Tourist Season

The tourist season has arrived. Thousands of “Snow Geese” and “Grey Nomads” have landed on our shores. The town’s population has more than doubled (15,000-35,000). The caravan parks are over flowing – in fact temporary caravan parks have been set up at various community venues including the PCYC and the Pistol Club – not to mention our driveway! We have thoroughly enjoyed our many visitors (we currently have 9 guests staying with us at the moment.)

The tourist season has changed our ministry. Many of our church events we put on now have a significant increase in attendance. In our last update I mentioned we were about to start an “Introducing God” course at our Sunday@5 service. Those who came enjoyed a whole term of teaching from Dominic Steel and table discussions based on his presentation; as well as a 2 course meal and coffee all for the bargain price of $5 per night. Our new data projector was a real blessing. (The data projector was able to be purchased just in time through very generous donations - see last update re data projector appeal). The evenings were run outside in the gardens of the church and took the form of an alfresco café. We finished the event with a “Sleep-over” at a parishioners property just outside of town. All in all it was a great event as the gospel message of Jesus was clearly proclaimed to many people. We hope to run “Introducing God” again (probably next year).

During the July school holidays a team of 14 volunteers from the Reformed Churches of Perth ran a great holiday Kids Club “SEASIDE ROCK”. These young men and women (16-27 y.o.) financed their own way here and funded the whole event! Arriving late on Friday night after a week of training the Target 21 team on Saturday morning headed to the Broome markets, China Town, Cable Beach caravan park and other public areas to personally invite primary age kids along to the club. Saturday afternoon included playing touch footy on Cable beach and watching the famous sunset before a BBQ dinner. Sunday was packed full of church activities including taking part in the 8am and 10am service and then running the Sunday@5 evening service. Then each afternoon from 2-5pm Monday-Friday the church gardens became a sea of kids as the team ran games, craft, music, and most importantly bible teaching activities with a total of 115 different kids over the week (our greatest number of attendees was 76 on Friday afternoon!). The team went home thoroughly exhausted yet satisfied that with God’s help they had made a difference in these kids lives. Not only that - the whole event had an impact on the many parents of the kids, and our regular parishioners as well! Thank you Target 21 team.

We also have a Bush Church Aid “Campers for Christ” Caravan park ministry in operation at the moment. This includes running Breakfasts at various Caravan Parks, craft and computer mornings, and a final dinner. The church has just been buzzing over the last few weeks!

Another great blessing at the moment is a number of travelling maintenance nomads. A number of much needed maintenance issues have been completed including installing a new ceiling in the hall, and the vestry of the church; removing dangerous shower screens; maintaining the air 7 conditioners; refurbishing the 23 doors in the church; installing the new data projector and screen etc.

Our kids have been going well. They are both enjoying school and after school activities. Tim has been doing “Hip Hop” dance classes over the last term and Emily has been learning piano and doing some gymnastics. Bec too has been learning piano. Both are doing very well. As a family we are looking forward to a 4 day holiday to Cape Leveque next week to camp in a very beautiful part of the Kimberley. Over the next 2 months Bec and I will be taking 3 separate trips to Perth for various conferences and for deputations to catch up with supporters and raise further prayer and financial support – the air fares are clocking up a bit! In October we will be driving to Geraldton for our Diocesan Synod followed by a 3 week holiday in Perth and the South West.

Already we’ve been in Broome for 6 months! How time flies when you’re having fun. We are very much looking forward to the next 6 months and beyond. Thank you all for your prayers and communication with us. We try to respond to each person who makes contact with us, but please excuse us if we seem slow to respond.