Dear Praying Friends,
Thank you all for your faithful prayers and for partnering with us in the ministry here in New Zealand. We are in the middle of our summer months. Our North Island has been facing some terrible flooding while we are facing heat, drought and water-rationing here at the bottom of the South Island. We are seeing two extremes. Our year started off with a whirlwind of activity as we had our annual Family Camp for the South Island churches. We rent out a camp and have a week of preaching, fellowship, and fun. Each church takes a part in the work of preaching, providing special music, cooking, clean-up and activities. We started these camps over 20 years ago and this has been a vital tool that the Lord has used to help our churches to grow. Our churches are great distances apart, but this allows our people to see that there are others that believe just like us. In those early years a good attendance was 30-40 people. As I made the plans for this year’s camp I was praying for 120-130 in attendance. That would have matched our
highest attendance of the past. I guess I was lacking in faith. The Lord gave us so much more than we could have ever imagined as we had over 200 in attendance each day!! We packed every dorm room in the facility that we were renting and we had others in tents and campers. At the end of the camp the pastors always meet together to compare ideas, make suggestions and appoint the camp director for next year. I have been blessed by being asked to direct the camp again next year. That will definitely be a challenge, but I honestly love it.

One beautiful thing about the camps is that we have watched an entire generation
grow up in them. Many of those that we saw as children in the early years are now
adults with their own children. I see a strength in the churches as we see so many
people of all ages represented in each church. I am excited to see what the Lord
will do in the next few years as New Zealanders continue to be trained and as
churches are started around our islands.

In my last letter I told you that Diana had to make an emergency trip to the States to help her 92-year-old father. She was with him for nearly two months. We praise the Lord that he has regained his strength and is doing well. Thank you for your prayers. This was a special time for her and she treasured the time with him. While Diana was away many of the people in my church were afraid that I might not be able to cook for myself so they brought me food. Between them and my daughter Sarah who regularly dropped off baked goods, I did fine. I truly am thankful to each of you that stand with us as we serve of Lord here in New Zealand. I could never express enough of our appreciation and love to each of you.

Yours for souls in New Zealand,
Bob and Diana Rutta

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