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These men and women had returned for the level 2 Preaching Programme with wonderful testimonies of God’s enabling during the past year as they had sought to teach faithfully, relevantly and clearly from His Word. Many of them had not only been a part of preachers clubs formed regionally from last year, but had invited others to join with them, passing on the training they had been given.

The participants greatly appreciated the input of Ma’afu Palu and Paul Barker for their gracious and wise teaching and leading — grasping the Bible’s big picture, with a focus on Preaching from the Old Testament.

You can view the 4 min presentation of last year’s level 1 programme “Eager to preach”.

Watch some of the wonderful testimonies recorded at this year’s level 2 seminar in Vanuatu: “Preaching the word clearly“.

Please contact the LPA office if you would like copies of either of these DVDs to share with others (Eager to preach DVD or Vanuatu 2009 testimonies DVD) [sent to addresses in Australia].

As some of you know, I am married to Elizabeth and we have three boys, Tevita (9), Freddie (4) and Albert born this April. We’ve been here in Sydney four years now, studying for a PhD – thanks to the generosity of Langham Partnership Australia and the Sydney Anglican Diocese.

I praise God that the thesis has now been officially submitted! I am grateful for the insights and encouragements of my supervisors, Dr Brian Rosner of Moore College and Dr Chris Fleming of University of Western Sydney. Awaiting the results can be a nail-biting experience; nevertheless, it feels as if a load has been lifted off my shoulders. In hindsight undergoing a PhD had always been a stepping stone, a means to an end. I believe that I will always be first and foremost a servant of Christ, burdened with love for the Tongans and feel that I can do nothing else but preach and teach them the love of Christ, the love that he had shown me whilst I was still a sinner. Therefore, the PhD had always been a means to qualify myself in worldly terms so that I can not only better equip myself for ministering to the Tongans but also to proclaim the gospel in any possible way that I can, whether it be in preaching or writing (as is Langham’s vision). I am forever grateful for the part that Langham has played in enabling me to reach this point.

Now as my family and I approach the end of our stay here in Sydney we are saddened and encouraged at the same time. Saddened to leave behind true friends, but encouraged that we will be putting into good use the newly acquired knowledge that we have gained here in Sydney.

At times it can be daunting to not be so sure of where we will be posted upon our return to Tonga but at the same time it is comforting to know that God is sovereign and He is in control of our future and wherever we will be placed he will use us to further his Kingdom. As an ordained minister of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga, I will be told what the Bishop wants me to do in June this year, during the Annual Synod of the Methodist church.

Before we came to Sydney for the PhD, we worked in the Tongan Methodist Church Bible College for four years. That was quite a tough experience for us. A lot of opposition was encountered simply for teaching students that the Bible is true and that Jesus is still relevant for us today. However, with the PhD, we hope that things will be somewhat better for us. There are only three other ministers with PhDs in the Methodist Church of Tonga at the time being – all of whom occupy positions of leadership in the church. We don’t expect a position of leadership in the more immediate future but must be ready to convince our church leaders of our progress in the faith. Please pray that we will trust in God’s sovereignty at all times especially when things are tough for us.

Wendy Toulmin, Executive Officer of Langham Partnership Australia, together with her husband, Graham, was awarded an Order of Australia in this year’s Australia Day honours.

The local bank manager told Graham Toulmin he had “rocks in his head” when he sold his dental practice in the Blue Mountains and moved with his wife Wendy and their four young sons to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Zaïre.

That was more than two decades ago and was the beginning of what would become years of humanitarian work by the Toulmins for the devastated African nation.

This Australia Day their work is being recognised as they were each awarded an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) for service to international humanitarian aid, particularly through the provision of dental health services and pastoral care to the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and to the community.

“We’re absolutely stunned,” says Graham of the award. “We’re in disbelief.”

In the 80s Graham established a small dental clinic in a town called Butembo in the state of North Kivu where he was the only qualified dentist in a region of around 5 million people.

“We arrived and there was nothing there,” Graham said. “There was no water, no electricity and no building. So we started the dental work in the vestry of the local Anglican church.”

As well as working in the clinic he travelled around the region providing dental services and training local nurses in dental procedures so they could eventually take over the work.

