Before I give an accounting of today's events, I must correct incorrect information I've posted. I'm glad that it's brought to my attention as I realize that people are reading about our travels in his wonderful land.

First we are staying with Sean and Cathy Hill in Mont Albert North rather than Box Hill . Also, I misspelled Cathie Clark's first (means GIVEN here) name.

Also, I failed to note of one the most interesting things that greeted us when we went through immigration in Melbourne. The uniformed border and immigration personnel were all SO FRIENDLY. Typically we expect the uniformed people to bark and snarl, but not here. We may have simple and naive questions, but everyone .... we had encounters with about three or four of them were courteous and helpful to us Americans when we arrived in Australia.

Today.

We held a one very full day ministers and deacons conference very close to where we're staying. I won't give the name of the locality because I'll probably get it wrong.  

Our meeting for the day began at 10 am. Bev and I really appreciated getting better acquainted with all the deacons and elders in this region who were able to attend . A few were not able to come because of health.  

The morning consisted of every pastor giving a report about his churches and work and workload. It was very very interesting. While I have always liked looking at maps and stydy geography, I never really had the Australian landscape clear in my mind. This journey has put into place the Australian states, size in relationship to the familiar to us United States and nature of their work.  

I appreciated the analysis of the church demographics, workload and personal touch that each of the presenters communicated. They were very VERY intersting PPT's which I am bringing home with me to show at one of our Monday AM Focus meetings at the home office.  
Pastor Stephen Clark gave a most interesting presentation about UYC (United Youth Camp). What they did and what we do in the USA is quite similar. They had 74 campers from Australia at a New South Wales location ..

After lunch the time was turned to me for presentation. What I was give summaries of some off our regional/area conference lectures and explained why some of these subjects were important to our newer pastors, in particular. I spoke on subjects ranging from Peacemaking, Engaging our readers and viewers, Making our Church services more attractive. I played a part of Randall Stiver's presentation at our last ministerial conference in Youngstown, OH about Common Doctrinal Challenges. I left behind me five videos from presentations we've had at our conference ranging on the subjects of divorce, addictions, pornography, counselling resources along with handouts that will be duplicated and made available. 

We had a lot of good discussion about developing new leadership as more than a good idea for something "down the road" but a very important topic for the future of the church that we need to address now. Lots of good suggestions were brought forward about how we can train new and mentor new leaders in skills ranging from pastoral care to training in doctrine .  

The day went by VERY FAST! In fact, these last two days with the Melbourne churches and the leadership went by ultra quickly.

After the meetings some of us were invited to Sean and Cathy's home for dinner and more socializing. I copied over about 58 Gig of video to Stephen Clark's computer of the lectures from our US conferences.  

Amazingly, we're holding up quite well even with the many hour time change from the East Coast US to Australia time. We are very stimulated by being with people of the same mind and spirit committed to Jesus Christ and the Work.  

Tomorrow is Labour (see, I spelled it right!) Day. With the Hills and Eddington's we are going to drive down a scenic road towards or on the Ocean. I don't fully understand it, but know it's going to be good.