December Update

G’day Praying Partners,

Thank you for your continued prayers on our behalf. We hope that you had a blessed Thanksgiving, taking time to be thankful with all your friends and family. Since we don’t have an “official” thanksgiving celebration here, we just pick a day and celebrate! This past Saturday we had a dozen friends around the table, taking time to share the things God is doing in our lives.

It has been an incredibly busy couple of months – as you can tell from the fact that you haven’t heard from us in a while! We had our church family camp not long after we returned to Australia. All of our church families were able to attend – for which we are very grateful! Rob was able to conduct a baptism at the beach while we were at camp. It was an incredible blessing to be in God’s creation listening to someone share how God had saved them! It was a bit cold on the day, but we were all SO blessed to be a part of the baptism celebration!

On Sunday, December 17, we will be having our Carols by Candlelight service. Please be in prayer for the unsaved people that will attend. Pray that our church family will be faithful to invite friends and family along to hear the true Christmas story!

Jackie had a Christmas Tea/Cookie exchange for the ladies this past Saturday. It’s the first time she’s attempted a cookie exchange in Australia – and it was a BIG hit! You can see pictures of the delicious results on our blog! We are also planning on having a big Christmas Eve service – usually we do it on Christmas day but since it’s on Monday we decided to just celebrate on Sunday. Rob had a phone call yesterday from a woman looking for a Christmas service to bring a couple of Muslim children to – not sure of the details but we invited her to the Carols and Christmas Eve service. This is such a great time of year to naturally share the gospel message. Pray that we would be faithful now – and all year! – to proclaim it!

School is almost out and summer is upon is. That will mean a break from our school ministry. We are so thankful for the opportunities God gives us there! Things take a bit of a break in January – we will use the time to plan for 2018. Can you believe it is almost upon us?!

Praying that you each have a blessed Christmas this year. Our “stockings” are full of God’s blessings in 2017! We are especially thankful for each of you. May you each use this special time of year to share with a dark world the light of the Christmas story! "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." 2 Cor. 9:15

Shining the Light Down Under,

Rob and Jackie

September Update

G’day Praying Partners,

Thank you so much for your prayers for our mini show! It was a good day and filled with blessings. For us, it was a blessing to see 100% of our church stay to help out at the outreach – that is always an encouragement! It was a busy weekend as we set up most of the games the day before, then took about 2 hours after church to put the finishing touches on. We had over 50 kids plus over 20 parents attend. Rob gave the gospel presentation using a paper snowflake we put in each child’s bag. It was a winter themed show so he used the uniqueness of a snowflake to share about the one thing that we all have in common – sin. The kids had so much fun and the parents were appreciative of all the effort we put into the day. It could get discouraging to do these outreaches year after year and seemingly see no fruit for our labor – but what a beautiful reminder that we are sowing hundreds of seeds that God will use in the lives of these young people – and their parents. Continue to pray with us that God would use the truth of His Word to shine the Light into these precious lives. I have put some pictures on our blog of you’d like to see them: ernstfamilydownunder.blogspot.com.

It’s taken me a bit of time to get this out because we are on a bit of a working holiday. We decided to take some time to celebrate Rob’s birthday with family and visit some of our supporting churches at the same time. We would appreciate prayers for travel – and as we return to Australia on October 17. It has been an incredible blessing to see our family and especially the grandkids.

Thank you for your continued prayer support. We see God moving in the hearts of our church family and are so blessed to be a part of what He is doing. Somebody asked me the other day if it just seems common to be in Australia and I shared that every day that I’m out and about and see a kangaroo, I just marvel that God allows us to serve Him in this beautiful country. We are truly blessed! Your support of our ministry – financially and prayerfully – isn’t taken for granted. It’s a team effort and we are so thrilled to have you as part of the team!

Shining the Light Down Under,

Rob and Jackie

July Update

G’day Praying Partners:

I can’t believe that it’s been 3 months since my last update! I truly don’t know where the time has gone. We do apologise to those of you who are praying faithfully and wondering just what has been happening!

As you may remember, we had lots of visitors with us in the month of June! My sister and niece arrived about an hour later than a childhood friend and her nephew to the Melbourne airport. It was SO exciting to have family and friends come for their first visit to Australia! Deanna and Colton (friend and nephew) were here for almost a week, my sister, Kim, for 3 weeks and my niece, Cassidy, is still here with us! As you can imagine, it’s been an extremely busy – but fun – time! We were able to show them around this beautiful area of Victoria. The weather was good for this time of year and we were SO thankful for the time spent together. There are some pictures on the blog if you want to see them: ernstfamilydownunder.blogspot.com. Combined with the visitors we had in March, it’s been a great year of blessing for us! God has been so good to encourage us in this way.

