The Meredith Family
Berean Baptist Church, Mandurah

Mike, Debbie, Rebekah & Sarah

Michael Meredith was sent to Australia under the authority of Berean Baptist Church, Springfield, Missouri USA.

In 1990, he arrived in Bunbury, Western Australia with intentions to ultimately settle on the field of Tasmania.  With his wife Deborah and children Daniel and Rebekah, through the leadership of the Holy Ghost, the Meredith family settled in Australind and began the first Independent Baptist Church in the Bunbury region.  In 1995, their third child Sarah was born on the field of Australia.

In November 1995, West Australian born Chris Manessis was called to preach under the ministry of Brother Meredith, and was subsequently prepared and trained for the ministry in the local church setting.

In March 2001, Calvary Baptist Church was organised in Australind, and the Meredith family were led to the city of Mandurah, one hour North of Australind.

Pray for the Meredith family as they currently labour in Mandurah for the glory of Christ.

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The Carr Family
Bayview Baptist Church, Busselton

Bruce, Sheila, Luke, Levi & Hannah

Brother Carr accepted Christ as his Saviour on Oct. 22, 1983. He did not understand everything except that there was a great weight lifted and his life would never be the same. He had been under conviction for about three years, and was so glad that the Lord did not give up on him.

Brother Carr now truly understands what Paul meant when he penned the words, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new”, II Cor 5:17. His whole outlook on this world changed, now having a purpose and a will for his life, that being to follow his Saviour and be obedient to Him.

In September of 1989 God called Brother Carr to preach, but he did not surrender until April of 1990. His heart’s desire was to be trained in his home church and by his Pastor, and in March of 1996 the Lord led Brother Carr with his family to Calvary Baptist Church, Knob Noster, Missouri. It was there that God called him to the mission field.

In the 1996 October Missions Conference at Calvary Baptist Church, the Lord dealt with Brother Carr about being a missionary. In September of 1997, one month before the next Missions Conference, he surrendered and made public testimony of God’s call upon his life.

Already in the Bible Institute, Brother Carr now had a clearer vision of God’s will for his life. Under the watchful training of former pastor Jeff Ables, he began to learn the doctrines that make Baptists different from other churches, and even different from certain other Baptist churches themselves. He continued that training under his new pastor, Jeff Merrick.

Brother Carr describes himself as a Bible Believing Independent Fundamental Baptist.

The Bruce Carr family arrived in Australia in 2005.  Being sent out of Calvary Baptist Church in Knob Noster, MO, USA, they settled in Busselton.

With his wife Shiela and children Luke, Levi and Hannah, they are labouring faithfully and have established a personal and Baptist testimony in the community. Their oldest son, John, and just recently their third youngest son, Luke, are also called to the gospel ministry.

In January 2006, BayviewBaptist Church started holding meetings in their current location at the Busselton Family Center

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The Buster Family
Bible Baptist Church, Eua, Tonga

Bob, Sela, Mark, Jeremy & Jacob

PERSONAL TESTIMONY

Following the death of my mother in 1975 there had always been a question in my mind regarding the life after. I was bought up a Roman Catholic in every way, schooling, altar boy, St. Vincent de Paul and just prior to my salvation I was on the parish council in the church I attended.

In 1988, I was in partnership in a Joinery business and we employed a fellow who began to share his strange beliefs with my partner. This fellow would read a Bible at lunchtime and at every opportunity he would witness to my partner. For some reason he left me alone, it was probably because I was already "religious".

I began to take a real interest in the way he lived his life (he didn't drink, smoke or swear) and his attitude and concern for other people was another thing.  But the most outstanding part I can recall about him was that whenever I asked him questions about life or religion, he always based his answers from a Biblical perspective.  In all my life I'd never come across a person who seemed to have the answers to life and not only that, but had a peace about where he was going to spend eternity.

On a number of occasions he invited me to his services and I declined. It was on Sunday morning the 2nd of October, 1988 that my family and I went off to church as normal but instead of turning left into the driveway of the Catholic church I drove on about 50 metres and turned right into the car park of the High School where the services were being held for Emmanuel Ind. Baptist Church. For someone who is so used to ritual and ceremony as I was, to walk into Emmanuel was a stark contrast. The welcome was warm and a visiting preacher from Western Australia delivered the message. During the message and at the invitation I saw my need for a Saviour, and that beautiful morning I walked the aisle and repented of my sins and trusted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.

