Home And Gone Again
For the past four months PLAIN TALK has been edited by Joe Fitch; and articles by Dan Shipley and Jim Everett have filled those pages vacated by my trip to Australia. I join with the readers who express appreciation for the great job done by all three, and gladly make public my invitation to these men to continue their work in PLAIN TALK. In the future articles other than my own will bear appropriate identification.
PLAIN TALK format is poorly suited to narrative reports concerning the work in Australia, so I will confine articles here to editorial type observations and illustrative material, and offer more detailed accounts to other publications. However, a few statistics are in order here, with special concern for those who may be planning such a trip.
Travel expenses totaled $1,577.59 and lodging, food, etc., within Australia totaled $318.22. (I should warn you that I am the economy type, and some preparation expenses are not yet in.) I received $460.97 from the Australians, and the remainder of my support from Oaks—West church, and unsolicited gifts. All U.S. donors have been sent a full financial report, and $72.41 returned to travel fund donors.
Im thankful to God for a safe trip, and of course, the most interesting preaching experience of my life. This is true, not for any particular event (although the baptisms in Melbourne and Tasmania were truly memorable) but for the utter littleness I felt when the Australian — and the WORLD — picture began to sink in. It is such a BIG world, when viewed as people, in need of the gospel; yet so accessible with our modern means of transportation. Twenty-two hours from San Antonio, Texas there is a big, new world, with English-speaking people, many of whom will listen to the gospel story.
Capable, experienced men could, in the next five years, reshape the history of the cause of Christ there — NOT "Americanize it, but assist the sound conservative brethren there to stand firmly against liberal influences that are being heaped upon them and to build Australian churches that accept Christ as their Head. Our excuses shrink, and our obligations grow — and who will answer?
Two days at Rocky Roost, and now Vivian and I are in Tucson, Ariz. for the fourth of five western meetings. Next to Lubbock, Tex., then to Nashville, Term., Decatur, Ga., Birmingham, Ala., and so, on and on.