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 For
the past four months PLAIN TALK has been edited by Joe Fitch;
and articles by Dan Shipley and Jim Everett have filled those
pages vacated by my trip to Australia. I join with the readers
who express appreciation for the great job done by all three,
and gladly make public my invitation to these men to continue
their work in PLAIN TALK. In the future articles other than my
own will bear appropriate identification.
PLAIN
TALK format is poorly suited to narrative reports concerning the
work in Australia, so I will confine articles here to editorial
type observations and illustrative material, and offer more
detailed accounts to other publications. However, a few
statistics are in order here, with special concern for those who
may be planning such a trip.
Travel
expenses totaled $1,577.59 and lodging, food, etc., within
Australia totaled $318.22. (I should warn you that I am the
economy type, and some preparation expenses are not yet in.) I
received $460.97 from the Australians, and the remainder of my
support from Oaks—West church, and unsolicited gifts. All U.S.
donors have been sent a full financial report, and $72.41
returned to travel fund donors.
I‘m
thankful to God for a safe trip, and of
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course, the most
interesting preaching experience of my life. This is true, not for
any particular event (although the baptisms in Melbourne and
Tasmania were truly memorable) but for the utter littleness I
felt when the Australian — and the WORLD — picture began to
sink in. It is such a BIG world, when viewed as people, in need
of the gospel; yet so accessible with our modern means of
transportation. Twenty-two hours from San Antonio, Texas there
is a big, “new” world, with English-speaking people, many of
whom will listen to the gospel story.
Capable,
experienced men could, in the next five years, reshape the
history of the cause of Christ there — NOT "Americanize”
it, but assist the sound conservative brethren there to stand
firmly against liberal influences that are being heaped upon
them and to build Australian churches that accept Christ as
their Head. Our excuses shrink, and our obligations grow — and
“who will answer?”
Two
days at Rocky Roost, and now Vivian and I are in Tucson, Ariz.
for the fourth of five western meetings. Next to Lubbock, Tex.,
then to Nashville, Term., Decatur, Ga., Birmingham, Ala., and
so, on and on. RFT
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