Well, I'd like to thank the Reverend McClung for those words of welcome, for the opportunity to come and to be with you today and to share with you something of the Lord's leading in my life and of the work that I'm looking to go and labor in in South Australia. There are a few slides on this side of the wall, so some of you maybe can't see that where you're sitting, but I trust I'll be able to explain well enough that you'll be able to follow what we're saying. Why is it that I'm standing here before you looking to head off to South Australia shortly. And I say shortly, it is shortly. It's only about four weeks away from now, the 4th of May. We'll be going in the will of the Lord. Well, if you'd asked me about the work this time last year, I would have been very surprised by that prospect. I went into the Bible college feeling the call of the Lord to the gospel ministry and feeling probably the Lord's direction towards a pulpit ministry of some sort. But I left really the whole matter as to where open to the Lord's leading. I don't want to be anywhere where the Lord doesn't want me to be. And so I'd always taken that approach right through college, where the Lord will lead me. I'm happy to go. And I haven't closed any doors. And yet, as I look around me going through the years of college, I suppose I had begun to assume that probably I would end up somewhere on this side of the world, given that we look around in our own country here and there are so many pulpits that are vacant. and even into the mainland as well and the Isle of Man. And so you see plenty of need here. We're very aware of the need that there is all around us. It's easy to see it. And I assumed then that probably I would end up somewhere this side of the world. Well, it was around that last May time when the Lord began to deal with me regarding the work in South Australia. That began through a phone call from the Reverend Harris, who called to ask me about the work. And at that stage, he was setting before me the work. Even asking would I be willing to pray about going for a short period of time, something like even a few months or six months, anything that I was willing to offer of that nature. He was conscious at that time that one of our licentiates, Andrew Fitton, who was out there, was going to be coming home in September. Now he is home and therefore there would be a need for those pulpits to be filled. And really he was asking would I be willing to do that even for a short period of time and that would help out the mission board as they sought something a bit more permanent. Well we left it there and I began to pray about the matter and very quickly the Lord very deeply impressed those works upon my heart. Particularly in doing so, the Lord used the words of the Great Commission in Matthew 28 and particularly in verse 19 when Christ speaks to his people and he says, Those words came as a real reminder to me. Christ speaks and he speaks of all nations. And it served to remind me and impress upon my heart that in the mind of Christ, There is deep care for his church in all parts of this world. Northern Ireland is not the centre of the church for Christ. This is not the only place that the Lord cares about. He does deeply care about his church in this part of the world. We're thankful for that. But he also cares deeply about his church in other places. He tells us to go and teach all nations. And the Lord wants a people in all nations. And we have two congregations out there in South Australia. They are fairly small in number. But they are the Lord's people. They're his church. And he cares just as deeply about those people as he cares about any gathering of his people here on this side of the world. And so the Lord was using this passage particularly to emphasize in my mind the need to be willing and open to go and to labor there and to be a pastor onto those people for the Lord. Additional to that, we came in our family devotional time to the words that are spoken to Esther. Perhaps the best known words spoken to her. When it's said to her, Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? And if you're familiar with that account, the Lord has providentially raised up Esther and positioned her just where she needs to be as the queen in that nation. So that now in a day of trouble, when a work needs to be done for the Lord, when a word needs to be spoken so that the people of God are going to be spared, Esther is just where she needs to be. The Lord has brought her there and now she's being told, here's the task, go and do it. And it seemed very much to us that there was the parallel there. The Lord had providentially undertaken. He had been faithful in every way, providing every need, brought us through the college more or less. Now he has. And it seemed here was the door being opened for us, an opportunity to serve, a task being set in our sights. And the Lord was coming to us and saying, here's the task. Go, go and do it. Go and do it. And so ultimately, we came back to the mission board. We expressed a desire to be there for a little bit longer. And we ended up arriving at the period of three years because that is a regular missionary term on the field. That's how things are standing. We've committed to being there for three years. In terms of the Lord's will and the confirmation of the Lord's will. We were relying on the circumstances to permit it. Obviously, we needed a visa to go to Australia. And I suppose if the visa hadn't come through, there would be no opportunity to go. And that was a real test of the Lord's will in this matter. But we're thankful that the visa did come through. It came through very quickly, actually. It was told to me originally that it could take something like nine months for the visa to come. It's divided into three stages. And each stage, I was told, could be three months. Well, the first stage was sent off, and instead of taking three months, that bit took three weeks. So that greatly sped the process along. Then the second stage was sent off, and we were again told three months is what we're expecting here. And a week after it was sent in, there was a response to say that they had received that visa application. That's when you start your watch. That's when you say they've got it. Now we'll wait and see what happens. Well, later that same day, word came back that that stage had been approved as