Welcome to the third edition of the Council Newsletter.

The main feature in this edition is the International Convention just held in Adelaide over the long weekend of 12-14th June.

In this issue we also introduce another region of our Fellowship to you - Victoria and Tasmania.

In the final segment, we bring you up to date on all the happenings from around the world.

As always, we trust you enjoy sharing in the wonderful blessings of being in a Fellowship dedicated to serving the Lord Jesus Christ.

As the main event of our International calendar, over 600 visitors flocked in from around Australia and all over the world to swell the gathering in Adelaide. We met up with old friends from New Zealand, Papua New-Guinea, Fiji, Singapore, Holland, USA, Canada, UK and Africa. Someone once defined Convention as "a thousand interrupted conversations".

The paint on the additions at Adelaide assembly's Woodcroft Hall was barely dry when the massive 2 000-plus crowd gathered there over the Saturday and Sunday of 12th and 13th June. The largest body of 1000 or so squeezed into the main Auditorium. But this was a Convention with a twist. In addition to filling their hall, the crowd then overflowed into a 500-seat marquee set up beside the Auditorium. The overflow from that then settled into the newly-completed 400-seat "atrium". All three areas were contiguous, with live video streaming into all venues, so you felt you were part of the whole Fellowship.

To keep numbers in these three areas as comfortable as possible, Sunday School was run throughout all Rally meetings in the hired school across the road.

At the breaks between sessions, the crowds would mingle again to gather for a meal or to share a cuppa and chat. A massive effort had been put in to cater for the crowds. Thousands of hearty, pre-cooked meals of paella, curried chicken or beef and rice were available for $4 (proceeds raised an extra $5 000 for the Mission Fund). It was fellowship at its best!

The weekend programme included a Saturday morning Youth session, Saturday afternoon and evening Rallies, Sunday Communion meeting and a Sunday evening Rally. We heard plenty from the Word of God about "Hope" and enjoyed a wonderful list of items and testimonies.

The Testimonies. What can you say? They were marvelous. "Hope" after a hopeless 27 years of heroin addiction: David and Mary Parker (of California) miraculously delivered (see photo below). "Hope" after breaking his neck - expecting a future of quadriplegia - Jamie Getgood was dramatically made whole. The practical demonstration of God's love and power rolled on and on in testimony after testimony. If you would like to hear more, visit the archived footage of these and dozens of others at www.hope.trf.org.au/videos.asp.

There was some outreaching conducted nearby and six folk were baptized during Convention.

On the Monday we headed off to separate barbeques (and yet more fellowship) at the three Revival halls in the suburbs: Woodcroft, "the Vogue" and Elisabeth.

Monday night was priceless. The Adelaide fellowship put on a concert entitled "A Night Under The Stars" at the Vogue Hall. It was a parody of the Greats of modern entertainment, singing and hamming their way through well-known pop tunes. The words had been changed of course, but the results were side-splittingly funny and spiritually thought-provoking.

A few stayed on to savour the Tuesday night meeting at the Vogue or even the Wednesday night meetings at one of the other two centres. All in all, a wonderful time and about as close as it gets to the joy of meeting the Lord in the air (before we actually do). Thanks go to the many Adelaide folk who helped make the 2004 Convention a great success and showing such warmth and hospitality to visitors.

The Convention is held in a different city each June. Next year will be in Perth, Western Australia (see www.pcec.com.au "Level 2" for a sneak preview of the 2005 venue.) If you couldn't make it this year, why not start planning now to head over to Perth next year…

Main Auditorium

A Mad Dash to complete the Woodcroft Atrium	Pastors on the Platform	The crowd in the marquee

Pastor Chris Kaye from Hungary	Folk fellowshipping in one of the eating areas

Bruce Brumby from Queensland yodels for the Lord	Catching up with old friends… Pastor Ilaitia and his wife Miriama from Fiji

Pastor Godfrey and his wife Elisabeth	The fellowship just rolls on ...

