  Many of you know we just celebrated 25 years of marriage (though the official date of that is Oct. 5 we needed to take our trip when it would fit the schedule.)  We so enjoy serving God side by side, and yea the rest of life is quite wonderful too.  We know changes are coming to our lives, but we are eager to watch the Lord do His work in us and through us!
Ministry is progressing.  Barb has had some wonderful results from scripture classes (including helping a teacher get a Bible of her own) and Matt's ESL classes are progressing the work of ministering the Word while meeting a need within the life of the students.  Our ministry to others, our ministry to the local fellowshipping churches, and our research towards the next church plant are also worthy of the calling we have received. Next week Matt will be filling in for another missionary who has to return to the USA for a funeral.  This is likely to include his ESL classes and his Scripture classes in Glenwood Public High School.  One of the fun parts of this ministry is the time we get to encourage and challenge individuals in their walk with God.  Again this week Matt is meeting with a couple of men one of whom needs to consider the step up to full time ministry, and one who needs to be restored after leaving the ministry and church.
We appreciate all your prayers for direction on church planting!  We are as eager as anyone to know where God will station us for the next church plant!  We are trying not to be so eager we get ahead of God, but … the waiting is getting hard.  We have been working at this more and more.  We are trying to definitively “rank” the known opportunities, potential, and the known & unknown complications for each of the top four or five areas.  Yes, we depend on the Spirit.  Yes, it is Christ who said, “I will build my church...” And yes there is always risk involved, but the reason the last church plant was done in half the “normal” time is because we first took note of where God was leading and working, and then we got ourselves involved in church planting there.  We hope to have more exciting news for you on this front by November this year.

Matt Douglas & Family

15 Aug 2010AD

We appreciate your prayers and support for the ministry here. Our God is a wonder working God.  His sovereignty is truly amazing to watch.  He is doing so much in and through lives.  It is our simple pleasure to be a mouthpiece, a small part, of what He is doing.
 
Barb’s Scripture classes in the public school system are going well.  She continues to see small steps of progress.  This stretch through the middle of the year can be hard; so we covet your prayers that lives would be changed.  It was a privilege to have some visitors from one of our California churches help in this ministry during their recent visit.  Three of the team taught a total of six of the classes.  They were blessed and Barb was encouraged.
 
Matt’s English as a Second Language classes have been low this term.  One student did not come back from China, one took a job, one is now pregnant and therefore often morning sick.  These things hurt attendance.  God knows.  I have one very faithful student who knows Christ as her Saviour and is very desirous to learn.  Pray for wisdom on the best use of time.
 
Church planting research is going forward.  The recent ministry team visit helped a lot.  We were able to get some introduction work done, some more church research done (it is amazing what some churches say they believe) and now we are gaining in confidence on the top four possibilities.  Of those top four we are not in control of the pace in two.  There may come a time when we have to say “Sorry – we are no longer able to continue considering your area as we have been directed by God in a different direction.”  We can’t communicate on paper how much our hearts burn to be about the work of a new church plant.  What we are doing is GOOD ministry!  Many of these things we will continue to do during a church plant.  However, at that point we will be doing it to focus people in to the church we are planting. (Web only note: Today we had a visitor come to church as a direct result of the recent high school ministry teams work with us. She is unsaved, but we are praying for God to do His work in her life!)
 
I sent off a package yesterday of material to a new believer in South Africa.  Sports Impact and the FIFA World Cup Outreach have borne eternal fruit.  The thrill of seeing response cards marked “I have prayed the suggested prayer to accept Christ as my Saviour” is encouraging beyond measure.  Much of the ministry Luke, I  and others had during the games was not conducive to long conversations.  It was winter, cold and dark.  We had to leave the results to the God and the follow-up stage.  Jesus Himself said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6.44.   God’s arm is not too short or powerless to save!  Pray with us that more response cards would come in the mail and over the web.
 
Barb and I will be taking a short holiday/vacation to celebrate our 25th anniversary over the next couple of weeks.  Our anniversary is not till October, but we will be way too busy with ministry during that time to get away.  God has supplied this time and we are going to take it.  Pray for our children as we leave them “home alone.”  They are very capable, but we have never given them this much responsibility before.  They will have to get themselves to school, work, church and still cook for themselves . . .  Most of us understand how much work that is.  They are about to learn.  (We do have friends who will be checking in on them.)  Pray also that Barb and I would have a wonderful relaxing time away celebrating our many years together.


