Special 150th Edition

Dear
April of this year has deep significance to us as a ministry and to us as a family. This editorial is shared with you to encourage just what God can do with frail humanity and may it encourage each one of you who read it.

The South Island town of Rangiora has been home to Angela and myself for just about all of our lives. I was born in Christchurch, then all my life from then on here in Rangiora. Life for me was initially on a small dairy farm, just out of the township on a small rural property. Then in 1972 after my schooling ended, I took on an apprenticeship in motor mechanics, yes, in Rangiora. The HQ Holden then being the brand new car of the day.

Angela moved into the area when she was seven years of age, her family, settling on a larger dairy farm also just on the outskirts of Rangiora. After her schooling ended, she took on an apprenticeship in dressmaking, but this took her into Christchurch, for her early working career.

It was while we were engaged in our careers, with our farming back-ground, that we both attended the Rangiora Young Farmers club. A friendship began between us, and after about a year and a half, we were united in marriage, being February 5, 1977.  We then bought our first home in the township of Rangiora. I continued in my path of mechanics, Angela in her dressmaking, but she moved her employment into Rangiora.

As a young married couple, we didn't really have long term plans for our future. We had our trades that we were holding to, but from there on, we hoped to do well and be prosperous, but not sure what direction. One thing we were both set on was to get our home paid off completely, and this we did in two years. We both wanted that security.

While living in that first home, our first child, Madelene, was born in October 1978, in Rangiora hospital. This changed our focus. We had a commitment to that little new life and wanted to move out of the township – two years was enough for country dwellers - and we wanted to get our own small rural property to bring our children up.

We viewed properties and found a home in Southbrook, just immediately south of the township of Rangiora, and made this move to our little country home in 1979. It was an idyllic setting with our home being the only one on a dead end road. It was an older weatherboard home, but had five acres with a spring-fed creek running through it.

In July 1980, Damon was born which added to our family unit. As these children grew, we sent them to kindergarten, as any normal parent would. Madelene fitted into it okay, but Damon resisted it strongly. This brought about a conviction that it was not the school or the community's responsibility to bring them up. It was ours.

Right about this time, a Dutch couple, Ben and Marion Pel were living here in New Zealand, and Ben was employed at the same business where I was working. We became good friends, especially as their Daniel and our Damon were only two weeks apart for their birthdays. Ben and Marion were also on a search and had become vegetarians. I personally had some small health issues and spoke to Ben at our place of work and he suggested we drop meat out of our diet, as it was toxic to the system. After some resistance, we finally agreed to give it a go. Two weeks after that change, we noticed a huge change in my health and thinking, and adopted the vegetarian diet.

In December 1982, our third child, Korina was born. We were settled in our home, I was engaged in a small engineering/mechanical business from our home and we became well settled in our vegetarian diet and we were heading into the New Age movement with Daniel's parents.

Big Changes Coming

As our minds cleared from our drastic change of diet from the old Kiwi meat and vege diet, we wanted some morals and principles for our children to live by. The employer I was working for at the time was a believer in the Scriptures and shared with us that our Lord had put in the Scriptures a healthy diet, of clean and unclean meats. I had no idea what 'Scriptures' were at that point, but took his word for it, as I had great respect for the man. We were off the meat anyway, so did not have that burden to know about clean and unclean meats. In addition, we didn't have much interest in religion, as Angela was a back-slidden Roman Catholic, I was a back-slidden Methodist and we had agreed that religion would not come into our marriage to cause tension. That was about to change.

My employer at the time was part of the World-Wide Church of God, who at that time published a magazine, 'Plain Truth'. Angela picked up one of those from a public book-rack in Rangiora and brought it home. With the publication coming from my employer's church, I trusted it and read an article, “The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.” I was impacted tremendously. It was a study on Revelation 10 and I realized this came from the same 'Scriptures' as my employer had talked about that revealed the clean and unclean foods.

At this time, we had made up our mind that the Christian faith may have something more than we had experienced in our childhood. So looking for something of a Christian nature, we decided we would go to the Pentecostal church close by. I had an interest in music and they had some 'good' music, so we would go along and attend the following Sunday. On the Tuesday before that Sunday, I was reading our local newspaper and in the North Canterbury section, I saw the word 'Revelation'. It caught my eye. It was advertising a series of meetings on Revelation, in the Rangiora Seventh-day Adventist Church.

We didn't go to the Pentecostal church after reading that, but decided to wait until the following Tuesday night and go and hear this message on Revelation at the Rangiora Seventh-day Adventist Church. I had got to the point, it didn't really matter where it was, I just wanted Revelation.