well. So we're very thankful to the Lord for that. And the final stage came through at the start of February as well. So the process took about half the time that we had been expecting. Initially, we thought it might be maybe much later in the summer that we would get out there. As things stand, that has been advanced to May. And we're very thankful to the Lord for that. And providence is good, too, in that the Reverend Patrick Baker has been out there recently filling in in the churches, but he will be due to come home any time now and it means that there's not too long of a gap until we're able to get out there and labour for the Lord. As they say, we're leaving on the 4th of May, sending forth service on the 2nd in Lisburn and then we'll be off to labour there. In terms of the church in Australia, If you can see it, the map on the screen there shows you, marked on it, the congregations that we do have in South Australia. On the left-hand side of the screen there in Western Australia is our congregation in Perth, where the Reverend Philip Gardner is laboring. Then the little island on the southeast coast of Australia, that's Tasmania, where the Reverend Ralph Hall is laboring. And then, if you can see that star more in the middle of the map, that represents the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia and two congregations that we have there. one in Port Lincoln, and then one a little bit further up in Lough. And in those two congregations, that is where we will be going shortly in the Lord's will. Australia, as a country, is a very secular country. In many ways, it is turned away from religion, all sorts of religion, and then more importantly, from true religion, that which would declare the gospel of Christ and the means of salvation from sin. In the 2011 census, which was the one I could get my hands on, most recent one, only about 59% of people, nearly 60%, only that number even claim to be Christian. And you'll know in a census form that claiming to be Christian just means that you're identifying yourself loosely with a church or some sort of viewpoint. Only 60% even take that stand. 40% of people aren't even willing to go as far as that. Look at it in terms of church attendance. It's estimated that only just under 5% of people actually attend a church on a regular basis. That's once a month perhaps. And I should say as well that under that number, church there includes a wide variety of things. That includes many of the cults, and it includes the Roman Catholic Church as well. So a very small number attending in places of religion of any sort, and then a very small number in places where the gospel is preached. I suppose a large part of that, in my mind, is due to the departure from the gospel that there is in many of those churches, in the mainstream churches in Australia. At the end of the day, when a church departs from the gospel, when we no longer have the message of salvation through Christ alone, well, really there's no point in our existence. And in many of the mainstream churches in Australia, that is the case. They have departed on to other things, got involved in other topics. An example of that would be the Uniting Church, which is one of the big churches over there, one of the largest in the area that we will be in. It's a church that at its core is ecumenism, the idea of coming together, and often at the expense of doctrine and true religion, the preaching of Christ. It's a denomination that would emphasize social justice very much, which is good in its place, but where you're not going to hear a lot of the gospel, that denomination would I suppose, be one that would adapt to culture at the expense of scripture quite regularly. They have ordained women as ministers. They have ordained ministers who openly live in very immoral relationships. And I'll say no more than that. And that's fine by that denomination. So that gives you a flavor of some of the supposed Christianity that there is in the country. And I would suggest that much of that has turned people away from religion. And how important to go to a place like this, where the gospel is not largely no one. How important to go to such a place. People, remember we're not just dealing with statistics, I've given you some statistics, but we're not dealing with statistics, we're dealing with souls. Men and women, boys and girls who will live and die and go into eternity. How important to go to such people and to declare the true message of salvation. One of the big issues that I will be facing, I suppose, as we go has to do with distance. There will be quite a lot of driving. For those of you who can see it, there's a sign on the screen that says, for the next 92 kilometers, you have to watch out for camels and kangaroos and wombats. And there will be a fair bit of driving along the roads over there. We have to balance up the work between two different congregations. And it's not as simple as two congregations that are 10 or 15 minutes apart. There's quite some distance between them. Port Lincoln is on the south coast of the Eyre Peninsula by the water, but then about 90 miles or so further north you have Lough. And these are the two places that I will be labouring in. For those of you who can see the screen, you'll maybe recognise the shape of that map that I've put over the top of the map of Australia, or the map of the Eyre Peninsula. It's the map of Northern Ireland, and just above it you can fit in Lough, and just below you can fit in Port Lincoln. So that gives you something of the scale there. It maybe helps you see it a bit more than just the bare numbers. There is a fair drive to be done and on a Sabbath day, we will, at least the way it has been done, we would be preaching in Port Lincoln in the morning. After that service, you're getting in the car, you're driving up to Lough and then preaching an afternoon meeting for them. At that stage, they've already had a morning meeting where they rely on sermon audio. After that afternoon meeting, you're getting back in the car, you're driving back to Port Lincoln and you're there just in time for the evening meeting. So it is a busy day and you could pray for us as we would look to labour at that, that the Lord would even undertake with tiredness and so on on the Sabbath day with the driving and preaching as well, which does take a lot of energy out of you too. This is