In His service,
Matt & Barb Douglas
ABWE Australia

15 Aug 2010AD

The high school youth group ministry team from Woodland California is doing a great job.  We are keeping them busy and they have been stepping up to each task we give them.  I think each of them has a greater appreciation for what God is doing here and what the possibilities are for the future.  We have them through this week.  Pray that they will continue to accomplish so much more than we could without them.  Pray also that God would use this trip in their lives for future missions ministry.

Our family is doing well.  Barb has a cold right now, but other than that we have all been healthy.  Amy starts her trial exams and tests August 2nd.  These are cumulative; so everything she has learned, or should have learned, in school is fair game for the exams.  When she completes these she graduates from year 12.  That will be in late September.  It is a stressful time for her and us.  Luke has a job now.  He works with his sister at a pizza place.  It will be nice for him to have spending money without always asking mum and dad for it!

In His service,
Matt Douglas & Family

11 July 2010AD

Not sure if you were able to follow Matt's Facebook blog while he was in South Africa witnessing during the FIFA World Cup, but I thought I would post the report and insert a link to the Power Point presentation that you can download. It was a great ministry time! God worked in mighty ways. Luke and I were so privileged to be a part. Our prayer now is that people would reply to the response cards in the back of our tracts, and that God would give us the opportunity to help them start their spiritual walk and find a good local church.

Please understand that if you download something with pictures that the file will be large and I recommend only trying it with broadband.

Please click on your choice below and save you your computer for viewing.

Text only Document (small)

PDF file with text and pictures

Power Point presentation (16 meg iin size)

Thanks for your prayers and support!

In His service

Matt Douglas

14 June 2010AD

A small bit of a scare again this evening. The tracts are not in South Africa, and I do not know where they are. Please pray that they get there and taht they clear customes in what would have to be near record time. It would be assame to be there with no booklets to work with. We will still witness, but we will feel like we have lost a great tool.

Matt & Luke

9 June 2010AD

G’day!

God is a very good God!  His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  No one has ever been His counsellor, and no one has ever given a gift that He must repay!  We have a God who is, in every essence of the word, AWESOME!  Praise Him with us today.

Ministry in Australia is continuing to go forward at a good pace.  We are holding prayer meetings with co-workers about the next church plant.  We are working to clear some places off our list and tightening the criteria we use to evaluate the opportunities more and more.  Continue to pray with us that we will be led by God every step of the way in this ministry.

Scripture classes are going good.  Barb’s 4th grade class is becoming more and more inquisitive.  They are asking great questions, and plenty of silly ones.  “Did Solomon have 1000 rings on his fingers for all those wives?”  We never mind questions like these because we know the good questions will come.  If they aren’t listening enough to ask questions, we have a much harder time sharing the Scripture in a meaningful way.

Matt’s ESL (English as a Second Language) class is moving forward strongly.  It has been a joy to learn that one of my unsaved students had strong Christian grandparents before the Chinese revolution.  She even lived with them for a year and was able to pick up some of the “basics”.  Pray that we will see her and others move from a story level understanding of Christianity to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Last week we read the Book of Ruth.  The idea of a redeemer was really understood on a new level for most in the class.  I have just 2 more classes with them before I will miss a couple classes and then we have a 3-week break.  All up we will miss 6 weeks.  Pray that they turn to Christ before the break or that they come back next term to continue learning.

Last writing we mentioned a big need we had for the Sports Impact ministry.  Here too God has been very good.  We have seen many people and churches respond to the need and cut our shortfall in half!  We still need about $1800 to come in over the next month or so, but God has seen fit to bless us by blessing many others.  Matt and Luke leave Australia on the 15th of June and return on the 3rd of July.  Matt has been feeling the pressure of heading up such a large ministry, but the Lord never gives us a task to large for Him to work through us.  We long ago learned this lesson, and the ministries keep coming.  Pray with us for the rest of the needed funds to be given ($1800 USD), souls to be saved (we want to give out 40,000 tracts and talk through the gospel with 30 people a day), safety as we travel (South Africa is not a safe place), and for Barb and Amy as they carry on the life and ministry here in Australia.