…an ice-cream from the van	One of the Adelaide children's singing groups

One of the baptisms	David and Mary Parker from California - healed of heroin addiction

The Friday prior to the Convention was taken up with our Annual Pastors' Meeting. Sixty pastors gathered to discuss revival around our Fellowship and deal with all the practical issues that arise.

There were some great reports from PNG, Brazil, Fiji, North America and Europe, as well as around Australia. (see "What In The World Is Happening" below).

The pastors at the Adelaide Convention 2004

Council Meetings were conducted over the Tuesday and Wednesday following Convention and included discussions on work in the Mission areas. A special meeting was held with the various Liaison Pastors i.e. those pastors who liaise to the Council on behalf of a particular region. Reports came in from Ps Deane Clee for the assembly in Bali, Ps David Elliott for the work in Brazil, Ps Graeme Hazledine for the works in Asia and Africa, etc. All in all it was wonderful to hear what the Lord is doing in our corner of the vineyard.

Council and Liaison Pastors Meeting

Pastor Darryl Williams, the senior pastor of the Melbourne Fellowship supervises this area. In addition, he currently serves as the liaison pastor representing the USA and Canada.

Pastor Darryl Williams	(Map of South-Eastern Australia highlighting Victoria and Tasmania)

MELBOURNE - The state capital of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia at 3.5 million. The assembly is pastored by Darryl Williams, Chris Jose and Roland Rocchi.

Melbourne Assembly

Pastor Chris Jose and wife Penny	Pastor Roland Rocchi

GEELONG - an hour or so southwest of Melbourne. Also the contact centre for the group that has started inland at Ballarat.

Geelong Assembly & Pastor Daryl Treloar

WARRNAMBOOL - out along the Great Ocean Rd, a coastal town cared for by brother Rob Peterson.

Warrnambool assembly	Brother Rob Peterson

BENDIGO - an hour or so north of Melbourne; once the centre of the Victorian gold rush, now the local source of "the true riches in Christ"; looked after by Brother Ian Johnson.

Brother Ian Johnson and his wife Suzette

HOBART - across the Bass Strait is the island state of Tasmania. The state capital is Hobart.

Hobart meeting & Pastor Kevin Williams (Far Left)

LAUNCESTON - …and on the north coast of Tasmania is the seaport of Launceston.

Launceston meeting	Pastor Brian Pennington and his wife Sandra

We'll start with a round up of recent happenings in Australia:

To open up the opportunities for revival, the already-busy assembly has broken into two with a new front of about 100 folk beginning an extension meeting at the northern end of town (the rest of the Fellowship remains at their own hall down south at Andrews).

The assembly there has split into two to try and cope better with the local traffic and movement problems - "North" and "South".

Andrew Riggs has been appointed the new pastor down south and brother Greg Walker the new leader up north. We wish them well in their evangelism.

Pastor Garry Hall will soon move back to help as pastor in his old assembly at Goulburn, but remains the overall pastor in charge of Sydney as well.

A group of a dozen folk has sprung up in this medium-sized regional centre in Victoria. If you have any contacts for the area whom you would like to hear the gospel please pass them to Pastor Daryl at Geelong.

Last October Greg Frost was appointed pastor of this newish assembly on the mid-northern New South Wales coast. By all reports, revival is picking up nicely there with about 40 folk. Pastor Greg has organised another Easter Camp there for next year and invites folk to "book in soon due to limited places".

Ps Steve Atkin of Eurobodalla has supervised the work in this nearby town on the New South Wales far South Coast. He tells us, "For a couple of years a handful met faithfully week after week in the local Red Cross Hall. Suddenly, over the last nine months, they have enjoyed revival!" There is now a group of a couple of dozen gathering in Fellowship.

The new Revival Fellowship Resource Centre is well and truly up and running in Canberra and has begun with the production of the new magazine, "ACTSNOW". The second issue is now being printed.

