Dwayne and Valerie Keefe - December 2010 Newsletter

Austin, Valerie & Dwayne

Lifting Christ Up
Down Under

Pastor Dan Jeffers & family in Sydney

Dwayne Working at
the School Fete

200 Kids Hear the Christmas Story

A Time to Reflect . . .
2010 has been a roller coaster year for us. We have had our highs with some great outreach opportunities reaching hundreds of people and we have had our lows with health concerns and financial woes. Still we are pressing on and so thankful for how the Lord has blessed and provided for us and our ministries here. We are so thankful for our faithful financial and prayer partners. You truly are helping to make adifference in the lives of the Aussies here. You are truly a blessing to us!

Pastor Dan Jeffers & family in Sydney
As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. – Proverbs 25:25.
It is always such a blessing to have a visit from the pastor of one of our supporting churches. This past month Pastor Dan Jeffers from Park Street Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida travelled to Australia with his lovely wife and daughter. It was such a pleasure showing him and his family around Sydney and Canberra. Our church people thoroughly enjoyed hearing Pastor Dan preach and hearing Dan and Pam sing. We were so glad that they could join us along with 42 of our church people, friends and neighbors for our Thanksgiving celebration. Several people shared testimonies of how thankful they were for our ministry here. It really touched our hearts and was such an encouragement to us. We are so happy that the Jeffers family could see firsthand the ministry here.

Dwayne Working at the School Fete
Our church once again set up a booth at the local primary school’s fete. We handed out information about the ministry here and provided a venue for children to make pet rocks with proceeds donated to the school’s Parents and Citizens Association. Plans are already underway for a booth at the community’s autumn fair in March.

200 Kids Hear the Christmas Story
We once again had the wonderful opportunity to teach Scripture classes in the local primary school. Both Valerie and another lady from our church, Liz Williams, provided an exciting Christmas program over the past couple of weeks for 200 kids from Kindergarten to Grade 2. It was very evident that the message got through. Dwayne spoke at the school’s Christmas assembly. When he asked the children what was the most important thing about Christmas, hundreds yelled out “Jesus.” What a great testimony in front of over 836 students, parents and their teachers. Praise the Lord!

Financial Crisis
We really need your help. The devalued American dollar (which is still almost at parity with the Australian dollar) and the increase in expenses here this past year are really taking their toll. Since we arrived on the field we have taken an almost-fifty percent decrease because of this. This past year we exhausted all of our savings just to make ends meet. We still have a $2800 Australia tax bill to pay before March with several other bills due around the same time. We are asking all of our supporting churches to prayerfully consider increasing their monthly support or giving a onetime gift. This would be such a relief to us and enable us to stay on the field and continue the ministries which are now in full swing. Right now we are just beginning to see some fruit from our four years of labor here. We’re sure that Satan would love for us to just pack up and leave. We feel God is not through with us here yet and He has great things ahead!

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Merry Christmas from the Keefe family!
Thanks for another great year!!

Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified,
even as it is with you. – 2 Thess. 3:1

Web Editor - Don Tarvin
Updated 23 Jan 2011