In His service,
Matt Douglas & Family

2 June 2010 AD

Praise God with us for His working in power.  Just last night I mentioned that we had an urgent need for about $5100 US dollars.  We are happy to say that the need has now dropped to $3600.  That is still a lot of money!  Yet once again we are privileged to see how well prayer works.  We know God will continue to supply and we will be able to soon report to you of God's complete supply through His people!  If each of our supporters were able to assist with just $50 we would have this need covered.
In His service,
Matt & Barb Douglas
ABWE Australia

1 June 2010 AD

Time for an update!  We have been so busy with the Lord’s work that we have neglected this important ministry of emailing you.  We do want you to pray with us and praise God for what He has done.

First, we are enjoying ministry very much.  Matt has been preaching through Romans in several different churches.  (It is part of our ministry to fill in for fellow ministers when they have to be out of the pulpit.)  While the ministry of the Word has been good, we have also enjoyed the fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ.

We are progressing in our church planting research.  We have gone down from 14 to 6, and then added 2 more possibilities.  It is hard to say “not now” to places that are good opportunities, but seem to be missing advantages that other places have.  Please keep praying for us in this work of ministry.

Scripture Classes and English as a Second Language Classes are also going well.  We take the opportunity to teach from God’s Holy Word very seriously.  We always want to move people closer to Christ.  It does not matter if that is to children in school or adults trying to learn a second language.  As we open the Word we bring “good news.”

The ministry for the Soccer World Cup is coming along well.  Its name is Sports Impact (SportsImpact.net.au).  It is designed for evangelism at the FIFA Soccer World Cup, but more than that it is an evangelistic outreach that ABWE missionaries from different fields join together in.  Some fields will be bringing future missionaries to use the time in this year’s World Cup as a training time in Evangelism and dealing with life’s issues in a cross-cultural situation.  All up I believe we should have people from over a half dozen different mission fields training and working the harvest field known as the FIFA World Cup.  Please pray for Matt and Luke as they will be travelling from June 15 – July 3.  Matt has several major roles in planning for the event this year. 

Late breaking news and prayer request:  We were the ones to print the tracts for all those who would be ministering with Sports Impact around South Africa this year.  Matt wrote a tract that is purpose written for the event.  It is way behind schedule as translators and printers did not keep to deadlines.  We did not push hard enough to get the tracts finished very early.  Now the last boat has left and we will have to fly the 40,000 tracts to South Africa.  This is going to cost us thousands of dollars extra.  We are very disappointed, but we fully believe that we should have all 40,000 tracts shipped.  We fear that if we don’t we will run out of tracts to hand out.  The surest way to know we have all the tracts will now cost us an extra $6000AUD or about $5100 US dollars.  We are so sorry to have to bring this to you.  However, WE NEED your prayers!  Please cry out to God with us for this ministry.  Pray that God will move the hearts of people to give to make this ministry THRUST forward.  Gifts can be tax deductible if sent through our Evangelism account at ABWE (11032 – 006).  We need to hear from churches or individuals who can help with this ministry in the next few days (before the evening of June 7th).  It would be a shame to have printed tracts that we can’t use.  Please pray for God’s supply in this!

The winter season is on us in Australia.  We are dealing with the cold and flu season, and Amy has even missed some school.  Matt did finally get a clean bill of health from the doctor last week.  We are all relieved.   Pray that Luke and Matt stay healthy so that they can fly on the 15th. 
In other news, Amy is just hours away from getting off her learner’s permit and getting a driver’s license.  She is a good highway driver from all our travels last year.  Driving around town is still giving us gray hair though.

Thanks again for all your prayers!  They mean more to us than our words could ever express.
 
In His service,
The Douglas Family
ABWE Australia

6 May 2010 AD

We have been up and down recently. Through everything we declare that God is good.

Matt has had the opportunity to preach in several churches. Missionaries understand that when one of us needs a vacation the others will do their part and fill in the vacant pulpit. This really is enjoyable as we get to spend time with different congregations and see how God is blessing in different places. We have also continued helping a church north of Wollongong (about an hour and a half south of central Sydney). The church has a lot of problems and yet great potential.

