Wednesday and Thursday of this week were devoted to driving to a an Aboriginal community called Werunbun to put on a kids camp. Werunbun is about 45 minutes drive from Katherine and is home to a small population of indigenous people. We got a late start because the rains of the current wet season caused the waters to flood parts of the road we travel, but we made it with plenty of time to play.
After brief introductions and a few Kriol worship songs, we piled about 12 kids into our vehicles and drove a few minutes to Edith Falls. There we played a game called ‘hit and run’…pretty self explanatory…, barbequed hot dogs, and splashed around in the water until the sun went down.
Thursday we arrived earlier in the afternoon and spent some time teaching the story of ‘Jesus and the woman at the well’ (in the book of John) in Kriol, complete with hand symbols for some of the key words. Then we colored pictures of that story, sang some more Kriol worship songs, and rounded out the day with a water balloon fight.
Many of the children in Aboriginal communities are poorly educated and struggle with literacy, so putting on camps like this that involve reading with hand motions, memorizing, speaking, and singing can really help solidify concepts in their minds. The long term goal is to raise up leaders within the communities to continue such programs and disciple the younger generations.