In addition, the first of the revised and harmonized, full-colour Revival Fellowship pamphlets are ready for production, and you should begin to see some of these in your assembly shortly.

The revival in Holland is still growing. A second assembly has started at Rotterdam under Pastor Ben Visser. Both centres are enjoying good results, with 100 baptisms so far this year. Most of their converts are coming from regular street witnessing.

Revival continues apace in Kenya, with efforts now going into spreading the gospel next door into Tanzania.

At a practical level, Pastor Brian Allen reports that since our last Newsletter a goat breeding project has been funded and is now is up and running. They are also looking at developing a second one. We are expecting proceeds from this project to start funding some of the work in Kenya, so relieving the Mission Fund. In other news, Ps Brian tells us the Mission Fund will soon buy Ps Sammy a 4 Wheel Drive vehicle to help get around the country.

Pastor Ilaitia Rokua, senior pastor in Fiji, reported that there are 659 folk in the Fijian assemblies. Lombasa is the fastest growing assembly: they look like baptising 100 folk this year. In a recent fortnight they baptized eighteen.

Pastor Ilaitia asked that we convey his thanks to the Fellowship for the 4 Wheel Drive vehicle recently donated to him to get around the assemblies. It helps greatly.

Pastor Godfrey Wippon reported that revival is "booming throughout the country". Over 5,000 baptisms take place per year in the 9 major urban centres (ie. not counting all the remote assemblies). "We normally don't need to outreach due to the constant stream of converts", he says.

The Revival Fellowship's exciting documentary "Latter Rain" was screened in early June during prime time on the country's major TV station, EMTV. The results have been felt near and wide. The Deputy Police Commissioner asked Ps Godfrey to help with "community policing" in Pt Moresby. A woman phoned him to say she was healed of a disorder of swollen legs - as she prayed while watching the documentary.

Manila is a huge city. The assembly has been divided into two (North and South Manila) to cope better with travel times. A lot of effort is being put into training the new leaders before focusing on evangelism. A recent visit by Ps Colin of Singapore and Ps Manuel of Darwin resulted in 11 baptisms - without any evangelism. "There is massive opportunity for revival in the country", reports Pastor Graeme Hazledine.

Hull: brother Bob Hutton from Australia is moving there shortly to look after a few folk and to see what the Lord might do.

Manchester: brother Lee Finney, recently of Exeter, has moved with his wife to Manchester. He will run meetings for the small group there.

North London: they now have two meetings.

Medway: they have completed modifications to the building they bought and are holding meetings there. The hall has room beneath it and any evangelists are invited to come and stay there for free whilst evangelizing. (Please contact Ps Steve Murphy for details.)

Calling all Young People!!!
Been there? Done that?? Got the T-shirt???
Looking for excitement in the Lord? Wanna go to the edge??
Here it is…

Adelaide Young Peoples' Camp
OCT 2, 3, 4 "Survivor II"
"It's gonna go off," says Pastor Paul Nobel.
(enquiries: pk_n@iprimus.com.au)
Buy a cheap plane ticket. Catch a bus. Borrow your Dad's car.

Just be there!

This will be held on 7-11th October 2004. (Approx cost is $749 ex Brisbane for 4 nights.)

Calling all pastors, musicians and good evangelists! This year the PNG Rally is happening from 17th-28th September, 2004 at Rabaul - but with strictly limited numbers. An approximate cost is $1 900 per person ex Brisbane. Contact Pastor Joe Abel at abel_joseph@hotmail.com if you are interested.

16th- 19th September, 2004 at Fresno.

There are many exciting things happening in our Fellowship around the world. But revival doesn't come by letting others get on with the job. We all have a part to play. "The seed won't grow in the bag." Don't wait for others. Get out there and tell someone about God's plan for salvation.

Keep up the good work!

"Do the work of an evangelist." ( II Timothy 4:5)