It
really was a good morning, especially when we think that it
was only organised the evening before. Well, we have been
in the air on route to Andamooka now for about 15 minutes
(we took off at 12.20 NSW time), and the flight should only
take 30 minutes, so we are close. Must be over the salt Lake
Torrens.
We
will have a bit of time to ourselves, as Marree cancelled
and our next meeting is in Andamooka tonight. As the flight
is a bit bumpy, I will write more when we get settled at the
Christensen's place (the people we will be staying with in
Andamooka). Well it is now 11.47 pm NSW time (11.17 pm South
Australia time) and all four of us are back in Paul Christensen's
old house ready to pack it in for the night. We flew low over
the Christensen's house to let them know we were here and
then landed on the town's emergency strip.
As
the FSS report that we were given earlier testified to the
surface of the airstrip, it was covered by "b.... big
rocks".
Phil
treated it like eggs; however, in spite of this, and with
a 25-30 knot cross wind, we landed safely, and 20 minutes
later Paul and his kids were out in their van to pick us up.
He took us to the family house where Betty (Grandma Christensen)
had made us a very nice lunch. After this we sat and talked
(and some of us got a few of the 40-winks they talk about)
- until about 2 pm.
This
was a much needed respite from a pretty busy schedule over
the past 3 days. When we sat around for a bit, Carl Christensen
begrudgingly (he had a sore back) took us on the official
tour. First to the walk-in underground mine (a mine and house
carved out of the sandstone rock) where Carolyn Christensen
intercepted and took us the rest of the tour through town.
The
town tour was fun too, as the four of us had a great time
ragging on each other. Today seemed like a great day to laugh
at a lot of things, especially each other. After the tour
and everything else had finished, and before the dinner and
meeting started, Brett and I had a chance to unwind and laugh
and talk and pray. Phil (Mr. what's 'is name) and Larry (Mr.
preparation) went over to Marion's (he's a bloke) mine and
had a look at some opals, so Brett and I were free for a bit.
We
went for a walk south of the town, to the Roxby paved road
at the top of the hill. From there we looked at the sun going
down on the township. We laughed about some of the funny things
that had happened during the day and on the trip so far, and
we also talked about serious things. At 6.30 S.A. time the
BBQ started at Paul's place and the rest of the Christensen
clan were invited. After this, the meeting to which locals
were invited, started at a little after 7.30 pm.
About
15 people showed up, and the meeting went until after 10 pm
(yes a long meeting). Brett started by leading some old hymns
for 20-minutes, after which Larry spoke, then Phil talked.
At the end, Brett did a sketch story of Joseph. It seemed
to go well, and most of the people there stayed around for
quite and while and talked.
I
believe all those there got something out of the meeting,
especially Betty Christensen (you could see the sparkle in
her eyes). If I remember correctly, it was at Andamooka that
Phil was talking to people after the meeting about things
in general. He learned that a family are in grief here over
a 'death-in-custody', and that when Brett happened to say
in his message, 'Jesus can take away the hurt', it was just
for them.
They
said, "You've come at just the right time." What
a relief to know that God spoke to those people in His own
way, and brought them a step closer to salvation in Christ.
That's our desire always. While I have been writing this part
of the letter Brett has been attempting to draw a caricature
of me. It is a weird feeling having someone study you as you
are trying to do something else. He is sitting across the
room, and he messed up the first one and has decided to start
again. I feel kind of like I have failed since he didn't quite
get my "essence", (what the heck is my essence anyway?).
I really want him to be able to get the caricature done, but
I'm really toast and I need to go to bed, so HURRY UP BRETT!
Well. I am going to turn in, and like a faithful old mutt
I will write more tomorrow.
Day
Five (Thursday) Well good morning,
and a fine morning it is. It's about 35c already and the wind
is blowing a gale. Driven to Roxby Downs (about 20 minutes
by road from Andamooka) to talk to the principal of the state
school. He cancelled our visit this morning with very little
notice (30 minutes before we were due to start) and Phil thought
it would be a good idea to meet him at least to make contact.
When
we got here we were quite surprised to be absolutely stone-walled.
