GordonMoyes.com

Four years of preparation preceded the 8th World Convention of Churches of Christ held in Adelaide in October 1970. Gordon’s involvement included caring for the travel and accommodation plans for most of the overseas visitors. During the course of these duties he met and established a friendship with young Dr Lloyd Lambert of Enid, Oklahoma.

The arrival of another son marked the Moyes second year in Cheltenham. On the 27th of July, 1967, David became the adored baby brother of 2 1/2 year old Peter and 5 year old Jenny—to say nothing of a whole church full of proxy uncles, aunts, cousins and doting grandparents.

When the circumstances behind Gordon’s call to Cheltenham leaked out, not everyone was happy to welcome the new minister. Although innocent, some of the members blamed him for the shabby way in which their former pastor had been treated. It took time and patience before Gordon’s exuberance, his inexhaustible flow of ideas and his amazing propensity for hard work won over most of the congregation.

After they decided not to proceed to America Gordon sent for the crate of personal effects they had forwarded to USA six months ahead of their original departure date.

Twice already the Moyes had postponed their trip to America. Once when the second visa came through shortly after Beverley discovered that she was pregnant, and again when there were so many new projects afoot in the Ararat Church and a huge building project under way, they had deferred their plans for a further twelve months.

Not long after their arrival at Ararat the young Moyes again completed all the rigmarole that issuing new visas necessitated. Months later the U S Consulate informed them that they could now enter U S A and embark on Gordon’s work and study programme.

Denominational pride and countless working bees had resulted in the Ararat Churches of Christ sanctuary presenting a reasonably good face to the world but some of its related buildings were not so presentable.

Thanks to the publicity from Chris Fisher’s newspaper articles, Gordon’s experience as a Parole and Probation officer was often called upon and he soon realized that too many of the town’s youth appeared before the courts. Life in a country town held less in the way of amusement and excitement than in the city, and the young folk had quickly found that they occasioned the biggest stir when they broke the law.

In his first weeks of pastoring the Church of Christ in Ararat, Gordon found that he was expected to take his turn at being chaplain at the Aradale Mental Hospital, a low priority Government Hospital housing about 900 patients and providing work for more than one thousand of Ararat’s citizens.

A week after the Moyes arrived in Ararat Chris Fisher, the journalist from the Ararat Advertiser, called hoping to dredge up something interesting to write about. It was hard to find newsworthy material in a small country town and sometimes the best he could do was attend the courts.