I had no idea of how I should have felt or what lay ahead, but since that glorious day The Lord has been deeply working in my life, and the life of my family. God's promise in Acts 16:31 "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." has been honoured. My wife Sela and my oldest son Mark and middle son Jeremy have both trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and we now pray in earnest for our youngest Jacob. 

MY CALL

In April of 1990, I surrendered my life to the Lord to go into the ministry. July of this same year saw the sale of my share in the Joinery business to my partner. This enabled me to go into fulltime Bible College (I had already spent six months part-time). The College I attended was here in Canberra, Emmanuel Bible Baptist College under the direction of Dr. R. Wright and Pastor Don Stewart.  I graduated on the 21st March 1992 receiving my Bachelor of Theology.

It was in June 1990, that the Lord burdened my heart for the people of Tonga. In Nehemiah Chapter1:1-4 we are told how Nehemiah grieved and mourned, when told by one of his brethren Hanani, that the walls of their beloved city Jerusalem were broken down. So it is with Tonga. For the past fourteen years I've seen the walls of Christianity have fallen apart. During this time I've seen the social, political and moral decline of a country that once stood true to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.

When I shared my burden with my wife she didn't entertain at all, the prospect of going back to Tonga. My only option now was to give this situation to the Lord in prayer and so patiently waited as I continued on with my studies and the work in the Church.

At the BBF Fellowship'91 meetings in Victoria, a Pastor from W.A. shared his burden for the Aboriginal people. I saw the need to reach the Aboriginal folk and began planning to go and start a work in northern W.A. This proved to be a fruitless task, as the Lord seemed to close all the doors to get there. During a series of messages on the Book of Jonah I preached at Emmanuel, the Lord showed me Jonahs disobedience in not going to Nineveh when God had called him to go, instead of going east, Jonah went west and God had to allow him to go through some trials in order to get him to a place of submission. Space does not allow for me to share all of what the Lord had to do in our lives to bring us to a willingness to answer his call, but this I will share.

On the 8th November, 1991 I was driving the church bus doing my usual round picking up the kids for youth group that Friday evening. I had just dropped off a full load at the Neighbour Centre where we hold our youth activities and set off to pick up another load with a young girl as my caller in the bus, when coming around a curve was a drunk driver on our side of the road. We had a head-on collision which resulted in both of us being flung through the windscreen and the girl being trapped under the bus and myself just missing going under the driver’s side front wheel and into the gutter on the side of the road. The end result of all this was that we both ended up in Hospital for just over a week with both of us having ongoing problems to this day. In Jonah 3:1 God calls Jonah a second time and this time Jonah went. Guess who answered also.

When I shared this with my wife and how the Lord was still calling us to serve Him in Tonga, the reply my wife gave me "I don't want to held responsible for standing in the way of God's will for our lives". I rejoice in the fact that it was the Lord, and not the flesh that turned her heart to follow and to go to the mission field in Tonga.

IN HIS SERVICE

On the 1st of October 1991 the church entrusted me with the responsibility of Assistant Pastor the office I still held till our departure to Tonga. During the time Pastor Stewart was on furlough (approx. four and a half months) I assumed the office of Pastor during his absence.

Under the direction of Pastor Stewart I have been privileged in serving the Lord in all of the ministries of the church at Emmanuel. The areas of service have been in preaching, Sunday School teacher, youth and teenage groups and the Pro-Teens leader, visitation and also heading the Building program for our new church building.

In April 1993, I began the long trek with my family on deputation throughout Australia. This involved visiting Independent Baptist Church and sharing the burden of the work the Lord has called me to in Tonga, and that is to see souls saved, surrendered and start Ind. Baptist Churches throughout Tonga. We visited five States in Australia travelling by car all the way. We completed deputation in Australia and at the end of July 1994, we left Australia for Tonga via New Zealand, where, during the month of August we visited eleven Ind. Baptist Church on the North and South island and arrived in Tonga on the 26th August 1994, worn out and yet excited that we had finally arrived.

The Lord opened the door to start the first New Testament church in Nuku’alofa on the main island of Tongatapu in September 1994; we called it Tonga Bible Baptist Church. The Lord blessed the ministry and the church began to slowly grow. A man by the name of Toni Matangi was saved in 1996 and in 2005 after attending our Bible Institute within the church took over the pastorate of TBBC.

