MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN By John Kuhlmann Pastor John Kuhlmann Welcome to the first issue of the Council Newsletter! It's been eight years since the formation of the Revival Fellowship in 1995, and, with the advent of the Web and digital newsletters, the pastors thought it was a good time to start up this Council Newsletter. I hope this will be the first of many issues and that it will prove to be a good vehicle for keeping everyone in touch with what's happening around the Church. The Council has appointed Pastor Kevin Quirk to be the Editor. If you need to contact him you can do so at quirk@iinet.net.au. On the topic of publications, a lot of folk have asked that the "Revival Times" magazine be re-started. It was well appreciated throughout the Fellowship but proved pretty hard to keep up with. Nonetheless, we are well on the way to getting it up and going again. We'll keep you posted.

WHO WE ARE WHAT WE DO AND WHERE WE'RE GOING By Kevin Quirk You know we instituted a Council to "run" the Fellowship. I thought it might be a good idea to explain a bit more about how it all works. That's the first part of the Newsletter. Later in the Newsletter we'll tell you about some of the great things the Lord is doing around the world in our Fellowship. WHO WE ARE The Council is mainly made up of the senior pastors of the bigger assemblies in our Fellowship (as a rule, God has proven their work and they usually have the most experience). Some others are chosen on the basis that they are able to represent a particular region. The current list of Council Pastors and their responsibilities are:

	John Kuhlmann Chairman (SA, NT, Tasmania and all areas not represented by others e.g, the Americas, Asia, Africa, etc)		Bob Beverley Deputy Chairman (Southern NSW, Vanuatu)		Godfrey Wippon (PNG)
	Pieter Visser (Continental Europe)		Steve Gillespie (U.K. and Ireland)		Jock Duncan (N.Z.; Chairman's Assistant)
	Russell Gay (Queensland)		Garry Hall (Northern NSW)		Kevin Quirk (W.A., Japan)

WHAT WE DO Naturally, our first job is to care for our own assemblies. That's already fairly time consuming, but as Council Pastors, we have additional responsibilities to: Keep the Fellowship on track in terms of doctrines and practices Provide helpful and wise advice to other pastors Help smaller assemblies by way of encouragement, regular contact and occasional visits. Encourage evangelism That is, we strive for ... a SAFE Fellowship a WISE Fellowship a REVIVAL Fellowship. All of these things make for a happy and secure Church serving the Lord Jesus as He would expect us to. The Council also handles a range of other practical jobs such as sorting out doctrinal and policy questions, administering the Mission Fund, acting as an Appeals body and some co-ordination (the Revival Fellowship website, the Annual Convention, literature, camps, outreaches, etc).

IS THE CHAIRMAN "THE BOSS"?! No. Of course he is very important, but the Fellowship has a set of Articles of Association (you can get a copy from your pastor if you're interested) which spell out what we believe, and, based on that, how we therefore operate. We strive to follow the Bible pattern and emulate the early Christian Church. Jesus is "…the Head of the Church" (Eph 5:23). In the Revival Fellowship's Articles of Association we put it this way: "3.1 GENERAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT The general style and structure of the governing of the Fellowship is based upon the theocratic Bible pattern, with no one man in charge. There is always to be a collective assembly of appointed elders. The decisions are to be made collectively, and accepted by all the elders, and all the members of the Church. Issues are to be resolved by resorting to the Word of God. " In another place the Lord gave us this advice: "Where no counsel is the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety." (Proverbs 11:14)

WHAT HAPPENS AT A TYPICAL COUNCIL MEETING? We receive reports from around the world on revival, appeals for help from overseas assemblies, and handle all the things mentioned above. The Council must meet every six months according to our Articles of Association. The mid-year Meeting has always been at the venue of the June Convention (this saves money and travel time). We try to hold the November Meeting at a distance from the June meeting, and, preferably, in a city that could do with some extra ministry or is able to turn all these visiting pastors into an outreach! We have just finished Council Meetings in Singapore at the end of November. The Assembly there expanded the week into the Asian Rally and Outreach (see the "ASIA…" article below). You can visit www.trf.org.au ( Low Speed / High Speed ) if you're interested in viewing a couple of minutes of the last Council Meeting in Singapore.

AND WHERE WE'RE GOING ... By now I hope you've worked this one out ... Our mission is to

reach as many as we can with the gospel message, help as many as we can become saved, and then help as many as we can to stay saved.

