The nine years Ellen White spent in Australia introduced her to new and different living and working conditions. It also placed upon her responsibilities in some areas she had not previously borne. Nearing her sixty-fourth birthday, she was reluctant to interrupt her work of writing and leave America for a distant field of labor, but near the close of her sojourn she could write, "God sent me to Australia."–Letter 175, 1899.

The resources from which this volume was developed have been full and exceptionally rich. Ellen White, anticipating a published account of her work overseas, reported, "I have kept up my diary, as afar as possible, of our labors in Australia and in Europe."–Letter 36, 1910. Her experience in producing biographical sketches of her life in 1860, 1876, and 1885 led her to see the value of such records. The manuscript "Australian Experiences"; her diaries; her reports of activities in the Review and Herald; and her correspondence, especially letters to her sons Edson and William and two or three close associates in America, have provided the prime sources

Ellen White performed a dual ministry in Australia. She virtually pioneered the work in that new field; at the same time she nurtured and counseled, through her letters, the church in America, presenting what God set before her in vision. She wrote carefully and with sympathy and understanding, but at times there were firm message pointing the way God would have His work managed, or correcting a course of action on the part of individuals that if unchanged would be detrimental to them and to the cause of God.

This volume will help you see Ellen White as an individual–a wife, mother, neighbor, and friend–as well as the messenger of the Lord, laboring tirelessly in the pulpit and on the public platform in declaring God’s message and in counseling often and writing incessantly with an influence felt around the world.