The work towards the FIFA World Cup is in full swing. We are getting 20,000 tracts printed for local ministry here and for Matt & Luke's ministry in South Africa. This too is a good news / bad news situation. We have received great reviews of the tract and web site (www.SportsImpact.net.au). Matt's part in organizing this event evangelism opportunity has gone very well. He is on top of every area but one. It is great to watch the Lord work. We expect that we will be able to give you some great reports over the next few months. The problem seems to be finances for this ministry. Those whom had committed to supplying this ministry are unable to cover the costs. Many things are paid for, and we praise God for His supply. However we will have the following needs.


* Tract printing - At about 20 cents each we still need about $2000 (covering the printing, binding, and shipping)


* Vehicle rental and gas/diesel in South Africa $3900.


* Follow up materials and postage - estimated $1500 based on the 179 saved in Germany during the 2006 World Cup.

We understand that this sounds like a lot of money. We also understand that on a per-gospel-presentation basis, or going off previous sport event evangelism opportunities results, this is a great opportunity to see good results. Of the ministries we have personally been involved in there has been an average of 223 saved and followed up per event. We know God will supply for the work He wants done. If you want to be a part, just reply and we will tell you how.

Church planting research is moving forward. We have eliminated a couple more suburb possibilities. We are still working at drawing the net. Please continue to pray that God will supply also the Australians that we will be working along side.

In His service,


Matt Douglas & Family

7 April 2010AD

Resurrection Sunday Ministries

We pray your celebration of the Risen Lord was deeply worshipful.  Ours was!  While it was easy to get caught up in the "things to do", God graciously gave us an opportunity to step back and thank the Lord for all He did to make our salvation possible.  Matt had the opportunity to preach from Romans 8.34 on Resurrection Sunday morning. Christ's resurrection is undeniable and His love for us is unquestionable!  Hallelujah and Amen!

We have had a good opportunity to share the good news of salvation with many.  Matt’s ESL classes have a few strong Christians, and a few who still need the Lord.  We have been doing some oral reading at the end of each class from the life of Christ.   While the narrative makes good reading practice, the opportunity to go deeper into the meaning of the text is “golden.”  When Matt presented the Gospel on the Thursday before Resurrection Sunday we were able to review the historical evidence they had read over the last few weeks.  The gospel almost presented itself as Matt simply reviewed the evidence that Jesus was not only God in human flesh, but the perfect sinless sacrifice that God required.  None accepted Christ during class that day. Pray for God’s wisdom and guidance when class resumes.  Matt wants to pick fruit, but wants to have God’s perfect timing so that the fruit will remain.

Barb's Scripture classes are going well.  All of them started at different times during the term, and are different levels (from Kindergarten to 4th grade), so the first term was spent "catching" the classes up with each other so this next term she can start off with most of the classes together on the same lesson.  She had the opportunity to present the gospel in each class before the Easter break.

Upcoming Ministry

Many of you have heard us talk about the upcoming ministry to the FIFA Soccer World Cup. We are excited about how the Lord is building this ministry even now. One of the ways is through a new organization (Sports Impact) that will allow several ABWE mission fields to work together better. Another way is through the development of our own tracts! We are excited about how well these have turned out. Now we just need to raise the money to print them. If you would be interested in helping with the cost of printing the tracts (about $8000) you can do so by a special gift to our Evangelism sub account at ABWE.  The other option is to contact us directly for details on making a non-tax deductible gift.   We need to go to print early in May.  We will print only what we can afford.  We have a deal with a local printer to get them printed at about $0.16 each.  Please pray about helping us with this ministry.

Thanks for all your prayers and support!

In His service,

Matt, Barb, Amy & Luke Douglas

ABWE Australia

21 March 2010 AD

Been a ruff week.  While there were some highlights that were outstanding, our health has really knocked us back.  We thank you for your prayers! 

Last Monday Barb and I spent a good bit of time looking at many of the suburbs that we are considering for the next church plant.  We drove around and spent some time looking to see what was already in the communities.  We enjoyed the time together.  We saw the huge need.  Our hearts yearned as we saw so much spiritual darkness and such a great need for a church to shine God’s light.  While some of the locations were better than others, none were a bad choice.  The prayer we keep praying is that God would show us the best next place, the place God is ready to do a mighty work.  We are not asking for it to be easy, but we also do not want it to be hard because of our poor choices.

