General Update

Since our last blog, we have been rewriting the scripts we had prepared for Borroloola people to look at and help us refine them. After our working with the scripts we prepared, we realized they needed an overhaul to make them easier to use. Hence, nothing exciting on that front, just sitting in front of a computer with a dozen commentaries and different Bible versions scattered around the desk.

As well as that, we have been trying to get our shed ready for our NT visitors. Dennis & Jarrod have been working on a mezzanine  floor in the shed. This has been hard work. Dennis can only do limited amounts due to his back. If he spends on full day working on the shed, then he needs 2-3 days to recuperate from this. Normally he can just spend a couple of hours each day.  Jarrod is working night shift, so we are limited in how much work can be done. Glenys is delegated to helping with a lift, or a 'hold this, will you' and sanding and painting.

Once again, we are scouring Gumtree for second hand materials, or cheap items to use to build the mezzanine. The steel was new, and the flooring. The walls are being lined with the ceiling from our old shed. The insulation was free on Gumtree. The attic stairs came from Sydney. Dennis is able to pick those things up when he goes to the GRN office.

So while we are working hard, it is slow and often frustrating that we cannot just get the jobs done and finished. But we are doing the best we can as time and money come available.

We are off to Tea Gardens to spend time with the Anglican Church. The caravan is going to show the people how God provides, and how we have set it up to use for ministry. That will be a nice break. Dennis is taking the van down in the morning on Friday, and Glenys and the girls will come down when they finish school in the afternoon.

Dennis is off to Sydney on Wednesday. He will be helping with recording some languages. He will be recording in the studio. This is very different to recording on the field. He will also be shown how to use the new whizz bang recorders GRN has purchased to update the old machines they have now.
Sorry I don't have a photo of them.  Hopefully we will have some soon.

We would really value your prayers for our family and for the work in Borroloola. It seems that when God is working, the evil one steps up his game as well. Without giving a lot of details, we would value prayers for safety, God's hand to prevail, for believers to remain strong, and that evil may be restrained.

It is great that our God knows the need, and we can petition him and he knows best how to answer these prayers.

Finally, a full update!!!

First of all, we would like to say thank you to all of you who were praying for us during our time in Borroloola.
It was a time that was full of frustrations and hindrances to the work we were wanting to achieve.

If we told you in explicit detail, we would have you all in tears, so we will outline some of the problems in point form. (lol)
-we started to translate into Aboriginal English, and our translators had to leave town for several different reasons
-we were staying in an outstation called Wandangula, about 20km out of town. Our car broke down and we were stranded out there until parts could come.
-the parts took 2 weeks to come into Borroloola. Would you believe the truck broke down outside of Borroloola, and we had to wait another week on that.
-before the car broke down, we had some people lined up to record in Garrawa. We were unable to do this as we had no car to get to the people
-we moved into town while waiting for the car parts to arrive. This gave us some more ability to meet with people, but still no car.
-while in town our computers were stolen. Praise God, someone in town came to our aid and helped us find the computers...unharmed.
-Dennis caught the flu. He was bed ridden for nearly a week, and then could not talk much because of a bad cough.... still has it.
-a crisis arose in which we were closely involved. It was a very hard and sad time. This issue is still not resolved, and would value your prayers for the people of Borroloola.
-We had 2 funerals and  2 other people died. It was a sad time.

As you can see, we had quite a hard time. But we also had a lot of blessings.

Staying at Wandangula was great. This is the outstation that Nelita and Trevon's family live in.

Nelita, Nikarita, Shontah, Tainsley, Estella

 The girls are ready for the bus to take them to school in Borroloola. These girls are all sisters.

 While we were there, Nelita's eldest sister, Nerida had a baby girl, Natiah.

My new grand daughter, Nataiah and Nelita

Nelita's mother, Fiona, and granddaughter.

Nelita loved being with her family. She went to the local school with her family. Went fishing, swimming and what ever else was happening on the day.