He wouldn't come out of his office to see us. Quite perplexing
except if you account for the work of the devil in a township
with hard miners who've rejected Christian things, and Outback
Patrol along with them.
So
we drove the 20 minutes for very little results, but that
is how it goes sometimes.
We
had amazing results at Leigh Creek, and here it is one day
later and things have turned 180 degrees. Phil and Paul looked
up the address of the local minister and they are currently
visiting with him to see if there is any other way for Scripture
in the school.
Well,
we know that God is in control despite what appears to be
happening. Praise the Lord. In a few minutes we will be leaving
Roxby to drive back to Andamooka where we have a class at
11.30 local time. We hope that will go better than the Roxby
situation has turned out. After the class, and after a light
lunch at the Christensen's we will probably be taking off
for Broken Hill.
The
wind gusts are worrying Phil, so I will write more if and
when we get into the air. It has been a strange kind of day
and I wonder how the rest of it will turn out. Time will tell.
It is now 5.30 pm and we are sitting down with 5-minutes to
ourselves for the first time today. This day has been pretty
crazy, with the failure of Roxby Downs and then a surprise
spot for Brett at Broken Hill as soon as we landed. And before
we even left Andamooka, we had to take-off of the short (500
m) short strip into a 35-40 knot head-wind. The take-off was
quite a good one, with 38c temp. and gusty winds.
The
trip to Broken Hill was aided by 35-40 knot tail winds and
we made the trip in just a little over an hour.
On
descent we got to a ground speed of 205 knots, the best speed
thus far. The landing at Broken Hill was an interesting one,
as we picked up quite a bit of turbulence on approach and
short final. About 200 feet off the deck the wind and turbulence
died down and Phil guided the Lance into a very nice and smooth
landing. After we tied the plane down we wandered around the
airport for a bit, took some pictures, then waited for our
ride to pick us up. After getting in the van our first stop
was an after-school kids club that some of the students at
Cornerstone training college were leading. They invited Brett
to give the story time, while Larry, Phil and I helped prepare
for their craft time they had after story time.
It
was a change not being in charge, and being able to sit back
and let others run the event. When the kids club had finished,
Larry, Brett and I were driven over to Pro Hart's Gallery,
but we missed him by a few minutes (he closed at 5 pm and
we got there at 5.05.)
Oh
well, we will try and see him tomorrow morning between our
Scripture class and the SOTA lesson.
As
it stands, tomorrow we will be helping out in a Scripture
class at 9.30, School of the Air Explorers Club at 11.40 am,
then departing for White Cliffs for a 2 pm school class, then
on to Bourke for a 5 pm arrival. Lord and weather permitting
we will be able to stick to that schedule. Right now the wind
is blowing a gale, so we will see tomorrow what will happen.
This evening has been kind of a change, and a good change
at that. After we had helped out at Kid's Club and were given
a chance to unpack our stuff at the flat they were letting
us stay in, we piled into a van and were driven over to Pizza
Runners, a place operated by the Cornerstone students.
After
getting to meet the students and staff working there the four
of us helped out by folding boxes for almost an hour. We just
stood in the back room with our aprons on and folded boxes,
cutting each other up and laughing. It was a good release
time, and after we drank Coke to shake off the tiredness,
we were wide awake and almost giddy. After we had stacked
boxes to the ceiling (much to their surprise) we went for
a 20-minute walk up the main street of Broken Hill.
It
was a beautiful cool evening, and at that time the wind had
died down to nothing. Just before that Brett got a chance
to witness to 6 or 7 young blokes sitting at the Hungry Jacks
picnic tables. He said it was a really positive time, and
by looking at him and the kids it seemed to be just that.
Praise the Lord for opportunities. After we had our walk,
we were driven back to the house of the couple who had prepared
dinner for us.
Before,
during, and after dinner we had the chance to sit and get
to know the couple. The wife seemed warm and responsive as
soon as she picked us up from the airport, but I feel that
the husband was a bit wary, and perhaps skeptical of Outback
Patrol.
