MINISTRY IN BRISBANE

Praise the Lord for the 10^th Anniversary Thanksgiving of the Brisbane Bible-Presbyterian Church and the 3^rd Anniversary Thanksgiving of the Vietnamese Bible-Presbyterian Church in Brisbane, Australia. The two Churches together had a special weekend of worship and fellowship from 10^th to 12^th March 2017. The Pastor—Rev Nguyen Gia Hien—is an MDiv and ThM graduate of FEBC. I was invited to be the anniversary speaker. Jemima came with me and played the piano for all the meetings. Ben Lim also came to help as photographer and set up the church website. We also had Edward and Siew Ling who flew over to rejoice with the brethren.

The celebrations started off with a thanksgiving fellowship dinner on Friday night, March 10 at a restaurant downtown. I was pleased to meet with Elder Andrew Le Breton for the first time. Elder Andrew is from the Inala Christian Reformed Church which has kindly allowed the Vietnamese BPC to use its premises for their Lord’s Day worship. The Brisbane BPC rents a hall from the St John’s Presbyterian Church in Annerley. Elder Andrew has also been attending Brisbane BPC and assisting in its monthly gospel meetings—Elder Andrew would read Rev Hien’s gospel message in English and Rev Hien would preach it in Vietnamese. I presented to him a copy of FEBC’s Theology for Every Christian. May the Lord bless and use him.

A Bible Seminar on the Signs of the 2^nd Coming of Christ (Matt 24:3–33) was held on Saturday. I highlighted three main signs that tell us the Lord is coming back very soon: (1) False Christianity and apostasy as predicted in Matthew 24:4, 11, 24, (2) Worldwide missions and evangelism (Matt 24:14), and (3) the nation of Israel and its return to the promised land (Matt 24:32 cf Isa 11:11–12). There was a time of Q&A at the end.

On the Lord’s Day, at the Vietnamese service, I preached on “Are You Ready for Christ’s 2^nd Coming?” The text was Matthew 25:1–13—the parable of the 10 virgins. To be ready we must be BA (Born Again). Those who are BA love the Lord and His Word and would work hard to be fruitful for the Lord and His kingdom in their life. False believers on the other hand have no oil in their lamps, they have no Holy Spirit and no spiritual life within them. Jesus said, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matt 24:13). False believers will not endure to the end. Their oil will run dry and their lamps are snuffed out along the way.

At the Brisbane BPC English service, I continued with Matthew 25:14–30, “Are You Living for Christ’s 2^nd Coming?” The parable of the talents tells us that we should keep ourselves busy in the Lord’s service until He comes. That means being good and godly stewards of God’s gifts to us. We ought to use the spiritual gifts, natural talents, time, money, property, health and strength God has given us for His glory and holy purpose. We long to hear the Lord say to us when He returns, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt 25:21). I am pleased to report that True Life BPC exercised good stewardship by sponsoring 50 copies of Rev Timothy Tow’s Coming World Events Unveiled and 10 copies of Theology for Every Christian which were freely given out.

Both the Brisbane and Vietnamese BPCs are united doctrinally and growing spiritually. Their number may be small, but they are big in terms of their faith. We are heartened by a couple of young families—Minh and Selina with two young children Vera and Josiah, and Ivan and Jesslyn with their little daughter Bethany. We pray these young ones will grow up to fear the Lord Jesus and believe on Him. We congratulate Michael Benjamin and Diana who will be married on March 25^th by Rev Hien. All are actively serving in the Church. Minh is Secretary and Michael serves as Treasurer. Ivan is the son of Elder Choe of Calvary Jaya and he opens his home for Bible Study.

Michael Low, a dear brother from Melbourne, joined us for the weekend of celebrations. I knew him from six years ago when he was in Brisbane. While we were having coffee at the Westfield Shopping Mall, an Aussie with a tattoo of the Star of David on his arm suddenly came up to us and struck a conversation. Michael offered him a cup of coffee. He readily accepted and sat with us. I asked him about his tattoo and he said his father was a Jew. I then asked him who he thought was the most powerful Jew. He thought for a while but could not come up with a name. I then said, “It is the Lord Jesus Christ who died for your sins and rose from the dead and He is powerful to save you from your sins and give you eternal life if you will believe in Him.” We left him with a cup of latte and food for thought.

We thank Rev Hien and his wife Trang for their kind hospitality and putting us up in their home. They have two children—Hahn and Timothy. Hahn is in her final year in
the University of Queensland studying radiotherapy, and Timothy is in Secondary School at Brisbane Christian College.

After the weekend of ministry, Jemima and I took a couple of days off to visit the nearby Springbrook National Park and Hope Island. We departed Brisbane on Wednesday afternoon flying SQ and arrived home that night. Eileen and Mrs Tow were at the airport with the church van. We thank the Lord for journey mercies. JK

Brisbane Bible-Presbyterian Church, 10^th Anniversary Thanksgiving, 12 March 2017