 

 

Stand at Borroloola Rodeo

We planned our trip so we could be at the Rodeo. This is a big event on the calendar. We were able to share about the GRN resources available for people to use. We had phones, SD cards, bibles, and colour in pages to name a few things on our tables.

It was good to let people know what we were doing and how it can help people there.

Watching movies at Wandangula

 Many evenings we would set up the computer and watch movies with every one. It is a great way to share God's story through video.
Can't have a video night without  a fire and dogs. When the fire died down and only coals were left, the dogs would lie on the coals to keep warm.

Church leaders: Muldoon and Vincent

Vincent & Dennis recording

Some people have all the fun. How is the studio?

One idea we decided to try for our recordings was to have a prayer for each story. This would give people an idea of how to pray, and give them an opportunity to pray along with the person praying on the recording.

We asked Vincent if he would pray and we record him for the stories. We gave him a topic, and he prayed about that topic. The reason we chose Vincent is because God has given him a gift of prayer. When Vincent prays, you can feel God come into the room.

Several times a week Vincent and Muldoon meet together and pray for the town. These are the unsung heroes  that no one hears about.... people that God raises to pray.

Vincent did a great job. We are looking forward to putting them together with the stories.

Bush medicine

Glenys and Linda preparing the medicine

Dennis caught the flu while we were away. He developed a terrible cough. We collected some bush medicine for him. It is called (I don't know how to spell it) Dumbuumbu. We boiled the leaves into a tea. Some of the tea was drunk, just a couple of mouthfuls through the day. The rest was used to bogie (bathe) in.

We were asked to show a picture of Dennis having a bogie in the medicine. This is the best I could come up with due to censorship issues.

The bathroom door of our caravan.

We were able to do some Garrawa recordings. We had one lady and her daughter help us. Later on we had another lady come and help with the translation into Garrawa.

When we started doing Garrawa, Nancy and her daughter Cheryl were helping us. We sat down in a lovely spot beside the McArthur River under a grove of Tamarind trees. It is lovely there, shady, a breeze and the place is full of butterflies.

As time went on, and we were running out of time, some other ladies came along to support us. They caught fish while we were recording. Other  cooked damper. We had breaks to have a cuppa, and a 'feed'. We were fed with jonny cake and julbi (archer fish).

This was special. These people were not able to help with the translation, but they came and helped us in their own way.

One of our special memories of our trip there.

Cheryl, Nancy and Glenys working on Garawa

Cheryl returning with Julbi to eat

Deserted recording studio...'grub's up!'

Food- fresh fish, fresh damper, hot tea, great company!

Our studio....some people have to suffer!

We were sad to leave Borroloola. Nelita, especially was sad to say good bye to family.  The last day there, we had her extended family come and share breakfast with us.

Bacon, eggs, tomato, steak, damper and of course hot tea.

Cairo, our grandson

Cairo is the son of Nelita's sister, Delores. This means we call him grandson. Nelita calls him son. He is not 3 yet, but he can kick the football like an expert! No stopping him when he gets older.

We were asked to bring home another child.  After a lot of prayer and consideration, we added another child to our family. Her name is Estella. She is a cousin to Nelita, so Aboriginal way they call each other sister.

Estella is 9, and very sweet and very out going.

Estella on a train at Broken Hill

Estella saw her first train in Alice Spring on the way home to NSW. We came home through Broken Hill, and stopped in to a train museum. One excited girl.

Estella is attending Tarro Public School and doing well.

Home Again

Just a quick update to let you know we arrived homes safely.After leaving Borroloola, we headed down the center.

We spent a couple of days in Alice and then on to Adelaide to spend time with Benjamin, Jess and Max.

Home through Broken Hill and then home on Friday 13th.

We will update with photos and more in a few days.  Busy cleaning red dust out of van, meetings with the GRN Office, sorting out school, just to name a few things.

What else can go wrong!!!!

 We have never had such a long time of concentrated problems on a trip like this.

