We don't cease to be amazed at the hospitality and good will of our church brethren in Australia. We have really appreciated being with all of them.  

Church services are about 20 minutes away from here and where the Brisbane and Gold Coast congregations along some from Toowoomba and others gather at 2:30 pm . 

We really appreciate meeting the enthusiastic brethren of all ages. We were met with people who had been Christians for 50 years as well as teens who wanted to get acquainted. We had 179 people present for the Sabbath services.  

The Youth Choir sang special music. For hymn accompaniment we had a a pianist and keyboardist. The sound of the congregational singing was most uplifting.  

The first song that was sung was "On the Sabbath Day" which has Ukrainian roots and a Hebrew melody. That's song number 112. It's one that has been often played at our Young Adult meetings at the home office on Friday nights. 

I spoke both during the sermonette and sermon times. In the first message i spoke about some of the news developments in the United States work.....mainly with education and media and the development of future leaders in the Church . My sermon was an analogy of building the temple of God and how it relates to our personal and congregational development. Afterwards there were finger food snacks and lots of talk that went on for about two hours. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many people personally from this part of Australia. 

In the evening we went to the palacious home of Mark and Ileana Robertson for a barbecue with the leaders, deacons and elders who will be meeting tomorrow in separate meetings...one a National Council meeting and the other a conference for deacons and elders.  

We had a great time spending more time with with people we had and are getting to know better on this visit. We sat next to Ken Murray who travels regularly to India and Sri Lanka and got more accounts of his journeys and adventures. 

What a wonderful day!