Lloyd Glover on the screen. He would be one of the elders that are there in the two churches. He is the elder, the only elder that they have in the Port Lincoln congregation. The work had its beginnings back in 1968, when believers came out from their various congregations round about. Their history is very similar to our own history in many ways. They needed to cut ties with many errors that were creeping in. Congregations were taking part in the World Council of Churches, and that was introducing many errors and many compromises into the gospel stand, and therefore they felt the need to come apart. There were other errors such as the use of modern versions and some other things too. And so believers from various congregations were separating themselves onto Christ and they came together back in 1968 and they formed a little independent work called the Air Bible Fellowship. And it was a day of small things. They had no building of their own. They met in the homes of believers and they had no minister of their own. So week after week, they were gathering for their services. And yes, they could sing together, they could pray together. But when it came to the ministering of the word, the preaching of the gospel, they had to rely very much on tape cassettes. And week after week, they're coming, they're gathering together. And for the preaching, they're putting in the tape cassette. May I know that that is still the word of God that was preached through the tape cassette, a recorded sermon that had been preached previously. It's still the word of God being declared to them. Still profitable. But I imagine it would be a hard thing, a very hard thing, for any of us to week after week gather together and there's no minister in the pulpit, no regular minister, and not even a visiting preacher on most occasions. You're just putting in the tape cassette or the CD if you want to update the terms and you're listening to that. It would be a hard thing. I think that shows you something of the faithfulness of those people. They saw the importance of separating from error And they were willing to do it even though the cost was high, even though it was going to be difficult. Even though they probably wondered what would the future hold, what were the prospects when they didn't have a minister even, when they didn't have a building, what could be done? Yet they knew the importance of being faithful to the Lord and they were willing to do it regardless of the cost. As I say, this is Lloyd Glover. He came out from one of the congregations at that time. He was originally of a Methodist background. He left with his wife and family and soon were visited by one of the elders in that work. And in discussion with that elder who was trying to really bring them back into the fold there, ultimately that elder in the conversation denied such a doctrine as the virgin birth of Christ, said it didn't really matter whether Christ was born of a virgin or not. Lloyd put the question to him as well, a very blunt question maybe. Maybe it's one that would be good for you and me to be asked every so often to keep us on our toes. But he asked him outright, do you read your Bible? Do you pray? And that elder, a leader in that That Methodist work had to confess that no, throughout the week he didn't read his Bible, he didn't pray, just at the Sabbath services. Rather than bring Lloyd back into the fold, it just emphasized in his mind all the more the importance to be separated onto the Lord. This man on the screen is Trevor Spears. He would be the only elder that they have in the lock congregation. So between the two congregations, they have two elders, one in each place. And I would ask you particularly to pray for those men. Ideally, we would have a plurality of elders, a multitude of elders, and that keeps us right. We shave the rough edges off each other. And in the multitude of counsellors, there is wisdom. Well, that would be the ideal. That's not what they have currently. And so I just ask you to pray for those men, as a lot of responsibility falls upon their shoulders in each of their respective congregations, that the Lord would give them wisdom. And even that the Lord would undertake with regard to their health, for it would change things, the dynamic of things, if there was something to happen. in regard to their health. This is the congregation in Port Lincoln on the screen. You'll notice that there are a good number of young people, a good mixture of people really we should say. It's a healthy balance in the church which is an encouraging thing. There would be about 30 or so in the congregation on a regular basis and the Lord has raised those people up for himself. They are many of them his people remember. We're not looking at a pet project here of our church out in some other part of the world. We're looking at brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow servants of the Lord, those whom we are united with in the Savior. So there are a gathering of the Lord's people for himself. This is Port Lincoln itself. Port Lincoln is a city. It's a small city, but it is a city in its own right. Population of about 14,000 or so. It's on the coast and therefore a lot of the industry is based around the water. They rely very much on fishing. It's known as the seafood capital of Australia and even the leisure activities are sometimes geared that way. You can go swimming with the tuna or diving with the sharks out there if you're interested in that. There is plenty of work, therefore, that can be done around Port Lincoln. Plenty of homes that can be visited, doors that can be knocked, and works that can be done. It's a populated enough area. But as you think of Port Lincoln, and then you want to turn your attention to Locke, you really just think of the exact opposite. Locke is a very small place, a remote place. It has a population of about 400, 450 people maybe. It's got about 60 homes within it. And that's lock. If you could see the picture there, you're maybe looking at it thinking, there's not much on that picture. Could you not have got us a better picture of lock? We can't see very much there. Well, from what I'm told, that really is lock. That's about it. You've got what you see on the screen there, maybe one petrol pump. That's about it. So it's a small place. And outside of Lough, it's not as if they're five minutes down the