The day after we left home, we had an attempted break in at our house.
After arriving at Borroloola, we learned we could not go to Robinson River Station because the roads were so bad.
Our car broke down while we were staying at an outstation. (Bad road major factor on that break down)
Moved into town because it was hard to get in and out without a car.
Our translation work was going well until then, as we could not meet with the people we were working with for the 2 week period.
2 deaths and 2 funerals slowed down the work
Dennis caught the flu and was bed ridden for a week. Still getting over it (4 weeks later)
Translators getting side tracked through to personal issues or travel reasons.
Major problems with one family close to us and us having to liaison between family and police.
This issue kept us in Borroloola for an extra week.

All these problems and we were stressing about getting any recording done at all.

We did not update the blog as we were dealing with people from 6.30 in the morning until 9.00 at night. Then we would fall into bed early.

But, praise God, we did get the Good News script recorded into Garrawa.
We started with a lady called Nancy. She surprised us so much. She would not stop. We kept asking her if she would like to rest but she kept saying no.

She said, that there was no one to teach her about the Bible. She really wanted to know and working with us was teaching her about God.  We had no idea she was wanting to know about God.

Another lady, Linda came to help Nancy with the work. Together they worked to put the English into Garrawa.

We supplied the cups of tea, flour for jonny cake and beef. (bribery always works well!).  There is a lovely place near the McArthur River under a large number of Tamarind trees. Very shady, full of butteflies and quiet. Only the occasional snake (5 sighted while we were there!)

When we were getting close to the time to leave, we were panicking a bit that we would not get the work done. The family rallied to the call. Several came with us the last 2 days. They fished for julbie (archer fish), made damper and jonnie cake, and encouraged the translatiors.

That way we were fed, watered and encouraged in the typical family way in Borroloola. Every one was so excited when we finished.

Linda and Dennis under the Tamarind trees

Cheryl and grand daughter Gracelda with julbie

Dennis was quite sick with the flu, so we boiled some bush medicine for him. Some he had to drink, and the other he had to 'bogie' (bathe) in it.

Due to censorship issues and personal modesty, this is the best we can show you of him having a bogie in bush medicine

Glenys & Linda preparing bush medicine for Dennis

Dennis in bathroom, having a bogie

We shared with a lot of people about the 5fish app. There was a lot of interest shown. We do feel strongly after being there, that getting the bible stories into Aboriginal English as very important. There is a real lack of understanding when we use material that uses English the way we speak. It really reaffirmed that we should be looking at this as a priority.

Dennis and Freddy looking at the phones

 On a different note,we were involved with a crisis that happened with a family in Borroloola. This involved police and was heart wrenching.

As were were involved, we saw how communications with local people and other authorities break down. This is not because of animosity but because of different cultural understandings and set procedures from authorities that are not communicated to the people involved.

We spoke in length to different organizations about the need to communicate with the family group.  As Indigenous people are very communal and family clans are strong, they need to be addressed in a group. This did not happen on an individual or communal level

It is sad to see. We understand on a deeper level just how two different cultures have to work together, but not understanding how the other one works.

We do ask you would pray for Indigenous communities. So often they do not have a voice. When they do speak, no one listens. It breeds mistrust and apathy.

During this time, we were able to share a lot about trusting God and seeking him. This would not have happened with out the trouble we all went through.

Enough on that subject.
Now we are on the way home. This will be quicker than we originally planned.  Our aim is to be in Adelaide by Friday and spend time with our son and his wife and child before going to Broken Hill and home.

Time to move on

After nearly a week in Wandangula with no car, and no parts arriving, we moved back into Borroloola.

A friend towed the car into town for us, and we are now using Borroloola as our base.

 There are advantages and disadvantages for both places. For many days we were not sure what was the best place to be. In the end, it was the need for food that initiated our move into town. It was too hard to get in to town for food. 

Yesterday, Tuesday, we got our car back. It has half the parts we need. We are under strict orders not to drive too far, and don't tow anything heavy until the rest of the parts arrive and are installed.