Monday was also the day I went to the medical specialist about my digestive tract problem.  He was very concerned about the level of my problem.  This specialist is in the same office as the one I saw in 2007, so he is able to help with a better understanding of my history with the same problem.  He was concerned enough to have me “scoped” with biopsies on Wednesday.  There is no nice way to talk about those procedures.  They can make anyone’s week miserable.   The positive thing that has already come out of it is that the pulps that I had in 2007 are all gone. (Glad I did not undergo surgery then to have them removed, and that God took care of them for me.)  Please continue to pray that God would guide the doctors to a treatment that will completely restore my health.

Most of the rest of the week was spent recovering from Wednesday for me.  I am “coming good” but it takes time.  The thing I hate about taking sick days is the work I do not get done! Ha!

Barb has been enjoying the Scripture classes in the public schools.  She has six different classes.  It seams that God has given her some good classes this year.  Pray for her as she leads up to the importance and impact of Easter.  This is a very big time of the year to share the gospel. 

Matt continues to preach in churches that need help.  The next couple of weeks take us opposite directions on the map, but in a focused direction in the Scriptures.  We love the Easter season and the GREAT news of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.  There are so many opportunities to talk with people about what is eternally important.  “Pray that God would open the door to us to declare the Word, that we would make it manifest as we ought.” Col 4.3

In His service,

Matt Douglas & Family

1 March 2010AD

“The joy of the Lord is my strength!”  That is so much more than just a slogan to me.  I get it.  Without God there is nothing – nothing to live for and nothing worth doing.  When Nehemiah told the people that the “Joy of the Lord is your strength” (8.10) he was getting the people to look to God and be glad.  The reading of the Word of God had left them wanting to weep.  Nehemiah wanted them to have a very different reaction.  Often today we are convicted by the Word when we realise how poorly we reflect God to others.  The joy comes from the fact that God does not leave us in our weeping.  He wants us to get on with life and grow in our relationship with Him.  We praise Him for giving us all we need to accomplish all He wants done.

We had a wonderful Sunday.  We so enjoy working along side God’s people here.  While many times people think of serving on the mission field as a sacrifice, we clearly view it as a privilege and blessing that is not to be missed!  A Sunday morning service in the study of James chapter 1.2-8 led to a wonderful lunch together as a church when people began really expressing a changed view on life with God.  All we can say is “WOW, God is so awesome!”

Sunday evening we were in a different church and we were able to encourage them in unexpected ways as well.  Yes, their fellowship was an encouragement to us also.

Matt learned today that his health problems have not gone away.  While he has become “healthier” the doctor is still very concerned.  Most days are good, and it has rarely slowed him down.  Other days, well, at least at this point the other days are few and far between.  The next doctor appointment is for the 15th of March, when he will go back to the specialist who helped get him through this before (2007).  Pray that Matt will get through this, and be the witness God wants him to be during this trial.

In His service,
Matt & Barb Douglas

25 Feb 2010AD

Colossians 4.2 “Continue earnestly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”

As our prayer supporters we want to give you another update so that you can be both earnest and thankful with us in prayer.  We view your prayer for us as the best gift any person alive could ever give.

On the Ministry front:  We have continued to pursue the next church-planting ministry God would have for us.  We are considering 12 or 13 possibilities with only a couple ruled out so far.  Of course we have our favourites, but we want what God wants more than anything else.  The harder part of church planting, having a pastor to carry on the work after we are finished, is proving to be difficult once again.  While we have ruled a couple of the potential people out, we have not drawn much closer to a solid, willing, and able leader.  Please continue to pray about this with us!

Many of the schools in Australia are undergoing building projects.  The Federal government here has thrown a lot of money at them to build new auditoriums, libraries, and classrooms.  While the investments are good, it has caused many problems.  For instance, the last two churches we have been involved with will lose, or have lost, access to the schools that they use for services on Sundays.  Glorious Hope Baptist Church is already meeting in other rented facilities in the next town over with no idea when they will be allowed to return to the school.  Pray that the church will grow in this transition, and thank God for providing the church with a place to meet now and a future better place at the school.