Since starting the work on Tongatapu I had been travelling to a nearby island called ‘Eua, the island where my wife was born. I went to ‘Eua to grow crops as her father owned land there for two days every two weeks. I began Bible studies with whoever would come along and a family responded and so I began regular services there. In 2005 my whole family moved over to Eua at the end of that same year. We established the second Ind. Baptist Church and called it ‘Eua Bible Baptist Church.  In 2007 we began a building program as we couldn’t find anywhere to hold services and we were meeting in a shed at our property which was located a couple of kilometres from the villages. The church was organised in Sept, 2009.

It took over 4 years to build the building as we made everything by hand including all the cement blocks and the steel fabrication for the building. With the help of five different teams from NZ and Australia over the four year period we completed and dedicated the building in March, 2011. The Lord’s work here on ‘Eua and Tongatapu continues to grow and we look forward should the Lord Jesus Christ tarries his return, to continue to outreach from here to the other islands of Tonga.  Our three sons Mark, Jeremy and Jacob are still with us here on Eua and are a blessing in the work here.

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The Schrope Family
Berean Baptist Church, Augusta

Butch, Angie, Connor, Chandler, Cooper & Carter

Testimony of Butch Schrope
I was saved at the age of five years old in my bedroom, on Wednesday night, September 21, 1983.  Under deep conviction, I repented of my sins and asked Christ to save me.  I was raised in a Christian home and brought up in church my entire life.  At the age of thirteen, I surrendered my life to do whatever God would have for me to do.  It was at youth camp, my sophomore year of high school (Grade 10) that God called me to preach.  I graduated high school in May of 1996 and was married to my beautiful wife Angie in August of 2000.  In 2001, my Pastor, Jeff Ables, started the Berean Baptist Bible Institute where I began to train for the ministry and to learn the doctrines that make us different from other religions and even some Baptists.  In 2002, during our mission’s conference, the lord called me to the mission field of Australia.  I completed my training in the Bible institute and went on deputation to raise support for Australia.  After 3 ½ years on deputation and a lot of prayer, we were approved for our permanent visas and had 100% of our support.  On September 16, 2010, we set foot in the Land Down Under to begin doing the work God has called us to do. (Starting churches) I am an Independent, Fundamental, Bible-believing Baptist missionary, called by God to share the Word of God with a lost and dying world. 

Testimony of Angie Schrope
When I was a young girl, I would ride the bus to church with my Grandmother.  I was from a broken home, but my grandma was faithful to take me to church. When I was sixteen years old, our Youth pastor took us to a youth conference in Dora, MO.  It was there at that youth conference that I saw the need that I had for a Saviour.  I repented of my sins and trusted Christ to be my personal Saviour that day.

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The Tottingham Family
Valley Baptist Church, Canberra

Frank, Shelley, Caitlin, Madison, Hamish & April

Pastor Tottingham's Testimony of salvation

I remember first hearing the Gospel when I was three or four years old in a Sunday School class taught by a Filipina lady, Evelyn Brazee, who had married a U.S. Airman and who were members of the Bible Baptist Church, East Grand Forks MN.  The lesson was about the condition of our heart and the teacher used different pictures of hearts to show us that our hearts were full of sin and black.  Only Jesus could make our hearts clean and white if we asked Him to come into our hearts.  I began to understand that I was a sinner.
 
After that I would often ask my parents questions about being saved.  They would share scripture with me then send me on my way to think about what the Lord might be telling me.  This went on for several months until finally after church one evening I went forward and asked if I could be saved.  My Dad told me that if I still felt that way, then to come and see him once we got home.  I did, and my Dad sat with me and shared the Gospel with me again.  I realized that the Lord was speaking to my heart and that He would save if I asked.  I knelt there and asked the Lord to come into my heart.  At the time I didn’t understand words like repentance or justification, but I did understand I was a sinner and without Christ I had no hope.  When I trusted Christ to save me He did just that – and I thank Him for it!
 
The Lord began speaking to my heart about the call to preach shortly after I was saved.  I spent many years growing in the Lord and learning to be a faithful Christian before the Lord confirmed His call on my life at about the time I was 18 or so.

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