It
was good that by the end of dinner (when Larry, Brett, and
I did the washing up) he seemed to have warmed up and was
chatting and laughing with us about all sorts of stuff. I
hope that we have made a friend of him, and I hope that he
may be an important contact in this town for Outback Patrol.
Day
Six (Friday) Well it is early
afternoon in Broken Hill and it is absolutely freezing. I
can't believe what we are feeling today, yesterday when we
landed here it was 38c degrees and the wind was blowing a
gale. Today it is 8c and it is still blowing a gale. A 30
degree drop in temperature in 24 hours. I can safely say that
we are freezing our city butts off. We woke this morning and
went over next door to have breakfast with some of the girls
from Cornerstone. It was a fun breakfast. Well, we are a few
moments from taking off, so I will continue after we are in
the air. We got off the deck in drizzle and into a 25 knot
head wind. The flight is a little rough, and the cloud base
is at about 2,000 feet, so we are going to do the run to White
Cliffs pretty low. It is certainly a change in conditions
on the trip so far. Well, at least we won't have thermals
to contend with. So back to this morning. After breakfast
we talked with the first year Cornerstone students; packed
up and waited for Geoff to take us to his Scripture lesson.
There were about 13 kids in his class, and we had 30 minutes
to teach them a song and talk. It went well, and then off
to the School of the Air.
As
it turned out we got there 40 minutes early so we bought some
post cards and stickers and sat around and laughed at each
other some more (we have done that a lot this trip).
We
went on the air at 11.40 and were due to finish at 12. Laurie
Bennett, (the lady at Outback Patrol's end in Sydney) was
supposed to run the session, and we were going to say hello,
but the line dropped out for her after a few minutes so we
ended up taking most of the 20 minutes.
The
students on their 2-way talk back radios are spread around,
some 200 klm away, yet, they take all their classes this way.
We sang songs, talked some, and generally had fun. Phil forgot
a few things, like the name of Outback Patrol (he called it
Outboard Patrol), poor Phil. After the class we piled back
in Geoff's van, went back to the flat to get our stuff, visited
Pro Hart's gallery, then headed to the airport.
We
took off after refueling at about 1.30 NSW time, and just
30 seconds ago we came from under the 1,500-2,000 foot cloud
base. We are now climbing through 3,000 feet, and the air
is a lot smoother (well it was for about 30 seconds).
We
are due in White Cliffs (another opal mining town) in about
20 minutes, where we have a class of 6 kids to speak and play
to.
I
recall that from the air it looks like the surface of the
moon, with all those mine craters dotting the landscape. After
White Cliffs we go on to Bourke for overnight, and tomorrow
morning we fly on to Sydney. Well I'm going to look at the
view.
Somewhere
along here Phil was chatting away over the noise of the engine
and casually observed that the outback seems to be much more
open to the Gospel now that it was when he was here with a
team two years ago.
People,
he said, seem to be more concerned about spiritual things
than before, as we've had no resistence to our message, and
often the locals lament that few people came out even tho
contacts advertised far and wide. But some just did not get
to know about it, and they said, that's too bad.
Well
it is now later, and we departed White Cliffs 2 minutes ago.
It was a small class (8) but it was worth it, as some of the
kids were really responsive. The rest of the class was in
Sydney on an excursion (ironic, we come all the way out here
and the kids are in Sydney).
Praise
the Lord for the big and small meetings. The Holy Spirit meets
people on a one-to-one basis, so even a class with one kid
in it is worth it.
After
the class Phil, Larry, and myself walked the main street to
the general store to get stickers, hat pins, and post cards,
while Brett visited a friend who moved to this town of 100+
people 2 years ago.
I
am glad we stopped here, it was good for us, good for the
students, and I even think it was good for the teacher (Julie).
Well
we are on track to Bourke now, it will probably take us an
hour and 15 minutes, and when there we will be teaching a
class of Cornerstone students tonight at 6. They have asked
us to teach the students a little about child evangelism.
It should be good.
What
we are doing before we take the class I don't know, nor do
I know where we will be staying.
I
do know however that Phil wants to make an early start tomorrow
morning so we can fly during the cool and calm of the day.