The other problem with all this is that many schools are in such disarray that they have not yet begun Scripture classes.  Some of the schools where Barb teaches will be three weeks behind before they even begin.  We are most hurt about this because it does not give us much of a lead up to Easter.  This is one of the best times of the year to present the gospel message, and this year we will not have time to lay good groundwork before the Easter presentation is made.  Pray for wisdom, and good soil in God’s harvest field.  Don’t forget to thank God that we even have this great opportunity to be in the public school teaching the scriptures!

Matt’s ESL class for adults is going well.  Of the six students only two are saved.  We have had some interesting discussions during our oral Bible reading section.  Pray that Matt will be a good, helpful teacher on the English side and that the students would hunger to know what the Bible is all about and would grow as we lead up to Easter.  Praise God with us that the students are all willing learners – in English and in spiritual matters.

The family is doing well.  Right now we are all healthy and enjoying the life God has for us here.  Many of the anxieties in life will go away as God shows us his direction for the next church plant.  The children are growing well.  They are maturing in spiritual things as much as they are maturing in life.  This really excites us as parents!

That’s all for now.  Know that we are praying for your church and many of you by name.  We covet the same.

In His service,
Matt, Barb, Amy & Luke Douglas
ABWE Australia

8 Feb 2010 AD

God is so good. We are delighted to be in his service. That would be so hard without you! We appreciate your prayers, concern and support.

We are now fully supported. God has supplied all our needs according to His riches in glory. Hallelujah!

Lots starting to happen here in ministry. I started teaching ESL classes again last week. Most of my class right now are not believers. We pray that will change as the year moves forward.

We have been helping a church that has shrunk to only 3. We are encouraging them to do a "replant". It is a possibility that we could even consider being that replanter. They have buildings and 2 houses all paid for. While the opportunity is great so are the challenges.

We are also continuing to research 13 other possible church plant possibilities. God knows where He wants to do a work. We want to be wise and spiritually discerning so as to be in the best spot to be His vessel.

Barb starts Scripture classes in the public school next week. That has always been a good ministry.

We are getting a lot of work done on a major outreach to the Soccer World Cup. I have been asked to coordinate both the Australian Live Sight outreach and the South African outreach. I have been writing a tract. It's a 16 page book with a good soccer integrated presentation of the gospel. Soon we start getting translators and then printing, and then distribution. I will also handle all the follow up for the people who get saved.

As you can see we "have plenty on our plate" as Australians would say. We love serving the Lord. Pray for these things. Pray also for time management on our part.

We think of you often and pray for your church regularly.

In His service,
Matt & Barb Douglas

25 Jan 2010 AD

God is so good.  His care in our loves is far beyond what we could ever ask, see, or imagine.  We are thrilled to be His servants.

Sorry that we have lost a couple of months of correspondence on the web site.  We have been in touch with our supporting churches, but not all emails get posted to the web page.

Christmas was great!  We were so happy to be back in Australia this year.  While last year’s white Christmas was a treat, we all like it warm!  God was once again good to us through the generous gifts of our supporters to make Christmas a bit extra in the gift department.

New Years Eve saw Barb and Amy fly to Orlando Florida for Amy to have a “career introduction” competition into the Christian acting profession.  She would like to be in Christian films as well as regular TV adds.  It is a great way to pay the college bills if you can get the work. J  She did well as she brought back a trophy for being in the top 4 in the competition (573 total contestants) for her age and category.  Both ladies returned with a bad cold.  Now we will see if she can get some work.

January is a slow month in many ways in Australia.  Everyone takes the summer off.  It can be a hard time to get with people you need to meet.  We have kept busy in the ministry and are seeing God’s blessing.  We continue our church planting research.  We are trying to spend time in the places on our list.  We are very observant, and deeply in prayer as we ask God to show us what steps to take next.

Matt has taken a preaching rotation in a former ABWE church plant that has fallen on hard times.  That gives him an opportunity to continue to deliver the Word of God and stay sharp.  He will be preaching through Romans.  There is plenty of “room” in our schedule for this important ministry and it will keep other churches from expecting us to be part of their ministries.  We want to be ready to move into the church planting opportunities as soon as the Lord opens the door.

We have enjoyed having our “boss” from ABWE here over the last week.  We have been able to get with him for both ministry opportunities and fun. (He is a keen golfer, and loves a good restaurant.)  We have been talking through things with him as we look ahead at 2010 and beyond.  It is also nice to know what is happening in the head office (since we did not get there at all during furlough.) 

