The Boys Down Under

So in October I was in Darwin, Australia
with all of the guys on our Squad for Manistry. We were picked up at
the airport by our contact Isobel and were on our way. She began to
tell us about the area and what we would be doing while we were here.
Isobel and her husband David have been working with an Aboriginal
community for the past 10 years. They have started a church in the
community and do outreach there almost everyday. David is also head
surgeon at the local hospital. The day after we arrived David had to
go into surgery himself and so would be unable to lift anything during
our stay there. (Answer to prayer number 1.) Did I mention that
they are in their sixties and were still going nonstop everyday in
service to this community and us while we were there. They were
simply amazing and a huge blessing to all of the guys. We stayed on
the first floor of their home. Even though we were all in one big
room together it was awesome. We had AC, a pool in the backyard and
a grill.

That night we went out to the
community to lead a Bible study at one of the homes. It was a small
gathering of the locals. We shared who we were and told some of our
stories. It was kind of a shock to me when we arrived at the
community. The word Aboriginal to me still makes me think of a very
tribal people group living in the middle of the Outback. Which is
where most of them can trace their roots from. Their stories are
very similar to the Native Americans. The government came in and
took over their lands. They forced most of them to conform to
Western ideals. The Aboriginals became a strong work force until the
government tried to make up for the past by paying the Aboriginals
monthly amounts and free housing. The locals call it ‘sit around
money’ because that was the affect. The Aboriginals quit working and
turn to drink and drugs. There numbers are getting smaller each year
of this.

Our main goal during the day was to
fix up one of the homes in the community that would one day be used
by a full-time pastor. Some people had gotten into the house and
trashed it. We spent a couple of days cleaning out the junk,
painting the inside and killing rats. It was a great time to be a
man.

Sunday night we would drive around
town pick up Aboriginals that want to come to church. Our group lead
the service during the time we were there. We would sing songs then
they would sings songs. We would share something then they would
share something. It was a lot of fun. We met some solid women of
faith that were fighting the demons that are trying to take over
their community.

Friday nights were the craziest of the
week for our team. We would drive around the different Aboriginal
communities picking up the children to take to the YMCA water park.
The first week was chaos for all of us guys but business as usual for
Isobel. The water slides was closed so the kids had a little more
energy to burn off running all over the place. We fed them hotdogs
and worshiped with them and did some skits. Every Friday kept
getting better as the water slides and pool were open the kids had
places to go and I had a blast with them.

We finished our work on the mission
house earlier then planed so we were able to help around the house.
David and Isobel spend all of their time giving to others they didn’t
take anytime to worry about the landscape of their home. We were
able to bless them by replacing some rotten boards and adding to the
pool gate. We also trimmed up some of their trees and made a few
dump runs.

We had some of the best days off on
the Race. We were able to go to three different national parks. One
of them had some of the most amazing waterfalls and pools. Which we
climbed the rock face to jump into the pools. The second one we went
to a refreshing natural spring water filling the pools. We baptized
one of our brothers that day. The last place we went to we were able
to canoe down the river with massive cliffs on both sides of us. It
was an incredible sight to see.