Dear praying friends,

We wanted to thank everyone for their prayers. Over the last 2 years, issues have been brewing at the location Gateway hires for its services. During that time, one of the rooms that we use for 2 Sunday school classes has slowly become a room to store the state schools (for lack of better word) junk. This has made Sunday school increasingly harder as time has passed; however, because of the cheap rent, we have found ways to deal with it.

In June, we received a letter informing us that our rent for these facilities would be doubling! As we began to look around, we could not find any other place suitable to hire for our church to move. After much prayer, I approach our local university (CHARLES DARWIN University). After a bit of paperwork, we were approved to hire their facilities for our church services. The cost was only about 100 more than the old place but with much nicer facilities, 24 hour security, and many rooms and eventually a 75 seat auditorium to hire as we grow. After presenting this opportunity to the church, they asked me to look into how much it would cost to move (ie new signs, advertising, new tracts, flyers, a projector, and a few other expenses). When I gathered the prices, I was a bit surprised to find that it would cost around $6,000 ($4,900 US) dollars.

I prayed much about it and presented it to our church. To be honest, I told them it didn't seem a possibility. Our church prayed about it for a few weeks. One of the men of our church came to me and asked how much we had in our building fund. I told him that we have roughly $24,000; however, about 17,000 of that was recently given by a church expressly to put toward a building of our own. The man said, "Why don't we take a step of faith and take the $6,000 out of the part of the building fund that our church has given?" This is exactly what our church voted to do.

On the 26th of July 2009, we held our first services at Charles Darwin University. In the very first day of services, we had 7 first time visitors! We are planing a big launch service on the 30th of August. This will give us time to get adjusted to new facilities. We are also planning on getting a booth at a local Friday night market the 2 Friday before the 30th to invite people to the launch service. We have also decided to use this event as a large outreach. Our church is in a city of over 75 nationalities. Many come from Southeast Asia and are curious as to what Christians are all about and believe. On Sunday night the 30th of August, we are starting a 6 week course eplaining what Christianity is all about and a kids club which will do the same.

Our people are getting excited about this outreach. So far, 3 men have volunteered to man the booth at the markets. I have been told that 2-8 people have already been signed up to attend the 6 week course! Once we have new tracts designed, several people have asked if they could help give them out around town. Please pray for our church during these times of a large exercise of faith. It is amazing to see our people be willing to invest so much money and effort into trying to reach out to our community and provide a nice place for them to come to church.

Again, thank you for your continued prayer support. I will keep you posted.

Expecting great things from God,
Pastor Joe Marshall

Well, it has been 2 weeks since we made the move to CDU.  We stand amazed at what God has done!  Since the move, we have had 20 visitors, 2 to 3 families have arrived early to help get things set up, and an outreach activity for the first time has been completely arranged by someone in the church other than the pastor!  God is doing great things.

In the previous post, I mentioned some outreach activities.  I am happy to report that we have been approved to have a table at the local Friday night markets on the 22nd and 29th of August.  We have be told in no uncertain terms that we are not permitted to leave our table to give out information; however, we have free rain to give out any information (including Gospel tracts) to anyone who comes to or by our table!  With this in mind, I have started learning how to make balloon animals with the hopes of using this to attract more people to our booth where we can give out ïnformation.  Please continue to pray for this outreach activity.

With these exciting times, one is quickly reminded that Satan can not be to happy with what is taking place.  Please continue to pray for our church and the wonderful spirit of unity to continue. 

Still Expecting Great Things From God,

Pastor Joe