As soon as we arrived at our ministry home base In Darwin (Wagait Beach specifically), we received a Tsunami warning based off the recent earthquake in Japan, this was fairly unnerving -we are minutes from the beach and hours from any sort of city, also our contacts work heavily with the Indigenous people here and we all knew in our hearts that they would have no way of escape. We all prayed out loud and fortunately about 15 minutes after that, the warning lifted…whew! God is good and we continued with preparing dinner :o)
As usual God has placed our team very far from any form of city life or other world race teams and for the third time- with another family structure for contacts. Our contacts are named Roger and Vivian Lethan, this couple is FANTASTIC and completely filled with the Holy Spirit! Check out their site to learn more: www.outbackresources.weebly.com . They have such an intense passion and LOVE for the Indigenous communities here, I never even knew what the word Indigenous meant until coming here, Indigenous (for those like me) are the first people to ever settle in a certain land, in America for instance it was the Native Americans. On our second night here, Vivian went to pick up 5 girls for a sleep over from the local Indigenous (also called Aborigines) community we will be working with, called Belyuen. The girls were between ages 8-11, at first I stared at them (like the kids in Cambodia stared at us), their look is SO different, but absolutely beautiful! Within about 30 minutes I fell in love with one specifically named Charlene (who has an older sister named Rachel-it was meant to be :o)). We all sang worship songs (they were very into them!) and ate dinner and just had fun :o). The main focus of the Indigenous ministry is to promote healthy lifestyle and provide motivation to make more of their lives, and of course tell them about Jesus! Many of these people suffer from addictions to alcohol and drugs-many times out of pure boredom, many do not have jobs and a large sprit of hopelessness hangs over them, many are illiterate and this is largey due to a mindset of complacency. The sad part is these people are SO loving and caring, I think many of them feel “overtaken” by “whitefellas” as they call us :o), much like the Indians were forced into areas we were not, it’s just a tough situation, one of the most depressing things that I have seen so far is that NONE of the children go on to University, and most rarely attend school, they don’t see a reason to. Vivian works in Belyuen as a nurse and midwife and is a huge encouragement and help to these people. We as a team are so excited to have an opportunity to spend time with the young girls and love and hug on them. They speak Kriol, which is quite interesting to listen to, it is mixed with English, so we can understand bits of it, food for instance is called bushtucka :o).
We will be visiting with the girls and elderly of Belyuen and also doing yard work around the ministry site this week (this site has hosted many teams from all over the world-we actually have bunk beds!!!). I also learned how to use a pressure washer and cleaned all the gutters on the roof! (What are you preparing me for Lord??? :o)) The following week we will be going down to a place called Katherine (and PS I am driving a truck with a team by ourselves since I am the only one who knows how to drive a stick shift AND the drivers seat is on the RIGHT side and the road is opposite than in America, so I am practicing-pray for us!). In Katherine we will be working with a local missionary named Rachel and also working in an Indigenous community. AND THEN, the week after that we will be living in a school named Woolaning-which is a Christian school for Indigenous people, so lots of good stuff planned! Oh yeah, and pray for us when we walk to the beach here, the crocodiles are known to take people and kill them in the ocean and they run faster than horses when they attack-CREEPY-so obviously no swimming for us! Anyway, Australia is beautiful, I have already seen a few Wallabies(small Kangaroos), which they actually eat here :o) Love you all and miss you and please continue to keep Cambodia in your prayers as it is still hard for me to think about having left it behind (for now!)
Jesus is so REAL and tangible here, His spirit is strong and He IS the air that I breathe! I am MOST excited about knowing Him more and more and trust me I am, and He is SO beautiful! “He has shown you O man, what is GOOD. And what does the Lord require of you? To act JUSTLY and to LOVE mercy and to walk HUMBLY with your God.” ~Micah 6:8