Lastly, thanks all who were praying about Matt’s health.  It was nothing to be alarmed about, but it was important to get my extremely high helicobacter count in check.  The meds make you very sick, but not undergoing the treatment is worse.  Pray that he can find something to include in his diet that will help keep the problem away longer this time.  We all just had physicals and the docs say we are all healthy in all other ways.  (You can guess which 2 of us need to lose a few pounds. HA!)

In His service,

The Douglas family

Jan 6 2010

Just a quick email update.

I am going fine with my son here in greater Sydney, while Barb and Amy are in Orlando Florida.  We are eating good (I can cook) and keeping busy with times of enjoyment as father and son.  We hear good things from Amy about her auditions.

I go to the funeral of a good Australian friend this morning, Herald Lane.  He has helped in many ways (especially in housing visitors) over the years.  He will be missed, but lived a long full and godly life.

I am currently working on my 2010 years goals.  I am also writing a 16 page booklet to be used as a tract for the Soccer World Cup.  With deadlines for printing, translation, and shipping we have to get things done this month.

Lastly, I was at the doctor yesterday and while I my regular physical was good, I do have a health problem that has come back.  There is a bad bacteria that gives people ulcers.  When tested a count of 20 is "OK" 200 is bad - but I have a count of 1984.  The problem is I am allergic to the drugs that kill the bug.  Last time I had such a "count" I developed 35 intestinal ulcers and was very sick for about 6 months.  This time we caught things "early" and hopefully we will not go down so low.  Please pray with us.

In His service,
Matt Douglas

1 Jan 2010AD

Sydney has the best new years celebrations! We pray that God will give you a great, prosperous, and spiritually fulfilling new year!

The Douglas family

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25 November 2009 AD

An update is long overdue.  When a missionary returns to the field from a furlough there are so many things to do that often important things stay at the top of a “to do” list without getting done.  We know that the prayer support goes way up when we communicate.  This is the week of Thanksgiving in the USA and is a perfect time to ask you to praise & thank God with us.

We have moved back into our home and unpacked most boxes.  “Home” feels real good after traveling over 45,000 miles plus flights this year.  As we would expect there are some things that have gone very well and other things that have been expensive and time consuming. We still have boxes unpacked sitting around in the living room.  We also have yet to finish unpacking the garage.  We will get there.  Every day we get more and more tired of seeing how much is left and that motivates us all the more to get it done.  We are thanking God for wisdom in the many decisions and even grace to accomplish some things unbelievably quickly.

We are still waiting to hear from one more church that is considering joining our support team and one church that will be raising us.  We are confident of God's supply. Just this week we were notified of another church that has now voted and is supporting us!

Ministry is moving forward here.  We are spending a lot of time talking with people with a cup of coffee in hand.  We are talking with people who may be interested in helping, being part, or know of people who are interested.  We enjoy even these parts of the ministry.  However, we look longingly forward to a consistent local church-planting ministry.

We do thank God for your prayers.  As we do the research and try to form a team of willing and qualified people, we know how dependent we are on God's direction.  It is essential!  We are thankful that the Lord promises wisdom to those who ask Him for it.

Spring weather here has been up and down (105 one day with a top of 70 the next).  Spring can be like that here.  The flowers are in full bloom, and the garden is growing well. Every morning at breakfast our children are counting down the days left in this year of school.  Barb and I are not sure we are ready to have them with us 24/7 again after a full year of that but...    We love our kids and thank God for them.

In His service,
Matt & Barb Douglas & kids

**************************************************************

We have minimum support

Oct 25 2009

G'day!

It has been a good week. We now have full support (with a $7.50 margin)! We are praising God for all His wonderful works and great love for His people.
I will be declared First Baptist Church in Windsor CA our sending church this morning (Sunday Oct 25). We really feel that this would be good for the church and good for us.

It is my hopes that I can be traveling back to Australia at the end of this week.  I have a standby ticket for Thursday night. Pray that God gives me the strength to get everything done, finished, shipped and all goodbyes said.

Thanks so much for your prayers!!!

In His service,
Matt Douglas

ABWE Australia

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