In other praises, this past Sunday we had our 10^th anniversary celebration at Cornerstone Baptist! It’s so hard to believe that 10 years ago God began this work with 13 people in our home. It was such a blessing to look back on all that God has done – and be challenged to look forward to what God will do in the future! I shared with our church family that when God called us to Australia so many years ago and we said good-bye to all that we loved and were comfortable with, I had no idea how He would provide for us to meet our needs in such incredible ways. We are beyond blessed and our cup truly does run over with all that He has provided these last 10 years for the church. We are reminded every day that this is God’s work and He accomplishes it His way and allows us the blessing of being along for the ride – and what a ride it has been!

Next week we begin our Bible study on the book of Philippians. We would appreciate prayer as we study God’s Word together. The men will be meeting on Thursday and the women on Wednesday. This is a study we’ve put together ourselves to try to help our people study on their own. We have some new people joining us this time and this will be their first time doing a Bible study – very exciting!

There is a new family that has asked to join the church – this will mean another baptism service! They are also expecting their first child any day so we will be expanding the church in a couple of ways!

The mini show is fast approaching in September. Please be in prayer as we begin our preparations. We are having a winter theme this year so will be looking for activities that enhance that idea. This is always an exciting/stressful time as we seek God’s face and pray for Him to be glorified through all that we do.

Our church is also in the praying/planning stages to begin a youth group and children’s program. This is a HUGE undertaking for our small church. It’s something we’ve bathed in prayer for months now and are beginning to see God moving in our people as far as those who want to be involved and feel God calling them to these unique ministries. Please pray with us for God’s direction and guidance. Our heart’s desire is to reach this community with the gospel and we think this may be another way to accomplish that goal – but only if it’s God’s will for us.

As we’ve begun studying Philippians, a verse reminded me of you! “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;” Phil. 1:3-5. I know that many of you have prayed for us for YEARS and we are honoured to have you as part of our ministry. Many of you also support us financially – we wouldn’t be here without you! How awesome is it that we can partner together in the fellowship of the gospel to proclaim God’s grace and mercy to a lost and dying world! It’s one of the many things I love about the Christian community:  God gives us the blessing of partnering with each other – through prayers and working side by side – to accomplish His will in this world. What a MIGHTY God we serve!

Shining the Light Down Under,

Rob and Jackie

April Update

G’day Praying Partners,

Not sure where the month of April has gone! We certainly appreciate your prayers for our Easter Outreach. As we thought, we did have a smaller group of kids this year – about 35. But we also had about 20 parents stay, which is always a blessing. In fact, one of the teachers from school brought her kids – this is the first time we’ve had a staff member attend one of our outreaches. The gospel was clearly presented – we even had the entire group of parents/kids say John 3:16 a couple of times! We continue to know that as we sow the seeds, God will bring the harvest, resting in the fact that His Word never returns void. Because of the smaller group we were able to have much more interaction with the parents and kids – we were very proud of our church family as they made sure to engage all of them on a personal level. If you’d like to see pictures, travel on over to ernstfamilydownunder.blogspot.com for a peek!

We had a lovely Easter service – very small attendance which seems to always happen for us. It falls during school holidays and so many of our church family travel away PLUS there is not the emphasis on the holiday for people who don’t normally attend church to venture out to church just for Easter. Our co-workers (at a “sister” church) who have been on furlough returned recently, so we had a lovely lunch with them. They are glad to be back in Australia and back at their church. This is the only other couple with BMM here in Australia so we are thankful to have them back as well.

It was a busy month for our church as well as we had 2 new additions – babies! They were born to 2 different families but only 1 day apart. We have another one on the way in August. So thankful for families willing to increase attendees this way😊 Rob also had the privilege of marrying a young couple from our church. The weather was beautiful and it was such a blessing to see their testimony for Christ shared through the service to family and friends that don’t know the Lord.

You can join us in prayer as we are asking the Lord for 5 new people/families this year. We have one already – a single man from Sydney that’s relocated to the area for work who began attending a couple of weeks ago. Trusting God to bring in new faces that we can minister to/with.

We will begin planning for our second outreach in September – Malcolm Creek Mini Show – so we would appreciate prayers for that as well. It is such a blessing to be able to reach the community through these outreaches and know that the Gospel is going out to people who wouldn’t come to church. Thankful for the school where we meet – they are a real blessing to us!

Praying that you had a wonderful celebration on Resurrection Sunday! May Christ’s resurrection stir our souls each day to share the Gospel with a lost and dying world that desperately needs Him!

Shining the Light Down Under,

Rob and Jackie

March, 2017

Ernst Email Update

March 2017

G’day Praying Partners:

It’s been a busy month as we hosted friends and are getting prepared for our Easter outreach! We had a lovely visit with friends from the States. They were only with us for one week, so a lot of ground was covered in a short period of time! It was such a blessing for us to have them here – we love showing off this beautiful country! They stayed an extra day with us so that they could attend a service at church – which was a blessing to our church family.

Our Easter “Eggs”travaganza is THIS Sunday afternoon! It feels like it “snuck” up on us, although most of the preparations are in place. There was a little hiccup with advertising, and because of that the word may not have gotten out to all the students that we would have liked. But, God knows and we will be prepared for however many He brings our way! This Wednesday, after prayer meeting, we will be filling the 400+ eggs that we have with lollies and small toys. On Sunday we will have games, craft, easter egg colouring and the egg hunt. Please be in prayer as the gospel goes forth that God would be glorified. Pray for our church family as they set aside this time to serve the Lord.