I am sure many of you know what NT stands for:
Not today, not tomorrow, not Tuesday, not Thursday, next truck!

It was the same when we lived here, just like it is today!

We were sitting on the Verandah Sunday after noon and saw a huge cloud of smoke. While smoke and fires are not unusual this time of year, these was very close and very black.

Dennis went to investigate. It was a collection of buildings and caravans just on the next block. He was immediately asked to bring buckets of water. But it was all too late. Nearly everything was burned..sheds, caravans, cars.

No one was hurt, and the resident dog escaped unharmed!

Apparently the fire was deliberately lit.

 
Our work has been going slowly. At times it has been frustrating. All was going well until we lost the car.
Since then the workers we were using have gone on to other things. Our best worker had to take her young child to Katherine Hospital.

There was an historical walk on last week that involved most of the town. They walked for 5 days from an outstation called Manangoora all the way to Borroloola.  Nelita was able to participate for a couple of days and she loved it. We could not because we did not have a car.

This has finished, so we are now up and running again.

While we come here with an agenda, and a worthy cause, we cannot expect people to drop things just for us and spend huge amounts of time at the drop of a hat.

We always have to be aware they have lives with commitments. Many have full time jobs so it is hard for them to do as much as we would like.

Car-go.......car-stop

We are having a few problems here at the moment.
We wanted to spend a couple of weeks at Robinson River Station this time here. The roads are so bad we cant take the caravan out there. While it is an off-road van, it is not good to take it 2 hours plus on corrugations as bad as are here at the moment.

Then we thought we could go out for some day trips. Last week we were ready to to out for the Saturday, but something happened, and it was after 10.00 am when that problem was fixed.

Then we decided we would go the following Sunday to Robinson and share with the people there. Friday afternoon, after spending a greater part of the day translating scripts to record the following week, our car broke down.

The guard covering the fan broke and then the fan broke. After talks with insurance, we were able to get it trucked into town today.

We found out our car is imported so the parts may be hard to get.
Please pray for the parts. We are unable to get into town to work with people.  We have 3 weeks left before leaving for Tennant Creek and Alice.

While we are getting some work done we really need more done before we go

One week down..

Nearly 2 weeks at BLA.
So much has changed since we lived here, but many things are still the same.

Corrugated, dirt roads are still so close to town.  The outstation we are staying on is about 10 km from town.  3/4 of that road is corrugation.

We wanted to spend a couple of weeks at Robinson River station, but the road is too bumpy to take the van. This means we are limited to day visits.

Glenys really wanted to take the van until she saw a caravan being brought into town on the back of  a truck minus a couple of wheels and an axle. This put a damper on her ambitions. 

We could probably make it if we had a camper trailer, but not our van, even though it is an off roader!

Dennis & Vincent recording by the McArthur River

Marlene playing and singing

John on electric guitar

We have done some recording, so not too bad for one week into the trip!


Vincent is one of the church leaders who has served God faithfully since his conversion in the early 90's.  We sat down by the river to record. It is close to town away from the noise, but the black cockatoos decided they would serenade us.

John and Marlene have been working with us doing some songs. Sadly John's mother passed away and he has to go back home to Wiepa  to arrange her funeral. We dont know if he will be back in time for us to do any more recording

We have rounded up a couple of people who are willing to record the Garrawa language.  A couple of young men have done some trial with the Aboriginal English, but we still do not have some one to help translate the scripts into Aboriginal English.

Our evenings have been busy at Wandangula. The families have been asking for Christian videos to watch at night time.  We brought the projector and a screen, so it has been a regular occasion but we are fast running out of christian  videos.

Regular  evening activity

Here at last!

Dramas, we had a few!
Just as we were leaving Woodberry, we had a slight mishap. Dennis was winding up the legs on the caravan, so we could leave, and one of the legs broke!  A quick trip off to Jayco for spare parts. While we were grateful that it happened before we left, it was rather frustrating to have to make a 40 minute trip just before pulling out the driveway.

