It was a privilege to have my brother preach on Resurrection Sunday to start the month. A visiting young lady accepted Christ following the service! For the evening, we attended the 20th anniversary celebration for Pastor Dan Fraser at GIBC, Tauranga. It was a blessing to once again visit and meet many new individuals faithfully attending there since our departure. It was especially encouraging to hear from men such as Brent and Phil at GIBC. We received texts from them reminding us of the investment in their lives and encouraging us by their soul winning efforts. Phil was recently able to lead his granddaughter to Christ (from a non-religious home): something for which we’ve prayed for three years! Side note, praise the Lord for the faithfulness of a preacher for twenty years. We believe we are indebted to Pastor Fraser and the good people of GIBC for their investment into our lives and ministry since arriving in NZ.
On the heels of Resurrection Sunday, we moved into Teen Camp. Our church was responsible for organising the camp food, and a job which we are well-suited for with most of our church family in food services (professional cooking, processing, hospitality, etc). God met with us at the camp through the preaching and we rejoiced to have eight teens who accepted Christ and several who surrendered to God’s will and the ministry!
The following Sunday our church held its annual business meeting. This was an opportunity to open the conversation of a future pastoral transition in 2027. The next steps being Limuel Daisa’s ordination and prayerful vote in late 2026 for a Co-Pastor role to be established. Please pray as we continue to teach, preach, and prepare for these steps. We are relying on God’s leading heavily through this process.
In the past two weeks, HBC has had fourteen guests, eleven of those have been under thirty. One was a young man that I played basketball with at a park in November. Another was looking for the library but was interested enough to attend his first church service. A teenager from GIBC brought four friends and the remaining visitors were two young families. The Catholic mom was excited to find a church where her kids could learn how to talk to God, and not just repeat prayers. I am reminded of a verse that Pastor Jono of FBC, Hamilton recently shared: Psalm 24:6, “This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face...”
Late in the month, we traveled with Pastor Jono and two interns to the Auckland suburb of Pukekohe to scout the city as a potential option for a future church plant of FBC. There are five families with interest in a church plant there. Earlier in that week, Pastor Dan received a phone call from an older man who had received a John & Romans from our mailing in 2025 to the Wellington area. He requested Pastor Dan to call his granddaughter and witness to her. Long story short, he did, she accepted Christ, and we were able to visit her later that same week. She knew sin had ruined her non-religious family, but she needed to turn to God for help. “This is the generation of them that seek him...”
Last Monday we held a kids’ activity and had an eleven-year-old neighbor attend. He comes from a non-religious home (noticing a pattern?) but knew most of the Bible answers. I asked where he learned these things. “I look up Bible things on TikTok.” “This is the generation of them that seek him...”
A year ago Alyse started witnessing to a hairdresser, in her fifties and non-religious. This past time, the conversation quickly picked up pace as now she’s attending a Christian church. Of significance was this statement from her: “It seems that my age missed God, but the younger people are looking for Him.” “This is the generation of them that seek him...”
In May, we look forward to hearing Bro. Austin Reed from Global Baptist Church Planters at the FBC, Hamilton missions conference. Please be praying for the churches to be stirred in our local church planting efforts.
Thank you for praying and sacrificing for the gospel’s sake,
Josh, Alyse, Bentlee, Raelynn and Ellie Szwarga
