The day was devoted to two separate meetings...one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In the morning a special meeting of the Australian National Council was held to not only inform about reports about the work of the ministry, but media and finances as well. On the agenda was also a discussion about how the Australian work of the United Church of God is organized and discussion ensued about how it can be improved. We discussed leadership training directly related to the development of future pastors in Australia. It was an excellent discussion as I saw that Australian leadership currently is looking at training and future service in teams which is an idea that I want to take back to be part of our thinking in the United States.  

Ruth Root made a presentation about the the gospel proclamation through media, Bill Bradford spoke about ministering to the brethren in Australia and Reg Wright gave a very valuable discussion to us about editorial content that is acceptable (and not acceptable) in Australia . He represents the AERT, the Australian Editorial Review Team. //

We talked about retirements, mentoring. Also, we had a discussion about the proclamation of the Gospel via television, Internet and other means such as literature distribution through direct mailbox delivery in ways that cannot be done in the United States. They prepared succinct PowerPoint presentations that I want to share with Peter Eddington and Roy Holladay.  

Australia has not had a full ministerial conference in eight years and would really like to hold a two plus conference as we do in our eight areas in he USA. We tentatively agreed to do a conference of this sort in about a year.

After the Council meeting we had lunch where the rest of the ministers and deacons and wives who are not on the Council came and the we commenced on a an afternoon of discussion about subjects of common interest. I enjoyed the discussion immensely . I shared a lot of material an overall direction to prepare future leaders through the various means such as leadership seminars, online training, ABC and personal mentoring. We talked about the need to accelerate this process. We talked about the need to maintain peace and the highest integrity and ethics in order to be effective instruments in Gods' Hands as we follow his direction. There was lots of positive energy in our discussion. It gave me a chance to get to know the leadership both ordained and non-ordained much much better. A visit like this is so valuable for a future relationship. The interactive discussion was stimulating for all concerned.

Other subjects discussed was our philosophy and future initiatives in Media and relationships with other groups.
 
After the full day we went over to Scott and Mandy Jenning's home for snacks that turned out to be even more than a meal. We sat around a big table on their patio and held lively discussion. The guests were the Bradfords, Kubiks and Ruth Root. 

Then the one hour drive back to Brisbane (the meetings were in the Gold Coast) and almost immediately to retire. We were completely tired out, but Bev and I still talked between ourselves how wonderful the day had been and what fond memories it has created.