Frustrated Dennis fixing the leg

The trip was uneventful. We stayed at Gympie with some friends and went to church with them. We ended up staying 24 hours there, so we had to keep moving fast to get to Borroloola on the Friday.

After many long hours in the car, we arrived on Thursday afternoon, half a day earlier than we planned. This was great as we had some time to be quiet and rest before setting up for the Rodeo on Saturday.

Every time we travel up and back with ministry, we lament we have to keep to a schedule. There are so many interesting places we have to pass by..... One day we will travel just for fun!

While we were traveling up here, our neighbour rang to tell us he stopped some young kids from breaking into our house. Needless this caused a bit of stress and feelings of helplessness. Jarrod, our 3rd son is home but he starts work at 3.00 pm and does not finish until around midnight. This means the house is empty when the kids are home from school.

The rodeo was a good time to catch up with people we have not seen for ages. We had a table there and shared about the 5 fish app, had phones and bibles and posters to sell. 

Stand at the Borroloola Rodeo

We have now begun the process of finding people to help with the script and recording. There are a few people we have begun to test with recording to see if they are suitable. Finding people to help with the translation work is a bit harder.

We are staying on an outstation called Wandangula.  Don't try to pronounce it as it does not sound as it is spelled.  This is where Nelita's family live.

This has been great for accommodation but not for internet.  We bought a prepaid internet, but it does not seem to work for us. It was fine at home, but does not let us do anything here. The internet at the library is $3.00 for 15 minutes. The net is so slow there that we dont use it.

I tried to upload more pictures but the net is so slow I have given up.

2 more sleeps!!

Well, we are on the final countdown. What a few weeks this has been!

Dennis has worked hard on getting the van and car ready. He spend weeks building and perfecting a drop down fridge slide for the back of the car.

Praise God for the internet and You Tube and sons to help! Dennis & Nathan built the slide for the fridge. Dennis built a frame to bolt it to and some drawers to sit beside it.

 While it was a lot of work, it was so much cheaper than buying a commercial drawer already built. It costs around $800 just for the drawer slide alone.  We paid $200 for the slides and built the frame for about $100.  The drawers are flower boxes we bought on Grumtree for $1.50 each. Not beautiful but certainly functional.

As food is so expensive the further north you travel, we found a way to cut costs. A co-worker from GRN, Helen Sadler, took Glenys to the Flemington Markets in Sydney. Together they braved the crowds and bought huge amounts of vegetables. These were taken home and dehydrated.  This will help with the food bill while away.

Helen also went the extra mile and came to our home a few days later and helped with preparing the vegies and also getting the garden ready for 9 weeks of neglect!

 Dennis does a lot of preaching at Singleton Presbyterian church. One of the parishioners gave him a 12 kg pumpkin. This was duly disected, grated, dried and then ground to make pumpkin flour. This can be made into soup, or into bread or stews as required.  The tomatoes will be used as sun dried tomatoes in oil, and added to stews, spaghetti and the like. We also dried zucchini chips, beetroot chips, grated cauliflower, capsicum and carrots. Time ran out before we were able to dry celery.

Helen's job at GRN is data entry for all the international centres of GRN. She maintains the data base and keeps everything up to date.

While she was with us, she sorted out all the data we needed to take up with us. This and a few other jobs she did while staying with us saved us a couple of days work, especially as she knows what she is doing; when we try these things, it take us much longer. By the way, all the mess on Dennis' desk is colouring in pages and pencil packs. Helen was printing them out and packing them while doing the data entry. So much work, so little time.

Thanks Helen.

Just on a lighter side, we went camping for a few days in the last school holidays. Our daughter in law, Shayna and her children came with us.
Xander was having fun with a campfire, but the smoke was getting to him. He came up with this idea!

Not sure that it worked to well, but 10 points for trying.

Dont forget to look at the prayer and praise section for current prayer points.