Kimberley’s Update

The moment you were waiting for is finally here…an update on outreach.  Outreach in the Kimberley’s was amazing!  I was so blessed and my heart will be forever changed.  At first, I was scared and focused on the question, “What if I actually don’t like working with Indigenous Australians?” I have had that calling for years now, but what if as I am doing it I hate it?  Well it turns out I LOVE IT!  Our time went by so fast and I wish we could have stayed longer.  In order to keep this somewhat short, I will give one highlight from each town we were in.

Kununurra: I was asked to speak at a church BBQ.  It was very casual, but I still prayed about it and really asked God what he wanted me to share.  I got to share about the fact that God would call someone from the other side of the world to minister to them.  I really spoke about how this shows the love of Christ to them and how they are not a forgotten people, but one that He wants to lavish with love.

Fitzroy Crossing: We worked with a sporting festival and then did ministry in smaller communities.  The most meaningful time for me was the last day of the sporting festival.  I was helping to run a kids program: games.  On that day a girl named Rowina was stuck on me like glue.  She asked me a million questions.  Part of the sport festival’s request was that we not share about our faith unless the kids ask, so it wasn’t planned, but she asked me about my tattoos and that led into talking about Christ.  It was so good and she asked me a million questions about me, life, my faith, etc.  She just wanted to be loved on and cared for and I was happy to do that.

Noonkanbah: We went to this very, very small town to run the kids program for a church conference.  The best part, besides afternoon swims in the river with the kids, was the last night of the conference.  I was speaking about how God made each of us with care, love, and being an individual.  What I said was so led by God and was amazing.  I shared about my history of being bullied for being different.  I shared Psalm 139 where it talks about being woven together in your mother’s womb.  I showed a bracelet that I had taken a lot of time to create.  I spoke about how much care I had put in and how much more care God put into creating each one of us.  I then had the kids share about one thing that they like about themselves, since being shamed is such a large part of their culture.  We ended the night by dancing to the song “Mean” by Taylor Swift.  The kids loved it!  About 15 of them later chose to be part of God’s family.

Looma: Twice we got to go down to the river, very far away, and play with the kids.  I really loved playing with the kids and just going where they go, jumping where they jump, and playing what they play.  It was always Miss Miss and Watch this Watch me do this.  It was amazing to really give them time and love them the way they deserve.  We spent almost all of our time with these kids…if they could they would have slept in the youth center with us. 

Broome: There were a lot of great ministry times with the church, but my favorite day would have to be my birthday.  I will admit that is me being a tad selfish, but it was a great day.  I started the day out by skyping my parents.  We went to church, we had a prayer meeting after lunch, and then the guys who live next to the church (youth pastor and his two friends), threw a BBQ for our team. This is how my leader Matty and I spent our birthday (same day!).  We had sausages, bits of steak, pork of some sort, CAKE, and other goodies.  I got to run into the ocean with my clothes on (twice), have a moonlight swim, be driven on the sand, have a night birthday drive through Broome with tour, car dance party (safe I promise), and a volleyball game where I got super sandy.  It was a great way to spend a birthday and I had amazing people to spend it with.

Those are the towns we were in and the highlights of my trip.  I have added some photos and have way more on facebook.  So check them out.  More updates to come…we have Internet in the Philippines because we are on YWAM bases.  Thanks for reading.