So this newsletter has significance to this part of our testimony. It was on Tuesday night April 26, 1983 that I first attended the meeting by Pastor Ray Stanley on the book of Revelation. I went by myself, as Angela looked after the young children. By the end of the evening, I was not really impressed about the Jesus bit, I didn't think that fitted with Revelation, but apart from that, I was impressed by the presentation so much, that at the end, I wanted to see Pr Stanley and it was then I realised this was one of a series of six evenings. I attended every one of them, conveyed the message to Angela when I got home. Pr Stanley with the then pastor, Pr Allan Foote, came to visit and we agreed to studies and fully accepted every one of those studies and were baptised as a husband and wife in the stream at our home in Southbrook on Sabbath, December 13, 1983.

From that point, we drank in all we could of the message. The Spirit of Prophecy was introduced to us, we accepted it immediately and have loved it ever since, read extensively from those writings and applied them to our lives and family – and they work!

Within two years, we were involved with a self-supporting ministry work. Pastor Ron Spear from USA visited New Zealand and invited us to be a part of a ministry, Hope International New Zealand. This was a whole new concept for us. We had only just become established in this new message - and now this? We accepted this challenge and were keen to be part of this new ministry in New Zealand. There was a North Island base and we were invited to be a face for this ministry in the South Island.

A new SDA friend was also invited to be a part of this ministry, but was going to USA to help in the new-found Hartland College just being established in Virginia, but we took the invite seriously to get something going here in New Zealand, not sure of the results.

Birth of a Ministry
Right about this time, a local Christian farming family sold their farm and gave a substantial gift for the purpose of purchasing inexpensive Great Controversy books for the people of New Zealand. Those funds were given to a family in the Rangiora church, but within a short space of time, that family left for Australia. Those funds were given to me to continue the ministry of inexpensive literature. Included were two cases of those inexpensive Great Controversy from a new ministry of  Pilgrims Rest. That ministry still exists today and has continued for over 40 years, now under the name of Harvestime Books.

I stored them under the stairs at our Southbrook home. Some months later, a church member knew books were available and asked me for two. That was our first delivery.

The instructions that came from the donor of the money, was that if we could get some funds back upon giving the books out, then we were to buy more books. Some books were sold for about $2.00, a few funds accumulated, then we imported a few more books. But I realised I needed to let people know we had them. I went and found a second-hand typewriter. Although I had never operated one in my life, I managed to type out a page of the books available and send them to 48 people I knew of. This was the beginning of the work we as a family, have been involved with ever since.

In October 1985, our youngest child, Malcolm was born, the hens had wrecked our garden while Angela was in Rangiora hospital. So upon her coming home from the hospital and seeing the damage from the hens, she said, “Either the hens go, or the garden goes.” From that time, we dropped all animal products from our diet and have been plant-based ever since.

As the fledgling ministry began to move forward, we put some planks of timber beside our car in the garage to keep the books off the cold and damp concrete. I was still doing mechanical and engineering work to keep the family needs maintained, while in our evenings and spare time, received a few orders from a few people who wanted these inexpensive books and then would wrap them up and send them off in the post.

Our acquaintance who had gone to USA came home and organized a trip to the North Island to meet some friends and take books with us. As people realized these books were available, it only increased the need for books. More were shipped in from the USA.

It came to the point where the ministry work was taking over my manual labour. My heart was being drawn to the ministry work, but income was also affected and not profitable by any means. A cheque arrived and helped keep us going, then another just when we needed it, and so the book-work escalated into full time work.

With the increase of ministry, and speakers coming to stay with us, we sold our home in Southbrook and moved to a bigger home in nearby Ashley district, where we continued the ministry work for 31 years. This is the home most people will remember when visiting. It was an excellent home for the purpose and as the ministry continued to expand, a small building was built to house some printing equipment.

Our enthusiasm in this work caused difficulties with the church we were attending. From the early years in our Christian experience, it wasn't an easy path, but through perseverance and God's mighty divine help and encouragement, He has sustained us through all these valleys. Because of our continued enthusiasm for the ministry work, our names were removed from the Rangiora Seventh-day Adventist Church roll, at a business meeting on July 29, 1992.

Upon going home from that meeting, we had to make a decision. Now having no church membership, we would either walk away from the message completely, or set out to find a more personal experience with our God. Obviously, we took the latter and continued the work of Hope International in our home for the next few years. In late 1997 and early 1998, after 12 years in total, there was a separation from the ministry of Hope International, with that ministry leaving our home to another location.

That left us as a family with no ministry work, and at the time, with very little interest to pick up ministry work again, but friends encouraged us to resume the work. So in May 1998, Autumn Leaves was registered as a charitable entity and was founded in that same home in Ashley. Madelene and Damon, worked with us, Madelene became the receptionist, Damon started working on the computer. The little ministry soon grew to keep the three of us going full time with the help of Angela and the two younger children, Korina and Malcolm, when free and available from their home-schooling. We ran with it, doing what mattered for us and what mattered for those we were serving, both in our home and on the road.