Right now we are climbing through 6,800 feet and the ride
is very smooth indeed. It looks like the weather change is
behind us, and the clouds are thinning out to scatted high
level stuff. It is a beautiful ride up here at 7,000 feet.
Day
Seven (Saturday, October 21st)
Well it is 9am and we are now heading for Bankstown. We took
off 3 minutes ago in beautiful calm conditions with light
scattered cloud at about 10,000 feet. Just beautiful. The
ground temperature was about 28 degrees, and it promises to
be a hot one in Bourke today. Well yesterday evening turned
out to be one of the busiest evenings we have had yet.
We
landed at about 5 and were driven to the property where we
put our stuff down, got a drink, then were led over to the
class where we were to teach from 6 until 7. We were introduced
and then it was handed over to us. Phil continued the introductions,
and then I taught songs.
The
students took a little loosening up, but eventually they came
around.
After
this, Brett talked about the importance of 'anointing' and
a focus on the Lord in order to really be used in evangelism.
Then Larry followed and talked about child evangelism. We
concluded by Brett giving a sketch talk. We went a little
over the hour they had originally given us, and finished at
7.15, at which time we went to tea. Brett and I were invited
to go over to the youth group in Bourke (20 km from the Cornerstone
property) and teach them some songs and for Brett to give
them a sketch talk. We left dinner at 8 and drove the 15 minutes
to the youth group.
There
were about a dozen high school students there along with 4
leaders. It was a really good night, as we talked afterward
about Outback Patrol and the week we have had out in the bush.
The
young people really seemed interested and made us feel comfortable
being there. I am glad that Brett and I got to go. Well, just
to comment on the flight so far, we are now descending from
8,500 feet (the highest we have been this week),. Cruising
at 150 knots air speed (180 knots ground speed), and the air
is as smooth as a baby's butt. However we have been told that
Sydney is hemmed in with cloud down to the deck, so Phil will
have to make an instrument approach to Bankstown.
The
Lord is with us, so everything will go as He wishes, NO WORRIES!
This morning we crawled out of the sack at 7.25, packed all
our stuff up and headed over to breakfast. I was able to speak
with Mark, the director of the Bourke property about camping
and in particular adventure activities and kids.
He
is really keen to start a program for Bourke and neighbouring
kids, and wanted to pick my brain a bit about the possibilities.
It was great to talk to him, and when he found out I was interested
in the job at Ridgecrest he commended me on going for it and
mentioned that Cornerstone would like to be involved in some
way. Again, he seemed really interested, and I will have to
remember this contact for both the near and distant future.
A joint effort from a Dubbo camp and the Bourke and surrounding
area Cornerstone training properties could and would be absolutely
dynamic. We will see what comes of this.
Well,
after we talked, we all prayed together and then we were driven
out to the plane. We got off the ground right on 9 am. Well
it is now a little past 3 pm and we have been back at Patrol
HQ for over three hours, and Larry, and Phil and his family
have left for home. We all had lunch together and goofed off
some, but now the house is quiet. However I must tell you
about our flight here today. It's our last leg, and Phil is
all over with gratitude that we asked him to fly us when Dad
dropped out. 'This week has been such a great blessing,"
he shouted over the engine. Let's remember to thank the people
for their prayer, because that's made the difference this
time. I looked out and right below us is the huge Burrendong
Reservoir at Wellington. Well, I don't believe it. That's
where Ridgecrest Camp is. I've applied to the Committee for
the Manager's job there, and I wonder if this sighting is
a good omen? I hope so. Shortly after flying over Bathurst
we entered the cloud cover that was enveloping Sydney, and
we did not see the ground much at all until we came out of
the cloud at 300 feet over Bankstown airport. So basically,
we descended 6,700 feet in solid cloud. It was quite the trip
in.
Phil
did a great job and kept us on track and at the right altitude
all the way. At 1,600 feet (lowest safe altitude) we still
could not see the ground so Phil started down toward the airport.
As
I said before, aside from a few momentary glimpses between
cloud banks, neither the sky above or the ground below was
to be seen for about 25 minutes during descent. Finally we
saw ground and it was at about 700 feet, and we continued
descending toward the rising terra firma. Even at 300 feet
we were still in the occasional low cloud, but we did have
decent visibility. Then Phil put the landing gear down, and
to our surprise we only got 2 green lights, and the landing
gear unsafe light was still on.
