“Called to Love”
My team and I are at the edge of the Danier Rainforest National Park, the world’s oldest rainforest, in the northeast peninsula of North Queensland, Australia. Our month’s ministry is focused upon the Bummer tribe of the Aboriginal (or ‘indigenous’) people who live on the outskirts of society, undervalued and unloved by the Anglo-Saxons and mainstream Australian nationals–similar to the majority of Native Americans in the United States. They are valued enough to be given a bi-monthly financial compensation and land (in a reservation-style format) for the atrocities caused upon them from the past that continue to affect their present and future. Their lives are simple and filled with distrust, anger, alcohol, illiteracy, and a minimum amount of hope for anything than what they know or do–which, from the outside looking in, does not seem to amount to much outside patterns of alcoholism, violence, unemployment, under-education, government compensation, anger and distrust toward anyone outside their pre-established communities as well as church-related individuals, and (as they pass away) a forgetting of traditions, values, and ways of old.
These are just a few of my observations made from my personal research on the Australian Indigenous people group, a video that Pastor Janis shared with us on Wednesday night, and through the locals who have come to help with the day care and women’s Bible study that my team and I assist with here near the Mossman Gorge. While I have heard similar stories from friends who have Native American ancestral roots, it hurts my heart to know that the children we play with have such a hopeless future.
Yet, through all of my musings about the apparent dark future for this depressed people group, I have seen the persistent hope in Pastor Janis (a local who is our contact who opened her one-room house for us to live in while in Australia) that transcends my frustration that has accumulated throughout this first week. This sixty-something Indigenous woman is a pastor, teacher, day care provider/facilitaor, mother, grandmother, sister, and aunt. She is hard-working, dedicated to Christ and building relationships with her people to our Lord, well-respected among the locals, stern, gracious, deliberate, and loving. Her care for her people and focus on Christ is evident as she allows the six of us to work alongside her with the day care, women’s Bible study, and on Sunday–the evening church service. She understands her people and is intentional about us not just learning about them, but understanding them. She is like a mother hen–taking care of them, but still wanting them to progress and grow.
There have been some cultural and precautionary measures that Pastor Janis prepared us for–especially in terms of our venturing through the community. We have been limited to the Mossman River which can be heard from within the church and is a joy (amid the white water rapids) to swim in (especially as the temperatures rise over 100 F nearly daily and we find ourselves in a perpetual sweat); the restroom that is sixty feet away from the church, and the church and its fenced-in play area. We pray that this will change soon, but because alcoholism and violence is a daily occurrence, we may find ourselves limited to improving the church and the activities I previously mentioned.
Which, despite my restlessness in this humid rainforest, is not a “bad” thing. I am learning that it is not always about a tangible result that ultimately matters to God when it comes to being a missionary. Yes, in the business world, results are required for employment and advancement, but God is (and always has been) beyond and above this. I find myself in prayer more than ever before and not just for what I can understand and who I know, but for the times I do not know what to think or say and for an Indigenous man, woman, and child I may never have the pleasure of meeting. My teammate, Kerry Bates, reminded me of this as she fervantly prayed on Wednesday and our role here. She prayed about our improvements on the church, the joyful children in the morning daycare, and how we were all “called to love” the people here. So, even if we find ourselves seemingly underproductive in terms of tangible activities and results, Kerry’s prayer was more than enough to remind me that no matter where and what God leads us to, we are “called to love.” For me, I do not plan to forget this lesson as a missionary this year and as a ___________ when I return to the States in November