Thank you for your prayers for our niece – she did receive her visa! In fact, she and Jackie’s sister, Kim, are arriving on June 5! We are SO excited with how God has provided for them- and given us an incredible blessing! We’re going to have the most visitors in one year that we’ve had the entire 13 years we’ve lived in Australia!

Jackie has begun meeting with 2 students at the school – one is grade 1 and another girl from Iraq that she met with last year who is in grade 6 this year. Please be in prayer as we demonstrate the love of Christ to them. They’ve both been invited to the Easter outreach as well. Rob continues to enjoy his ministry as chaplain at the school. He feels so blessed to be God’s hands and feet in the community in this way. Jackie also continues with her English class on Friday – Maristela is doing really well and her family continues to be a big blessing to us.

“Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.” Isaiah 12:5. I read this in my quiet time today and was challenged with this thought – do I make known all the “excellent” things God has done for me? Now, those who know me know I’m not much of a singer (Jackie – Rob is great!), so the singing part (in public) is out – but that shouldn’t stop me from proclaiming what wonderful things God has done for me!  I recently put a post on facebook that I wanted to share with you. “March 25, 1973 – the day that changed my life forever (literally)! So thankful that God extended His grace and mercy to me and made me a part of His family – what an incredible journey it’s been – one that’s taken me halfway around the world! I don’t know how the rest of my time on earth will go, but I know He will walk it with me. And then will be the best – eternity with my Savior and Friend.” I don’t normally post much on Facebook, but since it was my “spiritual birthday”, I felt like I should make known the excellent things He’s done to all the earth (or at least those on Facebook!). We just never know, do we, how God is going to use our “proclamation” on His behalf! So, go, make known His excellent things to whomever God brings your way – in whatever manner He deems! Just think, together we CAN make His deeds known in ALL the earth!

Shining the Light Down Under,

Rob and Jackie

February Update

G’day Praying Partners:

I need to start this update by apologizing for the fact that this is our first one since December! I honestly don’t know how in the world we managed to go this long without updating you. We often tell people that we need to know HOW to pray if we’re going to pray effectively, and I know that’s true for you as well! There wasn’t a lot to report, so I’m sure that’s why it somehow fell through the cracks. As you know, our summer ends in February, so we do scale things back – especially with school in recess. However, school was officially back on as of the first week in February, so life has returned to some “normalcy” for us!

Rob is back at the school as chaplain. He truly enjoys his time there and feels honoured to be God’s hands and feet to the students, staff and parents. Jackie will be resuming her “grandparenting” program next week with a new girl – please be in prayer as we continue to minister at the school. We are incredibly thankful for the wonderful relationship God has given us with the school – it is an incredible blessing that helps us to minister in meaningful ways, but also benefits the church as well since that is where we meet every Sunday. One of the new ministries we are planning is to provide “welcome” packages to refugees whose children attend the school. It will include practical items as well as information about the church, tract and small Bible. The principal is happy to give them to families and tell them it’s from a local church. We’re praying this will give us open doors to new people arriving in our community.

Prayer meeting has started back up – all of the people that come said how much they missed getting together and sharing requests and praying for one another. Rob is using the opportunity to delve deeper into the message that was preached on Sunday as well, so it has been a great time of application of God’s Word.

Jackie is meeting on Friday mornings with the wife of our newest Brazilian family to teach her English. It has been an incredible blessing to help her out in practical ways. One of the ways she teaches her is to go over the lesson that was taught in children’s church (she has a four and one year old so sits in children’s church and lends a hand since she can’t understand the service). Jackie is laying a biblical foundation that will prayerfully lead to the opportunity to discuss Christ.

Our niece is trying to obtain a visa to come to Australia to complete her internship for college in graphic design. Please pray that Cassidy would be able to get her visa. We would love to have her here for her summer – it would be a blessing to us personally but also to the church as we could use her knowledge to put together flyers, banners, etc.

Our Easter outreach is approaching quickly! It’s scheduled for the first Sunday in April. Please pray as we put together plans. Our prayer is always that God would be glorified by the sharing of the gospel to people who don’t know Him.

Jackie is looking forward to a visit from a friend in the States. She and Patti have been friends since they were 13! Patti will be arriving, with her daughter, on March 5 and be staying with us for a week. We are looking forward to showing her this beautiful country we call home! Please pray for safety for their visit.

As I was having my quiet time in January, God brought this verse to my attention: “And they glorified God in (because of) me.” Gal. 1:24. What an incredible statement Paul was making! What a goal for each of us to have! My prayer for 2017 is that people would glorify God because of my life. Never do I want my life to be about me – but that it would always point people to Him. I pray that you, too, would use your life to point others to Him!!

Shining the Light Down Under,

Rob and Jackie