In September,
Ellisa (my fiancee) and I will be joining 7 other people from our church and going on a mission trip to
Port Hedland (North West Australia). We would love for you to join with us and
support us in this.
View Larger MapPort
Hedland is a mining town. Iron Ore is shipped from the nearby
BHP mines and lots of people move there with a view to working there for a short amount of time to pay off some debts or earn enough to buy a house for example. They do this because you earn big salaries, so you can do the same job in Port
Hedland and get something like 3 or 4 times the cash. In this context there are a couple of great Pastors at the Anglican Church (I've met one of them). They do it tough, but it is a great ministry. To give you just one idea of the uniqueness of what ministry is like in this town, people who have been at this church for 3 years are considered long serving veterans! Their service fluctuates in numbers and sometimes they don't have the right people for a band. The minister might not even know this until it's service time.
This town also has a large divide between those who have lots and those who have nothing, especially when considering the local
Aboriginal population, where there are many problems, such as
drunkenness and other addiction. Port
Hedland is ripe for the harvest.
The team will be doing a number of things. One of the major things we will be doing are performances and Gospel presentations in the primary schools.
Ellisa and I have been tasked to see that these are well written and well performed. We will also be involved in a quiz night that will help the community and church grow more connections (if you run a quiz night in Port
Hedland lots of people will go because there is nothing better to do!)
How can you support us?
We need two kinds of support;
Prayer and Financial. If you would like to do either then please
contact me, for more information on how you can do one or both of these.
I'd love to know who is praying for us, so please let me know (via comment or email) if you plan to do this.
Many thanks to all of you
God bless
Chris