Unrest in 1991 forced the Toulmins to return to Australia but their ties with the Congolese people remained strong.

Back home they formed an organisation called “Brass For Africa” where the profits from cassettes, CDs and concerts funded a dental clinic, a maternity ward, clergy support, assistance for AIDS orphans, school building projects and food for refugees from Congo’s civil war.

Brass For Africa is now is an arm of the Springwood Winmalee Anglican Churches.

Wendy returned to DRC following the Rwandan genocide in 1994 to work with Care Australia in the unaccompanied children’s camp.

There for 14 weeks, Wendy was deeply affected by the scale of suffering.

“As a mother it made me think about how my own children would have reacted if they’d lost their parents,” Wendy said.

“If I hadn’t been a Christian the whole issue of forgiveness would have been unthinkable given the scale of brutality.”

Having given considerable time over the years motivating Australians to remember the people of Congo, the burning question is: what drives their compassion?

“I never wanted to be a missionary in Africa,” says Graham.  “But a CMS (Church Missionary Society) conference challenged me to think about the enormous need. As a committed Christian I decided I’d better put my money where my mouth is. And Wendy agreed which made the whole thing possible.”

What kind of hope is there for a restored Congo?

“The future is very difficult for them,” Graham says. “It’s not trendy. A thousand people can die in Gaza and it is front page news but more than four million people can die in Congo and it hardly rates a mention.”

“If this award does anything we hope it brings attention to the plight of the Congolese people and the scale of their suffering.”

Ma’afu is at the final stages of his PhD. If all goes well, he’ll finish at the end of this year. He is still leading the Wednesday night Bible discussion consisting mainly of non-Christian non-Church Tongan men.

Ma’afu was part of the recent Vanuatu Pacific Preaching Programme and from the 20th to the 24th of April he was invited to return and give lectures at Talua Bible Training School in Vanuatu on how best to read the Bible from the context of the Pacific.

Elizabeth and the boys are going well. Both Elizabeth and Ma’afu are involved in a group which meets once a month to pray for the Pacific. The group’s vision is not only to provide the Pacific with faithful Bible teachers but also to raise funds to support those who will work for the gospel in the Pacific.

Please pray for Ma’afu that he will be able to finish off his thesis. Pray for godliness in their lives and for their kids (Tevita and Freddie) to grow up and become believers. Pray for the vision for the Pacific as well – that many faithful teachers and pastor will be raised for the Pacific.

Chris Wright, International Director of Langham Partnership, was in Melbourne over Easter 2008. Chris was a keynote speaker at the Belgrave Heights Easter Convention, leading studies on the book of Jeremiah. While in Melbourne he was also able to participate in meetings at Ridley College, the Bible College of Victoria and Holy Trinity Doncaster. Chris continues to challenge us with the benefit of coming to grips with the Old Testament.

After returning from Vanuatu, Chris participated in a number of Sydney meetings. He preached at the Arabic Presbyterian Church in Merrylands and the Chinese Christian Church in Milsons Point. On Monday 31 March Chris addressed a meeting at the Presbyterian Theological College on the subject of Bridging some Gaps between the West and the Rest. Chris challenged his listeners to put aside old understandings of the world wide church and to take a fresh look at the wonders God is working in the Majority World.

Listen online or download Chris’ talks:

• Holy Trinity, Doncaster (Victoria) 2008-03-19
  Listen online — God, Israel and Future of the Nations in Biblical Perspective [44 mins]
  [Download Holy Trinity lecture — right click and select SAVE AS]
• Presbyterian Theological College, Burwood (NSW) 2008-03-31
  Listen online — The mission and world church and bridging some gaps [53 mins]
  [Download PTC lecture — right click and select SAVE AS]

Watch video

104 participants from Vanuatu, the Solomons and Papua New Guinea met at the Scripture Union campsite at Pango Point on the Vanuatu island of Efate for the first Pacific Preaching Seminar from 24-28 March 2008. The Ni-Vanuatu participants came from seven of the main islands of Vanuatu.

We are grateful to local organisers Andy Williamson, Philip Joses and
Sophia Silas from Talua Bible College.