SO, WHAT IN THE WORLD'S HAPPENING ... We don't want to overload you with information, but the Lord is doing some wonderful things around the world in our Fellowship and it's always great to share the blessings. So here we go ... KENYA ... Pastor Sammy Mwanzia Pastor Sammy was in Singapore and he reported that there are now over 1,700 folk in the Kenya Revival Fellowship. Praise the Lord! He explained that most revival is in Nairobi, Mombassa and the Eastern Provinces. Another revival recently took off in the famous "Rift Valley" Province. He tells us most Kenyans are open to talk about the Lord. There are now 12 pastors looking after the work. One of his pastors is from Tanzania. He will marry in December and plans to head back to evangelise in Tanzania. There's not only the "spiritual" side of the work in the Lord, but the "practical" side as well. Just as in Acts 6 they appointed seven elders to "serve tables", the Kenyan Church has appointed several brothers as "project coordinators". Their job is to find small projects that might reduce Kenya's financial dependence on the Mission Fund. They have come up with three projects they are developing: Goat breeding Water drilling Export of African carved souvenirs (if any of our business folk are interested in this i.e. the importation of African souvenirs - please contact the liaison officer, Pastor Brian Allen of Mt Gambier). Pastor Sammy's motorbike (which he has ridden all over the country for quite a few years) has reached the "end of its useful life"(!) The Fellowship Mission Fund is looking at getting him a 4WD vehicle to replace it. (All contributions gratefully accepted!) His folk also need any used musical instruments. The Kenyan Christmas Camp will be 22-29th December if you're looking for somewhere different to spend your holidays. They also hold a National Rally in August and a Youth Rally. ASIA ... One of the reasons for meeting in Singapore was to catch up on the exciting revivals that are starting in Asia. But firstly a quick report on the November Rally in Singapore ... Pastor Colin and his folk did a wonderful job organizing this Rally and Outreach. November Singapore Rally Brother Jayant being baptized (a Singapore brain surgeon) There were about 80 visitors in total to the Rally meetings, resulting in ten baptisms so far. Praise the Lord. The assembly is also following up others who received the Holy Spirit during the Rally. Singapore Assembly followed up with a Camp in Malaysia and played host to up-and-coming leaders and helpers from elsewhere in Asia (see photos below). Bali Saints BALI ... You may not know but there are about 40 saints in our fellowship near Kuta. The work began with a brother from Adelaide about 8 years ago. They meet in a furniture factory and are now at the stage where they need to register with the government to hold these larger, public meetings. A young man there, Herman, has just been appointed the Leader. Joseph, Robert and Eli from Manila PHILIPPINES ... The fledgling Manila assembly has gone from zero to 60 in twelve months. Praise the Lord. Three of their young men were in Singapore last week for the Rally and Camp. People in Manila are deeply religious - please pray for further revival. Tutu and Noon from Thailand THAILAND ... We have small Fellowships in Bangkok, the village of Paisitong and over at the massive Khlong Pai Prison (a group of about 180 male inmates are saved). Shown at right are Noon and his wife Tutu, a leader of the assembly in Paisitong. Saints from Hong Kong HONG KONG ... There are a handful of saints in the Fellowship there - and all made it to the Singapore Rally and Camp. Please pray for their work. Peter and family in Myanmar (including Peter's very much alive father) MYANMAR (FORMERLY BURMA) ... This is probably the fastest moving of the Asian outreaches. A local ex Muslim elder, Peter, of Yangon (formerly Rangoon) was saved in our Bangkok fellowship. He began the work and is now the pastor. He is running a fellowship that has jumped this year from 8 to 150 members. There are some wonderful reports of healings. (e.g. he prayed for his dead father after his body was released from hospital - and he was raised from the dead. Peter's father, Eddie, is on the right in the photo.) Several weeks ago a visit by several pastors to the Myanmar fellowship found great potential for revival there. EUROPE ... There are assemblies and small fellowships in Hungary, Czech, France, Germany, Switzerland and Holland. Holland has recently started an extension meeting in Gorinchem and will start another one in Jan 2004 at Rotterdam. They are also looking to move to a bigger property as the old one is bursting at the seams. In the U.K. there are meetings in London, Kent, Liverpool and Exeter. In Ireland there is a meeting in Belfast and a newly-opened meeting in Dublin that boasts seven members. There are two meetings in London: one in Stanmore (North London) and one at Richmond (West London). There are also small groups in Manchester and Aldershot. If you can get there, the European Summer Camp next year will be in Wasserkuppe, Germany (close to Frankfurt) from 31st July~7th August. There will be a separate UK camp in Hampshire, Southern England, from 28th August~4th September, which would also welcome visitors. Gadelha - 9 folk being baptized new hall - Fortaleza BRAZIL ... Revival continues well in Brazil with 19 baptisms while Pastor David Elliott was there in October (10 in the villages and 9 in Fortaleza). There have been at least another 12 in Fortaleza since his return. The meeting has just moved into a quaint old colonial building in Fortaleza jammed between two nightclubs (both of whom have agreed not to open for business until after church is finished!). A church in this area was a bit much for the local newspaper and TV station who noticed it as they passed by. They sent out press crews to run news items! They now number some 500 folk. A second meeting is being proposed. On the practical side, the Brazilians are attempting to become financially independent from us by establishing a banana plantation. This is going well: a quarter of the proposed plantation has been planted with the rest to be finished by the end of this month. State and federal Agricultural Departments are involved in helping with this project Rabaul Outreach SEPT 03 "Put up your hand if you were healed during the last prayer time!" PNG ... As always, the news from PNG is exciting. The revival continues throughout PNG. The recent Rally at Rabaul resulted in some 400 baptisms and many healing miracles. There have now been some 20 confirmed AIDS healings throughout PNG. Two weeks before coming to Singapore, Pastor Godfrey conducted a press conference in Pt Moresby to introduce two such cases to the media. It was a great outreach success. On a completely different note, Pastor Godfrey will remarry on 3rd April, 2004 in Lae and this will be followed by an Easter Rally and outreach in Popondetta. On behalf of all the Fellowship: Congratulations to him and sister Elisabeth! The PNG assemblies now have 5 journalists in the Lord and run weekly columns in two newspapers. It's all great for spreading the Good News.

IN CONCLUSION ... By John Kuhlmann The foundation is laid. There are many diligent saints in our Fellowship. As we work together sharing our resources we will see many more souls saved.