Moving On
Eventually our children reached marriage ages and paired off into their own lives, Madelene eventually leaving to start her family. Damon also married, but stayed with the ministry which he had been involved from before his home-schooling days finished. He is still with it today, now over-seeing the management of the whole ministry. Korina went to study and practice early childhood education, but came back to the ministry and took over Madelene's role in reception until she was married and started her family. Malcolm went and did his apprenticeship as an electrician, went to Australia for some years, now he has come back and working with us full time in the ministry.

With the continual growth in Autumn Leaves, staff were taken on to help with the workload. Korina left to care for her family and others have been with us to fill the reception role over the years. In 2015 it became apparent that we were not able to function efficiently in our existing home, mainly due to the growth and demand of media and television. If left to ourselves, Angela and I would have started to pull the work back, with advancing years coming upon us, but Damon was willing to continue. He masterminded the research and management of the new building. This has resulted in miracle after miracle to see this new building erected and functioning. What is so amazing, is that the new building, is located about a quarter of a kilometre from the little home in Southbrook where we first heard the message and were baptised in the stream.

In 2007, we had a burden to reach into the city of Christchurch. We brought Daniel Pel over from Norway to run a series in the Christchurch Town Hall. We then had a dilemma as to where we could take interests out of that mission. A member of Ilam Church came to that event and we asked if we could take interests to that church, of which he immediately affirmed. That started our journey to work with the Seventh-day Adventist Church again, of which we regained our membership back in the church in August, 2015.

In 2020 with the pandemic restrictions, a church plant developed, resulting in worshiping in the local town of Kaiapoi. There has never been a Seventh-day Adventist church there. It has been very successful with an attendance averaging 60 people each Sabbath. Angela and I support and attend this church.  It is a blessing to see its progress.

As a couple, on our wedding day, we had absolutely no idea of the direction our future together would end up. We look back over the 46 years of our marriage and have no regrets at all the path we have walked. It is so obvious that He has been with us for the 38 odd years in ministry work. There is ample evidence of His presence, especially with the tangible evidence of the physical building we now operate in.

We are so grateful to our God for what He has done for us in our family, that the whole four of our children have had an interest in this work, laboured in the work of ministry, many times just for their food and accommodation. Not one of us over all those years have ever gone without a meal or bed.

Since finding this message on April 26, 1983, it was when we saw the forming of this new building, that I personally felt the reality of the words, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” — Hebrews 11:1. So many times during this build, we have seen this verse come to life.

It has been our honest desire to see Jesus Christ come back to gather His children out of this old world. It has been our desire now for a very long time to be willing to support the work that was given us right from the beginning, to put literature in the hands of as many people as possible. Now that has spread to media as well.

A Word of Thanks
As at the publication of this newsletter, I personally want to thank my wife Angela sincerely, for staying with me for our 46 years of marriage, 40 of them in the Seventh-day Adventist faith, through all the blessings and difficulties of ministry.

I want to thank all four of our children for standing by us as parents in the ministry work thick and thin.

I want to thank all our staff, for the dedication and perseverance they have shown over the years, and some of our staff have been with us for a very long time.

I want to thank all of you who have supported us in the work of Autumn Leaves for the last 25 years to where it is now, here in New Zealand, in Australia and in the various countries around the world.

I want to again thank my God for His continual presence in my life, in my family's lives, and for His perseverance in that He has miraculously worked through this mortal flesh over those years, with all its frailties. It is my prayer that in some way, as a result of this ministry, souls have been encouraged forward in their Christian journey in some capacity, despite the weaknesses and limitations of humanity.

Some points of interest in all this; As our children were born, they have each had a special meaning in our lives. In their young years, each child has brought a significant change into our lives.

Madelene, we moved into the country.

Damon, we became vegetarian.

Korina, we found the message of Jesus Christ.

Malcolm, we became plant based in our diet.

And why is April 2023 so significant for us?

April 26, 1983, we heard the message for the first time – exactly 40 years ago.

May 1998, Autumn Leaves was founded into a ministry – exactly 25 years ago.

The leaflet you are reading is the 150th newsletter published by Autumn Leaves.

The healthbites included is the 100th edition published by Autumn Leaves.

While this newsletter marks a very special time and occasion in our lives and in the ministry of Autumn Leaves, the work is not over yet. There is a lot more that we expect to accomplish. It is so encouraging to see the volume of material still going out daily on courier.

God has brought us this far, through highs and lows – and there have been many of them, but He has displayed His presence with patience, with powerful miracles and abundant evidence of fulfilling His promises.

We cannot stop now. We cannot turn back. We cannot deny our God for what He has done. May we be faithful to the end. May you all be faithful to the end. May not one of us be missing on that great resurrection morning when, “…the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” — I Thessalonians 4:16-18