Fred and Betty Evans' Website

Betty & I were contemplating the few years of our earthly journey that may remain.

Certainly less than a decade!

Things to do and things not to do.

We are both approaching our 86th year on this planet earth.

Contemplating the end journey and getting it all in order is not easy.

Getting rid of ‘stuff ‘ for example.

For us it has not been too difficult as we have moved house & home over 20 times.

For some who have lived their whole life in their marriage home it can be challenging!

For example should we stay in our own home or move into a retirement village?

We have even gone so far as to buy a burial plot next to my old colleague in arms Ps Ian Parker, where he was cremated at the Albany Creek Memorial Park.

These things are not cheap; we are still paying it off so we can’t die tomorrow. LOL

Considering the number of funerals we attend it seems my pastor and missionary peers are lining up to cross over to their eternal home.

The Director of World Missions, Ps George Forbes has gone, Robert Spence has gone, Les Beach has gone, Frank Farr has gone, Leila Hovey has gone etc etc!

Who’s next I wonder?

Its interesting as one looks back over life, increasingly we begin to reflect upon what’s left and the legacy we leave.

I miss my colleagues like Ps John Lewis, Ps Alec Alcorn, Ps Gerald Rowlands and Ps John Jobe.

Their absence in my life makes the end of life a stark reality.

Many of my Bible College class mates have gone!

Bob Bootes, Ian Scannell, Darrell Kerridge, Nicey Sambo, and Glen Gray, Phylis Stewart and my dear brother Andrew Evans whom I miss greatly!

Many notable preachers in my life time have gone and  finished their course.

Ps C L Greenwood, Ps James Wallace, who was my Commonwealth Bible College Principal and dear old Ps A T Davidson who was very kind to me as a young first term missionary.

Not forgetting Ps Lloyd & Edith Averill who married us at the historic Glad Tiding Tabernacle in Brisbane on the 9th May 1964.

I remember well when German Evangelist – Reinhard Bonnke came to preach in Adelaide in the 1980s.

The church was packed to the doors as he thundered out his message of Salvation through Christ alone!

They are all gone!

My mother and father have also gone, crossing over into the proverbial “Promised Land”!

They too were passionate preachers.

My mother Stella Evans who fearlessly preached to thousands of wandering pilgrims at Hindu festivals in India and wherever she could find a group of adults or children to listen to her.

In my teenage years when my parents had returned to Australia after their mission to India had concluded, her passion never receded!

She would preach in ‘Open Air’ meetings on the streets of Adelaide, often to my embarrassment.

I am still perplexed as to why my dear father Ps. T L Evans would preach  so passionately on the subject : “What Will You Do In The End?”

Under my breath I would say “Dad calm down” as he preached after I had introduced him from the Paradise pulpit.

Well here I am nearing Heaven and listening to him preach on the video below and he was 5 years older than I am currently.

If you don’t believe me here is an edited version of the sermon he preached when he was 90!

I am saying all the above to encourage you to listen to the end words of my father on the video below.

“What Will You Do In The End?”

I suppose one of the preachers that greatly influenced my life as a young man, was the Late great evangelist Billy Graham.

I will never forget listening to him  preach the gospel to thousands of beachgoers at Burleigh Heads from the balcony of the Greenmount Surf Club when I was 19 years of age and a first year student in Bible College.

I was captivated by his powerful preaching as were the huge crowd of beach goers.

I will never forget meeting him in 1959 when I shook his hand at a welcoming occasion when he arrived in Brisbane and met with the counsellors for the historic Brisbane Crusade.

I didn’t wash my hand for a week! LOL

The man that God chose to bring a national Spiritual Awakening to Australia became my hero and the preacher I wanted to emulate!

Well, Billy Graham has gone also!

In Conclusion, this maybe a sobering blog but we all have to face our mortality one day.

Here in this video, Billy Graham preaches his last sermon on this earth and the subject is –

Are You Ready To Die?

So the question is, have you prayed that Prayer?

 

 

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