Southland

OAC History

OAC Ministries (formerly Open Air Campaigners NZ Inc.) was first established in Sydney (Australia) in 1892 as the New South Wales Prayer Band and became know as Open Air Campaigners in 1922.
From early days, its main thrust of ministry was, as its name suggests, taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people wherever they gathered publicly - in the streets, parks, holiday resorts, schools & colleges, building sites, prisons, and so on.
Open Air Ministry was first introduced to New Zealand (Aotearoa - the land of the long white cloud) in 1948 by Australian OAC Evangelist, Rev Jim Duffecy and the ministry was officially launched on 22 January 1952 under the Directorship of George & Margaret Bremner who served with OAC for 30 years.
On His resignation on 22 January 1982, George continued to be involved in the Foreign Missions aspect of the work, assisting in the development of the Sowers Program, which became known as "Sowers International" in 1988.

OAC Otago/Southland Branch

The Otago/Southland Branch was established in 1960 and flourished under southern man, Bob McNaughton, until he was appointed National Director and transferred to Auckland in 1979. The Branch continued briefly under Bruce MacKay until it was closed in 1980. Occasional ministry forays were done by itinerant evangelists from branches further north.

Ivan & Diane Grindlay

In 1994, Ivan & Diane Grindlay were sent from Auckland to restart the Branch ministry that had been in recess for some 14 years. In seeking to introduce the ministry afresh to the south, Ivan visited church leaders to assess their spiritual needs and attitude to gospel outreach. A number of rural community outreaches resulted, mainly in rural heartland of northern Southland.
Localised outreach occurred mainly in Dunedin and Invercargill using voluntary teams. During the summer holiday season, church-based teams spread out into the tourist areas to do summer programmes amongst campers. These became known as O.J. Missions. Among the volunteers was a young man, John Laing.
Just prior to the Grindlay's arrival in Dunedin, a citywide outreach took place in 1993 when 14 staff evangelists were involved amongst 13 local churches. Internal circumstances led to the Grindlays resigning in 1998.
However, after serving in Christian Camping ministry in the Queenstown Lakes district for seven years, and in church-based pastoral work in Dunedin for three years, they returned to OAC Ministries in June 2008. The Otago/Southland Branch was reactivated.

John Laing

Then in March 2009, former voluntary worker John Laing, having served in OAC NZ in Canterbury and Manawatu districts, returned to Dunedin to take up his first Branch Directorship in the region. John had specialised in children's and camp ministry in that time.

Quentin & Shana Copland

Iain Sutherland

Iain Sutherland has successfully finished the OAC National School of Evangelism (7 weeks) in the Hawkes Bay and is now working with the Otago/Southland branch as a trainee evangelist. Iain is also completeing a ministry diploma course with Pathways Bible College this year. 

OAC Ministries

OAC NZ has been known over the years for its singular focus of "Presenting Christ by all means Everywhere".  Its 'modus operandii' is two-fold;

1. Reaching people with the good news of Jesus Christ.
2. Equipping churches to do the same.

OAC Ministries is a faith-based evangelistic organisation that is non-profit.  Its staff are called by God to trust Him wholly for all the resources required to live and to carry out their ministry. They rely entirely on the Lord's provision and do not receive any guaranteed remuneration.
Our experience is that those whom the Lord calls, He also provides for. We commend the staff to your prayers and invite you to consider how you can participate in this exciting life-changing ministry in Otago/Southland. Your prayers and support would be much appreciated.