road from a big town where there's more people. It's very remote farms. You could be going down the road and you'll see a farmer's lane and you'll drive down that lane for maybe five miles or six miles before you get to the house. So these are very remote farms, very large farms. It's a much bigger scale than what we are used to here. And that in itself does propose challenges and difficulties. And you would look at this small, isolated place and you'd say, humanly speaking, not for the Lord, you'd say, why would we have a church there? Where are we going to get the people from? How can it be done? And yet the Lord has raised up a people for himself. There's currently a congregation of about 20 in attendance there at Locke, which actually has been very encouraging because in recent times, even as recently as a few years ago, numbers were down much lower than that. And the Lord has blessed and there are more in attendance currently. And we're very thankful for that. One of the big works that I'd ask you to pray for in the Lough congregation is to do with the fact that they are so isolated. In Port Lincoln, you can go and knock doors and there's plenty of things you can do to look to reach out and be a witness in the area and plenty of people that you'll meet. In Lough, you don't have that blessing. And so the challenge comes for the congregation there. How do we reach out to the surrounding area? And in order to do it, at least to try and address the problem, one of the men in the church bought a printing press from a school that was closing down quite some time ago and they put it to tremendous use. They print a regular gospel bulletin and if you can see the screen there, that's why there's a table there full of gospel literature on the right hand side. They print a regular gospel bulletin and they use the post service to send that right around the homes in the whole area. If you would think about it, you're driving down different lanes if you're trying to speak to all the individual people and you could be driving for five miles down a lane and going slow perhaps if the roads aren't good, you get to the door and he's not there and you're coming back up the lane again and you're going to the next one and you could be driving all day and finding it hard to get anywhere. Here's the Word of God in a gospel bulletin regularly going into all the homes in that surrounding area. And I would ask you to pray for that, that the Lord would be pleased to use that even in the saving of souls. That's the gospel of Christ going into homes. This is the tool that the Lord uses. So let's pray that the Lord would be pleased to save even by that means and to bring contacts to us in the church there in Lough. I put this picture up to show you some of the work amongst the young people and the youth in the churches. This is a picture taken from the 20th anniversary of the Iwana Club just recently, or just this past year. And there are a good number of people in that picture who at one time or another have been connected with the Iwana Club and have been taught from childhood the gospel. And remember, we're dealing with a country here where the gospel is largely not known. So here's a people, and some of them not in attendance anymore, but yet they have been taught the gospel. They're left without excuse, and the Lord is still able to take what has been sown and to bring forth fruit onto his name. There have been encouragements amongst some of the older young people in the congregations. In the past year, when Andrew Fitton was out there, he held discipleship classes. And as one of the topics that they dealt with in those classes they touched on the matter of prayer. And when they dealt with that, the Lord impressed that need for prayer upon the hearts of the young people. So much so that particularly in Lough, the prayer meeting of the church more than doubled in size. Not because they had a big influx of new people, but because the young people that they had saw the importance of prayer and started to come into the prayer meeting. And that's been a tremendous encouragement. And not only were they coming in, but they were taking part in prayer. And that has been a thrill to the people there within the congregation. And I would encourage any young people here, be involved in the prayer meeting. I remember when I started praying in the Lisbon prayer meeting, my home church, I was nervous. I was thinking, what will people be thinking of my prayers? And I find that, you know, it just is a tremendous encouragement to the people of God when your young people start to pray. People are thrilled by it. They're glad to see you going on with the Lord and willing to take part in the place of prayer. So I would encourage the young people even here, be involved in the place of prayer. And that has been a tremendous encouragement over there. The last thing I'll just leave you with really is the website of our mission board for missionaries, fpcmission.org. If you can't remember that, it's on the prayer cards if you get one of them. If you look at that website, if you're able to use the Internet, You're able to keep up to date with all of the prayer requests from our missionaries in the prayer section. And you can see specific needs that will be put up there. And it means when you're praying for the missionaries, for myself or others, you don't have to just say, Lord, bless Margaret Russell and bless Noreen McAfee, bless Joanne Greer, bless Kyle Graham and leave it there. You're able to see the specific need, we'll put up prayer requests at different times and you can see what needs to be prayed for and you can pray with a little bit of information and pray specifically and that would be a tremendous asset if you're able to make use of it. Additionally, if you're interested, you can look at the missionary section on that website, find my name, if you put your email address in, Whenever I write a slightly more detailed prayer letter, then that will be straight to you and you can remember us at the throne of grace. I'm conscious that as we would look to go and serve the Lord, the work needs to be bigger than just the Graham family off in Australia. It needs the people of God at home to be laboring with us in prayer. So thank you for the opportunity to set those things before you and for your attention. And I'll hand back over to the Reverend McClung.