The two main preaching facilitators were Chris Wright (LPI) and David Cook (Principal of Sydney Missionary and Bible College). LPA Board member John Buckle and LPA Scholar Ma’afu Palu also assisted in the teaching and group sessions, while LPA executive officer Wendy Toulmin assisted in the daily running of the seminar.

Every day was “full on”, as the Australians put it. We ran from 7.45am start with devotions, through until 9.00pm. The generator went off about 9.45pm, so nothing was possible after that except to try to sleep, until the singing from the men’s dormitory began around 5.00am!

From the start, we emphasized to participants that this was a long-term programme. The group workshops were organised geographically, so when we had the session on ‘Developing a Movement for Biblical Preaching in Vanuatu’, it was natural for them to meet in the same groups. There was general enthusiasm for setting up local Preachers’ Clubs. They appointed convenors and we have heard they are already beginning to meet. Please pray they will continue and serve a great purpose under God.

We returned from Vanuatu with a strong conviction that Langham Preaching Pacific region has been well and truly launched and has exciting potential in the years ahead.

Thanks for your prayers and for passing the word to others to pray. The Lord Jesus greatly blessed our workshop. The sessions were well received, but most importantly, the participants’ faith and courage for work on the Vanuatu Bible Commentary grew, even alongside our warnings that this was a very demanding project! Also, the commitment of the Principal of Talua Ministry Training Centre, the leading theological institution of the country, and the teaching staff of the college, are more excited and committed than ever to producing Bible commentaries. Five men who were sent by their church leader to be involved in the project arrived knowing nothing about the VBC, but they left with a petition to be allowed to work on the commentary.

The workshop focused on helping participants understand their own language in relation to English and their own vernaculars, especially as far as translation into Bislama goes. We also discussed the state of standardisation of Bislama spelling and expression. Rosemary led this portion of the workshop, since she is our linguist. It was the lion’s share of the workshop, since everyone needs both the skill and confidence to write in Bislama. It was eye-opening and exciting for the participants to get to know their own national language better from a linguistic perspective, and to have light shed on their own questions and problems with the language. About 1/4 or 1/3 of the workshop was devoted to how to write Bible commentary, and what sort of Bible commentary we are hoping to write, that is, one that is tied to the text and serves preaching biblical, Christ-centred messages.

So, thanks so much for praying, but don’t stop now! The success of the workshop raises people’s expectations, which means more intense work from the Vanuatu Bible Commentary team. Pray the Lord give us wisdom for guiding the venture, and grace to all who have begun working on their commentaries. Different individuals or groups are getting started on: Psalms 1-15; Proverbs 1-10; Haggai; Jonah; Ruth; Esther; Joshua; 1 Peter; 1,2,3 John; 2 Peter; Galatians; 1 Thessalonians; as well as the works nearly completed: Philemon, Philippians, Colossians, Mark.

Thanks again for thinking of us and praying for us.

We all know that salvation is the central message of the Bible , but in the Global Christian Library series, it is the sixth book to be published. The series is published in the west by IVP in the UK and the USA . The first five have already been translated and published in Arabic, and in January, Chris Wright was in Cairo for the launch of the sixth in the series, his own contribution, Salvation Belongs to Our God . In fact, the Arabic translation was launched in Egypt before the original English edition had reached the market! “Blessed be Egypt !” (Isaiah 19:25).

Chris Wright in Cairo for the launch

The Egyptian Christian publisher, Dar El Thaqafa, under the energetic leadership of its manager, Dr Andrea Zaki Stephanous (a Langham Scholar), organized a public panel discussion to launch the new book. Chris Wright gave a lecture on the topic, summarizing the overall message of the book. There were two responses from a Lebanese and an Egyptian church leader, and then lively question and answer and discussion. The evening drew 190 people from a wide variety of Christian denominations and the book sold well.

The Arabic Global Christian Library will reach into seminaries as textbooks on basic Christian doctrines, but will also be distributed widely among pastors and preachers across the whole Middle East and Arabic speaking world.

The whole project represents exciting co-ooperation between all three Langham Programmes. It is of course a Literature project, but it is being driven forward by a Langham Scholar, and it will serve the cause of biblical preaching around the region.