UPDATE - Ron & Angie Onks, IGM Missionary to Australia 7/9/10

A few weeks ago, Ron was explaining the gospel message and teaching about mankind’s sinful condition in one of his volunteer religious education classes when a student suddenly said in a desperate voice, “Pastor Ron, can we do it now, can we trust in Jesus Christ right here in the classroom?” Ron told the entire class they could pray to trust in Jesus Christ wherever they are and at any time. However, he suggested they do it in the privacy of their own bedroom and he suggested a prayer to help them. The reason Ron suggests they do it privately is that he wants to make sure that each student who prays to trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior is truly repentant about their sin and committed to the LORD. Ron does not want to produce false conversions which so often occur in group prayer; he desires the Holy Spirit to work in their sinful hearts to convict them of their sin and need for Jesus Christ. We are delighted to share with you that already dozens of students now have told Ron that they have truly trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Oh, how that thrills our souls! We are so grateful to God and to you for making it possible for us to remain here in this Australian evangelistic public school ministry. Your financial support and prayer for this ministry keep us moving forward on the front-line battle for young souls here in Australia.

During the past two months, Ron has been teaching his students about Kings Saul, David and Solomon, with the focus being on King David; a man after God’s own heart. This semester Ron is first teaching students a bit more about Israel; her kings and God’s promises. He will move into Matthew in a few months to teach about the King of Kings and the reason for His coming to earth. We have a student in one class who had been listening to Ron’s teaching, but she was not supposed to be in his class. However, she enjoyed learning about the Lord, so she has gotten her parents' permission to stay in the religious education class on a regular basis. Ron is slowly learning to use the “smart board” technology that is available in a couple of his classrooms. One of his students at the Oxenford State School recently said to Ron, “Finally, a religious education teacher who uses technology to teach us.” Ron found some excellent short children’s videos on the internet that help summarize the content of some books of the Bible; it is done in a fun, comical way and the students really like it. Each video clip cost money to download, but they are worth it. We have just finished the halfway point through this school year. Unfortunately, during this second semester (for the next 5 ½ months), many students will not have religious education workbooks due to a lack of money to purchase them; please pray for God’s provision for the workbooks.
 
From a spiritual point of view, the country of Australia continues to decline. Just over two weeks ago, Kevin Rudd, the 2007 elected prime minster, was forced ‘out of office’ (a coup) at midnight by his own political party. In his departing speech, he referred to God as “he or she.” A woman now has been made the prime minister for the first time in Australia. Within her first week of leadership, she publicly and proudly proclaimed that she “does not have faith in a god”, though she was raised in a Baptist church. She has made it clear that she does not believe God exists. We were stunned by this statement, and to make matters worse, over 70 percent of Australians said in a survey that it did not bother them that the prime minister is an atheist. Why do we report this information? Because throughout Australia, the one state that is still a spiritual light (to some degree) is our state of Queensland. Among the other states there are growing attacks against various facets of Christianity such as Christian ethics, school chaplains, church doctrine and the teaching of religious education. The attack on Biblical truth is underway and Christians throughout much of Australia are finding themselves increasingly constrained by ungodly anti-Christian legislation. The few Christian values remaining in Australia are rapidly being ‘pushed out’. Please continue to pray that Queensland will stand strong for the LORD: even now “Creationism” is being pushed into the dark recesses of 'ancient history' by our own state government. Our concern is that the other states’ anti-Christian attitudes will begin to migrate into Queensland and erode her light and religious freedom.

Allow us please to give you some miscellaneous news. Angie is doing fine and continues to be a great helpmate to Ron. We both are feeling our age a bit more, with 'Uncle Arthr-itis' spending more time with us, causing some discomfort. Ron’s father’s latest CT scan shows no more cancer in his body at the present time; how we thank God for that. Our Australian colleague, Pastor Wakeford, is reasonably well, though at the present time he has a throat infection and can’t talk much: he is taking antibiotics. His wife, Joy, has recovered from her knee surgery. Our little church group still fellowships together, but there are still several people very sick, unable to attend services. The focus of our church outreach to be missions, and the saints love it. This coming Monday we have an appointment to talk with a Christian woman who is seeking instruction from us concerning her Christian walk, the Lord’s will and possible erroneous doctrine she may have been taught: she does not go to our church, but she has asked for our help.

Ron would like to update you on the five primary public schools where he teaches each week. He is the religious education coordinator Pacific Pines State School: this is a huge primary school and he is responsible for overseeing 34 classes of students and twelve volunteer religious education teachers. Ron teaches seven classes at Pacific Pines State School and it is his favorite school. He also teaches three classes at Gaven State School; it is a more difficult, smaller school with some behavioral problems amongst students. Park Lake State School is a newer third school where Ron teaches four classes; three of those classes there are very attentive, but one class is difficult. Highland Reserve State School is a newer school and Ron has two fabulous classes there where most of the students really pay attention; the principal of this school is very supportive. The fifth school is Oxenford State School: in the past years it has been one of the worst-behaved schools for religious education teachers, but this year the students in Ron’s two classes have behaved well; PTL! Each school is a field ripe for harvest, some needing more laborers for Jesus Christ because some classes have no religious education teacher. Many of our religious education teachers are quite mature in age and are becoming increasingly ill. We have lost more teachers to illness and other problems. We need more volunteer religious education teachers so please pray for God’s provision.

We rejoice in the Lord for God’s people who help missionaries, for God’s provision for this ministry, for God’s placement of us in this evangelistic school ministry, for God’s privilege in choosing to use us here and for God’s proclamation - that we are to tell others about the Savior. We so much appreciate your prayers, love, concern, care, encouragement and generous financial support. May our LORD GOD be praised for what He continues to do in this unique ministry through each school year and may He richly bless you and eternally reward you for your help.

Please pray for the following:

• For other long term financial support to help increase our income due to a very weak US dollar.
• For cooperation from schools this 2010 school year, for wisdom and protection as Ron teaches.
• For the Lord to mature in Christ some of Ron’s students who are now Christians.
• For open doors in school students’ hearts as well as teachers’ hearts; for their salvation.
• For our church growth and the health of the mature aged members.
• For God to supply more volunteer religious education teachers to share the gospel.