Brett
spotted this first, and alerted Phil, who put the gear up
and tried again for the three greens. Again we got two greens
and the unsafe light. All this was done while banking fairly
tightly at only 300 feet off the ground at around 120 knots.
Phil
then alerted the tower in case we could not get the gear down
after repeated tries.
For
a third time Phil recycled the gear, and waited for the three
greens to appear. We got the two rear wheel greens, but for
about 5 seconds the nose gear indicator still did not light
up.
Finally
the green light for the nose gear came on, and Phil banked
tightly to the left to line up with runway centre. We spotted
the limp wind sock, and without further delay or hesitation
Phil brought the plane in for a very smooth (and very welcome)
landing. Praise the Lord. We unloaded, drove to the house
to get cleaning supplies and returned to give the plane the
once over inside and out. And as I scrubbed under the dusty
wings with the soapy broom, my mind returned to the circumstances
that brought us together just like this, how changes occurred,
and the message from Acts 13 just a week ago?
Has
this been God's work? We certainly enjoyed the experience
immensely, and we've made many wonderful friends. But I know
that hundreds of those school children and their teachers
were also sad to see us for only an hour, and that Explorers
Magazine has a lot to do with it.
It
prepared the way for us; helped us clearly open the Scriptures
to them and introduce them to Jesus Christ; and it will continue
it's work until other teams return then in 1996. Yes, it was
of the Holy Spirit that we go, just as we are. We did not
fail our divine calling, and that's what God wants of any
of us. And it's His work. He will continue it, through us,
or any others who are set apart in the Spirit to do His work,
too. Then it was home, and we are all safe and happy. The
patrol went well, we believe the Lord is pleased, and we all
know that we will be reliving this week for many years to
come
How
does this come to happen?
Outback
Patrols like this are taken by a variety of volunteer teams,
who dedicate a week of their annual holidays to do it; call
upon their church to support them; prepare, practice and save
for it. Outback Patrol has established a criteria that each
member must be a working part, have a track proven teaching
skill in music, sketching, puppets, street drama, object lessons,
etc., etc., Patrols do not carry non-working passengers, unless
that person picks up a major portion of the travel costs.
They also confirm exact dates up to six months in advance,
and begin their preparation. One of the team is appointed
as itinerary manager, whose task is to contact each of the
places in advance, according to the OP itinerary, confirm,
adjust, change as needed, and manage the schedule to be sure
to include worthy functions throughout the week. This person
keeps constant contact with the Patrol office for support
and information. A pilot and plane are engaged, usually a
member of the team, whose roll is not only to fly the team,
but to manage the costs, assess shares in advance and indicate
a possible equal cost for each flying member.
Often
a Church will assist as an equal share, or take up the share
of one of the team. Literature is prepared for distribution.
Every team leaves some momento or item by which they are remembered
by the people, and which is a stimulant in their work together
as a unit, have ironed out issues and problems, and ready
for ministry unhindered. A week before departure, the itinerary
is finally confirmed, printed for team, church and family
to follow, and, they simply depart on the day, and follow
the itinerary, similar to the account in this report. Notes
are kept; contacts thanked, costs checked, and reports to
the Patrol office. Equipped with this account of an actual
Patrol, who goes, what it does, how it continues, and the
impact it makes, you may be eager to plan one yourself. Of
course. Go to it. The outback is waiting to hear you. And
God is ready to bless ... you ... and them ... When a group
is ready to consider taking on a Patrol, the Outback Patrol
office is ready to work out the details, together. The procedure
is simple: Pray, set dates, engage the team, arrange with
the pilot and plane, pray more, contact the Patrol office
with your intentions, rehearse, conduct local meetings, engage
prayer, and work toward your Patrol dates. Phone Sydney Patrol
HQ – 61 2 727 2759, fax 61 2 9726 2972, or write to;
outbackpatrol@hunterlink.net.au
for more details.
Opportunity down under
Home Page