Upadate on Cheryl

Cheryl, Sylvester & James in hospital

 A couple of weeks ago we asked you to pray for Cheryl as she was to have a triple bypass after having a heart attack while she was with us.
We are happy to say, that she is home with us, and is getting better each day.
The doctors are happy with her progress, she is now getting impatient and wanting to do more things than she should

Cheryl home and happy

 She told us we could share a story about her....
 Dennis was sent in to take a photo of Cheryl in hospital so we could put it on the blog to ask people to pray. The photo was not that great, so he was giving the job of redoing the photo. This he did successfully.

When Glenys went in to visit, Cheryl, cautiously asked why Dennis took so any photos. Glenys explained about the blog and asking people to pray for her.

Her attitude changed dramatically. Glenys asked her a question, "Why were you worried about getting a photo done?"

After some hesitation, Cheryl said she thought we were taking photos of her because we thought she was going to die, and we wanted photos before she died!

Cheryl could not stop laughing when she knew why we wanted several different photos.  Putting photos on a blog was not nearly as dramatic as what she was thinking.

Cheryl is very aware that God was looking after her. He still has a plan for her life. She is wearing the scars on her chest as a memory of how God looked after her by having her down here close to doctors and hospitals when she needed them.

Bus Update

A big thank you to all of those who donated toward the bus. We have achieved our goal.
PTL!!!!!
Dennis spoke to the dealer and told him we had the money. Alas, the bus was not ready. All our kids were getting a bit 'stir crazy' as we did not have enough seats in our vehicles to carry every one.

Glenys said that we all needed to pray, so Sylvester said, 'Well, how about now? So we all sat around in the lounge room to ask God to help us with the bus.

The next day the dealer said we could have a lend of a bus until our bus is ready to be picked up!

We are ow driving around in a 'flash' bus, a $40,000 12 seater. It is a bit sad, because, if we have it too long, we will get used to this one, and the old 1997 one will pale in comparison.

Not really, we are so grateful for the bus, we dont mind if it is a bit old.  We did debate about putting
BLA Crew  on the side.

BLA is short for Borroloola.

Our 'gang' this week

Our youngest son, Benjamin and his family came to stay for 10 short days. So they were included in the 'gang' this week

Starting at the back row is Jai, (16), Benjamin with baby Noah (10 weeks), Max ( 2 years)Jess, James at the very back, Linda, Cheryl.
Front row, Nelita (13), Estella 10, Sylvester 11 and Nickarita, 12.


We did try to get a pic of every one in the bus, but they were not good. When we get a good photo we will post it here.

Thanks again for all who helped both with praying for it and helping with donations.

Transport

As you know, we have Cheryl, James and Sylvester down to help us with the translation and recording of Bible Stories.

When we seek to be efficient and effective, we sometimes come across problems in the execution of those plans.

Let us explain: We have found that the work we feel God has called us to do very important. While we seek to do work in remote places, there are many interruptions and hindrances to this.  Having people down here, is more efficient, (except when people have heart operations!!!!).

People are asking to come to stay with us. It is a great way for them to get intensive bible teaching while doing the recording. Teaching the bible is part of the recording process, as they need to know the Bible story to be able to tell it effectively.

This year, we will have a couple of young people boarding with us to attend school. These kids are from Borroloola. Abstudy covers their fares down here, and covers their school fees.  We decided to do this, as these kids were really trying to get an education in Borroloola. They will be attending DALE, St Phillips Christian College in Newcastle.

Our problem? Transport. Our car is not big enough, as children are a part of the package deal when we get people down here, along with our kids.

We have been praying about another vehicle for a while, and asking God what to do about it. The patrol is too expensive to run around town, and it does not have enough seats.

Dennis found a bus at a car auction a couple of weeks ago. It did not sell, so he decided to have a look at it.

When he was talking to the car dealer, it came up in conversation our reason for wanting the bus.

The dealer said he was very sympathetic to the church work, even though he is not a believer.  As the conversation continued, he mentioned a Christian he had dealt with recently and was very impressed with. It turned out this person stayed with us while he was buying the car from this dealer.

The dealer was even more excited when Dennis said that he knew the couple and knew the wife since she was very tiny.

This made the dealer very excited. He said that he wanted to help us get the best deal we could.

After some talking, he took the car off the market. He will wait until we get the money to buy it. Needless to say, we do not have any to pay for it.

1996  180,000km  13 seater   Toyota Hiace  2.4 EFI

It was suggested that we could put on the side, that the bus was provided by the company, and they would service the car free of charge for the time we had the car in our possession.  He dropped the price and offered to fix up a few things that needed attention free of charge!

Now we have the bus ready to buy. All we need is $7000 to redeem it!



Could you pray that God will raise the funds for us to purchase the bus.

We would like to give Chris Purcell at Valley Motor Auctions thanks for his help with the bus

Cheryl & James

Thank you for praying for Cheryl & James. They arrived here with us a week before Christmas. We spent Christmas together.

For those of you who do not know them, they are a couple from Borroloola. We knew Cheryl while we were in Borroloola, and have continued to work with her over the years.

James recently came to know the Lord. It was a real struggle for them to gain victory over a number of issues in their lives.

They came down to help us with translation work here in Woodberry and to gain a lot of teaching so they could go back home strong and equipped.

We have been doing 2 bible studies a day, and last week we started on the translation work to get Bible Stories recorded.

All was going well, they were getting excited about the things God was doing in their lives.

A major hiccup occurred on Friday.  Cheryl woke up with pain in her chest and arm. Glenys took her to the local hospital.

Long story short, Cheryl is now having a triple heart bypass. She had 3 blockages in her arteries. The doctors said that if she was in Borroloola, she would not have made it to hospital. God is good. He has a plan for her life.

Her recovery will be long, but we are trusting that God will heal her and restore her to full capacity soon.

Cheryl, Sylvester, (grandson) James

Please pray for Cheryl's recovery, and return to good health.
We would value our prayers for the work we will be doing in recording the Bible stories in language for the Indigenous people so hungry for God's word.

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.